Duckback : Another Name for Quality

Brand : Duckback
Company : Bengal Waterproof Ltd

Brand Analysis Count : 386

Duckback is a heritage brand. The brand have a rich history dating back to 75 years. Duckback is a brand owned by Bengal Waterproof Ltd ( BWL). BWL is a pioneer in water proofing products in India. The company, which was founded by Mr Surendra Mohan Bose in 1920, is best known for its Duckback brand of rainwears.

Duckback brand evokes a nostalgia in me because it was an aspirational brand for me during my school days. But since Duckback was a premium rainwear, I had to settle with the local look alike.

As a brand, Duckback had huge brand equity. It was synonymous with quality raincoats. The brand had a strong association with quality and consumers were willing to pay a premium for the quality offered by Duckback.

But in the marketing front, Duckback was a laidback marketer. The brand spent very little on the promotions front. In an interveiw published in the Business Line, the company officials admitted that the brand was an arm chair marketer since demand always exceeded supply.

Rainwear market is a highly fragmented one and is dominated by local players. Duckback is the one of the few raincoat brands in the organized segment . I don't really remember any famous rainwear brands other than Duckback.

Duckback as a brand faces the issue of seasonality. These products are sold only during rainy seasons.Hence managing seasonality is a big issue for companies selling these kind of products.

Duckback infact have a very diversified portfolio. The brand have a product range of over 62 products ranging from rainwear, boots,boats, tents,baby mats, medical beds , school bags ,luggages etc. The brand is also a supplier to defence forces. So the brand has managed the seasonality issue through a diversified portfolio.

But Duckback is predominantly known to the consumer world for its raincoats and school bags. Although the brand is known for its quality products, it had done little to develop the rainwear category as such. If you look at this rainwear category, we still see those poorly designed stale raincoats . In the developed markets, rainwear is a designer category which is positioned as part of one's wardrobe. Hence companies come out with well designed raincoats and bags which often is considered as style statement.

But in India, Raincoat is not considered as a part of your wardrobe. You will have a raincoat, if you ride a bike. But if you travel by bus or when you walk, raincoat is not at all considered. I have seen in the west, people wearing raincoats while walking in the rain. So in a sense, there has been no attempt to expand the user base of this product . The marketers so far has been concentrating on the bike commuters for selling this category.

If you look at an ordinary commuter in a bus or train, it is a nightmare to travel during rainy season. Umbrellas help but not much to protect your clothes and especially if you travel by bus, you will be drenched after the travel. I have always thought of using a raincoat while traveling in rain ( walk or bus) because it is so convenient but did not dared to use because it was not common for a person to use a raincoat while walking. I feel that there is a hidden need for smart rainwears targeting those people who travel in local transport and also for those who prefer to walk.

In the branding front also, Duckback never capitalized on the tremendous equity it had. Duckback could easily projected itself as a " Offroader " brand like Woodlands. But it never invested in building it as an umbrella brand .

Duckback still have a huge potential both as an umbrella brand for rainwear products and also as a rugged offraod brand. The only thing the brand should do is to invest in building the brand.

Ad courtsey : Cutting the Chai

Related Brand
Woodlands

Marketing To Indian Youth : Youth Demographics

This is the demographics of Indian youth as per the census 2001.
According to news reports, the Youth Population to the total population is 41.05% as per the census 2001.

Many interesting statistics regarding Youth demographics are available in the website : Youthportal.gov.in

Brand Update : Bru

Bru has recently launched a new television campaign in line with its positioning of " Happiness Begins with Bru".

Watch the commercial here : Bru

This is one of the best commercial I have seen in recent times. Why I liked this TVC is the touching slice of life theme which is derived from careful consumer observation.

The new commercial projects Bru as the " Mood Maker ". The brand has the tagline " A little Bru makes your mood brighter ".

The ad shows the tired homemaker giving the Bru Coffee to her husband ( as usual the relaxed laid back one) and after taking a sip, the hubby was lifted to such a blissful mood that he slowly massages his tired wife's feet.

In my own experience, I think that men usually are less empathetic to homemaker's problems. While I expect everything to be perfectly done by my wife, often I forget the fact that she is also very much tired as I am. And men's love towards their betterhalf is always governed by his moods.

