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A real-life story of two food joints with different fortunes, and a great marketing lesson from it

During the pandemic, it was common to see small businesses fold up and vanish. There were several such shops and food joints in my locality in Hyderabad which fell and never got up. Amongst them, was a tiny, yet famous food joint which had served great food for many years. We were sad to see it go. But soon enough we saw a strange thing; another food joint replacing it in the same premise. Naturally, we thought that the new owner was out of his mind and we just waited to see it downing its shutter as well.

Nothing like that happened. Instead, the new joint took off from day one. And going by the crowd that is there most of the time, it is clear that the joint is doing far bigger and better business than the previous one.

Both the joints had the same menu, you know, some south Indian tiffin varieties like Idli, Dosa, Medu Wada, and Chinese food items.

Here I need to mention the location of this food joint. The joint is located right on the road that leads to the famous Bowenpally Vegetable Mandi that is about half a kilometer ahead. And since it is a mandi, the trucks and minivans carrying vegetables to and from the mandi start moving from as early as 4 am and go on till around 10 am. To reach the mandi at 4-5 am, these truck and minivan drivers start from their respective places much earlier and rush to return to set up their shops. During these hours, if the drivers feel hungry or need some breakfast, there is nothing along the way.

And that was the cue the new owner took.

He opens the joint at 5:00 am in the morning, the first food joint to open in the entire locality. Without changing anything in the menu, all that he does is to serve the south Indian tiffin items from as early as 5 am. And much before the shutters open, he keeps some of the food items ready for the parcel. He has kept the prices affordable and at par with other joints. That did the trick.

Truck and minivan drivers flock to have a quick breakfast at this joint before entering the mandi. And this crowd pulls in other people as well. So other drivers who are on their way back from the mandi also join in. This goes on till almost 10 am every day. The crowd and the menu change completely in the remaining day. People who loved the previous joint and its menu, start coming and the joint serves them all day. Early next morning, the scene changes again. And it goes on.

Now think about this. Two food joints occupying the same premise in the same locality with more or less the same menu. One, folding up due to no business and the other making a killing in the same situation. One may dismiss this as the new owner’s street-smart marketing trick. But there is a profound marketing and branding concept behind this. It is called Purpose Brand.

What is a Purpose Brand?

A long time back, I read about Purpose Brand in an HBR article. It said that a successful brand does a job that a customer wants to be done, more effectively than other less successful brands. Now, what is this job, I am referring to? Very simply, the job is the most central thing that a customer needs to get done by using a product or a service or a person. And the brand or a product that is tightly associated with the job for which it is purchased is called a purpose brand.

The job I am referring to, cannot be assumed. Instead, a marketer must do deep exploration in the customer’s mind to filter out the exact job that he/she wants to get done.

The Learning

Let us return to the food joint. The previous owner focused on what he had to offer. In normal times it worked well, but not in the pandemic. The second owner converted the same joint into a Purpose Brand. He focused on getting a job done for the early morning visitors; offering breakfast to them at a time when they really wanted, at a place which is on their way, at a price that is not cheap but not higher than any similar joint. Perfectly fitting the definition of a Purpose brand. Look around and observe, all large brands are built on the same premise.

In Pharma marketing, often we introduce products in the market because we have the product. in doing so, if we also focus on understanding what job the doctor(s) wants to get done through our product, we shall have far better success with our new launches and existing brands.

As a very crude example, let us say that your doctor customer wants to be seen in the company of the top doctors of his specialty. If you offer a scientific platform to that customer where other top doctors are also present, the customer’s job is done and the brand for which you are doing this service becomes a Purpose Brand. I am sure that as effective marketers, you would have many similar examples from your experience.

We just need to find the purpose for a brand. Is it easy? Not at all. But the success that you get out of the exercise would be worth the effort.

Till next time… keep thinking and enriching pharma marketing