Sales and Distribution Management

Aligning Marketing and Selling

 Preface
Sales as an Outcome.

Managing the Sales and Distribution

should focus on “having the cake and
eating it too”. In other words, the approach
should focus not only gaining short term
business but also ensuring long term
sustainability of business.

Currently in the push oriented selling the

increase in sales is at the cost of profit as
most of the companies focus on cutting
into each other’s business without
increasing future markets.

In other words, companies concentrate

their efforts only on selling in the
developed markets. With greater focus on
these markets companies end up competing
on price which reduces their buyers’ side
bargaining power. Whereas when marketing and selling are aligned the push and pull are
integrated to ensure that the efforts are directed both to ensure short term sales as well as
develop the future markets. More so, here the sales are driven by quality rather than only
price.

Again, integrating marketing and selling helps companies focus on building brand loyalty
(where price-quality evaluates dominates) as against being driven into a market where the
credibility of the channel gets stronger and the store loyalty dominates brand loyalty (so price
quantity evaluation dominates).

Thus, this book focusing on integrating marketing and selling, provides a long term
orientation to the sales and distribution management. Therefore, the book builds frameworks
for various decisions of sales and distribution management which synchronizes short term
selling orientation to the long-term marketing orientation.

The book is divided into four sections. The first section describes the role of marketing,
where the focus is on highlighting the fact that consumers change thier brand decision
process as they move towards brand loyalty stage. The section also describes the process of
selling for each brand decision process highlighting the possible areas of conflict between
marketing and selling and therefore the need for synchronizing selling to the long-term
orientation of marketing. The second section describes the retail environment and how the
shopping environment has changed giving the power to the trade. While the third section
develops frameworks for channel decisions, the fourth section deals with sales decision. The
sales decisions section while discussing target setting highlights the fact the that while the
effort of the sales force is aligned to the long-term marketing perspective, sales would be an
outcome for most of the markets. The final section deals with the motivation aspects for the
channel members and sales force.
The book hopes to help companies align their sales and distribution decisions to the overall
marketing decisions. Specifically,
• Distinguish between selling and marketing roles and develop an understanding of
synchronizing selling efforts towards marketing goals.
• Develop frameworks for planning and implementing sales and distribution decisions
aligned to the marketing goals.
 Setting the context
Agents gain at the cost of the Investor: A case of a distressed investor

“You have been fooling me all this while. When you were interested in selling you found all
the time in the world, but now you do not pick up my calls. When you answer you give some
excuse or the other? Now that I am asking you to service my claims you do not have time.
You made me investment in so many different policies promising huge benefits, but I am
losing on two counts, 1) I am not getting good return (in fact I am getting less than the
premium paid in some cases); and 2) TDS is deducted from the returns I am getting, that is I
am paying taxes twice. I have been asking you to get the premium receipts so that I can claim
refund, but you are not doing anything.”

This is the plight of Santosh, a distressed investor who was investing for his retirement. It all
started around 2010 when the Investment agents (Saurabh and Varsha) met Santosh
promising that they would take care of his investment needs. They visited Santosh regularly
and made him sign various investments promising that they were the best options. Each time
they said the returns are going to be “great” (even doubling in a short time). On some
occasions they pleaded that their promotion or increment would be held back if they do not
complete their target (later Santosh termed it as ‘emotional blackmail’). Occasionally they
asked Santosh to stop paying premium for some earlier policies (that is, place the policy in
“paid up” state), stating that the returns would not be affected. Santosh busy in his office
work trusted Saurabh and Varsha and invested as per their advice. Sometimes, he was also
assured that the switching between debt and equity for the policy would be done by them to
ensure he got good returns.

When Santosh was nearing 60 years he started checking his investments and was surprised
that the promises made by the agents were all false. Worse still though Saurabh and Varsha
kept telling that they were switching the funds between debt and equity to ensure high
returns, they did not bother to switch, and Santosh lost heavily. He was also shocked to see
the policy document clearly stating that the first few premiums would not be added in the
returns if the policy is not fully paid. That means for the policies in “paid up” state the loss
would be very high (Santosh subsequently learnt that the agents wanted him to invest in more
policies by putting some in paid up as the incentive for a new policy is more than for a
continuing policy). When Santosh started questioning the agents, the agents initially tried
covering up by telling that there is nothing to worry and good returns are assured but once
Santosh started experiencing losses they started saying that they cannot do anything. That
was when Santosh, otherwise a cool person, lost his cool and started shouting.

Santosh realized that the agents were primarily interested in their commission and promotion.
The agents had several times asked Santosh for references. Santosh was atleast happy he did
not refer any one as he felt they also would have suffered like him. All in all the company for
which he had high respect initially lost its credibility.

The case highlights the short-term orientation of the salespeople without taking into account
the customer needs or the company’s image.

Activity
What should the Agents have done to ensure Santosh was happy? How should the company
plan its sales decisions and avoid short term orientation of its selling activities leading to loss
of customer goodwill?
 Chapter 1

Marketing and Selling: The conflict?

Learning Objectives

• Understand the differences between Marketing and Selling

• Define brand loyalty.
• Provide an overview of the process of sales and distribution process.

Marketing and sales functions “do not get along (with each other)”. While
sales function feels that the marketing is “out of touch with what’s really going
on with customers”, marketing on the other hand believes that the sales force is
“myopic” and “sell the price” as against “selling through price”.
Salespersons do not create demand and do not “see the value of marketing
efforts” (Kotler et al, 2006).

"Ending the War between Sales and Marketing" (Kotler et al., 2006) highlighted the issue
between the two functions based on how the functions evolved over time. Kotler et al (2006)
described that the way each perceives the role and importance of the other, led to a conflict
between the two. Steve (2010) also states that sales and marketing efforts are at “odds’
sometimes, even at war”. He adds that while the “marketing team feel that if the salespeople
listen to their advice, their problems would be solved. Salespersons on the other hand feel
that the marketing departments advice is completely misplaced”.

