Brand differentiation – the tea drinking hen way

When I saw a hen pecking at a glass of tea, drinking tea from the glass at a town (Khanikhola) 23 kilometres west from the Kathmandu Valley, I was inspired to write this piece. The hen, at the moment, created a lasting differentiation in my mind. Generally, chickens are meant for either meat or eggs and they don’t have any brands as such (leaving aside the species of chickens). You can broadly categorise them as local or broiler breeds.

In the recent days, the local chickens have lost market to the broiler breeds. However, the local breeds are in much higher demand owing to their superior quality. The tea drinking hen, besides being a brand in much demand added value to its demand (at least for me). It was a differentiated product!

In line with the weird bird habit, have you ever seen a parrot with dandruff? A witty television commercial delves into the psyche of consumers and uses the punchline to denounce the herd mentality. When the owner of a parrot sees the bird dusting off its wings, the word spreads and the parrot becomes an instant hit with visitors from all over the place coming in hordes to have a glimpse of the unique parrot. The commercial runs well, but at the end the real reason is discovered by a curious cameraperson who sees the dust from the peeling interior paint on the ceiling falling on the parrot. The advertisement has been successful in differentiating the said paint from the competitors.

The marketers analysed the weaknesses of the competitive brands (peeling off easily) and developed the same weakness into its strength. They took care of the customer experience gap and packaged the product promising to deliver it.

Now talking about bottled water – you will see a horde of companies bottling water in blue bottles with blue logos except few like Evian which uses pink logo. However, when I saw a green bottle of mineral water with green logo, it was a welcome sight for me. And the brand, Davidson mineral water, also kept its promises by delivering good quality drinking water. The marketers thought of offering something different than the usual run-of-the-mill product. They tried to position themselves differently.

If you travel around 20 kilometres to the east of Kathmandu Valley (the place is called Janagal), you will come across a modest eatery where toast with khuwa (Nepalese local butter) is served instead of the regular toast with butter. An extra plate of potato-pea curry is served along with the toast. The taste is incredible and the brand differentiates itself from the regular eateries serving the regular menu! The eatery owner analysed the customer engagement drivers, and added a competitive input to his product.

Talking about differentiation to create a brand name, I would never forget the exercise taken by Pepsi thereby changing its regular colour to blue. It was a disaster differentiation, at least in the Indian subcontinent. In Nepal, the colour matched the colour of the kerosene and though being good in taste, it seemed you were sipping kerosene out of a regular Pepsi bottle! And, it was outright flop in terms of sale and moneymaking. So, care should be taken while differentiating a brand by keeping in mind the local culture and context.

Now coming back to the basics, you need do three important analyses (as done by the marketers above) before going for differentiation – 1) internal analysis, 2) customer analysis and 3) competitor analysis. Just go for a quick TOWS Analysis. I prefer looking for opportunities and threats ahead prior to jumping into the strengths and weaknesses. The opportunities and threats are external traits and can not be influenced. However, strengths and weaknesses are internal traits and you can work towards converting your weaknesses to strengths.

The next in the line is analysing the customer perception, behaviour and desire to add competitive input to your brand and position your brand differently, keeping in mind the local culture and context.

As Shiv Khera says, “Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently” in his book “You Can Win”, your product will win only if you differentiate it from others. And while you are designing the differentiation strategy, just remember the tea drinking hen and it will inspire you all the way!

7 As of branding Jumla apples

Jumla is a far-flung remote district of Nepal with harshness and beauty of nature juxtaposed on the same canvas. While more than 90 per cent of Jumla habitants crave for food after six months’ comfortable consumption, the big, juicy and crunchy organic apples can be bought here at a mere price of NRs. 10 (USD 1 = NRs. 80). The climate is harsh here. There are no all-weather roads to reach Jumla. The only one road that joins Jumla to rest of Nepal is the Karnali Highway which is dusty, bumpy and dangerous, and almost impossible to travel through during the rainy season. In spite of all these challenges, the atmosphere and scenic beauty here is beyond imagination and the journey of Jumla apples from an unknown commodity to a brand in demand is fascinating.

