What was the shape of the bindi on Lalitaji's confident forehead? Did you say sprightly red and circular ? Bingo. But can you also describe the
pendant of the mangalsutra around her neck? Take your time. We'll wait.Tough one? Impossible one!
Lalitaji always kept the pendant tucked inside her blouse, away from the sight of the viewer. Most married Hindu women, irrespective of the part of the country they belong to, sport a mangalsutra. But it's the design of the pendant that differentiates Mrs Sharma from New Delhi and a Mrs Venkatraman from Chennai.
In keeping the pendant under wraps, the creative czars at Levers and Lintas, perhaps proved how one-size-fits-all has been the dominant credo of marketers in India.
In America, consumer marketers such as as P&G and Unilever have created different kinds of utensil cleaners, laundry care products for Hispanics and African-Americans . The reason being that they have different cleaning needs depending on the way they cook and the kind of clothes they wear. One would have imagined given the famed Indian diversity that marketers here would have produced a host of products and product variants to cater to large differences that exist regionally, religiously and not to mention by caste.
So why have marketers shied away from creating products specifically for them — despite large groupings that have completely different needs? Santosh Desai, MD & CEO, FutureBrands explains that large Indian companies historically only cared about customers in metros and other important cities. According to him it is only recently that they have begun to get out of their shell.
Think about it, how many mainstream ads have featured Muslim characters ? Or for that matter how many companies have actually devised products that are specific to that community? This despite the fact that they number well over a hundred million in this country . Unlike their counterparts in Gulf (Ilkeon's the most famous), no telecom company has come out with a Quran phone, where the faithful can read the holy book on the go.
Many marketing experts believe that product designers and marketers in India have traditionally been careful of not courting specific communities, in the fear of distancing themselves from others — a case of what might well be labelled as pseudo secular marketing. However, in not targeting specific ethnicities of the Indian society, national companies are possibly losing a huge opportunity to take their products to the next level of popularity.
"A niche market only implies that it is focused, it need not necessarily mean, small," says Anand Halve, who runs Chlorophyll, a brand consulting firm. He feels national brands have a mental block when it comes to thinking regionally, as they are constantly searching for the lowest common denominator.
Parvati Mahadev , a consumer insights consultant with Brandscapes puts it well when she says that by standardising products, one may end up meaning something to everybody, but fall short of meaning "a lot to some people" .
Some marketing experts say catering to various social segments can take place at several levels. First if the preferences are starkly different, companies will have to design altogether different products (say beef food products for Muslims). Second is where a difference in habit calls for change in design like a spicier wafer variant for Tamilians or Andhraites.
Another important aspect is communication and marketing for a product to cater to various cultures. Ironically marketers who have chosen to walk this path have been rewarded. Anchor Toothpaste, for example, changed the paradigm for social targeting by the introducing a 100% vegetarian toothpaste in the early 2000s. The Gujarat based Anchor originally had in mind, only Gujaratis and Marwaris, as the key communities for the product.
Others like South Indians came in course of time. Similarly Big Bazaar has been actively mapping tastes of its customers and uses it for better assortment of products. Rajan Malhotra CEO Big Bazaar points out that the chain actively stocks sticky dal in places where there is a dominance of Gujaratis and spices where it sees Tamilians.
Rang De Basanti
Pizzahut, an international brand that believes in uniformity of its products has chosen to do things differently in India. It has special vegetarian outlets in Gujarati towns like Rajkot and Ahmedabad. Its stores in Hyderabad (predominantly Muslim) do not serve pepperoni items.
There is obviously no dearth of local brands that cater to tastes of a particular section of people. Thousands of restaurants offering Jain food (targeted at Gujaratis and Marwaris) have mushroomed in major metros. Wagh Bakri Chai still boasts of a sizeable following in Gujarat and so do many other tea brands in other parts of the country.
Mustard oil is largely accepted in the East and mostly local brands dominate the segment. City Mall in Nagpada (a Muslim dominated area in South Mumbai) perhaps stocks more Burkhas than anybody else in the country. But these are mainly regional brands, with only latent aspirations to go national. For national brands, designing products for different communities (or even adapting) has been the proverbial, road less traveled.
But as far as reaching to the nuanced consumer is concerned, Asian Paints pushed the envelope the most. In the 90s, it put out a series of ads – each of them targeted a specific community like Tamilians or Punjabis. They were mainly aired in the run-up to a festival, like Pongal (Tamil New Year) or Gudi Padwa (dear to Maharashtrians). It helped the brand build a "strong emotional connect" as Amit Syngle, vice president, sales and marketing, Asian Paints put it.
Strangely enough some Indian marketers are more cognizant of these needs when they go international. A company like Marico does not overtly target Indian Muslims at all. However, in Eqypt the company has a brand call Hamaam Zaita , a special Islamic hair care product for the country. Needless to say that, the Indian Muslim population outnumbers that of Egypt many times over.
There are some who believe that this is largely attributable to practicality. According to Shiv Vishvanathan, a noted social scientist, uniform product design is more a matter of pragmatism than hypocrisy. "Ethnicity cannot be a core value for a large brand, as much as competency," he says.
But market watchers say food, media and certain daily utility articles are objects where companies can gain the most by nuanced ethnic targeting. Islamic experts say there is tremendous opportunity in items like alcohol-free perfume, special toothpastes, halal cosmetics , toiletries, customised housing, even Islamic dolls. Consider this.
There are close to 50 different local agencies that supply Halal products (where the poultry is killed without letting out blood) locally and for export — but barely a couple of national companies. (Venkateshwara, Godrej.)
"Increasingly brands are trying to iron out the lovely and interesting kinks (in their target audience) and making it one smooth landscape," says Mahadev, "While the net result is beautiful, I wonder whether this helps in creating a more clear identity," she added.
Most experts say in these days of media explosion, it is relatively easy to reach out to various ethnicities of the country. Regional channels and newspapers are dime a dozen. All it would take is the effort to make a different (and a special) commercial in Bengali or Urdu. Nobody can complain anymore that the costs of popularizing a new ethnic product are inhibiting.
Hindustan Unilever and its ad agency Lowe broke new ground here when they launched a different set of ads for Surf Excel in the South, where the water is hard and lather limited. Quite contrary to the usual detergent ad with images of frothing detergent. Clearly here was a case of recognising that different consumers have different needs.
Perhaps like in detergents, when parity products grow and marketers are faced with stagnating volumes, they will take advantage of the diversity that exists in India.
By A.MATTHEWS
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