The rise of the 'prosumer'

Guest Column

Today's consumers cannot just be propositioned, they need in a brand a promise of sustained tenure of togetherness

There is a new breed out there called the prosumers. They are jostling in the malls, arcades and stores, large and small "" foraging for the bargains, the discounts and the promotional offers. These hunters are today's value brigade. A brand must be good to cohabit with, it must create that space where brand and prosumers can keep each other's company. As producers and marketers develop new and improved products, services and hybrids they are not only competing with their peers, but also with their ever demanding prosumer group "" a group characterised by needs that are dynamic and evolving.

Today's marketer is not competing in the market. The modern-day marketer is com-peting with the market, seeking to address the array of basic needs, modified needs, and emergent needs.

From absolute to relative wants

The single concept that's the starting point of all marketing is the "need". Needs might still not be very different from what they were but it is their manifestation in the form of desires and wants and the ways of addressing and satisfying them that are changing.

Products and services being marketed can in most cases be grouped under two key satisfiers:

(1) Functional/rational/tangible

(2)Emotional/intangible

(3) Self-expression

This fragmentation of individual desires and wants has made us look at an interesting aspect of this seemingly simple evolution "" an evolution advertising has a close relationship with.

Advertising, to a large extent, has also played an important role in desires and wants reaching their present state. For instance, in cosmetics (personal care/grooming product group) there has been a distinct evolution of the offerings. The solution started from a point where the product was as simple as nail enamel or lipstick or skin cream or hair colour.

But today, Pond's as a brand is not just a solution that we can apply to this or that specific need; instead it is a complete programme in itself (Pond's Institute). Thus Pond's is not a "point-product" (a skin cream or moisturiser) called Pond's, it is a "process-brand" (integrated product/service solutions) called by that name (Pond's).

So if it were a bottle of shampoo, what is inside would alone not be the brand. The brand would be the sum total of the bottle, the liquid, the things it does, the beauty tips, skin care guidelines, the empathy, the expert endorser, the way it makes one feel etc. It is like a Beauty Fairy coming out of something inanimate. This strengthens the brand aura around the product, which carries as much weightage as the product's attributes.

Redressing Mick Jagger's complaint "" "Can't Get No Satisfaction" It would therefore appear that obtaining a faith, a reassurance and a guide through life are crucial to gaining satisfaction.

Typically, products or services aim at this at three levels:

Functional: It's a question of whether more air-throw (PSPO style!) promises greater impact than, say, a fan with blades shaped like blade of the cricket bat, and a picture of Sachin at the centre with the slogan, "I'm a Sachin fan"!

No doubt there are still product/service categories where the core focus on functionality still prevails, but the fact is that we have moved on to the next level in the consumer need ladder. With increasing product parity and technological equality, consumers are looking beyond a straightforward solution. Communication for more and more products/services utilises functional benefits more as a support rather than as a driver.

Emotional: In this stage two of evolution, the use of emotions as a plank has been hugely successful across diverse products/services. But a brand's equity that is built over intangible parameters also takes a longer time and effort for a competitor to be able to neutralise.

Self-expression: The concept of self-expression through a brand (product/service) is that of the consumer psyche starting to use brands to com-municate or project certain values, beliefs, thoughts, principles or attitudes.

The birth of many a great brand owes much to it, and some of them happen to be the most premium "" for instance, Marlboro Country where the flavour is the outdoors, the ruggedness, the self-sufficiency, the solitude.

The concept of self-expres-sion has the following key components:

(1) Expression of actual self

(2) Expression of desired/aspired self

(3) Expression of ideal

The above can help us in illustrating different roles that a brand can play, which correspond to different components of an individual's self. For example:

What you are

Optimist/kind/ambitious/extrovert

What you feel

Emotion/nostalgia/tenderness/rebellious/satiated/discomfort

What you think

Savvy/efficiency/durability/patriotism/perfection

What you do

Fitness/cooking/leisure activities like camping

The brand plays the role of a vehicle that either helps the prospect display his/her actual self or ferries the prospect to the aspired state.

The easier brand communication makes it for the consumer to readily relate with a thought or feeling or ego state, the faster it builds its own mind-slot. The caring Nivea male, the Johnson & Johnson mom, the Six Sigma of Motorola, the Nike jogger are among the readiest examples of the respective types of role that brand undertakes to play. The types of role that brand undertakes to play. The brands attempt an ideal of what you are, feel, think, and do.

A brand positioned to deliver the self-expressive benefit will not deliver this for everyone. It will be able to deliver this only to those prospects whose actual or aspired/desired self is reflected in the brand's proposition/personality/positioning/image. Also the fact if the brand connects with the individual's state on any of the levels mentioned above.

The consumers, who use the brand to derive self-expressive benefit, might still remain at a different plane from the plane that the brand represents. The individual usually wants to move in the direction indicated/offered by the brand, not necessarily attain the projected ideal state.

The prospect first develops emotional inclination towards a brand that matches benefit equation they already have in mind. The identification with the brand gets completed when the prospect feels closer to the brand through experience of usage. He/she has to be aided in deriving both the functional as well as symbolic/intangible benefits during use.

Consumers are down-to-earth. Marketers are from Mars?

Speaking of intangible satisfiers, where ought we to draw the line for what a brand can promise? What should be the extent and nature of the brand promise? All through his being, an individual (consumer) moves along a continuum, always directed at reaching a level ahead or more desirable than the current state. Insofar as this seems a reality, the lesson for brands is to act like a ladder rather than a point.

UDV's Gilbey's Green Label is a case in point here. The brand made no bones about being where it is and communicated it to the target too. It's about climbers rather than those who have already arrived. Hence, all the positives (hard work, success, celebration, friends, warmth) overpowered the fundamental apathy people may show towards just another new entrant in the category. A realist positioning has been chosen in preference to surreal fantasies, as the audience comprises social drinkers who are actually no escapists seeking refuge!

The overall feel was all about being in the process of making it to the top and the stages in the joy of achievement. The campaign thus created a connect with the target.

More and more people have less and less in common in the way they think. More and more people think/believe in a way only they do. This might be the great social churn in making.

Early signals of brands acquiring the role of opinion representatives could be seen in propositions as "Sehat se jeena hai" (Saffola), "Buland Bharat ki nayee tasveer" (Bajaj Auto). These are instances where the brand has clearly stated what it believes in (which at some point is also a reflection of the consumer needs) as the direction or the credo for future.

This reality makes the applicability of the new marketing/-branding paradigm possible at two levels:

LEVEL I

Present profit: Explore, identify, analyse and describe the existing ideological framework and build marketing/brand propositions from here.

LEVEL II

Future gain: Sense, track, observe, analyse, follow, describe and leverage the ideologies in making. Develop strategy to derive enhanced benefits.

The first approach is more present-oriented where the marketer might just be operating in a pre-determined frame. The second approach is that of a visionary marketer who by the virtue of his foresight will not only leverage, but also play a role in espousing/promoting a certain new ideology through his brand.

Consumers finally join the marketer's side

This is a situation where a brand (from a marketer with a strong social angle) participates in creating of new values and fresh agenda in a society, and also in promoting and achieving it "" for example, battery-run passenger cars, ethnic apparel and footwear or multi-level marketing networks.

Evidently, the appeal will be first for participation/co-operation from the consumer; that will, in turn, pave the way for consumption. The endeavour will not be to have an influence upon consumer segments; it will be to get them to act along with the marketer.

It's a new equation in the making. In the time to come, the prospect will not do back-seat driving, millions will not just ride as pillions, they will actively shape the market "" and rightfully so.

(S Balakrishnan is consultant creative director with Percept Advertising Ltd. He can be contacted at sbkiyer@ndf.vsnl.net.in. Saurabh Sharma works for Hakuhodo Percept Pvt Ltd. He can be contacted at fromroots@yahoo.com)