Innovindia

Social trends and visual mapping

2011-02-03T17:24:00.000-08:00

I was quiet amazed with the results on social trend mapping and like to share it with you.

Let me start the discussion by giving a brief introduction to visual mapping for the benefit of those, who understand visual mapping for first time.

What is a visual mapping?

A visual mapping helps in representing the market position of several products, services or brand experience in a single window. It helps business decision maker in understanding their products and services position on the market and the opportunities for untapped markets. At Kovent we have been using visual mapping to position web design identity and social trends as it is illustrated later in this post.

Suppose you are making a visual mapping of “soap”

You may place the soaps packaging in the grid according to your visual perception of the product. More the soap looks High-tech more it would go up in the axis and more it looks Basic more it come down along the axis. Similarly more the soap looks Fashion more it would go on the left side of the axis and more it looks Traditional more it would go on the right side of the axis.

A visual mapping can help you to identify untapped market in your business line. Thus it is important that you take the help of an expert for making it. Also, it is not required to have large member focus group to make a visual mapping. Two or Three trends passionate are more than enough, provided they can be objectives in judging the products.

Two common mistakes people do in executing a visual mapping.

1.) Missing objectivity and over estimating their products. By default categorizing own products into Fashion and High-tech trends and competitor products into low-tech, traditional trends.

2.) Categorizing the products according to what they know about it rather than what they see. A visual mapping is all about what we see and not what we know about the product, service or brand.

Now let me share with you some of the interesting findings about our social trends mapping of India.

We have been traveling all over the country to interview more than 200 people about the way they live think and see their future. All this is to identify leverage keys factors of social trends in India for implementing successful business innovation. Details of this research can be found on Kovent’s trends reports.

The below visual mapping illustrates 34 social trends present in North and South India.

Among these 34 trends 8 are common to North India & South India (National trends). 13 are exclusive to North India and 13 are exclusive to South India.

Let’s analyze the mapping in more details

National trends – (8 common trends to North India & South India)

This first mapping illustrates the 8 social trends that are common to South and North India. Unsurprisingly, the position of these trends is on the upper and left side of the visual mapping were social trends are tending to be Fashionable and High-tech.

The reason is simple. Common trends to North India & South India can also be called as National trends (Vs. local or regional social trends). They are more like to be found among Indians who have higher income, broader cultural outlook and international exposure. They can afford a more sophisticated lifestyle and quality technologies.

South India trends – (13 Local and regional trends exclusive to South India)

This mapping represents the 13 social trends specific to South India. The most interesting observation is that these trends are concentrated on the down side of the mapping, in difference to the 13 trends specific to North India (previous figure) which are concentrated on the upper side of the mapping.

The reason could be that South Indian culture has been protected from foreign and western influences, which stands as one of the explanation for today’s South Indian behavior and tradition. South Indian social trends are built-up with values of simplicity, functionality and tradition. These values are reflecting on consumer behavior. Like it is shown in the visual mapping there is a quasi absence of social trends reflecting the notion of Fashion and High-tech in South India.

North India trends – (13 Local and regional trends exclusive to North India)

Reversely in this last figure we can see that North Indians are much more receptive to Social trends that reflect the notion of fashion and technology with a quasi absence of social trends that reflect the idea of simplicity, functionality and tradition. It is a fact that historically North India has been very much influenced by foreign culture what may have been influential in shaping their consumer’s attitude.

This research revealed significant behavioral difference between the South Indian and North Indian consumers. Kovent’s trends report helped the businesses world to re-define their marketing strategy and thus identify key factors to address innovation in the rural consumers.

The future of automobile design at DYPDC

2010-10-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

We did an interesting workshops with the students of DYPDC College in Pune which were mainly focused on social experiments.

What does design mean to you?

At the time I was studying at the Institut Superieur de Design, all projects were ending up with an industrial product or transportation design solution. Today’s user needs end up with hybrid needs that include industrial design solution but also a variety of other needs like communication, knowledge, social interaction.

Read the full interview on DYPDC blog.

http://dypdccollege.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/india-%E2%80%93-the-future-of-automobile-design/

Here is the workshop video:

Educational behavior for India rural consumers

2010-07-18T00:07:00.001-07:00

Case study on educational behavior for India rural consumers by Kovent. It shows how business design can help your organization to reach local consumers' aspiration.

Presentation by Royston D'Sa check it out!

