When Regulators Give You a Brand Constraint

An interesting advertisement from Ujjivan Small Finance Bank featuring R. Madhavan caught my attention. The headline asks, “‘Small’ Finance Bank. Really?” and the campaign declares, “Nothing Small About Us.”There is an interesting branding dilemma here, one that was perhaps unintentionally created by the regulator itself.

When the RBI introduced Small Finance Banks, the objective was to promote financial inclusion by serving underserved customers, small businesses, marginal farmers and others who had limited access to formal banking. The word 'small' was essentially about the segments these banks were expected to serve, not necessarily the size or ambitions of the banks themselves. But consumers don't always interpret regulatory terminology the way regulators intend.

For an ordinary customer, a Small Finance Bank could easily mean a small bank with limited branches, products, resources or capabilities. An unintended perceptual disadvantage built into the category name!

The problem becomes more interesting as these banks grow. They compete for customers with established banking giants, whose ability to serve smaller customers is not similarly restricted. Yet the smaller challenger carries a label that could make it appear less capable.

Ujjivan has decided to confront this perception head-on. With R. Madhavan as its brand ambassador, it is highlighting its one crore-plus customers, 800-plus branches and presence across 26 states and Union Territories to communicate that there is nothing small about the bank.

But is this the best positioning strategy? One option would have been to ignore the word 'small' and promote its wide range of banking products, convenience and customer experience. Another would be to embrace the Small Finance Bank identity and build a distinctive position around accessibility and financial inclusion.

Ujjivan has chosen a third route: challenge the meaning of the very category to which it belongs.

From a marketing communication perspective, this raises an interesting question. When you repeatedly draw attention to a potentially negative association in order to correct it, are you weakening that association or inadvertently reinforcing it?

Of course, Ujjivan's campaign is based on customer insights, and there is merit in directly addressing an existing misconception. But once that misconception has been challenged, the brand still needs to establish what it wants to stand for.

Perhaps that is the larger branding dilemma.

When your category name itself becomes a positioning constraint, do you fight the category, redefine its meaning, or build a distinctive identity within it

Ujjivan has made its choice. It will be interesting to see whether other Small Finance Banks follow.

#BrandStrategy #Positioning #Banking #SmallFinanceBanks #UjjivanSmallFinanceBank #MarketingStrategy #BrandPerception #FinancialInclusion

When the market leader creates an opening for competition

I recently came across a news report about Swiggy and Zomato facing competition from smaller players offering restaurants lower or even zero commissions, potentially translating into lower prices for customers.

It made me think about a question that has bothered me for some time: why should a market leader, after spending enormous resources creating a market and building customer habits, leave a price umbrella large enough for competitors to enter underneath?

My own experience with Gillette is a small example. I have been a die-hard user of Mach3 Sensitive for years and had very little reason to experiment with anything else. But cartridge prices have steadily moved upwards and are now around ₹200 or more depending on the pack and where you buy it.

It is not that I cannot afford it. Somewhere, the price simply started feeling too high for what I was buying, and that did something interesting.

Gillette's competitors did not persuade me to try them. Gillette's pricing did.

For the first time in years, I started looking at Bombay Shaving Company and LetsShave. Whether they satisfy me enough to switch is another question, but Gillette itself provided the nudge to search.

I see something similar happening with Swiggy, which is again my go-to food delivery platform. As the total cost of ordering has increased, I haven't abandoned Swiggy, but I order less frequently, compare alternatives more often and occasionally check whether ordering directly from the restaurant makes better sense.

Interestingly, Swiggy's response makes the story even more fascinating. It has launched Toing as a separate value-focused app, advertising prices around 30% lower. Strategically, it makes sense to defend the value segment without disturbing the economics of the core platform.

But it raises an uncomfortable question: did the economics of the original platform itself create the space that now needs defending?

Premium pricing backed by strong brand equity is perfectly legitimate. But there must be a point at which monetising loyalty starts weakening the very loyalty that made the premium possible. Once a loyal customer who was not even considering alternatives starts searching, the competitive game has already changed.

Perhaps that is one of the peculiar risks of market leadership: in trying to monetise the market you created, you may inadvertently create the opportunity for the competitor who comes after you.

