Choc On : Khaas Mithaas

Brand : Choc On
Company : SK Industries

Brand Analysis Count : # 511

SK Industries which is a player in the food processing and beverages sector launched a new brand in the highly competitive confectionery industry. The brand Choc On  which competes with the like of Cadbury Dairy Milk will be vying for a pie in the Rs 2000 crore chocolate market ( source : Exchange4media).

The brand has roped in Katrina Kaif as the brand ambassador and the launch ad is now running across channels

Watch the ad here : Choc on ad

The endorsement from Katrina has given the brand instant eyeballs and ofcourse curiosity about the new brand's aggressive marketing practice. 

The brand is positioned ( as usual) on the basis of irresistible taste. According to media reports, the brand wants to deliver 'ultimate delight in chocolate' to the customers.

The target segment for the brand is of age group 9-16 years. 

The theme of the ad is " Dreams Meet Reality " but  I found it really difficult to understand what the ad really meant. Katrina plays the part of  Cinderella and Red Riding Hood in the ad.  Choc On has the taglne " Khaas Mithaas " roughly translated to " A very special chocolate ".

Apart from Katrina Kaif, there is nothing much being said by the brand about itself. Since it is a new launch, I had expected the brand to say something about itself in terms of what it is and how it is different from others. But the ad fails in the primary responsibility of establishing the credentials of the brand. The fact is that Choc On relies heavily on the brand ambassador for credibility. And the endorsement of Katrina definitely will give some credibility to the brand. 

It is interesting to note that in this digital era , the presence of Choc On is almost nil in the web. There is no brand site nor any information about the brand owners.  

Having said that, Choc On has done a right thing by picking a high profile celebrity for the launch campaign. The presence of Katrina gives the brand instant visibility and prompt consumers to try the brand.  

The brand could have done more in the launch phase by talking more about itself in the ad. The ad is filled with visuals and rest is left to the imagination of consumers. Since this is a new brand from a less known brand owner, more communication could have been included in the launch phase with regard to the brand attributes.

Brand Update : Santoor Celebrates 25 years with Rebranding

Santoor, India's third largest soap brand is celebrating its 25 years of glorious existence in the fiercely competitive Indian toilet soap market.  The brand is celebrating this event with a rebranding exercise which consists of a new look, new fragrance and interestingly a brand anthem. Also the brand roped in Saif Ali Khan as the celebrity model for its campaign.

The rebranding  showcases new pack with a new logo which gives the brand a contemporary look. The interesting part is the Santoor brand anthem which is a well made theme presentation which reflects the core positioning of Santoor which is " A soap for younger looking skin".

Watch the Anthem here : santoor anthem

There is also a new ad featuring Saif Ali khan. The ad follows the same theme of mistaken identity where a young mother is mistaken for a spinster because of her younger looking skin. Congratulations to the brand for sticking to the theme which made it one of the most successful fmcg brand in India.

In a related article in exchange4media, one of the ad gurus  commented that the theme of mistaken identity has become old and boring and too predictable. In a sense the ad is predictable but we are not here to solve a puzzle, the more the ads become predictable, the more the message will be impressed upon in the customer's mind. The criticism of being a boring advertisement is relevant and the brand could have done more interms of making this theme more interesting. The anthem is fabulous and does justice to the brand's equity. 

Related Brand

Santoor

Brand Update : From Kajol & Croc To Kareena & Bear

Alpenliebe, the brand which redefined and rejuvenated the sugar candy market has come a long way since its launch in 1994. The brand recently launched another sub-brand 2Choco with huge promotional noise. The new eclair brand came into limelight because of the endorsement from Bollywood diva Kareena Kapoor.  The launch also marks the entry of Alpenliebe into th Eclair category.

Watch the ad here : 2 Choco

The alpha-numeric branding signifies that this eclair has two chocolate flavors ( source : website).

So what is now Alpenliebe ?

From a very simple caramel based sugar candy which was positioned on the basis of taste and irresistible lust for more, the brand is now , a candy ( three flavors), lollipop, flavor filled candy - Creamfillz and Mangofillz sub-brands and now an eclairs.

Infact the brand has become an Umbrella Brand endorsing different products in the same confectionery category . So when you ask for Alpenliebe from a shop, you may get any of these products !!

In my opinion, the brand owners needlessly extended this powerful brand for incremental sales benefit.According to reports, Alpenliebe alone was around Rs 160 crore and may be these franchises may help the brand show more worth but the core brand Alepenliebe will suffer because now the brand means many things.

Take the case of the new brand 2 Choco endorsed by Alpenliebe. What prevented Perfetti to launch 2choco as an independent brand ? If it could afford Kareena , then it would have enough money to build a powerful independent chocolate eclair brand. But it chose the easy way of making it endorsed by Alepenliebe which may have helped the new launch and trial but at the expense of making the brand architecture of Alpenliebe complex.

The positioning of the original Alpenliebe and the new Alpenliebe 2Choco are poles apart. 2Choco has the tagline " Love and Share " and Alpenliebe has " lalach Aaha Laplap " ( means some crap in Hindi). It has to be seen whether Kajol will continue endorsing the original Alpenliebe candy. Perfetti earlier launched a brand Chocoliebe in the eclair category but does not met with much success. Alpenliebe 2Choco is also a premium play since the brand is priced at Rs 1/- price point.

The launch ad for 2 Choco is amusing and I don't understand why Alpenliebe franchise is fixated about the combination of Bollywood Divas and animals. Earlier it was Kajol and Croc , then came Kajol and Apes and now it is Kareena with a polar bear.
I have a feeling that the Alpenliebe brand itself is getting confused interms of positioning and the reason is the large number of diverse product forms it endorses. The confusion is going to be more if the brand owners decides to extend it further.
Alpenliebe was a powerful brand and it is being weakened by the brand owners just for the sake of convenience.
Related brand
Alpenliebe

Brand Update : Does Limca Really Needs Kareena ?

