Orbit Chewing Gum : Its Working

Brand : Orbit
Company: Wrigley's
Agency: BBDO

Brand Count:229

Orbit is one of the world's largest selling chewing gum brand.In India, the brand shares the market leadership with Center Fresh brand.Orbit was launched in India in 2004. This was India's first Sugarfree chewing gum and together with Perfetti's Happydent, this brand has rejuvenated the chewing gum segment in India.
Orbit can be termed as a functional chewing gum. The brand when launched differentiated itself from the existing chewing gums with its "sugar free" property. Along with that, the brand had its USP of its ability to reduce the chances of tooth decay by 40%.... surprising isn't it?
According to the brand, its is clinically proven that by chewing orbit for 20 minutes after a meal can reduce the chances of tooth decay by 40%. This is done by stimulating saliva production.The brand is positioned as a functional gum which prevents tooth decay and its sugarfree feature makes it a healthy option.The brand uses rational advertising to promote this brand.

Within a short span of time, Wrigley's Orbit became a success in the market.Buoyed by the success, Orbit extended the brand with Orbit White which is a whitening chewing gum. Orbit white is pitted against Perfetti's Happydent. For Orbit White, the company adopted an entirely new marketing strategy. Unlike Orbit , Orbit White adopted the Absurdism concept in advertising to promote the brand. Absurdism is using bizarre concepts and hyperbole to promote the brand. According to a research conducted at Oklahoma University, Bizarre ads tend to increase the visibility of the brands. Also such messages acts as clutter- breakers in a highly competitive market. Now in Indian market, we can see lot of marketers coming out with bizarre ads like Happydent, Amaron etc.
For Orbit White, the ads use the protogonist Dr Bhatawdekar and the heroine is a cow. The ads are quite funny and outrageous. The brand uses the tagline "Its working". Although I have come across lot of people who dislike this commercials, I personally like it. The latest ad have even a jingle which says " Yellow Yellow Dirty Fellow, White White Orbit White". And one ad have Dr Bhatawdekar insisting " Orbit White is a must for Bachelor Mans and Bachelor Womans".

Watch The tvc's here: Orbit White

Globally the Orbit brand adopts the tagline "For a good clean feeling no matter what" in India, Orbit uses " for a healthy teeth and prevents tooth decay " as its main message.

The product category became popular with the kids initially with bubblegums promoted heavily using consumer promotions.The popularity of cricket also helped this category to become popular with the grownups too. With the television showing cricketers chewing gums while playing, the category soon become a hit with the youth. Slowly this product became a part of " being cool" accessory in the campuses.But Iam surprised to find no cricketers endorsing this products.

But chewing gum manufacturers are facing lot of issues in the market. The primary one being the hygiene issue regarding the disposal of the product. We know that after using this product, it has to be disposed and often careless disposal of gum can cause the issue of hygiene . The careless disposal of chewing gum has raised serious issues in other developed markets and even has caused a ban on chewing gum usage. In India too, most of the educational institutions ban the use of chewing gums in the campuses because of the careless disposal. Although most products advertise on their wrappers on method of disposal, seldom it is practiced by the users. In future also, this issue can cause some restrictions to the product usage in public places.The marketers have to think of ways to curb this problem since it can cause some serious regulatory obstacles in the future.

Source:agencyfaqs,businessline,dna