‘Be consistent but keep refreshing brand positioning’

On the occasion of e4m India Brand Conclave, industry leaders came together to talk on 'Consistent vs Persistent: The Long-Term Growth Plan’.

The panel was moderated by Vivek Bhargava, Co-founder, ProfitWheel. The other members were Arvind R.P., Chief Marketing Officer, McDonald’s India; Deba Ghoshal, VP & Head of Marketing, Voltas Limited; Neha Anand, Head, Global Brand and Marketing Communication, Automotive Division, Mahindra & Mahindra; Sai Narayan, Chief Marketing Officer, PolicyBazaar, Sneha Beriwal, Chief Marketing Officer VAHDAM India, and Supratik Sengupta, Head, Marketing – Consumer Health, Lupin.

Arvind started the discussion saying, "It's very important for marketeers to take control of the narrative as far as the long-term business growth aspirations are concerned. While one always delivers to the short-term part of the business requirements for the month and for the quarter but how to build a sustainable brand, how to build a brand that delivers on the business goals consistently, I think that's the task for marketeers. And, to do that, one has to be fairly consistent in terms of a brand positioning but also renewing the brand from time to time to make it relevant to today's conditions but it doesn't mean just advertising. The McDonald's example is also about consistent experience because that builds brand as much as all the other marketing efforts too.

So, I think consistency in terms of positioning and experiences is the bedrock for long-term business growth but also I would emphasize the fact that how can the brand keep reaching new consumers or light consumers because in the end most of the categories that we are talking about are under penetrated. In the India context, it's all about growing penetration, so reaching light buyers, new buyers is always a key imperative apart from converting the high intent consumers to today's sales and how can we be consistent on that but also important is building a business case for the various stakeholders." 

Deba Ghoshal accelerated the discussion. "As far as Voltas is concerned, I think we have been warriors across many generations and what we did was just to refresh the business cycle in an interesting way so that we are relevant to our end user decade after decade. I think if a brand looks at persistence. It should look at where I should be 10 years from now, that's about persistence. If a brand needs to look at being consistent, it's about the present. You need to be consistent in your business offerings. It's more about longevity vis-a-vis being persistent and more about being relevant when it comes to being consistent. However, I would also emphasize on the fact that refresh yourself, keep in mind that consumers are changing, the touch points are changing and your stakeholders are changing. It's not only about the end user, it's also about your other stakeholders. It is your brand adding value to your share for your shareholders.

Without a consistent or a persistent business, you don't have a brand," he said.

Continuing the discussion was Neha Anand. "When I look at the two words - consistency and persistency, I think for me, this anonymity holds true for consistency to go with trust and Mahindra as an organisation has been around for nearly over 75 years now, so trust for us is absolutely critical and I would say that kind of goes really well with the word. How do you remain consistent in a way that your customers consumers have that trust in you? I think when I look at the word persistent, for me the word that stands out would be relevance. So, how do you put your brand out or your message out, which is absolutely here and now. One is slightly long term and the other is more from a short term and a combination of two is really the winning formula. When I look at consistency, it's not just in the quality of products that you put out there, it's also the value and DNA of the organisation and authenticity of the organisation that people experience through the years, especially if it's been a brand that has been there for long.”

Since VAHDAM was the youngest brand on the table, Sneha Beriwal gave a slightly different take on how young brands look at this consistent versus persistent debate. She expressed," I don't think it's a consistent versus persistent debate. You have to be consistent. As people we evolve, that's what brands need to do. Coming to the persistent point of view I think the way young brands like us located persistency is actually an expensive marketing route and when you're young you are actually first trying to find out what is my consistent message that brings people to me".

Sai Narayan further said, "We persist the factor that insurance is a very complex category. It requires a certain amount of persuasion because no one actually wakes up in the morning thinking about the insurance or as a matter of fact people don't think about our category that much. So, that's makes it extremely important for us to be very consistent in what we are propagating. For example, our core is you know talking about protection as as category like building that category which is term insurance and health insurance. From day one we have been really very focused and committed to build a long-term brand. Despite not having big pockets in the beginning, we always felt that building a brand is super critical for a category about which no one thinks. Therefore, we have to be consistent".

"The way I look at consistency and persistency is what brand does in terms of both backend and frontend in terms of the communication, look and feel, and in terms of creating the brand grammar. That primarily is the consistency you keep on having a particular insight-based truth, which you keep on helping to the consumer and you change that because as an individual also you don't change. So, the consistency comes from that," said Supratik.

He continued saying, "I remember one quote of Roberto, who's an iconic Coca-Cola CEO, he said that anything white on the red should be read as Coca-Cola. So that comes from consistency. Persistency is little bit different in my vocabulary in a sense that persistency is something when you need to be persistent when you face a challenge. As a marketeer, we face multiple challenges like you can be consistent, big brands are consistent but small or medium brands, they need challenge they meet sometimes face the challenge of a budget maybe a culture issue, media penetration issue and how do you navigate through those things, that is when the persistency comes."