#MarketingStrategy #PricingStrategy #BrandLoyalty #CompetitiveStrategy #ConsumerBehavior #Swiggy #Zomato #Gillette #BrandStrategy

Melody : When Moment Marketing Meets Co-branding

The gifting of Melody chocolates by PM Modi to Italian PM Giorgia Meloni gave a decades-old candy brand something every marketer dreams of—organic, nationwide attention. Social media amplified the conversation, celebrities joined in, and suddenly Melody was back in popular culture.

What happened next was even more remarkable.

Instead of launching a series of brand extensions or spending heavily on follow-up campaigns, Parle chose a different route. It partnered with Vadilal to launch a co-branded Melody Ice Cream, converting a viral moment into a licensing opportunity. From a marketing perspective, this is a fascinating move. The product works because Melody already has strong associations with chocolate and caramel, making the transition to an ice cream flavour feel intuitive. Rather than creating a new flavour proposition, Vadilal borrows Melody's existing equity while Parle monetises its brand without entering an entirely new category. What is even more intriguing is what Parle did not do.

Most marketers would have attempted to milk the viral success with expensive campaigns, multiple brand extensions and aggressive communication. Parle, instead, acknowledged the phenomenon with a simple "Thank You" advertisement and largely stayed away from overexploitation. That restraint is unusual in today's marketing environment, where marketers stretch every viral moment to its limit.

Whether this strategy proves more effective than an aggressive brand rejuvenation campaign remains to be seen. The Vadilal partnership may simply be a low-risk way of testing whether Melody's renewed recall can travel beyond confectionery into adjacent categories.

Time will tell whether the viral moment becomes a long-term brand asset or remains a short-lived cultural phenomenon. But the Melody-Vadilal collaboration is an excellent example of how moment marketing can evolve into co-branding through strategic licensing rather than conventional advertising.

The Curious Case of Aryaas, Anand Bhavan and Saravana Bhavan

Travel anywhere across Kerala and you are likely to come across restaurants carrying familiar names such as Aryaas, Arya Bhavan, Anand Bhavan and Saravana Bhavan. To an outsider, it almost looks like one large family of brands spread across the state. Yet every regular customer knows that these restaurants are usually unrelated businesses with different owners, different managements and often very different standards.

What fascinates me is that despite knowing this, many of us still experience a certain level of comfort when we encounter these names. The moment we see "Aryaas" or "Anand Bhavan", we instinctively expect reasonably good South Indian vegetarian food. We know there is no common ownership, yet the names themselves seem to act as a signal of trust.

Interestingly, this phenomenon differs from names such as Udupi or Punjabi Dhaba. In those cases, the trust originates from a geographical cue. Udupi points to a place and Punjabi Dhaba points to a region and its food culture. Aryaas, Anand Bhavan and Saravana Bhavan, however, do not carry a geographical tag. Yet they seem to communicate a similar promise of authentic South Indian vegetarian food, familiarity and hygiene. The equity appears to come not from geography, but from decades of collective association built around these names.

Part of this may be explained by the pedigree associated with Tamil vegetarian restaurants. Over decades, successful brands such as Saravana Bhavan and countless smaller establishments have built a strong association between these names and quality South Indian cuisine. The reputation of Tamil cooks and restaurateurs in this category has probably contributed to the equity as well.

What is interesting from a branding perspective is that the trust often transfers even when there is no formal relationship between the businesses. Entrepreneurs have benefited from this collective equity, but there is also a downside. When too many businesses use similar names and visual identities, the names themselves begin to lose distinctiveness and gradually move towards commoditization.

Perhaps that is why we increasingly see modifiers such as Sree Aryaas, Aryaas Grand, Aryaas Park, New Anand Bhavan and numerous other variations. The businesses are trying to enjoy the familiarity of the original cue while simultaneously differentiating themselves from everyone else doing the same thing.

It is a fascinating example of how brand equity can sometimes exist not at the level of an individual brand, but at the level of a category. The question is whether this shared pool of trust ultimately strengthens all the players involved or slowly erodes the distinctiveness that created the trust in the first place.

