Why the Great Indian FMCG industry™ is not over competed. It’s under strategised.
Reading Time: 6 minutesThe four horsemen and covid disrupted old moats and unleashed the age of abundance
When the cheap layer becomes a commodity, defining the expensive layer is the strategy
Reading Time: 5 minutesEach FMCG company will need to decide which is the cheap layer they will industrialise and which is the expensive value layer they will invest behind
HUL’s de-averaged strategy to create desire at scale
Reading Time: 5 minutesAnd what two traps legacy brands like HUL’s run into
HUL’s distribution moat has been fragmented
Reading Time: 5 minuteswho will pay the fragmentation tax?
HUL’s move towards influencer marketing is one part of their response to structural shifts
Reading Time: 4 minutesIndia is the world’s most stratified consumer market. HUL is deploying a parallel business model for India’s complexity.
Brands are to culture as words are to language
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe Brand Absorption Matrix: Legacy FMCG risks slow death by empty repetition. D2C risks fast death by empty novelty.
The Red Queen Race of India 2-3-4: A demand-side pressure cooker
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe red queen race in India 3-4 is a demand side pressure cooker
Why the Red Queen Effect in India is complex
Reading Time: 6 minutesNo matter how ahead you are, you have to keep running even to stay in the same place. If you want to start winning the race, you need to run even faster! This is the Red Queen Effect.
Why there is a legit role for both legacy FMCG and D2C in India
Reading Time: 3 minutes“If, or else” buying behaviour + the undifferentiated middle disappears in the age of abundance
The small bets trap
Reading Time: 3 minutesBig FMCG systems eat their young. Small bets need parallel enabling structures