As I watched this Chevy Volt US TV commercial targeting the Nissan Leaf, I can't help thinking such negativity is unnecessary.
Instead of building a clean transport future by inspiring people, the GM team are preoccupied taking cheap shots at their competition - 'It's a big step up from the Leaf blower' i.e. our drivetrain (range extended) is better than your drivetrain (pure electric).
It's not a one-off either. I remember that last year GM registered the term 'range anxiety' (they rightly took flak for this and seem to have quietly dropped its use). This week they announced the 2012 base price would be US$1,000 less than the 2011 base price - but sneakily, to get the same spec would actually cost an additional $2,500. Hmm.
Anyway, the team at Nissan could not resist returning the favour, so in their latest TV commercial they took a sly shot back at the Volt. One bad deed begets another.
Contrast this with a blog article from my friend Subhabrata 'SG' Gosh in Bangalore, the founder of Celsius 100, a brand consultancy, formerly part of the Saatchi empire. He is also concerned with energy, this time from the human angle. The premise and approach could not be more starkly contrasted.
"It’s the beginning of summer. The mercury is beginning to inch closer to the 40s. Huddled around the kerosene lamp, Ramcharan’s children beats the heat from the lamp and mud oven that cooks their dinner, to prepare for school the next day. The noxious kerosene fumes and the oppressive heat takes a toll on the children everyday. But they don’t have an option. Ramcharan spent a fortune buying the cheap Chinese LED lights.But they let him down within months. No service, no spares available. Worse it took eight hours to charge. In this remote village, eight hours of electricity is a pipe dream. The kerosene lamp was a far safer bet, the heat and fumes not withstanding. At least the children get uninterrupted light to put in four hours of study.The re-chargeable Chinese lantern provided less than 2 hours of light.
Vijaykumar took his team to the villages to experience what these hapless children went through everyday. We don’t realize how bad the power situation is in rural India. We don’t appreciate the human suffering because we have the money for alternatives. We don’t understand their needs from their life context.
People in rural areas need light for two things: to cook and for children to study. Not unlike urban people.They manage the cooking part. But try studying under a kerosene lamp or a hurricane in hot summer next to a home fire. The fumes and heat are oppressive. No amount of presentations, research findings or opinionated observations are any match for the telling experience that the team got living with the villagers.
The emergency light business in semi urban and rural India is completely commoditized. From Indian brands to cheap Chinese imports. The market is completely driven by price. (What’s new). The technology and capability required to make one of these is democratic. Yet the market is humongous.
Vijay figured that technological and manufacturing ability was not the problem. Since the time he took over BTVL, the BPL division that manufactures the portable lighting solutions, he had streamlined the organization, enhanced the manufacturing and marketing capability. The real problem was the mind-set of the BPL team. They are trained to look ‘inside-out’. As we had done with the Studylite project, he started outside-in. Assumed nothing, started with exploring the context, understood the needs within the context and then determined the possible solutions.
The team travelled across villages meeting villagers, living with them and experiencing their life without power. They saw who gets affected and how. Began to understand their pain, needs and priorities. It was interesting to see the impact it had on Vijay and his team. They were beginning to realize that they could do something that could change lives!
There was a powerful context. Education is their way out of poverty and they are willing to invest whatever they can. So parents spend money buying emergency lights for children so that they can study.
Beyond the priorities of their jobs, Vijay and the team wanted to do something that would ease the human suffering that the children endure every day. They were on a mission.
We call it the ‘Inspirational Dream’. To make studying easier for children in villages. This is the context for the brand.
No emergency light available in these markets can be fully charged in less than 8 hours. None of these can provide adequate light for studying. More importantly they don’t hold charge beyond 3 hours after two or three months of use. And they all cost nearly a thousand bucks. The cheaper ones are worse.
This was the non-negotiable product specification: it must charge in 4 hours and give 5 hours of light.
The search for the batteries started. R&D scoured all global sources: charging time, charge holding and charging cycles had to be met. We found a fantastic battery manufactured in China. Fe-lithium-ion. It is good for almost 2000 charging cycles. Fully charges in 4 hours and holds effective charge for 5 hours.
Chirag is designed to help children study. It addresses the reality of power availability: charges in 4 hours.It delivers against the need: 5 hours of light. The specifications and quality standards are world class.The battery will last for 4 years.
With such a sharply focused strategy, communication was easy. The real challenge was to deliver it in an engaging way, minimalistic and simple.
Does it work? The launch order was 10,000. Next month production is being ramped to 40,000 units.
We Learnt. Seemingly ordinary people can do extraordinary things if they are given an inspirational dream to chase, led by someone like Vijay and completely focused on delivering a single benefit in a powerful context.
We call this brand purposing."
So GM team, yes you can build the market for EVs at the same time as building sales of your own brand, without being critical of others trying to do the same thing. Just like BTVL you are in the business of introducing new technology to improve people's lives, but sometimes you forget your brand purpose. I know that everyone working at GM on the Volt are motivated by more than just shifting metal. Remember, thanks to youtube and blogs your negativity can be seen around the world. You should know that it makes you look narrow minded and your brand less appealing, hardly the sort of image you may wish to project. And you are smart guys, I know you can do so much better.