I would be curious to know whether others have noticed similar examples in other categories.

Marketing Practice : When Packaging Triggers Purchase

I was pleasantly surprised to see this new bottle design from Milma — Kerala’s homegrown dairy brand, often seen as the state’s equivalent of Amul.

Milma has been part of Kerala households for decades and enjoys strong trust and market pull in the state’s dairy market. Which is why this small incident caught my attention.

My better half bought this bottle milk primarily because of the packaging. And interestingly, after using it, she said she would buy it again. Also not to forget that the bottle commands a premium compared to the traditional plastic milk pouch.

A small but telling reminder of how packaging can influence consumer behavior.

Milma had recently gone through a rebranding exercise, and this bottle reflects a far more contemporary design language. The use of white space, the calming blue palette, the careful use of transparency blending naturally with the milk, and the clean typography together create a premium yet familiar feel.

And then comes the interesting little detail on the pack — “Cow Milk".

Technically correct perhaps, but grammatically it feels slightly amusing. Somehow, its simplicity makes the otherwise polished packaging feel even more rooted and local.

What makes this even more interesting is that while the packaging may have triggered the trial purchase, decades of accumulated trust probably helped reinforce repeat intent. That is often the advantage legacy brands enjoy when they modernize thoughtfully without losing their core familiarity.

Happy to see even traditional dairy brands increasingly recognizing packaging not merely as a container, but as a silent salesman.

Brand Update : Taste the Thunder is Back in Style

 Thums Up seems to be back with a bang this season.

The brand has launched a new music-led branded content piece featuring Hanumankind, Vishal Dadlani, and Sushin Shyam, and it feels like a powerful return to what Thums Up has always stood for: josh, intensity, and attitude.

For a brand like Thums Up, the challenge is not awareness. The challenge is keeping the brand’s energy alive in a market where cola advertising has increasingly become celebrity-heavy and visually glossy. Over the last few years, Thums Up’s communication often felt like it was leaning more on star power than on the brand’s raw personality.

The brand’s classic positioning space has always been clear. “Taste the Thunder” is not just a tagline—it is a brand identity. It signals boldness, masculinity, high energy, and a slightly rebellious spirit. Thums Up has historically owned this space better than any other cola in India.

However, in recent years, while the brand continued to use the language of adrenaline and thunder, the execution often felt diluted. The communication became more celebrity-driven, and the brand personality sometimes took a backseat.

The current campaign feels like a correction.

What works well is that the branded content is not trying to be “safe.” It is high-voltage, loud, youthful, and confident. The artists chosen also fit the mood. Hanumankind brings contemporary edge, Vishal Dadlani brings vocal power and familiarity, and Sushin Shyam brings the modern sound texture. Together, they create a piece of content that feels culturally relevant while staying rooted in the brand’s original DNA.

This is also a good example of how branded content can be more effective than conventional advertising when done right. Instead of forcing a 30-second message, the brand becomes part of a cultural experience. It creates recall not through repetition, but through vibe.

For long-time Thums Up fans, this campaign feels like a relief. It reminds us that strong brands do not need to borrow relevance—they only need to rediscover their own core.

Taste the Thunder.

Brand Update : “Eat 5 Star Do Nothing” and the Power of a Consistent Brand Theme

Cadbury Five Star has used its latest brand theme, “Eat 5 Star, Do Nothing”, to the hilt. This Valentine’s season, the brand has launched a new campaign that celebrates Valentine’s Day by doing nothing — and it has built a topical story around that idea with impressive consistency.

Valentine’s Day advertising is usually predictable. Brands flood the market with romance, gifting cues, emotional storytelling, and aspirational couples. In such a cluttered environment, the biggest challenge is not creativity — it is differentiation. Five Star manages to cut through this clutter by taking a contrarian route. Instead of joining the celebration, it mocks the pressure around the celebration.

The ad builds the hype effectively and delivers the punch with precision. It is topical, entertaining, and at the same time, completely aligned with the brand’s core personality. The brand is not “trying” to be relevant. It is simply extending its existing worldview into a seasonal context. This is where the campaign becomes a strong case study in branding. The most interesting aspect is not Valentine’s execution, but the power of a consistent brand platform. When a brand theme is strong and repeatedly reinforced, it becomes more than a tagline. It becomes a storytelling engine. It creates a familiar mental frame in the consumer’s mind, and every new campaign becomes easier to process, enjoy, and remember.

