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Flamingo Culture Breakfast - Brands and how they get it right in the new emerging markets
- 2. 1 18/11/15 Lendlease: Paya Lebar Central 1 Flamingo Culture Breakfast Myanmar and the “Frontiers”
- 3. 2
- 4. Documentary photo-journalist from New York based in Yangon Lauren DeCicca Her work has been published by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, TIME.com, The Washington Post, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Guardian, CNN, USA Today, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, The Global Post, NPR, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), The SE Asia Globe Magazine, The Jakarta Globe, The Cambodia Daily, amongst others Lauren is a member of the Getty Reportage Emerging Talent roster 3
- 5. What is a “Frontier” market? Defined by economists… A developing country, more developed than the least developing, but too small to be “emerging” Equity markets of the smaller and less accessible, but still “investable”, countries of the developing world 4
- 6. Who are the Asian “Frontiers”? Bangladesh Cambodia Laos Myanmar Sri Lanka And for us… + Rural SEA China India 5
- 7. 6 What makes them interesting to brands?
- 8. 7 The risks are real. There’s a decision to be made
- 9. 8 “Get your feet on the ground and learn through doing”
- 10. 9 “Fake it till you make it. Act big”
- 11. 10 “Culture first. Build foresight over insight”
- 12. 11 “Identify the nature of aspiration and sources of inspiration”
- 13. 12 “Think about consumer context, rather than a target”
- 14. 13 “Be experimental and scale what you learn”
- 15. Thank you
Editor's Notes
- Welcome to Flamingo Culture Breakfast
- First in a series of events and publications around Frontier Markets
- Primarily the launch of our first book today – cultural study on Myanmar – series of essays covering everything from the socio-political development of the country, to motherhood, from importance of the sacred white elephants of Myanmar to tattoos. Essays been written by Flamingos from across the group and friends of Flamingo Today I’m going to take you through a quick introduction to who the Frontier markets are in Asia, why we think brands should be interested in them and some thoughts on how brands should set themselves up to win in these markets
- Intro Lauren… She’s going to talk specifically about Myanmar and the nature of the change she’s witnessed
- Typically poorer, but on the up Hot with investors because they could grow quickly, but risky Frontiers grow in to Emerging in to Developed – but not always linear, sometimes go in to Emerging and then go back to Frontiers e.g. some of the African economies – Zimbabwe. Growth comes through investor confidence, comes from predictability in application of its laws – breakdown of leadership and regulation impacts on confidence and so the development of country
- Some lists talk about 24, some 34, always lots in Africa In Asia there are typically 5 markets, we add in some of the rural areas of other Asian markets – for us the geographies are similar in terms of characteristics and also the nature of the opportunity We’ve worked across categories, audiences, brands in many of these areas now. Primarily doing a lot of market entry work. So answering very exploratory but business focused questions around who should we be targeting, what should my portfolio look like, which category would we best operate in, what would my pricing strategy look like, how would my brands be positioned and how what should my comms strategy be like – packaging, POS, shopper to advertising Largely brands are using these fresh territories an opportunity to grow brand penetration
- We believe there’s a lot of reasons that brand owners should be interested in the new Frontiers The facts are compelling… - 4/5 in Asia are urbanising faster than average for developing and emerging economies – investment in poverty reduction and infrastructure - Demographics are positive – markets are typically younger than average, birth rates are high - Disposable income may be low, but it’s growing very fast – aspiring, shaping own fortunes For brands that “win”, they have the opportunity to… - Get a first mover advantage and own or define their category - For some… they may be able to pick the low hanging fruit – could be a pricing, format, distribution opportunity to capitalise on - Start to embed itself in the culture and establish a strong and trusted position, in a market that is likely to grow
- BUT - The reason the development is completely dependent upon political stability and investor confidence. Investment is high risk - The environment is not hospitable to outsiders, it won’t be easy – rates of corruption are high, regulation can be complex - There’s no guarantee that rewards may be immediate, best to think like an investor and plan for the long game We know these markets are not a homogenous group BUT they do have a lot in common, especially in this part of the world The purist approach would be to choose your top market(s) and spend time properly understanding it – culture down, consumer up – we love this, these are the beautiful projects we love, but it’s not a luxury that everyone has You maybe are less sure of the size of the opportunity or of your business’s tolerance for risk, or of how long term your commitment will be. Our advice is more pragmatic…