The summer of 2012 belongs to lemon based beverages. Marketers are all out to woo consumers through high decibel promotions for lemon based beverage brands. These brands ( once neglected) started to be considered as high growth brands. In BCG metrics terms,Question Marks suddenly became Stars ! The reason is the late realization that Indians have a soft-corner for lemon flavor which was long neglected by maverick marketers who wanted the Cola to rule the market.Now lemon flavored segment is growing at 17-20% annually compared to single digit growth for the Cola brands.

The new Star of the block is the iconic Limca brand from Coca Cola. Coca Cola was reluctantly pushing the brand to the forefront through some well crafted campaigns during the last few years. Although the share of voice was less, the sheer quality of the campaigns lifted the brand to new heights. 

Watch some of these ads here : Limca Ads 2006-10

The campaigns used music very effectively and focused on the concept of freshness . All through these years, the taglines keep on changing from

Fresh Ho Jao

Haseen Lamhaon ko churao

Do Pal Taazgi

Maza taazgi ka

Doobo Taazgi mein

The brand conceived a brilliant imagery of water splashing with some soul-warming music which brought back the magic of Limca. 

This summer, the brand mandarins of Coke decided to change everything. The brilliant idea of a celebrity endorser was conceived and executed. Kareena Kapoor was chosen as the celebrity and the brand owners decided to ditch the earlier positioning and imagery and brought in a new higher order attribute to the brand - Pyaas Badhao where the concept is the brand wants its consumers to thirst for more ( success) in life.

Watch the ad here : Limca  Pyaas Badhao

I somehow feel that despite the best efforts and intention, the campaign lacks the magic. The brand seems to be preaching to consumers which was a drastic shift interms of the personality. Earlier campaigns had full of romance and soft imagery. The new campaign completely lacks any romance and is in the backdrop of sports seems so out of touch with the brand's personality. Kareena holding a limca bottle is not going to create any magic for the brand. Infact, Limca's brand equity which survived Coke's assassination attempt does not need to derive any support from celebrities. To be fair to the brand, Limca had earlier roped in celebrities like Salman Khan, Riya Sen etc to endorse it. 

In one of the reports, the brand owners suggested that the change in the brand strategy was warranted by the aggression of competing brands. However, that does not explain the logic of such a drastic shift in the brand's personality.

Brands exhorting the consumers to scale higher heights is not a new concept.Brands like Horlicks, Bournvita etc pitch on similar lines. Hence Limca's new preaching pitch puts it among the usual crowd not different. But the earlier romantic platform was something unique. I don't remember any beverage brand positioning on a romantic platform.

So uniqueness lost, in the clutter , heavily depended on celebrity for power, will be the outcome interms of the branding. Had the brand used Kareena in a romantic mood with water splashing around, Limca would have broken its own Limca Books of Records ! Alas... its preaching time...

Related Brand
Limca : Lime N Lemony 

Chaze Mobiles : Ye Hui na Baat

Brand : Chaze
Company : Chaze Mobiles

Brand Analysis Count : 510

Some marketers will do anything to get their brand eyeballs. Chaze Mobile, which is yet to launch their products recently got  million dollar worth exposure in most of the media through one celebrity endorsement announcement. The brand  roped in the " upcoming " bollywood actress Sunny Leone as the brand ambassador.

huh !

Brand Update : 7UP Wants You to Feel UP

Certain brands change its taglines at the drop of a hat. 7Up, the lemon flavored softdrink brand from Pepsico is one such brand. The brand which re-energized the lemon flavored softdrink market in India after the demise of Limca is in a way struggling to find a sustainable positioning.

The brand which was launched in 1990 quickly gained traction in the Indian market largely due to the branding exercise centered around the mascot Fido Dido. The brand , for some reason or the other, decided to drop the famous mascot and began to concentrate on the " lemon " factor. The brand then adopted the tagline " The lemon drink'.
Later the brand decided to focus on the brand benifit - refreshing taste and adopted the tagline " Mood ko do lemon ka lift ". Then yet again in 2010, the brand went into anger management mode using the  tagline " Bheja Fry, 7Up Try " . In 2011, the brand roped in bollywood actor Sharman Joshi as brand ambassador and  adopted the positioning strategy centered around the coolness factor . The brand had the tagline  which was then changed to " chill machao " .

The brand couldn't find a tagline which really worked or established a sustainable positioning platform . One saving grace is that the brand however kept revolving around the coolness factor in these brand communications.

This summer , 7Up again changed its positioning and had a rebranding exercise whereby the logo has been changed to reflect the brand's international persona. Along with the new brand logo, 7UP is also running its 2012 summer campaign.

The new campaign is around the theme of "optimism" or upliftment.. The brand uses the " UP" term in the brand name to further reinforce the current positioning of optimism

Watch the new campaign : Sharman Joshi ( 7UP)

The brand has adopted yet another new tagline . The new tagline is " Dil BoleI Feel UP " . The positioning theme is that the brand lifts your optimism ( mood). The new ad features Sharman Joshi shaking a leg with a penguin. Other than that , there is not much wow in the new campaign. Another interesting fact is that 7UP decided to bring its Nimbooz brand also in the current campaign thus saving on the cost.

According to a report in ET, lemon flavored drinks were growing at 16-17% in the last year making it the fastest growing category in Rs 10,500 crore Indian softdrinks market. This season is expected to witness lot of action in this segment.