In Five Star’s case, “Do Nothing” is not just a line. It is a brand attitude — a cultural commentary on how modern life is overloaded with expectations. Such an approach makes the theme highly extensible. Whether it is exams, office stress, social pressure, or now Valentine’s Day, the brand can use the same platform to create new stories without reinventing itself every time.

This trend also highlights a key shift in advertising effectiveness. In a world of short attention spans and content overload, consistency often beats novelty. Brands that keep changing their positioning may win applause for individual ads, but they lose the compounding effect of long-term brand memory.

Five Star’s Valentine’s campaign is a good reminder that when a brand owns a strong theme, topical marketing becomes easier, sharper, and more impactful.

Stanley Tools : Work Faster

Corporate Brand : Stanley

Brand Analysis Count : 626 

The Indian hand tools market is a highly fragmented market with a market size of over $850 mn (6800 crore). The challenge in doing business in a fragmented market is the price-based competition. With many local players in the market, selling at a premium becomes a challenge, especially in a diverse, large market like India.

It is in this context that a brand like Stanley becomes intriguing. Stanley is a USA-based brand which has had a rich legacy since 1843. The company was founded by Frederick Stanley in Connecticut as a bolt and doorware company. From there, the company has grown to become a reputed player in the tools business. The company had a formal corporate presence in India from 1993. In 2010, the company merged with Black & Decker to become a major player in the Indian market. 

The tools and other related products that come in the B2B segment are basically used by professional plumbers and contractors. The interesting thing is that the growing popularity of DIY culture has opened a significant market for such products in India. Brands like Stanley will be able to reap the benefits of such an emerging trend. It is in this context that creating a brand becomes important. Stanley by design has created a brand based on the power of brand elements. The brand has been very wise in incorporating the brand element of colour in all products and packaging, thus creating a very prominent brand visual effect. The brand has a colour combination of yellow and black, which is itself very contrasting and visually striking. The brand has used these colours in the handles and all possible places in the product itself, along with the usual packaging. The combination gives a striking effect when the customer glances through the options. The power of brand elements has not got much attention in the branding sphere; the examples are plenty, but seldom do we see brands making the maximum use of colour combinations to create that stickiness in the mind of the consumer. 

Stanley as a brand is positioned as a brand that helps make work faster, and it does what it promises. The brand, with its history and focus on quality products, is well on its way to reaping the benefits of the emerging DIY culture in the times to come.

Maruti Suzuki and the Line Filling Strategy – Locking Customers Within the Brand

Maruti recently launched a new SUV - Victoris at a price starting from Rs 10.5 -20 lakhs, at the same time, it's bestselling brand Grand Vitara starts with the same price range. When I was watching the Victoris review, a famous autojournalist commented- why would Maruti Suzuki launch a new product at the same price range of its own product with the risk of cannibalization. In marketing theory, this is called line filling strategy where the company deliberately launch products within the same range of existing products. 

This risky strategy has its own advantages. The major advantage is that the brand is able to give a complete array of products across the price ranges and variants which often prevents the customers from going to another competitor. The brand by launching products with so much similarity is offering a wide range of options thus locking the consumer to the brand. If a consumer doesn't like a model in a price range, the brand thus offers another model within the same range. Often this is seen in FMCG, cosmetics etc where consumers search for variety, Maruti Suzuki has perfected it in the automotive segment. 

While other automotive companies cannot copy this strategy because there are a lot of consumers in India which when thinks about buying a car, thinks first about Maruti and then its options. The brand doesn't want these customers to move out of the brand. Further this heavy list of brands and variants acts as a powerful deterrence against the competitors eliminating any gap for them to enter. Having said that Maruti too had the gap in the SUV segment which was capitalized by Mahindra and Tata Motors. In the EV segment also the market leader was trumped by Tata Motors. But once the company finds a platform, it fills the models to prevent customer switching.

