ASIA FAST FORWARD
Of heads and hearts and cultures apart!
Sangeeta GuptaRanjan Samanta
Abstract
Culture, as we all know (sometimes rather disastrously!), is a powerful mediator across a range of marketing activities. Our aim in this paper will be to present thoughts on enhancing communication effectiveness for eastern cultures by sensitivity to key characteristics of the Asian and more specifically, Indian personality, e.g. – the tendency towards greater emotional expressiveness and intensity, a higher need for “saving face” or overcoming shame/shyness; and the relatively higher acceptance of authority. How these impact consumer processing styles is a matter of great interest to marketers. Does the higher emotional expressiveness-intensity mean that feeling based communications work better? Does the more ready acceptance of authority/rank lead to more effective celebrity or other endorsement based communication? Is guilt ever a strong motivator? How does effective communication address today’s consumer who is apparently quite “unconcernedly” dealing with the apparently opposing forces in his or her life, the roots from a very ancient past and the irresistible and inevitable pulls from the modern tech, global world?Our experiences across two heavily advertised, yet very different product categories (beverages and two wheelers) have resulted in a body of knowledge on these issues, but by no means do we have all the answers. This paper is an attempt to draw upon and share the learnings we have, and importantly, to build from them a framework that will help guide the development of effective communication in this market.
Sangeeta Gupta
Sangeeta Gupta has been in the market research industry in India for almost two decades now, with a long innings in qualitative research, some experiences in account planning and brand management, as well as accountability for the custom research branch operations for ACNielsen at Delhi. She is currently responsible for Consumer Insights at Pepsico Beverages, India.
Sangeeta has been an active participant at various local and international conferences, and enjoys both the application of research to business problems as well as the R&D of Research.
Ranjan Samanta
Ranjan Samanta heads Consumer Insights at TVS Motor Company in India and is an active representative of the Market Research Society of India (MRSI). He has worked with AC Nielsen-MARG, TNS-MODE and IMRB International in India, British American Tobacco in Ex-Soviet countries, and later France. He held the position of Global Research Manager for the brand Rothman’s and with GE Insurance as Head Analytics Six-sigma Quality for Insurance & Risk. Ranjan enjoys spending his “free time” with his three” adorable” boys!
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