Louis Philippe : The Upper Crest

Brand : Louis Philippe
Company: Aditya Birla Nuvo
Agency:Contract

Brand Count : 179

If you want to know how to create a brand, Study this brand. Louis Philippe can be termed as a brand which has an iconic status in India. The brand was launched in 1989 and it created the super premium segment in the Rs 5000 crore men's readymade category.The brand originally belonged to Madura garments and was later acquired by Indian Rayons ( now Aditya Birla Nuvo)

The brand has satisfied all requisite parameters for a successful brand. The brand element, the segmentation, positioning and the promotions were perfect. The brand when launched had a clear vision. The launch coincided with the liberalisation although the later played minimum role in the brand's success. Louis Philippe was obsessed with quality from its birth itself.The brand used the finest cloth and the craftsmanship was exquisite. The brand is the first to launch international fashion trends in the Indian market.

The brand is known for its craftsmanship and attention to detail. The brand has a life that beats the other brands by miles. Those ardent fans of Louis Philippe will vouch for the life of the shirt. After repeated washes, seldom this shirt lets you down.It is this value that had captured the minds of the Indian consumer.

Louis Philippe was positioned as an aspirational brand. The brand element, Crest has now become a symbol of success. You wear the shirt with the upper crest, you make a statement of being well dressed. Seldom brands achieve that status.
The brand initially positioned as "Signed Designer wear" later extended the positioning to create a sense of exclusivity. The brand became the symbol of being " Arrived". The premium pricing and the exclusive Brand element reinforced the premium image of this brand.
Louis Philippe also made sure that it offer maximum value for the premium it charges. The brand uses only Suvin, Egyptian or Pima Cotton. The brand is also the first to launch iconic collections. The Black and White Collections (1996) and the super premium Gods and Kings (2003 ) ensured that the fans are excited about the brand. Gods and Kings range is priced 100% premium over the other premium brands.Another blockbuster product from the brand's stable was the PermaPress range of 100% wrinkle free shirts which became a huge hit with the executives.

The brand primarily relies on print ads in magazines for promotions .The first ever TVC was created in 2000 carried the message that the brand is unreachable for " lesser ones". The print ads were carefully drafted and in all the ads, the brand was the star and not the models. Initially the brand was primarily known as the shirt brand but later it easily extended itself to become a complete menswear brand. The brand faces tough competition from the likes of Van Heusen, Colorplus, Park Avenue, Zodiac ,Reid and Taylor and the list goes on. The future for this brand will depend on how it will stay afloat in the increasingly crowded market. Readymade markets have little entry barriers. Any marketer can enter this market with a brand. This can create issues such as sustaining the differentiation and staying in the minds of the customer.

Related Brands

Zodiac
Indian Terrain
Colorplus
Monte Carlo
John Players
Peter England
Reid and Taylor

Source: Superbrands,adityabirlanuvo.com,agencyfaqs
image courtsey: Superbrands,agencyfaqs

Indian Terrain : The New Indian Spirit

Brand : Indian Terrain
Company: Celebrity Fashions
Agency: Contract

Brand Count : 170

A four page pull out that came along with Economic Times Dated 29/11/06 made me look up. A four page advertisement featuring a brand Indian Terrain endorsed by the latest bollywood poster boy Kunal Kapoor.

Indian Terrain was launched in 2000 by Celebrity Fashions ltd: a leading exporter of garments. The brand occupied a significant share in the consumer space with in a short span of time. The brand had clocked Rs 35 crore with in 4 years of launch. The company which promotes this brand is a leading exporter to all major textile giants and is a 100 crore company.

I have noticed the large hoardings of Indian Terrain when I drive to the College but was sceptical about the future of the brand. I was not sure whether the brand has any serious plans for itself. The 4 page ad changed all that.
The brand is competing for space in the Rs 800 crore premium men's apparel market in India. The market currently is dominated by brands like Van heusen, Lious Phillippe, Arrow, Color Plus etc. The market is very juicy but the main entry barrier is the clout of the established brands. Hence it is common sense to understand that only those brands will succeed which has lot of money for brand building and some clutter busting positioning.

