Best ways of pleasing Indian Consumers

India is a society where modern and traditional values co-exist, and marketers would do well to understand this ability to include. Various instances of this `and-ness' exist, be it the seeming contrast between the need for power play and equality of opportunity, or a democratic system and the importance given to political heirs.

Now look at the approaches to please the consumers :

Understand the interplay of modern and traditional values at work in your category and address it, to emerge a winner. Ignore it at your peril.

This is particularly required if there is a conflict between the modern values the new brand/product is bringing, and traditional values and codes. In such a case, the brand needs to provide the Indian with a route to satisfying his need for `and-ness' in order to succeed.

New foods in India offer a clear illustration of this principle. The Global Fast Food brands such as McDonald's and Pizza Hut have understood that the modern values they offer are in the décor, service and branding experience. But they need to adapt their products to cater to the Indian palate, ergo, the availability of aloo tikki burgers and masala paneer pizzas.

As a result of addressing `and-ness' they have found significant success. On the other hand, a leading breakfast food brand has stood steadfast in its adherence to its Western product format and positioning. Its global product format strongly violates the Indian cultural imprint of food. By staying rigid and not giving the Indian consumer a way to satisfy her need for `and-ness', the brand and category have languished in the periphery of consumer consciousness.

Search for big ideas that offer the consumer a blend of modernity and tradition.

In 2000, the Diamond Trading Company launched Nakshatra, the first advertised and promoted diamond jewellery brand in the Indian market. It glamorised the traditional idea of jewellery as adornment and beauty by using the star Aishwarya Rai as its brand ambassador. The product was a contemporised rendition of a traditional, floral seven-stone cluster.

All-in-all, the Nakshatra package offered women the perfect blend of tradition and modernity and the rest, as they say, is history. In the span of six short years, Nakshatra has become one of India's super brands and is the leading diamond jewellery brand in the country.

Keep a look out for new combinations of tradition and modernity that emerge, as trends to tap into.

Re-mix music, Indo-western clothing, ayurveda therapy centres, news as an entertaining spectacle, televised debates and chat shows, reiki, pranic healing, tarot reading ... the list of trends that have emerged as business opportunities in the past 15 years is endless.

A large, centre-of-the-market brand's personality needs to offer a combination of modern and traditional values to appeal to and bond with the mass consumer. A brand personality that seems too Western and modern will be seen as being too individualistic and selfish and rejected as "not for me."

The Indian consumer, whether rich or middle class will scrutinise the components of value that the brand delivers, and will negotiate hard on price. She will expect freebies and promotions of various kinds as a matter of course, as a smart marketer's payback to her, for her loyal custom.

Finally, using a celebrity in brand communication is a sure-fire, winning strategy.