GilletteLabs : Shaving Made Sensational

 Brand : Gillettelabs

Company : P&G

Brand Analysis Count: #624

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tata.ev : Move with Meaning

Corporate Brand: Tata. ev

Company : Tata Motors

Brand Analysis Count: # 623

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brand Update : Mamy Poko Pants becomes Indian Diaper Market Leader

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