Thursday, February 19, 2009

Tamariind : RIP ( 2001-2002)

Brand : Tamariind
Company : Skumar's
Agency : Percept

Brand Analysis Count : 380


Tamariind was a brand which died inside the TV Tube. This much hyped brand had only one year of existence in the Indian market.

Tamariind was the readymade brand from the textile major S Kumar's Ltd. The company wanted to tap the emerging readymade segment . Tamariind was targeting the middle and upper-middle class segment.

Tamariind had a dream launch. The brand had roped in Hrithik Roahan who was at that time was a phenomenon. I think Tamariind was one of the first textile brands to take him as the brand ambassador.

Riding on the pulling power of Hrithik Roshan, Tamariind had a huge brand recall during the launch. Infact the ads were so effective that large retail chains were stocking this brand within a few days of launch.

How ever, the euphoria did not last long . For some strange reasons, the brand was dead in no time. In 2002, the brand was out of the retail shelves.

Tamariind was positioned as a fashion wear. The clothes were designed by the famed London based designer John Paul Vivian. The brand had the tagline " The Flavour You Wear ". The brand was designed to be a fun,fashionable trendy brand.
Tamariind was also brought in the concept of Total Wardrobe Solutions by providing all type of clothing to the target consumer.


Initially the company planned to use the brand name Cinnamon for its readymade venture. But a retail chain having the same brand name moved to court and restrained SKumars from using Cinnamon. That caused the company to come up with the new brand name -Tamariind.

So here is a brand which had a trendy name, a big star, an international designer and a reputed company ...... and how come such a brand fail that too so fast ?
I personally think that three major factors was the cause of this brand's failure.
Price and
Distribution and
Differentiation.

Price was the critical issue in this case. Tamariind was steeply priced and this repelled many potential customers . Those who bought the brand could not be convinced about the quality which did not justify the steep price.

The brand also tried to focus more on exclusive outlets which again severely restricted its reach among the audience.

Tamariind spend around Rs 12 crore on the launch promotions but could not sustain or convert the initial hype into sales. The brand ambassador Hrithik also faced so many flops after the initial success which inturn affected the brand negatively.

Other than the brand ambassador, Tamariind has nothing to talk about. The product did not have a meaningful differentiation that could justify its high price. When a brand is aiming at the premium class, the product should have some meaningful qualities that will justify the premium. A mere presence of a celebrity will not create a sustainable value for the product .

Print ad source : afaqs
PS : Tamariind brand has two "i" s and is not a spelling mistake.

2 comments:

  1. I love when I have the opportunity to read blogs as interesting as this. really thanks and congratulations. is of great concern to me about Tamariind : RIP ( 2001-2002) your topic

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  2. You nailed the issues with this brand sir. Actually i remember the TVC's were simply superb. The product failed on distribution front and also on the price and the variety since i recall, they had very limited range to offer in terms of latest trends. S Kumars lost out a brilliant oppurtunity since after the failure of this brand lot of competitors lik Allen Solly, John Players, Van Huesen, Wills etc have cashed on the premium menswear market

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