How Consumer Brands Can Sustain During & Post-COVID

Mihir Mehta Jun 20, 2020

It is an undeniable fact that India is a consumption saga. Armed with a 1.3 billion population with interesting positives like growing per capita income, deeper internet penetration, youth-oriented demography etc., relevant stakeholders across the globe including myself, have advocated the India consumption story. As undeniable as that premise is, it is also true that the outbreak of COVID-19 has had negative repercussions on this construct. While multiple opinions have been cited in this regard, prima-facie observation is that while this pandemic has definitely slowed things down but the India consumption story is far from over.

Before moving on to sharing thoughts about sustaining this tough phase, let’s quickly highlight pull-down factors that have adversely affected the overall consumer sector:

- A reasonable drop in consumer confidence that has resulted in the adoption of conservatism when it comes to overall consumer spending. 

- A lacklustre economic scenario has led to pay-cuts & job-losses, which has led to a grim outlook for the future.

- The emergence of essentials vs non-essentials as a major driver of consumer behaviour while drawing up budgets, making purchases and building repository has impacted multiple enterprises/brands.

Undoubtedly, the consumption sector is experiencing a tough phase but it humbly believes that this storm is weakening and as the end-consumer is acclimatizing to this novel environment, businesses are also evolving to keep pace. In keeping with that thought, highlighting some thoughts that have been built on the back of multiple interactions with stakeholders like entrepreneurs, consumers, government officials, business mentors etc. 

1. Put technology at the heart of it - This cannot be emphasized further but technology is needed now more than ever. Irrespective of the stage, nature, target segment, channel of your enterprise, adoption of technology in a holistic and structured manner is indispensable. There are multiple benefits of implementing end-to-end technology-led solutions including the likes of cost-effectiveness, better efficiency/ throughput and rapid scalability. It is essential for consumer brands that this adoption has to be end-to-end and not limited to a single aspect of the business like enabling a demand-side digital ecosystem. 

As society combats the impact of this pandemic, being technologically savvy is a consumer behaviour trait that is going to stay and it is crucial that consumer brands hasten their transition to this ecosystem. 

2. Building consumer incentive by establishing brand superiority and not freebies - There is no doubt that consumers are seeking value-for-money now more than ever but they strongly believe that freebies/ promotions are not the way to achieve the same. Consumer brands have to gear up and establish brand supremacy by investing in efforts & avenues that position the brand as trend-setter, thought leader and in a positive light. At this time, it is pertinent that brands pursue initiatives that help consumers build brand confidence and good vibes because a brand is just an extension of its consumers. As information availability and awareness keeps growing, consumers are identifying an enterprise as a summation of every core and non-core aspect and not solely by its product/service. 

3. Streamline operations - If you read this and exclaim, “It is common knowledge & obvious”, it wouldn’t be surprised. However, you may be surprised to know that often businesses fail to acknowledge the significance of following a bottom-up approach to streamline operations. In the constant hustle to survive through tough times, and still, analyze/evaluate businesses using a top-down or macro approach and that may have dire consequences for enterprises at this time. 

It goes without saying that to combat this crisis effectively, entrepreneurs running consumer brands should consistently track the income statements/ performance at the unit level and that unit may be a sub-brand, product, product category, service type etc. The categorization of a unit is dependent on the business structure and the way business promoters monitor the same. 

To reiterate this stance, it is a belief that India as a country has tremendous potential for some amazing consumer brands/stories and while there is a slowdown, the challenges posed by this pandemic will pave way for survival and growth of the fittest. Overall, the focus on consumer requirements, feedback and their relationship with the brand, will have to be more acute going forward.