Indian Terrain after its launch had a good run up. The brand had a growth of around 15% every year and is reported as one of the fastest growing brands in the category.
Indian Terrain is positioned as a brand for the global Indian.The product is positioned as a stylish brand with focus on design and having an eye on fashion. The brand has a clear target segment in Men aged 25-40 who has an individualistic persona and who is a global Indian. The products strength is its quality and styling. Since the company is famous for its global clientele, quality will not be an issue.
Building a brand in the Apparel market is no kid's play. With a plethora of brand with excellent brand equity and quality, getting into the "Choice Set" of the customer is a herculean task. Indian Terrain had managed to get into the list very fast. The brand is said to have a clear idea of where it want to be. The owners envisage the brand to be worth Rs 100 crore by 2007. The brand was initially positioned as a Wear to Work brand. Inspired work wear was the motto. The idea is to relate success with the brand. The current positioning is tying the brand to being true to one self ( with a dash of Patriotism). The tagline is " The New Indian Spirit".The brand ambassador Kunal Kapoor personifies this brand value. What I liked most in the ads is that the brand is not eclipsed by the star. And wisely the brand is looking at print to built the equity. I have always felt that print works better in Apparel than TVC ( Raymonds may be an exception).

The fact that Anil Ambani has bought some stake in Celebrity Fashion shows that the brand has serious backing to fund its growth. In an unique association ,Bennett Coleman & Co ( Times of India group) has also a 12% stake in the company. That brings out the secret of the 4 page ad in ET.The association with the media giant will give the brand the right media to promote itself.

source:economictimes,businessline,unitedgarmentsnews,agencyfaqs

Cerelac : In a Tough Terrain

Brand : Cerelac
Company: Nestle
Agency: McCann Healthcare


Brand Count 136

Cerelac is the market leader in the Rs 3oo crore Baby Cereal market in India. With a market share of 85%, the brand have a huge equity in the Indian market. The brand right now is facing the worst nightmare of its lifetime .

In Kotler's Marketing Management text, he elaborates on the various external environmental factors that affect marketing . In that chapter, he talks about the regulation and laws affecting the marketing of a product. Cerelac is a classic example of Regulations negatively impacting the marketing of a brand.

The infact foods market is a very sensitive market. Since it is concerning infants , the stakeholder's interests are high. In India the market is regulated by an act IMS act of 1992. The act lays down the rules for marketing infant foods and other products in the market. Earlier the law prohibited any advertising and marketing campaigns for baby foods for babies under 4 months of age.Recently the act was amended and restricted any promotion of foods for infants upto the age of 2 years. This amendments was a severe blow for Cerelac whose target market was infants.

Along with this regulatory factor , other factors also affected this brand. The major influencers of this product ;the doctors began recommending normal food for infants. Another major influencer WHO began global campaign on promoting breast milk and the government began to demarket milk substitutes.

The marketers (generally speaking) were also responsible for creating such a situation. The brands were promoted using claims not validated and there were also quality and health issues that was ignored. Seeing all the chubby babies on the ads, it is said that mothers started feeding infants with artificial foods that may have caused health problems. ( I have not yet come across any such serious health issues in kids who took these foods).

The new amendment prohibits use of baby models in the packs and restricts any form of promotions including sponsoring doctor conferences, surrogate ads, events etc. For sure this may have a huge impact on the market for such kind of products.

Sensing the threat to the category of Cerelac, Nestle has launched a brand Ceremeal ( a porridge) for kids aged above 2 years.

Now Cerelac sells through word of mouth publicity. The product will sell because there is a need for such nutritional infant foods in the market. Even there is going to be a huge potential for infant milk substitutes because of changing lifestyle and the fact that there is an increase in the number of working mothers.

Cerelac as a brand has not written off its future. In 2003, the brand launched a new formulation Cerelac 123 aimed at different stages in a baby's growth chart.

Since the brand is not advertised, the positioning is not very obvious. The brand is basically positioned as a highly nutritious food for infants.

So here the million dollar question for the marketer is this :

How do you promote such a product where there cannot be any promotion?

