A packet of Marie biscuits is a staple in my pantry. I’ve never been fussed about which brand.
A flood of ads by Parle asking customers to demand Parle Marie made it to my media dark feed. My first reaction was that the ads are wasteful because they don’t explain WHY the customer must choose Parle Marie over the competition. The ads just highlight consumption occasions and demand that the consumer ask for “Parle Marie”.
Is it stupid or is it science?
There is actually a lot of empirical research around marketing, if you know where to look. This can help guide your strategy or validate a hypothesis. And you can of course check it against your internal data to see if you are on the right track. Some of these are contrarian notions.
Loyalty is a Myth
We all intuitively look for safety in our choices. We choose products and brands and people that are most likely to meet our expectations. Our risk appetite is personal.
I might be ok buying a low cost outfit from an unknown and untested brand on quick commerce for an occasion, but it might be a significant risk for another person. Factors such as importance of appearance, self-esteem, discretionary spend, importance of the occasion all come into play. If you were to ask me for my top choices of Indian ethnic wear brands it is FabIndia, Anokhi and Ritu Kumar – but my recent purchases are not by them, as they aren’t available on Blinkit.
I would hesitate to hire a chauffeur with less than a year’s driving experience and no reference. Yet I take that risk every time I rent an Uber. Salience+Availability is the key.
What’s the science
In the Ehrenberg-Bass way of thinking there is only mental availability and physical availability. No fuzzy wuzzy concept like loyalty.
Mental availability talks of your brand match in a category entry point. For example, for a biscuit this could be any of the following:
- – “I want to have a biscuit with my tea”
- – “I want to offer a plate of biscuits to my friend when she comes home”
- – “I need a biscuit to avoid acidity in the morning”
- – “I need tea and biscuits while watching the cricket match”
Physical availability means that your product is easily recognisable and available at the right time, price, pack size when the need arises.
So increase in sales relies only:
A. on your brand being associated with more and more usage occasions by more and more people.
B. Easy to identify and buy.
In the case of Uber, it is connecting the brand to “I need to go somewhere” and then making it super easy to find a cab. Newer entrants like Shoffr and the much lamented Blu Smart piggybacked on a specific usage occasion “I need to go to the airport”.
How do brands grow
The vast majority of Indian women have one ear piercing, usually done as an infant. It is a gifting occasion with relatives buying gold or diamond ear-rings, thereby kickstarting the girl’s jewellery collection. Till recently, more than one piercing was considered quite nonconformist. But with the rising popularity of multiple ear piercings amongst Gen Z, De Beers campaign positioning a natural diamond as the ideal second piercing gift from Dad is brilliant positioning. The ads are everywhere, including on quick commerce.
It’s a great lens shift – from yelling at your daughter for sneaking off to get her ears pierced, they have shifted the narrative to celebrating it with ear-rings bought on the spot. (From a social commentary perspective, second piercings and tattoos are a visible symbol of feminine body autonomy – a tricky space to navigate in India, but we’re starting the conversation with these ads.) And before you ask – years of conditioning make me reluctant to embrace these new trends, but never say never!
So the formula is simple – increase brand salience, associate with as many usage occasions as possible, and reduce friction to purchase.
Why are D2C brands floundering in obscurity
Here’s a list of 42 fastest growing D2C brands from Inc 42. It is based on receiving an application so a bit of self selection bias. I’ll forgive you for not having heard of them. Awareness is their greatest challenge. My long-held belief is that awareness can either be bought or earned. If you don’t have money you will have to expend time. You will have to be interesting. You cannot rely on the loyalty of a small user base – you are definitely going to have to grow your audience and reach a certain salience for someone to then give you the funding to further grow your base. It is no coincidence that many brands you are familiar with that don’t advertise have an association with or are founded by an influencer you follow.
There are 11,000 D2C brands – only 800 have some sort of funding as per this BusinessLine report. The rest are wonderful ideas doomed to be copied by a brand that owns awareness.
Back to Marie
“Control your variables” is a mantra I live my professional life by. Yes, I did try to do the same for my personal life but that hasn’t been as practical. Anyhoo.
I did wonder why Marie is so popular and untrademarked. It is a generic word for a tea biscuit in India which is probably why brands find it lucrative to stick with the name and just try to own the prefix. I did not know that the Marie biscuit is a global phenomenon with its origin being attributed to a London bakery, Peek Freans, to commemorate the marriage of the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia to the Duke of Edinburgh. That explains why it sells under a generic name rather than a trademarked one like Oreo. And why every large biscuit brand around the world has it in their portfolio.
With all this context, the Parle Marie campaign follows a text book approach to marketing based on research by Sharp & Romaniuk:
1. Identify category entry points in your market – the WHEN, WHY, WHERE, WITH WHOM customers buy
2. Using real life examples and repetition – rather than abstract taglines – build association with these category entry points
3. Use distinctive brand assets to reinforce these cues
4. Don’t rely on one messaging – build multiple cues to grow salience
Help me grow!
Decades ago a doctor scheduled my delivery for the next day as today is May Day and a holiday! Can I shamelessly ask for a prezzie? Share this newsletter with a friend. They can subscribe by just replying with the word “Subscribe”.
Happy May Day!