Ethnographic design research in West Bengal

2009-08-14T07:18:00.001-07:00

We finished our ethnographic design research with West Bengal. The preparation was very chaotic; we were having great difficulties to find people to interview. At last our friend Sunil Barik from Delhi introduced us to a wonderful couple from Kolkata who helped us very much.

Alike Tamil Nadu, West Bengal has a kind of self-sufficient social life where people enjoy local and regional relationship without the need for extending their relationship to other states or countries. Among the people we interviewed we found that they had less of interaction with other states or cultures. Nevertheless, Bengali’s are warm and welcoming people.

Arjun and Shankhamita, are youth entrepreneurs in Kolkata. They helped us in reaching people for our study, occasionally translating interviews in Bengali language. Arjun’s family lives at the centre of Kolkata. Their house is very pleasant and reflects the cultural richness of the family.

We have now taken more than 100 interviews in North India. Most of the time my wife, Melina conducted the interview in either English or Hindi for around 45 minutes. The quickest interview we took was for 22 minutes and the longest was more than 3 hours, but both interviews were rich and insightful. Time is not a factor.

During the interview I took down notes, recorded the conversation and took number of environment pictures. In villages, people use slangs what makes the communication difficult. In these cases, we took the services of local interpreters who participated to the discussion and corrected any miss-interpretations. For conducting the interview we had a large set of questions structured in such a way that we could get the key information at different levels of interview. This protocol is the fruit of extensive research and testing we did at the initial stage of our initiative.

Arjun is a kind of person who can appreciate anyone’s personality and views without judgment. He is a good human being and knows a huge diversity of people he meets across his business activity. We asked him to introduce us to various people from high to low level background, so that we could get a true picture of the Bengali population. Arjun is an excellent orator; realist by nature. I like very much the way he depicts his culture with coldness and admiration.

Bengal has been deeply influenced by the communist culture. Many people give importance to the government and do not like when you present your initiatives as “private”. That makes our research difficult since it is important for us to understand the aspirations of those people and how they want things to evolute. After they understand the social benefits of our project they were willing to speak.

We found Bollywood pictures very efficient to understand how people project themselves in future. What are their social aspirations and dreams? Sometimes people’s choices totally contradicted what they said in response to our interview questions and provided clues to understand the choc points.

Thanks to McDonalds for allowing us to interview 2 of their busy staff members. Awful things have been written about this company’s work culture; on the other hand we found their work culture as a positive impact on their staff’s willingness. Farah told us how her job has made her more confident in life. She has higher expectations towards the future and plans for a better life. In Kolkata also the corporate culture has an impact on people’s life.

It is difficult to finish an interview without a group picture. Children were inquisitive to know what we were doing around but it is always a pleasure to share our experience with them. Bengal would remain one of the best places we have seen in India.

We had the great pleasure to take the interview of Mr. S. K. Das who has been the MD, CEO of several group of companies in India. Mr. Das has passion for progress and prosperity for our country. He is an ardent writer. Quite of his writings, short stories, poems, articles on management have been published in leading journals and newspapers. He has also received awards in Delhi in 1991 and 1996 for excellence in Industrial Management. After retirement in 2002, he is associated with several groups as Chairman / Vice Chairman of Board of Directors. At the age of 73, he is still active and continues to advice industrialist and political leaders like Mr. Ratan Tata, Dr. Debesh Das. He also has the privilege of correspondence with Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. Besides his career as a businessman, he has also helped more than 400 people in getting employment and means of subsistence through his association.

Sumit has a double Masters in History from a reputed university. He could work for some university or a multinational in Kolkata but he prefers to concentrate on what is really important for him. Sumit gives tuition of Indian history and spirituality. He takes only students who are really passionate about the subject and can appreciate the transcendental value of his teaching. Sumit told us how to re-interpret Indian classical history in the modern world. What lessons we have taken from Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and his disciples. He also paints and sculpts images of gods and deities according to the tradition of his gurus.

We would like to thank the below mentioned people who have enormously helped us in realising our research in North India:
Amit - Hyderabad
Arjun and Shankhamita - Kolkata
Arun and Maggie - Mumbai
Ashish and Monu - Jaipur
Saurabh’s family - Siyana
Sonam’s parents – Pune
Sunil - Bangalore
Sunil - Delhi

We meet hundreds of wonderful people from various backgrounds and culture. It is materially difficult to keep in touch with everyone but you stay in our hearts forever.
You all are most welcome to Bangalore!

