Treating Consumers as Individuals; why Colgate Remains the Preferred Brand

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.      

Conversation is the New Advertising

Popular social media sites Facebook and Twitter enable aggregation of related conversations. Example, favorite television shows to sporting events to the latest news. One who wishes to amass data on couch potatos can now do it effortlessly. For marketers, destinations like Facebook and Twitter are gold mines with specific details - how many people on Facebook or twitter talked about a particular subject, where exactly is the buzz, popularity among males or females, and age groups – all available in a jiffy. 

I was privy to a quick but slightly lengthy conversation about the best calling cards outside India. While several of them narrated their ordeal after using a particular brand while traveling abroad, some of them passed on suggestions of other brands adding their wonderful experience having used it. For marketers, it will help if they keep in mind that such conversations can be easily recalled these days by potential customers who increasingly rely on user reviews. An airline’s alleged fascist approach to some of its select passengers; ill-treatment of guests by a renowned hotel are conversations that are unbridled in the social media. Can marketers intervene and protect or promote their brand? Yes, of course. Having complained about a new Nokia smartphone that I had bought on social media, the company’s social media custodian quickly reached out to me to resolve the issue. The immediate response put me to ease and reinforced my trust in the brand. 

According to Nielsen’s 2012 State of the Media Report, 1 in 3 social media users now prefer to contact brands using social media rather than the phone. In this increasingly transparent world, businesses would do well if they lower their center of gravity to the digital realm. And, embrace a culture that encourages continuous engagement of customers and employees rather than a one-way communication. Forward looking businesses have a top-down approach to this. In an article that appeared in Forbes, CEO of Weber Shandwick had this to say. “To give you a sense of how valued a social CEO is, our global study found that 76 percent of executives think that it is a good idea for their CEOs to be social. Among their reasons for favoring their CEO’s social participation is how it reflects internally – 52 percent feel inspired by their CEO’s sociability. Looking externally, 69 percent say that it enhances the company’s market credibility. And in general, social CEOs are much more likely to be seen as good communicators than unsocial CEOs – 55 percent vs. 38 percent, respectively.”  

Four Tenets of Social Media – Creed, Seed, Deed and Indeed

Recently a CEO was seen with a new update on LinkedIn. He had updated his skills; some technical areas mentioned for members to be aware. Not that it is a grave error. From an external stakeholders perspective, it raises a simple yet niggling concern. Why is the leader of the organization updating his profile with new skill set? Shouldn't he be focusing on factors that would drive growth for the organization?  Leaders are traditionally conditioned to walk and talk about internal as well as external factors that would influence growth - of the people and the organization. From that perspective, is it good to be positioning self above the organization?

Roy, a friend of mine who is a digital native elucidated one of the best ways to be effective in social media. He likened this now ubiquitous platform to an offline CXO conference. He also armed me with a framework to be used in the new media; created with knowledge gleaned from observing CXO interactions during conferences.

Creed - this stands for 'who you are?' In a conference, you tend to have a brief description of yourself. Generally, it's short and sweet. You shake hands with one or two other leaders and tell them who you are, ie, which company, designation, areas of business (of the company). 

Seed - while you go around, you meet someone who is inquisitive about your business. There again, a well prepared leader will have a standard response. 'What you do' as a business by emphasizing on competitive differentiators, spelt out in 2 minutes will work well. What you do (your company) in max three lines should interest your peers in an event or on social media.

Deed - In a recent event, one of the leaders was heard saying - 'yes, I too went to the same college. I was a 'ctxt' scholar batch student.' There are times when you have to stand tall or differentiate yourself. That's when it is important to throw some accomplishments worth mentioning. It is important to ensure that what you are referring to is indeed a differentiator. Not to mention, authentic.

Indeed - In these days of continuous monitoring, what others say about you matters more than what you say or write about yourself. That's why calling out industry reports about leadership or peer reviews and recommendations matter. "We have been in India for only about two years, yet, you will recall top analysts ranking us as the fastest growing in the field,” relayed the leader of a young organization. 

There should be a purpose behind what we communicate. The tenets above will guide in creating messages effectively depending on the purpose and target audience.

 

The Science of Social Media

It was late in the evening when Mathew McCoy was going through his Facebook updates. As usual, he only took a fleeting glance at the updates and was about to log out when something struck him. It was the name of his start-up and a stream of comments about its services. The comments were constructive, he thought, as many in the network commented on their wonderful experience as well as areas of improvement. For McCoy, this was a highly credible channel and that too at low cost. An hour later, as he logged out, he was determined to continuously leverage the network and its member’s comments to the hilt. 

Business leaders and marketers, across the world, unequivocally agree about the inevitable focus they have to maintain on social networks as well as its power in generating and leveraging deep customer insights. According to a recent IBM study, ‘the customer activated enterprise,’ nearly seven in ten CxOs recognize the new imperative — a shift to social and digital interaction. Over half expect to meet an even more difficult demand: understanding and engaging the customer as an individual rather than as a category or market segment.

