As part of the leadership series, MICA recently hosted Mr. Bhaskar Choudhuri, Chief Marketing Officer, APAC, Lenovo. In a session titled, ‘A Marketer’s Journey: from Chocolate to Chips,’ he shared his journey, how the consumer journey has evolved and what goes behind successful marketing campaigns such as Cadbury’s ‘Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye’.
An alumni of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Mr. Choudhuri is a passionate marketer and has worked with Cadbury for over 10 years before joining Lenovo. He has expertise in FMCG, Consumer Technology and B2B technology businesses.
Cadbury Dairy Milk Campaign
Speaking of this campaign, he said, “During the early 2000s, Dairy Milk was the category leader and enjoying the pink of its health. However, as brands, we need to constantly re-examine the question – What Next? We found out that the adult penetration of chocolate was only about 10-12% and in rural areas, it was even lower. So, our task was how do we penetrate further.”
They started by decoding the role of Meetha in Indian’s life and found that Meetha is the harbinger of anything auspicious. This, it had a tremendous amount of cultural quotient which was deeply entrenched in the culture. Working on this insight, they positioned Cadbury as an over the counter sweet.
Around this time, Dairy Milk landed on the proposition – Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye. They equated chocolate with sweets to increase adult penetration. The brand, he said was an accompaniment to the best moments of celebration. Thus, we were the icing on the cake and not the cake. The campaign unfolded and the first set of advertisements built was of Shubh aarambh. They launched Cadbury Celebration as an offering for the same, and it was treated as a sub-brand of Dairy Milk.
However, as the consumer’s needs evolved and the campaign started gaining traction, they moved from Meetha to Mithaas. Thus, they moved from owning the OTC to tapping into the emotion. If you look at Dairy Milk Silk today, it is befitting the ‘To Satiate’ emotion, which is built on fulfillment leading to complete indulgence.
How has the Consumer Evolved
With the advent of digital, a lot has changed in terms of consumer behaviour. The consumer journey is not linear anymore and multiple touchpoints have increasingly become important. The single biggest thing which has happened is the phenomenon of Showrooming – i.e., the practice of examining products and merchandise in a store but buying it online at a lower price. The more you research, the more the consideration set expands. The brand set expands before it starts converging in the digital era.
From Chocolate to Chips: A Transition from FMCG to Tech
Highlighting the key difference between the FMCG and Tech Industry, he said, “There is a considerate purchase in case of technological products, whereas chocolate is primarily an impulse category.”
They started by researching and finding out the touchpoints where a consumer buys a personal computer.
An illustration of Consumer Journey Decision Making:
He said that Indians spend the most time on research than any other part of the world. They like to watch online reviews, popularly in vernacular. Quoting the example of Technical Guruji, he said that though the review might be vernacular, it is extremely technical. It debunks the myth that knowledge is in English.
The Case of Lenovo
At Lenovo, they were the late entrants into the smartphone category. In 2013, it was launched in India at a time when the market was saturated with more than 50+ players already existing.
During that time, like FMCG, phones used to rely on the fairly conventional root to market - retail distribution. However, most new brands used to take the route of modern trade. As a mobile or technology brand, the synonymous of Large Format Retail was e-commerce.
One tactic used on e-commerce was Flash Sale - Sale would open at a particular time during the working day of the week. And in minutes, everything would get sold out. This concept was banking on the concept of scarcity.
The insight used for flash sales in marketing was very similar to Movie Marketing.
Each sale was a matter of seconds Every movie marketer tries to maximize traffic on the first day of the week - sometimes with the help of positive review and sometimes despite negative reviews. Even as Digital Marketers, the concept was to maximize traffic and make it peak during specific hours.
FMCG vs. Tech
On a concluding note, he shared his learnings across the two industries and said that FMCG teaches you the rigour of Marketing. However, due to the obsolesce in the Technology industry, it becomes imperative to fail fast and learn fast.
All technology products have thus purpose-built within them. The trick is constantly endeavouring to make the consumer's life better and use insights to activate consumer touchpoints.