Monday, May 04, 2009

Fa : Feel Good Freshness

Brand : Fa
Company : Henkel
Agency : Mudra

Brand Analysis Count : 397

Fa is one of the largest deo brand in India. The brand is from the global giant Henkel. I was surprised to know that Fa is one of the largest selling body care brand in Europe.
Fa was launched in India in 2000. The brand has a portfolio of talcs ,deos,bodywash, soap etc. It is a personal care brand endorsing multiple products.

Fa is famous in India for its range of Deos. I used to buy their unique glass bottled roll on deos that comes in various fragrances like Aqua, Lemon etc.
Despite its legacy and its international pedigree, Fa has not got the kind of respect an international brand gets.That is why the brand is still a small brand in the personal care segment compared to the brands like Lux, Ponds etc.

Fa globally is positioned on Freshness. Its global tagline is " Feel Good Freshness".

Regarding the marketing practices of this brand in the Indian market , Fa was never an aggressive player in terms of promotion or brand building. I remember a couple of ads of this brand but no memorable promotional campaigns. How ever the brand was able to create a strong association with freshness which is a strength for this brand.

Watch an ad for Fa here : Pink or Black

Most of the ads of Fa was directly imported from its parent brand's database. The advantage of foreign ads is that it creates an international image . But the biggest disadvantage is that the local connect will be lost. Brands like AXE escaped this danger but Fa failed to create a connect with the Indian consumer.

Why Axe was successful because they were talking to a globally connected younger crowd. But Fa is talking to an older crowd who do not feel connected with the brand. That is why this brand is not able to reach its potential.
Understandably this brand operates on a limited budget. Hence one cannot equate the promotinoal activities of Fa with brands like Axe. But  I have a feeling that the brand undertakes sporadic promotional campaigns rather than an organized contonuous brand campaign. 
As a consumer, it has been a long while since I came across any campaign of Fa either in print or in visual media. Henkel is a global gaint and has the money power to drive reasonable brand promotion. 
Fa had a relaunch in 2004 when the company undertook a rationalization of its product portfolio . Fa was identified as a core brand and its ad spend increased. 
Fa fights with the best brands in one of the hottest segment in the Indian consumer market. It battles the gaints like P&G, HUL and the likes. Fa also has a rich heritage and international pedigree. What the brand needs is the WoW factor and a great campaign. Dove made it to the iconic league through a great campaign - campaign for real beauty.
Fa desperately needs a break-through campaign. Freshness platform is a very relevant positioning for the brand but the brand has to utilize this platform through some clutter breaking campaign. If the brand continues to import its international campaign and continues its unorganized /unfocused media spends, the brand will at best survive in its current position. 
Fa has some good products , what it needs is some breakthrough campaigns.

1 comment:

  1. as very rightly pointed out by you that Fa failed to have a connect with its target audience by the way of ads they have made or rather the international ads they have used, this reminds me of one other brand zandu balm which was market leader once and now the position is taken over by moov because zandu balm never changed it self with time. so in my views its quite important to have a connect with your target audieence and at the same time keeping pace with the changing time however i dont mean you should not stick to your corporate strategy rather what is mean is the ways to implement the corprate strategy can be updated

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