WHO IS THE CONSUMER? (Part 1 of 4)

PART 1

Over the course of 15 years, working with over 800 brands, touching over  1 billion consumers in 25 + countries – we have come across countless briefs where our understanding of the consumer is nebulous at best. Last month – we went through 2 qualitative research reports for the same brand in the same market. The brief went on to describe the consumer as Male, 25-45, B1, B2, B3, C1, C2; seeks control and has a strong sense of family responsibility.

Huh?

Who is the consumer?

This broad classification of the consumer is totally inadequate – and more importantly (and frighteningly) misleading. It presupposes little change in traditional classifications when India is dramatically changing demographically, sociologically and culturally. The underlying construct of the society is shifting. Speeding this up are technology, media and communications, the fruits of liberalization and a great yearning at the societal level that is now a seeking to establish the ‘great Indian dream’.

We are in the midst of a dynamically evolving society and our fixed points of reference are being challenged every day.

As the largest Brand Strategy/ Brand Design firm in the country, we are leading the charge in redefining the consumers. The old definitions no longer apply.

The trouble with Demographics/ Psycho-graphics.

• Mercedes and BMW are expecting 30-35% sales to come from rural markets.
• The age of luxury products in markets such as India and China is lowered to 25-30, as against 45+ in western markets.
• Mont Blanc is the ultimate IT gift for son-in-laws of middle India.
• Gopal Vittal is amazed to see the ubiquitous presence of Dove in Dharavi.
• Vernacular India discovers spaghetti straps and showing skin is increasingly acceptable.
• First noodles and now pasta is set to take over the after school snack market.

Our neatly ordered world is changing. Rapidly. And our neatly ordered Socio Economic Classification, whether A, B, C, D or A1, A2, B1, B2 is utterly meaningless.

How do we understand the consumer? Knowing the consumer is the foundation for building robust, lasting brands. The most successful brands in the world are the ones that exactly resonates consumers’ innermost desires, motivations or values. For TATA that stands for Trust, it is equally necessary for their customers to WANT trust in a corruption ridden economy, for the brand to resonate. For the Angry Young Man to succeed, there needed a generation of movie goers who were fed up and angry with the system. For Barak Obama to be elected, he had to be as far from Bush as possible.

ALL SUCCESSFUL BRANDS RESONATE WITH THE CONSUMERS HEARLTFELT NEEDS AND DESIRES.

If the demographic understanding of the consumer is blurring, the psychographics was flawed to begin with. The fundamental flaw in research is that it pre-supposes an extraordinary level of self-awareness on part of consumers/ respondents. That if you ask a consumer what his/ her motivations or desires at the deepest level are – they will articulate them.

There is a possibility of unearthing these, or at least the pointers to these, in qualitative depth interviews. The skill, however, of the interviewer is required to be at par with good psycho-analysts. This seldom is the case. And so, what we get most often is drivel such as: SEC A&B, 25-45, Male. Traditional but aspires to a better life for his kids. Seeks control in his life. Role models are Amitabh Bacchan and Mukesh Ambani.

This is not actionable research. It tells us nothing about the consumer upon which one can construct successful brands.

Contributed by Alpana Parida, President - DY Works

PART 1: Conventional consumer segments are no longer valid
PART 2: Need for a new consumer classification method
PART 3: The importance of Culture for Brands

Making a habit of Visual Mind Mapping

We at DY Works pride ourselves on our design processes. Dharam Ullagadai (ACD - DY Works) had the opportunity to present some of these design techniques with our international design partner - JDK. Here's a quick look at their interaction.

For more information on Design Processes, feel free to contact us at DY Works -
Mumbai: +91 022 40406767, Delhi:-+91 011 26548089,
Website: www.dyworks.com, Email: contact@dyworks.in

DY Works @ London Design Festival 2011

DY Works at London Design Festival

View more presentations from DY Works

DY Works at Comic Con Mumbai 2011

DY Works at Comic Con 2011

Premium sachet collection in the techno world of Clear Shampoo

Brand Task:
To redesign sachets for Clear making it premium, contemporary and sleek, in line with the new bottle designs. The new bottle design apparently, is a clear winner as per the research for the global re-launch.
It has to be ensured that the sachets have a futuristic look and good shelf throw which is currently missing ,with respect to the bottle and design adaptation
Brand Solution:
DY Works suggested a clutter breaking square structure which would help the sachet position itself differently from the others in the category
DY Works used the mnemonic and the bands as per the bottles but gave it a distinct identity of its own which ensured the required impact without losing the brand architecture
The design was done ensuring that sachet was in line with the bottles in terms of appearance and perception being technologically advanced, up-market and sophisticated with a touch of elegance
The BOP was also developed with great precision and emphasis was on laying out all the content systematically The variants can be identified with the different colored mnemonic

Creating the Green Tea World For Taj

 Brand Task:
There is the new boom in the market for the Green Tea category .Wanting to captivate on the opportunity The Taj team wanted to come up with its own Green Tea range.
The brand wanted to create a space for itself in the lifestyle space rather than in the health zone. The Taj green needed a new fresh look but had to be well aligned to the existing Taj architecture.

Brand Solution:
DY Works studied the Green Tea category extensively to pick the right lifestyle cues which have been interpreted on the pack via the ingredient and origin shots which are the main design elements driving the pack.
The visuals used to connote the variants of green tea were very well thought through and articulated in terms of aesthetics and simple interpretation.
We designed the pack on the lines of the Taj architecture maintaining delicacy and finesses via the Taj motifs and visual imagery.
The pack has been designed with a lot of aesthetic and sophistication value while keeping it flexible for extension to other variants within the category in the future.
The BOP has a very elegant touch to it, by the motifs and other design essence and  maintaining the consistency with the FOP.

Power of 100 lemons lead to one clean swoosh

Brand Task:
A re-launch after 5 years for Vim bar by offering a strong consumer proposition of Faster Degreasing with the existing technology/formula.
Boost the product through more authoritative packaging graphics which communicate the proposition to the consumers

Brand Solution:
We revived the branding logo and extended the unit of single lime to a row of stacked limes, depicting the empowered impact of lime
The impactful swoosh further enforced by the power of lime portrayed through the strong rays of lime entering the vessel & acting as the most impactful degreasing ingredient.
The potent swoosh connoting the cleaning power of the brand in just one stroke with no efforts and consuming the least amount of time.
We have used  fresher and more vibrant greens (color) as compared to the current pack going under re-designing as the entire pack, right from visuals to color to text needs to be extremely obtrude and power driven.