In the New York time bestseller, A Man called Ove by Fredrik Backman, Ove has decided at the age of eight that he would never drive any car but a ‘saab’. Rest of his life he finds no reason to change his preference while he gets uneasy when his friend moves to a different brand like BMW. A similar pattern is visible all across developed countries where an Apple user will stand outside a store in long queues, maybe overnight, to buy a new launch, which might be just an upgrade & will never move to an Android product. The consumer will swear for a cola drink, star wars series or any other ‘music, movie, pop star & would continue to be loyal for this brand for theirs life to come.
If I try to look across the Indian consumer’s mindset, I am surprised to note that he is quite indifferent to Nike, Puma or Adidas or Lux, Dabur, or Patanjali. We generalize this indifferent pattern of consumers by categorizing him or her into a ‘price conscious’ category where the consumer opts for a product where the price is cheap while he is easily switching his preferences from one brand to another.
This above generalization seems quite obvious for an entry-level product like a phone brand of less than 10K MRP say ‘MI’ or an entry level car like ‘Alto’ where the consumer is subject to price consciousness but is this a fact for all across segments & products too? Another pattern that can be visible at a certain age may be thirteen to twenty-four or a certain income group may be up to 1 Lakh per month income group where the pattern can be ‘follow your peer’. The consumer is more agreeable to a product already used by the family, friend, or neighbor & becomes an aspiring product to buy.
However, the moment he crosses that category like age of settling down in life after twenty-five or an income group of more than 1 lakh a month, the desire to be differentiated from others is high to choose a brand but still the brand loyalty is far from visible. The preference to switch to a high-end product like an SUV for that matter or a better performing AC or better performing laptop which differentiates a consumer from the rest is apparent but where is the loyalty which is too high in the USA or Europe? The consumer is ready to buy any brand provided it gives him some recognition, looks respectable in his new class of peers and is a better performing product without compromising on the price. It is immaterial whether the consumer buys this product from Flipkart or Amazon or a local bazaar or whichever brand he is buying.
This analysis leads me towards one basic principle on which the entire mindset of Indian consumers stands. Our entire scriptures are based on the fact that we as individuals have three divisions i.e. body, mind, and soul. The body is mortal while the mind has to be nourished with a healthy body and the soul is ultimate to be happy.
In this basic division if I try to put across all the brands the products can be categorized into three categories one which we take ‘inside the body’ (eatable, drinks, medicines, etc), two which is ‘over the body or used by the body’ (clothes, shoes, cars, phone, laptops, etc.) and third which goes ‘inside the mind’ (music, entertainment, cricket, Bollywood, etc.). The first two categories are static in nature while the third one is too dynamic in terms of changing time, moods, age, and so on.
Now looking at each of these three categories there seems to be the highest brand loyalty of an Indian consumer towards what goes ‘inside the body. People could prefer to drink a whisky (provided it’s available), eat a meal from a restaurant of choice (quite obvious on the repeat orders from zomato, etc.) or any other item which goes ‘inside the body’ say medicine or toothpaste even if there is a chance of tiny part going in. The loyalty level gets reduced in the third category like ‘inside the mind’ where preference is ‘adequately loyal’ but due to every changing dynamics of this category the loyalty can easily be impacted or swayed or automatically changes. The second category which is most important and large from a brand owner’s point of view i.e ‘over the body’ the preference is of very low loyalty of Indian consumers across the products and price points.
Considering this aspect of the Indian mindset based on thousands of years, is there any way this loyalty can be created in the Indian consumer is the moot question? The answer to this question goes back to the Indian consumers more than a hundred year’s habit of relying upon his nearby shop where the seller is operating the store for ages and gives “personal assurance” to the buyer rather than brand warranty, guarantee, or performance. This personal assurance tag fits across the products falling into the category of ‘over the body’. The brands though have tried this personal assurance idea by placing the so-called salesman in the stores trying to inform a consumer but the moment these products come online the personal assurance is completely missing and what a consumer is buying is a commodity and not a brand.
It would be better if the brands across their stores or in multi-stores start hiring smart ‘brand managers’ like ‘relationship managers’ hired by Banks or NBFC’s who while selling their product give a basic level of assurance that till the time he or she is associated with Bank/NBFC the services will be proper. This Brand Manager or relationship manager of the brand whether online or offline should be smart enough to give personal assurance for a product. Hopefully, brand loyalty of a certain degree can be expected with this step for the ‘over the body’ category while for other categories this can be increased by the same strategy.
***
The views expressed above are personal in nature. Kindly refer detailed disclaimer as available on the website.
