Madhukar Sabnavis: From 'story telling' to 'conversations'

Given the changing face of brand communication, brand communicators need to re-orient themselves to the new media opportunities, says

First was the "market economy". Buyers and sellers exchanged their goods for currency and as barter in the weekly markets. These are shown in Hollywood movies depicting the 18th and 19th centuries, and still exist as weekly "haats" in rural India. Advertising was through the calls of the salesmen "informing" new customers of the wares a particular shop had to offer. The gap between message and purchase was nil""you heard the message and you bought the product. Towards the end of the 19th century, the first organised mass media appeared called the Press, and formal advertising did much the same""informed and incentivised buyers to go out and buy the product.

Then came the "production economy". Technology made it possible and economically efficient to manufacture "numerous" units of the same product and this opened up trading as an ongoing profession. This was accompanied by the growth of the "mass media"""first the radio and then television. The gap between message and purchase began to widen. And the role of advertising messages sent through the mass media channels was to create demand and hence "educate". Much of what we saw as Indian advertising in the 60s and 70s was more in this area""often tending to be preachy""with a tone of a teacher.

Next came the "branding economy". As categories multiplied and the number of offerings increased within each category, giving consumers options and choices, the importance of brand building increased. This was the age of USP, ESP, and building relationships. Mass media advertising began to speak emotion. Liril's advertising, done in 1974, was a milestone in Indian advertising""though the transformation of Indian advertising took place much later in the late 80s. Interestingly, alongside this boom, the media market also witnessed the same explosion, leading to media clutter. And advertising re-geared itself from being just message sending to become more entertaining. Being largely an intrusive medium, the only reason viewers would be willing to hear the message would be if it was entertainingly told. The tone had come a long way from being informational to educational to now entertainment. And, yes the gap between message and purchase kept widening. Consumers were expected to see or hear the message days before she actually went to buy and so "memorability" was critical. All through, however, one thing remained common""communication was one way, monologue""going from the brand to the consumer, trying to strike a relationship.

We are today in a "technology economy". And this is a cross-road for brand owners and communicators. While the concept of brand is still relevant""building a relationship""there is an opportunity to strengthen this relationship by using the unique features new technology offers. In fact, new technology will force brands to build relationships differently from the past. New technologies, from the Internet to the mobile to what's taking shape even at retail""the RFID, etc.""all provide brands the ability to interact with and talk to consumers. This means that relationships can now be built through dialogues rather than monologues""making the task of communication exciting and yet challenging.

Seth Godin says in his book, "All marketers are liars", all marketing is about story telling. It's about creating stories around the brand and getting consumers involved into the little "untruths" being woven around them, and thus getting consumers to feel emotions of using or owning the brand. Classical brand communication was in the realm of "grandma" telling stories to "wide-eyed" children""the consumers enjoying the tales and vicariously feeling the emotions. As long as the tales were told enchantingly, the child-like consumers lapped them up and bought the brand.

In today's technology economy, consumers are more knowledgeable and more demanding. While they still remain emotional beings, enchanting stories may not be enough for brands to engage and excite them. Technology allows brands to interact with consumers while communicating. And this means moving brand communication from "story telling" to "conversations".

An oft-repeated mistaken view of transferring a TV commercial onto the Net or mobile is perhaps a limiting or even erroneous use of the new media. Just as TV was not moving press, the Internet and the mobile are just not new media channels for a TV commercial. Telling one-way stories and engaging conversations are two different skills and require different management systems.

"Storytelling" draws more from the world of the theatre""where consumers sit and listen to the performance. To use the new technology better, one must draw from how to successfully engage in a conversation. Five elements would drive brands-in-conversations:

Knowledge: To engage in meaningful and effective conversations, the brand needs to be knowledgeable and capable of reacting intelligently to any questions or issues that informed consumers will raise during the dialogue.

Listen: Classic storytelling is one way""so a disinterested or disbelieving consumer can just turn away; in a conversation the consumer is likely to either express his lack of interest or enquire aggressively and, if not well-addressed, would become a bad word of mouth for the brand. In fact, on the Net, if others are involved, it could lead to a negative viral effect. Brands need to continuously listen and re-craft communication in keeping with changing moods""whims and fancies""much like impromptu theatre.

Timing: The moment of intervention is critical. While mass media planning does often take into consideration editorial content as an important factor for placing "stories", the adverse effect here of entering at the wrong time or the wrong way could be dangerous""and would rub off on the brand. Much of today's irritation caused by tele-callers' intrusion is because old principles are being applied to new communication media. There are no attempts to make conversations.

Next appointment: The best stories have a beginning and an end. Conversations can be kept going and brands need to find ways by which, once they've engaged a consumer, they can keep the conversations going on. The creation of on-line clubs by brands is one way of keeping conversations going with targeted consumers.

Re-segment: Using mass media market segmentation principles is perhaps a mistake in this technology economy. The challenge is to identify and attack the "innovators" in a category and get them to become the missionaries.

In sum, in the new technology economy, brands need to re-engineer their approach to communication and brand communicators need to re-orient themselves to the new opportunities of the new media in their pursuit to build brands. Something worth thinking about.

Madhukar Sabnavis is Board Partner"" Discovery and Strategy, Ogilvy and Mather, India. He can be contacted at madhukar.sabnavis@ogilvy.com. The views expressed are his own.