Accessibility
Apples were introduced in Jumla in the 1970s. However, it was only since 2006, when the Surkhet-Jumla road (the Karnali Highway) opened as a seasonal road, the Jumla apples started reaching customers in nearby Surkhet and Neplagunj. Earlier the apples remaining after household consumption were fed to the cattle. Only few people working in Jumla used to take few apples for their families and relatives as gifts. The only way to reach Jumla was the airway and being a remote place, no one was allowed to carry more than 20 Kgs of possession.

The market accessibility snowballed the apple plantations. Since 2008, farmers have been planting more than 100,000 saplings per year. In the years to come, there will be more Jumla apples in the market.

Acceptability
Within a short span of time, the apples from Jumla have created a niche in the Nepali market and the demand for the brand Jumla apples is growing each year. Earlier, the Jumla apples found in the market used to be bruised, unevenly coloured and unevenly shaped. However, the apples were still tasty, crunchy and juicy. As the apples were harvested haphazardly, even by shaking the tree and picking from the ground, the bruises appeared after it reached the market.

After the farmers got training in improved harvesting and post-harvest management, they started grading and packing the apples properly. The apples for the first time saw foam nets, wrappers, and cartons. Traditionally farmers stored apples inside their houses in cool dark rooms. Now some improved zero-energy apple stores have been developed.

In comparison to Chinese and Indian apples, Jumla apples are widely recognised as tasty and crunchy apples in Nepal.

Attestation
Jumla declared itself an organic district in 2007, and in 2009, the District Agricultural Development Office initiated organic certification of apples for three Village Development Committees. Even before announcing Jumla an organic district in 2007, pesticides were only used by the larger famers, an estimated 5 per cent.

The farmers went through various trainings and were inspected by Organic Certification Nepal (OCN) in August 2009 and were certified “Organic in Conversion”. The OCN is a Nepali certification agency which applied the Government of Nepal’s Organic Guidelines for this certification.

The marketing was supported with posters, banners and “certified organic in conversion” stickers for each apple to create demand and trust among consumers. In a similar manner, in 2010 these farmers organised themselves into three cooperatives, and 200 farmers were certified fully “organic’ and another 150 as “organic in conversion”. Slowly the uncertified apples also started benefiting from the increasing awareness among consumers about Jumla being an organic district.

Association
Till 2009, apple producers in Jumla were hardly organised and sold apples independently. Therefore, they did not have much bargaining power for better prices. They also did not have direct contact with major apple wholesalers in urban markets and depended on apple sales to local traders.

In 2009, the three certified farmer groups undertook joint marketing, and in 2010, nine Jumla cooperatives did so under the umbrella of the Jumla District Cooperative Federation. More farmers started being organised as the group certification is cheaper than individual certification. This further helped the marketing and branding of the apples.

Affordability
The Jumla apples are affordable at a price of around Rs. 120 per Kg in the departmental stores and fruit shops in Kathmandu. It has to compete with the Indian and Chinese apples which sell at around Rs. 100 and Rs. 80 respectively. Being organic and tasty, Jumla apples are favourite among the consumers and they do not hesitate to pay a premium price. The resulting price is due to the transportation costs incurred in flying the apples from Jumla to Kathmandu and other cities. However, the price at Jumla just increased to NRs. 30 from earlier NRs. 10.

Availability
The marketers made available the apples at major departmental stores and places in Kathmandu, competing with the Chinese and Indian apples, though in small quantities. Meanwhile the fruit wholesale market, the retail shopkeepers and the cycle vendors helped Jumla apples reach the customers.

In 2008/09, China supplied around 70% apples, followed by India with 29% apples. In 2009/10, China’s market share was around 90%, with only 9% for India. The rest is occupied by domestic production.

Awareness
To aware the people about Jumla apples the traders went for aggressive marketing. The marketers put banners and information stands at the selling points, advertisements were aired from radio stations and stalls were put at the major crossroads.

The farmers from Jumla and the traders gifted the Jumla apples to the President and the Prime Minister which created ripples in the media. The people got curious about the Jumla apples and started buying the apples which looked inferior in front of Chinese and Indian apples. Once they tasted the crunchy and juicy apples, there was no looking back.

