WHAT CRICKET TAUGHT ME ABOUT SHOPPING?

It’s been over 100 days of us living through various stages of Lockdown and Unlock. More importantly, it’s been a century of days without live Cricket. In the absence of live sporting action of any consequence, thrills are cheap and mostly attained by keeping score of kitchen essentials and live-tracking delivery of groceries. Somewhere along the way, the twain merged and I found strange but stark parallels between the state of Cricket and various Retail channels. Here goes:

1.    E-COMMERCE = T20

What’s common between ordering a cheese filled Pizza online and watching a close T20 Cricket match in the middle of a working day? The Rush! It’s fast-paced, It’s exciting, it’s instant gratification, it’s inexpensive, it’s (more often than not) non-essential, but it’s a lot of fun.

In last 10 years, the growth in the share of attention, investment and popularity for both T20 and eCommerce has been unparalleled. One the one hand, Amazon’s market cap jumped from $50 Bn in 2009 to $1.4 Trillion while on the other, the brand value of IPL more than tripled from $2 Bn to around $7 Bn. While the numerical jump is just indicative of a trend, it doesn’t encapsulate the cultural shift both T20  and eCommerce brought to the arena.

Both T20 and eCommerce are considered as the future of their respective fields. Both offer ample opportunities to new players and both have relatively lower barriers to entry. An artisanal Greek yogurt maker has the same opportunity of success on eComm as Amul. This is not too different from the platform that T20 leagues provide to relatively unknown players by pitting them against the best in the world.

However, despite the stellar growth rate and valuation surge – both T20 and eCommerce account for lower contribution to their core universe than the excitement they generate. The contribution of e-Commerce to overall FMCG sales as of March 2020 is still 2.8% (1.9% in March 2019) as per Nielsen. In his career so far, Virat Kohli has played 281 T20 matches and faced 6614 balls. This pales in comparison to the 12552 balls he’s faced in just 86 Test Matches that he’s played so far. Even among bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah has bowled almost as many number of balls in just the 14 Test matches he’s played as he has in the 157 T20s he’s appeared in for his national & local team.

There, I said it! Online shopping is T20 - maximum noise, a lot of analyst interest but - least playing time.



KIRANA = TEST MATCHES

For a lot of people, watching a 5 Day Test Match or visiting the corner store for provisions handed over in unattractive packaging is a tedious chore bereft of excitement. For years now, there have been multiple obituaries written for the same, all premature. Announcements of any new format or the entry of a new player - 100 Ball Match, Omni-Channel eco-systems, Big companies entering - usually expedite the pace at which these doomsday predictions are made.

While there is some merit to the decaying growth and audience interest in these formats, the robustness of their model stands unquestioned. In the initial weeks of the lockdown, in March and April, the humble Kirana store kept it fed as eCommerce players struggled to find their f(l)eet. Even as the overall contribution is trending towards a decline, Traditional trade channels account for 86% of all FMCG goods sold in India. In fact, as per an EY survey, nearly 50% of the consumers have a more positive outlook towards their local kiranas and they are quickly becoming a trusted point in the local ecosystem.  

Similarly, Test Cricket in India and around the World, despite the lack of audience interest, still accounts for majority of the cricket played at grassroots level. The Indian Ranji Season, English County Season and the Australian Domestic Tests are more important to the supply pipeline for future international cricketers than T20 Leagues.

Beyond all the attention, it is the respect accorded to Test Cricket and Traditional trade channels by Industry Leaders and Top Cricketers that is likely to ensure its longevity. True greatness of both, a Cricketer and a Consumer Product is measured by its performance in these channels. No matter how popular the said artisanal Greek yogurt brand would be online, it is not successful until it’s available and sold at the corner store alongside Amul Dahi!  

Along the course, there will be the big changes like Day-Night Tests and Kirana tie-ups with Tech & Telco players for hyper local delivery. These will further cement their places in the overall scheme of things. Just the way T20 money is being used to keep Tests alive, chances are EComm giants will continue to invest behind Offline Retail and Traditional Channels for supply efficiency. 

So, Cricket has taught me Kirana is the Test Match! Still the toughest, still the least "popular" in terms of perception - most revered by players & real fans (FMCG companies, distributors and home-makers)

3.    SUPER MARKETS = ODIs

This brings me to the final observation – Supermarkets! They’re the ODIs of the Retail Channel. Both see an occasional interest from the audience. A visit to the Supermarket isn’t entirely out of necessity, but neither is it as non-essential as ordering a cheese filled Pizza. Watching a One Day International match and visiting a Supermarket provide maximum satisfaction when limited to occasions. Sitting through a bilateral ODI series is as cumbersome as going to the supermarket for just a bar of soap. The time and effort spent just don’t do any justice to the utility derived.  