Similarly, several authors point out to the differences between marketing and selling.
FIMM.com describes “selling sells what is produced without understanding the needs of the
segment” and “marketing promotes the product that satisfies the buyers’ needs”.
Marketing.com also states that the selling has a product focus and a short-term orientation of
achieving sales. This short-term focus does not consider building the brand and creating a
competitive advantage through a loyal customer base. Marketing, on the other hand, is built
up on a long run basis and focuses on building a brand. Overall as Steve (2010) states
salespeople feel that the marketing’s theoretical arguments are not practical, and the
marketing team believe the salespeople are diluting their brand positioning. Steve concludes
that the ongoing conflict between sales and marketing is an “elephant” in many companies
and not discussed until it becomes disruptive. This mindset of marketing and selling has
resulted in the push and pull be seen as independent activities in an organization (figure 1.1).
Pull and push are defined and discussed in greater detail in subsequent sections.

Promotion Demand Pull Company Instore schemes Push Purchase

Fig 1.1: Push and Pull as independent activities

In the above orientation, the best salesperson is typically defined as a person who can sell a
refrigerator to an Eskimo or a comb to the bald person. But aligning selling to a marketing
perspective would mean, a good salesperson is one who can sell a second refrigerator to the
same Eskimo or a second comb to the same bald person. That is, selling is linking the product
to a customer’s need and creating a want (figure 1.2).
 Product Link to Create Enhance
Need Want Consumers’ value
Source: Pingali 2102
Figure 1.2: Product- Market fit

1.1 Understanding the difference between marketing and selling

The conflict could be understood by studying the perspective of marketing and selling. The
conflict (differences) of Marketing and Selling should be seen as natural. The differences
could be explained by understanding the objective of marketing and the role of selling.

Overall the marketing objective is to build customer (brand) loyalty. Customer loyalty is not
only repeat purchase- but trust buildings for the brand. Based on the various definitions of
brand loyalty, a comprehensive understanding is derived:

Brand loyalty is not only about repeat purchases but is based on an emotionally charged
decision (aytm.com) built on a trusting relationship (TrackMaven.com,
www.managementstudyguide.com) where consumers have a positive feeling
(en.wikipedia.org), are committed (www.investopedia.com), faithful
(BusinessDictionary.com) and do not purchase a competing brand regardless of convenience
and price (www.investopedia.com, aytm.com) as they fear purchasing a substitute
(www.managementstudyguide.com) and therefore are willing to search for the brand as well
as refer the brand to others (TrackMaven.com). That is, brand loyalty is based on perceived
value, satisfaction and brand trust leading to commitment/ stickiness of the consumer to a
brand with a low sensitivity to price.

This process of building brand loyalty (trust) would take a long time and must be built step
by step (discussed in subsequent chapters).

Selling on the other hand is focusing on completing “today’s sale”. That is, where the
consumer may not be loyal to any brand and is comparing alternate brands. Since consumers
are looking at alternate brands, completing today’s sale may also require managing the store
which could influence/ push a brand.

In many occasions loyalty need not be for a brand but could be for the dealer or expert who
could decide/ influence what should be consumed/ purchased. If the loyalty to the store/
expert is high, then the selling would need to focus on satisfying the information and
motivational needs of the dealer/ experts. A company needs to dominate the store loyalty and
tilt the consumers towards brand loyalty

So, selling is not only satisfying today’s consumer behaviour but is also managing the store/
expert/ dealer who could influence their loyal consumers (because customers are store loyal).
In other words, the external partners and the company could be operating on different
interests. And this duality contributes to the differences in the perspectives of the selling and
marketing.

Since building loyalty is a long-drawn process (making customers understand the positioning
and change their current behavior), marketing communications would be different from the
communication of selling which focusses on satisfying today’s behavior so as to complete
today's sale. In short, marketing aims to change the behaviour and build loyalty, whereas
selling is satisfying today's behaviour. The only point when Marketing and selling would be
communicating the same is when the company has been able to build brand loyalty.

In this longitudinal perspective, push and pull should not be seen as independent activities (as
shown in figure 1.1) but they should be seen as joint activities contributing to the long-term
benefit of the company. The Push and Pull activities should be integrated and align to the
process of branding/ building loyalty (discussed in subsequent chapters).

Here it should also be noted that since marketing is communicating the features and trying to
build the brand, consumers would respond differently and would move in the process of
brand building differently (that is, different groups would acquire knowledge differently and
brand evaluation process would be different). Therefore, it would be common to see different
segments behaving differently for same brand (eg: cement could have segments who are
brand loyal to segments who see it as a commodity). With buyers behaving differently at any
point of time, the sales function may have to communicate differently to different market
segments making the job of selling even more challenging.

In this context the book develops an understanding of the Marketing and Selling from a
longitudinal perspective and develop frameworks for synchronizing marketing and selling.
The book would start by explaining the process of marketing, followed by the process of
selling. Next the integration of the pull and push to align with the overall marketing. Based
on these processes, the other decisions for sales and distribution are developed (figure 1.1).

