We Cannot Hide Anything From Consumers: Danone India MD

The food industry today has been extremely successful in making food accessible to people. In order to make the brand look good, many marketers now camouflage what is inside the packet and hide how the food is produced, which is why there is a disconnect between people and their food in many countries.

According to Rodrigo Lima, Managing Director, India, Danone, “In UK, one third of the consumers don’t know that there is a link between butter and cow. Fifteen per cent of Americans think that chocolate milk comes from brown cow.” 

Speaking about what marketers are doing to provide their customers high quality consistent experience, Lima said, “Many big companies are now trying to get closer to their consumers and respond to the questions of the customers within hours. In our company no matter where the question comes from - online, offline or by phone or letter - we try to answer the questions as fast as we can.”

Adding to what the brands are doing to understand their consumers better, Leigh Terry, CEO, APAC IPG Mediabrands said, “If we look at a consumer experience on a corporate level or on an individual brand level, customers now have mobile handsets, ready to write every time they feel they are not delivered with the perfect customer experience. As brands and advertising agencies, we have got so much data, it’s phenomenal that we have the equipment and access to respond quickly.”

According to Lima, marketers should try to be ethical and as responsible as possible and have full trust about things; what is right for the consumer and try not to cheat them. “We cannot hide anything from consumers, in seconds they can just Google it and find whatever they need to know about the brand,” he said at the BW Businessworld Marketing Whitebook launch in Delhi.

Explaining how a marketer needs to tackle the campaigns against their company by competitors on social media, Terry stated, “You can’t hide anything from people in the social space, you have to address them. A lot of crisis management goes bad where people don’t accept responsibility or accept truth and look to make change. Majority of consumers are forgiving as long as you address them quickly,” he said.