Rotarians learn all about brand building
Dr. Parag Ajagaonkar
Dr. Parag Ajagaonkar is an Associate Professor at Mithibai College and visiting faculty at Ramnarain Ruia College. Associated with Mithibai for 22 years, Dr. Ajagaonkar has a Ph.D in Advertising, an MBA in Marketing, an MPhil in Industry and Labour and a M.Com in Accountancy.
He is also a Ph.D guide for students of Commerce at the University of Mumbai. An expert on Marketing, Advertising, Branding and Business Development, Dr. Ajagaonkar has authored and co-authored 42 books and also works as a brand consultant. He has published 13 research papers in various National and International conferences and has had the privilege and honour of chairing some of these conferences. A member of the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture (MACCIA) and the Bombay Management Association, Dr. Ajagaonkar has delivered a lecture on branding to the members of the apex commerce chamber in the state.
2015-06-16The_Gateway_JUNE_16_-_22Dr. Ajagaonkar thanked the Club for giving him the chance to interact with them. He began by explaining what brand consulting essentially means. He said, “Ten years ago, when I used to introduce myself as a brand consultant, people used to ask me what it meant and what exactly is it that I do for a living. Over the years, the questions have stopped. I recently met someone who is an image consultant and I told him that he and I were in the same profession. When asked what a brand is, I say everything is a brand; not just products, but people, places and services. An idea can also be a brand, such as Swachh Bharat. Anything and everything can be branded today.
“A lot of Indian brands are valued at a lot less than their American counterparts and when I studied this anomaly, I came to the realisation that brands such as Tata and Reliance, despite being among the biggest companies in India, are undervalued globally because they are India-centric. Brands such as Bajaj and SBI are advertised in an Indian-centric way and hence remain at a national level in terms of growth. Whatever be the advertising approach, Indian brands have a long way to go.”
He then explained the concept of branding. He said, “Branding is the art of differentiating a particular brand from that of its competitor’s. You have to identify a benefit that helps in differentiating your brand from the others. There are various steps that every marketer has to follow to ensure that the brand becomes a global name. The first is to determine what you are branding — you have to be very clear whether you are branding a product or a service. It is easy to brand a product but branding a service needs physical evidence, the people providing it and the processes involved. For instance, when you go to a bank to open an account, the process should be such that the customer, at no point of time, faces any difficulty.
“The second step is to undertake research. The research has to be consumer-oriented in order to identity the audience. If you are to do brand research for a girl’s scooter brand, you have to first identify towards whom your promotional activities and advertising should be directed — the girl’s father, who is the decision-maker and going to pay for it; the son, who may provide him with the technical expertise for it, or the daughter who is going to be the ultimate user of the product. It is not that easy because the competition is so intense; you can never really know who your audience is.”
He then discussed market research and brand extensions. “Eighty per cent of new products introduced in the market today are extensions of existing brands. It takes five times more work to come up with a new product, which is why companies opt to introduce new products under the same brand. But, it has a flipside. You must have all heard about the Maggi noodles controversy. The sales of Maggi soups and other products associated with the brand name have also suffered because of the noodles. This is a risk companies have to bear in mind.
“A popular saying in our industry is that products are created in the factory, but brands are created in the minds of the people. If you want your brand to reside in the mind of the consumer, you have to find a space that is not occupied by the current offerings in the market, create a unique product image and stick to it. The best example that comes to my mind is Johnson & Johnson; when we think of baby products, we think of Johnson’s. It is an example of excellent branding,” he said.
Dr. Ajagaonkar moved on to explain brand associations and how brands benefit from it. He said, “Brand associations help in creating immediate awareness for your brand. Associations with celebrities are a huge deal in India. Associations with countries, technology, and people can help you create that differentiation in the minds of the consumers. There is a product called Hanuman Chalisa Yantra. When I ask you who the consumer for this type of a product is, you will not think of educated men and women or teenagers. It is important that the personality of the brand matches the personality of the target consumer. You have to create that niche in your segment after studying the demographics carefully. For example, the brand positioning in advertisements for Dairy Milk has changed drastically over the years, based on the nature of families, purchasing power and a shift in decision-making within a family. From advertisements that depicted a father bringing home Dairy Milk for his children, today it is teenagers sharing a bar of chocolate. Advertisements focus on more than one person or profession. The positioning of Dairy Milk is such that when one thinks of chocolate, one thinks of Cadbury. However, the brand must never become too generic like Xerox because it does not end up benefiting from it.
“The next step in branding is to develop your brand identity. Whether it is a logo, symbol or colour, brand elements are important in branding as they are what stay in the consumer’s memory. When you mention the name of a brand, these elements are what they are going to associate your brand with. Another area where brand identity proves useful is when you are doing brand extension — you can then leverage these elements for the new product. There is also something called brand architecture, a graphic description of the various brand and sub-brands in the company’s portfolio. The more efficiently you use these elements, the easier it is for you to extend your brand.”
He then discussed brand launches and brand management. He said, “I think that the Maggi controversy has not been managed properly by the brand. The first response from the CEO itself came 15 days after the incident and it was not a positive one. It took more than 30 years to build a brand like Maggi and in less than 30 days, the brand was destroyed. Only time will tell if it can survive this. You have to keep updating and revitalising your brand. Branding is about trust, confidence and credibility. You have to create a personality for your brand and add human attributes to it. If you create a brand name strong enough to last over the years, it reduces risk in the minds of consumers and becomes synonymous with the product, assuring customers of its quality and reliability. Quality and price are also the two elements that a consumer judges a product by and it is important to convey a reasonable price and very high quality at face value.”
In closing, he said, “A brand is an intangible asset. It is very difficult to evaluate a brand. Branding is a long-term goal; it takes 20 years of hard work to make a brand a success. However, no matter what, you can never ignore quality.”