Marketing in the Dark: How Multinational Brands Communicate in the “Media Dark Regions” of Developing Countries

By Jonathan Hill

The communication techniques used by people and organisations have changed beyond recognition in barely two decades.

For many, it is difficult to imagine a world without the internet, social media and smartphones. As a result, marketers have been presented with a profusion of technology to target customers.

This research study looks at the markedly different communications landscape in developing nations, where multinationals cannot assume the availability of modern-day marketing communications tools, basic infrastructure, or that consumers are literate. Marketing in the Dark examines the methods used to reach consumers in the world’s “media dark regions” with an emphasis on Unilever’s Project Shakti in India.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Dec 17, 2018
• ISBN: 9781482882070

Jonathan Hill

Jonathan Hill currently lives in Liverpool, Great Britain. This is his debut book.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Jonathan Hill.

Images by Jonathan Hill

ISBN:              Softcover              978-1-4828-8208-7

                        eBook                   978-1-4828-8207-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

www.partridgepublishing.com/singapore

CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Acronyms

Abstract

Chapter 1   Introduction

1.1 Context of the study

1.2 Research structure

1.3 Research objectives

Chapter 2   Literature Review

2.1 The changing communications landscape

2.2 The importance of developing countries to multinational companies

2.2.1 India’s rural army

2.2.2 The Avon lady

2.3 The influence of population trends

2.4 Relationship marketing

2.5 Reverse engineering

2.6 Microfranchising and the world’s imbalance of wealth

2.7 Brands, businesses and borders

2.7.1 India and multinationals

2.7.2 Emerging markets and institutional voids

2.7.3 Glocalisation

2.7.4 Emerging multinationals

2.8 Rural emerging markets

2.8.1 Rural considerations

2.8.2 Rural tactics

2.8.3 Rural illiteracy

2.8.4 Seasonal income, distribution and infrastructure

2.8.5 Creating a sales force and the use of influencers

2.8.6 Word of mouth

2.8.7 Rural and trendy

2.9 The Base of the Pyramid and relevance

2.10 Brands and a higher purpose

2.11 Critics of Project Shakti

2.12 Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

2.12.1 Cultural Intelligence

2.12.2 Monochronic and polychronic societies

2.13 Marketing gaffes

2.14 Summarising the research gap

Chapter 3   Research Methodology

3.1 The case study approach

3.2 Research questions and one-to-one interviews

3.3 Cross-language qualitative research

3.4 Ethnographic research

3.5 Observer influence

3.6 Executing the research plan

3.7 Interview settings

3.8 Questionnaire approach

3.9 Question arrangement

3.10 Questionnaire

3.11 Interviews in context

3.12 Ethics of anonymity

3.13 Data collection and processing

3.14 Qualitative analysis

3.15 Data assembly

3.16 Data coding

Chapter 4   Research Results And Findings

4.1 Anonymity

4.2 Currency

4.3 Ages, marital status and children

4.4 Education and the internet

4.5 Becoming involved with Project Shakti

4.6 Shakti women - training, tools and instructions

4.7 Cash flow and income

4.8 Male involvement

4.9 Shakti women - motivation

4.10 Family and peer responses

4.11 Relationship with Hindustan Unilever

4.12 Pride

4.13 Shakti women - brand/product affinity

4.14 Cash flow, operational issues and neglect - impact on relationships

4.15 Unilever’s interest in India

4.16 Shakti women – the importance of the role

4.17 Discussion

4.17.1 Trust and a deeper relationship with Unilever

4.17.2 Personal contact

4.17.3 Training

4.17.4 Word of mouth and the centre of influence

4.17.5 The extent of male influence

4.17.6 Contextual understanding

4.17.7 Results – perceptions vs. reality

Chapter 5   Conclusion, Recommendations And Action Plan

5.1 (Objective 1)

To better understand the role of Shakti women representing Unilever

5.2 (Objective 2)

To determine what motivates the Shakti women

5.3 (Objective 3)