Way forward
Besides the 4 As (Acceptability, affordability, availability and awareness) of marketing, I saw the other three As (Accessibility, attestation and association) equally responsible in building the brand Jumla apples. As an avid marketer, I believe the Jumla apple will be able to turn itself into an established brand owing to its superior quality, if it further incorporates another A (Assurance – assuring the consumers that the brand will maintain its acceptability and availability) in its branding journey.

Lessons in branding from a remote village

What will you do when you are overwhelmed by copycats producing your brand? On my recent trip to Eastern Nepal, I was puzzled to see around two dozen shops producing the same brand. Peda – a sweet made from milk is not only delicious but is also offered to Hindu Gods and Goddesses as offering. The pedas from Barmajhiya, a village in Eastern Nepal, have earned reputation not only in Nepal but even in the adjoining districts of India.

Perseverance pays
It all started with an old man’s perseverance to make and sell the sweet. When he started making pedas, there were no other shops making and selling the sweet. He just had a small hut and when nobody was interested in eating pedas, he started selling the pedas to the locals and the passengers travelling from other parts of the country to the Eastern Nepal. The taste of his pedas started making place in the hearts of local people and the word spread to the surrounding villages.

The tipping point
When the passengers travelling from the capital Kathmandu and other major cities started liking the taste of his pedas, the word of mouth advertising did the trick and the brand was talked about throughout Nepal. The pedas were so tasty and marvelous that people soon started flocking to the shop, journalists started writing about him and his pedas, making not only the pedas famous but also making the place Barmajhiya famous.

The amount of milk he used to collect from the local farmers increased by leaps and bounds, his profits soared up, and the area around his shop started developing into a cluster of shops. Seeing the old man’s prospering business, many started considering him as role model while others started looking at him with envy.

The bandwagon effect
Then started the bandwagon effect – other nearby shopkeepers started making pedas and to the chagrin of many, all of them put boards claiming to be the “original old man’s peda shop”. As a result, the passengers travelling through the highway were duped by the “me-too brands”. Still most of the passengers travelling don’t know which one the original shop is.

Differentiating from others
The old man, Baidhyanath Sah’s business, is however, flourishing as usual. To differentiate himself from other shops, he has put his picture on the board – which can’t be copied by other shops. And I say, that is a clear-cut clever move to prove his genuineness.

Quality matters
Not only the size and shape of the old man’s pedas but the taste itself stands out among the other pedas sold by the two dozen copycats. The locals and businessmen in the area know his shop and pedas. The businessmen purchase pedas only from his shop which is further sold across the country. Even near the Patan Durbar Square in the Kathmandu Valley people can purchase the genuine pedas from the old man’s shop.

The old man needs no advertising to refresh his brand. He just keeps sticking to his brand – the quality remains constant – and it does the rest for his business.

O & A of branding

Observing and analysing are the two most important elements of building a brand

I am returning from a restaurant and lounge bar and before I forget the bits and pieces of my conversation with its owner, I must share this piece of knowledge on branding with you all. I now firmly believe on the “connecting dots” concept of Steve Jobs – during his speech at Stanford, he said that all past incidents are connected to each other and they have a certain meaning in your life. I met this wise man during a class of elementary French at Alliance Francaise. I didn’t know at that time that our friendship will lead to enhancing my learning on branding.

Bikram, the CEO of the restaurant and lounge bar, an education consultancy and an import and export business is nowhere in his early thirties. However, his eyes are like that of an old wise owl. He sees a pattern and cause in each of his observation. As one rightfully said that a designer sees a pattern in each nook and cranny, he analyses each and every incident and adapts the lessons learnt from those incidents in his daily life. That’s how he builds his brand.

Lesson 1 – Observe well. Like a designer viewing pattern out of the blue, you will get to know the reason behind any design. Take the case of Bikram – whenever he goes to any restaurant, he observes the milieu, food and service – and if he finds something special, he scripts them in his memory, so that later he can decode the secrets for his own use. He doesn’t even leave the nuances – the colour, light bulbs, cutlery, crockery, seating arrangement, menu, staff behaviour and even the way he is served.

