Branding: Likely impacts of convergence

……Cont’d from last post

The Space Elevator is not a reality yet. Neither is the Jet Pack, the cultured meat or the food pill. None of this, however hurts as much as the lack of a Teleporter. For this little kid growing up in the slow paced, sedate New Delhi of the pre-liberalization days, Star Trek was a religion, Spock was almost a God(or at least what I wanted to be when I grew up) and the ‘Beam me up Scotty machine’ was the most practical and useful technology ever invented. The Teleporter was the fodder for a thousand daydreams, most often dreamt over unending, soul deadening school periods. To tell you the truth I still miss it on occasions.

Spock: This is what I wanted to be when I grew up. None of the pinching of the ears helped much though

In fact, as it turns out, most of the inventions that were promised by the science fiction authors of yesteryears have not come to pass. Yet, some of the stuff that has happened is nothing short of magical. Concepts like genetic engineering, the virtual world, nanotechnology etc. would all have been unthinkable for someone back in the ‘30’s or 40’s. One such development which has got me all excited these days is the much anticipated development of technological convergence or the coming together of data, telephony, Television and wireless services in a single network. Simply put, convergence will allow all these services to be delivered as data packets over a single network and instead of buying these services separately we will be buying them as a package from giant media/telecommunications/cable companies.

How would this affect the question of Branding discussed in the last post? While none of us has a crystal ball, its still a lot of fun to speculate about and try to imagine what might happen. I strongly believe that technological convergence will make it much easier for Marketers to stress different aspects of their brand to different audiences. If it is at all possible, then we might even see a world in which the same brand stands for different things for different groups of people. Such an event becomes a possibility because convergence will allow marketers to customize their product offerings/messages almost on an individual to individual basis.

Consider the following ads.







Both of them are Indian ads for the soft-drink major Pepsi. In terms of content, they are exactly the same. However, one of them has been made for North Indian audiences using Bollywood stars while the other ad has been made for South Indian audiences and uses stars from the Tamil film industry. Till today such efforts at customization of ads for different audiences whether based on location, or age or other demographic factors has been carried out at a very aggregate level. This means that many North Indian families living in the South would have had to watch an ad that they perhaps did not identify with. However, I believe that the coming of technological convergence will allow marketers to carry out such customization on a much more fine-grained level.

Traditionally, agencies like AC Nielsen in the US as well as MODE or IMRB in India used to monitor the TV viewing habits of a number of different carefully-chosen households. This information was then used to design TV shows for the next season. In contrast, the coming of web servers has allowed marketers to observe the online behavior of millions of consumers and to produce customized content/products as well as deliver customized ads to them. Once convergence happens, we will find that marketers or specific companies will actually be able to track not only consumer’s online behavior but also their TV and telephone habits. Marketers would probably be able to track what people’s favorite music is, what sort of movies they like or what their favorite color is. On top of this, by analyzing this raw information, they will also be making certain conclusions about things like what particular consumers suppressed desires are, what attributes they might want in a shoe or even who they might vote for in the next elections. How good or bad these conclusions are depends entirely upon the sophistication of the analysis methods used. Like any other science, I am sure the accuracy of such analyses will improve with time.

As this accuracy improves, marketers will be better able to customize specific content and ads and even particular product offerings towards particular segments. Given the fact that everything is transmitted over a single network as data packets, customization will be possible on an individual to individual basis. This means that in the same apartment building, a North Indian family might see the North Indian ad for Pepsi while their neighbors see the South Indian version of it, the older couple might be seeing more ads related to medicines while the younger ones might see more ads with sports stars in them.

Not only will such customization be possible on an individual to individual basis but because of convergence it might be possible to carry out such customization in a very consistent manner across all media. Since the same network supports Cable, Telephony and Internet marketers can make sure that individuals always see the same ads across the various mediums thus ruling out any chances of dissonance in their idea of the brand. The price conscious customer might always see ads for a brand which stress its affordability while the style conscious consumer will always see ads which stress the style factor of the product.

Customization: Because different people want different things

Thus, we might end up in a world where the same brand has different identities for different segments of consumers. Of course, as I discussed in my last post it is highly arguable if such a thing is at all possible. Man being a social animal, social interaction and a process of back and forth feedback forms a big part of his forming an idea about a particular brand. This creates the scope for a lot of dissonance if everyone else has a completely different idea about the brand. However, whether or not a particular brand can have multiple brand identities is not important for this discussion, what is important is that the coming of convergence will provide marketers the ammunition to be able to try such stuff. At the very least they should be able to subtly emphasize different attributes for different consumers.

That in itself, is an exciting development. I have no doubt that a lot of marketing practices that we now follow will become obsolete or evolve rapidly in the coming decades. It looks like a really good time to have graduated from a B-school. Now if only the Teleporter thing worked out as well………..these airline prices are driving me crazy.

Brands: Is it possible to have multiple brand identities for the same brand?

One idea that has consistently fascinated me is the possibility of Multiple Brand Identities associated with the same brand. Can the same brand mean different things to different people? A quick search on the Internet threw up quite a few articles on the topic. Seems this is quite a hot debate in Branding circles, with no consensus among different experts. I may not have gotten a definite answer but I really liked some of the arguments put forward, in particular here , here and here .

Can a brand mean different things to different people?

The most thought-provoking argument was the one put forward by Faris Yakob in his blog where he says that “a brand is a collective perception in the minds of consumers”. In other words, a Brand only comes into being when consumers collectively start thinking of it in similar terms. By its very definition then, a brand which means different things to different people is not a brand at all. One may disagree or have different perceptions about the brand but all of that will be with regard to this single collective perception.

To me, this argument is brilliantly developed and looks very convincing. Man is a social animal and certainly does not form these constructs of brand identity solely in his own mind. At any point of time, there is always a process of social give and take where individuals, marketers and the media all add to, amend and reform the brand identity in a continuous negotiation of what that brand stands for. And it is this collective understanding that makes it a Brand.

By definition a social construct

True enough and yet not quite.

Consider the opposing argument put forward by Mr. Martin Lindstrom at this site . He points out the fact that even so- called ‘global’ brands will be perceived differently and associated with different values in New York, New Delhi and Lima. Thus, the same brand might need to tweak or adapt its messages to the local cultures in which it operates. Thus, the same brand needs to have different identities and messages to appeal to and to fit in with different groups of consumers.

To someone like myself who has seen McDonalds or MTV operating in both India and the US, this argument is absolutely understandable. To be sure, they share the same logo and there is a certain commonality in terms of the look and feel and yet, I can’t help feeling that an American walking into a McDonalds in India will be shocked. I remember reading that it is the same way with Wal-Mart in China. It is just not the same.

Mc Donalds in India: No Beef burgers served here.

Again, true enough and yet, not quite.

I believe the truth lies somewhere in between. Like the glass that is half-empty and at the same time half-full, I believe both viewpoints are right to some extent. There is no doubt that there needs to be a uniform underlying strand that permeates a brand whether it is being sold in Japan or in the US. At the same time, different people are different and to appeal to different groups marketers need to tweak aspects of the Brand identity so as to make it acceptable and attractive to different sets of people. I believe the trick here is to achieve the fine balance at which the brand messages to different groups are different enough to make the brand relevant to the different groups and yet not so different as to create confusion and dissonance as to what the brand really stands for.

How to achieve this fine balance? I have no clue. This is extremely slippery ground and my own thoughts are not very well thought through yet. In fact, my main thought in writing this entry was not to solve this debate but to see what role technology might have to play in it. (Technology and Marketing, my two favorite topics. As you can probably guess I lead an absolutely rocking life.)

To be continued in the next post.......