Product Differentiation - Key to Marketing Today

chillibreeze writer — Jitesh Kundnani

I was watching The Mahabharata a couple of days ago and I could sense a unique identity in each of the characters that were part of this epic story. Each character was so engraved with a differentiated set of skills that it made for an absorbing exposition. From Bhim’s extraordinary power to Shakuni’s cunning tactics, each character’s development seemed a story in itself. The Mahabharata is perhaps one of the best examples of product differentiation in times when the markets are flooded with different products and companies are going all out marketing those products to the target audiences. With hundreds of ads selling everything from soaps and oils to health drinks and hair color, it all boils down to answer one crucial question: how can a product be differentiated from its competition. As the Indian economy keeps growing, the markets would surely reach a stage when the driving factor for sales would be customer value rather than product availability and range.

When Colgate Total was launched, it aimed at addressing the gap between gel- and white toothpastes. The combination of fresh breath as well as complete cleaning made Total a great success. Google launched Gmail to cater to the demand of Internet users who wanted to use their email and IM platform through a single window. The market today is in such stage that most of the core needs in almost every facet of human life have been identified. Companies are trying to create USPs (Unique Selling proposition) through a lot of innovation and ideas. Each company wants to outdo others by experimenting with quality, packaging, positioning or services. NDTV supplemented quality news, with a set of best news editors and journalist delivering the core product at its best - news. Anchor switches differentiated itself through better quality in the unorganized market while Cadbury concentrated on the positioning, changing the view of the Indians - replacing sweets with the chocolates and ran a tagline “kuch mitha ho jaye”. The fundamental messages that these examples send is pretty clear – differentiate and innovate to survive and sell

But it’s important to ensure that product differentiation stays meaningful and does not become simply a fad. Imagine if Domex comes out with a new flavor with some cleaning agent. It won’t create a product steer and increase sales over night, but a different value added product like Bang would surely do. When Coke was replaced with New Coke, sales went down horribly, setting one of the most disastrous examples of differentiation ever. Pepsi met with the same tragedy when it launched Blue Pepsi in India. It is equally important to understand the trend and know the feelings of the customers. The ultimate distinction would be the utility and the value that consumers take away from the product.

As I leave my house every morning, an ice cream parlor near my house in Ahmedabad advertises - “Chili Ice cream and Ice Cream Pakodas Available”. The place is always stuffed with people and one can always find a huge waiting list almost any time of the day. If Kotler would have visited the place, his reaction would be “Now that’s what I call product differentiation”!

Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in March, 2010. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.

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—About our writer:

Jitesh says, "I am an MBA in Marketing, working as a domestic sales manager with a food export company in Gujarat. I have been writing articles on social, educational and marketing issues. Currently am working as a freelancer with TOI - Rajkot plus edition. I love playing the guitar and run an institute called Budding Brains on weekdays to improve and ventilate children from the current education system."

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