Get Inclusive,
Or Get Excluded
By Harish
Bijoor
The Mayan era is done with. And
looks like all of us have survived it. And how.
As the year 2013 dawns, what’s
ahead for us in Brand India?
Plenty ahead, provided the
mindset is to reap the plenty. Read a lot in those words, as this ‘peek-ahead’
piece of mine is all about reaping the opportunity that lies in the largest of
the masses rather than the old approach that has held us in good stead over the
last several marketing decades of “reaping the niches”.
The year and indeed the decade
ahead of us in marketing terms is all about looking at market opportunity with
a different set of spectacles altogether. If I were to summarize it all for the
Twitter-Gen of today, I would put it simply in 31 characters: Get inclusive, or get excluded.
The idea is a simple one. An old
one as well. One berated by many a thinker over the decades, but seldom
listened to by a nation that was plucking the low hanging fruit of market
opportunity that lay with those with early-money in their hands.
Now however, since that opportunity
seems to be drying up, time to think different and look at the masses with a
keener glad-eye than before.
The world is today all of 7
Billion people. 1.2 Billion of them reside in India. Maybe a lot more than that
as well, as I firmly believe our population fact is an understatement rather
than a statement. Of the 7 Billion
in the world, as much as 5 Billion are people a typical marketer would put
outside of the active branded consumption mindset. This mass is really, really
large. This mass is one that is growing not only in terms of size, but aspiration
as well. The opportunity ahead is therefore in this big mass.
If you look at India in
particular, this mass could be as large as all of 840 Million people. 840
million people waiting on the precipice of a brand buy. 840 Million people who
have a rather skin deep penetration of brands today. And most of these brands
that have penetrated their lifestyles may be in the realm of telecom, telecom services,
and basic FMCG products. Imagine the opportunity ahead as this mass booms in
terms of aspiration to buy and aspiration to consume. Imagine the opportunity
ahead as this mass moves from products to services. From the basic to the
value-added segment as well. The opportunity ahead is large. Very large.
Look at India today. In many ways
modern India has been built by brands that started their early work in the
first few years of the last decade. Look at telecom. Telecom brands have helped
place 942 million handsets in the hands of as many as 670 Million people in
India. The halfway mark has been breached. Look at the telecom service
providers who power these handsets with basic and value added services. Look at
every FMCG player in the market who has quietly built a super-structure of
active consumption of brands. India is a nation of 1.2 Billion bellies and bladders.
As many bellies, that much the opportunity for food. As many bladders, that
much the opportunity for every kind of beverage. And guess what, the Indian at large has not only belly and
bladder. Add to it thirty-one other body parts that crave for branded solutions.
The hair for hair oil and hair dye alike, the skin for moisturizer and vitamin
creams alike, and lots lots more.
The real opportunity ahead is
looming large, and lies in India’s under-penetrated categories. The opportunity
lies equally in rural as in urban. Our big asset is population. And population
is an asset that delivers slowly. Its time to deliver has come. The marketing
and brand fraternity needs to wake up to this opportunity and leverage it to
advantage.
There is a problem though. The
opportunity is out there in terms of numbers, but this opportunity can be
leveraged only by those who do believe in ‘market creation’ exercises, rather
than ‘market reaping’ processes that have dominated past decades. Time to
change that mindset altogether. And this is difficult.
Markets of the future that lie in
the realm of the bottom 5 Billion of the world population opportunity, will
need to be created, rather than reaped. And that is a mindset that needs to
dominate 2013. Create first. Reap later. The era of Instant gratification for
the marketer is over.
The trends that will dominate
market creation activities in the years ahead will be aided and guided ably by
systems and processes that are falling into place. The UIDAI Aadhaar, its
financial inclusion goals, its real pan-national roll-out and the tools of
schemes such as the DCT (Direct Cash Transfer) scheme of the government of
India, will all help and spur the movement of market creation.
Think of it this way. Till now,
as much as INR 3,50,000 Crores was reaching the bottom end of the market as
subsidies and transfers what were less efficient and leaky in its delivery
pattern. As the subsidy regime gives way to DCT, it simply means one big thing
for the salivating marketer in India. When subsidies are doled out, the consumer
got kerosene and had to use it. The consumer got rice and fertilizer and
pesticide alike, and had to use it or re-sell it at suboptimal prices. Now, if
DCT kicks in finally, it means there is that much money in the bank accounts of
the consumer. This money will find its way into consumption. And this
consumption is going to spur market opportunity further. As more money hits
consumer wallets at the bottom of the pyramid, more expenditure happens. And as
more expenditure happens, a lot happens.
As India becomes an opportunity
that is getting bigger and bigger, marketers need to however remember one big
trend point to tread carefully for the years ahead.
The marketer needs to get
inclusive. The marketer needs to think of the masses that are larger than what
he defined to be his masses. The marketer needs to reach out to potential consumers
and non-consumers alike. Every brand offering needs to have two avatars. One
for the potential buyer and one for the non-buyer. The marketer needs to molly-coddle
the non-buyer as well today, with the hope of him being a vital part of his
future market. Marketers that forget this basic tenet will get excluded from consumer
mindsets.
In the future, you cannot depend
on your advertising to buy markets. You will instead need to depend on your
good market creation work to put together your markets. The India Marketing Rubik’s
cube is in your hands. You need to create the right picture on every side of
the cube. Every side. Not only the one side you were comfortable with all these
decades. You need to get more and
more inclusive.
In short, get inclusive. Or get
excluded. Touché.
Harish Bijoor
is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Twitter @harishbijoor