If you would like to be informed about the publication of the North India Consumer Trends Report, drop us a line in this Kovent’s contact form

Business opportunity in rural market

2009-08-02T06:52:00.000-07:00

The word recession brings up huge emotions – fear, anger, sorrow. However, many top business people are still very positive towards the future and see the economical recession as a turning point for their business in the rural market.

Recently, The Economist Intelligence Unit and Dubai Holding published a white paper based on the views of the people who own and manage the world’s businesses; 418 senior business people around the globe. They found that 53% think the economical meltdown would positively impact their business in the next 5 to 10 years.

It is also interesting to see that more than 50% of these executives would give priority to product and geographical diversification in the near future. They do not specify what would be the new geographical market place but we can reasonably presume that it would be the BRIC markets.

Economy is a state of mind. It is like mass psychology and the time people take to recover from an economical recession actually depends of their exposure to the global economy. If you look at where the economic crisis has affected the industry, it is only the export oriented sectors and particularly the IT industry. The export sector is mostly served by the middle class in metro-cities. They are well known for having a lavish lifestyle and craze for quality brand experience. Today many shopping malls are deserted and the urban middle class has come back to the old fashioned saving lifestyle. Many shops have closed down and others are proposing huge discounts to attract customers.

Atria is one of those happening shopping malls you can find in Mumbai. Hundreds of international brands like Reebok, Swarovski, Guess all under one roof. Today, many shops have closed down and others are proposing huge discounts to attract customers.

Sunday market in Pondicherry has regained lots of popularity for the past one year. In towns and villages, the economy is still very positive. Would you get any feeling of recession in such place?

In the same paper from The Economist Intelligence Unit, Martin Fitzpatrick, Microsoft’s regional controller for South-East Asia, explains the benefits of reaching consumers who depend from the local economy rather than global. Rural consumers are used to economical ups and downs and can recover faster than developed economies. He says “The boom-bust cycle seems to be more readily accepted as a regular part of the economic landscape. I have grown used to the concept, this being my fourth cycle of boom and bust in less than ten years. Most companies and individuals seem to have effectively written off 2009 and are instead gearing up for a better 2010.”

Going beyond globalisation

The concept of economical globalisation has probably reached its end with the economical meltdown. It would have an impact on the way companies invest their money and people consume. There is a regain of interest for local and national products. People’s lifestyle and consumption pattern has drastically changed over recent years hence companies need to keep their design strategy in tune with the evolutions of the society. Create products and services that serve the Indian economy and identity.

Our company, Kovent helps businesses to understand Indian rural consumer’s mindset and consumption pattern. Our approach is different from other market research companies who rely on data and statistics. Our researches are based on qualitative design research and ethnographic insights. They reveal rural consumers needs, behaviours and desires through lifestyle scenarios. These scenarios will help you to understand which product speaks to their social aspirations. How you can capitalise on social trends to enhance your consumer’s experience and brand perception.

Kovent is dedicated to anthropologic design research that serves companies business objectives. As social issues enter the minds of today’s Indian citizens, we are integrating ideas such as sustainability and social responsibility into our researches.

Ethnographic research in North India

2009-06-18T05:05:00.000-07:00

Our ethnographic research took us to Siyana a small town located at 3.5 hours from Nizamuddin railway station. We were staying at my friend’s place whose parents live there. From the roof top of the house we could see the green belt that delimitates the town.

Most of the people in Siyana have small businesses; one of the main businesses was agriculture. Electricity comes few hours a day only. People who have better standard of living can afford to have invertor or generator to keep the machines and fans running. Of course, no one uses air conditioner as that would be too expensive. We had a walk around when we reached the town. We were not accompanied with any local fellow. People were looking very strangely at us since they understood we are not from the town. One person came and asked us where we are from? As we started speaking with him more people joined with 1000 of questions. We had to run away as our presence was generating traffic jam in the market. Still we had a nice visit and enjoyed interacting with the local population.

We started with our research the first day itself. The family who received us were very helpful in introducing us to people around. Being in a small town it was easy to reach a large diversity of profiles from business people to employees, teachers, workers, farmers, etc. In Siyana, people hardly get opportunities to speak with outsiders. So, they were very much interested to speak and know about us. Many a times it happened that youth guys came up to asked me to speak about my country. This made our work pleasant but longer since we had to establish trust and build relationship with people before starting any interview or field observation.

