The Man Company prefers influencer marketing over performance marketing: Jatin Luthra

New Delhi: Four years ago, The Man Company made it to the headlines with the launch of the #GentleMenInYou campaign, where Ayushman Khurrana redefined the meaning of ‘Gentleman’ with a poignant poem against gender stereotyping. The brand hasn’t stopped there. 

Kickstarting the festive season, The Man Company launched its Rakhi campaign with the intention of adding a fun element to the conversations surrounding the festival. Deviating from conventional storytelling content pieces, the campaign features a rap song by Krantinaari, putting a fresh spin on sibling relationships. 

Spilling the beans on the campaign, Jatin Luthra, Head of Marketing at The Man Company, said, “Although emotional storytelling works well for Rakhi, nobody was talking about the fights or the banter between sisters and brothers in a fun way so we decided to add humour and creativity to this narrative and that’s how the rap format came into the picture.

To cut through the clutter, the campaign and to make it popular among sisters, we came up with small nuances in the lives of sisters when they deal with their brothers—the kind of behaviour, the kind of tonality that brothers have with their sisters, which is a mix of emotions, banter, and fights. We tried to capture these nuances together.”

Rakhi and rap, two juxtaposing elements stitched together in a video that has an all-female cast, gathered more than 35 million eyeballs. Here’s what Luthra had to say about the same: “Rakhi is an ethnic Indian festival and rap on the other side is Western and that's what clicked for us. What if we mix the two to create a fusion of the Western and the Indian worlds was the central theme behind the campaign, along with garnering a good recall.”

The question that remains is why a premium men’s grooming brand trying to woo female consumers. Shedding light on the subject, Luthra said, “There's a very deep insight behind it. Women are important influencers in men's lives; whether it's fashion, grooming, or the kind of perfume they use, men always turn towards their sisters, mothers, and fiancees for validation. 

Women are ten years more evolved than men when it comes to personal care so, from that perspective, we thought that it makes sense for women to promote men's products sending the message that the products are approved by women.”

Content to commerce is the new holy grail of marketing. Etching the importance of branded content in his marketing strategies, Luthra said, “In our marketing approach, content is our top priority. Our brand campaigns emphasise brand philosophy over product promotion. For instance, our initial Ayushmann Khurrana content served as a brand manifesto without any product mentions.

Through our content, we aim to educate consumers - sensitise them about skin concerns, share grooming tips with them, discuss men’s emotions, and break stereotypes about men and every aspect of men’s lifestyle as it helps us to be a lifestyle brand for men.”

Keeping a check on the latest trends the brand forayed into the domain of podcasts with The Gentleman Show’ covering multiple aspects of what modern-age Indian men want.

Luthra prefers influencer marketing over performance marketing to stir organic demand. From the horse’s lips itself, “If we want to generate organic demand for a new product, we spend more on influencers such that it leads organic word-of-mouth marketing.

Close to 15% of our spending goes into influencer marketing and we prefer to work with category A and B influencers. We do not go down the path of nano and micro-influencers because it's very execution-heavy and there is no clear tracking mechanism of whether it is working or not. Thirdly, it affects the quality of content that we get.”

However, amidst growing mistrust in influencer-created content, Luthra focuses on the personal stories of influencers to bring authenticity to their partnerships with content creators.

“Considering that nowadays everyone wants to be an influencer and as consumers are becoming more aware of paid partnerships, the trust is declining. The only way we can still tackle that problem is through doing custom content with creators. 

In Ayushmann Khurrana, we found a self-made achiever—a multi-talented VJ, RJ, and Bollywood star. We aimed for The Man Company (TMC) to mirror this journey: a head-to-toe grooming brand with aligned values, appealing to our audience as achievers. ,” Luthra resolved.

Treating every partnership with an influencer as a campaign itself, Luthra pays special attention to the creator’s career choices. The followership and engagement take a backseat.

Explaining his stance, Luthra quoted, “Adding another layer of filtration, we look at the kind of projects, specifically the professional projects the celebrity has done in the past or also plans to do in the next one or two years, because if they sign a controversial project that is not aligned with the larger population, then the brand also takes the toll for it. More often than not, we are not able to control it but still, we take a stab.”

Speaking of post-campaign analysis to measure the success of branded content beyond traditional metrics like views and likes, the marketers at The Man Company look at the conversations they are able to drive from the branded content. 

“Are people coming back to our handles and sharing their thoughts about the campaign? Is the content shareable? Are people sharing it with their friends and family/on different WhatsApp groups etc.? These metrics are equally important with absolute numbers of views and engagement,” said Luthra winding up the interaction.