BW Communities

Case Study: The Runaway Brand And Other Stories

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[Jahnvi Pandya stared aghast at the underclothes she had tried to wash. Before her, in the white plastic tub, sat four white garments, badly streaked greeny-blue. In fact, it was impossible to believe these clothes were once white. Four years before Jahnvi left India, Comma Deluxe was the detergent she had used on all clothes. Out of India the brand stories remained incomplete. Today, Comma had behaved in a most surprising manner. Last week, at the supermarket, she was faced by a plethora of Comma variants — Comma Plus, Comma Real, Commatic, Comma Swift. Suddenly she saw Comma Smart, in an aqua green square tub. The purchase was done. On reaching home, Jahnvi noticed the lid bore one more name quietly in a corner: Stepp. Now Stepp was really meant to lure consumers who, finding Comma expensive, may reach out to the low-priced brands instead. But ‘Stepp' had no context on the lid of Comma, thought Jahnvi. Yet there it was, just like that, in an obscure corner of the lid, without any link to the rest of life, like a mistake. Then came the next level of shock. She had bought it thinking it was Comma powder but on opening it turned out to be two greeny-blue bars! Now who would have thought detergent bars came in boxes? Comma had never been a bar detergent. Hopelessly she had collected the underwear and socks in separate tubs and gave them a Comma bar wash. Day one and day two were event free, but on day three, when she reached for the detergent bar, she saw it had spread out like butter on a hot day; worse, when she picked it up, it quailed to her touch and shrunk in the center developing a ‘neck'. This cannot be Comma! Tearfully, Jahnvi ran the bar over the under garments and whoa! It left thick layers of itself onto her white Marks & Spencer clothes. In panic, she scrubbed the under things quickly and ran fresh water over them. The horror of horrors: her white underclothes were an angry greeny-blue in patches where the soap had stuck. If Jahnvi sobbed in frustration, her husband quipped: "This is India. The consumer is not king here." The only ray of hope came from her childhood friend Srinita Khuller, who taught at a B-school in the city. "I don't know what to say, but it so happens my students are dealing with ethics in brand management. Can you forget your grief and come and share your story with my class? It will help them knead and toss what they have learnt so far. Help them, and find your peace in their debates maybe?" Srinita's class of 30 students of marketing ethics heard out Jahnvi's story. Bhrigu: What has angered you most? Jahnvi: It's a brand I have grown up with; everyone from my mom to my kid sister swears by it. Comma was our family wash powder. After a 30-year dependency on Comma, I am suddenly seeing that Comma isn't Comma at all! There is an imposter wearing Comma's colours! I am angry with Delta India for thinking I am stupid. Yes, I agree that the brand must have undergone changes during the four years I was away; but this is not just change, this is drastic. You said you are Comma and my whole family adopted you. Now, you are behaving just like Stepp and worse, you seem to have lent your name to Stepp! But Stepp is not your child. Stepp was only your security guard. And now you have sold me Stepp and called it Comma! That has shaken me very much. You know what? People talk about Indian heritage and all that. But in my everyday life, some things need to be unchangeable. And a detergent is one of them. The perfume of Comma for me is the smell of India. I remember my grandmother by her smell of Cuticura powder. A wave of incredulousness swept the class. They were experiencing consumer sadness first hand. "Gosh, I am so overwhelmed to know that a brand goes so deep into a psyche! The power of a brand is amazing," said Charmy. Bhrigu: A brand can change in many ways — packaging, printing, design, form, colour fragrance, tactile improvements... It seems Ms Jahnvi has a book where four chapters in between are missing and she cannot relate to the story as it continues in chapter 7. Taarik: That analogy will fail badly, Bhrigu. A company can make positioning changes to make the brand more relevant to consumers. Srinita: Companies can change their whole ideology as well consequent to economic conditions that can cause them to redefine quality, customer service, economy, and so on. Thanks to the recession, many organisations have had to relook their brand portfolio and rationalise portfolios. It appears to me that Delta must have realised that it does not need two brands with five variants each, and decided Stepp should die. Bhrigu: Is this a case of Stepp dying or Comma growing bigger? Taarik: How has Comma become bigger? Charmy: Of course, it has no? Its platform has increased, don't you see? Earlier it stood for dependability — ‘Always a good wash!' Now it has taken on Stepp's ‘no stains' platform too: ‘A Stepp to No Stain!' Bhrigu: Ouch! That is so messed up, since Jahnvi ma'am's experience shows that Comma in its expanded state has added stains where there were none! (Much laughter) Taarik: How come you are noticing this now, ma'am? This integration happened more than 18 months ago, I understand. Jahnvi: Oh, sorry, I did not mention, but I was living overseas for the past four years. I came back to memories like Swaati snacks, Bachelor's strawberries with cream and New Yorker pizzas... Funnily, these three have not changed at all but my poor Comma is all messed up! Srinita: Can we then say that when organisations make these changes to portfolio, they have to tiptoe around them ensuring that everything else is kept intact, if not, at least relevant? <script type="text/javascript"> var intro = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#commenth4').text()) var page = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#storyPage').text()) if (page.indexOf(intro) < 0) { jQuery('#commenth4').attr('style', 'display:block;') } </script> Gunjan: I also think that just because the organisation is redefining its brand personality, the consumer does not make a shift in her mind. Unless you involve her. Stepp was the stepping stone brand. Stepp was the brand you bought if you were a low-price consumer but a Comma wannabe. Stepp was the brand you bought when you were done with the others. But Stepp was never close to Comma. So now by merging Stepp and Comma, I do think you have brought down the stature of Comma... Bhrigu: Absolutely, and this has been neatly corroborated by the ‘confused' Comma's performance and staining. Srinita: What else is objectionable here? Since you are all saying the brand is confused. Ankita: See, either you believe that a brand is a person or you say it is an inanimate entity and I the brand-builder can make it behave the way ‘I' want. But you are also saying, when it suits you, that if the brand Comma was a person, it would be dependable; its script would read: "I always deliver a great wash; elegant, gosh, classy people use me. I am discerning, hence for better clothes. I am evolved. Among my consumers are activists, authors, tree savers, water savers... so I too, as Comma, advocate saving water, trees and energy." Now you have gone and merged Comma with Stepp or the other way round. But at no point did Delta say ‘elegant, dependable, etc.' about Stepp. Now when you say Stepp is Comma, aren't you also saying Comma is Stepp? <img style="width: 200px; height: 200px" src="http://www.businessworld.in/bw/image/CaseStudy/case_22nov_10_2_mdm.jpg" alt=" " width="200" height="200" align="right" />Taarik: I think the dissonance would have been far lower had they simply withdrawn Stepp altogether. Now, when you have merged Stepp into Comma, is Stepp available as a brand? Is it an existing personality? No. But by merging you have done something very weird because while it works well for Delta, it has upset the consumer's perception of Comma! After years of painting Comma as premium, etc., you just yanked in Stepp which you always painted as a few steps lower than Comma! The erstwhile Stepp user is feeling mighty kicked, but the erstwhile Comma user feels like she has to share a room with her cleaning lady! Srinita: Hmm... quite interes-ting... I did not think of all this! Jahnvi: I hope you guys realise that I am the aggrieved party here... hahaha. (Students laugh with her.) Ankita: See, this is very unthinkable when you consider how much segmentation each brand has been engineered for; it is stupid really; I can see that recession must have forced rationalisation on them. Or simply Stepp had no role to play anymore and had to exit. But Stepp could have exited gracefully! Why the drama of merging Stepp and Comma? What was the purpose? Ajit: And the marketing costs of communication, rebranding, renaming, etc.? Bhrigu: Exactly. As Ankita rightly says, if Stepp had to go anyway, it could have simply been withdrawn because, in either situation, Stepp the brand cannot come back as itself. If Delta wanted to stop Stepp yet did not wish to lose the customer base, I wonder if the only solution was to shovel Stepp into Comma? Gunjan: Actually, what does a consumer think about all this? Don't marketers find out before the event? If you do ‘focus groups' before a launch, then why not before a withdrawal as well? Worse, as it happens here, Comma's consumer is angry! Okay, look at this differently. This morning, I read that my favourite skin care brand, Glo, is launching a rich moisturiser. Just seeing the ad, I sensed the beginnings of a great romance. I imagine the company researching my skin and coming up with a solution for me... I see Glo rich moisturiser as a new formulation with new ingredients, new expected results, new fragrance... then suddenly you spoil that, inelegantly putting two brands in one basket and saying, "They are the same"! Do you see what I mean? Delta is now saying Stepp is Comma; to Jahnvi ma'am's mind they are not. Ajit: Aiyyo, brilliant, Gunjan! You guys heard? What she is saying is ‘all that differentiation and segmentation I did for the last 20 years, positioning Comma as exclusive, was all bakwaas... So finally, Stepp kya, aur Comma kya! Dono ek eech!' That also means differentiators like elegance, discerning, etc., is hogwash! Premium is bakwaas... there never was any difference. I, the marketer, ‘created' a perception of difference! And worse, I even charged you extra just for that perception. Gunjan: Something else occurs to me. The very roles the two brands played was telling. Comma was for machine wash. Stepp was for the lady who bucket-washed, tap-washed, scrubbed and rinsed and wrung clothes herself... only because she refused to give up the traditional wash and she swore Comma was pricey! Now, is Delta saying that all those bucket-wash gals will continue to bucket-wash on the same street as the Comma ladies? That only means the Comma lady has been brought down a few rungs. Bhrigu: Accha, guys, we are training to be brand managers, not emotional consumers. We are romanticising the marketer-consumer relationship; even if the marketer ‘woos the consumer', ‘courts the consumer', it would be foolish for the consumer to fall for this. So, Gunjan, to expect that the marketer should check with the consumer before he withdraws a brand or does stuff with its death, is unrealistic, no ma'am? Srinita: Interesting! Now add to this drama the price bands of the two brands. What do we see? Is there a story emerging there as well? Silence followed as the students consulted each other, then... <script type="text/javascript"> var intro = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#commenth4').text()) var page = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#storyPage').text()) if (page.indexOf(intro) < 0) { jQuery('#commenth4').attr('style', 'display:block;') } </script> Ajit: It's like if