club catalyst. Feet on ground, head in the clouds

Digitalisation, social media and big data are a prerequisite in the marketing strategies of brands. The fundamental question is whether traditional concepts still hold good during times of digitalisation. There are three basic points that need to be taken into consideration:

Marketing deals with the mind-set of the consumer

Any marketing strategy needs to score high on relevance than ever before.

Digitalisation enhances a strategy that has its anchor in concepts.

The classic 4 Ps (price, product, place and promotion) cannot be replaced as they provide the basic differentiation platform for a brand. The important aspect is that consumer segments are undergoing fragmentation across many categories. There are several offerings in the category of toothpaste — ‘Complete Care’ with the proposition of strong teeth for years; Colgate Pro-Relief for sensitive teeth and Colgate pain offering for instantaneous relief from pain, apart for several other brands and variants for regular usage.

Can big data provide insights into specific lifestyles of consumer segments that are important to each of these offerings? For instance, are there youngsters in certain urban pockets who snack without proper care for their teeth? Oral care ranks low in India as compared to developed nations and there may be several opportunities for a niche brand that targets a segment that finds pain relief a useful preposition. What are the media habits of these consumers? What are their shopping habits? What is their attitude towards oral care? What is their attitude towards toothpaste brands? A comprehensive database will be able to provide the digital interface with respect to the marketing strategies of a brand in a specific context.

Should social media be used to create awareness of this brand or SMS be used to launch a brand? Should a digital kiosk be used at the point of purchase? An online grocery retailer may run a sales promotional campaign (pricing) for a few hours to dispose of perishables that are close to the expiry period. The retailer may position such a campaign as a reward for loyal consumers. In such a case of pricing, promotion and distribution aspects are getting affected by digitalisation.

Marketers can think of a framework that offers categorisation of brands with respect to their association with digitalisation.

Sensory categories provide consumption and emotional pleasure (hedonism). These may range from soft drinks to movies. The objective of the marketer is to provide “extended hedonism”. A consumer who enjoys Coke (consumption pleasure) also enjoys the emotional preposition of its ads. Digitalisation plays a major role in “extended hedonism”. Coke’s “India-Pak” promotional campaign where people from either country could gift a Coke is an example.

The brand’s initiative in international markets, like a consumer from one country being able to gift a Coke to his friend in another country, is an interesting example of digitalisation working on a hedonic brand proposition. Consumption experience, associated with music and films (emotional consumption), is another example. YouTube provides the perfect setting for consumers to experience ‘extended hedonism” much after they had seen a movie for the first time.

YouTube and social media also serve as platforms for anticipated hedonism when teasers and trailers of films are launched on digital platforms. The “Ramesh - Suresh” comical campaign of the 5-Star chocolate brand and its popularity on social media is another example of an established brand (launched four decades ago) revitalising itself with a digital platform in “extended hedonism” mode. The brand in such a mode has to use a mix of traditional and digital concepts to offer and nurture sensory brand experiences. The IPL tournament has had brands (teams) offering fans web-based experiences to engage them.

Flipkart recently unveiled a “brand hub” on its portal where specific brands can target consumers with a specific profile. An American online fashion portal uses “Common Man” (consumers) instead of models to showcase its offerings. Consumers can search for “models” who are like them and see how the offerings suit them. There is also a provision for consumers to write reviews that can be read by other consumers.

The selfie era shows the dormant narcissism within consumers. Self-enhancement offerings that range from apparel to cars are different from the earlier categorisation form the viewpoint of digitalisation. With mobiles increasing internet usage, there is a huge scope for brands to promote impulsive buying of self-enhancement products in certain categories like footwear, apparel, jewellery and electronic gadgets, to name a few. Such behaviour increases the effect on the emotional aspect of decision-making as compared to the conventional “comparison-based consideration set” associated with decision-making.

The digitalisation of self-enhancement brands, coupled with mobile wallets, is likely to produce the “interest to intent” faster than the decisions taken without digitalisation. Paytm has tied up with 1,000 brands and they control pricing and promotional decisions of online offerings of the respective brand. In several of these categories, online portals are likely to have features that enable a consumer to get feedback that is digitally enabled from his/her reference groups, given the commonplace usage of mobiles.

Crowd-sourcing and personalisation is one of the important implications of online brands. Freecultr Express is an online portal that crowd-sources designs of T-shirts. Any designer can create a design and the selected design will be manufactured by the website with an arrangement with the respective designer. icustomemadeit offers customisation of certain categories to consumers. With 3D printing on the anvil, there is going to be an exponential growth of personalised offerings.

High-investment and risk-prone categories such as washing machines, appliances, furniture and even cars can be positioned on features. Such categories will come to life with augmented reality, with consumers getting information about all aspects. In furniture, for example, (other than status orientation associated with the category), consumers will have an idea about the how they fit into homes (IKEA app).

A down-to-earth conceptual approach can offer a marketer the right blend of digitalisation and conventional strategies. The framework is likely to have an impact on the marketing mix associated with brands.

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