The Hindu Business Line : ‘Tough times help build brands over competition’

Bangalore, Nov. 28 Even as consumers are tightening their purse-strings for the traditional ‘spending season,’ in December, a few marketers are earnestly supporting the launch and building of new brands.

Mr Santosh Desai, CEO, Future Brands, says the group is making investments in brand building now because competitive activity is low and brands last longer than a business cycle.

New entries

“We’re entering new categories and launching new brands in sportswear, lingerie, beauty and skincare products and also activating some of our older labels in FMCG and home categories,” he said.

The company is relaunching brands such as Rig and Tasty Treat and also looking at distributing a few private brands in competitive retail outlets.

Mr Raghu Vishwanath, Managing Director, Vertebrand, a brand consulting firm, terms this as the best time to build a brand, provided it has a strong differentiator. “In fact, brands with unique brand propositions launched now will last longer.”

Brand strategy specialist Mr Harish Bijoor says spends from the traditional marketers, who have established market-shares for themselves, are down by up to 30 per cent.

This means that a new brand, if it enters the market today, faces competition in terms of money-spends that is that much less. Brands built during such tough times tend to become that much more hard-working in the imageries they convey. “During tough times, fundamentals sell more than the cosmetics. To that extent, marketing credibility is at a higher peak in such times than the gung-ho days of yore,” he says.

As customers start becoming choosy and buy less, they also would like to buy products that offer differentiation rather than buy me-too products, explains Mr Vishwanath.

It’s for the same reason that discounts and price reductions may not attract consumers.