News from the Ad world

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) operates in around 10,000 villages in India. The number may look small considering India is a land of over 6 lakh villages, but it is important for a company, especially one with a portfolio as large as HUL, to identify the right markets and map products to markets, explained Ashish Rai, head, rural business and alliances.

Classifying the portfolio in the rural context as low penetration and high penetration brands, Rai explained the role of both.

“For high penetration brands we want to develop salience and for low penetration brands we want to develop consumption. There is a four to five-year lag between any category developing in urban versus in rural. For example, hair or fabric conditioners take off in the urban markets but it takes time for them to reach the rural markets. And when I say rural, I mean the bigger villages. But we know that the gap between taking off in urban and rural is becoming shorter. The plan for us as pioneers is to see if we can develop categories ahead of anybody else in the top villages," said Rai.

He cited current low penetration categories in rural such as hand wash, body lotion, face wash and fabric softener, and noted that these would eventually pick up, like they have in urban markets.

He listed the following points that help bridge the urban-to-rural gap:

·       Market development: High intensity engagement to demonstrate tangible benefits - very clear proof of why a product will work.

·       Availability.

·       Benefit community: If opinion leaders talk positively it is then very likely that people will accept the brand. Need to ensure community gets involved.

·       Combine with high impact activity for one day so nobody can miss it.

·       Products may not sell from day one. Remind retailer that the brand is going to invest a lot in the village thereby keep him interested in stocking the products. Unless done at scale, one cannot expect sizeable change. Need to look at this as investments in advertising, as these categories cannot be developed overnight. They need a gestation period of two to three years.

Dabur India’s mantra: Awareness, affordability, availability

For Dabur India, rural markets account for 40% of its revenue. Presenting pointers for organisations looking to win in rural India was George Angelo, ED, sales at the FMCG major.

While talking about the Indian rural markets Angelo said, “The challenge for FMCG is that you have 29 states with at least 30 main spoken languages. Brands play out very differently in the various socio-cultural regions across India. You have categories that are at different stages of development in the country. Large organisations of the country who have understood this and developed products accordingly which are relevant to particular geographies, or have customised communications that are in line with the way people process information, have been successful.”

Dabur has targeted 10 States that account for 70 per cent of the potential. These comprised about 360 districts, of which Dabur decided to focus only on 312 districts. The company also scouted for talent from within the villages.

Brazil 2014 showed once again why sponsors need to grow some balls

If learned anything from Brazil 2014 it is that England are still rubbish at football and that Germany always perform. But we have also learnt that brands that sponsor sporting events can no longer sit in the stands when the tournaments they support are controversial.

Social media and global access to news from host countries means that allegations of corruption, excessive expense and news of protests can have major implications for the brands that simply want to be part of the uplift and excitement that top level sport brings with it. Sponsorship has moved on from the days when brands simply slapped a logo on an event and left it at that. It is increasingly part of an integrated campaign that could be designed to build engagement, create business relationships or even build corporate social responsibility credentials rather than simply boost awareness.

From now on, just pressuring FIFA (or any other global sporting body) to change privately won't be enough, brands need to be seen to be acting on the side of the public. However, the worst thing they could do would be to protest "just for show".