Uber has been making waves in India. Whether through it's controversial payment strategy that has recently been changed or through it's declaration of offering auto rickshaw services in the future... here's a short take on what does it take to win in India for a brand like Uber.

1. UBER IN INDIA
What can augment Uber’s growth story
in India?
tannistho@gmail.com

2. How much does Uber understand
India… to keep up the growth
story? And what kind of an output
can it produce to make it happen?

3. Consumer India is:
– Large
– Contradictory
– Schizophrenic
– Living between
generations
– Getting comfortable with
technology
– Aspirational
– Both value as well as
experience driven
(A detailed study of Consumer India can be found
under:
http://www.slideshare.net/tannistho/mystery-of-the-
indian-consumer_)

4. A classic analogy that
describes consumer India:
“Consumer India is like an
experienced hire in an
organization. An experienced
hire is more difficult to
manage and mould, because he
already has a set way of doing
things that work pretty well
and therefore needs a lot of
convincing to adapt to a new
way of doing things.”

5. So, what’s the winning
process for India?
Exhaustive inputs
Hidden Process
A Magical but Predictable Output

6. We Indians love our formulae, but
presented in such a way that it becomes
magical.
We love predictability presented in interesting ways… we
want bad guys to lose in movies, in case of anti-heroes we
want the bad guys to be good guys at heart, we believe in
poetic justice, we believe in a 2.5 hour movies (and not 1.5
hour ones) because we get our money’s worth, we want a
car to give sufficient fuel mileage irrespective of it’s price or
the luxury it offers.

7. Who got India right?
Big Bazaar has a magical output… it’s chaotic by design, just
like an Indian bazaar. Currently Big Bazaar has 250 outlets
across 95 cities of India. In some Tier – III cities, a Big Bazaar
store is treated as the mall and is a weekend destination as well.
The ‘process’ of creating this chaos is complex. Big Bazaar
divided India into three segments - the consuming class (14%
of upper and middle class), the serving class like drivers,
household helps, etc. (about 55% of India) and the struggling
class (about 31% bottom of the ladder).
Big Bazaar caters to the first two simultaneously…

8. How does Big Bazaar do it?
1. Innovation in offers
I. Big Bazaar played on the Indian psyche of getting ‘value
for money’ by promoting bundled offers with an overall
discount. A continuous series of fluctuating offers –
made sure that people kept a constant tab on the offers
thereby increasing footfalls.
2. Mega savings days
1. Big Bazaar introduced ‘Wednesday’ as the day you save
money. Because it is also the day of maximum discounts.
3. Free talktime
1. Indians love their phone chats – and Big Bazaar tied up
with Tata Docomo to offer T24 numbers – where
everytime you bought from Big Bazaar you could get
free talktime on your T24.
4. Exchange offers
1. Literally a waste exchange program – where you could bring
your old clothes to old newspapers and exchange them for Big
Bazaar vouchers.

9. So, what are the communication
challenges before UBER in India?

10. 1. Which India is
Uber you speaking
to?
If you are speaking to the
global Indian – the one who’s
educated in Harvard… then
the chance is, he is not in
India anymore.
But the one who wants his
children to go to Harvard
is . And the ones who want
to compete with the
Harvard educated, are
there as well.

11. 2. And what is the
‘soul’ value Ubr can
offer them?
What is it that Uber has –
both as a utility as well as
an experience that will
make it ‘Indian’ with all its
confusion, dichotomy,
efficiency and innovation?

12. The brands that made their products
resonate with India

13. The Mac Magic
1. McDonald’s made its
entry in India, with the
Happy Price Menu (of Rs.
20/- for a burger), started
with an open kitchen
system where the
customers can see the
kitchen and its hygiene,
and peppered their menu
with the Indian touch
offering paneer tikka as
ingredient.

