Be Culturally Sensitive

Be culturally sensitive. What happens if you are not? Well, the brand which you manage and if you are not culturally sensitive to the market in which it is going to be marketed, then sales are going to go down. And if you are going to be culturally sensitive, then the market where you sell, your brand sales are going to go up. You decide. To help you decide, let me share with you two examples that are very near to me. First example: Kellogg’s. When Kellogg’s was launched in India in 1990s, sales of Kellogg’s went through the roof. People bought it, taste it. But what did the company realize? That the repeat purchase of Kellogg’s was not as high. And this was a cause of worry. And when the company decide to do research, why the repeat purchase was not there, what they discovered to its horror was, that they had possibly overlooked the cultural aspect of how milk is actually delivered in Indian household and how it is consumed. Let me take you to USA, where Kellogg’s cornflake was developed. How do people in USA consume Kellogg’s cornflakes? They go to Wal-Mart, pick up Kellogg’s cornflakes, and pick up a carton of milk, bring both of them home, put milk in the refrigerator and Kellogg’s in the kitchen. Next morning as they are about to go to work, they pick out Kellogg’s cornflakes and milk from the refrigerator, pour the two in a bowl and they have it. And Kellogg’s cornflakes is crisp, tasty and awesome. Let’s come to India. In India, how is milk delivered? It is not picked up from Big Bazaar and stored in a refrigerator. Every single morning, a milk person comes and delivers milk to almost all households. And what does the mother or the lady of the house do? She will boil it, boil it and boil it. Believing that it is the best way to make the milk safer. And this hot milk is then kept on the breakfast table. But unfortunately, when the hot milk is poured over Kellogg’s cornflakes, the cornflakes become soggy and tasteless. And therefore, customers decided not to go in for repeat purchase. And hence, repeat purchase was low. Let’s come to an another example of an another US brand which was culturally sensitive to our us. And see what happened. Take McDonald’s. McDonald all over the world sells Big Mac. Big Mac, as you know is made up of beef. And in India, beef is anathema. You can’t sell products with beef. Bowing down to this cultural sensitivity, what did McDonald do? It said no to beef and said yes to chicken. And therefore in India, McDonald launched Maharaja Chicken Burger. We Indians embraced McDonald’s and McDonald’s has got enormous fraction in the Indian market. Bottom Line: Whenever you handle brands, be very very cautious of the cultural sensitivity of the market in which your brand will reside and where customers will buy it. If you are sensitive to the cultural aspect of the market and of the customer’s and their lifestyle, your sales are going to go up. And if you decide to overlook it, then your sales are likely to go southwards. So, be culturally sensitive.