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So how does one trim these costs and yet improve the chances of success? The solution lies in sharper targeting. Let’s delve deeper into this:
“Dilli ki Defence Colonywali” Mrs Sharma vs housewives: Who will be the core consumer of your product? The core consumer is the one whose type will make up the single largest buyer group of your product. The needs and motivations of a 40+, SEC A+, urban, educated, kitty-party attending, housewife with two teenage kids, are very different from a newly married, young housewife living in Azamgarh. A sharply defined target audience is the cornerstone of a successful launch because all other elements of the marketing plan are linked to this one factor. Your chances of success will dramatically increase and costs reduce.
“Your wife will now be safe at home” vs “it helps extinguish fire”: What specific need, physical or emotional, of the target audience, is your new product satisfying? Ceasefire, a brand of fire extinguisher, leveraged this insight very successfully to penetrate the home market, a completely untapped territory for fire extinguishers. Who do you think was the target audience here? The housewife? No! It was the urban, male professional living in a nuclear family in a big metro, who spent most of his day away from home (and this was before the advent of mobiles).
A famous brand of baby toiletries leverages such an insight (“nothing but the best for my baby”) to market their products – and most mothers willingly pay the huge premiums that they charge. Understanding your consumer’s needs will enable sharper targeting of the product and its messaging. Products that satisfy needs of the consumer better need lesser marketing and promotion.
MTV Roadies vs saas bhi kabhi bahu thi: Some years ago, when I was heading the marketing function of a multinational beverage company, we discovered that soft drink consumption was concentrated among young adult males, of the higher socio-economic classes, living in the bigger cities/towns. This led us to do a 180-degree flip in our media strategy. While earlier, our media plan was focussed on the all-family appealing, mass reach channels such as Star Plus, Doordarshan, Sony and Zee, the focus now shifted to a portfolio of so-called “niche” channels such as MTV, Channel V, National Geographic, Zee Studio etc. Not only were these effective in delivering the message to our desired target, but they also came at one-fifth the price.
Today, the internet, FM Radio, innovative point-of-sale merchandising material, and the cellphone give you even greater flexibility to target the delivery of your message – demographically, geographically and psychographically. Targeted media results in greater focus, lesser wastage and lower costs.
“Fishing where the fish are” vs “within arm’s reach of desire”: Ubiquitous physical distribution is a valid strategy if you are marketing Coca-Cola or Ship Matches or Pan Parag. But with over 12 million retail outlets in India, this implies a significant investment in inventory and sales infrastructure. Instead, ubiquity can also be achieved via the Internet, for example, amazon.com, any of the airline or banking websites - sales transactions from the comfort of your home. Tying-up with retail chains like Big Bazaar, Spencers, Croma or The Mobile Store to distribute your product is another alternative. Riding on the back of other, better penetrated non-competing brands that your target consumes is also an option, eg., intercepting vehicle owners at petrol stations. Measure the effectiveness of your distribution system in terms of increased presence at places where the bulk of your category transactions take place versus universal availability.
Good targeting needs some upfront investment of time and resources to develop the new brand launch strategy and plan. But this is money well spent. It will either make the launch successful (which means a huge pay off!) or help minimize the exposure if the results are less than desirable.
So don’t get discouraged by the downturn. Instead, focus on the opportunities it throws up. As someone said, “Good luck is the residue of design”.
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