Welcome to a world of #2s, working harder to be the second best choice, unlike Avis the car rental company who worked harder to be the #1 brand, many decades ago. There seems to be a parallel market brewing where consumers are increasingly considering, owning and experiencing two similar brands at the same time. Especially, if the brands are to solve a utility or functional need. Today you witness more and more consumers having two bank accounts, two SIM cards, two 2-wheelers, two credit cards, registering and buying books or booking travel tickets from similar online portals, subscribing to two internet service providers, two cab hiring mobile apps, two food delivery services, etc.
The market for SBOB brands (second brand on board) has opened up for several reasons as there is a clear new consumer behaviour trending in the market. SBOB brands are not to be mistaken for substitute brands or as alternative brands. They are brands chosen, owned and used at the same time along with the first brand choice. From a market perspective, it would imply that the potential of a #2 brand is as much as that of a #1 brand.
Here are some observations and questions that your brand could answer to be a successful #2 or a SBOB brand by choice, if not the #1 brand.
The need gap
With the ever increasing appetite for better services and more wants, consumers are discovering new needs and desires to be fulfilled — both simple and complex ones. Brands are unable to keep up with the demand for better features, discounts, technology, service, etc and are allowing consumers to seek answers or solutions in another brand to fulfill gaps.
Established brands and first-choice brands like Airtel, Vodafone, etc are suddenly caught sitting next to a new entrant brand Jio as the #2 brand on the mobile SIM card deck. If one SIM gives better coverage, another one is found to give better data services. The consumer chooses her #2 brand automatically, bringing the second brand on board to fill the need gap. Customer is the king they say, but convenience and comfort are the new prince and princess in today's customer's mind. If Uber cab services is the first choice and is found to be inconvenient to book due to delay in loading of the app or unavailability of cabs nearby, the consumer is found to be well armed with an Ola services app as her SBOB brand to offset the inconvenience.
Similarly, keeping convenience and comfort as prime, consumers are patronising more than one brand of digital wallets. A consumer's current bank's e-wallet becomes the #1 brand by default and she goes about looking for her SBOB brand to ensure she gets the best reach, discounts, offers and services. The same trend can be observed when more than one brand of credit card, online shopping app, door-delivery food service, etc are on board to fulfill a utility, safety or convenience need gap.
The question is, can your brand discover the gap and be a SBOB brand?
The rise of a smart consumer
With the ever increasing volume of information, reviews, opinions, real-time sharing of experiences, etc people are not only consuming smart data but also experiencing the pressure to be smart consumers. They don't want to be caught having a bad deal or less of a good deal. The need to make an informed choice is becoming so important that they embrace a SBOB brand to offset any un-smart decisions. No traveller would like to pay more for the same hotel, same room and for the same date. Well marketed branded features will try seducing the consumers to consider them and bring them on board.
Flipkart for a festive sale and Amazon for quick delivery, Paytm for the local grocery shop and FreeCharge for an appliance store, SBI credit card for domestic purchases and Standard Chartered credit card for international travel, BSNL for landline calls and Airtel for mobile calls — all will coexist, not as substitute brands or competing brands but as SBOB brands, solving a functional need driven by a feature. And the consumer is going to be smart to decide her #2 brand.
The question is, can your brand provide for the much needed assurance and reduce the dissonance to be a SBOB brand?
The unfair advantage
#2 brands have many unfair advantages. They need not struggle hard to be the first mover and yet have the advantage; they need not work hard and long to build the missing emotional bond; they need not be tied to a long tenured positioning stance and can be nimble to stay relevant at any given time. The best part is that they can even replace the #1 brand by already being on board as the second brand. This redefines the traditionally known concept of a challenger brand or a follower brand. You no longer follow or challenge the # 1 brand, you strategise to become a #2 SBOB brand. It will be interesting to see how marketers can make consumers patronise their brands as SBOB brands.
-Pavan Padak
The author is principal, Insights Insight Consulting & director — strategy, Brand-comm
Please Wait while comments are loading...
No comments:
Post a Comment