Similar to sustainability, healthy living has also become an area of interest for the consumers. A few health focused campaigns have been done by companies in which the message has been that their product causes lesser hazard to health than other products in the market.
Messages in Health Focused campaigns
Campaigns like product is dust-free or does not release any VOC (Volatile Organic compounds) or does not emit any harmful chemicals during their lifetime have caught lot of tractions among the building material manufacturers. Asian Paints ran a campaign around their paints being dust-free, which caused a lot of interest among the buyers.
With several types of diseases/ pandemics arising due to microorganisms, building materials have also done their advertisement that their products do not allow mold development or does not allow bacteria/ virus growth. One of the three benefits advertised for Supercolour was that it is Anti-fungal and it helped in attracting the end users.
Then there are other properties which build on the product being favourable to healthy life. Easy to clean, good light reflectance, and abrasion resistance are a few of the features which promote comfortable living and are used by the commodity companies in their health focused campaigns.
Health is an ever-evolving field. All health focused campaigns need to be backed with proper market research and scientific study so that the campaign does not backfire later and cause damage to the brand image.
“Go Green” is the new buzzword and Marketing Communications cannot ignore the environment focused campaigns. Companies need to build a perception about themselves that they have a socio-environmental agenda. This increases the acceptance of their products in the market. Not only the product’s features or its manufacturing but also the other activities the company indulges in should have a positive bearing on the ecosystem.
Communication in Environment focused campaigns
There are several themes around which communications are developed for environment focused campaigns. Some are around environment conservation theme. A few companies advertise that their product does not cause any damage to the nature due their bio-degradable nature. They do innovations in the packaging to make it bio-degradable as discarding of the packaging material is a big challenge for the users. A few also advertise that they have reduced their dependence on natural resources and are using more of industrial wastes so that natural resources are conserved for future generations.
JSW Cement has built its marketing campaign around being an eco-friendly cement company. They are trying to take the pole position in promoting Portland Slag Cement (PSC), which is considered to cause lesser CO2 impact to the environment than Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). PSC manufacturing uses slag, an otherwise useless by-product from steel industry and gives better long-term strength than OPC.
Conservation of energy is another popular marketing message in the environment focused campaigns. Companies claim that usage of their brands will lead to lesser electricity usage at home. A few companies promote the fact that they are harnessing solar or wind energy or using recycled water for their manufacturing processes. Few companies have switched to technologies which allow for conservation of energy. For a few companies, it is not possible to conserve energy due to the nature of their business. So, they engage in activities which are towards providing renewable energy or clean environment to a community and use it for their PR activities.
Today’s consumer is more environment conscious and is willing to pay an extra buck if the product contributes to the cause of sustainability. Environment focused campaigns also help in bringing the influencers like architects and interior designers to the company’s fold. The role of architects becomes here more important as “Green Building” or “Net Zero” are good selling points for them when they are pitching to their clients and they are looking for products which helps the buildings designed by them achieve this. The support from the government bodies in promoting a particular product category is also more forthcoming if the product does not harm nature or conserves natural resources.
Internal challenges
Apart from advertisement, companies also try to imbibe being environment focused in their work culture, and not just do lip service to the environment. They undertake cleanliness drives and often encourage their customers to participate in them. Care is taken to ensure resources within the company are not wasted.
Environment focused campaigns need to be very carefully planned as any wrong claim can be challenged in a court of law and cause unnecessary damage to the company’s reputation. All claims should have proper data back-up.
TV, radio, theatres and other electronic media are widely used these days for commodity brands promotion. Each has its merits and demerits and companies need to be very prudent while deciding on electronic media advertising strategy.
Electronic media advertising
Television
Television is an expensive proposition for electronic media advertising but has reach to almost every household. However, the space has become very cluttered due to too many brands running their advertisements on TV. On TV, there are two types of advertisements. First type is 15-30 seconds advertisement which is played between programs. In second type, during the program itself, an L-band or top/ bottom band advertisement is displayed. A third type also exists. There are dedicated TV channels, running advertisement for a product continuously for 15 minutes or even longer.
Cinema Theatres
Advantage of movie theatre advertisement is that there is a captive audience there who cannot ignore the communication. However, not everyone is a movie buff and do not go to watch movies to theatres very frequently. It is a cheaper medium and spot durations are generally longer than TV ads, though the cost of production is the same as TV ad.
Radio
Listening to radio is no more prevalant in the urban households and is on a decline in rural areas also. However, during travel, in shopping malls, in small mom-and-pop shops, in eating joints, and other public places, radios are still used.
Digital OOH
Digital Out-of-Home advertisement can be seen in malls, airports, railway stations, bus stands and now-a-days even in the lift lobbies of residential complexes. People read the advertisements while waiting for something. It can be a static image or a video. The content can be periodically changed remotely to keep freshness in the communication if the medium is on a network.
Due to increasing tussle between the companies, marketing communications have become important even for commodities. Effective message delivery helps a brand distinguish itself.
Messages in Effective Marketing Communications
Most of the companies are still promoting themselves basis their superiority in the fundamental attributes of the commodity. But a few companies have taken the lead and come out of the clutter. Some of the impactful communications recently are hinged on technology/ quality, environment-friendliness or customer-service. Companies have adopted innovative ways to drive home their USP. Ambuja Cement using heavyweight Khali to show that houses built with its brand have good strength became an online craze.
A lot of companies also use communications centred around happy family, value for money, legacy and scale of operations, etc. However, very few communications leave any recall in the consumers’ mind. But at the same time, it is getting more difficult to drive home the point of uniqueness with these approaches. A very recent trend has been commodity companies talking about aesthetic beauty. For example, Solid HD+ cement is harping on High Designability as one of its two USPs, the other being High Durability. Ultratech Cement is promoting its brand through its Build Beautiful campaign.
Themes for Effective Marketing Communications
Objectives of MarComm
Marketing communications should achieve two objectives. First objective is to tell the target audience what are the benefits of using the product. Second objective is to communicate how is the product unique from the competitors.
MarComm is not restricted to churning out product literature only in the form of brochures/ leaflets/ in-shop posters, TV/ radio commercials, sign boards/ hoarding/ OOH media advertisements, etc. Marketing Communications also include using innovative ways of sampling, product packaging, social media advertisements, email marketing content and CSR initiatives to drive home the point.
A glass company wanted to communicate that its glass sheets are actually of the thickness as promised in the specifications against the non-compliant ones by its competitors. So, it distributed a small U-shaped tool to all its retailers to measure the thickness of a set of 5 or 10 glass sheets. This helped the retailers in demonstration in front of the end consumers. Several cement companies have mobile technical labs or toll-free customer care numbers. They make it a point to advertise about these customer services.
Having realized the importance of each of the elements for promotion like advertisement, targeted marketing, customer meetings, wholesaler meetings, etc., the companies are adopting Integrated Marketing Communications for branding their products. Companies use TV commercials, newspaper advertisements, radio jingles, brochures, leaflets, outdoor displays, retail shop branding, etc. to communicate their USPs. Previously each medium was treated as a silo. Different message was coming from each medium as there was no Centralized or Integrated planning. But now trends have changed. It is Marketing Communications department (MarComm) responsibility to achieve coherence in all the communication campaigns.
A commodity brand might have been introduced at a certain price in the market but if the communications strategy is not aligned with the marketing objective, the desired positioning in the market cannot be achieved. Also, proper market research has to drive the marketing communications planning. Research will let us understand what the consumer desires. As a result, commodity companies are using market survey companies now-a-days before embarking on a new marketing campaign.
