Monday, January 07, 2008

Brand Update : Parachute

In December 2007, Marico entered the kid's personal care market with the launch of a sub-brand " Parachute Advansed Starz" . Marico believe in extending its brands to new categories. It has done that for entering Men's haircare market by launching Parachute Aftershower . But once these new brands reach a position of awareness and recall, the sub-brands take up the position of a primary brand. Now Aftershower has an independent existence from Parachute.

By launching Starz, Parachute is entering the Rs 2000 crore shampoo market which is dominated by HUL brands. Parachute AdvansedStarz is not restricted to shampoos but positioned as a haircare brand that offers different haircare solutions.

Currently the brand offers
Shampoo
Hair Oil and
Hair Gel.
The brand is taking on a demographic segmentation and is targeting the kids of age group 4-12 Yrs. The Indian shampoo market has not seen a brand focusing specifically on this segment.

Clinic All Clear is a brand that has targeted this segment but the brand is also used by adults.Clinic All Clear has used campaigns to target both adults and kids. For example the Chulbulli campaign is targeting Kids but the Bipasha + John campaign targets the adults. The product is the same. The new brand of Marico is different because it is designed especially for kids.The product, the packaging and the promotions are directly targeting the kids.
Parachute Advansed Starz comes in attractive Pink bottles and features cartoon characters. The brand takes up the tagline " Gentle care for young hair " . Starz takes strength from Parachute and relies on the goodness of coconut to differentiate. The brand also claims advantage of Vitamins , Proteins and Strawberry. The brand essentially takes up Nourishment as the main brand benefit.

has used two "cool" characters whose names are not yet publicized. If properly used , these characters can become powerful brand ambassadors.They look smart enough to appeal to the younger ones. I liked Starz because it shows the use of brand elements to the fullest. Starz. ( infact they remind me of Archies comic characters ). The brand is priced Rs 54 for 100 ml for the shampoo.

Marico intends to develop a new category of specialized hair care solutions for the kids aged 5-10 and even the tweens. This is the age where kids develop lot of hair related problems because of their active & careless lifestyle. So far, Mothers used their own brand of shampoos or may have used Johnson's shampoo for this age group. The success of Starz may seen a new category opening up for marketers.

The question that comes to my minds is whether there is a need for a kids-only haircare products ? The answer lies in the increased exposure of kids towards brands. The new NUF ( Nuclear Urban Family ) structure gives marketer an opportunity to target these segments. The success of Starz will depend on how Marico motivates the younger ones to pester their mothers to buying these products and also on how the brand captures the trust of the mothers. The first task is difficult because mothers are already convinced about Parachute.

Parachute has done a smart work is positioning the brand as a haircare brand and not limiting itself to shampoos of hair oil. This gives more leverage and flexibility to the brand from the start itself.

Related Brand
Parachute

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:11 AM

    Hi

    Chulibooli campaign
    (hope u r talking about the animation film)campaign is for clinic plus and not for clinic All clear as far i know...will check as well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous1:45 PM

    Clinic All Clear is targeted towards people having dandruff problems whereas clinic plus is targeted for daily use rather than kids so here the point made is right that there is no shampoo targeting kids as such...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi, Here is a solution for removing dandruff...
    How to Shampoo your Hair Effectively?

    ReplyDelete

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