To examine the Shakti women’s relationship with the Unilever brand

5.4 (Objective 4)

To determine whether the Shakti women understand the gravity of their roles

5.5 Recommendations

5.6 Action plan

5.6.1 Cash flow

5.6.2 Feedback/information sharing

5.6.3 Training

5.7 Suggested future research

5.7.1 Brand affinity and sales

5.7.2 Face to face vs. mobile

5.7.3 From the customer perspective

5.8 Limitations

References

FOREWORD

When Jonathan first shared his ideas with me for his post-graduate dissertation and described the world of the Shakti women and his intent to travel to the Indian countryside to interview them, I’m sure my face was the epitome of scepticism as I looked at him from across my desk, thinking he was mad, and asked: Are you sure you want to do this…? There are much easier options!

Part of any research supervisor’s job is to make sure that a proposal is realistic and achievable, and at this early stage the idea seemed more like a script outline for a National Geographic documentary than an attainable piece of marketing communications research. Jonathan quite rightly stuck to his guns and set off to India to undertake his primary research. Now some two years later, and despite a few trials and tribulations on his journey, Jonathan’s work has achieved a well-deserved distinction as an outstanding academic dissertation, and an expanded and updated version is now being published as a valuable real-world marketing book.

Jonathan’s hypothesis stemmed from statistics showing that more than half the world’s population was still not connected to the internet; which; when most of the western world is fixated with their mobile phones and the peculiar hierarchy of social media; posed questions around how do companies communicate with, and market to, those who don’t have access to such every-day technology?

The central theme of the work is a fascinating academic case study that observes marketing in developing and emerging markets, highlighting important issues such as the digital divide, reverse engineering, the barriers of culture and language, misplaced globalisation strategies, glocalisation, word of mouth, face to face communication, relationship marketing in the face of a call centre culture, poverty alleviation, and more. The book reminds us that the way things are done in the developed world is undoubtedly not typical of how most of the world operates. It is surprising how many companies, both local and multinational, overlook this, thus leaving a huge gap in their knowledge and potential target markets.

It may be convenient and comfortable for companies to stick with territory that is familiar and understood, yet the established markets are becoming saturated and have struggling birth rates. The future, it would seem, lies with emerging regions and their rapidly growing populations.

Marketers operating in developed markets have a profusion of modern tools at their disposal and work in societies where citizens live and breathe the internet. But go beyond these comforts and into developing countries, then the challenges are many; illiteracy, low income, lack of transport, an absence of technology and media platforms and unstable energy supplies. There is much focus throughout the world on education and the value of qualifications - yet multinationals like Unilever would be crippled in India’s hinterland without the help of, generally poorly educated, rural dwellers. This gives a David and Goliath aspect to the book. Who would have thought the Shakti women and others like them who possess so little, relatively speaking, hold the keys to power and influence in the remote regions that MNCs are so keen to penetrate? Confronting these challenges requires the marketer to adopt a totally different mindset. It also means different tools and tactics (advertising stickers on hand pumps next to wells, dancers, magicians, missed call marketing, and of course the deployment of Shakti women - to name but a few). Primitive should be not confused with ineffective – and digital does not necessarily constitute a communications panacea.

The interviews with the Shakti women are a reminder to us all not to make assumptions based on education and status. These rural women, at times, demonstrate a remarkable grasp of the world outside the comparatively small one in which they live. And while every day, they peddle household items in the Indian countryside in a manner reminiscent of the ‘Avon Lady’, the Shakti women also display their own very personal relationships with brands, an area which in the past has been largely unexplored.

Project Shakti is about micro-franchising and the book touches on the global imbalances of wealth – 41% of the world’s assets are owned by 0.7% of the people. If there were greater efforts to enable more families to have their own businesses, independence and prosperity, who knows what impact this could have on human migration, refugee statistics, the de-escalation of conflicts and terrorism.