Maruti’s strategy of line filling may look risky on paper, but it works because of its brand gravity—Indians still think ‘Maruti first’ when buying a car. By flooding price bands with options, the company prevents leakage to rivals and maintains dominance. The real test will be whether Maruti can apply this same formula to the fast-growing EV market, where it has already ceded ground to Tata Motors. If history is a guide, once Maruti finds a viable EV platform, it will quickly fill every gap to keep customers locked within its brand orbit.

Brand Update : Vim Expands from Dishwashing to Floor Cleaning

 This has to happen and it happened, after ruling the dishwashing category with around 50% market share, Vim has extended to floor cleaning segment with the launch of Vim Ultra Pro cleaning liquid. Typical to HUL style, the brand has a " technology " to back the positioning based on effectiveness. Earler, marketing academics and practitioners were very cautious in product-line and category extensions. there were many critical academic articles ( even in HBR) on the risks of product extensions. However things have changed, market has become fragmented and competitive and brand managers doesn't have time and patience to build and sustain new brands.

 So it make sense to squeeze the juice out of popular brands and make the most of it in related and sometime unrelated categories. So it makes sense for HUL to use Vim - a brand with terrific equity to a familiar category - floor cleaning. What is surprising is that Vim has not used the ' lemon' based association in the new extension. Rather it chose to use " ultra pro" something it have borrowed from mobile phone ( iPhone) branding - ultra pro, can we expect ultra pro max later ?? The brand extension has lot of promises like cleaning power, fragrance, germ killing but the basic positioning is the cleaning power because that is what customer wants. The brand is entering to a segment which have brands like Lizol, Harpic, Nimyle and whole lot of small brands. But the strength of Vim is definitely going to help in customer trails and rest is all about brand's performance.

The entry of Vim into floor cleaning is more than just another extension—it signals HUL’s intent to transform Vim into a broader home-cleaning masterbrand. With the right mix of equity transfer, consumer trust, and product performance, Vim Ultra Pro could challenge entrenched players like Lizol and Harpic, and reshape the dynamics of India’s ₹8,000 crore floor cleaning market.

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Gala Cleaning Products – Innovation as the Brand’s Key Differentiator

 Brand: Gala

Company: Freudenberg Gala Household Products (FGHP).

Brand Analysis Count: 625

Gala is an interesting brand in a market that rarely gets glamour – household cleaning products. Created in 1982 as an exporting firm, Gala transformed itself into a ₹500 crore brand through relentless innovation and a strong customer focus. In 2009, it entered a joint venture with Freudenberg Home and Cleaning Solutions (FHCS), forming Freudenberg Gala Household Products (FGHP)—a partnership that brought global design expertise and Indian market understanding together.

I first came across Gala through its pioneering No Dust Broom. Traditional Indian brooms suffered from "bhusa"—loose dust and debris that made sweeping inefficient. In 2014, Gala addressed this pain point head-on with its No Dust Broom, eliminating “bhusa” from day one. This single innovation paved the way for Gala's entry into Indian households, positioning it as a brand that actively listens to its customers and addresses genuine issues.

The FHCS partnership further expanded Gala’s innovation pipeline, leading to products like spinning mops, easy-twist mops, and ergonomically designed toilet brushes. With premium product design, a strong retail presence, and an international appeal, Gala has built brand equity that prompts many online users to wonder whether it’s an Indian brand. I became a Gala customer not because of advertising, but because of the brand’s ability to solve problems and its omnipresence across retail and online touchpoints.

Looking ahead, Gala is well-placed to lead the Indian cleaning tools market into its next growth phase. With increasing urbanisation, hygiene awareness, and global aspirations, the brand can expand to include eco-friendly materials, smart cleaning tools, and export-led growth. If it continues to innovate while keeping its customer-first philosophy, Gala can dominate the Indian market and become a global name in household cleaning solutions.

Marketing Practice : Smell as a Brand Element

Crayola has taken a significant step in branding by trademarking the iconic smell of its crayons, a scent deeply associated with childhood memories. This move highlights the growing importance of sensory elements in brand identity, showcasing how companies are now leveraging unique, non-visual brand elements to create emotional connections with consumers. The "Crayola smell" is not just a fragrance; it's a powerful reminder of creativity and nostalgia. As brands continue to innovate, integrating sensory trademarks could be a game-changing strategy for deepening customer loyalty and differentiation in the market.