Lesson 2 – Analyse well. If you analyse well, you will find the right reason behind any happening. Take the case of Bikram – whenever he finds a food too good at a restaurant, he has the habit of calling the chef – to say thank you for the good food and hand him some extra tips for tickling his taste buds. In doing so, he befriends the chef and gets to know a little bit of secret of the good cooking. One of his analysis that I would always remember is – you must not make the arms of sofa too wide – the reason being, not to let anybody sit on the arms. That’s a brilliant piece of analysis – if people start sitting on the arms of your sofa in the restaurant, you can imagine how long it will last.

Lesson 3 – Adapt well. If you adapt the good aspects of competitive brands, you will obviously be able to make your brand stand out among the plethora of other brands. Take case of Bikram – he is a superb adapter. Out of his observations and analysis, he has decorated the interiors of his restaurant with warm orange colour. He says, “Orange colour stimulates your appetite.” He has taken care to choose high quality cutlery, crockery, lighting, seating arrangement and well trained staff. Those are the results of the cues he had taken from his observations at the different food joints.

His observing and analysing skills have given an extra edge to his brand. His menu is full of foods that have something special in comparison to the same ones served in other restaurants. He has managed to build a team of highly qualified chefs with tasty hands (who can with the touch of their mere hands turn any food into delicacies). To my surprise some of them are the ones whom he had thanked earlier for the good food. I must describe his adapting expertise a further – he has managed to design tables similar to a restaurant in China, he has managed to summon a sofa maker who used to make sofas for the royals.

After talking about the O&A (observing and analysing) of branding, now I must talk about the human aspects of building brands. It’s crucial to maintain the camaraderie and spirit in your team. Otherwise the brand can crumble down any moment. Now let me take the case of Bikram once again – he has 27 staff and he never forgets to celebrate their birthdays with a blast. Out of 365 days, he keeps aside 27 days to make his staff think that they are the special ones at his restaurant. And this motivates his staff and his brand gets further momentum.

Brochure basics

Are you worried about producing a product brochure? Worry not – with a realistic plan and brainstorming with the relevant colleagues, you can come up with a compelling brochure that markets your product instantly.

The first and foremost thing you need to decide is the size and shape of the brochure. Depending on the content you have prepared, the size and shape varies. However, my advice is, go for the regular shapes. The awkward shapes and sizes not only make it cumbersome for the readers but also pull the hair out of the designer’s head.

However, the target audience remains the boss and you must be willing to change your design, shape and size of your marketing material as per their mindset. If kids are your target audience, they won’t go for voluminous texts. They would love to have their favourite cartoons and in their case, you can go for creative shapes – octagonal, hexagonal with sparse texts and lots of illustrations and pictures.

The font that you use determines the tone of voice of your brochure. I have seen people using Comic Sans MS font even in serious writing. I would recommend choosing the font as per the seriousness of your message. Verdana, Arial, Times New Roman, Garamond – all of these regular fonts carry seriousness with them. Calligraphic fonts like Lucida Calligraphy are widely used by the artists. The only advice from my side is, use the fonts as per your key message. Don’t use more than three different fonts in a single brochure.

Choosing the colour of the brochure is again yet another challenge. As you all know each colour has its own personality, you must be careful enough to match the personality of your reader with the colour that you are going to use in the brochure. The right colour makes your marketing message click in the minds of the consumers easily.

The images that you place along with your message should create a lethal combination to get your motive across. The images should be clear, forward facing and interacting with the audience. You can leave the headache of placement and adjustment to your designer. In case you are the designer, I would advice – don’t get taken away by any other designs, create your own design from the void. Have you heard? Some advertising agencies have empty rooms painted with perfect white to allow the creative guy to create something genuine out of nothing.

Now the content crunching – write and rewrite your message till you are satisfied with what you have written. Read aloud the paragraphs and sentences in your cubicle when you are alone – this will give you a fair idea of your mistakes and the tone of voice of your content.

