Jagdeep Kapoor is the chairman and managing director of Samsika Marketing Consultants, Mumbai. He is also an Indian author who writes on Brand strategies and brand building. Due to his immense knowledge of brands, he is named as ‘brand guru’. ‘9 brand shaatras’ is one of his books on brand building.
In this book, the author talks about the basics things which one should keep in mind to build a brand. Here in the book, he tells about 9 shaastras. The first shaastra is ‘Need Shaastra’, where he quotes that “Markets don’t decline, they shift”. In this shaastra, he tells that before building a brand the brand marketeer must identify needs and create needs for the customers based on what they want or what is necessary. He further divides the need shaastras into 5 parts, that are:
· Existing Needs- the need which is the most basic and inherently present in everyone.
· Latent Needs- the need which is not acknowledged by the society but is the need.
· Opportunity Needs- the needs which are created by the marketeer based on the situation.
· Changing Needs- the needs that get rapid evolution of living standards and technology
· No Need- When marketeer thinks that there is a need when there is in fact no need, it should be avoided.
After all these needs, in order to find hidden or new needs, the author proposes further classification based on proprietary process called “REAPS”.
R- Rational Needs
E- Emotional Needs
A-Aspirational Needs
P- Physical Needs
S- Spiritual Needs
Moving ahead to the second shaastra i.e., ‘Seed Shaastra’. “The idea seed is the solution of the need.” This shaastra is to develop the idea of a brand growth strategy. It is to build an idea of what a brand embodies in the mind of a consumer.
The third shaastra is ‘Heed Shaastra’. It is quoted as “make the consumer aware-beware of the unaware.” There are three steps that is mentioned in the book for the heed shaastra:
· Awareness- in this stag the brand communicates that what category they exist in.
· Recognition- the transition from unawareness to awareness forms a recognition in consumers.
· Recall- the last stage of knowing a brand.
This is how the process of getting attention of a consumer is completed.
The forth shaastra is “Deed Shaastra”. Quoted as “Generate trials through the three steps of- the why, the try, and the buy.” Author says that if there is no enough opportunity for brand trial, there cannot be brand experience. He discusses the three aspects of deed shaastra that are: ‘the why’, ‘the try’, ‘the buy’.
-The Buy – Jagdeep calls this stage to be the financial sampling stage, a stage where the consumer is ready to exchange money for the good or service.
Then comes the Feed Shastra. This is the stage where the consumer has a positive brand experience due to which they repeat their purchase which leads to brand growth. He says to turn a consumer into a brand loyalist or a brand devotee the brand must ensure to follow seven elements – Product Quality, Product Service Quality, Brand Experience, Brand Satisfaction, Brand Delight, Brand Surprise and Good brand word of mouth.
The sixth stage is the Speed Shastra, this shastra helps in increasing sales giving a certain momentum and pace to a brand. The brand starts to increase its pace and gain speed to accelerate sales growth. He further goes on to give multiple examples of brands that have rapidly increased their sales.
Then comes the “Creed Shastra” which helps to develop brand trust. It builds a brands credibility. Jagdeep then goes on to give examples of Cadbury’s and Coca-Cola and how they went through different crisis of customers finding worms and objects in their product and how that affected the brand’s trust and credibility. He goes on to explain that the way these brands handled it were great ways to build that trust again.
The eighth shastra is the Breed Shastra, this is to be able to increase brand market share growth. It urges marketeers to keep an eye on their market segment and its growth rate. He goes on to give examples of Maggie Ketchup, Nirma, Moov etc.
The ninth and final shastra is the Exceed Shastra. Jagdeep reminds his readers that “brands built to build businesses and businesses are built to make profits”. A brand after its sales must be able to make a positive contribution. To surpass and to go ahead, to be able to go ahead and do something that’s more that what’s just required.
I liked the book especially because of the examples which the author has mentioned for each shaastra. One thing which I didn’t like is the language is too simple and repetition of he/she. It should be little different. Otherwise, the book is very informative and good.