#Branding #SensoryMarketing #Trademark #CustomerExperience #Innovation

Brand Update : 7Up is riding on celebrity this summer

 7Up this summer has a strategy focused on celebrity influence. A brand which is lagging behind in terms of market share has been on a confused path all along. Launched in 1992, the brand followed the international template of importing its brand mascot- Fido Dido. It was a refreshing campaign during those times and Fido Dido looked uber-cool. However, the brand struggled in the market fighting the likes of Sprite which now has over 20% market share while 7 Up is below 5%. The brand discontinued using Fido Dido for a long period and around 4 years back, it bought back the character. However, the mascot struggled to fit into the Indian context with its Western looks. 

This summer, the brand went into a hyper-promotion mode fueled by celebrity endorsement. First came Rashmika Mandanna, then Anirudh and now Ranbir Kapoor. The brand also tuned its positioning based on freshness. The brand now has the positioning statement of Super Duper Refresher in the campaigns. 

The repositioning started with Rashmika Mandanna featured advertisements. The brand cleverly used the celebrity ambassador's young vibes and communicated the positioning using very- smart mnemonics. To convey the refreshing benefit, the brand used the mnemonic of a blob of water bursting over the celebrity. With Rashmika Mandanna's expressions added more punch to the brand's promise.

The campaign was followed by another featuring the current music sensation Anirudh Ravichander with Rashmika along the same theme.

The brand further pushed the envelope by roping in Ranbir Kapoor for the pan-Indian appeal. 

The brand has done everything right in terms of positioning and execution. The scorching summer of 2024 will add more fuel to most of the soft-drink players in India. By the campaign scale and execution, I think that 7Up has been able to get its promotional strategy right. The positioning on the basic platform of Refreshing benefit coupled with the use of mnemonics and celebrity is a good recipe for success although very expensive to sustain.

Marketing Practice : FMCG Giants to Leverage Elections Through Small Packs

 An interesting article in ET sheds light on how FMCG giants like Parle and Dabur are trying to leverage the election season by launching small pack items like Rs 5 and Rs 10 sachets of snacks, biscuits and beverages. Already, the players are witnessing an uptick in the sales of small packs. The surge is due to the large number of election rallies expected to take place in this election season. 

Dabur is also upscaling the distribution of pocket-sized packages of beverages, hair oils and shampoos to take advantage of the season. Another player Balaji Foods is also gearing up the production expecting a hike in demand for its snacks. According to the report, this trend is backed by the expectation that there will be a 6-8% increase in the sales of these small-pack items mirroring last season's data. The logic is that the election rallies lead to large, captive audiences which create a heightened demand for quick, on-the-spot refreshments. Either these purchases are individually bought or sponsored by the political party. This trend of marketers taking advantage of such large events is not new and we have seen how brands have taken advantage of mass events like Kumbh Mela in the past.

Brand Update : Nestle Munch Extends to Breakfast Cereals

 In an interesting move, Nestle has extended its chocolate wafer brand Munch into breakfast cereals. The Nestle Munch breakfast cereals were launched in June 2023. Theoretically, this move is brand extension into unrelated categories. While the breakfast cereals from Munch retain the chocolate flavour and the crispy nature of wafers, it is a big jump from wafers to cereals. 

Indian breakfast cereal market is huge with a market size of approximately $4.5 billion ( Rs 380 Bn) and growing very fast owing to the consumer preference for quick and convenient food options. Munch launched in 1999 had a good run in the Indian market and along with Kit-kat has a significant market share in the Indian chocolate wafer market.

The brand is running a series of campaigns for the launch.

The brand extension is positioned on the crunchiness and taste attributes it has derived from the parent product. The brand focuses on youngsters rather than kids in their campaigns. The parent brand Munch Wafers has been focusing on taste and quick energy as its positioning attributes. One of the major pain points for consumers of breakfast cereals is the taste vs healthiness. This brand extension is for those consumers who consider taste as their most important decision-making criterion. One should also not forget the kids as a major influencer in the purchase process. 

