Today’s consumers are a fickle, promiscuous lot. That’s why brands must constantly keep
them engaged
Monday the 28th of
December could have been yet another boring beginning to the week but Uber
Bangalore brought cheer to the residents of Bangalore with their Uber Puppies
program. It was a fairly simple program on the face of it but it did involve
enormous logistics. Uber had opened a window between 12 and 3 PM on Monday when
people could call the company and the company would send puppies for 15 minutes
to cuddle. It was a great move as it went viral on social media with excited
riders sharing their experiences and images on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
There was also a social objective
as the initiative might eventually result in people actually adopting stray
puppies at a later date as they got a preview of what bringing up a puppy might
mean if they actually went ahead. Uber had tied up with ‘Voice of Stray
Dogs’ (VoSD) for this. Often some incident sparks something in your own memory and
strikes a chord with you and I had a similar déjà vu moment. All my life I have
grown up with dogs, lived with them and loved them till I got married. As my
wife couldn’t handle dogs, I lived without a dog for several years and got a
dog as a back door entry through my second son. (You might call it emotional
blackmail which seems very common in marriages). Today; however several years
later my wife is the biggest dog lover in the family. Who knows how many
families will benefit from Uber Puppies day? But there is no doubt that the
brand is benefitting as it has from other initiatives like the chopper ride and
the luxury car rides it had organised recently, which brings me to the crux of
what I am attempting to write. Consumers are a fickle lot, particularly younger
ones who are constantly looking for excitement. Youngsters seem to get tired of
their girlfriends quite easily so where does that leave brands? So young brands
like Uber succeed because they keep upping the excitement quotient. It is
probably because of the many things that they keep doing that they are rated
the most disruptive brand in the world. See link https://twitter.com/forbes/status/677765492669591553
The slimmest watch in the world
Doing disruptive, innovative things is not only the
prerogative of new age companies like Uber but older, well established brick
and mortar companies as well. My mind goes back to 2002 and Titan Industries,
another company that I admire enormously. Titan was going through a slight
trough then and nothing was happening after a great and momentous start. In a
sense the brand was in an emotional low if you can call it that and then the
company did something truly disruptive. They came up with a watch which was the
slimmest watch in the world. It was an astonishing piece of engineering and the
advertising simply stated the powerful proposition in a manner that was
distinctive. Watch the commercial about the watch which made waves. This was a
breakthrough in more ways than one as the company suddenly rediscovered its
lost steam and made the market sit up and take notice. There was another
interesting side effect of this game changing strategy as well as its employees
too realised their own enormous potential and the things they could do to
change the entire category.
So where’s your next excitement?
Today’s consumers are a spoilt, promiscuous lot.
They are not even loyal to their spouses so brands are a poor second. Brands
have to do things dramatically different and often so that consumers remember
and value them. Brands like Uber keep doing things frequently. They keep
raising the consumer connect bar constantly surprising their consumers and
their competitors as well. Many other brands do different things as well but
sadly they do things too far apart and keep talking about the one innovation
they made in 1942. So the question to be asked is, “When did you last do
something exciting for your brand that left your consumer saying “wow”?” When was your consumer’s last wow moment with the brand?
Excitement can be hard work
Whether it is a Titan or Uber, we can read about it
and maybe even feel good about it for a short while. But when it comes to your
own brand it is not so easy because your competition too is trying to do
different things about its brand. Sadly it’s a winner take all world in brands.
If you are to be the winner, you must be paranoid not only about your brand but
about your consumer as well. Keep observing them, discover hidden unspoken,
unmet needs and work towards satisfying them.
Who knows what you might become tomorrow?
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