Saturday, November 14, 2009

White Ice : Play It Cool

Brand : White Ice
Company : Midas Care Pharmaceuticals.

Brand Analysis Count : 428

The list of deo brands that promises raving girlfriends is endless. We have one more to add to the list - White Ice brand of deos.Like any other brand in this category, White Ice also promises men of girls falling for them and attaining the " Nasal Nirvana".

Frankly I am at loss. Either it is true that girls do get easily seduced by the deo fragrances or men believe that deos work magic with girls. Either way, brands that take on this most "raped" theme of " girls chasing guys" are increasing day by day.

When I wrote a critical post on Denver (another deo with same positioning) , a reader pointed out that the sale of Denver increased many fold after their campaign. In that case , I assume thatthe number of frustrated Indian men is increasing at an alarming rate.

White Ice is a brand from Midas Care pharmaceuticals. Midas Care is a company that specializes on aerosol products and is famous for brands like Climax and Relispray.

White Ice is running a TVC in most of the channels highlighting its positioning as the ultimate women attractor ...

Watch the TVC here : White Ice

The brand joins the bandwagon of Axe, Denver,Setwet and Wildstone in harping on the same promise . I wonder whether there is any relevance in the concept of differentiation ???

It may be true that when a brand advertises, there is going to be a visible spike in the sales. But this may not be sustainable over time if brands doesn't care to differentiate. For example , a consumer may try out this brand after seeing the ad, but if the brand wants him to come back, it should create a distinct place in the consumer's mind. A marketer will not be able to spend huge amount of money in advertising to keep the high brand recall. A highly differentiated brand enable to reduce the advertising expenses over a period of time.

White Ice adopts the tagline " Play it Cool" which is the same tagline of John Players. I wonder if the ad agency ever bothered to check the tagline before making it public.

Most of the challenger brands fail in realizing the importance of investing in the long term. They are happy with the immediate spike in the sales and profits. Brand building can be possible only if the brandowners realize the need for proper differentiation. The more time they spent in identifying or creating differentiation, more sustainable the brand will be.

Bigger is the problem for Axe deo. Its famous and once unique positioning platform is now killed many times. It cannot wish that when other brands use the same positioning, Axe benefits. More than the new entrants, Axe is in a dangerous position and desperately needs to reinvent itself. It will be interesting to see how HUL takes on this ultimate positioning challenge.

8 comments:

  1. as long as it smells good,keep on spays.. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:34 AM

    I personally feel that brands in this category are too scared to try out a new communication strategy.They are happy to maintain POP's and not adventurous enough for POD's.
    Lets see which brand can break the ice and try something new.
    I get a feeling it would be HLL!!!

    Sunu Nair

    ReplyDelete
  3. I believe the only deodorant which has done the clutter-breaking in the market is the Cinthol Deo. They employed Hrithik Roshan to portray masculinity and adrenaline instead of the oft-repeated girls chasing boys theme.
    How successful this strategy is for them, is not really clear to me. I don't see ppl racing for Cinthol yet..

    Sushant Bahadur

    ReplyDelete
  4. we did an market research for deos in the ncr amongst the tg of male 20-25 to test the recall of the tvc of wildstone axe denver cinthol and setwet. one of the inference was that the respondents recognize the ads but not the brand the only product with high recall was axe and even in that case people recalled chocolate more than axe..

    ReplyDelete
  5. when you analyze indian deo market as of know, you will find almost every indian players fighting on the similar concept with similar media campaigning,and a customer dont know who is the manufacturer, even he is even bother about it...but for Midas-Care, White Ice is extreme important, the company manufacture most of the deodorant in India......just find out...

    Deepak Narang

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous2:13 AM

    I've already cracked a fresh, game-changer strategy and idea for this category.

    Am willing to share it, if anyone needs it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. sahib8:41 PM

    hey..please do share your thoughts about this Fresh game changer strategy. It'd be very interesting for us students of marketing and a great learning experience.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Rahul Chowdhury8:48 AM

    Absolutely agree with confundus. In this category because of the clutter in terms of variants/products and in terms of communication, one does not recall many more Ad campaigns of Male Deos other than Axe and Cinthol.In the consumer's mind all the other deos appear to be a similar bunch like Wildstone, Zatak etc.
    I don't think Axe has an immediate threat from these local brands. For me the threat is more in distribution. I feel Axe is desperately trying to isolate itself from the clutter of brands around it in the market.Axe being the first one in this category will always have the first mover's advantage till he does something stupid. He needs to create a story about himself. Also needs to work on his product. I feel the Axe TG's are particular teens.Good to target them when they are young but you need to start building a profile which caters to the 25-30 age group also.

    ReplyDelete

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