7UP in my opinion is struggling to find its positioning. Frequent changes in the slogan and advertising theme reflects this confusion. That confusion is not good for the brand in long-term. How ever practitioners argue on this citing freshness and rising sales . But to create a sustainable brand equity ,consistency in the positioning theme is a must. Otherwise the sales of the brand depends purely on the promotional spend and every year the brand needs to reinvent the wheel. Globally, the brand has the slogan " Be Yourself, Be Refreshing " is a wonderful positioning platform. But 7UP however chose to ignore it and the eternal search continues.,

Related brand

Brand Update : 7 UP Anger Management

Brand Analysis : 7 UP

Force One : Be The Force

Brand : Force One
Company : Force Motors

Brand Analysis Count : # 506

Force Motors which is well known for its commercial vehicles like Tempo Travellor, Trekker etc has made a significant entry into the SUV market in India. The company recently launched an SUV Force One in the Indian market.

Indian SUV market is now appearing lucrative to auto majors. Indian car market is skewed to small cars. The market is dominated by small cars. SUVs were a niche. But recent trend is that consumers are purchasing more SUVs despite the poor infrastructure conditions and rising fuel prices. According to newsreports, 324000 SUVs were sold in India during 2010-2011. The growth of SUVs were infact more than the car segment. 

The Indian SUV market is dominated by Mahindra with its flagship brand Scorpio. Toyota Fortuner is the second largest brand but dominates the premium segment of the SUV market. The market has witnessed a slew of launches from all major brands in the world.Hence the launch of  a brand in this segment is very risky and difficult. Force One has took this challenge seriously and has done some serious homework before going for the launch.

Force Motors took a very smart step  by collaborating with Mercedes Benz for the engine of Force One. The company has already understood the benefits of tying up with a brand like Mercedes before in the success of its Traveller. So by sourcing the most critical element of the car from World's most respect company, Force One has almost negated the risk of Engine complaints and the Mercedes engine will give confidence to consumers about this newcomer's claims.

Second smart move was the design part. Indian SUV consumers like big mean machines. Frustrated by poor roads and rash and arrogant driving of larger vehicles like trucks and buses, most Indian consumers love to have a large vehicle to tame the arrogant truck and bus drivers. Hence Force One deliberately designed itself to look larger and meaner. 

The third and most important move was the promotion part. The brand almost shocked the entire auto world by roping Amithabh Bachchan as the brand ambassador. The brand knew that it is fighting with large and powerful brands like Scorpio, Fortuner, Safari etc and needs a trump card to get even with these established  brands. The roping in of Big B was a masterstroke and has given a terrific boost to the launch.

The fourth factor was the price. Force One has priced itself at around Rs 10 lakh. I am not sure about the effectiveness of the pricing strategy because it seems little pricey compared to Indian counterparts but not that much as compared to foreign brands. But my gut feeling is that it has not hit the sweet spot in the pricing and would have excited the market had it started of with a price of Rs 8 lakh. However, the Mercedes engine may be the reason for this confident pricing of Force One. It is to see whether Indian consumer is willing to pay that much for a new Indian SUV.

With Bachchan as the brand ambassador, one would wonder how the brand is going to structure its message. Force One had to convey a feel of ruggedness and premiumness inorder to gain consumer interest. The presence of Big B will assure eye-balls but if the communication is not right, people are going criticize the effort.

In the advertising front, the approach of Force One was surprising. I expected something that would project an international look and feel , something of the sort of a Reid and Taylor campaign highlighting the brand ambassador. But Force One took a very different route.

Watch the campaign here : Force one Kids, Force One Clean

The ads are very Indian and focuses on one aspect- Force. The brand has adopted the tagline " Be The Force " . In the ad, Big B says "India mein sirf Force hi Chalta Hai " meaning " In India only Force will work " . This message really strikes a chord with the consumers mind since everyone have felt this at some point in his life in India. 

With regard to the brand promotion, it is interesting to observe that the brand deliberately chose not to project itself as a premium. The brand I think is targeting those consumers who are pissed off by Indian roads. The brand is talking to the prospective sedan buyers and telling them that only a beast will survive in Indian roads.

The brand has started on a rugged communication route hence it has virtually closed its doors on premiumness. Infact this soundness of this strategy is validated by the launch campaign of Mahindra's X500 which calls itself a Cheetah. The brand has chosen  " Powerful " as its USP and uses the analogy of " Force " to communicate its positioning. The role of the ads for automobiles serve as a bait for the consumers for a test drive. No on buys a car just because of the ads. The product will sell itself if it excites the consumers and the influencers. 

Force Motors is a new entrant to the passenger segment. Like its peers Tata Motors and Mahindra, Force will also be perceived as a commercial vehicle manufacturer and the lack of expertise in the passenger car market will be the Achilles' heel for this company.Product Quality and quality  of its after-sales service is going to be very critical in the success of this brand. The brand has got its basics correct. This will be an interesting story to watch.  

Brand Update : Katrina is the new face of Titan Raaga

Titan Raga has got a new face in Katrina Kaif. In continuation with its celebrity endorsement centered brand strategy, Titan signed the reigning Bollywood Diva Katrina Kaif as the brand ambassador for its sub-brand Raaga. The brand is currently running the campaign featuring the brand ambassador.

Watch the ad here : Katrina Titan Raaga

Titan Raaga which was born in 1992 was able to carve out a space for itself in the Indian watch industry. The brand is targeting the Sec A/B segment with a value proposition combining elegance and quality. 

Regarding the brand communication, there is nothing great about the new advertisement. The ad follows the standard theme and except for a small glimpse of the brand, celebrity rules the entire campaign. The ads featuring Katrina also sports a tagline  " Stay New " . 

 The brand has fallen into the celebrity trap where celebrity gains more importance than the brand. Remember that in most of the Titan ads featuring Aamir Khan , the brand was carefully placed with equal importance as the celebrity. 

Another interesting factor I noticed in the new ad was the absence of any mention of the sub-brand Raaga except for the half-a-second glimpse of the watch. Infact I mistook the campaign for the parent brand. This is another classic case where the agency underplayed the brand in favor of the celebrity. Further there is not much connect between the sub-brand and the theme of the ad. May be the brand is trying to economize by promoting the umbrella brand Titan rather than Titan Raaga. 

