Thursday, March 13, 2008

Brand Update : Poppins

Poppins has launched a new campaign with a catchy slang " Doon Kya " . The new ad is aimed to create a viral ,anchoring the slang.
Poppins always had a irregular promotional strategy with short bursts of promotional investment. The latest being the campaign " Goli Rainbow Wali". According to agencyfaqs, the brands feel that it is alienated from the intended target market i.e 8-10 yr old.

In the new campaign , the brand give the message that Poppins has so many flavors that you will give it to everyone.

These days marketers are using catchy slogans to sustain the interest in the brand. Its not a new phenomenon and we know the catchy slogans of Pepsi , Coke ,Frooti etc but the difference here is that now marketers depend on local slang to catch the audience's attention.

The advantage of using a popular local slang ( usage) is that if successful, the slang can sustain the brand for a long time. The disadvantage is that in a country like India where we have different languages, local slangs cannot have a national appeal. For example in the Poppins' case, the usage " Doon Kya " is alien to South Indians and you maynot be able to find an appropriate local slang to substitute the original one.

The fact is that most of the time advertising agencies are not sensitive to the language diversity of our country . In my experience , I have seen many ads created by reputed advertising agencies being messed up by unprofessional dubbing. Even agencies does not bother to approach native dubbing artists for the ad. In most of the ads dubbed in my language - malayalam, the dubbing is done usually by a Tamilian and usually it sounds horrible.

For the Poppins ' Doon kya' also the kids in South Indian states may not be impressed with the idea. On the other hand, there is also a chance that these things catch up with the non-Hindi speaking customers but the odds are less.

Watch the Poppins ad here : Doon Kya


Related Brand
Poppins

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:17 PM

    reading this post actually made me things about the fate of so promoted brands in colloquial languages. Dilemma is if you use local language in ads, it does get hit with a community eg Cadbury has been doing (Kuch meetha ho jaye, rishte pakne do, Perk- baaki sab bhula de), mentos Dimag ki batti jala de. Then there is 2nd level, where product name itself is in local language like Perk Ulta etc. You have seen both the markets, what do you think on it?

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  2. @ HARISH SIR
    gr8 article...

    @ JAS ..
    in my opinion...its all about GLOCALIZATION...
    first of all..products r launched keeping in mind the demographics n local tastes...so the irregularities as such shudnt be much...
    PERK ULTA is an all india launch so..thts level 1...after tht comes level 2 which talks abt in india how do u advertise keeping in mind diff languages...
    I guess one way is localised packaging?altho its an expensive option...this works in some soaps n creams...they do it..
    beyond..they do it for the variants in smaller size...cuz of basic assumption...a person with bigger purchase power shudnt have probs with a ENGLISH print...

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