Go Beyond Sales To Stay Ahead

Managing product brand, as well as corporate branding, has become a challenging area. Today, each firm is making efforts to increase brand equity and public relations (PR) has emerged as the favourite tool. Social media is the most-sought-after medium now for making the correct noises at the right time and places. Moreover, of late, corporate social responsibility and its different offshoots have been sought after as a part of the PR strategy.

Researches of David Aaker and Jean-Noel Kapferer are still very relevant when it comes to brand management. However, firms in India have moved far ahead when it comes to establishing and maintaining a sustainable competitive edge through brand equity. Interestingly, with the ever-increasing array of product variants and brands, customers were never more confused than now. To top it all, an incessant barrage of marketing communications has created complete chaos. Social media chatter and paid blogs are giving a rich flavour to this clutter.

To be seen as a responsible/preferred brand in the market, firms have gone too deep into complex, strategic thinking. Another dimension that has created a double whammy for business leaders is that all these exercises have been tied to some tight and tangible sales targets. Nowadays, most of the Indian firms are driven by year-on-year and month-on-month sales figure comparisons. But then, if every step that a company takes is tied to an increase in sales, we become too myopic. This trend was identified and very well presented by Theodore Levitt in his celebrated work titled 'Marketing Myopia', published in the Harvard Business Review.

In his paper, Levitt has said that by being too product-centric, we become myopic and it takes us away from the dynamic region of customer evolution. For instance, when oil was the primary source of energy and light, the Arabs thought they were gods till Thomas Edison came out with the electric bulb. Similarly, the US railways lost 80 per cent of the freight revenue to roadways because the railroad companies always thought they were the only players in the market instead of considering themselves as part of the transportation ecosystem. I also found the exact figure of Indian Railways' freight revenue decline when they invited me a few years ago to conduct a training programme on services marketing. It means whether it is in the US or India, customer empathy is the key to survival. Another fascinating question is there in the paper. The author asked what would happen to the multibillion-dollar detergent industry when dirt-free fabric would hit the market. In brief, there will be a few short-term market leaders who will rule for a decade at the most. But the sunrise sector of today will be a sunset industry tomorrow. And yes, exceptions will exist.

Levitt's paper was first published in 1960, but considering the approach of the firms today, it is still relevant. For a firm, sales cannot be the only lifeline for survival. A firm is a perpetual entity, but its permanence comes from its customers. It is a relationship, an association. And this association is built through service. Again, service means serving and serving is all about humility. It is about running that extra mile for your customers. Many industry pundits go against this viewpoint, saying customers today are disloyal and they will go to anybody who gives a lower price or something extra. I counter this argument with the following example. With the onslaught of organised retail, especially the malls, unorganised retail outlets should have perished by now. But this has not happened. Conversely, many malls have closed down after incurring huge losses. The reason why unorganised retail has survived is that it has customer empathy on its side. The outlets had clung to it and changed their business practices. They started offering small services and adopted a more personalised approach. As a result, the hitherto unknown 'store loyalty' has suddenly emerged.

Then again, service is an intangible thing and goes much beyond the literal meaning of the term. It can be some handholding somewhere - maybe, ignoring a small error of a customer. It also highlights the basic approach of the firm. For instance, there is an Indian air carrier that has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. I had flown with them and was greatly inconvenienced by the staff's indifference to people in challenging situations. I am also told no actions are taken against the carriers in India and hence, such an approach. But if an airline with similar price points and flight coverage arrives today, the scenario will change.

So, ideally, what should a firm do? How should it approach the market in the present scenario? We need to look at it by asking these vital questions: