Goafest 2013: "Consumers are not dying to see your ads": Nitin Paranjpe, MD & CEO, HUL

He's humorous. He plays tennis. He believes in building consumer relationships above all else. HUL's Nitin Paranjpe on 'brand trust' and why hammering away with more and more 30-seconders is not always the answer.

In an interesting session at Goafest Conclave, Nitin Paranjpe, managing director and chief executive officer, HUL, spoke about why he strongly advocates against bombarding the consumer with brand messages. Going beyond mere theory, Paranjpe substantiated his claim by showing the audience unscripted videos recently recorded by his team member at HUL.

The videos showed recordings of a few housewives speaking about advertising and what it means to them. Taken in their homes, the recordings were nothing short of 'first person consumer feedback' on commercial messages on TV. The video revealed that for almost all the respondents, an ad break on TV is an annoying, unwanted interruption, a break during which they either switched channels or left their sofas to complete household chores. Albeit a known fact, the video received a huge applause for sheer candid revelation.

"People are not dying to see ads," said Paranjpe. Nevertheless, advertising is something that has existed for pretty much as long as human civilisation itself. Paranjpe attributed this to the "human need to sell and propagate", a need that was seen as early as the 1600s in medieval England through 'town cries'.

Back home, there was the era of Doordarshan, during which Chitrahaar reigned supreme (and during which Paranjpe was a brand manager). The present day scenario is of media explosion, audience fragmentation and innumerable channels through which brands disseminate commercial messages. There is a proliferation of choices for the consumer.

"In fact, there's a paradox of choice today," said Paranjpe. The consumer has so many media and brands to choose from but how relevant are the differences between these options, he asked. On a functional level, how different is the technology that one product is built on from that of its competition? And, even if companies do manage to offer differentiated services, how long before they are replicated by the sea of brands waiting to out-do one another, he questioned.

"While the pressure to differentiate is extremely high today, the solution can't involve simply bombarding the consumer with more advertising," cautioned Paranjpe. Consumers, he added, barely recall advertised brand messages. It's ironical that many marketers' response to this discouraging fact is - more advertising!

Consumers, claimed Paranjpe, are exposed to around 3,000 brand messages in a week, of which they remember almost none. Moreover, almost 76 per cent consumers feel that ads lie. Instead of trying to mitigate this problem with more advertising, "why not take a step back and do something different?" he offered.

Trying to think beyond heaps of TV advertising is all the more important because of what he claimed is the "impending death of TV as we know it." Also, the advent of digital and social media has amplified word of mouth, thanks to the kind of reach an individual has, he explained.

In conclusion, Paranjpe left the audience with a remarkable insight:

Yesterday's advertising mantra: Create a myth and communicate it to your consumers.

Today's advertising mantra: Find a human truth and share it with your consumers.