When sharbat wars get ugly

Without a doubt, consumer marketing has just seen an awkward and ugly new twist that we hope isn’t the sign of things to come

When brands battle, it's usually between the boardrooms, their billboards, and some billing counters. These three Bs tend to dominate in most stories of wars between brands. It's rare to see owners jousting on the streets, except in medieval markets. Those kinds of market fights have got gentrified. Trying to get customers to buy into communal bigotry to get larger market shares, is a mercifully rare marketing gimmick.

However, what we've seen recently is an attempt to trigger an open fistfight in the consumer market. Are brands at war here, or is there something more at play that isn’t quite clear as yet? Remember that this has happened ominously in the exact same week that the contentious Waqf Bill was passed in the early hours of the morning, in Parliament. 

There's a sound practical reason why this kind of proxy warfare rarely works or even happens. Customers are consumers, after all. Customers don't often buy into rhetoric. They usually (even when it's just for a red summer sharbat) go for taste, personal preferences, the brand narrative, and other such attributes. In India, we know, brand attributes most often include pricing (in a big way), and sometimes the perceived provenance of the brand itself when it’s for consumption by children.

Today’s consumers are also swayed by influencers, though this is now becoming a little debatable. In consumer product advertising, the kinds of influencers who are most often brought into play are usually those who appeal to the age group of the customers themselves. It is only rarely that ownership attempts to play the role of influencer unless you’re talking old-fashioned masala mixes.

So, the big question is, whether when Ramdev or Balkrishna speak, do they signal their peculiar influencer impact or are they demonstrating ownership dominance? For those who don’t know, it may be worth remembering that Balkrishna owns a staggering 94% of the company’s equity. The abuse that was hurled at Rooh Afza during the course of Ramdev promoting his own version of the same red Sharbat, was strangely vicious. Whether it was to cover up old controversies that had erupted around his now-discredited Coronil or the trope about human bones found in products or whether the quality questions raised around some other basic products like honey were being sidestepped, wasn’t clear. 

The substantial Patanjali empire that Ramdev and Balakrishna preside over is no stranger to controversy, and it has grown to a gigantic multi-billion dollar company in less than 20 years. For several years, it has also been the fastest-growing FMCG company in India, and its ability to poach top management talent from marquee global companies is visible to everyone in the business. In comparison, the Hamdard family, now a Waqf entity, that owns the Rooh Afza brand, has been quietly doing its business since 1906. Its history and provenance impeccably maintained may be what its consumers will probably rely on a lot. 

So, instead of trying to attack any competitor product attributes that would make some sense to potential buyers, Ramdev chose instead to talk about the end use of profits. He insists that his rival’s profits go into promotion of community religious schools, even while he is confessing to promoting his own set of religious teaching shops. The rather obvious echoes to the issues dealt with in the freshly-minted Waqf Bill are difficult to ignore, here. But is expecting branded product consumers to care stretching matters a little? Or have them believe that one motive is superior to the other?

We live in tumultuous and highly fractured times, but there is now adequate evidence to make professionals like us in the image management business recognise that the majority of customers don’t get swayed by political rhetoric or even any abuse. So will Ramdev get markets to thumbs-up his new drink? Or will it just wilt and shrink in the searing heat of summer? The jury may yet be out on this for now, but there is no doubt that consumer marketing has just seen an awkward and ugly new twist that we hope isn’t the sign of things to come.

(Dilip Cherian, founding partner of Perfect Relations, is a public affairs consultant and branding strategist. Twitter: @DILIPtheCHERIAN)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.