Content Dissemination

A couple of days back, I overheard the lady next door (who by the way sounds like a cow) dishing out an extremely generous and angry piece of her mind to the local provisional stores guy for a wrong delivery which obviously happened by mistake. And for the sake of humanity i thought either that guy should have been deaf or the lady should have been dumb. But post sticking my ear to the door for a good 15 minutes, i had an epiphany, a so called divine intervention. I realized that aunties like the one next door or for that matter my mom, would rarely fall for the expertly drafted ‘communication messages’ sent out by the corporate departmental stores of the likes of Big Bazaars or the D-Marts setup to meet all our needs.

No doubt these ladies would not miss an opportunity to shop owing to the extravagant and the exhaustive range of products offered at such places but that would be with same appeal & zest that we would have when we go for lunch in a 5-star restaurant knowing that such occasions are a one of, so bring it on!! The Big Bazaars and D-Marts of the world and all those planning to take the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) sector to a corporate level would need a lot more than slashing their prices and creative slogans to make the traditional Indian housewives their daily consumers which would actually be extremely profitable.

A business wave in the late 90′s made us aware of the concept of globalization – the Coke & Pepsi’s, pizzas & burgers, the multiplexes & malls etc. Post that, every time i walked into my neighboring salon for a haircut, the uncle reminded me that he ain’t a ‘hajam’ but a ‘hairdresser’. With my neck and hair on the line, i did meekly agree with him, after all nobody disagrees with the man who has a blade and your neck to experiment!!! But what i did realize is that the trends and lingos change but the efficiency of with which the service is delivered remains the same, he still cuts my hair and gives me a massage with the same enthusiasm with which Zakhir Hussain plays his tabla in the ‘Wah Taj’ ad.

After a consistent level of pondering, my question is, “Is India ready for globalisation in the smaller sectors?”. The answer would be yes and no. Yes for those in metros and for those belonging to the ‘yo’ generation, but for a country of villages and elders with a mindset stronger that Tyson’s punch, it would sadly be a big no. A popular ideology is to sell what your consumer wants, and what the consumer wants here is personal attention. Of course, its tedious and the strategy is penetration rather than skimming – but boss! skimming would only give you malai, and penetration would be doodh + malai, yaani ki poora profit!!

We keep hearing about consumer connect, one to one messages but then are we getting through? A small example would be – In a small city, a newly opened departmental store, in a bid to gain goodwill, charted an attractive offer – with every 1kg rice get 1/2 kg sugar free..excellent business plan??? Well the plan back fired when half of the city turned up to avail the offer. In the next 2 hours the store ran out of sugar, and red faced store manager had to tender an apology which nearly killed the store’s business for the next 2 months, since almost everyone who didn’t get the sugar felt cheated. In short these corporate ventures should stick to the baniya philosophy of “tolo fir bolo”… weigh before you talk!

Communication strategy for people who have the money to buy but no willingness to experiment has to be drafted very carefully. After all you are dealing with people who call their milk man and their local shopkeeper to their son’s wedding because that’s how personal the relationship is! All the offers and the schemes would be helpful only if the corporates can connect to these consumers on a personal level and to do that, they need to start from the grassroots…door to door campaigning and free samples are more likely to work than not! Of course there can be the arrogant counter argument that we are targeting the younger generation, but my friends with the products that you mean to sell, your target group is kinda wrong. In most of the cases the younger generation will come into play while choosing a new car but when its comes to fmcg or domestic goods it’s usually a ball game for the elderly.

Considering all the advantages given by the new age stores, it shouldn’t be hard to engage and retain customers once they enter but the question here is to make the customers come to you and that can be a tough nut to crack. The hearing that my local baniya gets from my mom when the eggs are a tad bit smaller than the normal size would make him feel that its his and not the hen’s fault!!! But he does what he does the best, charge us for 10 eggs instead of 12, curse the hen and do all this with a lavish smile…that is hard to compete with, ain’t it?

We live in the age where towns are rapidly transforming into cities and the standard of living is being judged by one’s proximity to malls, multiplexes, food courts and other such amenities that encourage a superior lifestyle. But in all what we are forgetting is that we are remodeling a place not the minds of the people living there. If that needs to be done, the trick is to think local & communicate local. Because if the present is based on the future and the future is to accommodate the present, we conveniently forget the existence of the past and don’t forget every one listens to Mummy and Papa!!!

Personally speaking, change is good, change for the better is excellent but the change also has to be amicable. The positioning and strategies has to be appealing & more importantly the change should be for everyone. So keeping it simple – target the uncles & aunties/saas to get the younger lot, “Kyonki… Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi!! “