The 2nd Edition of Medianews4u’s Straight Talk, The Brand Stories, a regional brand summit; Monaz Todywalla, VP, Wavemaker spoke about the challenges of the smaller brands in today’s Economic scenario while talking on the Topic, “Market Share Vs Mindsahre”
For quite some time now, honestly every time I read such articles I feel like you know we are approaching Doomsday and we are probably going to live in a cave. “This is a serious topic, there is a problem, which is why I am happy that Medianews4u selected this topic “Market Share Vs Mind Share.” The concern is that since the economy is going through such a big disruption. My generation is probably seen a disruption this big for the first time, you know you have micro economic conditions, coupled with changing consumer behaviour, coupled with economic regulations, coupled with the new passwords on data and technology.’
Monaz reiterated it again that “I have always been an underdog in my entire life and as an underdog, it’s also not new to a lot of people who run regional brands, because this is not like the first disruption that they’re seeing in the economy. The very thing that makes large brands look so intimidating can actually be the greatest source of weakness, which regional brands can exploit to the fullest”.
Monaz when speaking about Media credibility said, “Some of the media practitioners and marketing practitioners are seeing a parallel reality emerge and that parallel reality is that is not necessarily better and big brands, need not necessarily mean that they have more credibility. I don’t even have to elaborate we have all now for the last couple of months, seeing the kind of havoc that’s getting played out across economies against big brands”.
What this is actually doing is that it’s triggering a sense of an emotional response from consumers now and they have actually become slightly cynical of big brands, because they see these big brands, putting their commercial interests first or the consumer’s interest, and more importantly, they feel like they’re ignoring their social responsibilities.
Today, when you say big pharma company big food company, big tech company, it’s not evoking any more, the same kind of consumer response, therefore, it is not playing out like that in the market, when I say that I have data to prove it.
“Kantar had done a survey very recently, it’s actually saying that 57% of Indians, don’t mind buying local brands and actually believe that they have a more credible value proposition, than large brands. The point that we’re trying to say is that, in this essence of sort of cultural distrust seeping in through media. There is a renewed, romance, that’s happening for the smaller brands. Essentially the point is the regional brands are the challenger brands. Local brands should actually play to their strengths, they have the agility, which means they have the ability to change to changing consumer needs and wants, far, more quickly than big brands, due to lower cost structures, which essentially means their go to market strategies are faster, better able to cater to local needs and taste. We now have access to cheaper and more innovative technology, right here at home. It takes big brands, longer to adapt to technology compared to the smaller brands and regional brands and given the current situation that we live in, they should grab this opportunity and make good use of it”.
I’m going to share something that a client had told me long back, as a challenge for this challenger brand. “This brand was against the larger brand Unilever, the CEO telling me that it’s not about challenging the big brand, but to know what I am really challenging. I believe the question should not be, whether it is Market share Vs Mindshare for regional brands. The question should be, how can I influence Mindshare and Market share, to succeed? They are not unique, but inclusive in nature. Only if you move Mindshare can you move Market share. Am I challenging the way the category or the culture has been taught and behaved? To date, and therefore I’m going to introduce something that will change that. That is the mindset I believe that we must all have as challenger brands, or as regional plans”.
Just taking you some of the learnings that we’ve had while working on challenger brands.
- The Inspiring Underdog
- Create Relevant Brand Experience
- Local Influencers and Champion a Local Cause
- Lead with Purpose
- Look for Opportunities
- Disrupt by Creating Categories
Monaz when concluding her session said, which I believe that we don’t do enough. “We don’t measure the activity that we have deployed, or we have a very short term sight of what we have deployed we expect that we have done something in media in the first month I should start seeing results in sales. You have to measure everything that you do has short term and long term impact and most often than not, we are only looking at that short term impact which is sales and most brands lose out on great spaces and great opportunities because the vision is very short term. It is not about being staying invested in the long term in a purpose or a can be into believe in. This is what I’ve told you behave like an underdog creates relevant brand experiences, use local influencers champion a local cause it may not be very expensive. You don’t need to do very expensive media. It’s how you use technology and how you use digital as a medium to exploit that lead with a purpose. Be opportunistic. I know it’s against the grain of our moral fabric but in business opportunities like the way Paytm had can actually unlock huge growth and more importantly, disrupt by creating new segments”.
