It is time retailers and regional FMCG brands looked beyond TV spots!

Since the topic touches and will touch raw chords and nerves let me at the outset categorically state that the views are those of a seasoned communicator looking at the current scenario dispassionately.

Being a not so regular TV watcher and my mother tongue being Tamil end up watching commercial TV in Tamil mostly in the evening prime time slot. Over the past few years have consistently noticed that big retailers (guess there are tens of them out of Chennai and elsewhere) and most regional FMCG brands almost entirely depend on TV commercials for their sales or marketing or communication with customers. It also dawned on me that festive season after festive season, collection after collection, product after product, this formula remained largely untouched.Get a hummable tune, hire some pleasant and known faces (mostly actresses of the small and the big screen), get a film maker to do a slick execution and run it non stop across leading TV channels on prime time and hey presto it is a success. To the credit of this approach it must be said that it ends up attracting attention and the thronging crowds (the rare few times have been to TNagar) are proof that it works. However as a seasoned communicator this has often stuck me as contrary to fundamentals of markets and consumers. In that markets and consumers are complex and there can be no eternal surefire ways to success in the marketplace. Then I started noticing the chinks and small as they are I felt it is matter of time before they blow up to be significant forcing a change in thinking and approach. Hard and painful though it will be.

Last September went looking for a specific mobile handset at the biggest of these retailers in T Nagar housed in a mammoth multi-storied building and buzz with milling crowds. They were supposed to have lowest prices and the best range. Not only was the model not available the sales counter person made no effort to understand my need and suggest me an alternative. The manner was a put off and that was not to be the end. Did pick up a few little things for my children and as I went up to pay the bill it was not only cumbersome but chaotic as well. And then as I made my way to the lift realized it was overcrowded and one needs to wait. Also, it stuck me that there was no attempt to know or understand “me” the consumer even though there is a logic considering the crowds and wafer thin margins of the model. The big retailer in question had another older building outlet on Ranganathan Street and the experience when I had shopped there 4 yars back was no different. Only this time the building was new, was more glitzy and the range had increased. That night as I walked out of the shop, was categorical will never ever step in again. Being a marketing person it set me thinking. Probably I was not the target audience they were focused on and the loyal customer base is fine with these things etc. It seemed to me that many of these retailers think it is enough to build these bulky shops, advertise heavily and keep the prices cheap and customers will keep coming. Customer experience, convenience and engagement being dispensable. But as we all know globally all it takes is for the sands of market and consumer behaviour to shift for such supposedly foolproof business models to run into trouble. The last strain was when I heard many of my friends in Chennai tell me that they mostly don’t go to such shops except few times and the low price also meant low quality.

Let me now move to regional FMCG brands (with some notable exceptions) where I see a similar approach. Most of them are all focused on creating great commercials with catchy jingles again with the same formula of known and pleasant faces. If not stars then it needs to be cute looking children. Very little attempt to categorize and engage the consumer. And worse, little thought to building a strong characteristic to be associated with the brand which needs consistency and a certain kind of rigorousness. Again here most of them are doing well and consumers are not seemingly minding it as many of these brands are selling. The trouble again as I pointed out above in the case of retail stores is that things could change albeit drastic.

Another factor that I found (though not supported by hardcore market research) is that if one were to take a timeframe of 10 years and place all these brands onto it and see how many lived through and grew, chances are there will be very few. Business success in the FMCG marketplace is also about longevity since that allows some residual brand awareness and loyalty which can be nurtured and extended or expanded as the plans demand. In which case many of these brands then lived and then faded away by the TV spots. The sad irony is that many a time, the consumers remember the commercial but the brand itself does not exist anymore.

The danger in both the cases is not just of future challenges and market shifts. It is of complacency that sets in because of a tried and tested formula that seems to work. The logic is not arguing against the sheer reach of regional TV channels in South which on festive days reaches a high and thus provides a majority of the potential consumers on a platter. It is asking for brands and retailers to think out of the box (literally) or what they do with the masses regional channels deliver. Here are a few thoughts from my side:

- Try direct customer outreach activities that allow them to understand the consumer even more besides allowing for quality
engagement with the brand
- Let the advertising take a different tack like “Sakthi” masala does in positioning itself as a socially conscious brand
- In shop increase ways and means through which a consumer is understood and engaged bit more
- If they have multiple stores, they can look at certain areas within the outlets to be targeted at a different segment of a consumer (obviously they cannot hope to be end to end but a segment consisting of consumers at the fringe)

In seeking the answers and trying out such and more initiatives, I feel lies a new journey for many of these brands and retailers which will not only take them newer places but allow them to know who their consumers are even better and thus engage them effectively. It will also lead to better product development and innovation which will spur a cycle that is known to be more long lasting. Here is to a life beyond TV spots for retailers and regional FMCG brands.

(Xavier Prabhu is Director & CEO of a customized communication solutions firm. He can be reached at xavier@prhub.com)