Even in the print ads, there is no mention about the sub-brand. This may be a part of the strategy where the Above-The- Line campaigns will be for the parent brand Titan and the Raaga will be relegated to a sub-brand visible only in the product. More clarity will come only after the rolling out of further campaigns.

Does it make a big difference ? 

Related Brand

Titan 

Brand Update : Pureit Ups The Ante

HUL's first foray into the consumer durable market- Pureit is on an aggressive mode. The brand which was launched in 2004 has taken the battle into the premium segment of the water purifier market with the launch of Pureit Marvella. 

Pureit is a classic case of a brand exploiting an important need-gap in the market. Indian water-purifier market worth around Rs 1200 crore is evolving, growing at 15%. The marketing of water purifiers were skewed towards urban markets of India. Only 8 % of the Indian consumers use water purifier which indicates the poor penetration of this product category into Indian households. The major hindrance for this being high price, installation difficulties, electricity consumption and lack of awareness. Eureka Forbes pioneered the growth of this category in the Indian market. Now this category has lot of players and  new product-lines like RO water purifiers has been introduced.

The major players in the electricity -powered water purifier market however ignored the mass market focusing more on the margin rather than volume. These products which were priced at Rs 5000 upwards were beyond the reach of the average middleclass customers. Even though many such consumers were aware of the health benefits of a water-purifier, it was never in the priority list of high value purchases.

Sensing the opportunity, HUL launched Pureit range of battery operated storage-type purifiers at a price range of Rs 990- Rs 1250. These purifiers did not necessitated any installations which was a definite advantage for those who lived in rented houses. The brand was widely tested in South India before the national launch . According to reports, Pureit has already sold more than 1.3 million units becoming the largest selling water-purifier in India in volume-terms. The brand also created a new category of  non-electric storage- water purifier market which is now worth around Rs 300 crore and growing very fast than the electric category.

One of the problems that Pureit faced during the launch was the doubt about brand's efficacy in the purifying business. HUL is new to this industry and not an expert so consumers rightly doubted the effectiveness of its product . To counter that, Pureit ran a very highly advertised " 1 crore challenge " to convince the consumer that its product is more effective than the competing brands. 

After establishing its name in the mass market, Pureit is now targeting the market-creator Eureka Forbes in an aggressive frontal attack by launching the premium brand Pureit Marvella. Marvella is also a a non-electric purifier with storage capability priced at Rs 7000. The brand also launched its Reverse Osmosis water purifier Puerit Marvella RO at a price point of Rs 13500. These sub-brands directly competes with Eureka Forbes's major product-lines. 

The entry of HUL into the Eureka Forbe's territory was marked with lot of legal fights between the brands because of advertising claims and counter-claims. Now the fight is in the field with both the brands trying to out market each other.

HUL in its typical FMCG style is launching Marvella range with a celebrity endorsement. The brand has roped in Farhan Akther and Praachi Desai as the brand ambassador. The campaign is now running featuring these celebrities. 

Watch the ad here : Pureit marvella

The USP of the brand is its advanced warning system which alerts the consumer to change the RO membrane before it stops working.

The entry of HUL has virtually changed the dynamics of the water-purifier market in India. The market creator was totally out-maneuvered by HUL. Eureka Forbes decided not to counter HUL's foray into mass market because of lack of margin. In strategic terms , the decision made sense because low priced products tend to affect both margins and brand -equity. But Forbes failed to see the shift in the market and the growth of the non-electric segment to become the fastest growing segment. The popularity of the mass market segment also gave confidence for HUL to enter the market of Eureka Forbes. Eureka Forbes countered the HUL's entry by lowering the price of its base models. But HUL is such a formidable player that Eureka Forbes may need all its marketing strength to fight this giant.

Related Brand

Pureit : As Safe as boiled water

Eureka Forbes

Kent RO

Brand Update : Sure taps men's deo market

Unilever's global brand Sure which was launched in 2010 has launched a new variant Sure Men's Deo in the Indian market. The brand is a pioneer in developing the anti-perspirant deo category in India.Sure was initially launched as a women's deo. The brand initially imported its global commercials in India and later adopted a local communication strategy roping in celebrity endorsers like Bollywood actress Asin. 

Indian deo market is worth Rs 900 crore and growing at a pace of 25% ( source). 70% of this market is men's deo. Hence it make sense for Sure to launch a variant tapping this large segment.

The brand variant took the celebrity endorsement route by roping in the action hero Akshay Kumar as the brand ambassador. The brand is running a television campaign featuring the star.
Watch the ad here : Sure men
Thankfully the brand did not take the " seducing women" route and chose a rational positioning instead. The variant follows the same positioning of the parent brand - No Sweat.
The USP of Sure men's deo is that it works even at 58degree Celsius highlighting its efficacy in relatively hot Indian weather conditions. There is nothing much to talk about the creative part of the ad since it follows the same stereotyped typical Akshay Kumar commercial.
As a consumer, I feel that the anti-perspirant brands needs to take consumers in to confidence regarding the health-related worry of such products. A lot of consumers have  a worry whether anti-perspirants are good for health because it stops the formation of sweat which is essential for the regulation of body temperatures. Many consumers are shying away from the use of anti-perspirant because of this worry.
The deo market is getting crowded with lot of players vying for a pie of this growing category. Sure is trying to standout of the crowd by focusing on its " effectiveness". The endorsement from Akshay Kumar gives a definite advantage for this brand for sure.

Related Brand
Sure deo

Xpert : Fast Action

Brand : Xpert
Company : Rohit Sufactants  Private Ltd

Brand Analysis Count : # 494

Xpert is a dishwash bar brand from Rohit Surfactants Pvt ltd (RSPL) which is now on an promotional overdrive. The brand is from RSPL  which is famous for its Ghari detergent brand. Ghari literally made the large FMCG MNCs a run for their money. The Ghari brand is infact larger than the HUL's Surf and is the second largest selling detergent brand in the country ( source). 