GilletteLabs : Shaving Made Sensational

 Brand : Gillettelabs

Company : P&G

Brand Analysis Count: #624

Gillette has launched a new brand - GilletteLabs in India this year (2024). The new brand is from the R&D wing of Gillette from which the brand shares the name. The new launch also reinforces the innovation culture of the company and the effort it takes to bring new ideas to an otherwise dull product like a shaving razor. 

GilletteLabs is touted as the most technologically advanced shaving razor with FlexDisc technology which, the brand claims, will give the best shave ever. I should say that the brand has put in lot of thinking behind the product features. The brand comes with a metallic handle and a magnetic stand for holding the razor handle. The handle also has a FlexDisc which ensures maximum skin contact. The most important marketing bait is the lifetime warranty for the handle. The brand says it is the first to offer such a warranty - with of course lot of conditions such as it defines lifetime as 10 years. 

The razor blade comes with an exfoliating bar which the brand claims removes dirt before the blade passes through the skin- so much for a plain razor blade isn't it. 

All these don't come cheap. The shaving kit ( one razor and handle) costs around Rs 1400. And we know that Gillette makes money not from the shaving handle but from the subsequent razor purchases. The GilletteLabs razor costs around Rs 750 for all the bells and whistles. 

I wonder why Gillette chose the brand name "GilletteLabs" for a product rather than the likes of Mach or Fusion. In my opinion, the company could have used Gillette Labs as an umbrella brand and used a separate brand name for the product. 

One should appreciate the focus of the company in constantly innovating in this category even though many things are marketing elements, the brand has been able to give great products to the customers and cement the leadership position of the brand in this segment.  These launches make it difficult for challenger brands to build brand equity big enough to challenge Gillette and the premium it commands. 

Tata.ev : Move with Meaning

Corporate Brand: Tata. ev

Company : Tata Motors

Brand Analysis Count: # 623

Tata Motors has done an interesting branding strategy for its EV business. Tata's initiatives in the electric vehicle segment are under its subsidiary Tata Passenger Electric Mobility (TEPM).

 In 2023, the company announced that the subsidiary will have a branding of  " Tata.ev" with the extension ".ev" in a circle which the company calls "the orbit"- giving it an individual brand identity at the corporate level. All its electric vehicles will now have an extension of ".ev" along with the brand name to signify the electric version. 

The move is an interesting study in the brand architecture strategy domain. Tata Motors launched its EV business in India in 2019 with the Tigor brand and followed it up with the Tata Nexon EV in 2020 which became highly popular. Now the company has an electric variant for its Tiago and latest Punch brands. 

When Tata launched the electric version of its popular brands, the branding was to add the acronym EV to the brands and that's it. The EV was, in branding parlance, essentially a product descriptor which explained what the product is to the consumer. Other than that, the EV doesn't carry any significance.

However, the elevation of EV as ".ev" literally makes the product descriptor a brand element thus adding more value to the company's brand architecture for the electric variants. Tata Motors has followed the strategy of converting the existing products to electric variants retaining the same brand. Now by adding the extension ".ev", the company can create a protected brand element for the electric variants.

At the corporate level, having a corporate brand also helps Tata Motors to give individuality to the EV business and probably in future launch its own brands in the EV segment. 

At the individual branding level, the ".EV" move will kind of own a powerful acronym which is useful in the long-term branding perspective. 

Brand Update : Mamy Poko Pants becomes Indian Diaper Market Leader

 I wrote about Mamy Poko pants in 2009 ( link) highlighting its differentiation and innovation. 14 years from that, the brand has toppled the market leader Pampers to become number one. The brand sold diapers worth around Rs 3000 crore during FY 2023. The news report in ET attributes the success of Mamy Poko to its innovation and distribution expansion. It is the first brand to launch underwear-style (pants-style) diapers in the Indian market. The report also pegs the Indian diaper industry at around Rs 10,000 crore which is a huge market. I also attribute Mamy Poko's success to its consistent communication strategy focusing on its key differentiator - its pants style (product form). Kudos to the brand.