And yes, start with a bang! The first few paragraphs should content all the 5Ws and 1H – i.e. let know the audience of what, why, where, when, which and how of your message. Don’t remember to make the starting sentence interesting – it’s an old trick of generating interest among the readers to read further. Then you can slowly start talking about the features and benefits of your product.

Remember not to put any jargons and bombastic words. You are not exhibiting your vocabulary power to the audience but you are trying to convince them, to make them buy your product. Keep in mind - not a single sentence should be out of order and every single paragraph should be linked to each other. This creates a wave of flowing words and sentences which arouses interest among the readers and eventually creates interest to purchase your products.

Pull quotes and testimonials are another way of highlighting your product or message in the brochure. If used properly, they alone can convince the readers. If the small box with the gist of your key message and call to action is well crafted, consumers will vie for your product without reading the whole brochure.

Slogan marketing still works and if you can come up with an interesting title, slogan and subtitles, it will not only organise your content well but will also make the read interesting.

Lastly, don’t forget to include a detail contact address at the end of your brochure. A URL of your website and contact mailing ID will make your brochure interactive. The interested customers will visit your website for detail information and even write to you about the product.

Go ahead and create your own product brochure!

Go nuts, create lasting brands

Never feel shy to tell your crazy ideas. (c)www.morguefile.com

“Branding” has created a special brand inside my heart. The man behind instigating the brandophile (I am not a cigar band collector, but a brand lover) inside me is – I would call “nuts”. He is an IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) and IIM (Indian Institute of Management) alumnus. In fact he is a gold medalist at both the top institutions. We call him “GB” and he loves the monicker.

There’s an interesting aura around him. Before he starts a class, he asks, “Does anyone have asthma?” If the answer is “yes” then he goes outside and puffs his famous “India Kings” cigarettes. If the answer is “no” then he apologises first and then starts smoking in the class itself. He smokes none other than India Kings.

When the class gets tough, he takes a break and sips few drops of “Chivas Regal” right from the small shiny aluminium bottle tucked carefully inside his coat. It’s the one and only whisky that he drinks.

He always rides an “autorikshaw” and asks the driver to wait for him till he completes teaching – it could even take more than two hours – till then the driver keeps waiting, and he pays the guy for the waiting.

His way of teaching is totally different from the traditional teachers who go by syllabus and lessons. He deconstructs the boundaries and creates his own interesting lessons via anecdotes and examples which create an everlasting impression in your memory. He is a strong brand himself and I bet most of my classmates and his students remember him – he has created a “top of mind recall” among the hordes of teachers.

Now you may be wondering why I am talking about the past and GB while sharing some branding tips with you all – well, GB is a live example of creating long lasting brands. Some tips to create lasting brands follow the first tip of going nuts (this is the term GB uses when he finds someone creative and crazy).

Think outside the box. To create lasting memories and lasting brands, you need to think outside the box. The top of the mind recall can’t be gained by thinking like what all morons do all the time. To think outside the box, you need to rise above your normal level and think crazy, but with strings attached to normalcy.

I have created many advertisements, but the one that emerged as an “Eureka” when GB asked us to create short commercials within a time span of 15 minutes, is what I always consider one of my best short and sweet advertisements.

It goes like this – my product is a boot polish and I create frames of black and white for the advertisement. First frame – it’s totally dark and black, a firefly whizzes past and in the glow of it’s tail appears an outline of a boot and the word “SHINING” appears in the background. Frame two – again the boot is shown, and a spider is shown crawling up the boot, but like King Robert’s spider, it falls down each time, and the word “SMOOTH” appears in the background. Frame three - black paint is being poured on a white surface from a paint can, an ant emerges out of the paint and walks tiny steps creating black marks as it walks by, and the words “PERFECTLY BLACK” appear in the background. Then in the last frame – “XXXXX Boot Polish” appears in the background.

Isn’t it interesting and outside the box? The advertisement has created a brand of its own in my grey matter. So can your ideas create a lasting brand in the minds of your customers.

Content is the king. You all know, consumer is the king, but I love to say otherwise. If your product is not up to the mark, then advertising and branding don’t make sense. The branding will further deteriorate its brand value. It’s like negative marketing – the word spreads faster when your voice is louder. If the product is good, it’s certain to create ripples in the market and create a known brand in its segment. However, if the product can’t meet the expectations, it will be dumped into oblivion faster than your expectations.

