Holistic or Sustainable Marketing

Holistic or sustainable marketing refers to the ability of the company to be able to take into consideration the concept of inter-generational equity and work towards it.

Today, when global warming has becoming a serious issue and a growing movement, marketers should develop a holistic approach and think about how their steps affect the environment. They must ask themselves the question: What we are doing, is it sustainable?Can this be continued over a number of generations to come?

Thus, marketers have started following the triple bottom line approach today:

1)Economic growth

2)Society and human community: Are we creating growth by exploiting other individuals?

3)The living environment: Do our actions have damaging consequences for other living species like plants and animals?

Companies are shifting from the narrow approach of maximising bottom line(profits) to a more holistic approach,either due to increasing pressure from government or as an initiative by themselves.

HUL(Hindustan Unilever Limited) has developed a Unilever Sustainable Living Plan with three goals in mind: Improving health and well-being,reducing environmental impact,enhancing livelihoods.

Concentrating on their top 10 agricultural raw materials, they are on track in moving their suppliers to sustainable agricultural practices.

 Statistics:

• ·        25% of fruit purchased sustainably by end 2013.
• ·       76% of our top 13 vegetables and herbs purchased from sustainable sources by end 2013
•       49% of sugar sustainably sourced by end 2013.  
•      The total footprint from packaging waste to landfill has reduced by 11%. Efficient pack designs and innovative use of materials, as well as the disposal of sauce brands with large waste footprints, have been the main drivers. 

·       Approximately 97,000† fewer tonnes of total waste disposed in 2013 than in 2008. This represents a 66%† reduction per tonne of production.

Compared to 1995, this represents an 89% reduction in absolute terms.

·       75% (186) of our manufacturing sites achieved zero non-hazardous waste to landfill by end 2013, an increase of more than 50 sites compared to 2012.

·       New factories in India and Turkey started production in 2013. When fully operational each aims to dispose of zero non-hazardous waste to landfill and generate less than half the waste of those factories in a representative 2

99% of PVC removed from our portfolio by end 2012.

Analyzing Business Markets

The business market consists of all the organisations that acquire goods and services used in the production of other products or services that are sold or supplied to others.

The business market aspect for Kissan Jam would come in terms of it’s suppliers of raw materials for manufacturing.

When deciding on which suppliers to choose, a number of factors should be considered:

1)Competence: Keeping promises and performance delivery

2)Continuity: The continued existence of the supplier becomes important for future transactions.

3)Integrity: Fair dealing

4) Number of suppliers: Overdependence on one supplier can be a problem,therefore a company should have a good number of suppliers.

The major difference when dealing with businesses rather than consumers are:

• -       Formal organisation
• -       Purchase decision process
• -       Consensually agreed needs
• -       Quantifiable results
• -       Periodic insights
• -       High level of importance to integrity,competence and continuity of the business.

Analyzing Consumer Markets(Consumer behavior)

Consumer behavior is the study of how individuals,groups,and organizations select,buy,use,and dispose off goods,services,ideas or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants.

It is an important process in the buying decision of consumers and thus is important for companies to understand.

A consumer’s buying behavior is influenced by a number of factors:

1)Cultural factors: Culture in India is different from the culture abroad. Thus, cultural factors vary across regions and marketers must closely understand these cultural values to be able to market their product successfully.

2) Social factors: The people with whom we interact influence our buying behavior in many ways.

-       These people could be reference groups(family,friends,neighbours,co-workers), aspirational groups, or opinion leaders.

These groups affect our buying behavior in the following ways:

-       Expose us to new behaviors and lifestyles

-       Influence attitudes and self concept

-       Create pressures for conformity that may affect product and brand choices.

     3) Personal factors: Age and stage in life cycle,occupation and economic circumstances,personality and self concept.

Each person has specific personality traits on the basis of which he/she chooses a brand. Most people relate to a brand personality in terms of their own personality traits and beliefs.

Kissan stands for happy and wholesome food for kids to grow up, and thus attracts mothers as it’s customers.

The model of consumer behavior is explained as below by the stimuli-response approach:

The psychological processes that take place are motivation,perception,learning,emotions and memory.

