Understanding Consumers and Consumption

In most cases a consumer goes through a set of stages before making a decision to buy a product or service. This can be jolted down to 6 steps which are:

The brand Kinley also recognized these steps of a consumer and acted accordingly to make sure its presence is maintained in the consumers mind. For a product like water, marketers need to differentiate their offering by delivering unique attributes and values to the consumers.

The demand for hygienic, trustworthy drinking water was clearly on the rise. The primary reason for this was increasing consciousness for safe and trustworthy drinking water. Plus Packaged water consumer was someone who had an “ On the go lifestyle” . So availability was alos a major factor. The bottle size was also a primary factor for buying . Different sizes catered to different needs of the consumers. Price obviously was also one of the factor for decision making.

Kinley catered to all these issues and hence proved to be a successful brand. Kinley was able to provide the consumers the right product at the right place at the right time.

With its successful campaigns of trust and purity, Kinley emerged as a trustworthy brand in the consumers’ minds.

Next factor was the Place. Consumers today have ‘On-the-go lifestyle’ thus distribution of the product is one of the most important factors for this category. The key to success is to make the product available at every distribution point right from high end malls to railway stations, bus stations, grocery stores and even local paan kiosks. Kinley with the help of its huge distribution network of its parent company Coca-cola easily managed to be available at all locations.

Availability at the right time was not so easy keeping in mind the increasing demand for packaged drinking water. Other competitors adopted the method of establishing manufacturing plants close to the market so that the product can be placed on every shelf in that locality. Kinley on the other hand created a new product called ‘Bonaqua’ in select channels-convenience and organized retail to strengthen its leadership in the category. Both were priced at Rs.15 itself.

Price as always was a major factor and so was the case in kinley too. They launched the 500ml pack for Rs.4 as compared to bisleri at Rs.5. Also in 2009 when Pepsico`s Aquafina and Parle`s Bisleri hiked prices from Rs.8 to Rs.10 for 500ml, Kinley was still available for Rs.5 at many parts of the country.