No.1: Constructive tension leads to beauty, Brands should invest in low self-esteem countries, Deeper look into the vaccine industry
I’m a long-time fan of the rock band Tool. The front-man Maynard James Keenan has not only been famous for music, but also for growing wine in the desert in Arizona. It’s a tough way to make a living. But almost nothing creates more satisfaction than drifting towards frontiers of possibility. He does it with wine. A 1-year old baby drifts towards this frontier too, trying to take its first few steps. We all are trying in some way to bring constructive tension into our lives and test what is possible.
As such, I have a challenge to write something every week. I don’t necessarily care who reads it, but the act of writing something under time constraints with some regularity might do me some benefit. Or it may do nothing at all. Let’s see. It’s an experiment ;)
Here MJK talks about how a cello has pieces of wood bent so far that they are just about to break. The bow of the instrument also strung up tight enough to just about tear. The tension of the instrument meeting the bow creates a beautiful sound.
Of course, tension is not good everywhere, all of the time. But if the analogy makes me embrace a few more challenges rather than lapsing into complacency, then it can’t be all bad.
Brands Should Invest in Low Self-Esteem Countries
As an Indian, I find it quite interesting to see how western brands have fared in India. Since departure from the British empire, India found itself caught in a socialist hangover, crushing business under byzantine regulation. Indians longed to be part of the global economy and taste foreign consumer products. I can remember my grandmother hoarding cupboards full of goods brought by her children coming from richer countries. These were goods that Indians would probably take for granted today, but before liberalization couldn’t be found because of the thicket of import restrictions and lack of production capacity within India. In other words, India was suffering, and wanted to be “cool”. It wanted to drink Coca Cola and alcohol like the Americans on the posters.
As detailed in “I’d Like the World to Buy a Coke” - the biography of old Coca Cola CEO Roberto Goizueta - after India’s liberalization in 1991 Coca Cola air-lifted soft drinks into India once foreign goods restrictions were lowered. The company capitalized on latent demand for western brands. International brands entering at that time gave Indians hope that they too could be part of the global economy. Coca Cola and other big brands were not only a symbol of hope, but also a much-needed boost to self-esteem for the country. Launching brands in countries that had low self-esteem and high hopes was a great way to secure market position and ride secular growth waves once these countries opened up economically.
Fast forward to today and it has become harder in some categories to translate western brands to Indian consumers. As India became richer it developed technology, talent and companies such as Patanjali (case study here) that have fared well against international giants because they’re not simply selling US and EU brands to Indians, but building Indian brands based on Indian consumer tastes.
It’s not that EU and US brands have no appeal to Indian or Asian consumers - they still certainly do, and some companies have been immensely successful. The issue is more that when an American-based CPG company looks at TAM in a developing country, they sometimes assume that Indian or Asian consumers want to be American or European.
So the question I still have on my mind is whether Coca Cola would have succeeded as mightily had it re-entered India in 2010 versus in 1991. I guess it’s not a sensible comparison in some ways, but it makes me think that the best time to enter a market is when consumer self-esteem is at its lowest..
Deeper Look into the Vaccine Industry
I found this video very insightful from FT. It talks about R&D in vaccines over the years, pricing, and how COVID has resulted in a paradigm shift for the industry, Well worth a watch!
Interesting article! Keep up the good work. You're one subscriber richer :)