So the sudden empathetic reaction by the husband in the commercial effectively captures the goodness of Bru and it is right on target. It is also a break from the usual stereotypes of homemakers and strongly connects with the new generation women.

Kudos to the marketing team.

Related Brand
Bru

Best Marketing Practice : The Death of a Salesman

"Sir, I don't want to be in sales " :- This is a common statement made by most of the MBA students during the placement season. Sales Jobs are counted as the last desperate option by most of the management students. Recession or not, Sales Jobs were never in vogue.

That is one side of the story.

Yesterday I went to a new generation bank. Suddenly I was surrounded by a couple of staffs asking me whether I would be interested in starting an SIP. I said I need time to think about it but the staffs keep on pressurizing even stooping down to plain begging.

Sales Function is now passing through one of the worst phase since its evolution. Marketers are responsible for this downfall of one of the most critical functions of a company. Sales is the point where the company meets its customers. It is the ultimate moment of truth for any firm. But it is sad that this function has stooped down to a point of no return.

In office and public forums, complaints are galore about the high pressure selling tactics unprofessionally implemented by firms. Call center executives calling up prospects and just blurting out their sales talks without even seeking permission. Insurance Executives trying to sell products that consumer doesn't need. All these have created so much irritation among consumers that it is now difficult for a sales person to get even an appointment.

Consumers have become more offensive than defensive . Historically consumers hate being sold . Now they have taken up arms against the salesperson's high pressure sales appoach.

It is a truth that organizations cannot survive without Selling Function. It is also true that sometimes consumers have to be persuaded to buy products. Sales Managers have to realize that things are getting out of their hands.

It is time to go back to the basics.

Have you ever met a sales guy who have asked relevant questions before making his sales presentation ?
Have you ever met a sales person who refused to sell a product because he thinks it will not match your requirement ?

Have you ever met a sales person who suggest competitor's product because it suits you better ?

Have you ever sat through a sales talk and actually liked the talk?

These situations have become rare. Because firms doesn't have a plan for the customers. Sales professionals are too much bothered about numbers that they don't spent a time thinking about their customers. Understanding consumers is the last thing in the mind of the salespeople.
Just by changing the designation to Relationship Manager will not create relationships. It needs to be ingrained in the sales person's attitude and approach.

It all boils down to developing an ethical sales culture in organizations. It takes lot of courage to resist selling wrong products to wrong consumers. It takes lot of pain to think long term and suffer short term loss of sales. It takes lot of investment to create a customer and retain him compared to selling and forgetting .

The era of foot-in-the- door sales approach is over. Consumers have more information than the sales professionals. They are acutely aware of the positives and negatives of offers. Hence it is time we move to the real spirit of sales.

Let marketers take a vow not to mis-sell. Let us try understand the consumer and then offer solutions. Let the sales persons be given the courage of losing a sale and gaining a consumer. Let us view consumers as humans than sales figures.Let us first take permission and then sell.
Let the sales professional be evaluated on qualitative terms more than plain figures. Let the organizations have the courage to think beyong quarterly sales figures.

The ultimate success of sales function is where consumers call up the company to fix appoinment with the sales professionals. Can you ever dream of such a situation ?

Let us try to sell well and sell good.

Brand Update : Coca Cola

Coca Cola has launched their new campaign in India recently. The new campaign features the brand ambassador Gautam Gambhir and comes with a new positioning.

Watch the new TVC here : Coca Cola

The new campaign is a part of the global communication campaign initiated by Coca Cola known as Open Happiness.The Open Happiness campaign is an extension of the Coke Side of Life campaign of last year. Open Happiness campaign is based on the notion that Coke brings happiness to life. The brand tries to communicate the idea of " Enjoying life's simple pleasures".

In the press release, Coke says that " Central to Open Happiness is the notion of enjoying an ice cold coke and taking a small break from the day to connect with others ".
See the press release here : Open Happiness Campaign

The big idea behind this platform is that Coca Cola offers fun and refreshment whenever you need it.

India is also a market where the company has extended the Open Happiness Communication platform.The latest campaign is the first one on this positioning platform.

