Consumer electronics company TCL India Holdings Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of China’s TCL Corp., launched a health awareness campaign in December through which it offered free health check-ups for consumers who visited any of its 24 retail branches in India. For a company that sells television sets and air conditioners, this new focus on health is part of its marketing strategy to differentiate itself from other consumer durable players in the market, and appeal to consumer mindsets.
“If you want to stand out in the market, you have to sell yourself in ways that interest consumers, and health consciousness is gaining importance among Indians today,” says Sudhanshu Bhandari, assistant marketing manager, TCL. “Besides, no other consumer durable player has taken a stand on health,” he adds.
Like TCL, several other companies are marketing their brands around social issues that appeal to consumers and strike an emotional chord.
“Social awareness among consumers is going up. They (consumers) are also feeling exploited by commercial messages that are ‘in your face’ at every touch point,” says Sunder Raman, managing director, MindShare, a leading media buying agency.
This concept first became popular among fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) firms such as Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), ITC Ltd and the Procter and Gamble Co. (P&G) that advertised their company’s cause-marketing initiatives which involved donating a certain percentage of sales on select items towards a social cause.
ITC’s Aashirwaad brand of wheat and flour, Sunfeast biscuits and Classmate stationery have supported rainwater harvesting, afforestation and rural education through cause marketing, while HUL’s Surf Excel and Pond’s cream promoted education through scholarships and fought for women’s empowerment through a collaboration with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem).
But now companies are carefully choosing the initiatives they advertise as a means to counter public perception of unfavourable practices that have been linked to their businesses.
For instance, cola companies that have been blamed for depleting water resources and exploiting child labour have messages that counter such perceptions. Coca-Cola India Inc.’s recent “Drops of Joy” campaign features an emotional narrative from one of the 80 men of the Benares Deaf and Dumb Institute who have been given employment as bottle inspectors at Coca-Cola’s bottling plant at Varanasi. And rival PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd is also in the process of seeking approval from its head office to roll out a campaign based on its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on water and waste management, a senior executive of the company, who did not wish to be named, confirmed.