How did you enter the world of marketing? What were the challenges that you faced?
Harshavardhan Gupta: Marketing is a field which gives one the opportunity to play with ideas. The love for new ideas, the chance to present and showcase them attracted me to the world of marketing.
India is a very unique market. It is both traditional and modern, rural and urban. The biggest challenge I have faced is trying to understand these intricacies and build a balance between them. Each brand of mine has to capture these varied markets. Each market has to be looked at with a different perspective and unique strategies have to be planned around each. So it’s both exciting and challenging as a marketer to think of ways to make the same brand a winner in two totally different markets.
What are the unique aspects of your marketing and branding strategy?
A good marketing strategy is one which uses both the traditional and the modern media. A good strategy is also one which has the ability to connect with both the rural and urban consumers as both these markets are equally important. I have realized it’s always important to present my brand using a higher visual appearance in urban India while a different strategy has to be used to connect with the rural consumers.
What according to you are the characteristics of a strong brand ? Your advice on how to build a strong brand?
A strong brand is one which understands the true sentiments of the market, the competition and the customer. It knows the pros and cons of its product and uses that knowledge to channelize the marketing and branding efforts in the right way.
In today’s world as I mentioned earlier you need to use a judicious mix of both the traditional and modern tools for brand building. It’s also important to realize that sitting inside the office cabin will not help you make a strong brand. You need to go out there and understand the ground realities and then reach out to the customer with a proper armory of media and marketing plans.
The customer of today is still loyal-not to the brand but to the point of purchase. Today he is loyal to Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, etc.
Has the age of the internet changed the way we build brands ?
It is a new age world. Yes to a certain extent the internet has changed the way we build brands. However the impact of the internet is limited to certain age groups and certain geographies. So not every brand can capitalize through it. In my point of view the internet works as a support system to the bandwagon of brand building tools. It’s biggest value add is its ability to provide knowledge about our brand, provide market feedback etc at the blink of an eye which was not possible earlier.
Has the internet changed consumers ? Has it made them more price sensitive, less loyal, more demanding ?
To a certain extent yes. It’s extremely easy to get information about a brand. It’s also much easier for consumers to compare brands and products which has influenced their buying behavior. They are definitely more price sensitive now with so many online players providing competitive prices at the click of a mouse.
The customer of today is still loyal – not to the brand but to the point of purchase. The customer for example is loyal to Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Big Bazaar, Reliance Fresh etc. It is only in the case of some unique and traditional brands that he is loyal to them irrespective of where they are sold from.
How challenging is it to build a brand in the very diverse Indian market place?
It is a very challenging task to build to a brand. Various mediums play different roles in creating challenges. Packaging, advertising, govt rules and regulations, taxations, activations, quality, comparison, taste etc. The list is endless. A brand can be on top one day and down the next day. A case in point is Maggi.
Today there is too much information, too much data coming from all sources making it complicated and challenging to meet all the demands of the customer and create a well focused plan.
Brands you admire and why ?
There are various brands which I admire. The first is Maggi. It has changed the taste of rural and urban India with a price bracket that has created happy customers everywhere. The strategy to reach every nook and corner is amazing.
The second brand I admire is Maruti. There is a saying in India that every family’s 1st car is most often a Maruti. That is the strong brand positioning of Maruti. It is one brand which has the flair that appeals to both urban and rural India. This is one brand which has been able to utilize every medium and every new technology in the right way and at the right time and has always managed to stay ahead of competition.
Complete the sentence “The future belongs to…”
The future belongs to Cocktail.
In today’s market place just banking on one marketing strategy is going to be dangerous. You need a variety of strategies, you need to use a variety of mediums to reach out to different consumers. Just believing in the old adage “Jo dikhta hai woh bikta hai” will not work any more.Because the customer understanding of product has reached to a different level now.
