The CMO’s Playbook – This Year’s Collage

Whenever the small-group discussions in the classroom get noisy, it means one of two things: the students are so interested that they forget they are in a classroom, or there are movies playing in laptops, hidden by the huddle of heads. When these discussions are about marketing strategy in The CMO’s Playbook, it’s the former.

Sometimes we teachers are happy when the class is loud.

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Here is a (hand-made) collage from the cases and contexts that we discussed in the course last year (2023 Jun-Aug). Can you identify all the companies and situations?!

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Here are a few answers.

Coca Cola in India: A product portfolio worth boasting about, but who wants sugar and fizz now? This was (and is, and will continue to be) the dilemma of what is perhaps the world’s best built brand (for a brand backed by hardly any product worth its price). The new year spells interesting times for Coca Cola and more so for Coca Cola India with cannibals and competitors galore.

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“India’s social network” is tea. The question is, which tea?!

First published July 2, 2023. Updated Oct 31, 2023 with a) an edited version of the ad shared by Red Label (following my article?!), and b) link to relevant research article.

A recent advertisement projects the humble tea as “India’s social network”. The ad is probably trending by this time, and worth at least one watch. The customer insight is spot-on. The video portrays various ways in which tea takes the form of friend requests, likes, shares, trends, stories, and so on in India, becoming a social network in itself. Engrossed as we are in the narrative, we forget that this is a brand’s commercial. Finally, though, the very last shot tells us that the ad is from Brooke Bond Red Label.

Screen shot from the “India’s social network” ad (watch the full ad here)

Well, as I watched the ad play, my thoughts centred on the cup of Kanan Devan (Tata Tea) tea that I usually drink in the morning and evening… steaming tea in a steel tumbler… the quantity never enough but I never make more… I am happiest when that tea is fully foamy at the top… and when I blow on it a teeny bit, the foam makes space for the beautiful brown color beneath… if the color is the right shade, the tea will be the right taste… oh yes, the tea packet at home is nearly finished and I need to buy another of the green packets soon…

These and many other thoughts ran parallel to the ad that was playing. And so, when the ad ended with a visual of Red Label, the first thought that struck me was: I was thinking of Kanan Devan the whole time! Nothing in the ad would have helped me predict that the ad was by Red Label. For that matter, nothing in the ad suggested it was from any brand, and the ad could easily have been from the Tea Board of India, let alone brands such as Taj Mahal or Wagh Bakri or Tata Tea or any of the umpteen tea brands that fight for India’s throats.

Oh, well. Not good, says the marketer in me. If the ad does not unmistakably cue the brand, then why run the ad at all? Simple marketing wisdom says that the purpose of an ad is to strengthen the brand and/or drive purchase. But in the case of the Red Label ad, I am very likely to forget the brand, remember only the story, and even connect the story to a different brand, perhaps my favourite brand. Put simply, all this effort from one brand, and its competitor gets the benefit!

Understandably, brands that wish to narrate a story would not like to show the brand logo throughout the story as that could prevent viewers from being immersed in the story. A similar reason holds for not identifying the brand at the beginning of the ad: why spoil the story by bringing crass commercialism at the start? Then again, presenting the brand at the end of the campaign video poses a risk, as we see in the case of Red Label. (The whole issue might not arise if the brand is already identified, such as through a label on the YouTube video or search result. But consumers are not always paying attention to labels.)

So, can a marketer ever safely show the brand at the end? To answer this, we need to consider how the mind works. Product cues such as tea being consumed at a chai stall can spontaneously evoke “mental associations” – a collection of related information and memories such as product color, category, shape, prior consumption experiences, brands in the category, and so on that the consumer has built up over time. For example, a piece of chocolate could cue the purple color, the Cadbury brand, a recent purchase of chocolate, the taste of one’s favorite chocolate, and even the memorable Five Star “do nothing” campaign (watch it for fun, you won’t regret it).

When a product is shown without any brand information, the situation is ripe for the consumer mind to come up with related information and memories, which is very likely to include the consumer’s favorite brand and other top-of-mind brands. And so, the ad on “India’s social network” that shows many instances of tea itself and tea being consumed, and is thus replete with product category cues, triggers thoughts of a wide set of tea brands. By the time the viewer reaches the end, the Red Label brand hardly makes an impression.