As McCoy hit the bed that night, several questions flashed across his mind. Who are these members? What could be their motivation? How can the company identify and engage them on an ongoing basis? Can their experience influence the others?  If yes, how can the company capitalize on the same?

According to Jonah Berger, author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On, there are six drivers for people to talk about a specific brand/product on the networks. The drivers are social currency, triggers, emotions, public, practical value, and stories. He further elucidates on the drivers. Social currency is the idea that people are more likely to talk about something the better and smarter it makes them look, and the more special it makes them feel. Triggers are why peanut butter makes us think of jelly—linking products and ideas to cues in the environment increases word of mouth. The more you can get people fired up, excited, or even feeling negative about something, the more likely they’ll be to pass it on: That’s emotion. Public refers to the idea that by making behavior more observable, so that it can be imitated, you make it more likely that your idea will catch on. When something has practical value—when it is useful—people share it with others to help them. And finally, stories enable you to wrap your product or idea in a narrative that carries your brand along for the ride.

Now, the next question. How can companies identify and engage them? IBM Research announced a product called Vibes that helps in narrowing down the target to 'Like-Minded Communities'. These communities are found by analyzing social interaction amongst digital natives (e.g., being connected on social networks like Facebook, twitter, etc, or calling each other) as well as the purchase history of the digital natives, together. Such communities have a unique characteristic with members being socially well-connected and having similar tastes. And, hence provide marketers with an alternative to the traditional micro-segments, with the added power of strong social interaction amongst the members.

For marketers keen on keeping a continuous tab on their brand, there is the power of Google to leverage. According to an article published in Forbes by Nate Elliot from Forrester, Google tracks what 800 million YouTube visitors watch and what they like; it also sees the most important social connections of its nearly 500 million Gmail users and tracks what they share. And crucially, the Google search index includes almost every review posted on any site online; the contents of billions of blog posts; and nearly everything posted on Twitter.

In its CEO study carried out in 2004, IBM had found that leaders ranked their own customers sixth on the list of all market factors they believed would drive the most change in their organizations. Today, digitally enfranchised and empowered customers lead the agenda for every CxO profession. Forward looking leaders are known to actively encourage customers and citizens to influence the decisions they make. Are you?

Giving Is Not For Adults

'You know what we got for Akshay's birthday?' asked my daughter to her brother while walking home from the day care. She was holding a chocolate cake. 'Don't worry, we will share it once home, ok?' she reassured as he stared at the chocolate-oozing cake. I was mightily impressed hearing this from the four year old. It occurred to me then that this was a result of my wife repeatedly emphasizing the need for them to share with each other whatever they received. All parents do. 

That was two years back.

After my recent Facebook post on 'giving,' I quickly checked with people around me about 'giving' and how, what, and when they would. All I got was diplomatic responses. Most said it depends on the situation. It is apparent. As adults, we tend to overlook what others would want, expect or like. We get conditioned into carrying out what we want. After all, we want to let others know how ambitious we are and so we'd rather focus on how fast we can climb the ladder of success. And, the thought of giving gets relegated - for another time - when we have enough time.

I came across 'the power of giving,' where the authors had this to say : Souls are like athletes who need opponents worthy of them if they are to be tried and extended and pushed to the full use of their powers. That’s an insightful analogy, for just as your muscles weaken without physical exercise, so does your soul weaken without its special kinds of exercise. A great exercise for your soul is the practice of giving. As with physical exercise, the more you do it, the easier it is, and the stronger you will become. Can we exercise our souls?

End of Programmers

The advances in technology witnessed exodus of unimaginable number of workers, especially amongst renowned automotive manufacturers. That was couple of decades ago. And, when the industrial age workers paved way for the emergence of knowledge workers, the job losses and sufferings of those deprived of work were relegated to the annals of business history with the stamp of unskilled workers. And, of course the subsequent progress in computing and widespread automation ensured continuous focus on companies in the realm of technology.

Sometime during this phase saw the emergence of India as a knowledge factory, essentially a coding hub for the world. Blue-chip companies, Indian as well as foreign, established base in India to leverage cost arbitrage, which was set as a differentiator by early movers. Young engineers and graduates with no inclination to coding could find high-paying jobs as the industry matured. No one was bothered about the growing similarity of the Indian IT industry to the famed auto industry in the west that let go off thousands of workers.

A recent report in Economic Times could perhaps awaken the thousands of software engineers from their comfort zone. It is obvious. Many in India would soon be rendered jobless.  Anyone who has been watching the transformation in the travel industry would note the rapid changes owing to the burgeoning online travel portals. It was just an indication that automation and software can change our lives. It is also an indication that technology can replace people. There are two key factors that would prove to be a death knell for the once in vogue Indian programmers. One is the rapid technological change we are witnessing everyday over the last couple of years, which is forcing businesses to rethink and re-engineer their business and operating models. Secondly, the advancement in technologies is also forcing businesses to realize more value from their workers. In other words, there is now increased focus on improving productivity more than ever. Time for programmers to ask - What can I do, right now that would be the most powerful use of this moment?