And a totally disappointing one. The agency has done total injustice to the wonderful idea that Open Happiness envisages.

Instead of connecting Coke with Happiness , the new ad puts Coke in a dangerous position. The central theme of the new ad is that " Coke ke sath Dost free " means " A friend free with Coke ".

The ad shows Gautam helping out the owner of an deserted store by putting a display that " You get a friend free with Coke " and people starts showing up because of the free offer !!!!

I am not being cynical or critical but here are my concerns about the current theme.

In my little understanding about the Indian youth psyche , the new generation youngsters spent lot of time hanging out with their friends. The new gen likes to have lot of friends and is also influenced heavily by their peers.

And having no friends is UNCOOL. Here Coke is somehow telling the consumers that the users of Coke are those who are in desperate need of friends . And the concept of " Free Dost with Coke" is discounting the value of both Friends and Coke. Why should you give something free ( even symbolic) with Coke. And will you accept a " Free " friend ? And the characters depicted in the ads look like lonely desperate guys searching for friends which is also UNCOOL as far as the younger generation is concerned.

The Indian version of Open Happiness platform has failed to understand the essence of this positioning and miserably failed to connect the concept of happiness and Coke.

Nilkamal Plastics : Creating Value Through Convenience

Corporate Brand : Nilkamal
Agency : Triton

Brand Analysis Count : 385

Nilkamal is a company that successfully branded a commodity. Nilkamal is the market leader in the plastic molded furniture segment in India. The brand has a long history dating back to 1934. The company was founded by Mr Vrajlal Parekh. Mr Vrajlal Parekh started manufacturing metal buttons from his small factory. In 1950, he started producing plastic products and the company was called Standard Plastics. Nilkamal Plastics was born in 1956 and became and independent company in 1981.

The Indian home furniture market is huge with a market size of around Rs 14000 crores. Majority of the market is in the unorganized sector. Nilkamal operates in the moulded furniture market which is around Rs 950 crores. According to reports , 40% of which is in the unorganized sector.
Nilkamal is known for its plastic chairs . But the company is also a major player in manufacturing crates which are used for commercial purposes.

Nilkamal is a brand that popularised the use of plastic chairs at homes . Earlier households used to purchase only wooden /steel furnitures. But Nilkamal was able to break that mindset . Nilkamal did this by creating good designs and also taking care of the quality factor.

Households earlier was averse to plastic chairs because it looked ugly and was not perceived to be strong. Nilkamal changed that perception by introducing well designed chairs .This was backed by heavy promotions using various media.

In a market which was dominated by unorganized players, the brand building gave Nilkamal more mileage and also premium prices.The success of Nilkamal prompted many players to enter the segment. Since the designs could be easily copied, it was difficult for Nilkamal to sustain the growth momentum. Nilkamal is the market leader in the segment with a share of over 37%.But the market for moulded furnitures has become stagnant.


In 2005, the brand moved from molded furniture to home solutions. The brand introduced knocked down furniture and also sofa sets , dining tables ,baby chairs which became popular. The brand was slowly moving towards becoming a lifestyle furniture player.

The company also introduced a new range of office furniture brand Novella. During this time, the brand ventured into retail business by launching large retail format under the brand name @home. These retail outlets showcased the new range of home solutions from the company.

Recently the brand also launched a range of plastic Cupboards and cabinets branded as Freedom.
Nikamal is a brand that is heavily associated with plastic furniture. The brand has a high credibility among the consumers. The major problem faced by the brand is that plastic is associated with cheap furniture and this has prevented the penetration of this product category into high -margin household furniture segment.

But I think there is a huge potential for Nilkamal in developing itself to a highly creative furniture company. As a consumer, I have often found branded furniture to be terribly overpriced for the quality it delivers.Branded wooden furniture are out of reach for many middle class customers. Plastic furnitures lack the glamour and home makers tried to avoid these products. Hence there is a huge potential for affordable designer furniture. Currently this market is being captured by cheap imports from China. There is a flood of imported furniture which looks good and priced affordably.

Nilkamal have the brand equity to tap this potential. Although it is heavily associated with plastics, it could leverage that equity in creating an affordable range of home solutions to the Indian middle class.