When brands get candid

Brands are happily getting naked. Most successful brands are not shying away from taking responsibility for their mistakes.

Though most companies would try to run or hide from their flaws, with a digitally connected society, no one can really hide anymore, especially big brands.

“It is Open Sesame: pimples, warts and all! As a brand, being transparent while having a personality is no longer an option. With social media like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, consumers have a voice and are using it to share the good, bad and the ugly,” notes Mehernosh Mistry, director at BrandsWiz, a marketing company.

Advertisers too are realising that they need to be open about their mistakes. No one, in this age, can afford ill will for their brand, adds Mistry.

Not that brands are spilling their guts and sharing every bit of information with their consumers. Most are finding the golden mean between giving just enough information by tweaking their product line to stir up an emotional response from consumers and hiding behind a corporate mask when they have done with it.

Many brands are implementing transparency initiatives to help consumers better understand all the measures taken to produce their products. Recently, Johnson & Johnson launched an initiative for their baby and beauty products. One of the world's largest producers of personal care products, Johnson and Johnson (J&J), has vowed to remove many chemicals from its baby products.

With the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration cancelling J&J's licence to manufacture cosmetics, following complaints of carcinogenic substances’ residue in its talcum powder for infants, the company decided it wanted in, given the public discussion under way about the ingredients in beauty care products. J&J has also decided to phase out other harmful chemicals such as phthalates and parabens which have estrogen-like properties and are suspected to be linked to hormone-related cancers. It plans to phase these chemicals out in its brands for adults as well. J&J has brands such as Neutrogena and Clean & Clear in the Indian marketplace, besides a host of baby products.

The company decided to act though the Indian complaint related to 15 batches of talcum powder manufactured in 2007 by the company at its facility in Mulund, a Mumbai suburb. The product has a three-year shelf-life.

Need for speed

Increasingly, consumers are communicating with each other via online channels where information is raw, uncensored and travels extremely fast. Most are expecting companies to communicate with them in this way as well.

“It is no longer acceptable for companies to take a few days to issue a well-crafted press release. Consumers want to know what companies are doing and they need to know ASAP,'' says Manish Dahiwal of PR firm Speed Communications.

Dell reportedly allows its employees to answer customer service concerns with their real names and sometimes posts unscripted videos of them working out problems. When consumers complaints are addressed in an individual's voice and not an automated one, it tends to mitigate the negative perception of the company. It tells customers that there is a real person attending to the complaint and also lets most customers know that there is a real person who cares.

Building on feedback

Brands are also investing in specific categories, especially given customer feedback. Like Procter & Gamble, which introduced Ariel in 1991. Ariel was the first to bring in the ‘compact detergent' enzyme technology for safe and superior stain-removing power, and its aim was to become India's best stain removal detergent. Over the years, the company launched different variants to meet the customer's specific needs, such as Ariel OxyBlu, Ariel Oxyblu Ultramatic, Ariel Front O Mat and Ariel 2in1.

With each brand presenting a different performance and value offer, the company decided to serve as many consumer preferences as possible.

As did Reckitt Benckiser with Air Wick Odour Detect innovation, which releases a burst of fragrance if there is a rapid change in odour levels. Dettol No Touch, an automatic handwash dispenser, was also born by listening to the consumer. In order to say the right thing, offer the right promotion, companies are learning to listen to their consumers. For, every good conversation starts with good listening, which is critical when it comes to interacting with customers in a credible way.

As an official at PricewaterhouseCoopers notes, listening to consumers does not mean the same thing today as it did five years ago. In the past, the consumer provided one-to-one, largely confidential feedback to companies through phone calls, letters, and emails. Today, consumers have found strength in numbers.

The community is now the consumer, the official adds.

As in the food and beverage industry, for example, when the Coca-Cola Company used the analysis of consumer conversation, in combination with traditional market research, to create and market new products for changing taste profiles.

By analysing consumer conversation, the company realised that words such as ‘diet' and ‘light' produced a markedly negative reaction among certain customers. By understanding the nuances of words, Coca-Cola recognised that there was a section of the populace that was keen to imbibe a beverage if it wasn’t labelled as such. Thus was born Coke Zero. While Coke Zero was designed to target a specific segment of consumers who wanted a low-calorie beverage but was averse to diet products, the humble oats too turned the (breakfast) tables on idli/dosa and upma/sheera households.

Pegged at around $37 million, the oats market in India is estimated to have the potential to leap three-fold by 2015. Buoyed by the growth prospects, multinationals such as GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, Kellogg India and home-grown major Britannia decided to steam up the kitchen with their offerings.

Though oats first started becoming popular for their health benefits, many consumers refused to down the slushy, tasteless offering. After listening to the consumer, taste became the all-new ingredient in the marketing mix.

Rather than replace the traditional breakfast on Indian tables, PepsiCo urged its customers to use its Quaker oats to make idlis, dosas and upma . Bangalore-based food company MTR too launched oats idli -mixes.

As Sameer Satpathy, executive vice-president and head of marketing at Marico says, marketers are keen on creating awareness for the category and brands are also investing in developing and customising oats to the Indian palate.

Last October, Marico launched six variants including Veggie Twist, Peppy Tomato, Classic Masala and Curry and Pepper. PepsiCo, which introduced its Quaker Oats in India in 2006, also added a host of variants. Names like Masala, Kesar with Kishmish, Lemony Veggie Mix and Strawberry with Apple persuaded Indian consumers to try the new offering.

Some brands even offered samples to woo potential buyers. Like Aashirvaad Atta did, to its regular customers. Though it was originally launched in May 2002, Aashirvaad Atta with multigrains made its debut last year.

Or like the Kitchens of India range, which is into pre-made ingredients (curry pastes, masala mixes) and ready-to-eat meals. Chittaranjan Dar, CEO, ITC Foods, says, “Consumer feedback is important to us.''

ITC is now present in branded spices with Aashirvaad rasam and sambar blended powders. Research on consumer preferences and understanding of regional palates were undertaken and led to the launch of differentiated milk cookies for consumers in target markets. ITC also launched Sunfeast Yippee! noodles in the fast growing instant noodles category.

As Dar says, extensive consumer research and product development were undertaken to incorporate consumer-relevant differentiation and uniqueness in the offerings. That was not all - the company fortified it with an effective advertising communication campaign highlighting the product differentiators.

Following intensive consumer feedback, ITC's Sunfeast range witnessed the enrichment and premiumisation of its product mix with the re-launch of Dark Fantasy and the introduction of the premium Dark Fantasy Choco Fills biscuit.

Constantly checking with consumers, the company tries to understand what appeals. “In a qualitative sense, we try and find out what consumers feel about our products, what is the kind of offering most people are looking for, what are our flaws and how we can work on them,'' says Dar.

With consumers embracing brand flaws, companies are no longer afraid to buck up and admit it when they have done something wrong or even tweak their product line to suit the more angry, and yes, more hungry, consumer.

COMMENT NOW