Marketing the Addiction by Rajesh Korani

Cheers!!! And that's the exciting expression of addiction. Phew! You may be wondering why this guy is promoting addiction. Well, I personally do not favour promoting alcohol, but the amazing strategy and the cues involved in the alcohol branding and business evoked me to share some thoughts.

Although the exact date when alcohol was produced remains elusive, the discovery of late ‘Stone Age Beer Jugs’ has established the fact that intentionally fermented beverages existed as early as the Neolithic period.

Wine has appeared in Egyptian pictographs around 4000 B.C. The Babylonians considered beer as one of their key beverages. The Sumerians have engraved the art of making beer pictorially. The art of wine making reached the Hellenic peninsula around 2000 B.C.

Alcoholic drinks were an intricate part of most civilization ranging from China, India, Western Asia and Europe. In India alcoholic beverages appeared during the Indus Valley Civilization (We’re old timers…LOL), In Hindu Ayurvedic texts both the beneficial and detrimental effects of alcohol have been outlined Distilled spirits originated in India and China around 800 B.C. the distillation process emerged in Europe around the eleventh century. The Greeks worshipped the God Bacchus - the god of wine and the Romans worshipped the same god under a different name Dionysus. Around 55 B.C. the Romans introduced beer to the Europeans.

Wine became part of rituals with the rise of Christianity. During the middle Ages, wine was the preferred beverage and the consumption of alcohol began to spread to all parts of the world. Today alcohol is widely consumed by people all over the world. Consumption is in multiple formats, multiple tastes and multiple mixes. Isn’t it amazing! Hold on …..I’m not going to get into the chemistry of alcohol preparation. Since I follow brands thus I will talk about branding and marketing involved in alcohol products.

These are my personal views, some of your thoughts may differ. I’d segment alcohol branding in two main clusters. Cluster 1 would be “Authenticity” and Cluster 2 would be “Aspirational or Marketing”. Scotch, Whisky, Champagne and Wine would fall in cluster 1. Beer, vodka, rum and gin would fall in cluster 2.

Cluster 2: In a blind taste research one cannot differentiate one beer from other or vodka from other (unless you are a professional). In absence of product differentiation the strategy requires lots of creativity, branding ideas and communication to achieve the desired results. I really love one brand which has been consistent in establishing the brand through the shape of the bottle. Yes, you are right! Absolut, it’s a brilliant work from the ad agency. Lot of creativity with local connect being established under the same concept. Not sure how this line of communication was started by Absolut, but I guess it is related to the old saline bottle (This is my wild guess from the shape of the bottle. Please do share if you know about it)

I remember my research in some of the rural markets in India. While working for two of the beer brands I was completely surprised with the insights I mined from the consumers. At-least it gave me the cues that what positioning my brand should take so that the brand is in the consideration set in most of the drinking moments. Consumers whom I interacted had defined four keys with which they connect with alcohol brands 

• Key1: Aspiration (Success, happiness and feeling special)
• Key2: Larger than Life (Freedom, elegant & stylish life and dream) 
• Key3: Fantasy (youthfulness, relaxation, chilled out, my own world)
• Key4: Unsolved Problems (career, stress, failure and sorrows)

But majority of consumers would define their moment of consumption in the first and the last key. Such insights have helped various brands to take differentiated positioning and create their own set of loyal consumers. However, every time when I analyse or work on alcohol brands, I feel it easy as well as very difficult to create a proposition on “Marketing the addiction”

 

Mahindra Satyam to grow through “Innovation” by Rajesh Korani

In a recent interview, Mr Anand Mahindra stated that Mahindra Satyam would grow basis “Innovation”. I would strongly endorse this statement, at least for M&M Group, because in the recent past the brand has truly lived up to the brand promise of “Rise”. The recent blockbuster product, Mahindra XUV 500, from Mahindra auto division really raises the expectation levels from M&M Group and I’m sure the brand is working hard to bring innovation in every ‘product, service and possibilities’ (reference www.mahindra.com).

In most of the cases, the companies use the word ‘innovation’ as the key differentiator or strategy for the growth. I’m hesitant if most of the companies (barring few) have the bandwidth and resources to drive innovation. I’ve huge dissonance as in most of the cases the word is used loosely. In this article I’d evince the difference in four key strategic pillars i.e. Invention, Innovation, first movers advantage and fast market response through some examples.

Let us loot at the dictionary definition of these four key pillars

Invention: An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition or process. It may also be an improvement upon a machine or product, or alternate means of achieving a process

Innovation: Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments, and society

First mover’s advantage: Well, there is no dictionary definition for First Movers Advantage. I’m sure all of us would know that it is a first move, method, composition or process in the existing category.

Faster market response:  As the terminology defines, it is how quickly you react to the market

Innovation differs from invention .Innovation refers to the use of a better and, as a result, novel idea or method, whereas invention refers more directly to the creation of the idea or method itself. Innovation refers to the notion of doing something different (Latin. Innovare: "to change") rather than doing the same thing better. The above example from Mahindra is a perfect fit as Mahindra Satyam would grow through innovation by improving the processes and services.

We all know some of the world’s greatest inventions and don’t need many examples to manifest the terminology. E.g. Telephone (there were several inventors who did pioneering experimental work on voice transmission over a wire and improved on each other's ideas. Innocenzo Manzetti, Antonio Meucci, Johann Philipp Reis, Elisha Gray, Alexander Graham Bell, and Thomas Edison, among others, have all been credited with pioneering work on the telephone. An undisputed fact is that Alexander Graham Bell was the first to be awarded a patent for the electric telephone) or similarly, invention of Mobile Phone was by Dr. Martin Cooper (Lead researcher at Motorola, CEO & founder of ArrayComm and Chairman & co-founder of Dyna LLC)

It is interesting to know that invention of mobile phone led a convenient and distant communication and now innovation (multiple innovations) has made this small device as part of our daily lives. Imagine a single day without mobile phone…phew!  

Being an inventor, Motorola lost the opportunity to encash the mobile invention. However, Nokia with technology leverage and strong marketing strategies got the first mover advantage in the mobile phone business with dominant market share and volumes.

The smart move was by Apple and Samsung through smart phones. The faster market response from these two brands led them control the penetration of smart phones thus replacing market leader Nokia and others.

There is a thin line between Invention, innovation, First mover advantage and faster market response because all these strategies demands different approach developed through existing elements.

It would be very interesting to see what strategy Mahindra Satyam is going to adopt to fuel the growth on their IT business. Eagerly waiting for an “Innovation”