Xpert was launched in 2006 by RSPL as a part of its diversification. The brand is now competing in the Rs 800 crore utensil cleaner market. The market is dominated by HUL's Vim with a share of around 60%. The market is characterized by one big player and several small players. The nearest rival is Exo diswash bar  and Pril with a share of around 8% each. As history has shown, fighting HUL's Vim for market leadership position is not an easy task but that is the risk that a challenger brand needs to take.

Xpert has chosen celebrity endorsement as a route to attract consumers towards the brand. For this Xpert chose Madhuri Dixit as the celebrity endorser. The brand is currently running a campaign in TV featuring the celebrity.

Watch the ad here : Xpert  

The brand is using its Aquashine formula as the USP and like any other brand , it is talking about quick and easy cleaning. 

The ad is very basic and rather than using  Madhuri Dixit for testimony, the brand chose to use her as Gangu Thai ( a housemaid character in the movie Ganesha) for the campaign. If one has missed the Ganesha movie, the ad plot will be half lost.  

Xpert is priced around Rs 10 for 200 g bar while Vim around Rs 12. Exo is priced at par with Xpert. The brand hopes that the price differential together with celebrity will tilt the consumer choice towards Xpert. This aggressive pricing + promotional strategy is going to affect the smaller brands rather than Vim in the short-term.

What is lacking in the current strategy of Xpert is the absence of a clear differentiator. While Aquashine formula is the USP, the brand fails to communicate what it means and how it is going to benefit . May be in future campaign, these will be explained. Without a powerful differentiator, Xpert may not be able to break into the market of Vim. Exo tried with its aggressive promotions and anti-bacterial properties with limited success. It is very difficult to create a differentiator in a market like dishwash bar and almost all options has been used up by the players.

It will be interesting to see how this high profile attack of Xpert will play out in the future. In the short-term we will see some action in this dull category . 

Otto : The Symbol of Success

Brand : OTTO
Company : Pothys Group

Brand Analysis Count : # 493

Otto is the readymade brand from Pothys Group. Pothys is one of the most reputed textile retail group in South India. The brand Pothys is a known name in Silk sarees and commands tremendous brand equity across South India. 

Otto brand of men's wear started off as a private label has now moved to become a brand ( theoretically). The brand which was available at various retail stores in TN has now moved to other markets as well. Advertisements of this brand has began showing in various media across markets other than its core TamilNadu market. 

What is striking about the current campaign of OTTO is its celebrity driven brand strategy. OTTO although was in the market since 1997 is now upping its ante across various markets this season. The brand has roped in the Tamil Superstar Vikram as the brand ambassador. Print ads featuring the star is now running across Kerala where the shopping season has started coinciding with the Onam festival.

Watch the television campaign here : OTTO shirts

First it is one of those rare instances where a retailer upgrades a private label to a brand and puts that brand through other retail outlets.In that way Pothys deserves to be appreciated for the risk it has taken to build a brand in the hyper competitive readymade market. 

Having said that , the brand had fallen prey to the celebrity endorsement trap where more than anything, celebrity over shadowed the brand. It is true that celebrities like film stars command huge respect and credibility in markets like TN, AP etc and the endorsement by a star like Vikram will take the brand to new heights, in the long run it is not a good strategy for the brand.

The brand seems to be heavily depended on Vikram to deliver results. There is no mention of product features, USP, positioning or differentiation. The brand also did not try to leverage the equity of its parent Pothys. By not addressing these critical brand building basics, OTTO has lost valuable opportunity to build an image for itself that would sustain even after the contract with the celebrity is over. The brand name OTTO is a German term meaning Wealthy. 

The brand has chosen a positioning loosely on being a success symbol. The brand has the tagline  " Symbol of Success " and uses the celebrity as the proof. But given the power of the celebrity, OTTO could have done better if it had a proper brand building strategy aimed at long-term. Ideally the brand should have done these things 

• Identified a strong sustainable USP 
• Positioning statement 
• Endorsement by parent brand Pothys
• Campaign combining product feature + Positioning 

But the current campaign focus on earning short-term brownies riding on the popularity of Vikram.

Brand Update : Hole New Fashion from Polo

The new campaign " Hole New Fashion " is one of the best campaigns I saw in recent times. The communication  once again brought back the humor, excitement and freshness into the brand. Polo has always been an interesting brand. The " Mint with a Hole " virtually made mint candy category very popular in the Indian market.

The brand was on a hiatus after the " what is your hole story " campaign which took a different take on the concept of " Hole ". 

The current campaign introduces four new flavors for Polo - Lime Mojito, Watermelon Sorbet, Peach Schnapps, and Cocoa Mocha. The most interesting factor being that these new variants are positioned as signature flavors which are "designed" by the Goa based Designer Wendell Rodricks. The brand achieved new heights in creativity when it partnered with a designer to launch a Fashion Range. The new range of Polo is known as Signature Flavors and is a classic case of a Celebrity - Brand co-creation.

What is most important in the new campaign is the new thinking that Polo brought in to mint candy. It is a great big idea to see variants as a fashion range and the execution is perfect. According to Economic Times, the flavors was such a big hit that the entire stock was sold out in two weeks in markets where it was introduced. 

Watch the ad here : Polo Signature

The new campaign will significantly help the brand Polo to reinforce its positioning as an off-beat interesting fun loving brand. The epitome of the brand's personality is its ability to think out of box which is conveyed by the tagline " The Mint with a Hole ". The brand tied to maintain its personality in most of the campaigns. The current campaign brings in much needed freshness to the brand in every sense. The new variants will also bring lot of new consumers to the brand . It also gives the existing fans of the brand to indulge more of the brand.

I am not sure whether these signature flavors are limited editions or permanent addition to the product-line. What ever be the life of these variants, it has achieved in elevating the brand to a higher level of positioning.

