23neha

[23neha]

Selling a scam

Like many of my South Asian classmates, I've had plenty of exposure to Fair & Lovely and other skin lightening creams growing up. While younger family members are starting to understand that these creams are (a) temporary and (b) perpetuate an ideal that is harmful to a large part of South Asian society, old family members still regularly use them. Most of my summer trips to India are still spent fending off my grandmother!

The idea of Western beauty being the "right" kind of beauty has seeped into South Asian culture. It disheartening though, that companies like HUL, which are based in India, run by Indians, is interested in perpetuating these ideals. The messaging that they have been churning out for decades has gotten into customer head's in the worst way, creating an in-group and an out-group as we've discussed. Only in this case, there is no way that you will ever be able to permanently be in the so-called in-group of fair skinned people. By employing celebrity endorsements, like Priyanka Chopra and Shah Rukh Khan, HUL is trying to giving legitimacy to a product that is entrenched in false claims.

What struck me in particular in this case was the rationalization behind the product and the messaging. An executive was quoted saying that everyone wants to change their skin tone to some degree, whether to be 2 shades lighter or darker. I find it tone deaf to believe that this desire came out of thin air. Companies have significant power, and can influence what people hear over a lifetime. There are more responsible, ethical ways to serve your consumers, besides preying on insecurities that are impossible to change.

[23neha]

Diffusing the idea of a place

Predicting diffusion felt easy to understand with the four products in the readings, however, as I thought about how to apply it to our branding project, I got a little stumped. Does diffusing the idea of a place, in this case Monti Prenestini, Italy, differ from product diffusion? I used Roger’s Five Forces to think through how the idea of making Monti Prenestini a remote work destination of choice could potentially pan out: 

Relative advantage—In the initial materials we received, Monti Prenestini’s team laid out a few advantages they believed they had. They said that the town’s proximity to Rome, picturesque hiking trails, unique biodiversity, ethical farming, and chestnut groves set them apart from other locations. If the alternative you are comparing it to is the average remote worker in America, these features certainly set the Monti Prenestini apart. However, I think the real alternative is other remote work destinations. If you go abroad, then the only real differentiating factors might be proximity to Rome and chestnut groves…the latter of which I think we need additional consumer research to determine whether or not this is a real advantage. 

Compatibility—From a compatibility perspective, an idyllic Italian town seems to align with existing values! The experiences that traveling remote workers are seeking are centered around seeing interesting places, having access to good, diverse food, all for a relatively affordable price. Monti Prenestini aligns with these values well. 

Complexity—Here, I think is the biggest divergence from a product vs. place perspective. Consumers know what moving to a new place likely entails, so it isn’t very complex! Moving logistics, visas, etc. can add additional layers of complexity though.

Trialability—It is difficult for a consumer to try moving to Monti Prenestini in a reasonable, affordable way. This could be one point of friction that we could explore in our project. Is it possible for Liminal or the town to help offer a subsidy that interested parties could use to come visit?

Observability—This is also difficult for a move! We would have to rely on digital channels and for people to share their experience (e.g., Instagram, TikTok, YouTube). These would have to become wide spread enough to attain legitimacy as well. 

In the end, the consumers ultimate perception of Monti Prenestini is going to be what drives them to travel there or not. As we think through our branding project, we should consider how we can alleviate the points of friction above, while at the same time crafting the right brand image. 

[23neha]

What is CX worth to me?

I asked myself the question above just two days ago while I was booking my summer flights to visit family in south India. After procrastinating booking flights, I was left with relatively few options - all fairly expensive. It came down to an Emirates flights through Dubai ($2400 roundtrip) and an Air India flight through Delhi ($1800 roundtrip). Despite the $600 price difference, I seriously considered both options for about 3 hours - all because of CX.

Emirates evokes the same brand sentiment as SIA for me - classy, luxurious, well-run, attentive. The planes are well-kept, usually relatively new. The food is generally good, and the air hosts/hostesses have only been lovely in my experience. You get to leave on a high note with great toiletries bag that's actually useful. Even boarding feels orderly, as they do passport checks (getting the bad experiences out of the way early) before you get in the boarding line.