Surrogate advertising will be caught by the civil society workers and unnecessary controversy will be created. Events are also ruled out.

As of now the company rely on the shelf promotion for the product. The company has launched lot of flavours and variants in attractive colorful packages that give a banner effect at the shops.

The product is priced at a premium and does not have any sales promotions giving the company value growth.Since the brand is facing little competition, the lack of media promotions may not hurt the company too much.

One thing I have noticed is that the brand has a cute mascot or brand character . It is a blue teddy ( I am not sure whether it is named). If the brand wants to aggressively promote, then Teddy can show the way. Start giving away this small teddy with Cerelac and kids are gonna love it. The marketer can do wonders if they have a cute Mascot /Character.

Cerelac has one, use it.

source: businessline, agencyfaqs, magindia, nestleindia

Disclaimer : This is an analysis of the Cerelac brand in the point of view of a marketer, not a promotion of this brand.

Timex : What Next

Brand : Timex
Company: Timex India
Agency: JWT

Brand Count : 125

In the 30 Million units per year Indian watch industry, Timex is a brand is living its second life. Launched in 1992 as a joint venture between Titan and US based Timex, this brand was virtually dead during the early 2000. The company suffered huge losses and the brand was pushed to oblivion.

Timex is America's number one brand. in 2003, the brand celebrated the selling of a whopping 1 billion watches. With a history dating as early as 1857,the brand is known for its technological excellence. Experts say that in US, Timex is to watches what Microsoft is to Computers.

In India, Timex is a different story all together. Launched as a mass market brand, Timex was in rough terrain from the start itself. In the previous blogs, I have mentioned brands which failed because of Premium pricing. Here Timex suffered because it sold cheap during the initial years. Although Indian consumers are value conscious, low price = low quality is the attitude that still pervades. It is not the price but the VALUE that matters to Indian consumers.The initial mass market focus diluted the international image and brand equity of Timex. So when Timex and Titan parted ways, Timex was having zero brand equity.

Timex was the master of innovation. In 1992 Timex brought the INDIGLO feature in watches . Indiglo is the worlds first electroluminescent watch which gives a beautiful green light at the press of a button. Now 70% of Timex watches have indiglo feature as a standard. Besides Indiglo, Timex along with Microsoft launched the Datalink feature that allowed downloads to the watch from a PC. Timex Ironman is the world's largest selling sports watch.

Timex brand is known for its style , multifunctionality and durability. The watch is technologically superior than any other watch brand. Timex is used by the Who is Who of Celebrities from Bill Clinton to Bill Gates, Terminator to George Bush, Brett Lee to Harsha Bhogle. Even with these brand qualities, Timex is still no where compared to Titan in India. That is because the brand owners failed to position the brand properly. In the initial years, the focus was the volume which diluted the brand and then came the lack of positioning of the brand.

Timex have the age old positioning of " Technology that keeps you ticking". In India, the brand has changed the tagline frequently. At one point of time, the tagline was " Time on your side" . Now the brand comes with the tagline " What next". Constant changes in the positioning statement will inevitably confuse the customer. Globally the brand has the USP of a innovation leader . Technology first was the brand motto. Along with this the brand is perceived to be stylish and durable. But sadly in India, Timex failed to communicate its core brand values to the consumer.

2003 saw a rejuvenation in Timex. The company restructured and a new marketing team was in place. The brand was repositioned as a premium watch and the sub 1500 range was done away with. The brand then concentrated on its core values. Timex have the range of watches like, Matrix, Expedition series, Brett Lee collection, Big Bold and Beautiful collection etc.

But even during that time also the promotions were not upto the mark. For example there was a range of Watches with a feature of Perpectual calender that does not need any adjustment. Timex spent lot of money on this feature but did not highlight the brand value. When Citizen positioned its Ecodrive, the watch was given more prominence not the feature. For the perpetual range the tagline was changed to " Time on your side". Timex also gave importance to the retail push by opening lot of Shop within Shop outlets named Club Timex.

