Case Study Strtegic Marketing - Creating Brand Personality for Generation X

7/29/2019 Case Study Strtegic Marketing - Creating Brand Personality for Generation X

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The "Generation-X" keeps us marketerson our toes. They seem to be embracing change at such arapid speed that as soon as we get a whiff of a trend, they

have already moved on to the next! It is a challenge to get instep with the "youth" (though I don't think they callthemselves that) - but with 45 per cent of the country'spopulation estimated to be below age 19, its critical that welearn their lingo - and fast.In my experience, what works for capturing this segment is acomplete product design for Gen X. Be innovative - set thetrend itself by being creative instead of trying to figure outwhat's cool today - because by the time you have figured thatout, it may no longer be cool; be entertaining in yourcommunication strategy. I have found that bold humour (butnot risqu) works best with this target audience.There was a time, not so long ago, when a funky and colourfulad campaign with liberal dosages of "hinglish" was enough toclassify you as talking to the youth. But it worked when it wasa new thing. Today, it's hardly clutter breaking. There was alsoa time when a tie-up with MTV could do the trick for you. And

MTV still remains a good window to the teenager, but it alonecannot propel you into their world. Making your advertisingyoung and cool sounding has now become a hygiene factor -something that's a minimum requirement but certainly notenough. The bigger trick lies in conceiving special Gen-Xproducts that are in tune with their lifestyles. To truly create aGen-X brand personality, you must start from the drawingboard itself. Your product concept, design, features - all shouldbe tailored specifically to this target segment.

I will use as a case study, our experience with our scooterette"Kinetic Zing" - what we did to position it as a desirable two-


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wheeler for the 16-21 aged buyers. Our brand tracks showthat we have succeeded in this - with the brand personalitybeing captured as "youthful", "fun" and "aspirational".

The "scooterette" is a smaller and lighter sibling of the fullscooter. These are essentially urban vehicles, popular in minimetros and cities with large student populations. It wouldtypically be a student's first-ever vehicle that you acquire upon

passing from class X and entering junior college. You no longergo to school in a school bus. You go to college, to tuitions andactivities, to movies and parties with your friends. So you needyour own vehicle. It should be easy to ride and it should becool to be seen on it! Standard specifications are 65cc engine,electric-start and gearless transmission.This is the segment that we wanted to enter. Kinetic, ofcourse, has strong brand equity in gearless scooters - whichwe have pioneered. When we created the Zing, we never lost

sight of our target audience. The Zing was designed for theGen-X from the word go. The primary objective of Zing wasclearly defined as meeting the transportation needs of thecollege going teenager - whether a boy or a girl. It wasdesigned to be trendy looking with clean, sharp lines (carefullybalanced to avoid specifically feminine or masculine appeal - itincorporates cues of prettiness as well as aggressivenesswithout clear overtones of either); to be light and peppy inperformance (compact but not puny), priced at an easy-to-

convince-your-parents value price; and fuel efficient (55 Kmpl)to be pocket-money friendly. Even the brand name KineticZing was frozen after a lot of deliberation (other namesconsidered were Breeze, Tango, Viva). The colour paletteconsisted of an electric-blue, a passion-pink and a flaming-redin addition to the usual black and silver. (As an aside, thebrighter colours did not really take off; the Gen-X seems toprefer conservative blacks and silvers). Even our logo isspecially designed to have a youthful look.The Zing got off to a very good start in the market. We


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launched it in August 2002, and by March 2003, we hadcornered a cool 20 per cent market share.But we needed to do something special for the months ofApril- July - considered the most crucial from a sales point of

view as the "pre-college opening" turns large numbers ofteenagers into king customers. With this in mind, we created aspecial variant of the Zing called the Zing Rockin' Series. TheZing Rockin' Series was innovative - it offered a host of never-before features that were bang on target for the Gen X. It hadspecial attractive dual-tone colour schemes, and an under seatcharge point as well as holder for a mobile phone, an FM radioand a cola-can holder. Such features and innovations havenever been offered on a two-wheeler before, and it was

successful in attracting the Gen X - as they all have mobilephones now, and FM radio is a craze among them.Now that we had our custom designed Gen-X vehicle ready,the next step was to devise the marketing strategy for thesummer. I will share some of our research with you thathelped me to decide on the direction of the positioning.Our research has shown that the teenager, at a very broadlevel, can be classified into two types of mindsets - the style