Enter Air India. No offense to the national carrier of India, but if chaos was an airline, this would be it. From the minute you check-in, it feels like an uphill climb. There's little-to-no grace with baggage allowances, flights are old with broken seats and headsets, and the air hosts/hostesses seem to barely tolerate you. In-airport staff are rarely willing to help either - good luck getting a pointer to your connecting flight. $600 is not an insignificant price difference, however, I still paused because of Emirates's brand reputation and guarantee for a smoother experience.

In the end, I went with Air India (but not without a lot heartburn about it). It's helpful reflection for our branding project though, where we're working with Liminal to think about how to launch a tourism effort for 3 villages in Italy. Focusing on an excellent customer experience, especially for something like a vacation, will be top of mind for us. Why make customers work for something that should be enjoyable?

[23neha]

Data driven...makeup?

One of the most in-depth market research projects I've worked on was on tinted moisturizers. A product category within a product category, and yet, there were so many sources of data to dig through. Our clients wanted to understand what demographics to target marketing towards and what positioning resonated with them.

During this process, I learned that not all data is created equal and more often than not, you need multiple sources of market research to build the true product story. To illustrate this, here are a few of the sources I had and the kinds of insight we were able to see:

Secondary External Data: Nielson data was the first step for understanding the tinted moisturizer market. We were able to get sales data across the industry and segment by demographics and purchase channel. As it turned out, most tinted moisturizer purchases happened online and within women ages 20-26. Our client's number one tinted moisturizer though was one that also had SPF. Nielson data failed to provide a breakdown into tinted moisturizer with SPF vs. without, so we had to find a way to fill this gap.

Primary Quantitative Data: We turned to a survey! We used a survey firm to help launch a 40 question survey to about 300 qualified consumers. As with any survey launch though, it was a tough balance between having the right questions and enough questions to have a meaningful analysis and battling survey fatigue, which could diminish the respondents' answer quality. We ultimately learned that consumers strongly preferred tinted moisturizer with SPF, but it was hard to see a clear story as to why (e.g., trend towards skincare, wanting to reduce number of products purchased, preference for feel).

Primary Qualitative Data: To round it out, we decided that doing in-depth interviews with consumers would be helpful. We were able to identify qualified consumers and created an interview guide to help us through the discussions. Through this, we learned that consumers in our demographic were shifting their beauty routine to be focused on more "clean" brands, which focused on skin health and overall environmental health as well.

All of these sources of research took time and investment, however, hopefully this goes to show that relying on only one often doesn't help build the full picture you need.

[23neha]

Power of a brand: B&D

I found this week's case surprising - I went to college in Baltimore and Black&Decker (B&D) is a highly revered employer and brand throughout the area. I had no idea that they faced this kind of brand pushback more broadly with Tradesmen.

It was interesting that despite having a slightly lower brand awareness level than B&D, Makita seems to be outperforming them based on customer perception. Professional-Tradesmen buyers believe Makita is one of the brands with the highest quality, and that B&D is more of a lower quality/home use product. I was surprised that the legitimacy B&D established for itself in Consumer doesn't roll over as positive sentiment. One example that I was thinking about was Nike. It has products that are used by professional athletes all over the world, but also has an incredibly successful regular consumer business. Their segments reinforce each other in some sense. B&D is seeing a total departure, where Tradesmen are viewing them as a consumer brand first, professional grade brand second.  As a result, they are overwhelming purchasing from Makita. 

From my understanding, the difference in Black and Decker's shares between Industrial and Tradesmen is driven by who is purchasing the equipment. Industrial customers are B2B accounts. They likely have dedicated B&D salespeople to answer question and the set the tone for the brand story. On the other hand, Tradesmen are a B2C channel. B&D can only reach them through typical commercial advertising, or specific tradesmen channels like conventions. I also imagine that these same buyers are also exposed to the advertising for the Consumer line of products, which can then lower their impression of the durability / legitimacy of the Tradesmen line of products. It's an interesting overlap of consumer segments. It would be hard for B&D to prevent Tradesmen from seeing Consumer targeted marketing, so it seems like they need to do some education to demonstrate to Tradesmen that they can indeed offer high quality products to both segments. In reference to the comic above, I'm sure that there are B&D products that are only meant for true professionals, not the average home user - an education campaign could help B&D make that clearer. 

Cartoon credit: Chris Malden

@deepelorm