Related Brand

Polo

Vi-John : Building Brand on Celebrity Power

Brand : Vi-John
Company : Maja Healthcare (Vi-John Cosmetics)

Brand Analysis Count : # 489

Do you know that Vi-John is the largest selling Shaving cream in India ? I didn't knew that till I saw Shah Rukh Khan spreading this message across the media. The marketing world is full of surprises. Vi-John which is from the house of Maja Healthcare is an interesting brand. There are lot of interesting facts about this brand which has virtually grabbed attention nationally through the endorsement from none other than Shah Rukh Khan.

Vi-John is not a new brand. The brand has been in existence from 1960 and has a strong presence in the rural market.According to certain reports, the brand has around 60% penetration in the rural market. That makes the claim of " largest selling shaving cram " valid.

Vi-John is also known for its innovation in the distribution strategy. Unlike the usual personal selling brands which focus on retail formats, Vi-John tried to innovate on the distribution by pushing it through saloons. The brand also have huge equity in saloons which has helped the brand tremendously. One of the main reason for the success of Vi-John is the keen awareness about the consumer needs. While global giants like Gillette failed to impress the rural consumer, Vi-John understood that rural consumer needs are different and its shaving cream produced more lather, better fragrance ( strength) than the competitors. 

Vi-John is not only into shaving products but a whole range of personal care products. The company has roped in celebrities like Sonali Bendre, Bipasha Basu etc. 

Vi-John has come into limelight with the endorsement from SRK for its shaving cream range. The brand is currently running a commercial featuring SRK.

Watch the ad here : Vi- John 

The advertisement is very basic with the usual stuff like Women , Smooth Shave and Keedanu (Germs). The brand ambassador stresses the fact that Vi-John is the largest selling Indian shaving cream and that adds lot of power into the brand's plan  to enter the national market.

 The brand has moved from its low-key channel based strategy to a highly aggressive celebrity based pull strategy to cater to the larger market. Although this strategy gives immediate results interms of popularity and trials, the sustainability of such a pull strategy will depend on the investment on promotions. These expensive celebrity based pull has a potential of draining valuable resources over-time and the brand hopes that the market returns will justify the investment made on such promotions.

The high profile campaigns how ever fails to give a brand identity to Vi-John. The umbrella brand Vi-John does not have a positioning on its own. The brand neither has a tagline nor a core positioning which could be extended into various product categories. Since Vi-John is an umbrella brand, the company should have tried to develop a positioning for the core-brand and then used various campaign for its products. But instead, the firm tried to promote its shaving products first. The only issue is that people will start perceiving Vi-John as a shaving product brand rather than a personal care brand.

When promoting a brand which endorses multiple product categories, it is essential to develop a brand positioning hierarchy which shows how each of these products will be positioned and how the umbrella brand will be used to promote these products. It will be wise for Vi-John to think of developing a brand personality for its parent brand and then leverage that across its product range.

Brand Update : McVities Gets into Celebrity Endorsement

World's first digestive biscuit is now banking on celebrity power to stay in the fiercely competitive Rs 9000 crore Indian biscuit market. The brand has roped in Bipasha Basu and Shriya Saran to endorse the Mcvities Digestive brand. Both the actresses are known for their " Health Consciousness " and are well accepted by the people who would like to be fit and healthy as these celebrities project themselves to be. 

The endorsement from the celebrities also marks a shift in the positioning of the brand. During the launch phase , McVities was harping on the taste and had adopted the tagline " The new language of Taste". For the Digestive variant, the brand has adopted the tagline " Habit you would love to keep".

Watch the new campaign here : Mcvities Digestive

The ad has tried to make the brand appeal to the younger audience ( 25 + health conscious adults). The brand is also trying to impress upon the audience by showing its international acceptance.

McVities Digestive has playing on a very difficult market. Despite a very visible trend towards health, Indian consumers are yet to put that into actual buying. According to recent research, Indian consumers doesn't compromise on taste. So rather than indulge in a taste-less healthy food, Indian consumers prefer to take less of tasty junk food. This has forced many companies to scale down their ambitious plans to launch healthy snacks and foods.

McVities is trying to create more usage for the biscuit by asking the consumers to indulge in more occasions. Although theoretically  the strategy is sound, it will be very difficult to make Indian consumers to compromise on taste.  I don't think that Bipasha or Shreya is going to make much impact on the sales of McVities Digestive among the intended target segment (25+ adults). The presence can definitely increase the visibility of the brand and thus more trials. But for biscuits, the success is in making the consumers return to the brand again. McVities definitely will thrive in the niche market but may have to wait long till healthy biscuits will become a part of the mainstream.
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Brand Update : RIP Sunfeast Fit Kit

Even God was not able to save this brand. The much hyped sub-brand of Sunfeast - Sunfeast Sachin's Fit Kit is dead. The brand is not available in any of the shops in my state and sources say that the brand was discontinued shortly after it was launched.

  The company so far has not given any hint ( in any media) about this brand being discontinued. I am making the assumption that the brand is being discontinued for the reason that it is not present in an important  market like Kerala. 

So how can a brand which is co-created and endorsed by none other than Sachin Tendulkar himself suddenly went out of the market ? That too when the market is flooded with "healthy biscuits " ? Fit Kit was touted as the first celebrity co-created brand in India. The brand had everything going for it - the marketing muscle of ITC, brand Sachin, etc but still it was not well received by the Indian consumers. The question baffles me. 

In the case of Sunfeast Fit Kit, one probability can be that the brand was too early for the market.The market size is too small for such a large investment and the quantity the market can absorb was limited to justify such a huge investment. Sunfeast thought that with Sachin's endorsement, the brand will grow and will carve out a niche of " Multi - grain " biscuits. But the product did not grew as big as the brand thought it would be. 

