Advertising and the Market Landscape

Direct to Consumer (DTC) advertising is regarded as the most important and the most lethal weapon in the marketing arsenal of majority of market players operating in the consumer products and the consumer directed services space in India.

The advertising strategies adopted by the organizations and the messages intended to be delivered through the DTC ad campaigns pin-point to the ever changing market dynamics and the competitive landscape.

The brightest case example that illustrates this trend can be the recent ad campaigns initiated by Vodafone India. The campaigns also illustrate the increasing focus on "Localization in Globalization”. Vodafone globalized by acquiring Hutch. It then localized by resorting to the same promotional strategy that made Hutch, a household name. It is only in this country that you can see a pug fighting head on with the likes of Shahrukh Khan (Airtel) and Abhishek Bachhan (Idea).

There used to be a time when competition in the mobile services space was only on the basis of price. The mobile services market in India has probably seen and experienced the bloodiest price war ever fought in recent times. However the shift on the basis for competition has been pretty fast. The focus has shifted from Price to Network to Value added services and most recently to customer care service, thanks to the latest campaign by Vodafone.

Interestingly, with Hutch, the pug symbolized the network whereas with Vodafone, it symbolizes the ever-responsive customer care service. At a time when the affordability of Indian consumers has increased tremendously (thanks to a burgeoning middle class), the focus is shifting from cost to the comfort and convenience of use – the Vodafone ad being a reflection of the same.

Where do you stand in the Value Chain?

With the flag bearers of the Indian BPO industry gaining significant grounds in the KPO value chain, the visibility of the business opportunity has increased tremendously. Additionally, with the leader not even commanding a 5% share of the opportunity pie, the industry is highly segregated with a bevy of competitors operating in diverse industry and functional areas. I would rather prefer to call it an opportunity pie and not a market pie. The logic: The industry is far from defining itself.

However, the subject that is most discussed in the KPO strategy board rooms is not competition but the challenge to move up the value chain. Research to Analysis to Advisory to Consulting. Although the differentiation is blur, it is still significant.

Research and Analysis go hand on hand and a majority of the industry players operate with these value elements as the focal processes.

To differentiate an advisory process from a consulting one, it is important to understand and appreciate the difference between prevention and treatment. Prevention is typically characterized by recommendations, dos and don’ts whereas treatment is characterized by solution implementation (therapy in this case). It also involves tracking, analyzing and responding to the solution implementation process. That’s the same with advisory and consulting: advisory signifies prevention whereas consulting signifies treatment. Unless and until the disease (business issue in this case) gets treated or cured or at least diagnosed, the process continues.

Being the only process that defines the connecting link between a KPO and a business consulting organization, advisory is interesting. Having said that, its important to understand the process intricacies of the service which is different in a KPO and a consulting firm. For the majority of knowledge processors Research based Advisory which till recently has been the traditional forte of the leading research houses (Frost & Sullivan and Datamonitor to name a few) signifies the high end value element. On the other hand Strategic Advisory is the generic stronghold for majority of consulting firms.

As far as business consulting is concerned, Indian knowledge processors are far from reaching that level. However, with the focus increasingly shifting from the bottom line to value creation, the target is not at all difficult to realize.