Marketing

Sales Channel Selling

Interface Environment
Selling
Push Pull

Channel decisions Sales decisions

Supply Chain

Channel Sales force

Motivation motivation

Figure 1.3 Sales and Distribution Management: Aligning Marketing and Selling

1.2 Overview of the book

Case of a distressed consumer
The books starts with a caselet of a distressed consumer highlighting the problem of short
term orientation of sales.
Chapter 1: describes that there is a possibility of a conflict between Marketing and selling
(first highlighted by Kotler et al 2010 in their article in HBR) as Marketing is a long-term
concept and selling is a short term concept. The book highlights the need to develop selling
decisions which would be aligned with the overall marketing decisions.
Section 1: Marketing and Selling
Chapter 2: presents an overview of the marketing process which aims at building loyalty by
increasing involvement by changing the way quality is evaluated. The different stages of
quality and the different levels of involvement are described. The overall framework is
presented wherein the changes in the brand decision processes during the brand building
process are shown.
Chapter 3: describes the selling process from the consumers perspective and how selling has
to be done during the different brand decision process the consumer would move during the
marketing process. The chapter also discusses the push aspects, the type of trade schemes and
consumers schemes that need to be given during the different behaviors. The chapter lays the
background for the need to align the selling decisions to ensure that there is no conflict
between marketing and selling.
Chapter 4: describes the need and process of integrating pull and push.
Chapter 5: describes the B2B sales process for consumables. The chapter also highlights the
challenges for building brands for consumables in a B2B context and suggests possible routes
for building a brand.
Chapter 6: based on the understanding of the differences in the communication between
marketing and selling, this chapter provides frameworks for operationalization of the selling
function.
Section 2
Chapter 7: describes the changing shopping environment and emergence of intermediaries
(channel members). The chapter also describes the goals of the channel partners and the
bargaining power of the channel partners.
Chapter 8 Retail environment in India
Section 3: Channel Management decisions (channel members are all external people/
agencies the company uses).
Chapter 9 develops a framework for designing the Channel using a bottom up approach.
Chapter ends with the areas that need to be looked at while aligning selling with marketing.
Chapter 10: develops a framework for selecting the channel members.
Chapter 11: develops an understanding of the antecedents impacting the performance of
individual channel partners. The chapter provides guidelines for channel member appraisal.
Chapter 12: develops a framework for evaluating the performance of the channel as a whole.
Chapter 13: Studies the growth of e-commerce and evaluates Internet as an alternate channel.
Chapter 14: Discusses the possible reasons for Channel conflict and the possible solutions to
manage the conflict.
The section ends with a comprehensive case of a company’s distribution system in
Jamshedpur.
Section 4 Sales Management decisions (Sales people are company internal staff). The overall
structure for sales management is presented showing that all the decisions should flow from
the effort required from the sales force during the sale process.
Chapter 15 Develops a framework for selecting an ideal salesperson using demographic
details.
Chapter 16: describes the selling style for a dyadic sale and service orientation for any sale to
be successful. The chapter discusses how the concepts should be developed to align selling to
marketing.
Chapter 17: describes the process of allocating sales territories. The chapter highlights the
changes that would be required during the marketing process.
Chapter 18: presents the process of target setting and how targets should be aligned to ensure
that selling is not conflicting with marketing. The chapter highlights how selling needs to be
aligned to marketing.
Chapter 19 The need and adoption of Sales force automation in India are discussed.
Section 5 Motivating Channel partners and Sales people
Committed channel partners and motivated salespersons would help the company achieve its
goals.
Chapter 20 develops guidelines for developing committed channel partners.
Chapter 21 develops guidelines for motivating Sales people. The chapter also suggests
compensation plan.
Section 6 Supply Chain Management
Chapter 22 briefly describes the concepts of supply chain management with special focus on
product flow.
Chapter 23 discusses about planning inventory at the retail level.
Chapter 24 focuses on sustainable distribution and also highlights the need for reverse
logistics.

1.3 Salient differentiators of the book

1. Develops channel and sales management decisions which are aligned to marketing.
2. Describes the process of selling for B2B consumables and how companies selling
consumables could Market quality in B2B markets.
3. Describes the objectives for trade and consumers schemes for the different buying decision
processes.
4. How push and pull communication should be aligned.
5. Application based activities and practice questions for most chapters.

1.4 Summary
This chapter differentiates marketing and selling by describing the long term perspective of
marketing and the short term orientation of selling. The chapter highlights the importance of
aligning selling with Marketing. The subsequent chapters would develop frameworks for
sales and distribution management decisions aligned to the Marketing strategy.

Activity

Identify a product and two brands in the product category (any two brands falling in different
categories of MNC/ National or Regional) for your analysis during the course. (You would
be working on these product/ brands for all the subsequent activities during this course).
(Example: Product: Television; Brands: SONY, BPL).

Describe the issues that the companies would be facing to ensure that the product reaches its
end consumer. (Do not refer to any material for this part of the activity).

Identify possible areas of conflict between Marketing and selling.

 Section 1
Marketing and Selling
The introductory chapter discussed the differences between marketing and selling and the
possible reasons for the conflict (chapter 1). This section focusing on the shaded boxes of the
figure 1.3 (as shown below) indicate the portion dealt in the section. Chapter 2 describes the
marketing process and highlights the way quality and involvement are changed during the
process and how the consumers move from one decision process to another till they reach
loyalty stage. Chapter 3 discusses about the process of selling during each of the decision
processes during the process of marketing. While chapter 3 focusses primarily on the push
aspects, chapter 4 focusses on the need to integrating the push and pull during the entire
marketing process. Chapter 5 provides an overview of the marketing and selling for B2B
consumables. The section ends (chapter 6) by providing frameworks for the selling function.

Marketing

Sales Channel Selling

Interface Environment
Selling
Push Pull

Channel decisions Sales decisions

Supply Chain

Channel Sales force

Motivation motivation
 Chapter 2

Role of Marketing

Building Loyalty: Consumer behaviour view

Learning Objectives
• Describe the stages of consumer buying process
• Describe the different phases of the marketing process
• Understand how quality of a brand has to be built
• Describe the process of increasing involvement for the brand
• Provides a generalized framework for Marketing.

Since marketing is looking at change in behavior to build brand loyalty, it is important to

understand the process of consumer behavior. This chapter explains the consumer decision
process and the changes in the brand decision process during the marketing process.

2.1 Stages of the Consumer Brand decision process

Consumers go through a series of stages before purchasing a product. These stages include
want for a product, formation of consideration set, information search, and evaluation of
alternatives leading to a final purchase.

Broadly speaking there are four major decisions during a purchase (figure 2.1):
• Product decision
• Brand decision and
• Store decision
• Timing decision

Figure 2.1 Stages of the consumer decision process

Consumption Occasion
Want
What Product?

Consideration set

Information search

Form utility Evaluation of

alternatives Which Brand?

Time utility Place utility

When? Where?
 Possession utility

Want: To satisfy a ‘(psychological) need’ a consumer would ‘want’ a product. The want
could be different for different consumption occasions (eg: official travel versus private
travel).

