Brand building and people’s choice

Rohantha N A Athukorala

Last week the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing with A C Neilson staged the fifth edition of the People’s Awards 2011. To me it was not an awards ceremony but more an insight to the psyche of a Sri Lankan consumer that I feel every company must spend time to understand.

The logic being that the awards reflected the apparent deep rooted value of a Sri Lankan consumer being traditional in its DNA but having a rub off modernity which is an interesting concept. Let me attempt to capture some of the insights but I am sure with some formal research a better insight can be made.

I guess for the third year running if a brand is selected by a representative cross section of people from the country to be called the people’s choice of the favourite household brand, there must be something right in the mix that the brand marketeers must be strategizing and executing in to achieve this accolade.

This achievement stands out all the more, given that it’s managed by multinational Reckitt Benckiser which believes in practising marketing that will factor in global synergy.

Some of the insights are that using local language in its communication pieces whilst also ensuring that the creatives are in sinc to the local consumer can be singled out.

Separately the continuous investment towards product development catering to the many surface areas of the evolving lifestyle in a toilet area of a house can also be highlighted in my view.

I guess the range of packaging offering will add to the needs of the decerning housewife of Sri Lanka who getting smart and sharper in their purchasing decisions.

Another pick up can be how a market leader brand needs to keep the category interesting in the minds of a target consumer.

In this perspective the CSR initiative of highlighting the many ways in which Cleanliness can be achieved in a toilet would have contributed to this brand to be selected as the People’s choice of the most favourite household brand in my view.

Youth TV Channel - ITN

Another cracker that really gave some insight to the new age psyche of a Sri Lanka was when ITN was selected as the Youth TV Channel of the year. It was not the much showcased private sector networks that staged Singing Star and Dancing Star competitions that was the Top of the Mind brand but a government managed flagship TV channel that set the stage of television in Sri Lanka.

May be a geographic analysis will give more insight on where the skew is and it must cross check against viewership ratings to see if the Top of the Mind brand is actually watched by youth who claimed it was the people’s choice on the attributed popularity.

People’s sportsman

The traditional deep rootedness once again emerged when Sanath Jayasuriya was selected by the people as the sportsman of the people for 2011. While the personality has strictly not been in the media for continued performance in the yesteryear was definitely a very strong brand with a high share of voice (SOV) that has held the brand for this award. For sure competitor brands like ‘Murali’ and ‘Sangakkara’ would have had been in consideration but the choice went to the legendary Jayasuriya. May be a age wise and geographic analysis can reveal how political marketing had an impact to this decision.

People’s Bank

The people of North-East said the Most Popular advertisement is the Lux Beauty Soap ad with Abhishek and Aishwarya. Can the high penetration of cable TV be one of the reasons or is it the influence of Bollywood?	For the third consecutive year Harpic was selected by the people as the favourite household brand which indicates that a truly global brand can be localized to cater to the Sri Lankan requirements effectively

This was an absolute shocker. People’s Bank was selected by the people as the favourite in the financial and banking brand of the year.

Why I refer to this as a shocker is that the financial sector is one of the most entrenchedly competitive categories in the country which ploughs in almost Rs 2.4 billion only on advertising spend and with the below the line activity I am sure the total spend exceeds a five billion rupees with big brands like HNB, Commercial, Seylan as strong contenders.

But the chosen brand was a government owned brand called People’s Bank which many will not ideally associate with strong customer care and aesthetics associated with a private sector brand.

But the reality is very different. I guess it opens one’s mind that the Government can also deliver superior customer service even with all the ARs and FRs that are associated with State agencies.

Ceylinco

For the second year running the brand ‘Ceylinco’ to be picked as the most favourite insurance brand. It mesmerizes the public given the debacle that this company had to face with two of sister companies crashing in the market place.

All credit must be given to the brand marketing team who continued to drive marketing strategy with consistency that resulted in focused brand equity been developed in the Sri Lankan consumer that resulted in this choice by a representative cross section of Sri Lankans.

This also means that if a brand is entrenched in the minds of a Sri Lankan dislodging this proposition will be a tough call. Which means that in the formative years of building brand equity there has been heavy investment that is extended so that even if the brand runs into a rugged terrain it will stand its time in the mind of a Sri Lankan consumer. This may have some implication to the culture of the country and the deep rooted heritage that exists especially in rural Sri Lanka. My geographical analysis of the data might throw more light to this hypothesis.

Most popular brand

Singer coming in as the most popular brand can be tracked to the strong association that exits between the brand and the lifestyle of the general consumer.

The brand is a household appliance company that deals in high value and high involvement products where the purchase frequency in a category can be as seldom once a lifetime in certain homes.

Be it a dining room set or a fridge to be specific. All credit goes to the team behind the success when the contenders were such tightly closed lifestyle brands that included Dialog, Sunlight and Sony that gives us the strength of Singer.

Best ad in the NE

The most favourite advertisement to be selected by the people of the North-East as Lux beauty soap featuring Abhishek and Aishwarya shows us the influence of Bollywood that may be fuelled by the strong penetration of cable TV.

But may be an indepth analysis should be made as after all it’s one of the powerful brands in Sri Lanka and the messengers being the most admired couple in our part of the world. Hence should other brand marketeers use the same directional strategy is worth researching before the top dollars are spent is my view. We must also note that most multinationals will never extend any piece of communications without properly researching the creatives based on the desired objectives that need to be achieved from an overall brand perspectives.

One can make an inference that the overall creative was powerful too.

But it’s an interesting development as against the hundreds of local advertisements that one gets bombarded with given that Sri Lanka spends almost 35 billion rupees on brand marketing annually.

Lipton tea

In the hot beverage category with strong brands like Nestomalt that most consumers wake up with or being their breakfast for a branded tea product like Liptons to be selected by the people explains marketing at its best.

The logic being it was not very far away when 97 percent of the tea consumption was where consumers purchased it as a commodity, whilst most retail outlets used to stock the product in bulk form. But today, the category to be so attractive with over fifteen brands in play with Liptons being the choice of the people is a classic case study that needs more depth in the analysis.