The first job that Kinjal Medh took up after graduating from business school was with an international trading company. But three years on, he joined Speer Communications – because he always wanted to be in advertising. Medh moved to FCB-Ulka (then Ulka Advertising) in 1990, and has been with the agency ever since. “I like to work with people I can respect in terms of integrity, intellectual ability and basic straightforwardness. And there’s a full measure of that in FCB-Ulka,” he explains, adding that he’s never felt the need to change jobs. “Ulka has given me the kind of excitement I would otherwise have looked for in a career. Leading new projects and setting up divisions for Ulka has been a challenge in itself.” Medh has been instrumental in setting up the agency’s DM, Interactive and Healthcare divisions, and was a key constituent in the creation of Lodestar LabCentre. Promoted to the post of COO early this year, Medh now has the responsibility of turbo-charging Cogito Consulting, FCB-Ulka’s brand consultancy division. In this interview with N. Shatrujeet of agencyfaqs!, Medh outlines the role and objectives of Cogito, and dwells on the market potential for brand consulting...

Q. Though it’s been around for a considerable period of time, not many people in the advertising and marketing fraternities really know about Cogito Consulting, and its role as defined by FCB-Ulka. What exactly is Cogito’s raison d’être?

A. As an agency, FCB-Ulka has always applied a lot of thrust on strategic planning and brand consulting. Cogito is a natural outcome of that. The idea was to create a team of people who would actually go beyond advertising in terms of counseling clients. It is the agency’s responsibility to provide insights when it comes to consumers, and we believe that our strength lies in understanding consumers.

The principal responsibility of Cogito is to do projects for clients in the areas of branding, brand architecture, marketing and distribution. We even provide points of view in terms of arriving at the right product pricing. Apart from projects, we are also looking at developing a knowledge base, which, in a sense, will help clients across industries. For instance, doing a large-scale, omnibus kind of study on, say, emerging trends in various sectors, or doing a large-scale study in certain sectors on how the consumer has evolved or how buying behaviour has changed… These are large-scale issues, and these could cut across industries and categories. The idea is to go beyond specific brands that the agency works with, and look at the larger marketing perspective.

So Cogito has multiple roles. One is to be the knowledge bank within the agency. The second is to provide consultancy to clients – who need not necessarily be clients of FCB-Ulka alone. The third area would be to develop insights into consumer behaviour.

Q. You mentioned taking on non-FCB clients. Does that mean Cogito is an independent division maintaining its own P&L?

A. It is very much an independent division. It doesn’t have a separate P&L at this point in time – it’s too early for that. But yes, over a period of time, it will have one.

Q. The concept of brand consulting has gained ground significantly over the past few years. Today, you have the large consultancy outfits, you have small well-knit groups of individuals providing consultancy, and you even have the Lone Ranger professional doing a typical ‘home office’ consultancy number. Does the brand consultancy space really have potential for so many players?

A. What you are saying is absolutely right. Today there are individuals providing consultancy, there are small teams, and at the other extreme, there are the large companies. I think in terms of sheer numbers, there are more individuals than small teams, and more small teams than large consultancies. The challenge, therefore, for any consulting firm is to define the space it plays in. Branding or marketing consultancy is a very large framework. The question you have to answer is, which elements of that framework do you decide to specialize and build competencies in. Which elements of that framework do you create your own reputation in? This is a challenge for anyone stepping into this space.

To illustrate my point, one could specialize in the area of branding, per se, which is something that is being done today by individuals, by small teams, by large outfits and also by design shops. The second specialization could be in terms of offering market-entry strategies. The third could be in the area of CRM. While the technology companies have been talking about CRM a hell of a lot, not enough has been done on the consumer side of it as yet. Here too, you will see that there are several players offering consultancy, including web shops and direct marketing firms. Another area of specialization could be with proprietary models and tools that the consulting company owns – it could be a framework, it could be a model, it could be a syndicated study that is done from time to time. One could also choose to specialize sector-wise. For instance, in the retail sector, you have KSA Technopak, you have JD Power in automobiles… Then you could specialize in terms of drawing up competitive gameplans. The opportunities are endless. Today, you have individuals specializing in so many things. It could be something as simple as ideation or a creativity workshop. Somebody else could be doing something specific to recruitment and training. The point ultimately is, can you find your space?

Q. But with so many entities in the consultancy space, the lines are often blurred, with a branding consultancy sharing its experience or know-how on, say, market-entry strategies. Doesn’t the absence of watertight, clearly demarcated specialization areas make the game that much harder to play, considering almost everyone is competing with everyone else?

A. Yes, there is a blurring of lines and there are no watertight compartments. At the same time, the overall consulting space – in the marketing area – is fairly large, at this point in time. Today, marketers are, in a sense, looking at far more immediate responsibilities. Let’s go back 10 years – marketing was not as hardnosed as it is today. The market itself was not as competitive as it is today. The pressure to revamp a product, just to give you one example, has multiplied. Once, you could do a product revamp once in two or three years. Today, with the kind of competition going around, you probably look at the product every six months.

Also, the complexity has changed dramatically over the last few years, be it in terms of the number of competitors, in terms of direct and indirect competition, or in terms of consumer segments. People talk of media fragmentation. But I genuinely believe that the real fragmentation is happening in consumer segments. Today, you can’t say there is a consumer segment called ‘children’. Children in the age group of 4 to 6 are of one kind, 6 to 10 are of another kind, 10 to 14 are of another kind, and 14-plus, another. The same thing is true in terms of adult males and adult women. How marketers address this, and try and address gaps and aspirations in those segments is going to be the challenge.