- And so whether this means… - Repurposing communications to get out there - Thinking CSR-first - Securing initial distribution Our advice is to get out in the market and start learning. This means thinking like a start-up, it means being entrepreneurial, being flexible, open to change and fast
- Now we’re not suggesting Coke are faking it, they aren’t, but they’re always a good example of prioritising a physical presence in a developing market. This is about being ubiquitous and prioritising a physical presence on the street – umbrella, fridges, awnings on stores, posters, delivery vehicles… maybe even factories, or local offices. It’s acting big with a consistent brand. Big international brands like Coke can enter with little to no brand recognition and so it’s a blank slate upon which to build meaning, In the frontier markets the brand is very often much more functional, aside from the product it’s the colours and the logo. Local brands in these markets are notoriously inconsistent, very often people will be feeling overwhelmed by the influx of new and if you do nothing else, establishing awareness amongst this sea of change is a positive thing.
- So this feels like a strange thing for us to say maybe… and this is not to devalue the importance of good insight BUT there are challenges… Difficulties associated with getting good insight from people AND most importantly our feeling is that consumer insight will expire quicker than cultural intelligence We talk to brands about establishing a ‘Cultural Roadmap’ to help navigate the market and the opportunity - understanding the big macro drivers of change to date. This tells you the nature of the country’s development so far and starts to give you a more thorough understanding of the different ways it might develop in the future. Why? - If you go on to do consumer work, it gives you an all important context to extract greater meaning from the things people tell us - There are quick wins to be had, but to genuinely embed your brand in the longer term, you need to resonate with cultural values
- Building on that… Lots of money spent on understanding current behaviours, but actually, again thinking about future-proofing your brand in a market where change is rapid, understanding the nature of aspiration is a more fertile space to interrogate. If you think about these rural locations – they have more in common with one another, than with their key cities often (cities becoming increasingly homogenous) – can’t use what you know about the country as your guide, or assume they aspire to their urban counterparts – in many instances they’re very proud of their difference. Aspiring population in these Frontier markets are using new influences to define their identity, to experiment, to represent their progress – this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ‘anti-local’ and certainly not just Western or modern in the way it might be defined in more developed countries. Also depends on what they have access to, and how these ideals are built, the sources of inspiration are often closer to home. Myanmar – Thailand, Korea, Japan.
- When you do think about your consumers, the context, the network of influence is critical. These cultures are deeply collectivist. People are making decisions based on the group – the family or the community, but rarely as individuals. They’ll defer to many different sources of influence, whether professional, religious, elders or just authority figures. This understanding allows you to develop effective targeting strategies, WOM activations or influencer strategies that can be an incredibly powerful way to maximise marketing spends. Ovaltine is a great example. They’ve completely embedded themselves in to the culture of Myanmar – relevance across nutritional categories. Doctors and other HCPs recommending it for everything from a breast milk replacement, to a supplement for the sick and the elderly. Originally this was built through an exceptionally strong influencer strategy focused on healthcare professionals
- You might establish a strong set of learnings in one market, but then there’s opportunity to see what this could mean for other Frontiers, whether new markets or rural geographies You might have come up with an idea that works – it could be a packaging innovation, a new way for people to use your product, a new sales or distribution model. Be flexible, think could this be something that answers a similar set of challenges somewhere else in the world Lots of examples of reverse innovation where ideas have come out of hardship and can then be imported to more developed markets. Or, can think about the other Frontiers or emerging markets that could be facing similar challenges.
- About getting active and learning fast, thinking culture first and being open to change, new opportunities that may not have been open to your brand in other markets where a heritage of meaning already exists. Maximising the opportunity of a blank space. Thinking about it as a long-term investment