What Vijay Sharma teaches about brand purpose

The cause that you have selected which you will run for, is that something which comes naturally to you? So most global consumer brands are very familiar working with the urban consumer, right? Largely global MNCs, but India's vast rural markets are still yet to be explored in a really deep way. Why is this so and what more do you think needs to be done to understand this consumer better? Yeah, so see rural markets in India actually make a very, very large base, right?

So there is no going away from the fact that the sheer size of rural market and the number of people who are there is very high. Also there are micro markets within them. Yeah, so but the problem is that this large mass is not concentrated in one place. So when they are broken up in these small villages, what happens is that building a viable business model to actually serve them becomes very difficult.

Because when you go there you don't get the size of business that you are looking for and the money that you spent in actually just going there is itself very, very high. So that's one challenge which most organizations face. The second is about, you know, how do we communicate to these consumers because a lot of them live in media dark places as well. If there is media or if there is TV then perhaps electricity is also an issue. And last but not the least, how do you influence behavior change?

Right, so these are pretty much the three obstacles or rather three big challenges which any organization or for that matter anyone who wants to make a difference to the rural market would face. Even developmental organizations would face the same challenges, right? As compared to India and other Asian economies, I mean large Asian economies, do you see some similar sort of trends? How do these work? I am talking about the rural markets of course. Are they similar in some senses?

Is there learning from one that you could sort of pick and put in the other and see how it works? Yeah, so at a very basic human level I would say they operate in a very, very similar way. They are of course lack of opportunities. However, the difference between India and other markets is that India has got a large number of villages which are very, very small. Or micro in nature. And infrastructure which is in the way how do you reach them whether it's in the form of roads etc.

While that's developing now but still a long way to go compared to the others per se. However, there are similarities at a human level. There are differences at an infrastructure level. And there are differences in the way these pockets are built. But we could very easily take a model which works in India and take it to other markets. So when we were doing Shakti, we took the model of India, we put that in Bangladesh, we put that in Sri Lanka and they were successful.

So it's not that you can't kind of multiply what you're doing in other markets. You can but you'll have to adapt it to that country in any case. Every major consumer brand has a core cause or purpose that they espouse and the difference it is looking to make in society in the lives of consumers. How does this work for the FMCG industry of several products and you have a mother brand of course right on top sitting that you know that is the idea of the mother brand it has to cover the entire spectrum.

And what are the inherent challenges in developing campaigns around this aspect cause based marketing. So first I guess FMCG is really about building a connect with your consumers. More and more consumers are wanting to see brands as an extension of themselves. So they want to, so for example, do I cater to the need of a consumer just as a consumer or do I also cater to his needs as a citizen. Right, so there are needs of consumers as a citizen and they want the brands to take that role and they want brands to play that role.

And when the brands do that, then they feel a lot more closer to that brand. Right. So how do you do it now? Right. Because it's easy to say that, okay, I want to stand for this cause, etc. I think there are two, three things which are critical here. First is to say that the cause that you have selected, which you will run for, is that something which comes naturally to you and can you do it in a credible way. So you need to take care of both of these. The second thing is about saying that you've got the cause in, but what do you do with it?

The minute you want to say that I want to do something about it, then it is about putting a program which is a very solid program, which actually takes care of which understands why the cause is there, what are the issues, etc. And how can it be solved? It's not just about saying stuff. And finally, when you got that in, then it is about persistence and actually doing it. And then the results do flow in. And when the results flow in and when people see that what you're saying and what you're doing is the same,

right, then they actually begin to appreciate the brand and they begin to create connects which are far, far, far stronger. How do you sort of get your newest ideas? What keeps you sort of fresh coming back on a new day? So, I like visiting villages. In fact, I do farming. So I have a small farm tucked in Madhya Pradesh somewhere. And so I get a lot of inspiration and a lot of energies from these, you know, visits that I do, meeting these consumers,

meeting these, you know, meeting the village folk per se. Where I get my energies from is more from observation, more from human to human interactions.