For Kissan Jam, the mothers have a motive to buy the product for their kids to give them nutritious as well as tasty food,their perception process involves selective attention i.e they are more likely to notice it because it solves their current need.

Branding

A brand is a product or a service whose dimensions differentiate it in some way from other products designed to satisfy the same need. Consumers may evaluate identical products differently depending on how it is branded. So branding can explain why a consumer would prefer Kissan jam over any other bottle of jam.

Differences in response are a result of consumers’ brand knowledge, all the thoughts,feelings,experiences and beliefs associated with the brand.

Brand equity is the added value endowed on products and services. Customer based equity is the differential effect brand knowledge has on consumer to the marketing of that brand.

Brands can build brand equity in a number of ways:

1)Developing brand elements: Like brand names,slogans are an efficient means to build brand equity.

Kissan’s slogan ‘ deliciously wholesome products for kids to grow’ says all about it’s products.

2)Leveraging secondary associations:

Linking the brand to other information in memory that conveys meaning to consumers.(linking the brand to geographical regions,distribution channels,other brands,characters,spokespeople,events etc.)

3)Internal branding:

Consists of activities and processes that help inform and inspire employees about brands. It goes even further to train and encourage distributors and dealers to serve their customers well. The brand promise cannot be delivered until everyone in the company lives the brand.

Devising a brand strategy

A firm’s brand strategy reflects the number and nature of both common and distinctive brand elements. A firm has three main choices when deciding how to brand a new product:

1)It can develop new brand elements for the new product

2)It can apply some of it’s exisiting brand elements

3)It can use a combination of new and exisiting brand elements

If the firm uses an established brand to introduce a new product,the product is called a brand extension.

In the case of Kissan, it has launched various products (jams,ketchups,juices etc.)under the same brand name.Thus, Kissan is the parent brand or the family brand. One of the advantages of this has been that people buy new products launched under the brand name Kissan because of the image of the brand that they have in mind. On the other hand, one disadvantage could be that people no longer associate with a specific or highly simlar set of products(brand dilution).

Integrated Marketing Communications

Integrated Marketing Communications  is a strategic business process used to plan,develop and execute co-ordinated and persuasive brand communication programs with consumers and customers. The main goal of IMC is to build a long term brand value.

The following are the various components of  IMC called the Marketing Mix Elements:

Kissan Jam uses a mix of all these elements to create it’s brand image.

While it’s advertising in print and TV was  already well known, the brand realized that it had to increase it’s digital presence. It came up with #kissantiffinrecipes campaign that gave interesting recipes using Kissan Jam. Consumers could download videos and text recipes based on Kissan Jams. This led to consumers promoting the recipes by sharing it on friends’ walls or by recommending it,thus encouraging consumers to use the product. This campaign was targeted mainly at mothers who had to think of new and nutritious dishes to make for the kid’s tiffin. With the increasing use of internet,more and more mothers are there on facebook and twitter, thus making the campaign a success.

This is an interesting example of how interactive marketing can be incorporated for a product.

Also, on children’s day,2011, the brand introduced itself into the Limca Book of Records. On this day it organized a Kissan Jammy Art Carnival as an online activity in which children food art using the paint application on the website: jammyart.com.

Most of the ads by Kissan are targeted at mothers and to an extent the kids,by including the fun factor in the ads.

In order to develop an effective communications plan, the following steps must be followed.

We take the example of Kissan to explain these steps:

1) Identify the target audience: The target audience in this case would be mothers as they are looking to give their kids, exciting and nutriritous dishes to eat.

2) Determine Objectives: The objective in this case is to solve a category need i.e give mothers new and exciting recipes for tiffins .

3)Design the communications: Buyers expect one of the four types of rewards form a product-rational,sensory,social or ego satisfaction and they might visualize these rewards from results-of-use experience,product-in-use experience,or incidental-to-use-experience. For Kissan, it is a rational reward i.e following results-of-use experience for mothers.

Also, for Kissan Jam, the messages are more of an informational appeal i.e the messages elaborate on product attributes or benefits  rather than transformational apeal that elaborates on non product-related benefit or image.