Consideration set: The various alternatives considered for purchase. Understanding the
development of consideration sets and ensuring the brand enters the consideration set is the
first step to marketing/ selling. If the brand is not in the consideration set it is not going to be
purchased. It is also important to note that while competition is increasing and the number of
brands available are increasing, entering the consideration set becomes the first focus of the
companies. Since the consideration set size is small, companies put a lot of effort to ensure
that their brand is in the consideration set (discussed in subsequent sections).

Information search: The consumers collect information they consider relevant for the brands
in the consideration set. Using this information the consumer evaluates the brands. The extent
of information search varies with the degree of importance the purchase is to the consumer
(referred as involvement in subsequent discussions).

Evaluation of Alternatives: The alternatives are evaluated on criteria set by the buyer. The
evaluation also involves decision of the form utility.
Form utility: In what form and size should the product be purchased. For example,
detergent in liquid form or bar form.

Purchase: The evaluation of alternatives would convert into a purchase after deciding where
and when to purchase. This is described as the following utilities.
Time utility: Purchasing the product when the consumer needs it. For example, a
daily newspaper not delivered in the morning loses its utility.
Place utility: Making the product available where the consumer wants it (eg: online,
multi brand outlet or specialty store).

Post-Purchase Evaluation: Outcome the consumer derives after consumption of the product.
This could lead to satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The post purchase evaluation could be
influenced/ improved by improving the possession utility.
Possession utility: Ensuring consumer gets the desired benefit from the product (eg:
after sales, warranty etc)

The decision process varies with the stage of the brand in the process of marketing (discussed
below).

2.2 Framework for marketing

As stated, building loyalty would be a long process wherein the consumers shifts from one
type of buying behaviour to another and again to another behaviour till the consumer reaches
the loyalty stage. Schematic representation of the different decision processes a consumer
would go through as marketing shifts a brand from a commodity stage to a brand loyalty
stage is shown in figure 2.2. All brands need not go through all the stages as some product
categories could have moved to a higher stage of decision making because of the marketing
activities of various companies in the past. For example, petrol, salt which are still primarily a
commodities may have to go through all the stages of brand building, whereas cars which
have seen a lot of marketing activities ever since the Ford’s Model T was launched in 1908
would be different today from what it was then. Initially, when the Model T was
manufactured on a “moving assembly line” in about 93 minutes and the “customer could
have a car painted any colour so long as it is black” the buying process could have been
closer to a commodity type purchase with a product decision and no brand decision. Today
the car market is highly competitive and the consumers are very choosy where brand
evaluation is very important. The different decision processes are described below.

Picking

Variety seeking Impulse

Legalistic

Subcontracted (if consumer is Problem solving (if consumer is

not knowledgeable to evaluate) knowledgeable to evaluate)

Heuristics

Brand Loyalty
Figure 2.2 Marketing Process: Changing Behaviour

Picking, where the buyer is indifferent to the brands as there are few differences between the
brands. Picking is therefore a low involvement purchase with little uncertainty with untried
brands and the buyer is OK to “pick” any brand from the available brands (eg: petrol).

Variety seeking, is also a low involvement purchase even though there are significant
differences between the brands (eg: soaps). The buyer would not mind shifting from one brand
to another as the uncertainty of using any brand is low. The consumer therefore has a tendency
to experiment.

Impulse: Impulse buying occurs when a consumer experiences a sudden urge to buy something
immediately. It is more likely to involve grabbing a product than choosing one (eg: chocolates).

Legalistic: The behaviour is governed by legal or social norms (eg: Indian Standard marks for
Helmets).

Subcontracted decision making: Consumers adopt a subcontracted decision making when they
are not knowledgeable about the brands and therefore obtain a brand recommendation from an
expert with the intention of purchasing the brand without acquiring any information. Under
these situations, the consumer decides the expert (eg: pharmaceuticals).

Problem solving: Problem solving is a high involvement purchase and the buyers would
purchase a brand after careful evaluation as the uncertainty associated with untried brands is
high (eg: cars). Unlike subcontracted decision process, here the buyer obtains information of
different brands from credible sources and makes the brand decision by themselves.

Heuristics: Buyers develop simple thumb rules or heuristics when making repeat decisions.
Heuristics could be developed in low involvement purchases or high involvement purchases.
However, the book would be dealing with heuristics developed for high involvement purchases.

Loyalty: When the consumers trust the brand, brand loyalty develops. Here the buyer does not
consider or evaluate alternate brands for purchase.

Marketing is about shifting consumers through the different decision processes and building
trust by increasing consumer involvement by changing the way consumers evaluate quality.
The two concepts a) quality and b) involvement are discussed in detail below.

2.3 Quality

As mentioned, the process of marketing would require the company to make its brand the
preferred brand not because it is easily available but because the consumer trusts the brand.
Trust would develop over time and has to be built up step by step.

A company or brand has to go through three sequential levels of quality to create brand
loyalty. In each stage a set of attributes reinforcing the quality perception have to be built.
These stages are essential for any product or service in building a brand (B2B or B2C).

In the process of building loyalty the quality attributes (Darby and Karni, 1973) have to be
built in the following order:
• Search attributes (can be seen and evaluated before consumption)
• Experience attributes (can be evaluated only after consumption)
• Credence attributes (cannot be evaluated even after consumption)

Search attributes are more physical and visual. A brand should "give an impression" that it is
of good quality. For example, bottled water should "look good", it should be clear without
any sediments and it should be colourless. Also, the bottle should look strong and with proper
seal to denote that there is no contamination. These physical or visual attributes can be seen
and evaluated before consumption and are called "search attributes". As mentioned the
quality attributes are important for both products and services. In banks the physical attributes
of ambience, uniform of staff etc. would indicate quality. Even for a candidate attending an
interview, his/ her physical appearance provides first indications of the seriousness and
suitability of the candidate.