The first interview we did was in a small village around Siyana that caught the interest of everyone. Ayan the person we interviewed was comfortable in speaking in front of everyone. This type of interview shared with the community had an advantage.
It helped us in understanding the difference between individual motivations and what is commonly accepted by the group. More than anyone else, villagers need to justify their behaviour to the community they belong to. Ayan considered himself as a rich person since he worked for a corporate company for a couple of years. He explained to his community the social necessity of having a fashionable lifestyle working at ICICI Bank.

Villagers were explaining us the interest and necessity of having multiple sources of income in the family. Ayan cannot think of closing his business even if he gets a permanent job at ICICI Bank. “Job is a short term solution; you never know how long the company is going to run”.
Villagers have 4 to 5 regular businesses they pass on to each other as time and opportunities come. Basically, more you go at the bottom of the pyramid more the source of income is diversified. Since many people have lost their faith in the corporate world the small business thinking gains the interest of the overall population.

Middle class behaviour is quiet predictable in towns and villages. Being at the edge between modernity and tradition, middle class are pushed in developing strong ideas about what is good and what is bad. Mostly, they are well informed and leave less space to subjectivity.

At one evening we had the great pleasure to attending a party given for a new born baby. There was nothing traditional but Bollywood music, food and drinks… we all had great fun. Coming back home was an adventure since there was no light anywhere. We had to walk in queue behind uncle’s torchlight till we reached home.

After interviewing 34 people in towns and villages we went to Ghaziabad, New Delhi and Gurgaon. My wife Melina felt in love with Gurgaon shopping malls. The most happening place she found in India so far.

In towns and villages people’s lifestyle evolutes in a linear way. It is always a kind of compromise between tradition and modernity and the whole family follows a similar pattern with different level of understanding.

But in New Delhi people follow a pattern that is much more based on their individual life experience. People’s lifestyle is the fruit of a long process of individual liberation where personal reflection matters a lot.

“I have reached this level of thinking because of…”
“I had to change something about myself and I did it…”
“Knowledge is painful you can never stop rethinking the world around of you”
Etc.

People have no fear in experimenting themselves to access to a better way of being. This long process for discovering the “Who am I?” is very much influential on their way of living.

Kovent’s North India consumer trends will speak about how the “Who am I?” attitude influences consumption pattern in North India. What are the keys factors to implement innovation and respond to consumer’s aspirations? Innovation always question consumers; our next report will provide you the right question for the right user group.

Family continues to occupy a central role in people’s pre-occupation. But, there also we found new behaviours in all layers of the society. We used a set of pictures representing Bollywood actors and actresses in different roles and personality. It is interesting to see how people reinterpret family values in today’s society. How they project their role model from the past to the future.

Our North India trip was a wonderful experience. We interviewed 83 peoples with 62 hours of recorded interview. They will be a report available on http://www.kovent.com/ after few months.
If you would like to be informed at the time of launch, feel free to complete Kovent’s contact form.

Ethnographic research in Maharashtra

2009-05-10T05:57:00.000-07:00

We took the train from Chennai to Mumbai. It was a very long journey of around 24 hours. Our son Zaidin enjoyed waking-up in the train instead of his house with so much of people and noise around. He was happy being the attraction of everyone around for a day. Personally, I wanted to see the landscape between Chennai to Mumbai, what you can never see while travelling by plane. We went through so many small towns and villages, kilometres and kilometres of land totally deserted.

We reached on 23rd March and started interviewing people the next day. Since we lived in Mumbai before we were not surprised to see how different the interviews would be from South. Our researches in North India leave more space for individualism, intellectual reflection and dream comparatively to South India that always sticks to reality.

The interview protocol in North includes many subjects related to personality and self expression. We are still testing the relevance of our questions remotely before starting a long series of travel across the North Indian states. Thanks to Quillpad, the translation of our interview protocol in Hindi has become much easier.

The pre-research included 2 sorts of techniques focus group and individual interviews.

The place we are conducting the research is Kurla (West). Initially Kurla was a peaceful village away from Mumbai with beautiful residences and churches. As Mumbai grew, Kurla became part of Mumbai suburbs and Kurla got very much populated.

On one side of the village is the church, at the other side is the mosque. In between there is a couple of temples. Different communities co-habit easily with each other particularly the youth for whom friendship has no boundaries.

Children are doing their first communion these days at Holy Cross Church. There are many chapels in the village where people gather at the evening for religious activity and prayer.

These pavilions let you imagine the kind of lifestyle Christian people were having few decades ago in this area.

Most pavilions have been replaced by smaller habitation as the village got more populated.

Hindus have couple of temples in the village. Their population is lesser and mostly from Maharashtra.

