AdTech: The Rise of Challenger Brands and Experimental Consumers in India
During one of the sessions of Ad
:Tech that held in New Delhi, Rajesh Sawhney, CEO & Co-Founder Innerchef, Founder GSF Accelerator vocalized about the change in consumer behavior over the years, considering the generational habits. Besides, Rajesh also helped the listeners know how things can be leveraged by the brand through new channels of distribution to keep a tab on consumers.
There has been a tremendous change in the last five years and the biggest change can be seen in consumers. Also, consumers come from three different generations today. There is a proliferation of youth in India but the consumer of today is more experimental than ever. Youngsters have always been experimental but the youth of the country in the 80s’ and 90s’ lacked the ability to experiment. The obsession was more about the career earlier.
The current generation is hugely experimenting which opens big opportunities for new brands. If we think of the parent’s generation, they are still stuck into the taste palette. However, the people in 20s are crazy; new things drive them. The new gen is born in different context and is a digital native who are born primarily when Google was already there, Facebook just stepped in, Instagram was breaking out, and TikTok has come in. Their world exists between boundary of social experience.
And, finally it’s about credit – a very important evolution that happened in consumer behavior. Now we have credit even to go out on dates. If you go to Flipkart, ZestMoney will offer you credit through three EMIs. Credit is available on fingertips. The generation before the current one started experimenting with the credit system. The credit earlier was essentially been taken to build assets, home, or a big car. In the content of this, brands are being built.
Things that Leveraged New Channels of Distribution for Brands
In the last 10 years in India, many things have changed. Clearly, the most important thing is the evolution of e-commerce platforms, which are increasing in their abilities to reach out to consumers and are becoming increasingly important to brands. Think of Hindustan Unilever; about three to five years back they would not have thought of Big-Basket as a significant channel. Today, even Milk Basket is important to them.
Another thing is the payment gateway. There was no Paytm, Google Pay, or Amazon Pay and cashbacks five years back, and moreover, no ability to credit seeking nature. These platforms are fueling the credit seeking nature of consumers. There is an instant gratification that becomes relevant to brands. Social media is a great human evolution that becomes relevant. It becomes important for brands to leverage social media for storytelling and brand evolution.
Lastly the most important thing is consumer brands were built by people who had access to family capital or were incubated by bigger companies. That’s how till 2000, consumer brands got originated. Something fundamentally changed in the last five years. There was a rise of entrepreneurial mindset which in first wave was of VC culture. The VCs funded the tech companies. Now, VCs are willing to fund the consumer companies. Also, the entrepreneurs have changed. The entrepreneur is now educated and has deep consumer insights, who understands how digital is happening. He is also leveraging the consumer insights with digital channels and accessing VC capital to build business.