Brands need to keep building newer muscles: Shuvadip Banerjee

The brand ‘Aashirvaad’ by ITC is now enters around 35 per cent of all Indian urban households. It is 40 per cent by volume when it comes to the branded data category, said Shuvadip Banerjee while addressing the audience at the e4m India Brand Conclave on the topic ‘Transition of brand building – then and now’.

Kickstarting the session, Banerjee talked about the 20-year journey of the brand. “When we wanted to enter the category, the usual set of consumer problems came through. There was consistency issue. We had a strong agricultural background and a backbone behind that. So, we thought to solve this problem because we will be going to the farmers directly, pick up the wheat from them and would do the necessary in terms of providing a consistent product whether it is a harvest or a non-harvest period. The other obvious fact came from consumers is that they need fresh atta. Therefore, that was the supply chain issue we needed to solve as well as the manufacturing unit issue. So, we ensured that the distance to market was low. During that time, it was around 250 odd kilometres and now it has come down significantly to 130-135 kilometres.”

“Back in 2002, we thought that if Aashirvaad needs to get built, there is angle of freshness and consistency that we will talk about and that happens because we know wheat. When we are talking about homemaker, then it was obvious to talk about the fact that she is an active nurturer,” he added.

Talking about transformation in the marketing process Banerjee elucidated, “The idea is to create different kinds of consumer base. As you take these content forward, you would be doing these segmentations using one of your publisher platform for instance Google, then it will be giving you lots of segments and will try to push across your content on basis of those sections. It is not only about this piece that you are pushing to the consumer through cohorts but if there is a call to action and when the consumer is clicking on it, your own assets are in sync.”

Concluding the session, Banerjee conveyed, “We will have different avatars as we progress. Customisation, as we all understand, is an important vector which consumers value a lot. We have also launched a new platform called ‘Aashirvaad Meri Chakki’ where you can choose your wheat, desired mix, the way you want to grind it and grammage. These are made once you order and delivered the next day. Brands need to keep building newer muscles. There is a lot that you need to build at the core which builds conversations. A few strategic pillars of digital marketing, that we believe are key for us are content based on value exchange, building connected experiences, excellence in full funnel marketing and creating connected data ecosystems.”