Being production oriented

Back to a bit of theory. When we think of marketing, we need to remember that it is a field that has taken its time to evolve. See the image below:

Let's understand what the above image says. At first, when mass manufacturing was becoming popular, the focus of the organisation was on making products widely available at inexpensive prices. They assumed that this is what consumers wanted. There is a famous quote of Henry Ford in this regard that is often quoted in textbooks

Think of how China has dominated the manufacturing scene. It's all about assembly line manufacturing at the lowest possible price. The problem with this kind of a concept is that the consumer's need is not of importance to the manufacturer which means that customers can become dislillusioned by what is available. There's no room for innovation here. I'm reminded of the Premier Padmini car which was so popular in the 70s. It featured in movies, was popular as a taxi in Mumbai (known as 'kaali peeli') as was a very distinct looking boxy car. Yet, it never kept with the times and is now vanished. Same problem - manufacturer focused and not customer focused. 

Here's an old ad for the car:

Another example that comes to mind is HMT Watches. Watches manufactured in India at a time, 1962 to be precise, with the intention of making India self-sufficient in watches. Again production focused. Of course, lots of other issues led to its downfall, but this was one of the leading causes.

Here's an ad of HMT

A nice blogpost about it https://www.windingritual.com/hmt-janata-watch-india-history-tribute/

Many more examples of this. Summarizing a few key learning points:

This concept focuses on:

1. Mass production

2. Focuses on economies of scale - meaning you produce a lot in order to reduce production cost

3. Focused on the manufacturer or the producer and not the customer

4. Mostly used when demand is more than supply

Advantages:

1. Low per unit cost therefore the pricing is competitive

2. The business becomes scalable quickly (scalable means a company can grow and expand its market without spending too much

3. It can reach and serve more customers

4. The processes become more efficient

Drawbacks:

1. Customer needs are completely ignored

2. It is a standardized product or a one-size-fits all product. No innovation at all. Does not change with the times

3. Leads to what is known as "Marketing Myopia" - meaning the manufacturer is short-sighted, there's no long-term vision to sustain and therefore when there is new and better competition, the company becomes vulnerable and can die easily

This sort of a company is only able to survive when there is a demand for low-price, standardized products. Think of soaps as a category, commodities like rice, dal etc., stationery items, agarbathis, matchboxes, etc. Anybody remembers Cheetah Fight?

Any other brand comes to your mind? Do share

Will write about the other concepts slowly. Thank you for patiently reading uptil here. See you soon.

A brand that I stumbled upon

Few months ago, I wanted to get a new face wash for my now sixteen year old daughter. She's prone to outbreaks on her face and she feels very conscious about it. In fact, she's so conscious that when she steps out, she uses make-up to hide them (yes, she had to learn how to use make-up to hide them and she does a pretty good job now! Will write on that too).

Since I had worked in a personal care product company, my first choice were those products. These products did an ok-ok job initially and then we were back to square one. The dermatologist had prescribed medicines which were taken initially and when they didn't show 'immediate' results, they were dropped. What to do? 

I took her to a renowned and well-respected homeopath who gave her medicines which again didn't work after sometime. I have to mention here honestly that the medicines were all probably fine but there were some conditions given - no oily food, no spicy food, cheese, burgers, pizza, etc. Those conditions were applied only in a limited manner and therefore the results were not promising.

Anyway, it was at this stage and after a lot of trial and error on our own, that I came across the brand "Minimalist" while browsing on an e-commerce site. I first saw a facewash, then a serum. I showed it to my daughter and after she checked on the ingredients (yes, we 'googled' each ingredient), we decided to try.

The brand itseMinimalist brandlf was true to its name, minimalistic packaging, simple straightforward logo, all ingredients mentioned on the pack, plain B&W branding, no unnecessary graphics whatsoever. 

The product also has a very chemical/herb kind of smell when you open it, no fragrance. It was a completely new way of selling a personal care product for me. The serum looks like a medicated product with a dropper. 

In my own experience in new product development and marketing, I've worked on packaging graphics, shortlisting ingredients, advertising,etc. but never came across of this sort of a divergent thinking. So, while my marketing mind appreciated the honesty, I was also impressed with the product's performance. 

My daughter has seen a lot of reduction in acne after using Minimalist. It encouraged me to try out their anti-aging serum too.

Overall, a complete win-win for all of us. 

Here are 5 things I feel the brand got it right:

1. Excellent products - all developed internally with their R&D team

2. Started as a D2C brand which means it was largely online through their website and other social media. I believe they are now available in Modern Trade but honestly I haven't seen them on the shelves. But that's just a question of time as HUL will ensure it will be available easily soon.

3. Excellent branding - from logo to packaging, everything is top-notch. They stand out clearly in the cluttered personal care category with their clean look

4. Staying true to the name - honest, transparent and no fluff

Downsides:

1. They are a bit on the expensive side even though one might try and justify it as worth it. Not everyone can afford a facewash costing Rs. 300/-  for 100ml (if you buy on their website, it is Rs. 284/-)

2. I had never heard of them at all till I accidently got served an ad. They have apparently focused on using customers as brand ambassadors but sorry none in my circle are their ambassadors.