14. Life’s Good for LG
LG had failed in India when it entered as ‘Lucky
Goldstar’ and only post 1997, did the brand
start its true Indian connection.
1. To start off with its India strategy- LG
forged a strong relationship with cricket in
the late 90s and went onto sponsor cricket
World Cups, used cricket stars as brand
ambassadors and launched cricket games
on its television models.
2. As a second strategy, LG localized its
products by offering Hindi and other
regional language menus in its products.
3. Also focusing on the health of their
consumers, LG paved its way through
‘golden eye’ technology in colour
televisions and Health Air Systems in AC

15. Coca Cola
Coca Cola had been in the Indian market in the
1970s and re-entered the market in 1993.
However, in spite of reckless acquisition of all
its Indian competitors, Coca Cola was still
dwindling till 2003.
To create a deeper penetration, Coke invested
more than $1 billion to build overall
infrastructure which included 25 wholly owned
bottling plants.
In advertising, the brand roped in two pillars of
success – Bollywood and Cricket, brought down
the price point to Rs. 5/- to enter the rural
market, created a direct connect with a simple
statement ‘thanda matlab Coca Cola’ (in common
Indian parlance, any cold drink was referred to
as Thanda) and finally used their advertisements
to highlight how Coke maintains quality control
of its plants.

16. Key Learning
To sell in India, you need
to make Ubr needs to
make its rides distinctly
Indian without
compromising on the
quality. The
communication needs to
also highlight the Indian-ness
of the brand.

17. Classic Case in Point
Google’s universal and when it wanted to start mass
marketing in India, it focused on the key theme of
reuniting India and Pakistan… a theme that
resonated with a brand that had everything in its
kitty to make the world a compact one. A series of
Google ads were released on TV and Youtube
highlighting the reunion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN9-
oFJE

18. So, what makes you a
brand that India
loves?
• You understand India in all its
diversity.
• You show empathy… when more
than a billion people are coexisting on
32.8 million square kms, you need
empathy to survive.
• You show efficiency
• You show emotion.

19. So while designing the
India strategy ?
• You can look at the price point
magic you can bring.
• Offering something at a price point
that creates magic. But don’t lower the
price too much
• Create an experience that the top 30%
of the 14% of the population (as per
Big Bazaar numbers) can use and the
rest 70% can aspire for.
• You can look at creating deeper
connections
• Being an integral part of Indian life –
such as family occasions, festivals,
cinema, etc.

20. Creating a price
point…
• First, as introductory offers the
price point difference is already
established in India. Uber is
affordable and available on call.
• What you can introduce
• Offers like major discounts on
special days (for example: Mega
Save Fridays, Midnight Save Offers
for pubs, Area specific offers, etc.)
• Surprise packages in cars – which
can be unlocked with a riddle.
• Tie ups with services like
gaana.com (aka: the spotify strategy
that Uber is using elsewhere).

21. India is used to
stunts…
So surprise engagements are
appreciated.
E.g: when a rider gets into an Uber,
you can hand him a riddle and ask him
to solve it by the time the ride ends. If
he offers the right answer to the driver
– the driver hands him a prize (for e.g:
a cellphone). These prizes can be
riddled across several cabs and only
lucky users will get these. This can
help build sales spikes as well as
positive engagement.

22. Great Sale Days
Sale days always create spikes and bring in
more revenues than expected. Uber can
look at introducing specific sale days for
office rides – a sharp discount or a free next
ride offer can go with it.

23. Tie Ups
• Exploring alliances can create magic in the range
of services you can offer.
• Just like spotify, - a tie up with gaana.com can
offer customized jukebox for riders in India.
• Similarly, you can tie up with pubs and bars to
offer midnight rides to people who love to party.

24. Creating deeper
connections
• Festivals, celebrations,
cinema and music are
things that help create
deeper connections in
India. Coca Cola has been
using in-film branding for
years to create this and
Facebook is intricately
connected with Indian
films now.

25. How BMW did
it?
BMW had a different proposition, albeit for
an international market. But they effectively
created a series of web hits called The Hire to
showcase the driving efficiency of their cars.
For Uber, the core strengths are driver
reliability and ease of transportation – so the
same strategy might be used for a youtube
crazy nation with makers like All India
Bakchod or Alma Mater, people who have
cracked the magic of Youtube in India.

26. Lastly,
• Indians are festival crazy folks – be it Ganpati
or a friend’s marriage.
• Family festivals are the most auspicious
occasions.
• Uber can introduce special packages for
marriages. For example, you can rent a Uber
car for your marriage and it will come pre-decorated.

27. However,
• Supporting languages might
make Uber a household name
and make all of it easy.
• So, can we look at language
options on the Uber app please
for India?

28. That’s all folks!