Agri-product branding

The biggest opportunity

I believe agri-product branding is the biggest opportunity India has. Do you agree?

Hyderabad

Usha, a whole-hearted yes! Agri-produce branding is pretty nascent in our country. The branding of sugar is a classic example. It has gone nowhere. The opportunity does lie here, in such terrain where we have had little success.

In the case of milk, each of the dairy co-operatives has done yeoman service. Amul is one, but there are 40 others in India which have done similar work. Non-co-operative enterprises such as Heritage Foods have added to this effort.

The staples sector is far away from this movement. However, with the emergence of organised retail in India, a lot of action can be seen in this space. Chains such as Reliance, the Aditya Birla Group and others will offer private label brands. This will be the first big step into the branding of staples.

The agri-product needs to fulfil the basic parameters of good quality and consistency to be branded. Additionally, on procurement price, these products need to hold the line to be accepted as brands whose prices are static rather than brands whose prices fluctuate based on their availability.

With the large number of mobile handsets in the country, where is the media opportunity on mobiles going?

New Delhi

Jena-ji, as of speaking now, we have a total of 914 million mobile phones in this country. We are still growing at 11 million phones-plus per month. Most of the new connections are coming from our small towns and villages. I do believe this is a big revolution that has occurred in India. Homes in rural areas which do not have even a television set today have mobile phones. In many ways every telecom company is seeding a medium within every Indian home. A medium that is personal, involved and involving.

Creativity in its use is yet to arrive. As newer ideas emerge, this will become a big medium to capitalise upon.

The mobile phone is closer to you than anyone else. It is on 24 X 7, is close to your heart in your shirt pocket, is compelling in its demands as you rush to read every message and answer every call. It is a medium that packs a lot of expectation. Every call offers you a promise to enhance your value, life and economic well-being.

Unlike your spouse, your mobile demands nothing, does not fight. It listens to you all the time. It is only as intrusive as you want and allow it to be.

The mobile phone is a promising medium, yet to be exploited. If you carry that brilliant idea and patent, now is the time to attack the medium in India.

I run a small, self-serve gift shop. Of the 200 customers I get every day, a minimum 20 must be robbing me. Is there gyan here?

New Delhi

Rohit, that’s a large number of shop-lifters in your gift shop. There is something very wrong. Ideally, your shop-lifers must not be more than four in 200. Even that is a big number. Sadly those who shop-lift pick the more expensive items. Shop-lifters generally are young — teenagers, college students and the like. Look at them keenly through those close-circuit cameras. They are shifty-eyed, are spotted wandering aimlessly, visit the same shop many times, but buy very little. Spot them in groups as well, groups that have wandered off a college or school even.

Add to this the solo performer, the bored young and old person alike who meanders and hangs around a bit too long in a shop. Profiling your customer carefully, keeping a keen watch, catching a few and making great examples of those catches — name-and-shame publicly, for instance — is the way to go.

Harish Bijoor is a brand strategy expert and CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. Send your questions to cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in

COMMENT NOW