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4Ps
Feeling good in bad times
Whoever said ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’ was not just a true genius at word play; but also one who had possibly seen-it-all happen to the so-considered ‘great brands’, from atop the citadel of capitalism... A ground reality check by Aditi Prasad
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 Swapan and Kanha are having a harrowing time these days. Exams are round the corner and to add to all their mugging-up stress is their mother’s unrelenting commitment to feed them wholesome meals, which she says would increase their memory (thank you mom… irrespective of all those leafy meals, the Berlin Wall still fell in 1989!). Their daily dose of the yummy Horlicks-flavored glass of milk, three times a day, is perhaps the only bright light in this gloom-filled examination period.
Unlike these strained teenagers, examination time (January-March) every year is a great time for health
drink powders like Horlicks and Boost, Glaxo Smithkline’s (GSK) flagship health drink powders for kids. It is GSK’s peak sales period, following which demand slumps by about 10-12%, thanks to a near-halt in hot drinks by consumers in the ensuing summer months. And so begin the good times for kids and bad times for brands like Horlicks.
A couple of summers ago however marketers at GSK decided to challenge these bad times head on. They launched a cold-consumption campaign for Horlicks – first by teaming up with the launch of the successful movie Ice Age 2 in India and then by roping in the Taare Zameen Par child star Darsheel Safary and adding summer variants to their portfolio. The chilled drink positioning for Horlicks not just translated into red-hot national sales for Horlicks during the summer of 2008; but also gave the brand a chance to keep its visibility high throughout the year.
Here’s another story. In Y2K, McDonald’s globally began facing the worst time in its juicy-burger history and reported its first quarterly loss in 2002. The book Fast Food Nation had captured the imagination of America and sales slipped on the back of increased health consciousness. What did the global QSR chain do? It fought back! It launched healthy burgers (?!); removed super size options from its menu; re-cast its mascot Ronald in a new ‘fighting fit’ avatar; launched a global ‘I’m Lovin’ It’ campaign; went on a market development spree by opening 1,200 overseas restaurants in 2003 alone; launched extensions like McCafe and McTreat, and more. The important thing is that today McD’s is on top of the situation again!
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 Recounting McDonald’s and Horlicks’ experiences is not simply to indulge in back-slapping about past successes in the troubled economic times that we face today. The idea is to see what they did to deal with their version of ‘bad times’. While the Horlicks’ positioning ‘win’ is merely a tale of a brand combating the phenomena of its cyclical sales; and McDonald’s was only trying to tide over a global health sentiment; this time the crisis is of global confidence. Globally, as in India, brands in the auto, financial services, FMCG and consumer durables sectors particularly are reeling under the liquidity crisis that the global economy is facing. Sure, America, Japan and Europe are in more trouble than India and China. But hey, remember the bright guy who coined the smartass phrase about the world catching a cold when America so much as stifles a sneeze? Well, so here is India, suffering from the global meltdown, despite a 6-7% projected growth rate, a 300 million strong consuming class in its infancy and more than 40 million government employees having just got tonnes of money thanks to the 6th Pay Commission. But banks are refusing to lend, so consumers have less to spend; some are getting the sack, so others are holding back (from loosening their purse strings that is!); there’s too much negativity in the air, but is it all fair?
Not really! Because the slowdown is temporary and brands that play their cards well will emerge stronger when the tide subsides. Globally, recessions and slowdowns have a knack for either making or breaking a brand. Take the 1930s depression. Unlike its rival dry cereal brand Post in the US market, Kellogg’s maintained its marketing spends. Kellogg went on to dominate the dry cereal market for the next 50 years. Beer company Miller almost doubled its ad spends during the late 70s recession. Seeing them, close competitor Schlitz also increased its spend. But it was a little too late. Schlitz was a virtual nobody when markets returned to normal, while Miller had gained considerable mind and market share.
But this is not merely about ‘abnormally’ increasing advertising spends. It’s about thinking out-of-the-box and daring to dream beyond the clichés of traditional business prototypes… It’s about fresh imaginations and beliefs… and it’s about your marketing programme in its entirety, from product development, to market penetration, to new markets, to your positioning (so that your brand is in sync with the ‘bad’ times). The good news is that a connected world has ensured marketers in India are not just prepared but are already devising and implementing exigency antidotes to deal with this ‘crisis of confidence’. Sure, the dampening last quarter results did cast a gloomy shadow over Corporate India, but for some, their creative – and not necessarily expensive – marketing tactics have begun to pay off, and handsomely at that! The fighter brands seem to have taken a leaf out of Millward Brown’s Survival Tactics for Marketing during Recession – a note published and widely circulated in May 2008.
Here they come…
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