Thousands of entrepreneurs attempt to realize their dreams by
giving rise to new products every year. Take for example, the case of Startup Village,
a public – private technology incubator in Cochin (Kerala). Nearly 400 start-ups have been incubated so far since
its launch in April 2012. Thousands of companies, as many products as well as
brands are introduced in the now ‘one’ global market. It was around this
conversation, a friend of mine asked if there is indeed potential for everyone
to thrive. Only a fraction of them survive, I mentioned reading about it in a
business book. ‘What differentiates the successful,’ he posed.
Not that I am a marketing pundit but having heard this kind of
talk from the wise, I thought of responding to his question. In the age of
social media, when consumers tend to pry open businesses and its conduct, there
is absolutely no significance of products. Not that it did in the era before social
media. Back then, there was hope with marketers and technologists hoping
consumers would go through the technology adoption lifecycle. Most tech
marketers followed Geoffrey Moore’s bible – Crossing
the Chasm, when deploying their go-to-market strategy.
Social Media changed all that. Products are what a company makes but
it can be easily copied. This implies that what consumers buy isn’t a product
but a brand, an experience. More than ever, the brand has become a marketer’s
tool for creating product differentiation. More than ever, the brand has to see
consumers as an individual and deliver unique experience. The best example is Colgate. 'Brush
your teeth the Colgate way, every day,' ends the long copy from a 1939 print advertisement
for Colgate. And every day since then millions of Indians, young and old, have
used this oral-care brand in various forms, everything from powder to paste,
for generations. The question is how the brand ensures that it remains the
consumers first brand encounter of the day – everyday.
A cousin of mine who is a school teacher in Thalasserry, Kerala is a
regular user of Colgate toothpaste. She lives with her ailing mother, aged around
85, and doesn’t believe in elaborate shopping. She prefers the neighbourhood kirana
store where she dashes for instantaneous shopping. On one such occasion, when
she wanted to quickly grab two small tubes of the Colgate, the shopkeeper didn’t
have the same on stock. A large tube would be inconvenient to use for her
mother and so she went around asking for the smaller tube. To her dismay, it
wasn’t available anywhere in the neighbourhood. Disappointed, she decided to
hit social media to find out why her favourite brand wasn’t available in the
neighbourhood. She had forgotten about it until her sister called up and
informed that there was an executive from Colgate waiting for her. His visit not
only addressed her immediate needs (in two days) but also ensured a loyal
consumer for the company for life.
Beyond the product and a great brand experience at an individual
level – no wonder Colgate is the undisputed leader.