Timex is running a new commercial for the Expedition range which looks good. But for that range the tagline is " What next". I am now pretty confused about the real intended positioning of Timex. May be the company wants to say to customer that Time moves so does Timex. In my humble opinion, Timex should align the brand with its global positioning. Timex globally has the tagline of " Be There Now". Since the Indian consumer is aligned to global consumer characteristics, Timex will benefit by having a global positioning since watches are considered now as a fashion accessory.

Source : Businessline, Timex.com, agencyfaqs,

Hercules : Ride Your Passion

Brand : Hercules
Company: TI Cycles India Ltd
Agency : Mudra

Indian Cycle market is estimated to be around 2000 crores. Hercules is one of the oldest cycle brands in India. Hercules was launched in India in 1949. The Indian cycle market was a growing market those days because it was the main mode of transportation while motorcycles and cars were not affordable to Indian consumers.

The cycle market can be broadly divided into
1. Kids cycle
2. Adults cycle (old roadster type)
3. Youth’s cycle (girls and boys versions)

The cycle market was skewed towards rural market and the market is very price sensitive. The leadership position of TI cycles was taken away by Hero cycles in the nineties. TI cycles have brands like Hercules and BSA to its fold.

Indian cycle market is facing a major crisis now. The opening up of economy has changed the psychographics of Indian consumers. With the advent of affordable motorcycles and cars, the industry which was hit hard was the cycle industry. Since consumers have shifted to more sophisticated mode of transportation, the cycle market was shrinking and became confined to rural market. In the urban market the cycles were used mainly by kids aged 6-17.
The market for cycles for youth is virtually killed with the entry of mopeds and low end motorcycles. The rural market is also facing pressure with more mopeds and motorcycles exploring that market.
The two major brands of TI cycles were Hercules and BSA. While Hercules was the ordinary adult cycle, BSA focused on the youth segment with more cotemporary look.

With Hero cycles claiming the leadership position in the mid segment of cycles in India. TI cycles were in a tight spot.TI cycle had two choices,
1. To focus on Kids cycles and rural market
2, To focus on urban market.

TI chose to tap the urban market which was virtually at the decline stage. It chose the age old Hercules brand to revive the urban cycle market. Hercules brand is originally owned by Raleigh UK. TI decided to change the brand Hercules as an Urban brand. In 1992 it launched the Hercules MTB ,the first mountain terrain bike of India. The new product was backed by some cool ads from Mudra. The ads raised the stature of Hercules brand to an aspirational level and was targeted at youth aged 14-19. The consumer insight was that the youth prefer cycle which is more masculine and the positioning also was in tune with this insight.

But a problem with cycles is that it is easy for the competitor to clone your product innovations. Hero cycles matched TI in all product launches with their own version. In 1998-2000 Hercules MTB was relaunched as a more adult like cycle.
TI hit upon the idea of tapping the adult while launching the Hercules MTB range. Since there is no incentive for adults to use cycles, the task was to create a cycling culture in the market. First the product has to appeal to adults and there should be a need to use this product. Thus came the idea of promoting cycles for leisure and exercise. This idea enabled Hercules to come out with lot of new products and value additions. The cycles were made more masculine, more comfort and promotions aimed at creating a cycling culture.
TI used the multi brand strategy to counter the threat of Hero cycles, Using BSA and Hercules, TI was able to command the premium segment of the cycle market. The geared cycles, BSA ladybird for girls, BSA city for 30+ city rider, BSA i bike designed in Italy, cycle with shock absorbers, cycle without chain etc ensured that Hercules and BSA is known for innovation and created some excitement in the otherwise dull cycle market.The latest BSA Foldman is India’s first foldable cycle . Hercules has roped in Yuvraj Singh to endorse the cycle. Although I have criticised celebrity endorsements, using Yuvraj singh makes perfect sense for a sagging market.

These innovations have helped TI to still hold 30% market share and a major share of premium value added cycle segment. But the path is not so easy to survive. One of the major task is to create the culture of cycling in India. In the West, there is a cycling culture while in China and Japan it is a major mode of transportation. With the increasing fuel prices, congested roads, increasing health consciousness are indicators that there is going to be a reinvention of cycling in India. It takes patience and money to ride that reinvention and Hercules is all set to ride that wave.