Brands - Are they Ephemeral?
Ashish Gomber

Business Houses spend millions of dollars building Brands to unleash the benefits of a ‘ Top of the mind Recall ’. Captive Advertisement, Innovative Promotions and Continuous Reinforcement does help the Brand to Pop up but what matters the most is that is it just a blip or a long lasting impression, and if so, how long? A brand that depends only on Advertisement for its survival can never last long. It has to have an equally commendable distribution system to ensure that it’s available at the right place, at the right time for the right customer. Absence of the product when the customer demands it leaves an unpleasant memory as he is forced to choose something other than what he planned and ‘you-the Brand’ has to bear the brunt. A rural marketer may still be at ease as the customer might be willing to wait for a couple of days due to a higher brand and store loyalty but in urban areas no one has the time to wait. If they want it, they want it ‘Now’- or better still, Never! And such a backdoor entry by Competition in a territory that was yours is akin to slow poison. A case in point would be Dandi salt, which made loud noises when launched and achieved record sales for the first few months but the horrors of a poor distribution system ensured that the competition didn’t had to put in much effort to keep Dandi salt out of their Radars.

A strong Brand can’t die if it’s kept relevant. This demands continuous innovation and introspection. Customer Feedback also plays a crucial role in the Brand’s Lifecycle. Maruti 800 is a classic example to it, which even after 20 years enjoys considerable Brand value. Though it can be argued that there isn’t much competition in that category but the fact is that this product has been overhauled while maintaining the core offering to meet the expectations of the New Generation Consumer. What backs it up, is a second to none distribution and after sale support. Twenty years is a long time in the car business and if even after such a long time Consumer is able to identify himself with the Maruti’s flagship product, its because Maruti has been innovative throughout. The only other car model to have lasted such a long period is Beattle. Another Example in Indian Context is that of Arvind Mill’s Arrow which also reinforces the same message. The Company has recently hired Italian Designer Rento Grande to change the look of Arrow products and showrooms and reposition it as young and vibrant Brand for Executives shedding the serious, sophisticated grandeur image of the Brand.

Brand Expansion is another issue that keeps Boardrooms busy. Should the same Brand name be used for all and sundry Expansions or should it be only related to the core product. Maggi is one Brand, which hasn’t gone for any major expansion. It has confined itself to a few products even after several years of operations in India. In contrast, Amul decided to expand itself North, South, East and West. An ambitious plan was rolled out to launch products like pizzas, sauces, soups, Kadhi, flavored raita etc.; some of which were new categories in themselves. However, on Ground Zero this didn’t materialize as a successful Model and the company abandoned this strategy after a year – probably, lessons learnt early and at a lower cost! MTV is another Brand that be mentioned here .It has recently entered in to a collaboration with a Gulf based company to market perfumes in India. Though the CEO, Alex Karuvilla, is on record having had said that MTV won’t sleep with anyone and everyone but the fact is that MTV has had two attempts before for using its Brand name with other products. The first with Jay Gee of Bangalore for marketing of Clothes and then with a couple of Music Companies like Sony and Universal, both of which couldn’t bring any substantial return.

Three points need be taken care of while planning an expansion. One, any expansion should be related to the core product and the image of the company, else, its better to create a separate Brand. Kinley and Aquafina are two examples to take note of herein. Had Coke launched mineral water by the same Brand name, the customer would have been bewildered as to what Coke stand for? For this very reason, Coke used the separate Brand name- Georgia, for its coffee retail business, though it has maintained the Red Colour in the logo, which is a positive Hygiene. Two, It’s the timing of the expansion. Any Brand riding on a wave of popularity may weigh several options and might foray into a few of them. But what also needs to be seen is that is there a need or demand of a new player in that segment. The payback period shouldn’t be so long that it becomes a bane. Three, partners if any while expanding, should be chosen after due diligence and care because apart from their technical and financial inputs they will bring in their own brand image. It’s like a marriage and it needs to be ensured that positive traits of the partners weigh out the negative traits, delivering the same quality as associated with the core Brand.

Finally, what bothers marketers is why regional Brands fail when they try to grow nationally. There have been several Brands like Ghari detergent in the North India, Bedekar Spices in the West India, which have enjoyed a major market share in their respective field of operations but failed to grow as a national Brand. One factor for that is that at the regional level, business is conducted more with personal contacts and its easier to manage the channel partners and distributors, but, when they cross their territories, distribution becomes a major area of concern. Perhaps that is why Distribution is called the other half of marketing. Supply chain and logistics management becomes a challenge and proper processes and professionalism is the key to success, which the homegrown entrepreneur find difficult to use effectively. So, ensuring that the product is available to the customer and money is in circulation becomes critical to operations. There can’t be a one-line solution to any problem. But the fact remains; Brands are highly sensitive in nature – Handle with Care.

Author:
Ashish Gomber
M.S.Ramaiah Institute of Management,
M.S.R.Nagar, Bangalore.
gomber@rediffmail.com
Phone: 9886078565 (Bangalore)

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