Advertising should be used like salt.

Jagdeep Kapoor, CMD, Samsika Marketing Consultants, has contributed to the brand building of diverse brands, including Carrier, OTIS, Halls, Mother Dairy, Monginis, Frooti, Panacea Biotec, Cinthol, Nirma, Fevicol, Safal, FedEx - Blue Dart and others.

Kapoor, apart from being a faculty member at prestigious institutes, is a prolific writer and is the author of several books such as '27 Brand Practices', '24 Brand Mantras', 'Brand Serve', 'Brand Naamkaran', '18 Brand Astras', '9 Brand Shaastras' and 'Brand Switch'. He tells Aditya Chatterjee of agencyfaqs! about the current trends in marketing. Excerpts of the interview.

Edited Excerpts

Let me show you how... whenever a brand has to be built, you need to first define the Brand Asha which is a set of brand objectives. Thereafter, you need to develop Brand Shaastras, which are strategies to meet those objectives. Then, you need to develop Brand Astras which are weapons and modules to implement the Brand Shaastras and strategies. After that, you need to develop Brand Mantras, which are cumulative learnings over the years converted into tips. For example, one of my Brand Mantras is: Don’t sell the right product to the wrong audience.

I created Brand Shaastras, Brand Astras and Brand Mantras to help the corporate world as well as management students develop winning brands with the ingredients of conceptual clarity and practical experience. In fact, the Brand Shaastras are developed based on the Brand Asha, leading to implementation through Brand Astras, leading to learnings from Brand Mantras and finally through this Brand Shiksha achieving Brand Yash, which is success.

Incidentally, I was inspired by the names of my parents – Asha and Yash – to develop this process from Brand Asha to Brand Yash.

I will follow up my three books – 9 Brand Shaastras, 18 Brand Astras and 24 Brand Mantras – with three more – Brand Asha, Brand Yash and Brand Shiksha.

A number of executives and students tend to ask the same question. My answer is, whether you read my books or not, please read the consumer first. I suppose, my books have become best sellers, because they have conceptual clarity, they have practical experience, they are actionable. Plus, they are all in the Indian context with Indian examples which the reader can identify with.

Good examples will include the recent launch of Rejoice from P&G in my book '9 Brand Shaastras', or the sub segmentation of Fair & Lovely from HLL in the case of Fair & Lovely-Savli. Recent real life practical Indian examples is what appeals to readers because not only can the reader understand and be more informed, but she can develop and implement brand strategies for success as well.

In my opinion, there are 27 ingredients which go into brand building. Advertising is only an ingredient and should be used like salt in the right proportion. Other ingredients could include segmentation, product portfolio, or even customer service. Let me explain with a simple example.

When you prepare dal (pulses) at home, you put a fistful of pulses and a pinch of salt. However, if you reverse the proportions, no one will eat it. Similarly, while advertising is important and is, in fact, as important as salt because the final output will be insipid without it At the same time, an overuse of advertising could cause immense damage to the brand.

I think common sense plays an extremely vital role in brand building. I think, there are two types of elements in the ‘sense’ category. One is common sense, which essentially involves looking around, observing, noticing and feeling and behaving like a consumer yourself. The other sense category is being able to be ‘sensitive’ to happenings around you and be able to appreciate the nuances through consumer behaviour. Yes, common sense is extremely important in brand building.

Sampling, I believe, is able to bring about brand experience, and there are three types of sampling: The first type of sampling is ‘Why’, meaning ‘mental sampling. Then, there is ‘Try’, which means ‘physical sampling’ and the third type is ‘buy’, which means ‘financial sampling’.

Sampling is one of the most potent devices to generate trials and as long as your product or service is good, it could lead to wholesome repeats. Yes, sampling has stood the test of time but is unfortunately under utilised by marketers.

Many years ago, promotions would center around Dassera and Diwali. People would get their bonuses and then go and splurge specially in items like durables and jewellery and garments.

Today, all 365 days are days to celebrate because the purchasing power has gone up and consumers like to indulge and buy whenever things are needed. That's why the Diwali season promotion element has relatively faded.

There are different types of consumers. Some would stick to the need and use products on a functional basis. Others would stick to functional plus aspirational reasons for purchase and still others focus on purchase motion, only if there is a sales promotion. There is always a debate on which is the stronger 'motion' between emotion and promotion.

I believe the answer lies in segmentation. Certain segments of consumers would get tempted and lured through promotions, while others may continue to be attached to a brand through emotions. It is important to understand that promotions are also just one weapon to be used with clear objectives and in a judicious manner for the right segment.

Yes, it is possible that there could be a preponement of a durable purchase. But if the promotion reduces the brand image, then in the long run, the consumer may have post-purchase dissonance and may indulge in a ‘brand switch.” For example, Akai’s exchange offer generated initial enthusiasm, but in the long run, eroded the brand equity of Akai because of over promotion.

Consumers are obviously important, and insights about consumers are very important indeed. However, it entirely depends on companies and marketers whether they genuinely use consumer insights for product development, or simply paying a lip service to it.

In the case of refrigerators, air conditioners, TVs, computers, washing machines, dish washers, there have been some instances of consumer needs and insights being catered to. But frankly, there hasn't been too many such instances, despite the hype created. Consumer durable companies have a particular problem: While the category is of consumer durables, the marketing people are non-durable, and keep rotating from one company to another in the same category giving very little chance for a long term thinking on the brand.

A start has been made by the durable manufacturers to try to understand the rural consumers' needs and increase penetration. Of course, they are nowhere near the penetration achieved by FMCG companies. One reason is because the consumer durables manufacturers already have attractive urban markets and secondly, they are committing resources in a hesitant manner to the rural market with concerns about returns on their investments.

I feel the players should be as committed to the rural market as the urban market because the future growth will come from rural India. A simple thing like setting up service centers is neglected in many cases.

You are right. The Indian consumer is very discerning, very sensible and knows what she wants and looks for not just value but perceived value in brands. They understand that the cheapest is not necessarily the best and they also understand that the best is not always the most expensive.

Indian consumers are world-class. They want world-class products and services at different affordability segments. They aspire for perceived value, value being a balance between quality and price and perception being what appeals in terms of image. Therefore, perceived value is what consumers look for. So, even if imported goods are cheap, they may not be lured unless the brand has perceived value.

If they provide perceived value, they will be. If they don’t, they won't be successful.

I think that Maruti has made a swift pricing decision about its Swift. The decision reflects Maruti's confidence and the initial consumer response. The mother brand, Maruti, already has a great pedigree and this move would strengthen the consumers' belief in the quality, aspiration and value of the brand.