Some advice for Baba Ramdev
Baba Ramdev is launching noodles? Patanjali Noodles? What next? How do you see it moving? What would you advise him?
Ronnie, Patanjali noodles enters the market at an opportune time.
If you look at Patanjali brands, the turnover is big. When a brand is able to notch up such a humongous turnover without “active marketing” in a short number of years, it just means one thing. The product is excellent. You cannot establish such a big turnover without product efficacy that is in place. Baba Ramdev’s products are the real heroes in this achievement. Each one of them is possibly the effort of a science that delivers efficacy.
When you are able to notch up ₹2,000-plus crore in turnover without “active advertising” , “active marketing” and “active promotion”, imagine where the brands can gallop to when all of this falls into place?
Baba Ramdev’s brands have been built with huge doses of ‘passive marketing’. Word of mouth at his Yoga camps has played a big role. When brands are built with ‘editorial effort’ (the good word of mouth of actual users), their credibility is that much higher than brands built the traditional way with dollops of advertising, marketing, branding, promotion and PR.
My advice to Baba Ramdev would be to not be too impatient in the quest for higher turnovers. It is good to do it slowly, as he has done thus far. Just don’t ape what the big FMCG player does all the while. Keep your differentiation intact, not only in product form, formulation and pricing, but in advertising and marketing too.
Vi-John is now a consumer brand on the shelves, I am told. This used to be a salon brand. How does it work?
Bengaluru
Mohan, Vi-John has attempted a morph. Traditionally and typically it has been a brand found on the counters of salons and parlours. Being the price-breaker it started out to be in India, it painted itself into a corner of oblivion within the parlour.
Parlour brands typically battle on price and lose imagery most of the time. They tend to become brands which are content with volume and market share, which is typically sacrificed at the altar of premiums. Usage volume is high, but brand memory is very B2B and low. Even the consumers on whom it is used tend to think of it to be a B2B offering that has no great imagery in the mass market.
Many brands attempt an entry into segments through this route with the thought that when a consumer will see the same brand on the market shelf, he or she will pick it up as well. Sadly, it works the other way. Parlour brands remain parlour brands and paint themselves into an oblivion of their own making.
V-John has, however, wanted to come out of the closet. At last. it has invested in advertising and in a celebrity. It has, however, not invested in branding. It has not tweaked its brand offering and imagery enough to become that big player that will challenge the Gillette of India.
How does a QSR advertise? What is recommended?
Mumbai
Gautam, typically, a QSR outlet is an advertisement on its own. In real terms, a QSR is like a local restaurant. Yes, it does belong to a chain, but by its very location in the heart of a marketplace, it is yet another shop. These shops cannot really afford to advertise. All advertising eats into profit.
However, in the Indian context, things are a wee bit different. The QSR advertises, and every piece of advertising increases its allure. Most QSRs showcase their latest offerings in food and beverages. Take CCD. The brand has advertised vigorously over the last 18 months. While CCD occupies the Gold Standard of the fine coffee café in India, Starbucks occupies the Platinum Standard. Both have their space, through advertising efforts that are different.