Finally, the book contains some real nuggets of information reflecting what a diverse and sometimes bizarre world we inhabit. Here are some examples:

• The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is famous for being the last country in the world to get television in 1999

• The African nation of Eritrea, said to be the least technologically connected country on the planet, where less than 1% of the population has used the internet in the past twelve months

• India is home to more than one in three people who cannot read or write - yet each month, more than six million Indians go online for the first time

• Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea – is a city without advertising

• Kenya, on a major mobile money push, now has 17 million Kenyans or around two thirds of the adult population in its mobile money system

• In 2011, Nigeria overtook Ireland as the top market for Guinness

In short, this book provides a valuable introduction to the skills necessary for conducting or commissioning market research in developing and emerging markets, a timely reminder that how things are done in the developed world is certainly not representative of how much of the world still functions, and a hands-on case study of how companies can confront the communication challenges of less developed countries. This book is a bridge between the theory of alternative marketing and its execution, using the market research process as a framework. Whilst it is written mainly for two audiences; (1) undergraduate as well as postgraduate students in business and marketing, and (2) marketing practitioners wishing to know more about developing and emerging markets and who need a practical, yet theoretically sound, reference; it provides a unique, appealing and fascinating account of a very different world, drawing your attention to how the other half survive, and as such is of interest to a much wider audience.

Professor John Sutton, PhD - October 2017

Dr. John Sutton, now retired, was a Marketing Professor at Middlesex University’s Dubai Campus and manager of the MA Marketing Communications programme. His early background is in Hotel and Tourism Management and his academic specialism is in Marketing. John’s doctorate is from Strathclyde Business School, Strathclyde University, Scotland. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality, and has undertaken many consultancy assignments for major international companies, is co-author of three text books and has written numerous journal articles and conference papers. Much of his research is dedicated to fostering a greater understanding of the implications of cross-cultural marketing and management, and creating opportunities for individual growth and development.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There are a number of people I’d like to acknowledge - first and foremost, Dr John Sutton, for patiently guiding me through my MA dissertation, upon which this book is based, and for kindly providing the foreword. I’d also like to thank Dr Michael Clarke for encouraging me to believe that the research was worthy of becoming a book.

Further thanks go to the Menezes family for their help in Mumbai and to Akash Mahadik for his Marathi interpreting skills in the Indian countryside.

I should make special mention of Ajita Shashidhar, the Mumbai-based journalist who enabled my more than two month search for the Shakti women to yield results, and without whom, this study would not have been possible in the time window available.

I would like to acknowledge Hindustan Unilever, particularly Mangesh Balsaraf, for helping me at a local level to locate the Shakti women in their remote villages.

My sincerest gratitude goes to the Shakti women themselves. Their illuminating perspectives brought this project to life and contributed greatly to my understanding of the developing world.

There is one other person I’d like to mention; my father, Bill, who despite entering his ninth decade, remains a formidable editor.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my mother, Pamela, who tragically died shortly after I returned from my research trip to India. For me, there was only one way to deal with her death - and that was to turn her passing into positive energy to drive this book and other projects forward. I miss her dearly.

ACRONYMS

AC – Air conditioning

AIDS - Acquired immune deficiency syndrome

AMA - American Marketing Association

AD - Anno Domini

BC – Before Christ

BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation

BoP – Base of the Pyramid or Bottom of the Pyramid

BRIC – Brazil, Russia, India and China

CIM - Chartered Institute of Marketing

CIS – Commonwealth of Independent States

CSR – Corporate social responsibility

3D – Three-dimensional

EMNCs – Emerging market multi-national companies

FMCG – Fast-moving consumer goods

FRRO - Foreigners Regional Registration Office (India)

GE – General Electric

gm/s – gramme/s

GSK – GlaxoSmithKline

GPS – Global Positioning System

GPRS - General Packet Radio Services

HUL – Hindustan Unilever Limited

IBM – International Business Machines Corporation

ICTs – Information and communication technologies

IMRB - India’s Market Research Bureau

IPA - Institute of Practitioners in Advertising

ITU - International Telecommunications Union

Ltd – Limited

LDCs – Least Developed Countries

MA – Master