A brand endorser is forever

A brand endorser is forever

Amitabh Bachchan has said in a reply that he stopped advertising for Pepsi to a question that said Pepsi is poison. How did this happen?

Delhi

Rupesh, I don’t know what was really said but there seems to be a controversy here for sure.

My take is that Amitabh Bachchan has been rather spontaneous in his reply, without weighing his responsibilities as an endorser of Brand Pepsi for eight years. I do believe a brand endorser is forever, never mind when he or she or it (endorsers such as the Vodafone pug) stopped endorsing the brand. In consumers’ minds, they are still associated with the brand in question. Also, after making millions feel good about Pepsi for long number of years, isn't it a bit late to repent, if at all it was that?

I do believe brand endorsers have a right to repent, but a great thing to do would have been to first return all the money earned as endorsement money (in this case ₹24 crore). That would surely have been a good call of conscience.

If brand endorsers disown a brand after ceasing to endorse it when the contract runs out, that would really spawn a contentious and exciting subject and revenue stream called “brand de-endorsement”. I am not sure the business of marketing can handle that as yet.

In China big MNC brands are withdrawing, particularly in the cosmetics category. Why?

Johri saab , there is a bigger picture out here than we see. It is seen in markets that progressively want the different and at times even the local. The cosmetic and skin care category has felt the bite first in China. Expect a similar bite in categories such as fast food and beverage.

The Chinese market has experimented with premium and luxury offerings from the world’s best markets but today they are quite like commodities in the marketplace. The zing of brand value and their sheen is fading due to overkill. The local Chinese consumer is now searching for the boutique and the different. Literally every other Chinese dermatologist today has a branded offering of his own. These seem to work beautifully, come with a different cost structure, and many are close to nature. And close to Chinese medicine as well.

Why do businesses become unprofitable? When volumes shrink, the pressure is on price. When price goes up, volumes shrink further. And then there is pressure on prices and margins shrink. When margins shrink and when volumes have already shrunk, businesses become unprofitable. This is the China story of the big brand cosmetic for now. Expect this across aggressively branded food and beverages too. Business stress is the buzz phrase doing the rounds today in China.

But the joy of all this is that as one loses, another gains. The gainer is a smaller player, and at times a cleaner commodity player too. Small is suddenly becoming beautiful.

Any trends to point out for the online space in the year ahead?

Hyderabad

Gopi, online today is an experience that spans literally every physical realm. Anything that you can search, explore, see, touch, feel and buy with an immediate online delivery capability will succeed the most. To an extent this kind of a product or service does away with geography, distance and product delivery time. The purchase of theatre tickets, music and e-books work in this terrain.

The second big success arena I see for e-commerce is the rural terrain. In India, a land of over 6.43 lakh villages, distance is a big issue. There is a great degree of rural prosperity. There is a big build-up of desire, unfulfilled, for products and services there. E-commerce today has the ability to bridge this gap.

The big trend I see in the online space is the opening up of rural India. With e-commerce, geography is history in a real and final sense.

Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. Send your questions and comments to cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in

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