The Hindu Business Line : The power of contrast

Marketers must use the aspect of contrast creatively so as to lure the consumers. For instance, McDonald's menu, in contrast to MTR's, may appeal to the urban youth.

CONTRAST, in simple terms, is the striking difference between two objects when they are viewed in juxtaposition. The concept offers infinite possibilities when combined with the behavioural principles of perception and experiential marketing. Perception is concerned with selection, organisation and interpretation of information while experiential marketing is concerned with sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. A combination of these concepts is useful in marketing communication and product design.

Dettol, a brand signifying antiseptic products, is more popular than Savlon in India. The consumers' familiarity with the odour and stinging sensation of Dettol contrasts with the "bland" qualities of Savlon that started advertising much later. Essentially, the product attributes of a leader create a perception that can highlight the contrast when there is a follower brand. Such an approach is extremely useful to fast moving consumer goods where differentiation is difficult to sustain in the long run. The article deals with a few aspects that have important implications for marketers.

Discernment of contrasts by consumers

Consumers possess varied information- or advertisement-processing capacities. As any contrast created has to be comprehended by the consumer, research on the cognitive processing capabilities of consumers would be useful. Advertisements, apart from conveying the positioning of the brand, will have to create a contrast that consumers will be able to accept and internalise over a period of time. The contrast would have to be relevant to the positioning of the brand. There is also a need to study the clutter of advertisements in the environment to formulate a contrast that would adequately and effectively appeal to the consumer.

When almost all airline companies are advertising themselves on the luxury, comfort or service planks, SriLankan Airlines simply created a contrast that is memorable and brand-specific. It captured the very essence of service personnels' traits (warmth and compassion) in an airline — the story line revolved around an episode involving a young girl full of compassion and warmth who later in life becomes the air-hostess of the airline. The example is amenable to subjective interpretation. However, a relevant and unique contrast (relevant to the target segment and unique from the viewpoint of the clutter being perceived by the segment) results in the desired effect: Brand awareness.

Marketing is a process by which interest in a brand is triggered by marketing communication. The right contrast helps a brand get into the "consideration set" of the consumer when his/her decision-making process gets activated. The Dettol example is an extreme one extending the usefulness of contrast almost to that of an entry barrier to competing brands. Contrast has to take into account the perception of a product category. For example, Pepsi introduced a colourless cola that did not take off. Bisleri once positioned itself as the "quiet soda" without effervescence. In India soda means effervescence. Thus culture too plays an important role in the consumer's perception.

Indian culture is a paradox, especially in these days of liberalisation and consumerism. There is a strong cultural belief even in urban markets that the Indian woman is a homemaker. At the same time, there is a strong growing awareness about the aspiration levels of women reflected in several walks of life (academics and professional). To this extent, there is already a prevailing contrast in the cultural beliefs. Fair & Lovely in the fairness cream market has effectively used this in cultural beliefs by creating an interesting contrast of a young lady succeeding as a cricket commentator — a field being a traditionally exclusive forte of men. The contrast provided by the visual (TV spot) is topical, in tune with the changing cultural beliefs, thus establishing linkages between brand benefit (confidence from using the brand) and success in life. An advertisement should take into consideration several consumer-centric factors along with contrast to leave a lasting impression in the minds of consumers.

Capturing consumers' emotional contrasts

If marketers seek to capture the contrast of emotions, the `affective' component of the mind (that which deals with emotional aspects) could be made use of. Emotional contrast has to be supported by cultural aspects, and at the same time should be product-relevant. The present TV advertisement for HDFC Insurance captures the need for independence among elderly people in an environment of uncertainty. The traditional habit of saving (prevalent in the Indian culture) has been well captured with the changing environment in which elders may have to depend less on their wards.

Titan captured the emotion associated with the "gifting ritual" and built a brand property around it by using one of Mozart's musical offerings. Gifting has been a cultural aspect for decades. The brand did well by involving sentimentally appealing emotional visuals along with a universally well-known musical piece by Mozart that also has a sentimental appeal. Titan is probably the only brand watch in the world to amplify and dramatise explicit gifting to the hilt. This generates a sharp contrast not only with other brands in the "watch" industry but also with regard to other categories having gifting options.

Rasna's recent TV spot (child missing the pet elephant) reflects the emotional bonding ever present between children and animals. In most of these cases, it is not the novelty of theme, but the emotional contrast provided by the advertising storyline that is new and refreshing. Tyre manufacturer Michelin associated a child with its safety attribute, thus contrasting itself from others in a category that was drab and uninteresting from the consumer's viewpoint.

Emotional contrast can also be created by forming reference-group appeals. A reference-group appeal influences a consumer's actions, values and behaviour, thus inducing him/her to follow the group's norms and trends. Charms cigarette of yesteryear and Pepsi of the present are examples of such reference group-based emotional contrast. Fun, frolic and romance are some of the oft-used emotional bases for such appeals. Marketers should be careful to avoid the beaten track while using such reference group appeals, and it is in this context that creative synthesis of emotional contrast executes effective communication with the target segment.