Gerber Baby Cereal : Anything for little ones

 Brand: Gerber Cereals

Company: Gerber India ( Nestle)

Brand Analysis Count: #622

The market for toddler food in India is an astounding INR 2582 Bn ( $3.8Bn). The market is highly fragmented, regulated and dominated by home-made foods. A global brand Gerber entered the Indian market in 2022. Gerber has a very long and successful history. The brand was created in Fremont Michigan by Daniel Frank Gerber. The story is that Daniel's wife Dorothy suggested her recipe and asked her husband to manufacture it in scale so that mothers could save the struggle to make nutritious food for their kids at home. The product became hugely successful and as per wiki, the brand has more than 60% share in the US market. In 2007, the company was acquired by Nestle.

Indian cereal market although huge, is a challenging one. There is opportunity in the organized market owing to the sheer size of India's population. However, there are challenges in terms of retail exposure and brand awareness. However, since  Nestle has a huge and chequered presence in the Indian market and wide expertise in selling baby foods, things may be easy for the new brand.

Gerber is positioned as the segment's premium, high-quality innovative nutrition brand. The brand is targeting mothers and is taking the emotional route to impress the customer. The brand globally is pitching on the history of a product made by a mother. 

It is interesting to note that Gerber is launched as a new brand without any endorsement from Nestle. Despite being one of the most recognized corporate brands, Nestle has boldly decided to let Gerber create its own identity, which is usually a road less travelled in marketing. Building a new brand is a long-term play and I think Nestle is prepared for the long haul. 

Gerber's challenge is establishing credibility because it is dealing with a sensitive product. The legacy of 90 years of existence is highlighted in the advertisement which makes things easier for the brand. The product has come with interesting variants like spinach and carrot, mango and berry which can interest kids compared to other dull products existing in the market. 

Flavors are not a sustainable differentiation and if a flavour clicks, competition will follow suit in a blink of an eye. With Nestle's distribution and marketing muscle, Gerber is in a strong footing as a new entrant. 

Puro Salt : How far the brand can ride the purity proposition ?

 Brand: Puro Salt
Company: Puro Wellness Pvt Ltd
Brand Analysis Count: # 621

Puro is a relatively new entrant into the Indian salt market. Indian salt market is a huge size of around INR 27Bn. India is also the world's third-largest producer of salt. The Indian salt market is dominated by Tata Salt with a market share of around 17%.

In a commodities market with very low entry and exit barriers, it would be tough for a new entrant to survive. But a company named Puro Wellness is trying its luck through its brand Puro. Puro Wellness was established in 2016 and its first product is salt. The company has tried to use the " Pure" proposition to create a space for Puro brand of salt. Pure is a well-used marketing proposition and is used extensively across various product categories. This strategy is especially used when the category is predominantly a commodity. In spices, sugar, pulses etc we have seen this strategy being used extensively.

I also remember the efforts of Parrys Sugar taking the same purity platform to create a space in the sugar market. So from a marketing strategy perspective, there is nothing new about what Puro is doing in the Indian market but the way it is executing the strategy is interesting. The brand uses a comparative advertising format not against a specific competitor but rather against the category of white salt. Pure salt is pink salt and is cleverly trying to break away from the white salt category and create a new category ( not exactly new but owning) of pink salt. The brand is saying that pink salt is better than white salt because it does not use bleach to get that white colour. The company has used celebrities such as Anil Kapoor and Keerthi Suresh to bring authenticity to the claim. If it clicks, there is a chance that many customers will switch to pink salt perceiving it to be pure. 

This has rang alarm bells in the competitors and the market leader has gone to court challenging the claim of Puro but the court did not provide any relief to the complainant. 

The company also started launching another product turmeric under the Puro brand name with the same promise of purity. The brand has the name advantage that links directly with the purity positioning. Puro salt is priced at very premium compared to ordinary salt. 

While Puro has been heavily investing in promotions, the problem with the purity proposition is that it is very difficult to own that brand proposition. If Tata Salt or any other competitor launches pink salt and calls it pure, there is nothing one can do. So here the top of the mind-share becomes the critical determinant of success which is a cash-burning strategy. On the other hand, what else a brand can do to break into a commodity market ?