The Muslim area is dominated by green colour. Even boards are written in Hindi and Urdu characters.

Near by Holy Cross Church, Kohinoor city is taking shape. The round tower is Kohinoor’s shopping mall. Behind will be the business centre and nearly 1500 habitations.

As of now there are very few people living in Kohinoor city that is still under construction. I am curious to see what the atmosphere will be after Kohinoor’s population joins the area.

Top 10

2009-03-19T08:39:00.000-07:00

Here are the top 10 questions we received from our clients about
More & More - South India consumer trends report.
www.kovent.com

1. The world goes green! What about India?
We all know that Indians have a holistic relation with nature.
On the other hand, Indian industrialists like to repeat that we must get developed before thinking about environmental protection. This sounds logical but it is no more acceptable for the South Indian consumers who have deep ecological consciousness.
Unsurprisingly, our approach of sustainable development is catching the attention of non-profit organisations and government bodies. In More & More, you will learn how South India may become the world laboratory for sustainability and local living economy.

2. Is there any interest in encouraging local and national trends?
No, but it is necessary if we want to reach the next 100 million consumers who are not yet willing to afford a consumerist lifestyle. These consumers we are referring to are the ones who lead a modest lifestyle but still have a good spending potential. They need radical innovations that are contextually integrated. Thus, the future of innovation will be a mix of both local and global consumer experience. That’s the reason for which our trends report aims to facilitate people’s adhesion to global consumption pattern.

3. What kind of trends report it is?
A trends report is either:
1) Macro or Micro - Micro trends all together form macro trends.
2) Fast or Slow - The period the trend will last.
3) Global or Local - The geography of the trend.
More & More trends report focuses on Macro, Slow, Local trends.
It is useful for any industry that deals with consumers who have local or national exposure and moderated lifestyle. You will find business opportunities on medium and long-term basis.

4. Will the report be relevant for my industry?
The report deals with consumers needs and wants. As those needs and wants can be applied across all industries, the report is relevant for any brand looking to innovate in the B2C arena across South India.

5. Did you find any variations in the consumer’s behaviours between the South Indian states?
Yes and for each of the 21 trends presented we have included a map of South India showing where the trend is present. Some trends are spread all over the 4 states whereas others only affect particular states or cities. This trends report can be utilised for localising your products and services however it is not its primary objective. The objective of this report is to understand South India’s macro consumer segmentation. It makes more sense from a business perspective to focus on cross-states trends than geographically isolated ones.

6. In what way can NGOs contribute to R&D?
Our experience working with the poor clearly showed us that there is no direct relation between income level and buying capacity. NGOs have the experience of working with the poor and know what is the ecosystem associated to peoples spending habits. NGOs helped us to understand how community behaviour influences the consumption pattern of poor consumers.

7. What will be the next technological hit for India?
At last, India is coming out of the technocratic black-out it was stuck in for the past 10 years. Technology has become a fully integrated component of lifestyle. Now, we can think about humanised innovation that would require powerful technologies but not for the sake of it.
Let me say once again:
“Innovation is no more about constantly upgrading technology. Innovation is about relieving social and cultural barriers. Make global resources accessible to everyone. Free every human being from ignorance and poverty.”
Become an ambassador of India’s social revolution. More & More will provide you clues to innovate in that direction.

8. Why to make a trends report about South India and not the whole country?
We thought that this trends report could capture the whole population of India. But, after interviewing people in Mumbai and Delhi we realised that the findings would be entirely different in North and South. Hence, we decided to release 2 separate versions. This edition focuses exclusively on South India.
We are currently conducting workshops in Mumbai with NGOs, social workers and business entrepreneurs. Yet we have no doubt that North India trends will be a different blend of life experiences and consumer aspirations.

9. Can you share with us the process followed to generate these trends?
The methodology used to realise More & More consumer trends report is called Target Point. This methodology has been specially created for studying emerging market populations. It helps to understand in-depth environmental factors and underlying needs of the consumers rather than surface information with no proper indicators. Emerging market populations are often attached to their traditions and not always receptive to global trends. Hence, it is essential to understand their cultural ecosystem for framing accurate social and commercial trends.
Read about Target Point design methodology on our website:
http://www.kovent.com/targetpoint.html

10. Is there any business opportunity in this period of recession?
We are all feeling the cold shower of recession particularly the rich and middle class consumers who fear job cut and postpone buying expensive stuff. All sectors are affected real estate, banking, distribution, etc. Indian middle class consumers are likely to suffer and see their buying capacity decrease significantly till the economy gets better. However, it is not the case of the Indian rural market that continues to grow as a self-sustaining economy. Your company can contribute and benefit from it while providing contextual innovation.