Unless and until a brand's search attributes give the impression that the brand is of good
quality, consumers would not purchase the brand. Even products like steel/ cement put a lot
of emphasis on search attributes, eg: shine, packing etc. Various communications of the
company try to highlight the search attributes. For example:
 Activa 125 positioned for the smart and sensible people has a television commercial
where a girl highlights all positive attributes of her boyfriend with the all positive
(search) attributes of Activa 125. 1. Smart - LED Headlamp, LED Position Lamp and
Chrome Chest, 2. Sensible- ECO mode indicator, 3. ‘Good Family’- Brand Activa and
4. Strong - Metal body.

Once the brand has been purchased, the consumer would use the brand and start experiencing
the brand. On experiencing the brand, the consumer would be satisfied or not satisfied with
the brand based on the benefits it is meant to provide. For example, a car should perform as
per the satisfaction of the buyer. It should give good mileage, should not have frequent
breakdowns etc. If the brand fails to deliver as per expectations. the consumer would not
consider the brand to be of good quality. Unlike the search attributes which can be evaluated
before consumption (by physical verification), these attributes can be evaluated only after
consumption and hence called experience attributes. All the satisfaction surveys conducted
reflect the evaluation on experience attributes. For services, the experience attributes are also
very important. A Bank should provide timely and quick service to provide satisfaction. If the
brand fails to provide the required satisfaction, then the consumer could shift to another
brand.

Savlon focuses on experience attributes of being odorless & painless.

Surf through their campaign Daag Dhoondthe Rehh Jaaoge (Even if you search hard,
you won't find stains) focusses on the fact that the brand cleans any type of dirty
cloth.

Shampoo brands focus on experience attributes

• Sunsilk (HUL) - Silky, shiny, voluminous strong and black coloured hair
• Dove (HUL) - Damage control, daily hair care
• Clinic plus (HUL) - Strong and long hair, Anti-dandruff shampoo
• Head and shoulder (Procter Gamble) - Anti-dandruff shampoo
• Pantene (Procter Gamble) - Smooth, silky, voluminous, full, lively, long, black
hair
• Chik (Cavin kare) - Fragrance, strength, cool and black hair
• Nyle (Cavin kare) - strength, softness in hair
• Vatika (Dabur) - naturalness in hair.

So, a brand would be repurchased only if the physical appearance indicates good quality
(have search attributes) and subsequently the brand provides satisfaction through its
experience attributes. However, search attributes and experience attributes do not lead to
loyalty as the consumers are still evaluating the brands. Loyalty is reached when the
consumer purchases the brand because the consumer trusts the brand. The consumer should
purchase the same brand without comparing/ evaluating the other brands. Similar to the way
patients trust a doctor. When a person moves to a new location, he/ she would first identify
the doctors based on their qualifications, the looks of the clinic etc (search attributes). The
patient getting treatment would start evaluating the experience attributes. Over a period, the
person develops a trust and subsequently goes to the same doctor without evaluating the other
doctors. Even if the person needs to get suggestions about another specialist, they would
consult their trusted doctor to obtain a recommendation.
Brands should therefore, reach a level of trust, where the buyer does not evaluate the brands
and purchases the same brand. For example, baby care products mothers are found to trust a
brand and purchase the same brand even though other brands are available. This stage is
reached when the buyers go beyond the experience attributes to the credence attributes.

Credence attributes are attributes which cannot be evaluated even after consumption. For
example, “cholesterol free”. The consumer should trust the brand and make the purchase.
Brands failing to reach the credence level would not reach true loyalty. For example, bottled
water market in India. Buyers do not differentiate "purified water" and "natural spring water".
All brands (whether bottled water or natural mineral water) are perceived the same and
purchased mainly on search attributes.

Credence can be built by highlighting the core of the product (emphasizing the technical
features) or by emphasizing the solution the brand is providing (refer examples below).

Credence through the brand:

Lifebuoy Handwash – (2017) is trying to differentiate the product by showcasing
other product as slow whereas the Lifebuoy kills the 99.9% germs in just 10 seconds.

Credence through the Solution

Lifebuoy Stomach Ache (2018) campaign positions Lifebuoy as the solution for
stomach ache by better hand washing practices “Lifebuoy hai jahan bimaari kam ho
wahan” (Lifebuoy solution to all illness).

Once a brand is associated with a solution the company can add other brands focusing on the
solution (for example, baby care products). By this way the other brand start “flanking” the
solution and the overall brand image gets associated with the solution, leading to trust. Here it
should be noted that search attributes should lead to the experience attributes and search and
experience attributes should help the consumer infer the credence attributes. For example, i20
is trying to link safety (credence attribute) through search and experience attributes.
Company’s campaigns need to help consumers transit to these attributes. Refer table 2.1for
shift in attributes for Hyundai i20.

Table 2.1 Hyundai campaigns over the years

Attribute
Year AD Theme Description of campaign
focused

Hyundai i20
2009 basic comfort, design mechanism & interiors Search
- I got it all

Hyundai i20 interiors ergonomically designed, built in tech

Search/
2011 - All new features (search attributes) crafted for handling
experience
uber cool flexibility on multi terrains (experience attributes)
 Engine performance and driving experience for
Hyundai i20
those customers who values the drive quality more
2013 - Live the Experience
over the aesthetics and design. Push start button
uber life
introduced

Hyundai i20 GPS media navigation system, comfort and luxury

Experience
2014 - un (experience attributes). Not compromising with the
/Credence
compromise safety (credence attribute).

Hyundai i20 fully automated car with voice recognition/ drl led
Experience
2019 - follow ur headlamps/integrated media system (experience
/Credence
brain attributes) with advanced dual safety features

On the other hand a TV claiming to be keep “planet first” (that is, environment friendly
credence attribute) (figure 2.3) is not backed by search or experience attributes. Here the
consumer would find it difficult to associate the credence attribute to the brand.

Figure 2.3 Features of a Television

The process of moving a consumer from evaluating one type of quality attribute to another is
possible only by parallelly increasing the level of involvement.

2.4 Involvement

The process of increasing involvement means moving the product from low involvement
category to high involvement category. The process of moving a consumer from purchasing
the brand purely on search attributes to evaluating experience attributes requires increasing
the level of involvement by increasing the uncertainty of untried brands. This is achieved by
managing the two types of involvement. Purchase involvement and product involvement.
Here also the process needs to go through three stages.

When search attributes are added the company needs to ensure that the consumers see and
evaluate the differences between the brands. So, initially the company needs to increase
purchase involvement to allow the buyers to see that the brand is different from the other
brands in the product category and consider the brand (ensure the brand enters the
consideration set).
 In 2014, Schmitten launched a dark chocolate campaign, “Schmitten is not meant to
be shared with anyone and that it is a crime to ask for a bite of Schmitten”. This was a
way of differentiating the brand from its rival, Cadbury, with the theme ‘sharing is
caring’.

Once a brand is in the consideration set, the consumer can evaluate the brands based on
search attributes. Here the purchase is still in the low involvement category. To move to high
involvement and to ensure that the consumers start evaluating the experience attributes as per
the brand’s positioning, the company needs to create problem situations within a product
category (eg: sensitivity problem in tooth paste category). That is, the company should create
a separate marketing product for different problem situations under the overall product
category (stage 2). Refer figure 2.4 for example of marketing products under toothpaste.

Figure 2.4 Problem situations in toothpaste product category

Toothpaste Product category

Problem situations Marketing Products

Freshness Whiteness Sensitivity Cavity Protection

Brands

Close up Colgate Sensodyne Pepsodent

In this stage the company should increase the importance that specific attribute and the risk of
not considering the attribute to address the problem situation, thereby increasing the
uncertainty of untried brands. This increases the product involvement and the product moves
into the high involvement category as the consequences of making a wrong decision would
be high. In India dark chocolates failed to take the buyers to this stage, so dark chocolates are
also grouped under the overall chocolate category.

Since the risk associated with making a wrong choice is high the buyer would be looking at
experts (credible people) for deciding or collecting information on consequences of using a
brand (experience attributes). That is at this stage the company is adding product involvement
while retaining purchase involvement. However, here the purchase involvement moves from
simply looking at search attributes, to collecting information about experience attributes prior
to purchase (for example; test riding a car or comparing the TV brands).

Risk of making a wrong choice could be introduced in two forms. One is product
performance risk (eg: if the right type of electric wires are not used then there is a risk of
short circuit and the house catching fire) or two social risk, risk of not being accepted by ones
peer group (eg: dandruff). While product performance risk could be used for B2B or B2C
marketing, social risk is predominately used in B2C marketing.

As the consumers start benefiting from the experience attributes, the company needs to build
the trust by shifting the evaluation to credence attributes. That is, in stage 3 the information
search should reduce. However, since the consequences of making a wrong choice should
continue, the product involvement should remain high. To reduce the information search
without affecting the product involvement the company should identify heuristics (simple
decision rules) which could summarize the quality perception. The heuristics should be
experience attributes (eg: no tears as in the case of baby products) not search attributes (eg:
colour as in the case of detergents) and they should link the attributes to the credence
attributes.

The process of involvement and information search along with the attributes is shown in
figure 2.5.

Figure 2.5 Level of information collected for decision making

Add Risk Build Heuristics

Search attributes Experience attributes Credence attributes

Purchase involvement Add Product Involvement Reduce Purchase involvement

2.5 Quality and Involvement link

Moving from one type of quality attributes to another without increasing involvement would
not help in building trust for the brand.

If a brand focusses on increasing evaluation by experience attributes without increasing

involvement, only the consumers who are experiencing the attribute would start noticing the
difference. They would start spreading the positive word of mouth. However, the trickle-
down effect of the positive word of mouth would not spread across the entire target market at
the desired pace. Secondly, the word of mouth may not be a standardized communication to
create an uniform perception as desired by the company.

For example, Dove and Vivel have concentrated primarily on the quality attributes and not on
increasing involvement. Dove has sent out samples to help women expereicne the brand and
post their testimonials on the web (“real women sharing their experiences with the product
through videos and blog posts, in the Dove Hair Fall Rescue Diary”). The spread of the
positive word of mouth is however limited. Similarly, Vivel soap.

Dove
i. Attributes
a) Search
cream based, innovative bar design, packaging- simple, gentle and mild color
b) Experience
Rich lather, moisturising, smoothness, freshness, softness, gentle cleansing, wrinkle
free skin.
c) Credence
No side effect, pH=7
Vivel
i. Attributes
a) Search
 • cocoon shape
• soft fluid contours
b) Experience
• Soft / Nourishing skin
• Long lasting fragrance to keep one refreshed and rejuvenated creamy lather
• Moisturizes skin
c) Credence
• Germ guard to protect skin
• Vitamin E for skin nourishment
• Ayurveda Essence contains 20 Ayurvedic herbs

On the other hand, the communication of “increasing the risk associated with the
consequences of not using a particular brand (increasing involvement)” would be a
standardized communication urging the consumers to seek information as per the brand’s
positioning or core strengths before consumption (unlike the above case where information
gain is a passive process and primarily after consumption).

Finally increasing involvement is important to maintain the product involvement even when
the differences between brands become less as would be the case in a mature market
(explained in the generalized framework in the next section).

2.6 Developing a Generalized Framework

Branding process is not only differentiating the brands (search attributes) but also increasing
the importance of attributes. A commodity is a low involvement product where consumers do
not see any differences between brands. As a first step a brand needs to differentiate itself
from the other brands in the product category (eg: Captain Cook’s free flow salt) and shift to
variety seeking behaviour. In variety seeking behaviour a consumer chooses from brands
which are differentiated, but still the purchase is a low involvement purchase. So, the
company has to also increase the importance of the attribute by creating a fear that the non-
purchase of the brand could increase negative consequences associated with the product
performance or social acceptance. That is, the buying behaviour moves from a low
involvement purchase to a high involvement purchase.

