Adgully Exclusive | Will be interesting to see how long Social Media remains aspirational: Cogito Consulting's Kinjal Medh

As newer bands enter the market everyday and clog the consumer's attention, the growing need for specialised divisions to look into brand problems has surfaced. Cogito Consulting, Draft-FCB-Ulka's independent brand consulting division, is one such one-stop-shop for brand problems. The firm specializes in marketing and brand consulting. The company has over the years helped large Indian and global corporations on a variety of marketing initiatives. Cogito Consulting has expertise in market entry strategies, brand architecture and positioning. Cogito also has proprietary gaming tools designed to help predict competitive moves and aid marketing and business strategy initiatives.

Kinjal Medh, Chief Operating Officer, Cogito Consulting, has been a driving force for the team. In April this year the firm rejoiced as "Draftfcb Ulka Brand Building Advertising Concepts and Cases Book 2', the book of authored by MG Parameswaran, Executive Director, Draftfcb Ulka and Medh was released. The book primarily spoke in depth about the role that strategy plays in building brands through good advertising. And as a few days passed by Cogito Consulting again made into news as it collaborated with Prin. L. N. Welingkar Education's WE School, in organizing the BrandWealth Seminar on June 9 ' June 11, 2011.

So as the newswires went abuzz Adgully caught up with Medh to understand what some of the trends in branding will be and about his plans for Cogito Consulting.

Talking about the wide area of offering at Cogito Consulting, Medh says, "We have done work in the competitive strategy area. We are working on a proprietary model called as Chess, and it is about understanding the competition. It is a deep dive at understanding the competition's strategy, positioning etc. And based on the insights thus gathered we plan a strategy for our clients to take on the competition."

He further adds, "There is fairly a good amount of work we have done for our clients in the area of competitive strategy, which has been pretty significant. We have done market entry projects for many of our clients. We have looked at creating brand equity's for our clients and also for new brands entering the market.

The firm since its inception has worked across a wide range of categories which includes packaged goods, automobiles, real estate, appliances, etc.

Elaborating over how the branding space will evolve given our country's increasing youth population, Medh says, "I think it is very interesting given the fact that virtually in every category there is a huge amount of competition that has come into play. We are also a very young country. So in a country with young consumers and as brands keep entering, it is really about connecting with the youth who are in a way more brand conscious and at the same time expect more from a brand as time passes by. So it is really important for brands to do a lot more to engage these young consumers so as to turn them as brand loyalists. The young consumers of today will not offer loyalty easily."

So as the market grows for brands will retail also see a jump in profit?

Medh says, "Well I think retail has just started to play-out in India. Though modern retail has caught up, it is just the beginning in India. In fact a lot more is bound to happen in the next few years. There are talks about allowing FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) for the retail sector which will open a new phase for the industry and it will also pose a challenge for the brands and the companies. The model will just get complex and it will be a challenge to build a retail offering as a destination brand."

However as quick potential for brands he points out that the growing incomes and change in attitudes of Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities' consumers is good news.

Medh points out that what is happening is the fact that there is a slightly merging of attitude that is happening amongst consumers across various cities and across the various Tiers of cities. "Earlier one could make out the difference between a Tier 1/ Tier 2/ Tier 3 city consumer. However today, given the media explosion, given the fact that there is a lot more awareness and affinity for brands, the Tier 3 city consumer is not any less demanding than a Tier 1 city consumer," he adds.

So as disposable income shoots up so will the availability of and access to digital media increase. We ask Medh if he sees any challenges to branding across digital media in India. He says, "There are branded properties in the digital medium, which are doing reasonably well, but it is again very actively utilised by a certain set of consumers. The digital medium is not universal and it has not travelled down. I think the big challenge is always going to be that of language."

"Social media has become very aspirational for the youth. However it will be interesting to see how long this will last. As far as interacting and transacting with brands are considered it is going to be limited. Moreover the big medium in India is going to be mobile web and not PC led internet," he points out.

While sharing insights on the young consumers of the country Medh says that Cogito Consulting is looking at a study on youth which has been conducted across several centres. The study will basically try and understand the youth and will be more of an attitudinal study. However when asked to talk more about the study, he says, "It is too early. But I assure you that the study will be out pretty soon."

The firm also plans to take its BrandWealth Seminar to Delhi and gradually take it to other cities across the country. Medh also adds that a second BrandWealth Seminar in Mumbai can be expected later in this year; given the fact that the seminar conducted a month ago garnered a very positive response. | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]