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Coming of Age of Branded Merchandising in India
In a land where blatant display of wealth is largely frowned upon, most Indians today manage to appease their desire to get noticed through the subtle use of branded products. The last decade has seen a tremendous change in the psyche of the Indian consumer who has come a long way from driving a hard bargain to stretching the wallet for a product with more value. The mantra today increasingly seems to be ‘you are what you buy’! Just a quick look at an overloaded shopping cart at a Big Bazaar outlet reveals a lot about the buying patterns of the great Indian middle-class. In this shopping mount, you will find Ashirwad Atta, Tata Salt, Pril dishwashing liquid in perfect harmony with Ben 10 tees, Mickey Mouse sandwich boxes, and Barbie sippers. Gone are the clear plastic packs of wheat, lentils, sugar and spices as also the basic lunch boxes and canteens with generic flower and animal stickers. This embracing of branded products at the commodity level in everyday lives is not an overnight phenomenon. It has taken years of effort, endurance and large dollops of faith to create the much-coveted shelf space and then follow the long-winding journey of the shopping trolley into the end-users’ homes. Here’s some perspective on what has chiefly caused this slow and steady shift: 1. Brand lovers: Indians have always loved their brands. It’s like a well-guarded secret held close to their hearts at all times. Ask your parents, and their parents and they will tell you a thing or two about Rolex watches or Brylcreem hair product, or a National Panasonic Colour Television set, and what it meant to posses one in their day. What has changed over time is the way Indians interact with a brand – their perception, their awareness of and access to the brand and its competitors, and their ability to make an informed choice between brands. But most of all, what has markedly changed is their confidence in usage, in the ability to easily ‘carry it off’. Yes, the art of looking subtly cool is one that takes practice and Indians have definitely arrived. 2. The price-value equation: Indians are notorious for their bargaining habits. Jokes abound on how Indians haggle on prices at international departmental stores to the chagrin of the hapless store assistant. They seem to be born with an in-built, emotional price-calculator which throws up a price quote based on benefits, extended usage, appreciation, uniqueness and recognition that the product gives. It’s a deal if the printed price of the product is somewhere close or preferably below this quote. So, it is little wonder that the branding of commodity products took so long to settle into this psyche. There is no justification in spending more on a pack of Tata salt if the regular salt works fine, right? Or is there? It is this tipping point that is crucial from a marketer’s point of view – the ability to convincingly show a benefit that far exceeds its usage. So, if Sony is able to convince you that when your guests see a Sony LCD television set on your living room wall, it is a reflection of who you are – quality conscious, discerning and able to afford something a little pricier – then you will cough up a few more notes from your wallet, even though you will be watching the same reality shows on it as any other TV owner. 3. Family matters: The typical Indian joint family is slowly but surely breaking down. Nuclear families to lesser kids in a family to double family income are not just urban phenomena, but are snapshots of what rapidly urbanizing India is beginning to look like. Apart from creating more wealth and disposable income per household, this has subtly altered the psychological make-up of the family members. Both parents working means less time spent with the children. This leads the ‘guilty’ parents to over-compensate for their absence by pandering to almost all the child’s demands. The child too is much more informed and aware of the choices available, sometimes more than his/her parents, and so plays a significant role in the purchase decisions of the family, not just for children’s products like biscuits and snacks and health drinks but also for house paints, refrigerators, phones, laptops, and even cars. Count the number of TV commercials without kids in them, and you will know how little say you have! This gradual acceptance of brand names and the comfort in flaunting could very well have its humble beginnings in nagging, or in modern day parlance, ‘pester power’. Somewhere down the years, kids have picked up the fine art of negotiation and started fine tuning their demands from generic products to specific brand choices. An impressionable target, this group fast became the target market for most brands to get that foot in the door into millions of households. Based on this, several children’s brands started setting up shop and stepping up their marketing activities to reach out to their target market. Gini & Jony, Ruff, BSA and a few others realized the need to focus on kids’ needs and come up with specific products and product categories for kids way back in the late eighties. Here was a potential market of nearly $3 billion in just apparels and accessories, waiting to be tapped. Soon after, television channels like Cartoon Network and Disney joined the bandwagon, with a wide range of products - from health and hygiene to apparels and accessories to study and hobby materials to electronics. Brands like Horlicks, Zapp!, Nestle, Cadbury’s, Camlin, Perfetti, Crayola and many others joined the kiddy party more actively through aggressive marketing, school contact programs, entertainment road shows and visibility at large-scale high-profile children’s events like awards functions, competitions and reality TV shows. Today, international brands like Benetton Kids, Monnalisa and Hamleys are all busy tapping into these little heads to turn ideas into products while setting up or expanding their business in India. With the advent of international giants in the kid’s space, it was easier to change the shopping habits of the parents, who were already leaving behind the smaller family street shops and moving towards branded shops for toys and kid’s apparels. The initial price resistance was already diluted since parents were spending a little bit more on their kids. Premium brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Reid & Taylor, Pierre Cardin, Swatch, Ray-Ban, and Esprit made the Indian customer re-think their wardrobes and their homes and spend that wee bit extra for the promise of additional perceived value. Slowly but surely, one’s desire to be seen and heard became part and parcel of the adult’s shopping behaviour, resulting in adults experimenting with established and new-age brands in all kinds of products in their everyday lives. Branded merchandise has now truly come of age with around 25-30 premium and luxury brands planning to open their pearly gates in the country every year with the promise of a new hip and comfortably fashionable lifestyle to the global citizens of India.
Editor's note: Most articles submitted to Chillibreeze go through a selection process. Only 30 percent of submitted articles are accepted for publication on the Chillibreeze.com featured article list. All accepted articles are edited and proofread for glaring errors of punctuation and grammar. Sentence structure is changed in certain cases and sometimes, entire sections are rewritten. If you notice any errors that have slipped through the cracks, do let us know! (Email us at info at chillibreeze dot com). Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in October, 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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