Is there a way out? One solution is to cue brand in subtle way or in a manner that integrates with the story. Coca Cola’s recent art gallery ad does this very well. Another way is to use a story that cues the category very lightly or not at all. A Fevicol ad from 2019 that recently became popular uses this technique; the narrative is all about a sofa that passes hands for generations. By not cueing the category explicitly, the ad drives curiosity without crowding the consumer’s mind with brand names. Ads launched by market leader brands might not face as much a problem as other brands in the market.

The solutions above might not result in an ad that seems “ingenious” or “fabulous” as some social media comments have termed the Red Label “India’s social network” ad, but they will certainly help Red Label reap the benefits of its effort. And prevent the ad being attributed to Kanan Devan!

P.S. In carefully viewing later, I noticed that a product pack is indeed shown towards the beginning when Mrs. Masurkar makes tea. Very incongruously placed, though – in most kitchens, the tea packet is usually on the shelf, not the counter. The tea jar is what the customer handles every day.

Updates:

a) Red Label has uploaded, on Aug 29, 2023 – about two months after my article was posted – an edited 20-second version of the social network ad on its YouTube channel. (The original ad was uploaded Jun 29, 2023.) Interestingly, this edited ad starts with a shot that clearly shows the tea package (this was the very last shot in the original ad) and sports the brand logo on the top right throughout the ad. I would like to think that this is so because of my post and the subsequent discussions on LinkedIn! 🙂

b) The 2004 article ‘Do Not Wait to Reveal the Brand Name: The Effect of Brand-Name Placement on Television Advertising Effectiveness’ by William E. Baker, Heather Honea, and Cristel Antonia Russell in the Journal of Advertising examines the above issue in detail. The article is available at the journal website here.

Me e Mia: An Introspection into Brand Love

Part I: The Customer’s Perspective

© Priya Narayanan, Assistant Professor at IIM Kozhikode. Views are personal.

The other day, I shared a thought on LinkedIn on the Mothers’ Day video of a jewelry brand. Mine wasn’t a well thought out analysis, it was simply a spontaneous reaction to the content of the video. Writing the post, however, made me wonder: why did I care so much? Why was I so strongly unhappy with the ad? (The tone implied in “golden shoulders” surprises me now!)

Well, eight years ago, I on about this very same brand, on wearing the Tanishq Mia mantle of confidence.

Rereading that led to some introspection, which then led to the conclusion: I am in love. Yes, I don’t wear much gold jewelry but I love the brand that is Tanishq. Naturally, I felt the possessive anger that only love can lead to when Tanishq made a statement I didn’t feel good about or agree with. So says the marketer in me about the consumer in me. Me e mia. Me and mine. Me and my brand.

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The Digital Customer: Differences from the Traditional Customer and Implications for Businesses

© Priya Narayanan, Assistant Professor of Marketing, IIM Kozhikode. Views are personal.

Teaching in a virtual classroom over the past few months has made me think about how the thoughts and actions of digital customers are different from what marketers have traditionally thought of as customer behavior. The pandemic has accelerated the change by getting people to engage in activities that they carried out either infrequently or probably never, be it online shopping, online banking, working at home, or even using a laptop. This article is an attempt to examine how today’s digital customer differs from the traditional customer, and the implications that this holds for businesses. The views presented here are based on my observations and do not claim to be comprehensive.

First, the digital customer is often, but not always, characterized by behaviors that digital technology allows for. The most common behavior is that of easy switching between activities, which was first evident when the television remote came into the market. Switching occurs because consumers want variety, can easily move between windows, and there are lots of activities competing for their attention – motivation, ability, and opportunity, as consumer research would call it.

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Tell Stories to Sell

Nobody sees the whole, nobody can, at least. And so we extrapolate without even realising we do so. Very often, it is this extrapolated version of reality that determines our action and reactions. In business, this means that companies end up telling stories in order to sell.

Both brands and their buyers (customers) tell stories to each other, about each other. A brand that provides a coherent, consistent story to its buyers finds that the customers stay loyal. And this, despite there being strong competitive pressure, and minor market mistakes on the brand’s part.

Telling the right story is as important as providing the right service or the right product. A Cafe Coffee Day experience consists of the not just the coffee, and not even the ambience. Today’s customers view the brand in the context of their own lives. For instance, a birthday celebration at Cafe Coffee Day as compared to one at an Indian food place. And then the photos posted on Facebook with comments.