4)Select the communication channels: Kissan uses a mix of personal communication channels(face-to-face,person-to-audience through a phone or e-mail) and non-personal communication channels(directed to more than one person i.e advertising,sales promotions,events and experiences,public relations)

5) Establish the total marketing communications budget:

Industries and companies vary considerably on how much they spend on marketing communications. For Kissan, the percentage of total expenditure on various promotions has been low for the last five years.

6)Deciding on the marketing communications mix:

The various elements of the marketing communications mix can be decided by the brand based on it’s objective and the budget decided.

For example, when the objective is to develop an interactive and customised experience for the customer, direct and interactive marketing could be used.

7)Measuring Communication Results: It is important for brands to know the outcomes and revenues resulting from their communications investments.

8)Managing the Integrated Marketing Communications Process: Co-ordinating media across all media types and implementing the plan.

Segmentation,Targeting and Positioning

Market segmentation implies identifying homogenous groups in the market and thus dividing the customers into segments based on similar needs.

Why use segmentation?

Benefits to customers:

-       Tailored products

-       Relevant offers

-       Personalised experience

Benefits to brands:

-       Identification of unfulfilled needs

-       Increased customer satisfaction

The major segmentation variables are as follows:

Geographic segmentation: Dividing the market into geographical units like nations,states,cities,regions etc. There are considerable differences in terms of product preferences and requirements across different geographical regions.

Demographic variables: Age and life cycle stage,life stage(getting married,deciding to buy a home,marrying off children etc.),gender,income,generation,Socio economic classification(SEC).

Psychographic Segmentation: Dividing buyers into different groups based on psychological/personality traits,lifestyle or values.

 Behavioral Segmentation: Dividing buyers into groups on the basis of their knowledge of,attitude towards,use of,or response to the product.

 Kissan Jam targets the kids as consumers and the mothers as customers,thus keeping the age and life cycle stage in mind. Kids are always on the look out to eat something quick and tasty ,most often than not consuming junk food. Thus, mothers are targeted to bring about the tasty and nutritious factor combined in Kissan Jam, as at this stage mothers are concerned about the eating habits of kids. Further, when Kissan jam introduced the new low calorie fruit kick spreads, it was further segmenting the customers based on their attitudes and behaviors i.e teenagers becoming health conscious.

Targeting  involves evaluating and selecting the market segments. A brand can either specialise in one segment with a variety of products or it can specialise in one product across different segments.

Product positioning is the place the product occupies in the consumers’ mind i.e the way the product is defined by consumers on important attributes.

The brand can decide what does it wants to promote about the product,keeping in mind the product attributes and benefits,competitors and product class.

Kissan positions itself as ‘ deliciously wholesome products for kids to grow’ by targeting mothers as customers.

Promotions

Main target audience for kissan jam: Kids,Mothers and the youth

Positions itself as: Healthy and wholesome snacks for kids

For this it has done various promotions:

ATL communications(catering to mass media-TV,print,internet etc.)

2 very popular print ads:

Law of appetite

Target: Mothers

Message: The eatability of breakfast is in direct proportion to the rising level of appetites which is again in direct proportion to the volume of kissan jam spread on the toast.

Objective was to position kissan jam as a healthy snack and beneficial for kids by talking about the importance of breakfast and relating it to kissan jam. 

Roti disappears with kissan jam:

Target: Mothers

Tagline: There’s a lot more you can do with jam

Message: The idea was to let consumers know about the other uses of kissan jam,other than just with bread. So the ‘roti roll’ was introduced. 

Kissan also started the 100% real fruit campaign

Target: Mothers

Message: Positioning Kissan Jam as a healthy and nutritious snack for kids

Kissan Jammy advertisements: Using Rahul Dravid to endorse the brand

Target: Kids

Message: This was done when Rahul Dravid was in his peak form and had a big fan following. The idea was to create a perceived value for consumers. 

The Kissan Roti Roll Campaign became very popular. It turned out to be a solution for the tiffin problem of moms.

Every night between 10 and 11 PM, after dinner, cleaning up and putting her kids to bed, Mom watches her favorite prime-time soaps. This is also when she plans for her kid’s tiffin the next day. Short format episodes were created based on the funny excuses kids make for not eating their tiffin featuring a popular TV mom & kid duo. They were played between 9 & 11 PM, for 6 weeks. The episodes were also deployed on popular digital platforms like YouTube, Mira by VuClip, MSN and Sify. Print ads were deployed to catch her while relaxing with a newspaper after the morning rush of kids and husband leaving for school. Since mobile is her constant ally and internet is where she goes for answers, all communication led Moms to a tiffin recipe destination via Facebook.