seeker and the functionality seeker. The Style seeker is thecarefree bird who enjoys life with no strings attached, andseeks freedom of expression in all activities - whether byhimself or with friends. The functionality seeker sees himselfas a mature individual who enjoys life responsibly and weighspros-cons and trade offs concerned in all aspects. Forexample, the style seekers like their independence, and beingable to make their own rules. Their view on newfound collegelife is about having a good time with their friends. The

functionality seekers appreciate the lighter side as well asrealise the seriousness - they try to learn the value of time andmoney and to balance between fun and work. In theirpurchasing decisions, the Style seekers look for status and funfocusing on aesthetic and appeal enhancing aspects, while thefunctionality seekers look for value and utility, focusing onfunctionally beneficial aspects.Now the numbers. Among the youth, according to ourresearch, the style seekers vastly outnumber the functionality

seekers - 71 per cent to 29 per cent.So then, the job is to talk to the Style seekers. As long as your


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product delivers utility and is priced at a good value-for-money, the functionality seekers will go for it anyway - and ifit doesn't provide utility and VFM, then advertising is not goingto influence their rational buying process.

Coming to our target audience then, the Style seekers want apositive rub-off on his image by associating with a particularbrand. They talk about things like "my vehicle should lookstylish," "it should be in fashion today," "it should create animpression on others," "it should be popular," "it should benew and different," "it should make me feel proud" and so on.Based on this, we created a summer marketing campaign thatincluded a television campaign and a cool event/contest as agood way of creating some interactive buzz in the city and

driving traffic into dealerships. I find that television and eventsare the best platforms to talk to the youth. Press is not aseffective (perhaps they don't read newspapers at this age!)and I have found that contrary to popular perception, Internetis more effective for marketing to older executives thanteenagers.For the Zing Rockin', we conceptualised a contest the aroundthe product with give-aways of free movie tickets and parties

with a film star. We used Karishma Kapoor and MahimaChowdhary for this contest that ran across twelve cities over aspan of two months. We got thousands of participants in eachcentre, and the movie halls and discotheques we booked werefull.The next was the TV commercial. I believe that for thiscategory, humour and entertainment make a TV campaignsuccessful. I think that instead of sentimental, dreamy orsimply enjoyable advertising, a marketer should use bold,

provocative and clutter-busting creative concepts to get activescores. Conceptualise your communication to make sure itcreates an impact, rather than searching to establishemotional connect. After you've made your product active, youneed to make your communication active too.With its unique features, the Zing would completely repositionother scooterettes as has-beens. Instead of taking a classicbrand stand of saying we have these attributes, we decided tosay that no one else has such-and-such. The idea we used was

to create dissonance by saying 'Baaki sab ki hawa nikaal de".Then we took it literal - to mean that anyone without a Zing


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Rockin' will feel deflated. We blew up the 'hawa nikaal de'connotation, and this hugely helped the communication instanding out. When you actually show what it feels like whenkisi ki hawa nikal jaaye, the impact is that much more. And

we've managed that in this ad.If you've seen the ad, it was bold and funny, slightly over thetop but definitely entertaining. It made you laugh, and it reallystood out. And it worked.Some stills from the ad:So this is my recipe for creating a brand personality forGeneration X. Design your product for their needs andpreferences. Be innovative. And in your communication, beentertaining, humorous, bold and aspirational.

Questions to ponder>What are the indispensable constituents of an advertisingcampaign thats aimed at generation X?> If your product category is function-driven, what approachwill you take to appeal to the style-seeking generation X?>How will you use entertainment to design a creative for your

product?


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Brand Architecture

Did you know that FMCG giant Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) owns 110brands with 850 types of packing for its various products? When yo goin any ordinary kirana store or in a big super market, 8 out of 10

products you select will be HLLs products. An obvious question that willcome in your mind, How HLL has succeeded in building such strongbrands? How could they manage such diversed brands operating indifferent market context? When HLL started operating in India, thePrime importance was to create strong brands by developing clear,

insightful identities and brand building programs that makes an impacton the consumers mind. Not only HLL but virtually all firms havemultiple brands and they manage them as a team to work together andto help each other and to avoid getting in each others way. Brand

Architecture is the vehicle by which the brand team functions as a unitto create synergy, clarity and leverage. So if you think of each brand ofa company as a football player, Brand architecture assumes a coachsrole by placing each player at the right position and making themfunction as a team rather than a collection of players. So lets define

Brand Architecture and understand the concept with some examples.

