Dhakad Marketing: How to build Brands

I had the pleasure and  privilege of attending a webinar on the subject on 26th June featuring Mr Pradeep Gidwani, India's foremost Marketing Guru. He was in conversation with Mr Mukesh Kheterpal, CEO & Founder Indus Management consultants Pvt Ltd. The term 'Dhakad' Marketing can be understood in English  as 'aggressive' marketing. 

At the outset Pradeep explained the basic requirement for Dhakad marketing which he referred to as  "Brand architecture" . This should be concrete and thought through in detail  to achieve success. The basic questions such as "Who are you?"  "Whom are you targeting?"   "What is your price point?" etc should be answered with clarity. As for example brands such as Van Heusen, Allen solly and Peter England were very clear as to whom they were targeting. They were looking at people in the higher income group who would like to stand out from others in terms of power dressing or distinct Friday dressing. 

Mukesh then asked the question " How did you work on and develop the brand architecture for Fosters Beer , an Australian beer when it first entered the Indian market. After all, beer is just beer whether called by this or that name? "  The interviewee explained that building a brand architecture involves not only the quality of the product but the emotional connect that customers feel towards a product. The customer gets a kick out of a brand that he can relate to.The emotional connect battle is in the mind of the customer.

As Fosters was an Australian beer, attention was paid to bringing in a feel of the country and targeting the young Indians as customers. The Australians are more casual in their approach to life unlike the Brits who tend to be formal. The company's employees wore jeans and T shirts and began their Emails with an informal "Hi Mate" and ended them with "Cheers". The ideas you implement needs to link back to what you want to do. He said that pricing Foster 30% higher than Kingfisher and still gaining customers was also part of  the strategy of reflecting their brand architecture.

To another question on employing women and also getting people from outside the industry to work for them, Pradeep said that employing people with different experiences was deliberately done to circumvent the tendency of  "This is how we have always done" mindset and get their people to think and work innovatively. The employment of women was also done in line with the brand architecture in niche locations such as  Five star hotels. When asked if there wasn't any resistance from the industry and retailers to the Fosters policy of not extending discounts, the interviewee said that the company was able to convince their associates that the higher margins of their brand would offset any disadvantage of not receiving discounts. "We believed that merely selling more to retailers offering discounts was meaningless until actual sales happen with the consumer opening the bottle and drinking from it. 

If a company has developed  a brand architecture and positioned itself in a segment, abrupt deviation from the strategy can confuse customers. The case of Audi was cited which was competing with the Mercedes; both German cars of good quality. Slowly and steadily, the business grew and at one time it looked like Audi was beginning to win the race, when the company offered  discounts with an aim to capture a bigger size of the market. Contrary to expectations, Audi found itself losing customers after this move. There is a finite number in this market. A premier brand reducing price doesn't make sense. 

The prime aspect of the strategy is to share your brand architecture and vision as widely as possible, to your employees, customers and the public at large. Pradeep said that in the initial days advice was given by well wishers to seek the services of  Sachin Tendulkar or Amitabh Bachan as their Brand ambassador. However, Fosters in line with their brand architecture of Australian Life style - sporty and free outdoors chose to associate with Formula 1 racing events in India. Customers were shown having beer and samosa as they watched and discussed Formula 1. The experiencing of the beer by customers was a prelude to introducing it to five star hotels. Then there was the combination of Barbecue and Fosters beer for great Sundays. Launching a brand is not about launching a product. You should get the start point correctly- 'Who you are' and be able to say what your brand stands for in three to four words.

Building a brand is like developing the persona of your company and its products. Spend time on your thinking and developing the brand architecture. It is not just about achieving numbers but getting there on the path charted out in the brand architecture. The interviewee gave a tip  to capture pictures of advertisements from the past four to five years and then show them to your advertisers and  employees to let them know as to what you want your product to be.  Allen solly moved away from its original brand architecture and thereby confused its customers. The same happened with Fosters also later on. However, it may be noted that brands which are successful long time, tend to be faithful to their brand architecture. As for example the lifebuoy soap was always associated with health. Over the years although its shape and packaging changed, it continues to be associated with health.  The same is the case with Lux which is linked to beauty and film stars.

The webinar  concluded on this note that "You cannot be everything to everybody. You have to be something to somebody."  Of course you may have different segments for the business like the automobile companies  Maruti and Hyundai having different segments such as SUV, premium, mid size or the base car. They do not confuse their customers and the vital element of brand architecture is firmly in place. It was a very rewarding experience attending this webinar and the biggest take away for me was the information about  the importance of having a 'Brand architecture' if you want to build brands!