Secondly , the target market for Fit Kit was the kids and they would not eat a biscuit just because Sachin endorsed it. The taste and the variety matters more than the health benefits. With a plethora of brands and variants available in the market, getting kids to stick to a variant is near impossible. The poor volume offtake may have prompted the company to relook its investment in this brand. 

More than anything , the category demands heavy continuous investment in brands and ITC may have decided to route the investment to the entire basket of biscuits rather than only Fit Kit. 

These are only possibilities. Only the company officials know the exact reasons why such a much hyped brand be taken off quickly. The failure of the Fit Kit is a grim reminder of the weakness of  celebrity driven brands.

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Brand Update : J Hampstead takes Hrithik as Brand Ambsassador

The premium suit brand J Hampstead from Siyaram has roped in Hrithik Roshan as the new brand ambassador. The new set of commercials are in the pipeline for the brand featuring the new brand ambassador. The brand is still focusing on the celebrity route for brand building. 

J Hamsptead had earlier used the Bollywood Diva Priyanka Chopra to endorse it. The move was different since not many Male brands roped in female celebrities to endorse it. The celebrity endorsement route had worked for the brand in creating certain amount of awareness in the market. The brand is now worth around Rs 50 crore and grew about 20% CAGR in 2010. In 2009-2010, the brand launched its international range of readymades in India.

The entry of Hrithik will add the style quotient for the brand to a large extent. The brand is targeting the upwardly mobile 35 + consumers who look for high quality stylish cloths. The brand's major competitor is the market leader Raymond's. 

The celebrity powered branding works well in creating lot of awareness/visibility to the brand but brands are built on meaningful differentiation. Here J Hampstead is focusing on Quality as the key differentiating attribute. But quality is an attribute that is taken by every other competitor in the market. Along with the celebrity, J Hampstead needs to identify a relevant differentiator if it wants to fight Raymonds. The problem with celebrity endorsement is that it will help get the brand noticed. If the brand wants consumer to remember, message is important. 

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The 

Brand Update : 7 Up gets into Anger Management

After a long period of neglect, Pepsi has given some life to its sparkling lime brand 7UP. Ever since the spectacular brand launch in 1992, the brand went down in its share of mind and the market share. Pepsi is to blame for not nurturing the brand enough. The space left vacant by 7 Up was successfully taken by Sprite and Pepsi still is confused between Mountain Dew and 7 Up.

Now after almost 3 years, some decent marketing campaign has been launched for this brand. The last campaign was in 2009 for the launch of 7 Up Nimbooz which further diluted the existence of the parent 7 UP brand.

For the summer of 2011, 7 Up has roped in the Bollywood star Sharman Joshi as the brand ambassador. The brand is currently running a series of TVC featuring Sharman.

Watch the ad here : 7 Up Truck 

Along with the new celebrity comes the new positioning platform. The brand has taken up the role of Anger Management Expert. The new ad puts 7 Up as the best way to chill the anger. The ad can be seen as a continuation of the earlier positioning of " Bheja Fry , 7 Up Try".

One of the grave problem that this brand faces is its positioning. The brand has never been able to find a right positioning for itself  in the Indian market. Although it came first, it had to play second fiddle to Mountain Dew and Pepsi was confused about the position of 7 Up  in the brand portfolio. This confusion enabled Sprite to become the third largest soft drink brand in the country.

The new ad and the positioning of Anger Manager is not going to do anything better for 7 Up . The ads are quite catchy and Sharman offers some amount of  " cool factor " . The brand has the new tagline " Chill Machao " . Again the tagline is skewed towards the Hindi speaking consumers and I cannot find a better English translation for that. Anyways the brand talks about keeping cool.. 

The new campaign and the celebrity will raise the share of mind for the brand. 7 Up still have strong awareness in the market. Fido Dido is still alive in the mind of the consumers and in this era of ZooZoos, Fido could have done wonders to the brand if it made a comeback now.

In my personal opinion,7 Up still has not found a right positioning but has come close. By explicitly focusing on Anger, the brand lost a chance to position itself as a " Keep it Cool " positioning . The brand should have taken a broader platform than just Anger . Anger is just one of those instances where one loses cool.   Hopefully the follow up commercials may take the brand to a much broader positioning platform than just anger management. 

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Nerolac : Painting A Greener Tomorrow !

Brand : Nerolac
Company : Kansai Nerolac

Brand Analysis Count : # 478

Nerolac is an interesting brand story. This brand which has a rich heritage of over 97 years is on an aggressive mode in the Rs 2.1 Billion Indian paint market. The company which created this brand was born in 1920 as Gahagan Paint and Varnish Co in Mumbai.In 1957 the company was transformed to Goodlass Wall Pvt Ltd  later to Goodlass Nerolac Paints Ltd . The company was a part of the Tata Group till 1999 when its technological partner - Japan based Kansai Paint Co Ltd took a controlling stake in the company from the Tata Group. Now Nerolac is a subsidiary of Kansai Paints and the company has been rechristened as Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd.

Nerolac is a leader in the Industrial paint segment of the Indian paint market. The Indian paint market is huge with an estimated market size of over Rs 17000 crores of which decorative paint segment constitutes over seventy percentage. The market is typically Indian which means that it is fragmented. According to a report by the brokerage firm Equity Master, the unorganized sector commands around 35% of the market. In the organized  decorative paint segment, Asian Paints is the market leader with a share of 30% followed by Nerolac with 20% , Berger Paints with 19% and ICI with 12%. 

Nerolac from the beginning of 2000 has been trying to attain leadership position in the decorative segment and the fight makes it a really interesting brand story. Nerolac had to fight the tremendous brand equity of Asian Paints in that segment.

Nerolac is a brand which never hesitated to invest in promotions and brand building. The brand has a really commendable awareness which was created through heavy brand promotions. The jingle " Jab Khar Ki Raunak Badhana ho, Deewaroan ko jab sajana ho , Nerolac , Nerolac "  still lingers in the memory of the public. Such catchy jingles and campaigns lifted the brand to double digits market share levels but could not bridge the gap with the market leader. 