 Message: Tiffin is a stress point for mothers. Kids don’t like eating healthy and nutritious tiffins that Mum’s pack for them. Hence they targeted tiffin as an opportunity by presenting a solution to mom’s tiffin problems. Hence were born the Kissan Rolls. 

Below the Line Communications(cater to niche market by using design,direct marketing,packaging,sales promotions(gifts and discounts) etc.

Free gifts:

Jam Packed Fun Moments is an interactive jam box designed for the Kissan brand by the Studio ABD to empower kids to make smarter eating choices. In addition to two fruity jars of jam, the boxed set includes a jungle-themed board game that gets kids engaged about healthy eating. The board game is set up in the style of Snakes & Ladders, where kids will go on a journey with the playful brand character Columbus.

Sales and discounts:

Pack of 3 combo discount:

Distribution

HUL started UPL (unilever premier league) program and BETTER stores concept. Earlier it was super value concept: In this concept the retailers were paid on giving their shelves to the company for displaying their product and also they were given a target on achieving for which they were given rewards.

HUL has introduced kiosk channel to strengthen the distribution set up.These kiosks helped the company to increase their sales in the rural areas and they got a good hold of the customers and set up a good distribution channel to keep the customers intact. This made it difficult for the competitors to get hold of that market.

To penetrate the rural markets, HUL launched a four-tier distribution system in which markets were segmented based on their accessibility and business potential.

Direct Coverage: HUL appointed a common stockist to service all outlets within a town.

Indirect Coverage: HUL targeted retailers in accessible villages close to larger urban markets.

Streamline: Reaching markets inaccessible by roads

Project Shakti targeted the very small villages and tapped into the rural women group.

HUL’s products are distributed through a network of 4000 re-distributors, stockist covering 6.3 million retail outlets reaching the entire urban population and about 250 million rural consumers. 

Today,Kissan Jam has a strong distribution network.It is widely available in almost all local stores. 

Pricing Strategies

At the time Kissan was formed, consumers had limited purchasing power. Thus Kissan adopted a low-cost price strategy to make its products affordable and attractive to consumers by guaranteeing them value for money. Despite competition, it ensured that the product mix and the sequence in which Kissan introduces its products is consistent with the core philosophy of providing jam at a basic, affordable price to appeal to the common masses. This helped Kissan Jam to create its brand image in the household sector of the society.

The current prices are:

Kissan Mixed fruit jam

500 gms bottle: Rs.110

200 gms bottle: Rs.48

15 gms sachet- Rs.2

100 gms tub- Rs.24

70 gms squeeze tube- Rs.24

Life Cycles

A Product Life Cycle looks at the different stages through which the product goes at different times from the starting point till it exits the market.

So why do life cycle stages change?

Life cycle stages change as different consumers come in or go out, some adopt the product, some become loyal customers while some don’t.

This happens because consumer requirements are met by different formats as competitors start coming in. Consumers look at all available choices in the market. As more and more competitors come in, it no longer remains a product life cycle, it becomes an industry life cycle. Thus the appropriate unit of analysis would be Industry Life Cycle.

At the same time, it is important to look at how the brand grows over a period of time. After all, a strong brand name adds great value.

As Stephen King,WPP Group,London righly said: A product is something made in a factory, a brand is something that is bought by the customer; a product can be copied by a competitor,a brand is unique; a product can be quickly outdated,a successful brand is timeless.

A Brand Life Cycle helps the company understand and change accordingly, it’s strategies and positioning of the brand. 

The different life cycle stages are shown below:

There are five different life cycle stages:

1)Development:

The ‘incubation stage’ when the product concept is developed,conceived and tested before being introduced in the market.

Strategies:

-         Deciding on the concept,pricing etc.

-       Pre-launch and initial promotions

 2) Introduction: When the product is introduced in the market, promotional expenditures are high to create product awareness and develop a market for the product. Profits are non existent because of high promotion and low sales. In this phase, promotion is mainly aimed at innovators and early adopters.

