Brand Polarization

The Indian Scenario

Marketers gauging consumer attitudes have traditionally relied on “mean” or “net” scores of product ratings, but those metrics can paint

a misleading picture

Consider two hypothetical brands, A and B.

Suppose that each brand’s

manager surveys three consumers, asking them to rate the brand on a

scale from 1 (very poor) to

7 (excellent).

Brand A receives ratings of 3, 4, and 5. Brand B receives ratings of 1, 4, and 7. Thus, the two brands have the same mean score 4.

But behind that mean lies an important difference:

Brand A’s scores are clustered tightly together,

but Brand B’s are widely dispersed—it has one brand lover

and one brand hater.

Brand B is polarizing.

There are various ways to measure polarization.

One of the simplest is to look at the percentage of consumers who give a brand a rating of 6 or 7 and the percentage who give

it a 1 or 2. The higher the percentages of brand lovers and brand haters, the greater

the polarization

Another way to determine polarization is to calculate the standard deviation of

consumers’ overall ratings; higher standard deviations indicate greater polarization. This method is more precise and can be especially useful when brands are rated on 3-point or

5-point scales.

Polarization is not necessarily bad. Having a group of consumers who hate your brand can be a good thing!

If your analysis reveals that your brand exhibits a high degree of

polarization, there are three ways you can capitalize on that

POLARIZATION.

Placate the haters

Kurkure Plastic Controversy in India

• Videos were posted stating there was plastic in Kurkure.

• As the rumour spread, sales dropped by nearly 33%

Marketing Strategy

• A special No plastic Blog was started to put the fears of the consumers to rest.

• Campaigns were observed in support with the parent company products like soft drinks, fruit juices and other

snack items. • A test was conducted at AIIMS and a clean chit was

procured. • Ingredients and manufacturing process was made public.

Poke the haters

While there aren’t any Indian firms indulging in this strategy to my knowledge, testing it in the Indian scenario might yield interesting results.

I am of the opinion that such a strategy would fail in the Indian context because masses get easily swayed. From my observation, a negative opinion of a product has greater

impact on a consumer’s choice than a positive one.

Amplify a polarizing attribute.

TOI and Deepika Padukone Cleavage Controversy

In spite of being lambasted by the public regarding the “cheap” news TOI tried to sell, the TOI continued to remain unapologetic in

its stance and in fact continued to publish other material that objectified women.

What resulted were more shares of the article accompanied by bad publicity.

The sales of the paper improved instead of declining.

Sometimes even if a product or brand isn’t inherently polarizing, the

marketers may want to introduce polarization in order to differentiate it from a strong competitor or to

make it stand apart from a crowded field.

It is imperative that Indian firms stop relying on averages. To gauge the entire spectrum of consumer attitudes towards

their brands, firms must keep track of their brand’s dispersion over time.

With development of technology and widespread use of social media, pockets of haters can quickly develop and spread.

Hence companies must stay vigilant all the time and respond strategically to changes in

consumer attitudes.

Recap!

• Mean scores of product ratings are misleading.

• It hides brand dispersion.

• Polarization of a product is not necessarily bad.

• If your product is polarized, you can adopt one of the following strategies

1. Placate the haters

2. Poke the haters

3. Amplify a polarizing attribute.

• While the first and third strategies are followed in the Indian Markets, the second one is a rarity.

• With widespread awareness, any product can get polarized overnight.

• Hence it is essential for firms to vigilantly look out for shifts in consumer attitudes towards their products and respond strategically.

Thank

You

Created by S.Kanishka, IIT Madras, during an internship with

Prof. Sameer Mathur,

IIM Lucknow,

www.iiminternship.com