Assignment submission as a part of an internship.

1. Brand Polarization
The Indian Scenario

2. Marketers gauging consumer attitudes have
traditionally relied on “mean” or “net” scores
of product ratings, but those metrics can paint
a misleading picture

3. Consider two hypothetical
brands, A and B.
Suppose that each brand’s
manager surveys three
consumers, asking them
to rate the brand on a
scale from
1 (very poor) to
7 (excellent).

4. Brand A receives ratings of 3, 4, and
5.
Brand B receives ratings of 1, 4, and
7.
Thus, the two brands have the same
mean score 4.

5. But behind that mean lies an
important difference:
Brand A’s scores are clustered
tightly together,
but Brand B’s are widely
dispersed—it has one brand lover
and one brand hater.
Brand B is polarizing.

6. There are various ways to
measure polarization.

7. One of the simplest is to look at the
percentage of consumers who give a brand a
rating of 6 or 7 and the percentage who give
it a 1 or 2. The higher the percentages of
brand lovers and brand haters, the greater
the polarization

8. Another way to determine polarization is to
calculate the standard deviation of
consumers’ overall ratings; higher standard
deviations indicate greater polarization. This
method is more precise and can be especially
useful when brands are rated on 3-point or
5-point scales.

9. Polarization is not necessarily bad.
Having a group of consumers who hate
your brand can be a good thing!

10. If your analysis reveals that your
brand exhibits a high degree of
polarization, there are three ways you
can capitalize on that
POLARIZATION.

11. Placate the haters

12. Kurkure Plastic Controversy in India
• Videos were posted stating there was plastic in Kurkure.
• As the rumour spread, sales dropped by nearly 33%

13. Marketing Strategy
• A special No plastic Blog was started to put the fears of
the consumers to rest.
• Campaigns were observed in support with the parent
company products like soft drinks, fruit juices and other
snack items.
• A test was conducted at AIIMS and a clean chit was
procured.
• Ingredients and manufacturing process was made public.

14. Poke the haters

15. While there aren’t any Indian firms indulging in
this strategy to my knowledge, testing it in the
Indian scenario might yield interesting results.

16. I am of the opinion that such a strategy would fail in the
Indian context because masses get easily swayed. From my
observation, a negative opinion of a product has greater
impact on a consumer’s choice than a positive one.

17. Amplify a polarizing attribute.

18. TOI and Deepika Padukone Cleavage Controversy
In spite of being lambasted by the public regarding the “cheap”
news TOI tried to sell, the TOI continued to remain unapologetic in
its stance and in fact continued to publish other material that
objectified women.

19. What resulted were more shares of the article
accompanied by bad publicity.
The sales of the paper improved instead of
declining.

20. Sometimes even if a product or brand
isn’t inherently polarizing, the
marketers may want to introduce
polarization in order to differentiate
it from a strong competitor or to
make it stand apart from a crowded
field.

21. It is imperative that Indian firms stop relying on averages. To
gauge the entire spectrum of consumer attitudes towards
their brands, firms must keep track of their brand’s
dispersion over time.

22. With development of technology and widespread use of social
media, pockets of haters can quickly develop and spread.

23. Hence companies must stay vigilant all the
time and respond strategically to changes in
consumer attitudes.

24. Recap!
• Mean scores of product ratings are misleading.
• It hides brand dispersion.
• Polarization of a product is not necessarily bad.
• If your product is polarized, you can adopt one of the following strategies
1. Placate the haters
2. Poke the haters
3. Amplify a polarizing attribute.
• While the first and third strategies are followed in the Indian Markets, the
second one is a rarity.
• With widespread awareness, any product can get polarized overnight.
• Hence it is essential for firms to vigilantly look out for shifts in consumer
attitudes towards their products and respond strategically.

25. Thank
You

26. Created by S.Kanishka, IIT Madras,
during an internship with
Prof. Sameer Mathur,
IIM Lucknow,
www.iiminternship.com