Look at how they have grown. (Graph taken from the Inc42 website)

I hope the brand continues to stay true to its name and does not go the mass marketing route and become just another brand on the highly cluttered shelves. 

What do you think? Do share your thoughts.

Disclaimer : These are just my personal views as a consumer and a marketing person and I am not paid for this. 

Marketing enriches lives

Welcome back! One of the questions that a marketing teacher asks their students in the first class in a marketing course is whether marketing is art or science? Another question is whether marketing and sales are the same? Whether marketing creates needs or satisfies them? While you think about it, I want to recall something that happened in my childhood. 

It was sometime in 1982. I was too young and can't remember all the details now but I recollect how excited my dad was. A huge cricket fan, dad wanted to see the Prudential World Cup that was scheduled for 1983. Those were the days colour televisions were very new in the market. Very few households had them. There were a few brands of TVs available in the market like Dyanora, Solidaire, NELCO, Weston, Uptron, Beltek, BPL, etc. and they used to put out big ads in the newspapers. Dad was desperate to get a TV home. 1982 also happened to be the year when India hosted the Asian Games that had Appu the Elephant as its mascot. Anyways back to dad. 

He spent a lot of time and effort at the TV showrooms to shortlist one of them. I remember tagging along once and being amazed at the display. So many TVs, showing so many programs. For a child that was so magical! We finally bought a NELCO. Why? It was sold as a Tata product, there was a warantee on it and one could pay in monthly installments (EMIs). Here are a couple of ads I found for NELCO

 

Once it was home, it was a total game changer for all of us and the entire neighbourhood! We not only enjoyed the World Cup and many other programs, but we had so many neighbours and kids coming to our home to watch with us! :-)) We suddenly became very popular in our street. People started identifying us as 'the family that had colour TV.' Lol. 

Our lives changed from then on. Our world opened up. I personally now became part of a group of friends in school who would talk about some shows and I could participate/belong. I no longer was out of place. From Hum Log, Nukkad, Buniyaad, Karamchand, Malgudi Days, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, Khandaan, Chitrahaar, Katha Sagar, Giant Robot, Ramayan, Mahabharat, Rajani, Vikam Betal, Flop Show, 8 pm news and God knows how many more shows we watched! And how many ads we saw and still recall them! That only my generation had the privilege...of having seen ads with jingles and remembering them. Lol again. 

Why is this story even important to the topic? Well, you can see how a product, a TV in this case, made a huge impact on our lives. We were not just considered "elite" for having a colour TV, we were included in groups that were till then not accessible, we became famous for a short period of time in our neighbourhood and we improved on our general knowledge watching news, games, shows etc. It ENRICHED our lives. 

The 1983 World Cup was marketed as a 'not-to-miss event'. NELCO was marketed as a TATA product- trusted (with 3 year warantee), with a "Blue Diamond Technology".

When we think of the word Marketing, people usually confuse it with the word "Sales" but that's incorrect and it's important for you to know that. Simply put, "Selling" is more like the Eureka Forbes guys going around imploring people to buy their products while Marketing is about creating desire amongst your target audience for your products/services. In selling the manufacturer/seller is chasing the customer (think of cold calling) while in marketing, the customer is actually seeking the product/brand. Huge HUGE difference. 

Why should we be bothered about this difference? Think of shopping on a street where the hawkers are calling out to you and giving you some attractive offers to buy from them. They are trying to sell to you. Is that how you would want to do business? Do you see yourself doing that to grow? Or, do you want customers to actually call you and ask you about your product/service? 

Selling is all about your need dear entrepreneur, whereas Marketing is all about the customer's needs and wants and turning them into demands. Selling is often called an art but marketing is both science and art and requires a lot of thinking. Selling therefore, is short term while marketing is long term. 

Hence, we need to equip ourselves with this knowledge and use it to our advantage to grow our business. 

We'll learn more as we go forward. Stay tuned and don't forget to come back for more! Don't forget to comment, share your thoughts and experiences. See you around soon!

PS:

Oh! Where is NELCO today and what are they doing? They no longer make TVs and are now into VSAT communication products. What happened? Will deep dive into that some other day. 

What Hustelle is all about

Hey there! Welcome to my blog!

It's been a long cherished dream of mine to write about things that a small entrepreneur, especially women who start from home need to know about marketing, branding, product management, advertising, etc. 

Many a times, small-time hustlers find it difficult to get the information about issues they face while trying to grow their brand. Everyone dreams of making it big but without support, without knowledge of what and how to market, they struggle, learning the hard way through trial and error method that not only is time consuming but is exhausting!

This blog is aimed at these small businesses. With some tips, tricks, some case studies and  some articles, the hope is that you will find answers to your nagging problems in marketing and branding and apply it to your situation to find best possible solution/s.

See you! Happy learning!