Brand architecture is an organizing structure of brand portfolio thatspecifies the brand roles and relationship among the brands anddifferent product marketcontext.

It is mainly defined by the three major dimensions viz. Portfolio roles,Product market context roles and the Portfolio structure.

Brand portfolio: Brand architecture involves the management ofbrand portfolio. Brand portfolio includes all the types of brand viz.Brands and subbrands as well as co-brands with other firms.forex. The brand portfolio of Hindustan Lever Ltd. Consisting of 110brands with 950 of different types of packs which are operatingunder different market context like healthcare, personal care,breverages, etc. The decision parameters are should one or morebrands be added or deleted? A brand portfolio can be strengthenby the addition of brand keeping in view the portfolio perspective.Similarly brands can be deleted by identifying the superfluous

brands which are contributing nothing to the brand portfolio.whenPrudent toothpaste was launched by Parle, it was not able to


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create sifficient customer base in the oral care business so Parlehad dumped Prudent brand for its brand portfoilo management.

Portfolio roles: -For building effective brand architecture it is

necessary to identify the portfolio roles of each brand. It providesa tool to take more system view of the brand portfolio and includesa strategic brand, a linchpin brand, a silver bullet brands and acash cowbrand.

Strategic brands: A strategic brand or a megabrand is a currentlydominating brand that represents a meaningful future level of sales and

profit. For ex: Slate is a strategic brand for Levis, TATA consultancyservices (TCS) is a strategic brand of TATA group of cos. because thevision of the firm is to move beyond traditional steel and automobile

business.

Linchpin brands: A linchpin brand unlike strategic brand not necessarilyrepresents a meaningful future level of sales and profit but it is aleverage point of a major business area. It indirectly influences abusiness by providing a basis for customer loyalty. For ex. Park

Avenue, a brand extension of Raymonds launched in mid-eighties.It is

a linchpin brand for Raymonds because it has extended the Raymonsscredibility in different businesses from ready to- wear trousers to menstoileteries.

Silver bullet: A silver bullet is a brand or subbrand that positivelyinfluence the image of another brand.it can be a powerful force increating, changing and maintaining a brand image.for ex. When IBMThinkPad was launched it has provided a significant boast in publicperception of the IBM brand. Another ex. is the Positioning of ForhanssFiouride as having branded feature of being foamy rather than justprotect gums and teeth. It has served to make credible claim thatForhans had achieved another breakthrough in oral care industry.

Cash cow brand: Strategic, Linchpin and Silver bullet brands involvesinvestments and active management for fulfilling their strategic mission.The cash cow brands on contrast does not require any investmentbecause it has a significant loyal customer base. The role of a cash cowbrand is to generate marginal resources that can be invested in otherbrands, which will help for future growth and vitality of brand portfolio.

For ex; Nivea cream the core product of Nivea, a brand that has beenextended to variety of skin care and related products.


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Product market context roles: -For deciding effective brandarchitecture, the product market context roles of the group ofbrands must be well defined and coordinated. There are four stepsof product market context roles that work together to define a

specific offering and these are:

a) Endorser and subbrands roles: An endorser brand is an establishedbrand that provides credibility and substance to the offering. Endorserbrands usually represents organizations rather than products becauseorganizational associations such as

innovation, leadership and trust are particularly relevant in endorsementcontext for ex. Nestea and Nescafe create associations with its motherbrand Nestle and Mcchicken,

Mcburgers, Mctikki, etc. from Mcdonalds. Tata has 80 differentcompanies operating in seven business sectors, which are endorsedunder the megabrand TATA. The subbrands on the other handstretches endorser brands that add associations, a brand personality orany other quality which creates brand identity of it for ex. NestlesCerelac, Gillettes Sensor and Cadburys Bournvita. The understandingand use of endorser brand and subbrands is a key in achieving clarity,synergy and leverage in the brand portfolio.

b) Benefit brands: The benefit brand is a brand which offers eitherfeatures, component ingredients or services which becomes the uniqueselling proposition (USP) of offering. for ex. Gillette diversifieds oral Bhas a branded feature which shows the time to replace the toothbrush,Dietcoke, Dabur amla, and Neem & Margo soaps have brandedcomponent and gradient and American express, Life insurancecorporation (LIC) and Taj group of hotels have the branded servicesassociated with their names.

c) Co-Brands: Co- branding occurs when brands from differentorganizations combine to create an offering in which each plays a driverrole. The impact of cobranding can be greater than expected when theassociations of each brand are strong and complementary. A researchstudy of Kodak showed that for a fictional entertainment device 20% of

the prospect said that they would buy the product under the Kodakname and 20% would buy the device under Sony name, but 80% would


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buy the product if it carries both the names.other ex. Are TVS Suzuki,Colgate Palmolive and Dabon (joint venture between Dabur andBongrain international of France).

d) Driver role: Driver role is an extent to which a brand drives thepurchase decision and defines the use experience. brand with a driverrole will have some level of loyalty. Brand architecture involvesselecting the set of brands to be assigned a major driver role; thosebrands will have priority in brand building. A driver brand is usually amasterbrand or subbrands but endorser and second and third level subbrands can have some driver roles.for ex. Cadburys has two subbrandsDairymilk and Bournvita, which have the major driver roles for selling.

Another ex. Is Nirma tikia and Nirma washing powder, which isoperating in the market with value for money as its major driving role.

Brand portfolio structure: The brands in the portfolio have arelationship with each other. Brand architecture also involvesdesigning a structure of all the brands, which will provide clarity tothe customer rather than complexity and confusion. It mustprovide a sense of order, purpose and direction to theorganization. Three approaches can be utilized to present theportfolio structure.

Brand groupings: A brand grouping is a logical grouping of brands thathave meaningful characteristics in common. The groups provide logic tothe brand portfolio and help its growth overtime for ex. in case ofJohnson and Johnson Ltd.,the brand grouping can be made usingfollowing characteristics.

Segment( Infant Care and Intimate Feminine Care)

Product (Healthcare and Pharmaceuticles)

Design (Classic and Contemporary)

.

Brand hierarchy trees: Sometimes the brand portfolio structure can becaptured by brand hierarchy trees. The brand hierarchy tree structurelooks like an organization chart with both horizontal and verticaldimensions. The horizontal dimensions reflect the subbrands andendorsed brands that reside under a brand umbrella. The vertical

dimension captures the number of brands and subbrands that areneeded for different segments of the market. For ex. Colgate, the


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hierarchy tree for the Colgate oral care shows that Colgate namecovers toothpaste, toothbrush, dental floss and other oral hygiene

products. Again under toothbrush it has brands like plus, precision,classic, youth and colour change. Under Colgate plus toothbrush it has

brands like diamond head and "the wild ones". The brand hierarchy treepresentation provides perspective to help evaluate the brandarchitecture. A successful brand architecture makes a range of offeringsboth to the customers and to those inside the organisation. Having alogical hierarchy structure among subbrands helps generate the clarity.

Brand range: Brand architecture also involves deciding the range ofportfolio brands. It throws light on the some issues like how far a brand

(Megabrand or subbrand) should be stretched horizontally in the brandhierarchy tree? How far should they be stretched vertically in to thedifferent markets? The brand range can be described for each brand inthe portfolio that spans product classes or has the potential to do so.The above issues must be analyzed by organizations by distinguishingbetween the brands in its role as an endorser and master brand andrecognize that subbrands and co- brands can play a key role inleveraging brands.

So in nutshell, for any firm the objectives behind designing andmaintaining an efective brand architecture are:

Create effective and powerful brands.

Understand the portfolio roles of each brand (strategic, silverbullet,linchpin and cashcow) and allocate the brand building resources in thatmanner.

Create synergy between brands by enhancing visibility, creating and

reinforcing associations and cost efficiencies.

Advance clarity of product offering to the customers and organization.

Leveraging the brand equity by proper brand and line extensionsexercise.

Provide a platform for future growth option to the organisation.

By Santosh S. Bhavsar of J.B.I.M.S.


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Case Study Strtegic Marketing - Creating Brand Personality for Generation X

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