Action shoes merged with Adidas; where will the man on the Vespa find expression for his shoe needs? Will he walk into an Adidas store? Personally, I would feel cheated of my comfort zone. My kid brother still wears Action shoes. They are not cheap or low grade shoes; they are shoes that identify with your socio-economic profile and speak to you accordingly. Now when Action shifts home to Adidas... I will stop at the door, feel difficult, and leave. I will now see Adidas as the traitor, the stealer... you agree? Bhrigu: I tend to agree, even if not so dramatically, haha. But yes, Stepp was the aam aadmi brand... Not your poor common man, but the middle class who is yet saving money for various things. Gunjan: Hang on... it is Comma that has lost out, not Stepp! What was the dissonance you felt, Jahnvi ma'am? Jahnvi: That Comma would work without my effort, like my family, honest and capable of speaking the truth; I always thought Comma was another name for washing soap, because granny used to say, "Comma lavoon ghasaycha nusta! Just need to put some Comma and give it a scrub..." Comma to me was what Windex or Duck tape is to the American! I just believed that Comma was decent. But it was all wrong from the word go! Comma Smart is a bar not a powder, a mushy bar! Now my underclothes have all become the colour of Clearmint! Srinita: Amazing! So Comma actually downgraded itself to become Stepp than upgrading Stepp to be a Comma? Jahnvi: I don't know all that, but when you can't have your old detergent, some people do feel extremely disoriented and... lost. Srinita: So sorry... heart broken by a brand! Ajit: Something is not making sense. Can we actually vacate a spot below the premium brand and not be threatened? How did we assume that that spot is unnecessary? By gathering a low-intensity, high-performance, low-form product into itself, has Comma lost something? After spending two decades explaining its VFM proposition, how can Comma, a brand that rose higher by simply building newer brands under itself, just choose to fall in a huge mush? Charmy: One second, please! Is this a situation about brand management or is it about consumer dissonance? Taarik: How do we know that today what we see in that box is neither Stepp nor Comma but a new formulation with a known name ‘Comma'? See: what Jahnvi ma'am bought was seemingly Comma. What she saw in the box was not a form of Comma she knew. What she experienced in use was not Comma at all... so, in order to align what she saw and experienced with what she read on the packaging, the only tenable conclusion would be that the Comma she bought is not the Comma she knew! Ajit: Wow! So make a new product more like Stepp, so that the Stepp user has continuity, but give it the Comma name so you can charge a premium, have the Comma users anyway, and support all this with Comma kind of advertising. Charmy: The greater question here could be: how does one trim the brand portfolio without losing customer base? Should not the process have to be more sensitive? If you consult me before extending the brand, should you not also consult me when you change it? Did they try and find out how consumers relate to each brand after this change? Gunjan: Put both brands on the table, as they were known once, originally. Stepp was the no-nonsense brand which did as it spoke, charged as it gave, no frills. Its body language was clear. One solid colour, geometric in shape, bold lines and heavy; clearly communicating a body language that says: I am what you see, I am all that you see; I just work, dammit. Even its advertising was frill-free. Whereas Comma and all its brothers in the super premium range were genteel... white, pretty, delicate, powdery, used the support of high-valued endorsers... did not speak directly... So if you actually go to the start and see how the various brands Comma, Stepp, Talum, Ronz, Capra, etc., were designed and offered and ideated... they were all intended to be completely different from other brands in the home stable and competition brands. Sure they are all detergents — but they are completely different in cultures, communities, look and feel; so how can you merge any two here? The dissonance of our times! Once you could not get the woman to accept the powder, so you sold her the powder in bar form because she insisted on scrubbing by hand and rinsing in the bucket. Today, when she has fully converted to the powder, you sell the bar back to her? Gosh, this is schizophrenic! Bhrigu: Jahnvi ma'am, suppose on opening, the box did have a powder Comma, but a less hardworking Comma; would you be happy? Jahnvi: You forget that I went to buy bucket wash Comma powder because that was my need. Taarik: See the pathos here: she sees box, she reads Comma, she thinks it is powder, comes home and finds it is bar! And worse, it behaves exactly like Stepp! So Jahnvi ma'am, had it been a Comma bar, from the packing material onwards, would you have felt less cheated? I mean the whole confusion seems to have come from the tiny name ‘Stepp' on the lid that completely swung your vote against Comma and made you feel ‘OMG, this is Stepp!' It is a lot like I felt when I ordered vegetable biryani and found egg pieces in it! Jahnvi: Had I seen Comma bar, would I have felt better? Can't say. Then maybe a completely different persuasion would have taken over. I guess I might have found it a nice experience for the purpose of socks and things which do need localised effort, and I may have even said, ‘hey, this is nice.' But not anymore. Classroom Discussion Is the consumer a victim of her greed for choice or the marketer's top line anxiety? casestudymeera at gmail dot com <script type="text/javascript"> var intro = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#commenth4').text()) var page = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#storyPage').text()) if (page.indexOf(intro) < 0) { jQuery('#commenth4').attr('style', 'display:block;') } </script>