Spread your social tentacles. When I say tentacles, it’s none other than networking. It’s not only the social networks Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the whole lot of other social networking sites but the brick and mortar chain of associations, distributors, wholesalers, retailers and loyal customers. They are the ones who talk good about your brand, pulling more and more customers into your network. Networking is not only useful but essential in this world of competitiveness. Even the hundred year old companies are vying for respectable spaces and fan following in Facebook and Twitter.

Knowledge is never enough. Keep updating yourself with the new findings and theories in the field. Read, read, accumulate and spread the knowledge – because knowledge is power. Start from classics like “22 Immutable Laws of Branding” by Al Ries and Laura Ries, and I say sky is the limit. Devour all the interesting reads in branding. The ones I would recommend are “No Logo” by Naomi Klein and “Unleashing the Ideavirus” by Seth Godin. Browse the internet and choose the best ones, book reviews will help you sort out the best ones.

Revitalise the brand. Nothing is perpetual. You need to keep on adding fuel to keep the engine going. So is the branding. You need to keep on revitalising your brand periodically. If you observe the major brands, you will see that they have changed their brand identities over a period of time to keep up with the pace of growing competitiveness and keep them fresh in the minds of customers.

Wrapping up, you must come up with something intriguing, genuine, and unique to catch the customer’s attention. For this as GB says and I say, you must go nuts – the ideas will start unleashing and flourishing.

Buffaloes on my plate

I was in Terai – the plains in Nepal recently and saw a sea of buffaloes sleeping in the shade of mango trees after taking a satisfying bath in the pond nearby. They had their bellies protruded out and their calves wandering around them with their heartfelt boos. The herder was whistling a song from a recent Bollywood flick, perched on one of the mango branches. Few children rearing goats were playing marbles nearby and their goats were grazing in the open fields nearby.

Maweshi Haat and the buffaloes
A farmer was beating the pair of buffaloes as it could not pull the plough with much ease as earlier. He was scolding them while plouging, “I will sell both of you tomorrow in the Maweshi Haat.” Maweshi Haat is a makeshift marketplace to sell and buy the domestic animals buffaloes, oxen, and cows.

The next day, I was at the Maweshi Hat. The sight of the Maweshi Haat took away the breath out of me. Most of the owners were hitting their buffaloes and oxen to take them to the main marketplace. The environment was filled with the pain and cry of the innocent animals. All of them looked pale and pallid. The buyers looked like crooks and the sellers – adamant to sell everything they had. After haggling over costs, the buyers took the animals to makeshift sheds. All animals were shouting at their best knowing that they were being taken to a different place and were being departed from their masters of so many years. All the buffaloes were tethered at a point and all oxen and cows were tethered to another point. A day after they will be taken to two different places – cows and oxen to Bangladesh and buffaloes to Kathmandu.

Journey to Kathmandu
The herd of buffaloes is made to move into a truck. Inside the truck they are again tethered and tied – their necks are tied with a rope so that they do not move around and create a mayhem among themselves. Also their tails are tied. The more than 12 hours of journey to the capital, Kathmandu, itself is a journey to death. The buffaloes even die in the way before reaching Kathmandu due to the jolts, abrasions and wounds.

Death at last
The buffaloes are then taken to the slaughterhouses. A group of overjoyed men tie ropes to each leg and pull towards opposing directions with all their might. Then a man hits the buffalo on the head with a huge wooden mallet. As the buffalo starts stumbling, he chops its head with a huge knife. Then the skinning and cutting meat pieces start which is a much disturbing scene. Even the vultures snatch the meat pieces with much sobriety.

Delicious momos on plate
Thus killed buffaloes cater to the hungry needs of more than 3.5 million Kathmanduites. The momo shops are ubiquitous, present in each nook and cranny of the valley. The price ranges from NRs. 20 to NRs. 75 (around USD 1). The Chinese cuisine has been the largest sought after fast food in the valley and has been the cause of merciless killings of millions of buffaloes.