Just like ODIs offer the player an opportunity to showcase both their hitting prowess and their technical finesse, Supermarkets are the perfect place for brands to sell their bestselling SKUs and test new variants. Supermarkets just like ODIs, do suffer from the “Middle Overs” lull during weekdays and have all the action packed into Saturday and Sunday like Power-play and the death overs.

Which is why for both ODIs and Supermarkets an occasion is most important for relevance. ODI needs events like the World Cup and Champions Trophy to stay exciting just the way supermarkets create retail festivals during Independence Day and Price-Offs to generate consumer buzz.

The Supermarket is an ODI - somewhere in the middle of daily needs and irregular indulgences, best enjoyed through occasional visits.

What Ganesh Chaturthi taught me about Marketing

Here’s the thing, being a Bombay (what it was called then) boy, growing up a kilometer away from the city’s first public Ganesh pandal, one could never ignore the impact of the magical festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. 

Over decades of visiting major Ganesh Pandals in the island city and watching them evolve over the years, I learnt some extremely insightful lessons about marketing. 

At the most basic level, the job profiles of a Ganesh Mandal President and the CEO of a consumer company aren’t too different. The goal is to attract maximum people to your offering vs competitors and ensure they return every year. 

Here’s how Ganesh Pandal owners aced every theory in marketing using native intelligence -

1. Traditional Marketing - My product/brand is better than my competitors: 

This was around the time when I first started visiting pandals as a child between from early 90s to 2000. What excited me most was the size of the idol. Tall idols of 30, 35 and even 40 feet in Ganesh Galli, Lalbaug and Khetwadi 11th Lane, would attract the maximum number of people. This slowly evolved into best decorated pandals attracting most crowds. I distinctly remember standing in queues outside Tilak Nagar’s Ganesh Pandal to get a glimpse of life size recreations of famous Indian monuments. 

This I later understood, wasn’t very different from the “meri safedi uski safedi se safed” - school of marketing. The best idol, the best decoration attracted the most footfalls.

2. Modern Marketing - My product/brand is better because it makes you feel better. 

The key drawback of the traditional technique of positioning above competitors was, the risk of losing loyalty. Easy for competitors to make taller idols, more elaborate decorations to veer crowds away from the incumbents. A relatively more stable model would be to shift focus away from the competitors to the consumers (in this case, devotees). Lalbaugcha Raja, to my mind, aced this strategy. The focus was always on how devotees felt with the Lord watching over them. Consistency in the design of the idol, decorations and the rituals (including a 20 hour long immersion procession) bred familiarity among devotees. While visitors attended other Pandals for to see large idols and decorations, a visit to Lalbaugcha Raja always meant much more than that. This feeling, in the material world is eerily similar to how one feels about the purchase of an Apple product. The brand is good, because  it cares the most about customers, it makes them feel the best. Over time, following Apple’s lead, we’ve seen traditional marketers move more towards consumer obsession and cult - creation in their communication too.

 

3. “Go Green” Marketing - My product/brand is the best because it makes the world a better place.

Customer obsession eventually evolved from an individual focus to the focus on community. Over the last 5 years, I’ve noticed an increasing presence of Eco-friendly Ganesh Pandals. A few around my house in Marine Lines, speak about Zero Pollution, 100% Recyclable and Bio-degradable idols and decorations. There’s a growing cult around idols made out of Chocolate, Papier Mache and Traditional clay with water colours. This coincides with what I see around the material world too. Brands like Allbirds, Patagonia and Beyond Meat are almost exclusively based on the premise of making the world a better place for our future generations. I believe, this is also where all other brands will eventually move too. Increasingly, we hear Apple speak about re-cycling all the metals for new phones and Amazon wanting to reduce the usage of plastic in their packaging. Even hotel chains are promoting responsible, eco-friendly luxury to engage with guests and cultivate loyalty. Great move, for the earth and the customers. 

4. Socially Conscious Marketing - My product/brand is best because it takes the Right Steps for Society. 

Finally, this morning I read that Lalbaugcha Raja has decided against holding elaborate celebrations this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, the authorities will devote those 10 days towards organizing blood donation and plasma therapy camps. This move, based on the reactions online, has been welcome and widely appreciated by the public. This closely follows developments around the world. Nike, J&J and Unilever have made some serious changes to their communication and product offerings in the wake of #BlackLivesMatter. In fact, Suresh Narayanan of Nestle also told CNBC-TV18, that brands are now realizing that beyond profits, they also have a big responsibility toward societal values. 

Thus, here’s marketing 101, learnt from my favorite festival. Years ago, I started by visiting these Pandals as an excited child and now I continue to visit them, as an observer of marketing trends, still excited and hoping that Mighty Ganesha continues to pave the way and remove obstacles towards learning new things.