Previously, we used to have dominant brands – brands that owned more than 50 per cent of the market. Today, dominant brands are becoming less and less, especially with regard to newer brands. The older brands are still dominant and will continue dominating for some time, but they are also under huge pressure. All these are new realities. Therefore, at the marketer’s end, there is a hell of a lot that constantly needs to be done. And obviously, they’ll increasingly seek help in various areas. Which is why I see the entire consultancy business growing, and I would say it would be a harmonic progression for all the players in the space rather than a fiercely competitive one. There is enough space for growth for everyone.

Q. What are the specific areas of consultancy that Cogito would get into?

A. We won’t be getting into business consulting… for example, doing things like feasibility studies or mergers and acquisitions. The vision is to get there sometime, but not right now. We would certainly be looking at bringing value to brand-specific areas.

Q. From what I understand, FCB-Ulka’s strategic planning and consulting resources are playing a significant role within the FCB network, especially in the Asian region. Can you give me some instances of the nature of India’s contribution to the network?

A. I will give you two current examples. There was a large project that was rolled out of the US, which involved doing Mind and Mood studies (an FCB proprietary technique) in some 20-odd countries across the world. India being one of the countries, we did the workshops here. Seeing the work we’d done on the project, FCB requested us to send a planner from here down to Singapore and South East Asia to work over there. That is one way we play a role in the FCB network.

The second is, given the fact that our knowledge of the techniques and tools that FCB has deployed is fairly well developed, given the fact that India is by far the most complex country outside the US in terms of heterogeneity, and given the sharpness with which we come up with solutions and ideas, our planners have a slightly better understanding of issues. In a recent development, one of our senior people is being sent down to Singapore to head the strategic planning there. And the role is not just to head the unit, but also to transfer some of the knowledge and rigours that we bring into our planning process to some of these countries as well. We’ve been part of global FCB projects, and that’s how we’re value-adding to the global process, and that’s how talent is being recognized internationally. In fact, two members of FCB’s Global Chess Team are from India.

Q. Now that we’re onto Chess, what exactly is this FCB initiative all about?

A. The Chess team comprises of a set of formally trained people who work on projects that involve competitive analysis, competitive insights and competitive gaming for clients. In a nutshell, any company’s understanding of its environment is based on people within the company and what they see outside. It’s what we call the client reality. But there are market realities that could be changing or that could be different, and competitor realities that could be changing or that could be different. Clients are not always aware of what’s happening in the competitor’s mind, and how the competitor will react to certain influences, whether environmental or whether based on specific issues. Chess is a means of arriving at an insight into how a competitor will behave, and how you can counteract the competition. In a sense, it is about staying ahead of the competition. It is a fairly elaborate process, and any Chess project takes anywhere between eight to 14 weeks.

Q. But how does the process of arriving at the competitor’s behavioural insight happen?

A. What we do is study the competition in depth, using various techniques. In terms of key delivery points, one thing that we do is create what we call War Rules. War Rules are five to eight basic principles that drive a competitor’s company. We try and get to those five, six or seven basic rules, and those rules are such that they will probably determine every single decision that is taken by the competitor’s company. It is a bit like getting into the head of the competitor’s CEO. Once we define and discuss the War Rules with our clients, we discuss our client’s plans, and based on those War Rules, we tell our clients that if you take such-and-such step, this is the kind of step that the competition will take. Or we could turn around and say, based on these six or seven principles or War Rules, this is what the competition is likely to do next. And if they do this, these are the ways you can counter them. Essentially, it’s gaming and counter-gaming.

Without getting into too many details, we did a Chess project for Tata Motors. We were able to predict two competitors and their moves – in terms of specifics that will happen at the marketplace – six to nine months before the moves actually happened.

Q. What is the usual margin of error in these predictions?

A. We’ve been fairly successful. It’s not a quantitative fix. I don’t think any consultant can turn around and say he doesn’t go wrong. At a global level, we have gone wrong in one or two cases. But the proportion of success is fairly high. One of the classic cases is when FCB did the War Rules on Enron for one of its clients. They were actually able to identify the exact weaknesses of Enron. They were able to predict this is what is happening within the organization, and therefore, the stability of the organization is in question. They were obviously not able to predict what would exactly go wrong and how, but they were able to clearly identify a problem in terms of internal ethics and reporting, and the degree of insecurity that existed within the company. Chess allows you to understand where the competition is coming from, what it is likely to do next, how it will behave, and what you should be doing to manage that.

Q. And Chess is available to clients in India?

A. Oh yes, certainly. As I said, of the 10 Chess practitioners around the world, two are in India. And like I said, we’ve already done a project for Tata Motors.

Q. What are your growth plans for Cogito, and how do you see it evolving as an independent entity?

A. Let me look at it in the short and medium terms – short being the next six to nine months, and medium meaning the next two to three years. I think there are two key areas that we need to focus on in the short term. The first thing is to make people aware of Cogito. The fact that we have such a division; the fact that we’ve done some work; the fact that we’ve got a certain competency base, certain strengths and certain tools and techniques that can help marketers. That is task number one. The second is to formalize some of our efforts and put them onto the road. And look at three-four projects in the consulting area.

In the medium terms, I think it will basically be about building a strong team of consultants with domain-specific knowledge and skill sets, which we can then take to clients. In fact, we will be adding people even in the short-run. We will also need to build certain proprietary tools, techniques and knowledge bases that can also be of use to clients. And over a period of time, Cogito will have to become an independent P&L unit.

April 19, 2004
Mumbai
You can write to Kinjal Medh at
kmedh@cogitoconsulting.com