It was in 2003 , that the brand made a huge plunge in celebrity driven promotion by roping in Amitabh Bachchan. The endorsement from Big B was a big news at that point in time. One of the major positioning move for Nerolac also happened at that time.Nerolac was originally positioned on a beauty-enhancing  proposition. The brand talked about decoration and in a plain speaking style successfully associated itself with that proposition otherwise that jingle couldnot have survived this long.

In 2003, the brand tried to emulate the Asian Paint's positioning based on colors. The ads featuring Big B had the tagline " Ye Rang Jo Hain, Zindagi ko Chootha hai " ( This color touches your life). In my personal opinion, the adoption of a positioning similar to Asian Paints confused the consumer.Although the endorsement of Big B put the brand on a high awareness state, the similarity of positioning had a negative effect on the association of brand and celebrity. I remember reading a report which mentioned that during the Big B endorsement, when consumers where asked about the brand which Big B endorsed, rather than Nerolac, they mentioned Asian Paints.

Before that positioning change in 2003, Nerolac had many things going for it. The brand had very powerful brand elements like the jingle and even a popular mascot - a painting tiger named Goody. The mascot was very popular and shared a powerful association with the brand. But the mascot was discontinued in 2003. Goody was created in 1970 to act as a differentiator and also create an identity for the brand. Since there were many players, the owners wanted as mascot to make the brand stand out. The decision of dropping such a powerful popular brand element was a mistake that Nerolac made. The brand should have made the mascot contemporary and that could have added some additional power to the brand .

During the late 2008, the brand still felt that it is not able to close the gap between itself and the market leader. The association with Big B was discontinued and the brand went for non-celebrity campaigns.

This year, the brand decided to make another high profile attempt using none other than Shah Rukh Khan to endorse the brand. The brand is now running lot of TVCs featuring the new celebrity ambassador.
In a significant move the brand has repositioned itself. In tune with the global positioning of its parent Kansai Paints, Nerolac also adopted the positioning based on environment -friendly attribute. The new campaign positions Nerolac as a healthy paint with no lead content and Eco-clean property. Shah Rukh sells this idea through the TVCs

Watch the Ad here : Nerolac 
So far Nerolac's major marketing issue was its inability to create a meaningful differentiation from Asian Paints. While Asian Paints established itself on the Color platform , Nerolac was confused about its own strength. This was reflected in most of their campaigns. Although the campaigns were well made, these ads did not reflect any image for Nerolac. Now the brand seems to focus on the Environment Friendly Healthy Paint as its core positioning platform.

The question is whether this positioning is important and meaningful for the consumers. It is true that Indian consumers are aware of the harmful effects of paint fumes. But this issue happens only during paining and after the painting is done , the harmful effects are hardly noticed. So will a focus on the Healthy Paint attribute be considered a powerful differentiator ?
Healthy Paint is a meaningful differentiator but not a powerful or sustainable one. Asian Paints or any other competitor can easily achieve parity with this feature. Infact Nippon Paint is already running a campaign for its Odour free paint  product.

In comparison with Asian Paint's focus on colors, Nerolac needed a much more powerful emotional differentiator rather than a eco-friendly platform because eco-friendly has now become a most used one rather a passe . Every brand talks about its eco-consciousness in one way or other. So putting that as the main positioning may not stand against a powerful competitor like Asian Paints.

Having said that , the presence of  Shah Rukh Khan will give a terrific boost to the brand. But this boost will be because of the celebrity power rather than the brand power and will fade when the association stops. The brand have adopted the tagline " Kuch Change Karo, Chalo Paint karo " roughly meaning, " Change Something, Start Painting  " ( !!!!!!) . Frankly I did not exactly got the idea behind the tagline. The tagline is not at all related to the core positioning of a Healthy Paint. So there is some confusion regarding the core brand manthra . Theoretically  the taglines are derived from Core Brand Manthra and the lack of that core manthra is the reason for most of positioning errors.

On a branding perspective Nerolac still needs to identify meaningful positioning to beat Asian Paints. Environment Friendly or Healthy Paint is an idea whose time has not come to India as of now.

Brand Update : Comfort finds comfort in Madhuri Dixit

The fabric conditioner brand from HUL- Comfort has roped in the former Bollywood Diva Madhuri Dixit as the brand ambassador. The former Bollywood superstar was on a hiatus after her marriage is now on a comeback trail.

Comfort which is the niche brand from HUL was rolled out nationally in 2010 after a long period of test marketing. The brand was soft launched in some southern states as early as 2008 and it took a long time for HUL to decide national roll out. 

It is interesting to see Madhuri Dixit endorsing a product like Comfort. Interesting because she was endorsing the flagship soap brand Lux during her peak stardom days. Now she has come back on a new role of a homemaker endorsing a very small brand from HUL. 

As discussed in my earlier post on this brand, Comfort is a niche brand and the usage base is restricted to certain segments of the Rs 12700 crore Indian fabric care market. The product is priced at a premium and will be attractive to those homemakers who would like to add some extra care  to their clothes. The campaign also addresses customers in the same platform. 

The inclusion of a celebrity endorser will enhance the visibility of the brand and is expected to bring in many first-time users. Unlike the western markets, washing is not considered a chore in India. For Indian homemakers, washing clothes is a serious activity. They take pride when the clothes are meticulously clean and shining. This unique cultural trait is the opportunity that Comfort is trying to tap.

There are many factors that prevent the growth of such specialist product categories. The main reasons being inertia and price. These premium pricing coupled with the extra effort involved in using the product often make consumers postpone the patronage of such products. HUL hopes that the endorsement from Madhuri Dixit will expand the usage base for Comfort and bring in lot of new users into its fold.

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