More & More - South India consumer trends 2009

2009-02-06T20:41:00.000-08:00

My wife Melina did a video about our latest research project. Check it out!

Design and communication strategy for Lifebuoy’s re-launch

2008-11-21T05:01:00.000-08:00

Rural India has ample of opportunities all waiting to be harnessed for the much-needed volumes. Not astonishingly, it has become the latest marketing catchword for most FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) majors. Some of the requisites for making an impression in the rural market include:

1) Strong distribution channel
2) Minimum profit margin
3) Simple marketing message
4) Lesser-priced packs to increase affordability
5) Packaging in smaller units and localised design that attracts consumers
6) Convenience of storage while use
7) Thorough knowledge of the village psyche
In brief, the strategy revolves around what attracts rural consumers to a product.

Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL) is one of the few FMCG’s to be highly successful in rural India. It has been a pioneer in reaching out to the smallest of villages with innovative products. HLL is also open to the idea of building rural-specific brands since it will only dispel the marketing media effort for the brands. Today, HLL’s brands have become household names. No one knows Indian consumers better than HLL. The company has access to both global and local research, technology and development teams. It is fully supported by its nation-wide manufacturing and distribution network.

HLL is India's largest marketer of home & personal care products, foods & beverages. Recently, it launched “Pureit”, which is an in-home water purification system that gives water ‘as safe as boiled water’. It is also the largest exporter of branded FMCGs, marine products, basmati rice and one of the global players in castor.

When we speak about HLL, the first name that comes to our mind is Lifebuoy. It was sold in India as early as 1895, but was officially launched and marketed from 1935. For over 100 years, Lifebuoy with its distinct perfume and catchy jingle was associated with health and well-being, making it the world’s largest selling soap brand. Its ads carried the message that Lifebuoy washed away germs and kept one protected and healthy.

Lifebuoy is among HLL's power brands which contributed to nearly 30% of the company’s detergent turnover and was a leader in the carbolic segment with almost 95% market share. It went through a major re-launch for the first time in 1964 with a change in product formulation, shape and packaging. In mid 2001, HLL then launched Lifebuoy Active and Lifebuoy Extra Strong. However, these launches led to a minimal turnaround. For nearly 107 years, the brand hadn't undergone a major restructuring and repositioning. The sales were declining since consumers were shifting from carbolic based soaps to beauty soaps with better fragrance and lather.

The decline of the brand, prompted HLL to re-think its marketing strategy. Lifebuoy underwent a major turning point in its history with the re-launch in 2002, 2004 and again in 2006. The re-launch was done to beat the slow-moving sales. To register positive preference among consumers, HLL challenged everything that Lifebuoy stood for.

Lifebuoy is now an entirely new mix with a superior formulation, fragrance, lather profile and a contemporary shape. It offers an improved bathing experience and skin feel. The new Lifebuoy is targeted at today’s astute housewives who seek family health protection. It made a thoughtful shift in positioning from being a male soap, champ of health to a family soap with a more reliable health protection against germs for the entire family.

The new range includes Lifebuoy total, Lifebuoy deofresh, Lifebuoy nature, Lifebuoy care, Lifebuoy activ fresh, Lifebuoy International Plus, Lifebuoy International Gold, etc. Apart from this, Lifebuoy also offers specialised products like Lifebuoy HandWash and Lifebuoy Clearskin, which provides treatment and protection against acne.

HLL did huge rural campaigning using the idea of hygiene as a podium to reposition its brand. The company devised a strategy to ensure its focus on family health themes via TV and print campaigns in the rural markets. They conducted consumer education exercise using "Germ tests" through multimedia. They also explored the opportunity to spread message during World Health Day. HLL also launched Lifebuoy Swashthya Chetana, the first single largest rural health and hygiene educational program. The campaign aimed at educating children and community about the threat of unseen germs and maintaining good health through practice of basic hygiene.

HLL used innovative communication tools at melas, festivals, haats, etc. to spread awareness about hygiene and health by product demonstrations. These techniques were used in order to change the hand-washing and bathing habits in rural India. For example, people in mela were asked to put their hands below a special camera where they could see the germs on their hands and were asked to wash their hands with Lifebuoy and see the difference. Hand-carts were also displayed at the company’s stall for attracting more people.

