Why do people buy and/or consume 'Tata Salt Lite'?
The buying and consuming decisions of people can be explained with the help of the well known Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
The buying and consuming decisions of people can be explained with the help of the well known Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
As seen in the diagram, the needs of people can be classified into five main categories – physiological, safety, love, esteem and self-actualization. These needs give us an insight into what people definitely need and what only some people can afford to have and others aspire to have.
As such, salt falls under the physiological needs category. But, salt with 15 percent less sodium than that of ordinary salt, which is meant to reduce the risks of suffering from hypertension and diabetes and which is expensive, definitely does not fall under the physiological needs category. It can only fall under the safety, love and esteem categories, depending on who purchases it.
So, here we see a link between the values (discussed in the previous article) that ‘Tata Salt Lite’ brings to the customers and consumers, as perceived by them and the classes of consumers it has. ‘Tata Salt Lite’ is definitely more expensive than ordinary salt is, but the educated and health conscious population knows that spending a little more now is better than spending a whole lot more later, on medical treatments.
This apart, looking at the below diagram, more reasons for the purchase of this product can be arrived at:
Problem recognition
Back in the early 21st century, India saw a huge boom in the IT and services industries. This led to increase in literacy and jobs, but also a change in the lifestyles and food habits of people. Demanding jobs and stressful lifestyles led to a rapid increase in the occurrence of diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.
As the population of the educated and working classes gradually increased in size, the need to regulate one’s diet in the wake of changing lifestyles also grew. The problem was to find a way to regulate one’s diet.
Information search
These educated and working classes started looking for ways to regulate their diet. Right from the doctors to nutritionists and chefs, the only solution they were offered was to reduce the intake of salt. No amount of search gave them an alternative solution.
Evaluation of alternatives
So, when Tata recognized this problem from which the people were suffering, it launched the first ‘Lite’ brand of salt as an alternative. People who wanted to regulate their diet had now a better alternative!
Since it was medically proven that excess of Sodium causes hypertension and diabetes, a brand of salt which had lesser sodium than and as much chlorine as regular salt was the better alternative.
Purchase decisions
The educated and working classes were now convinced that this brand of salt was a better alternative to reducing the salt intake altogether, which would incidentally have reduced the intake of chlorine as well.
Though a bit expensive, it was affordable and worth the “health propaganda” it made. People who could afford it and cared for their health and medical expenses in the long run found it as the best alternative. The value of the ‘Tata’ brand (which stood for quality and best services) added to this sentiment and made it the best product of that time!
Post purchase behaviour
The potential customers did not expect to face any post purchase problems too, mainly because of the image which the ‘Tata’ brand had. A brand which was almost synonymous with the word ‘India’, which had come up with the first indigenous and commercial salt in India and which had the best quality products and services could trusted.
So, as explained above, the potential customers/consumers of ‘Tata Salt Lite’ had and still have several good reasons to be actual customers/consumers of it. It faced competition from several other brands a few years later, but how it fought them and emerged on top will be part of the next article.
Conclusion:
We can clearly see that the values which a product brings to the customers/consumers as perceived by them, strongly drive their buying decision process. This connection is something every marketer must understand very early in their career.
Back in the early 21st century, India saw a huge boom in the IT and services industries. This led to increase in literacy and jobs, but also a change in the lifestyles and food habits of people. Demanding jobs and stressful lifestyles led to a rapid increase in the occurrence of diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.
As the population of the educated and working classes gradually increased in size, the need to regulate one’s diet in the wake of changing lifestyles also grew. The problem was to find a way to regulate one’s diet.
Information search
These educated and working classes started looking for ways to regulate their diet. Right from the doctors to nutritionists and chefs, the only solution they were offered was to reduce the intake of salt. No amount of search gave them an alternative solution.
Evaluation of alternatives
So, when Tata recognized this problem from which the people were suffering, it launched the first ‘Lite’ brand of salt as an alternative. People who wanted to regulate their diet had now a better alternative!
Since it was medically proven that excess of Sodium causes hypertension and diabetes, a brand of salt which had lesser sodium than and as much chlorine as regular salt was the better alternative.
Purchase decisions
The educated and working classes were now convinced that this brand of salt was a better alternative to reducing the salt intake altogether, which would incidentally have reduced the intake of chlorine as well.
Though a bit expensive, it was affordable and worth the “health propaganda” it made. People who could afford it and cared for their health and medical expenses in the long run found it as the best alternative. The value of the ‘Tata’ brand (which stood for quality and best services) added to this sentiment and made it the best product of that time!
Post purchase behaviour
The potential customers did not expect to face any post purchase problems too, mainly because of the image which the ‘Tata’ brand had. A brand which was almost synonymous with the word ‘India’, which had come up with the first indigenous and commercial salt in India and which had the best quality products and services could trusted.
So, as explained above, the potential customers/consumers of ‘Tata Salt Lite’ had and still have several good reasons to be actual customers/consumers of it. It faced competition from several other brands a few years later, but how it fought them and emerged on top will be part of the next article.
Conclusion:
We can clearly see that the values which a product brings to the customers/consumers as perceived by them, strongly drive their buying decision process. This connection is something every marketer must understand very early in their career.