Get your Marketing Mix elements right to become a strong brand. !!

Elements of marketing mix forms the foundation of a marketing strategy. From a brand perspective, it helps to create linkages across customer’s mind & ultimately helps the brand to be in the consideration set of customer. Traditional marketing mix consists of 4 P’s – Product + Place + Price + Promotion. In a more holistic approach, 3 addition P’s can be a part of marketing mix – People + Process + Physical (Transportation). Marketing mix establishes brand’s strategy in a more systematic & structured manner. Till mid 80’s, brands used to ride over the market on the basis of product attributes. For e.g. Sony was a clearly differentiated name in TV category comprising of players like Videocon, Texla. But in recent era, product attributes offer very less to differentiate in relation to competitors. The boundaries which are created on basis of product features don’t exist anymore among players like Samsung, BPL, Onida, Videocon. So, there is a desperate need to leverage out marketing mix elements to build up a strong brand. There are certain examples from Indian context where brands optimized at one or other marketing mix element to remain contemporary in market:

• “Iodex” was a leader in pain relieving creams & thus became complacent with its position in the market. Iodex belongs to a stable of Smithkline Beecham but came under severe attack from a small company Paras. Paras came into the market with their product “Moov”. Moov exploited the Iodex’s weaknesses – Black color leading to stains (Grease like feel), glass bottle packaging. Iodex responded back by changing various product attributes – Green color, Pain reliever in same form. Although, Iodex is trying to gain the lost ground but some damage is already done being complacent.
• Frooti has a higher brand recall than other carton drink brands & this success can be attributed to wide distribution network & consistency in promotion of brand (Same jingle is played in every ad – Mango Frooti, very very Juicy).
• Maruti was a market leader in automotive with a product like Maruti 800 & thus never tried to be innovative. But arrival of competitors like Hyundai, General Motors, Skoda, Daewoo, Fiat has propelled Maruti to come with new models – more towards in premium category. Maruti is also leveraging their wide distribution network & schemes like resale of Maruti cars.
• Amrutanjan brand is fighting hard to remain contemporary in pain relievers market. It launched a number of variants catering to different segments of market.

On the other hand, there are brands which failed since they couldn’t prioritize over which of the marketing mix elements needs to be leveraged. Certain examples are:

• Royal Enfield (350cc) was a major player in the motorcycles market till late 70’s. With the advent of players like Hero Honda (100cc), market expanded but Royal Enfield became a niche player from a mass market player. Royal Enfield‘s product “Bullet” has associations with being a rugged & macho personality. Much of this kind of personality can be attributed to purchase of bike by military people. Bullet is not able to break through this image & also not able to expand the niche so created.
• HMT watches were a big brand owing to Indian – made feature. But couldn’t keep it with times in terms of product attributes & promotions.
• Sometimes, companies like multi national companies take consumer granted in assuming the acceptance of their product. It happened in case of Heinz India. When Heinz launched their product in Ketch-up category, there were already well established players like Maggy & Kissan (HLL). On promotions factor, there was a need to first create brand awareness & then start building up the brand on product attributes. Contrary to this, Heinz stressed over the product attributes in its advertisements (Ketch-up is thick). People had no clue about the brand name itself in India but company assumed that Heinz would make up to the consideration set (consisting of Kissan, Maggy) of consumers but that didn’t happen.

Heinz also priced their product at a premium in a category like Ketch-up where penetration is 3-4%. So, company couldn’t crack through the customer base of established competitors & was more successful in institutional market. Heinz couldn’t leverage on two P’s – Place & Promotion J