Ideas like putting stickers on hand pumps, walls of the wells, putting tin plates on trees surrounding the pond were some of the innovative media utilised by Lifebuoy. The idea was to market the product not only at the point of purchase but also at the time of consumption. Other media techniques used were shop-fronts and cinema van operations having films and audio cassettes with songs and dance sequences from popular films that comprised ads of HLL products during breaks. The reach of conventional media is not that effective in rural markets. Moreover, it is not always viable to cover all these markets due to high costs involved. Yet, these markets are vital since the growth potential is high. Operation Harvest served as a medium to augment the role of conventional media in rural India and in the process built relations and loyalty with consumers.

HLL has always been at the front line of trying out with innovative schemes to reach rural consumers. It deliberately introduced small-sized packs of Lifebuoy targeted at rural markets. Cross company product mixes were also offered to lure consumers. To induce growth, HLL dropped the prices of its products and has been also trying to upgrade its consumers by cannibalising its own brands.

Rural retailers and quick product availability influence the purchase decision of rural consumers. HLL therefore undertook projects to enhance the rural supply chain by a network of sub-stockists and 'Project Shakti' in partnership with the Self-Help Groups of rural women. These Self-Help Groups acted as direct-to-home dealers. In rural India, women are the catalyst of change and that is why Project Shakti kept women in focus. It is they who give Shakti its strength. Project Shakti has proved to be a great marketing venture for HLL since it works in both terms which is promotion as well as a distribution network with social welfare benefits. The model created a win-win partnership between HLL and its consumers, some of whom depended on the organisation for their livelihood and helped building a self-sustaining virtuous cycle of growth for all. Another good initiative taken by HLL under Project Shakti is `I-Shakti', an IT-based rural information facility that provides solutions to major rural needs such as agriculture, education, vocational training, health and hygiene.

Rural markets are still evolving and there is no fixed layout to understand consumer behaviour. Lot of research is yet to be conducted for understanding rural consumers.

Colgate's Suraksha Chakra growing strong in rural India

2008-09-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

Rapid change in lifestyles, improving infrastructure and rising income have altered consumption patterns not only in urban but also in the rural areas. Growing demand for high-quality personal care products has been one of the main reasons for the shift in consumption patterns. In the past, product marketing has remained primarily an urban phenomenon, but in recent years due to the increasing education levels and increased awareness created through media, the rural market has been growing as well. Increasing brand consciousness and expanded disposable incomes are jacking up the appetite for these products.

Companies have long realised that to increase sales volume they will have to reach outside big cities. In several categories, rural India accounts for the lion's share. Rural households form around 72% of the total households in the country. Spending in this segment is growing rapidly and consumption patterns are closing in on those in urban areas.

Today, no consumer goods company can afford to forget rural market which is a very big part of the Indian consumer market. You cannot build a brand presence in India until you have the strategy for reaching the villages. Companies that have figured this out are doing better in villages than cities. The potential is huge for companies that develop effective rural marketing strategies. Up-gradation of products is being witnessed on fast-emerging consumption pattern in rural areas. Local and branded products are getting replaced by national brands and low priced by high priced.

Several European and US companies have been making inroads into rural India for years. Among the U.S. firms, Colgate is one such company that has made considerable headway. The company has been long known to dukaandaars and merchants in rural India.

Colgate is one of the leading providers of scientifically proven oral care products in India, including toothpastes, toothpowder and toothbrushes. The company is spending on advertising according to its market share and leadership position it enjoys and is conscious about what it costs.

For marketing to rural consumers, you need to persuade them to try and adopt products that they may have not used before. A company like Colgate has to convince people to change to toothpaste instead of using neem twigs to clean their teeth, which was the traditional practice. This is difficult to do and requires patience and investment by the company. It's not like getting someone to switch brands.

Rural India presents huge opportunity for the company to grow its market. Therefore, Colgate continues to focus on expanding its rural distribution. They keep conducting various programmes with massive rural sampling and seeding exercise for Colgate, targeted at non-users and infrequent users of dentifrices.

In rural areas, people use neem and other substances for cleaning their teeth. Even after keeping the products low priced, people were not willing to use the toothpaste. Hence, Colgate conducted a research to show that neem sticks don’t do much for oral health as they only massage the gums, which even a toothbrush can do. For upgrading these users to use toothpaste, which also generates demand for toothbrushes and to penetrate deeper into rural households, Colgate is constantly conducting oral care awareness programmes. It also actively participates in local festivals.

