Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Vivel Di Wills : Beauty with Confidence

Brand : Vivel Di Wills
Company : ITC
Agency : Law & Kenneth


Brand Analysis Count : 313

Shortly after launching the up-market personal care brand - Fiama Di Wills, ITC has launched another personal care brand - Vivel Di Wills. Not only that, another two brands has been launched - Vivel and Superia in close succession .

Vivel Di Wills can be termed as a brand for the middle class and priced well below Fiama Di Wills . Vivel Di Wills has been launched even before the brand Fiama Di Wills settled in the market. In a way ITC is flooding the personal care market with its brands.

Vivel Di Wills - as the name suggests shares the term ' Di Wills ' with Fiama and Essenza. Vivel Di Wills comes in two variants : Sheer Radiance and Sheer Creme. Sheer Radiance contains Olive Oil while Creme variant contains Shea Butter.
What differentiates Vivel Di Wills is the ingredient branded Actipro-N which was developed by ITC R & D team. Actipro -N nourishes, protects and hydrates the skin thus enhancing the beauty of the skin.
Vivel Di Wills comes in an attractive carton package with some elegant color scheme. The brand is priced at Rs 16 for 75 gm cake.

Now comes the interesting part. When I was shopping, the attractive packing and display of Vivel Di Wills prompted me to take one ( for my wife ) . But when I reached the section for soaps, I was surprised to see another set of soaps with the brand name Vivel . This was confusing to me and I thought that it was a fake brand taking advantage of Vivel Di Wills. On closer examination, I was surprised to find that Vivel also belong to ITC. Then I checked the price and it was less that Vivel Di Wills. The packaging was ordinary and there was even a sales promotion offer attached with the soap ( Price off) .

So there are two brands Vivel Di Wills and Vivel priced differently and even the brand elements are different. News reports say that Vivel has four variants : Satin soft, Young Glow, Ayurvedic Essence, Sandal Sparkle.

So the natural question is about the logic of these two brands with similar brand names launched simultaneously. In a press release available in the ITC portal, the category head Sandeep Kaul mentions that they are going to use price and positioning difference to separate the brands Fiama and Vivel Di Wills since Fiama also launched a soap recently.

But the question is with Vivel Di Wills and Vivel. I am a little confused but a parallel can be drawn between Vivel Di Wills, Vivel , Lux and Lux International. Lux International is positioned as a premium soap while Lux is a mass market one. ITC may be adopting the same strategy. ITC is looking at two segments within the medium priced soap category and using a small price differential, it is tapping customers who can pay a little more for extra benefits ( Masstige brand). The campaign for Vivel Di Wills will indirectly draw customers ( Value conscious ) towards Vivel.

Vivel Di Wills is being promoted using TVC and the message is that the lady is so beautiful that the husband does not notice any other ladies. My initial impression about the soap is positive and I find the fragrance refreshing and new. The brand name Vivel Di Wills is urban and will definitely appeal the educated urban consumers . The brand also has its advantage interms of the ingredients. Indian consumers will be impressed by the ingredients like Olive Oil, Active Clay, Shea butter which gives this brand a unique healthy natural perception.

The idea behind these fast launches is to provide a complete range of soap brands to the Indian consumer. ITC knew that it is a late entrant to the market. Time is too short for phased launches. Hence the strategy is to offer a full portfolio at one go and then try to manage the differences.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:46 AM

    Oh stop it pl
    You only show advertisements on TV and your products are still not available in market...the Vivel products.....You think you can fool the public like this?
    You have a big name.....atleast this is not expected of you
    Stop cheating people

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was going through the TV ads of Vivel and Vivel di wills. Vivel uses Kareena Kapoor and Vivel Di Wills uses a regular model, making one wonder which the more premium one is. There is hardly any brand differentiation besides the variant and the price points. And to have seperate cmmercials for them is not only a waste of money but also confusing to the customer.

    I also feel the brand names need to be simplified for the soap market. Essenza di Wills sounds exotic for perfumes and high end products which is sold at their retail outlets. But am not sure if having such a long name in an already cluttered soap marketplace is a great idea. Also, the soaps should have the common name first... so the umbrella brand recognition is higher. Currently Fiama, Vivel seem like different companies. Maybe the approach could have been Wills - Vivel and Wills - Fiama or something like that!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. now it has wide range of products

      Delete
  3. Anonymous1:07 PM

    Who is that beautiful girl prompting her husband to come home to gave her a sweet hug? any one know her name?

    ReplyDelete

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