Marketing That Works: A book on how 'unify, magnify, amplify' builds brands

Marketing That Works: Building Breakthrough Brands in India

by Shivaji Das Gupta  Published by Penguin

288 pages 499

  Why do large multinationals struggle when they enter India? They often blame our red tape and procedural issues. Some blame our chaotic retail infrastructure. Others speak about the fickleness of the Indian consumers. I remember discussing this with Dorab Sopariwala, who was then an advisor at the ad agency in which I was working. Dorab is a marketing/consumer research veteran who incidentally did his higher studies in the United Kingdom, and even worked in marketing research in London/Europe. Having worked on projects across the world he had a simple diagnosis: Most MNCs see India as one country. He felt that while MNCs see Europe as a continent, they fail to see India as a continent. Those who can see the difference when they enter India don’t make the mistake of trying to “boil the ocean” to use a metaphor. They slice and dice India and win the battle, one step at a time.

 

I was reminded of Dorab’s wise words when I was reading Marketing That Works – Building Breakthrough Brands in India. The author, Shivaji Das Gupta, is an ad industry veteran who advises companies on building customer-centric brands in India. Early in his book, he introduces us to his world of UMA — Unify, Magnify and Amplify. He does this by questioning the age-old wisdom of marketing — STP (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning). In all marketing textbooks, STP is the foundation for building brands. You segment the market. Identify the target consumer. Position the brand to appeal to this consumer.

 

Mr Das Gupta asks if we need to question the application of STP in a world that is being buffeted by digital platforms. He writes, “Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, Uber and many others built their empires on nurturing aggregator values — quite the opposite of a narrowcasting model rooted in one-time Western truths, class divides and codes of denial.”

 

Instead of blindly applying STP, Mr Das Gupta says first you Unify; see the opportunities of one nation and many stories. In Magnify, you sharply define sources of revenue. And finally, in Amplify, you bring the brand to life. The logic of the approach comes from the fact that digital medium has unified people across languages and geographies in a vast, heterogenous country like India. But they are all not the same. You need to identify the sources of revenue and then apply your brand’s proposition to them.

 

After laying the foundation to the UMA model in the first half of the book, Mr Das Gupta offers 28 nuggets, each looking at one aspect of the Indian consumer that has changed. And at the end of each of these nuggets, he applies the UMA spotlight.

 

For example, Nugget #1 is about shopping: “Why must India shop together?” The rise of e-commerce and quick commerce has opened new windows of opportunity. You can unify if you identify emerging patterns in shopping and societal bonding. You can magnify impact by going beyond categories defined purely by consumption. And you can amplify brand energy by aligning it with progressive interpretations of tradition. Another example is Nugget #4, “A nation of traitors.” Are Indian consumers fickle, ready to drop a brand on a whim? Can companies try and retain the better consumers? Can they get them to upgrade? Again, the UMA model provides some interesting solutions. Understand the dynamics of upgrade. Expand the range of opportunities. Build brand expression by elevating the acquisition experience.

 

The 28 nuggets make engaging reading. And each covers a different aspect of the Indian market and Indian consumer. For example, Nugget #7 is, “Don’t miss the Maruti 800 moment”: How Suzuki changed a country’s definition of a car. Or Nugget #8: "When cool becomes hot” or how air conditioning has become the standard. In Nugget #9 Das Gupta asks: How elastic is your brand? Can you stretch it beyond narrow product lines? When will it go “snap”?

 

Many of these nuggets gave me time to pause and reflect. Nugget #19 “Home-Reca in every Cohalla”: How community living has been redefined with the emergence of gated communities. Or Nugget #24: “Bring on the silver magic”: The rise and rise of the silver haired generation. You may not want to give up on your STP obsession but I assure you that the 28 nuggets will give you enough fodder for thought. They have all been written eloquently and make their points well. You will notice some common themes, such as the use of digital platforms, the growth of Unified Payments Interface, the increase in consumer affluence and so on. But even then, each nugget has been put together carefully. I suspect Mr Das Gupta may have another 28 waiting to be penned. And I eagerly await the next version of the book. Read this book and be ready to see India and Indian consumers through a new lens.

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The reviewer is an independent brand coach and author. His latest book Marketing Mixology looks at the four essential skills for marketing success