building brand from scratch

I was one of the speakers in the Entrepreneurship Summit organized by the Entrepreneurship Development Cell, IIT Delhi . It was so inspiring to see a hall full of young budding and potential entrepreneurs eagerly waiting to get some tip which they are going to use in their scheme of things. This is no routine class lecture nor is a forum where you get away making some intelligent points. This is a battle field and you are in the midst of generals who genuinely believe that you can talk something meaningful and share some tip which will make difference in their ventures. I shifted uneasily in my chair; I have not built any brand from scratch nor have I dared to wear the mantle of an entrepreneur; what was I going to talk. Arjun saved me. The story of Arjun made me look like some sort of an expert to those fifty staring eyes in the Summit room.
This is the story of Arjun. Arjun is no important figure. He is a fisherman in a small town of West Bengal who used to and still sells fish in the local fish market in the evening. He was like any one of the twenty other fish sellers in tattered clothes in that poorly lit fish market squatting in front of his heap of fishes and shouting at the top of his voice trying to draw attention of the cautious customers to buy Hilsa from him. But Arjun decided to be different and he did that successfully.
One fine evening all of us rediscovered a new Arjun. Arjun has stopped squatting. He got an wooden packing box and placed his Hilsa fish on a bamboo trey covered with green shining plantain leaves on top of it , organized a dedicated electric bulb connection to lit up his propped up stall and that was not all . He had changed into a clean kurta and payjama. A young teenager, most probably his nephew was seen by his side organizing the pile of fishes, sprinkling water and cutting and dressing them when a customer had ordered some quantity.
Conspicuous by its presence was also an electronic weighing machine .People were looking at hi fishes and also at his weighing machine. Greeting every customer with folded hands Arjun engaged himself into an animated conversation with them about the types and varieties of hilsa, their respective tastes and recipes. The nephew shouted – “buy the best, buy Arjun’s Hilsa”. Arjun’s Hilsa was demanding a premium of Rs 5 per KG but everybody was buying them. In a fortnight Arjun’s became the best seller in that market .Before we could fully realize we heard ourselves talking to our guests -please have one more piece of Hilsa; this was from Arjun’s. Arjun did not stop there. He went on to do things which only an entrepreneur could have done but more about it later.
So far whatever Arjun had done is itself a perfect brand building exercise from the scratch. Here is a guy who has put his thinking cap on and have tried to understand his customer, their needs and desire, his category and competition, the market place - which for him was the fish market itself; his own strength and weakness, his core competence and what value he can add to his commodity, how can he brand his value and communicate it meaningfully to the customers and charge a premium.
Arjun demonstrated a model of how to build a brand; two things helped him in this effort- his intense desire to succeed and his intelligent application of common sense. No brand building exercise can start unless the road map is clear. Where am I and where do I want to go. The travel itself is not anywhere else but in the landscape of the consumers ‘mind. Where are we in the consumer’s mind today – what is the position of the brand in their mind. Does it exist or not; if it is then in what form? Having answered that query the next vital question is the destination question. Where do we want to be in their mind? That is the brand objective. Since all these search is in the mind space of the consumer a thorough knowledge of the mind of the consumer – their hopes and fears, need and desires – is a precondition to this quest.
Arjun knew that to his consumers he was just another fish seller- , and he is a victim of the perception that the fishermen in that market had already created in the minds of the consumers; all fisher men are thugs -big or small. There was no escape from it .If the price was more he was a chor (cut throat) if the price was reasonable then the perception was he must have tampered with the scale. If there was nothing wrong with either of them there definitely would be something fishy about quality.
Quality was always questioned because for a customer it was difficult to bend down in that filthy, poorly lit market and select the best fish. Nor was it possible to judge the quality from touch and feel as every piece of fish was stuffed in ice dust. “Another Fishy fish seller “that’s how Arjun was position in his consumers’ mind. Having understood his perception in the consumers’ mind Arjun refused to stay in that position. He wanted to be the most sought after fish seller .A journey from the position of suspicion to the position of pride. How did he do that?
Arjun had quite a few things to fix. The central one was to change the perception about himself. He understood that in this commodity market he was the brand and not his fish. Therefore the way he used to sell his fish had to change. The rituals around his selling needed to change dramatically but in a credible way. This led Arjun to focus on a cluster of activities which involved – clearing suspicion from the minds of his consumer, bringing ease and transparency in transaction, creating an ambience of freshness .Simultaneously he started repackaging himself to create customer confidence by showing his core competence. Arjun believed that the combined effect of these changes would create value in the minds of his consumer about him and his product. If people see value they would pay for it

How did he achieve them?
Lifting his fishes from floor – ease of choice and accessibility between the product and customer
Light – focus and clarity of perception; nothing is hidden therefore transparency
Trey with green leaves - freshness cues ; contrast enhancing display of the fish
Electronic weighing machine – tamperproof – Carat -o-meter in fish quality?
Squatting to stand up- shift from begging posture to being at par

Dressing up – respectability, standing on the same platform with the customer
Educating – tips on how to choose the fresh fish, discussion on different variety of Hilsa, their relative taste and quality, tips about other fishes. Arjun leveraged his core competence. Only Arjun had the required expertise to talk about fish. Arjun was not just a fish seller but also an expert on fish.
Assistant – the physical activity transferred to the assistant. Arjun is not the worker but the owner of his fish stall
Arjun’s Hilsa Branding- the assurance of differential quality
Premium pricing –Polite refusal to go down, sensible people don’t bargain

Arjun had not read books of marketing but he had read the market, customer and his own abilities well. Arjun went ahead in life. In a year’s time he moved out of the clutter of the fish market, set up a small shop outside the market place. Arjun started home delivery on phone call, started his fish dressing which included marinating. Arjun also knew that he continued to add value to his trade. He got hold of a team of local cooks and trained them in some specialty fish dishes .A local spice trader found Arjun enterprising and joined hands to promote his spice. A recipe book was printed and distributed to the loyal customers. Arjun found to his surprise one morning that a microwave brand was interested in a joint promo; A Chef hosted a hilsa cooking show for a local TV channel ;Arjun’s shop was extensively covered .Road has a wonderful way of opening up once you dare to walk on it. Arjun now a days is dreaming of opening up a chain of Hilsa restaurants a la Only Fish!
Posted by kissece at 1:02 AM 0 comments