New Age Consumers, New Age Marketing!

Consider This: An FMCG brand approaching a Game Development firm to promote

their brand through the screenplay of a game, and ready to pay a whopping amount
for that!

Weird? It isn’t. It simply shows that brand management teams across FMCGs have
spotted a New Age Media! With stable growth of the gamers, the popularity of the
games looks positive every year. And most importantly, as young consumers spend
most of their time in gaming and internet, this is the best platform for any brand’s
presence.

A smart question can be raised here. How do kids fiddle with FMCG brands when the
buying factor is decided by parents? Well, we have a variety of options to tap
grownups but when we forecast the future of any market and the consumers of
tomorrow - it’s our kids. However, kids’ exposure to new technology and their
awareness of our ever-changing world may result in a different scenario – Unstable
decisions! ‘Brand Loyalty’ may be the thing of the past among the consumers of
tomorrow, our kids!

Therefore, to appeal and captivate their subconscious mind towards our brands and
to maintain a better balance sheet of tomorrow, it is time that brands go back to
their drawing board and allocate at least 0.5% of their revenues to create the
consumer base for tomorrow.

Subject 1:
Can iPhone repeat the magic created by his elder iPod?
Simple facts led to the phenomenal success of the iPod. The “PRODUCT”, when iPod
was revealed, created a new market (Blue Ocean!) without any possible contender to
it. It entered the market when traveling occupied a decent pie in the individual’s
savings and in the long hours spent in commuting, the iPod became an unavoidable
gadget to keep off loneliness!

But we can’t be sure of repeating such simple yet terrific success to visit iPhone,
though we are sure it will create a buzz! Let’s look at it. MP3 options are not new to
the mobile market. One can get a good walkman phone for $200 so market driven
common sense would tell you that people who spend $500 for a mobile cannot be
lured with the music. If we had to really get away from this stress and travel from
the madding crowd, would you carry your phone or you iPod?

But then, Apple’s products speak for themselves and these predictions might go
wrong. Though Motorola is iPhone’s primary competitor, it has its own brand impulse
to retain their consumers. Let’s hope for the best while other global names like Nokia
and Sony Ericsson also aggressively indulge in their branding.

Coming home to India, I believe iPhone has no chance to cut the pie out of Nokia
and Motorola!

Subject 2:
Focus towards the neglected platforms!
Another classic example for New Age Marketing is the branding of pharmacies in
India! Five years ago, FMCG companies in India did not even consider pharmacies as
their point of sales. Amidst general consumer products like bread and biscuits, we
haven’t seen any other consumer products in a pharmacy. But the winds have
changed direction! Suffice is to say, we now wonder why pharmacies are looking like
a branded outlet of an FMCG brand!

This is simply because of the trust factor generated among the consumers.
Generally, consumers feel it is safer to purchase toiletries (such as soaps, talcum
powder, sunscreen lotions etc...) from a pharmacy. So no surprises that an FMCG
brand woke up to the fact that they could not afford to ignore this chance to miss a
great opportunity. Then we wonder why didn’t it happen before? Well, how many
brands were there 10 years ago in India? Hardly 3 major brands in all categories.
But now we have a minimum of 10 brands in each category.

Subject 3:
A New BREED of Consumers.
Yes, a new breed of consumers is waiting to make the brand teams work harder in
the future.

In last decade we used to market our products and brands to the elite Selected
Crowds. Globalization hit India, and then prospered the noticeable middle class who
could THINK about a purchase of branded products. And now, we have the RISING
middleclass, who WILL buy any branded products. All thanks to the rising income
levels of middleclass consumers which now ask a revamp of the marketing
strategies.

Another major issue is the SEC (Socio Economic Class) definition. We still follow the
outdated definition of the SEC but the impact of globalization resulted in the change
of lifestyles in almost all classes. We have to re-look and upgrade the SEC definition
once in 5 years.

Marketing to the consumers of tomorrow will be tricky enough than the past. This is
simple because of the term CULTURE!

Now when we target the consumers, we zero in on a strategy based on our

understanding / research on the lifestyle and culture of the consumers. Due to the
impact of globalization many youngsters have shifted to different cities for their jobs.
Result? People from different cultures meet and interact and on the side catalyzing
the increase in number of inter state/community marriages in the country.
For instance, there is a nominal increase in the marriages between the youngsters
from Kerala - TamilNadu and between many north Indian states. This results in a
new generation of consumers with the essence of two cultures – A new culture!
Though inter-cultural marriages are not new to India, the RISE in those numbers
indicates that the mass of the new culture will be countable in the future!

However, the core perspective of Indian consumers won’t change, as ERICH

STAMMINGER, President and CEO, ADIDAS said. “Indians consumers are very
rational in their purchase decisions. For Indians brand name is very important. They
enter the store only because of the brand value, and they analyze the functional and
utility before the purchase”.

Subject 4:
Emerging Retail’s Gift to India: New set of Potential Consumers!
The worth of Indian retail industry is Rs.14 Lakh and 40 thousand Crores! Yes (Rs.
14, 40,000 Crores).

This unorganized market is going to be explored by Reliance, Bal-Mart (Bharti and

Wal-Mart), Tesco, Carrefour, Tata’s and Birla’s with already existing majors like
Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Future Group (Pantaloons and Big Bazaar).

Reliance itself will be investing Rs.25, 000 Crore in the venture and Wal-Mart will peg
in the same bucks! While these two major players alone can create around 8 million
jobs in the country, when all the major players step in to the arena, around 15
million youngsters will be working in the retail sector.

If this huge mass of people moves to retail, then other sectors have to match the
standards set by the retail sector. Result: Increase in income levels in the C-class
consumers and the change the lifestyle of the middle class families. Thus, better
consumer products and durables will enter the houses of the Indian families. The
future can be predicted like this: “Rise in income - better living standards at a lesser
expense!”

Where will be the remaining money go? Banking, insurance, mutual fund and
financial investment companies are waiting to take advantage. So let them. And the
sector that is going to be SMILING ALL YEAR LONG will be the entertainment sector.
Multiplexes, theme parks, circus companies (flourishing!) and commercial malls will
take the big bite. However, malls which have been constructed just for business
purposes won’t get the desired footfalls against the commercial ones.

So, what are these 4 subjects signaling us to?

Don’t end up with Philip Kotler!

Learn to refer the best marketing book ever –
Consumer.