Products in the high involvement category are evaluated by experience attributes (when
differences in brands are high). The search attributes and experience attributes can however
be copied by other companies. So, the brand has to identify credence attributes, and ensure
that the uncertainty of using untried brands is high even when the differences between brands
reduces.

The whole process can be captured in two dimensions. One dimension denoting the tangible
differences between the brands and the other denoting the uncertainty of using untried brands
(when wrong brand choice is associated with some risk). Combing the two dimensions
(differences between brands and uncertainty of using untried brands) at two levels high and
low would give a 2X2 matrix.

Brands with low differences and low uncertainty of using untried brands would fall under
picking behavior. Once brands differentiate, they move into high differences category.
However, since the brands are still in low involvement category, the uncertainty of using
untried brands is low, so the behaviour would be variety seeking. As marketing starts creating
problem situations and highlights the consequences of using a wrong brand, the consumers
move into high involvement category (uncertainty of using untried brands is high). With high
differences and high uncertainty of using untried brands the consumers exhibit problem
solving behavior (if they are knowledge about evaluating the brands) or subcontracted
process if they are not knowledgeable about evaluating the brands. As mentioned the
competitors may copy the search and experience attributes, so the company should build
credence attributes which retain the high uncertainty of using untried brands even when the
differences between brands is reduced due to market forces. That is when the brand moves to
the loyalty quadrant. Table 2.2 shows the generalized framework with the buying behaviour
and table 2.3 summarises the marketing process on the generalized framework.

Table 2.2 Product characteristics and decision process

Product Low uncertainty of High uncertainty of untried brands
characteristics untried brands

Low differences Eg: salt, petrol Eg: Baby food, vehicle spares
between brands
(catering to a Buying beh: Picking Buying beh: Loyalty.
market segment)

High differences Eg: Soaps Eg: cars

between brands
(catering to a Buying beh: Variety Buying beh: Problem solving (when
market segment) seeking buyer knowledgeable about product
category) or subcontracted (if the
buyer is not knowledgeable about the
product category)

Table 2.3 Attributes on which products are evaluated

Low uncertainty of untried High uncertainty of
brands untried brands
Low differences Involvement in purchase Credence attributes.
between brands low. Product Involvement is
high
High differences Search attribute. Purchase Experience attributes.
between brands Involvement is high. Purchase and Product
Involvement are high

Cases of Brand building

Fogg Deodorant
(Search –Experience attributes)

Fogg was launched in India in December 2011 by Vini Cosmetics with a new concept of a
deodorant without gas.

Fogg dethroned HULs AXE in its deodorant segment in 2 years and remained a leader
thereafter till date. Reason for such a remarkable success is due to the different value
proposition it brought to market that is the deodorant without gas. It marketed with the
concept that it is a liquid because of which it lasts longer (only on experience attributes).

Marketing Communication FOG Adds and it’s attributes:

1 Bus Stand Strom 2018
Add is pictured with young boy and girl. It is focused on the long-lasting fragrance attribute
of the deo. This was its USP since its start and Fogg still maintains that in the add.
Pull Strategy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg4GI4jWCbU

2 Mood Mast-Mast Hai 2018

Add is focused on two aspects, one the kind of fragrances that makes your mood happy &
alive and second it lasts whole day thus makes mood happy all day.
Pull Strategy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb3LlFsZyg0

3 Society Add 2015

Add showing Young kids, mid age man and woman. All stressed to focus on the famous
punch line of the Deo- “Fogg chal raha hai”. It targets to attract three segments of society-
Young bachelors, middle aged men and females.
Interestingly add was not focused on specific fragrance or male or female aspect & focuses
on Fogg as a brand.
Pull Strategy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4quN-Bnu--M

4 India- Pak 2015

Add is showing a discussion between India and Pakistan Army personnel. It is meant to
highlight what’s happening in India? In a way with this add Fogg is trying to target whole
country & tries to make a national presence.
Pull Strategy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7en628gPKak

5 Kirana Store 2015

It is an add made in the increasing market share of Fogg brand. It shows it catchy phrase-
“Kya Chal raha hai- Fogg chal raha hai”,which became the tag line of famous Fogg deos.
Pull Strategy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BAwU1pYEUI

6 Party Parinda 2015

It is made to target the party freak segment of young. It shows to attract many females in a
party with its new fragrance specially launched for the purpose.
Pull Strategy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnT6pSjEe1A

7 Fogg-Bolta hai 2015

It was a add that was showing young boys and girls in discussion where its fragrance clearly
distinguishes the one using Fogg. It highlighted the liquid aspect of the product. It doesn’t go
away in air like other gas-based deo sprays.
Pull Strategy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh2DaQ0zrF0
8 800 Spray Ad 2012
It was a TV & Print Add. It was focused to send a communication on the long-lasting
attribute of deo highlighting “800 guaranteed sprays in one bottle”. This add this way targets
the economical aspect of the deo. And targets all segments of males from 16-40 years of age.
Pull Strategy
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j0cqz1a8l6p564m/Screenshot%202019-03-
15%2019.29.20.png?dl=0

Marketing Communication differentiator for Fogg

1. Before Fogg most of the deodorants in India were promoted on the similar line where they
objectify the women who gets attracted to the men’s who uses the deodorant of that particular
brand.

2. Fogg broke the rule by applying completely new campaign where they came up with the
tag line of ‘Kya Chal Raha hai, Fogg Chal Raha Hai’ the campaign went viral and
effortlessly seeded into daily life communication.

3. When Fogg came into the market deodorant market was dominated by all gas based
deodorants, But Fogg as a product differentiator launched itself as “No Gas” deodorant which
will long last and hence though the grooming segment always been tagged as luxury, Fogg
talks about budget and savings.

