Has 'brand love' evolved into 'brand situationships'?

In a panel discussion during the ongoing Goafest, industry experts debated whether brand love is suffering at the altar of short-term sale.

Everybody loves a good romance, but throw in a few choices, and it all goes into heartbreak and tearsville. Consumers today face the same challenge, when it comes to brand love.

During a panel discussion at the ongoing Goafest, industry experts debated how chasing short-term sales is affecting brand love.

Moderated by Anuradha SenGupta, an independent journalist, the panellists included Hemant Malik, divisional chief executive, ITC's food business, and member of corporate management committee of ITC; Rohit Kapoor, chief executive officer, Swiggy; and Prabha Narasimhan, MD and CEO, Colgate-Palmolive India.

Narasimhan said brand love is most critical to premiumisation.

"You're asking the consumer to buy a benefit from a particular brand at a premium, simply because it is a brand. The assumption is that the brand is worth paying the price for, while another brand is not. This is where the criticality of brand love becomes really important. And, in a lot of the categories, the brands are imprinted in the head."

Comparing brand love with marriage, Kapoor said, "Just as marriage is about trust, understanding and love, it is also about the mundane things, like doing household chores. It is the same way with brands. It has to be a mix of both short and long-term goals."

Taking the comparison further, Malik said that just as relationships today have become 'situationships', brand relationships have also evolved to become a 'brand situationship'.

"Fifty years back, there were very few brands to contend with and the media was also very simple. Today, with so many new products coming into the market, people have the choice."

Malik said that a brand can't do business only with brand lovers. "Because a brand needs more people to drive the business and increase penetration. And therefore, we need to deploy whatever vehicle we can to make sure more people try it."

With an abundance of data, marketers are taking quick decisions for the brands. Strategies are changed impromptu. SenGupta asked what this abundance of data and quick decisions are doing for brand love.

Kapoor said that it is a fallacy that rational decisions are not being taken for the medium and long-term. "What is demanded, is outstanding creative. And, I don't think it is coming in the quantum that it needs to come through. I think CEOs have become too distanced from the creative guys."

Narasimhan said the fundamentals of what one needs to do to build a brand and keep that brand love, hasn't changed. However, it's become a little bit more difficult in a fragmented world to hold the love.

"It still goes back to the product delivering the promised benefit consistently, and also delivering value on the pricing. What has changed is how we reach the consumers, who are now in a crowded landscape. We're fighting for their attention far more than we were earlier. You can reach out to them in so many more ways and, therefore, one can be more clever about it."