Customizing for the Indian Consumer - What's Working, What Not?

Customizing is defined as the design and creation of product/service that meets a customer’s specific needs. It can be based on a lot of parameters like age, gender, location etc. This article shall focus on what have been the trends of customization followed in the Indian context and a brief analysis of the same, with the help of multifarious examples.
Internationally, Pril is a popular dish wash liquid, but in India and the rest of the sub-continent, the company transformed it into a bar because that’s what the consumers were used to. This is just one of the many instances of what companies have to do to make a dent in new markets. So what do companies not used to the Indian market take into account when they enter this country?

Cultural differences, naturally, are the plank on which customization is done. Take the Indian Insurance sector; the kind of investment Indians make for their children is very different from the rest of the world. A daughter’s wedding, in India for instance requires years of financial planning. Child plans in the insurance sector don’t exist in most markets while that contributes a sizeable chunk here. As a point of contrast, in the West, especially in the UK, funeral schemes are a big draw as parents don’t want to burden their children with those; in India, these expenses are generally not considered a big deal.

Customization need not only mean the tweaking of the product functionality or attributes. Minor changes in the product which convey strong connection of the brand with the consumer can work well enough. The Korean brand LG, understood the stratification of Indian markets, came up with customization that included TVs with menus in regional languages and TV sets that factored in poor reception quality in rural areas. With this it dovetailed a marketing-distribution blitzkrieg in small towns. Pril even launched a mango-vinegar variant in its liquid, as mango skin is used as a scrubber in Uttar Pradesh, with an intention to refine the customization further to regional habits. Nokia came in with its ‘Made for Indian conditions’ phone to face the dust and grime of the country, which was very well received.

But that leaves us with another big question: How do multinational companies in the Food & Beverages sector keep their brand equity and yet endear themselves to the local market? From potato veggie burgers to tandoori chicken pizza, various innovations and combinations have had to be devised to have Indians sink their teeth into Western foods. But while acknowledging the need for customization, McDonalds also found out that consumers want a unique taste, not a samosa or paneer, so the company came up with a wrap which is basically a rumali roti but contains salsa, of Mexican origin, for some spice kick, which worked very well.

Packaging is another important element of customizing, affecting price and benefits. Pril introduced sachets of Pril liquid to motivate customer trials – none had done this in the dishwash segment so far, and it set off a trend in the market. It is said HLL came up with the idea of scenting the wrappers of their soaps as well, since customers were found to smell the soap(obviously with the wrapping over it) before they purchased the product.

In the automobile sector, Kinetic’s new launch, the Flyte, made in collaboration with SYM of Taiwan, was turned into a different vehicle for India altogether. Originally a unisex product, in India it is been positioned as a women’s vehicle – it’s a scooter with front fuelling so that the driver need not get off at the petrol pump to have it filled, there’s higher ground clearance to ensure a smooth journey on all kinds of roads, and its shape is in keeping with Indian preferences.

Let’s flip the coin now to see what doesn’t work. Japanese companies are reputed to make the best consumer durables, but in India, it was the Korean ones which were able to generate huge market shares. They brought in relevant technology, price points and had a good distribution strategy, whereas the Japanese goods were seen as having high-end features and high prices, which did not meet the requirements of the Indian masses. This tells us that a universally acknowledged excellence may not become popular. It could also be that brands that customised failed due to poorly conceptualised customisation – for example, Kellogg’s cereals with Indianised flavours (Mango-Elaichi, Rose and Coconut-Kesar).
Another important thing to be noted is that, customising for regional clusters needs a mindset which accepts that the needs of a village in Bihar are as different from those of a town in Tamil Nadu, as are, say, Africa and Japan. The diversity of India makes it essential to innovate at a more local level; treating the country as a homogeneous whole is as sub-optimal as treating India as part of a large global cluster.

- Aparna Ravia