Colgate resorted to keep their products low priced than its arch-rival, Hindustan Lever. As a result, Colgate Gel, Total, etc. are priced marginally lower than similar offerings from HLL. Colgate's dominant position in toothpowder and lower-priced products has helped in increasing sales. This is significant as rural market growth rates for FMCG products have been higher than urban market over the past years.

Colgate has been also quite active on the new products front. The company launched Cibaca Top and Colgate Herbal, two low-priced brands targeted at the semi-urban market. Colgate's low price offers have also helped to enhance usage levels. The shift in consumer preference from gel-based to white toothpastes, has also worked in Colgate's favour, since the company has traditionally been the market leader in this segment.

Colgate’s commitment to deliver superior quality products and their aggressive investments in brand building has been well received. To be continually rated as one of the top brand in an increasingly competitive environment, is a reaffirmation of the trust, loyalty and confidence reposed in Colgate by millions of consumers across India. Today, every second user of toothpastes uses Colgate and one out of every three toothbrush user’s brushes with a Colgate toothbrush.

With rapidly evolving consumer preferences, Colgate has been spearheading changes across different product categories through a series of product innovations. The company has launched a series of superior quality oral care products with trend-setting innovations at affordable prices. It includes technologically advanced toothpastes, a herbal toothpowder and a series of specialty designed toothbrushes. All these products are having strong consumer acceptance.

Today, Colgate has become an essential part of daily oral hygiene and therapeutic oral care. It is one of the most widely used and recommended brands by dentists.

Gandhi, the father of modern India, believed that the country's future lay in her villages. These days, every major business group that plans to move into the hinterland would agree. However, the level of affordability in rural India is low. For consumers to buy products, you have to first put more money in their pockets. Create a virtuous circle of raising rural incomes which leads to increase in consumption. This new business culture I am talking about is not charity or philanthropy. It is about doing business with social benefits. It will help us to sustain the economy and bring in lots of human satisfaction to all of us. You can't think of success just in financial terms. Getting goodwill and recognition in the rural market is also not a small asset for any company.

Ethnographic research in South India

2008-07-06T08:50:00.000-07:00

Emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China have a strong tendency of imposing their view on the global economy. Today, understanding social trends and cultural insights has become essential for innovating new products and services in emerging markets.

We have been doing ethnographic research in South India for the past 3 months. The states covered are Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu with Puducherry being the lone Union Territory. Our objective was to capture new comportments and needs of the population there.

We applied a human-centred marketing approach to understand:
1) What really matters for the South Indian consumers?
2) What are their difficulties in the fast moving economy of India?
3) What would be the axis for sustainable livelihood?
The results we found were very different from one state to another. For instance, Tamil Nadu remains to be the impenetrable traditional state of South India.

The anthropological study we did includes our analysis about the South Indian population, their way of customs, their views of today’s society and way of living considering their situation and earnings. We interviewed people of all ages, background, castes and income levels in small towns, villages as well as metro cities.

For reaching the population, we were enormously helped by a few NGOs. Great credit goes to Sigaram Service Society and Welcome Society who introduced us to the locals and helped us in getting the required population count and data. We were guided so that the interviews we held were smooth and understandable on both extremes. We conducted nearly 70 qualitative interviews with people from different age groups having different income levels. From people who sustain their life in huts to people who are wealthy enough to afford a modern lifestyle. We asked them analysing questions related to their customs, mode of living, etc. to collect data. We found around 21 consumer profiles of people belonging to various families starting from the poor to middle class to the rich.

It was nice to share experience between anthropologists and social workers from South India. We are convinced that NGOs can play a major role in developing clever business model in emerging markets. We look forward to extend our partnership with multiple NGOs all over India and across the globe.

The project has a valuable market analysis to know the pulse of every kind of individual residing in South India. It helps you in understanding social trends, consumer segmentation and how they can be leveraged in product innovation and brand strategy. It offers plenty of opportunities to create new businesses in emerging market.

There won’t be any underground work needed for any company who plans to start a new market in this part of the sub-continent. This research will be available on our website from 15th Feb'2009 along with a movie clip speaking about the interest of investing in emerging markets.

Like this interview was in a slum with a very poor family. Some people thanked us for taking their interview and said they really enjoyed sharing their feelings.

Reality is far from what we think. People who share similar ideology sometimes have a totally different lifestyle. Reversely, lifestyle does not predict a consumer’s mindset.