Engine oil & Lubricants

(Search- Experience – Credence attributes)
Brand : 1. Castrol
2. MAK Lubricants
1. Castrol – British global brand entered in indian market in 1979 and became the biggest
player with 48% market share. The advertisement of the brand travelled through functional
benefits to top of the mind recall brand to credence attributes. The journey of the brand
advertisement is carefully planned over the years through different medium viz. Print,
Electronic, web, campaign, sponsorship and connected well with target audience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_uv6ZB7S_Q – Functional benefits showcased through
simple demonstration through a play providing product performance knowledge in the year
2009

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyKRc3iszr0 – Functional Benefits in the year 2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTlnPOZmmcU – in the year 2012 increasing both
functional and emotional aspects of the products
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWDEtyc-pk8 – Functional Benefits –in 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfg2-IoI1PM – Emotional Benefits – 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPZpfx--5Gk – Brand with a purpose – Castrol
Activ #NonStopDemocracy - 2019

From the above advertisements it can be inferred that Castrol had started with benefit based
positioning and products were being evaluated with experience attributes. The consumers
were provided with the knowledge of the benefits from the use of the products that is
protection of their vehicle engines.
In the recent years Castrol has moved from form experience to credence and touching
emotionally with the consumers linking to the brand as a brand with a purpose. In the last one
year they have been associated with causes like sea beach cleanliness, voting, deforestation
etc.
Beyond the Ads the Castrol has been associated with various campaigns in order to reinforce
their brand presence and create a customer pull. One such campaign called the “Protect what
you love campaign” wherein Castrol enrolled the youth and cleaned up garbage from the
unused land and used it for playing cricket.
During the ICC cricket world cup Castrol came up with “Castrol Activ Cling on the Cup”
Campaign. Such campaigns endeavoured by the company helps in creating a customer pull
and brand reinforcement in the mind of customers.
2. MAK Lubricants – Brand name assigned to this product in 1997 by its producer BPCL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLU-k2BLTGM – 11 years Ago – MAK lubricants was
trying to build its brand through celebrity presence of MS Dhoni with little product presence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKFXH-eSFU4 &
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyXExwsQkH8 – These 2 ads came during cricket world
cup 2011 where purpose of the Ads were to showcase the performance beyond possibility
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmP7uKz_2sQ – in the year 2012 – MAK lubricants is
trying to showcase the technical ability and performance of the product by using a donkey
over run racing horses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AFdZ9pcZQ8 – In the year 2013 – Came with a tagline
“Rakhe Bike ko Jawan” showcasing benefit based attributes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkzGTo0lX_E – In the year 2013 – Functional benefits is
being showcased
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plS3AzL42S8 – In the year 2014 – Emotional
positioning of the product without visibility of any product during the AD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl0j8dB1eU4 – In the year 2018 – MAK lubricants
again touched upon the search attributes of convenience in handling the product.

MAK Lubricants has been mixing up in showcasing their search, experience and credence
attributes. In the initial years MAK Lubricants associated with sports celebrity like MS Dhoni
to propagate their brand and increase brand awareness.

MAK Lubricants during the cricket World Cup 2011 came up with a series of cricket centric
Ads exhibiting his high performance beyond possible means.

In the later years MAK Lubricants showcased the benefits of its products. However in the
recent years they also moved from experience to credence and was involved in emotional
positioning of its brand. MAK Lubricants has kept itself away from the usual benefit based
positioning and tried to ensure a top of the mind recall brand.

Patanjali

(Credence – Search- Expereince and reinforce Credence)

Patanjali main focus of the pull communication was to build credence attributes. It first
established the brand image of Baba Ramdev which stood for pure , swadeshi, proponent of
natural and ayurvadic product. On this foundation all the products including Kesh kanti was
launched. Instead of using young models Baba Ramdev himself appeared in the
advertisements to promote the brand. He mostly promoted all the products under umbrella
brand of patanjali. He Talked about Swadeshi movement like the one during fight for
independence, called for use of ayurvrdic products. His advertisements targeted middle class
homemakers who were the decision makers for their home.
However, it did not ignore the search and experience attributes. It created exclusive outlets to
increase visibility and build a quality perception. The packing of all its brands was
comparable to the best brands and the packing highlighted the ayurvedic ingredients-search
attributes). While visibility helped consumers try the brands, Patanjali relied the positive
word of mouth to promote experience attributes. Building the search and experience
attributes reinforced the credibility (credence attributes).

Table Brand decision Communication of Patanjali

Decision Search Attribute Experience attribute Credence attribute
Process
Build Credence,
Trust Credibility.
communication Realization for
through Mass Swadeshi and natural
media ayurvedic products.
No side effects.
Information Use experience
search attributes to increase
Communication Positive word of
through users mouth by existing
customers
Consideration Increase Visibility
set in exclusive outlets
communication to build Search
through Retail attributes

2.7 Summary
Marketing orientation requires a company to focus on the needs of the customer. The chapter
describes the different types of buying decision process and how the marketing process shifts
a customer from one type of behaviour to another till they exhibit habitual behaviour (brand
loyalty). This the company can achieve by changing the (quality) attributes used by the
consumer for evaluation. Also parallely, it requires increasing purchase and product
involvement of the brand. The chapter ends by providing a generalized framework for the
marketing process.

The next chapter discusses the process of selling for each type of decision process.

Activity
Identify the buying behaviour for the brands you are working on. You are advised to discuss
with some consumers and identify the information sought by the consumers before purchase
and the factors used to evaluate the different brands.

Practice Questions
1. Quality perception has to be built by first adding __________ attributes, then
__________ attributes.
a) Experience/Credence b) Credence/ Search
c) Search/ Experience d) None of the above
2. Attributes that cannot be evaluated by the consumers even after consumption are
known as __________ attributes.
a) Experience b) Credence
c) Search d) All of the above

3. Name few credence attributes.

_____________, ________________, _________________

4. Purchase of medicines prescribed by the doctor would be ___________ behaviour

Picking
Variety Seeking

Impulse
Subcontracted

5. Washing powder advertisement claiming to fight dirt is focusing on

Search attribute
Experience attribute
Credence attribute
All three types of attributes

6. When the company is emphasizing on search attributes, the company should parallelly
focus on increasing the _______________ involvement.
a) Purchase b) Product
c) Both a and b d) None of the above