McDonald's recently launched an integrated marketing communication exercise that combines emotional contrast and experiential aspects. Super Bowl is a well-known event watched by millions around the globe. The company created a word-of-mouth story around a theme that someone in a village had found a French fry resembling Abraham Lincoln's physical profile.

With emotional expectations of the consumer built up on the curiosity plane, the firm launched an advertisement involving the character who found the resemblance. This was carried as a Super Bowl commercial. Excited consumers saw the advertising spot and were also surprised to find McDonald's launching a Web-based auction involving such a French fry. McDonald's used emotional contrast (as compared to other mundane products) based on experiential involvement.

Several years ago, Marlboro used emotional contrast, provided by the cowboy image drawn from the American culture, to stand out from the communication clutter created by other cigarette brands. Even when the brand is well established for its functional utility, emotional contrast could underline it. Raymond's relationship campaign dealing with the finer emotions of one's life, and Eveready's "Give me Red," signifying the emotional energy of the youth, are examples of some of the established brands exploiting emotional contrast to make an impact on the consumer's psyche.

Communicating contrasts through experiential aspects

Emotional/sensual contrast can be achieved in the experiential dimensions of smell, taste, sight, sound and touch. Parle's Krackjack and Britannia's `50:50' are brands that mix saltiness and sweetness to create a distinctive sense of taste, thus providing a welcome contrast to consumers. These contrast-filled tastes are well accepted by the Indian palate.

The KY series from Onida produced a `special sound' providing contrast through the audio content of the television. Loud sound and music again is a part of Indian culture. It is not difficult to come across blaring speakers at street corners of interior Tamil Nadu.

Marketers should not err by not emphasising on contrast while developing new offerings.

Consider sight, a powerful factor in discerning the visual aspect of any product (especially a durable product). Hero Honda introduced its `Street' version (of the motorbike) laden with several features for city rides, and priced it much above that of mopeds. However, the design resembled that of a step-through vehicle (like that of M-80 from Bajaj) priced much lower than Street.

Tide's scented version introduced in the US not only used the sense of smell to provide a contrast in the detergent category but also formulated an advertisement that provided a visual contrast (in comparison to advertisements of other brands in this category). The advertisement showed several places (such as mountains and valleys) that could be associated with freshness. Freshness, the proposition of the brand, was communicated through smell-visual linkages.

Advertisements pertaining to Gillette's Mach 3 and `Vector Plus' (created for the Indian context) exploited the sense of `touch' to create a sensual contrast (with respect to other brands) when consumers use these razors.

As with other categories, cultural acceptance is a prerequisite for any successful experimentation with regard to creating a sensual contrast in the food/beverage category. While the MTR brand may be successful due to contrast in traditional food categories, iced tea and cornflakes are offerings that are not a part of the cultural menu. Consequently, the contrast provided may not find extensive immediate receptivity.

In contrast, the McDonald's menu may better appeal to hip youngsters of the urban markets, because of reference group contrast as compared to taste familiarity. The youth culture in cities operates in reference groups. The experiential contrast of spending time together in a restaurant offering a trendy Western ambience is probably more vital than taste factor for the success of the brand.

Bru is a popular instant coffee brand among coffee drinkers of the South, essentially because of its lack of contrast (in taste) with traditional filter coffee that uses the coffee-chicory mix. With the ritual of preparing filter-based coffee becoming an arduous task, Bru offers a trade-off to those consumers who would like a close substitute. Hence, lack of contrast too is a useful tool for marketers, provided they attempt some other useful contrast (which could be convenience of preparation as in Bru).

Take the case of Nestle. In an environment used to home-made curds, branded curds like that of Nestle may have to get the taste and creaminess factors very close to their home-made counterparts, for accelerated diffusion among the consumers. Capturing the taste and aroma with which consumers are pleasantly familiar is a major challenge for marketers of fast food and snacks. The recent introduction of the chaat variant of Lays chips is an interesting case of how a brand is attempting to adapt itself to local tastes as in the case of Bru.

While the list of examples mentioned here is not exhaustive, the important driving point pertains to the illuminating presence of contrast in our daily life. Marketers could use this in a creative and profitable manner. This is more relevant in the present context when creativity in marketing and advertising seems to be touching a saturation point.

(Ramesh Kumar is Professor of Marketing, IIM Bangalore; Shekar, Professor of Quantitative Methods and Information Systems, IIM-B, teaches a course on patterns of problem-solving, some of the principles of which have been applied here.)

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
The power of contrast

Landline reforms

Those grand job ads

The Abby Nite

For a larger share of voice

In confidence

Selling is a contact sport