 Strategies:

When to enter the market?

-pioneer v/s market leader

2)Growth: This stage is marked by a climbing up of sales. Focus is now on building product preference and increasing market share of the product as new competitors enter. This is aimed mainly at early adopters.

 Strategies:

-Improve product quality: add new features

- Enter new market segments

-Increase distribution coverage

-Lower prices to attract next layer of price-sensitive buyers

-Taking advantage of economies of scale

3)Maturity: This stage comes when the strong growth in sales diminishes and the objective is to defend market share while maximizing profit. This is aimed at middle majority customers.

 Strategies:

- Market modification: Expand the market

- Product modification: Adding new features

- Market program modification: Modifying price,distribution etc.

4)Decline: This stage starts when sales show a decline. It could be for a number of reasons: shifting consumer preferences,increasing competition etc.

 Strategies:

-       Harvesting: Gradually reducing the product’s or business’s cost while trying to maintain sales.

-       Divesting:  Sell the product to another firm

Kissan is a food brand that originated in 1935,was acquired by Brooke Bond in 1993 from UB group, after which it formed an independent brand under HUL in 1994. 

Today, it is the market leader with the largest market share of 65% . It has reached a stage where it has quite a few competitors. A lot of existing customers have shifted to alternatives but the loyal customers continue to buy kissan jam. So right now, it is in it’s maturity stage where it needs to keep making multiple offerings to multiple customers and maintain the market share.

Competition Analysis

According to Ohmae's 3C Model of marketing, a customer is making a choice at all  points of time between different offerings. Only by integrating corporation,customer and competition,can a sustained competitive advantage exist.Thus, tackling competition becomes very important. 

Kissan has the largest market share in jam(65%) and thus is the dominant brand in the industry. Some existing competitors would be

Direct Competitors: sil jam,mapro jam,druk jam,tops jam.

Substitute Products: Honey,Nutella Spread,Butter

All the direct competitors occupy a small percent of the market share. As far as the substitute products are concerned, butter can be a substitute for jam, but health conscious people may opt for mixed fruit jam rather than butter. Nutella Spread is also a substitute but it’s pricing is comparatively higher and availability is not as widespread as Kissan Jam.Honey could be a strong competitor since people who are health conscious might switch to honey. However, as far as the kids segment is concerned, kissan jam is more popular,thanks to the fun advertising and different flavors by kissan jam that are targeted specifically to attract kids.

Kissan jam has been innovating in different ways to differentiate it’s product and tackle competition:

Product diversity: Different flavors like pineapple, mango, orange, strawberry, guava etc.

Innovative packaging: It was the first to bring in easy to use squezee bottles, tubs and sachets. This attracted the kids as well as mothers who thought it is easy and safer for the kids to use squeeze bottles viz-a-viz the glass bottle.

New ways to use the product:

The roti disappears with jam advertisement encouraged the use of kissan jam with roti as well. It showed roti rolls with different flavor jams.

Also, in order to compete with the other healthy options like honey, Kissan launched a new breakfast spread- Kissan fruit kick spread, with no added sugar,targeted mainly at teenagers and the health conscious youth.It is available in two different combinations- dry fruit and mixed fruit.

Buying Decisions

Who all will buy Kissan Jam?

-A major consumer segment for Kissan is kids and the younger generation. Mothers buy Kissan Jam for their children to give them something that is nutritious and at the same time tasty for them to eat.

-However, it can also be anyone who wishes to have a swift ,tasty and wholesome breakfast or snack. So this would include people living outside their homes in paying guests or hostels who want tasty and healthy on the go food.

What problem will it solve?

Kids want tasty food and in the process they end up eating more junk food and less nutritious food. With Kissan jam being a combination of good taste and nutrition, it will solve the purpose for both mothers and children.

Also, it will solve the problem of a healthy and a tasty spread for a swift breakfast or snack.

Which attributes of the product are important and why?

-The unique taste

-Taste combined with nutrition

- Easy to use squeezee packs and sachets viz-a-viz the glass bottle




So a consumer usually goes through the following steps before making a buying decision: