Brand Update : Titan does an Eco-Drive with HTSE

Aiming to consolidate the leadership position in the Indian watch industry and to further thrust the brand's attempt to enter the premium watch segment targeting young consumers ,Titan launched a new series of watches branded as HTSE.

HTSE stands for High Tech Self Energised . 

Titan has been trying out various strategies to enter the lucrative luxury  and  premium segment in the Indian watch market. Titan was always associated with the premium segment targeting the middle and upper middle class of the social strata. The Luxury segment of the market is now occupied by the global iconic brands like Cartier, Rado, Omega etc. Titan tried to enter this market with the brand Xylys recently. HTSE is an attempt from the brand to tap the lucrative segment of upwardly mobile young Indian consumer.

HTSE range of watches is characterized by its ability to energize itself using the light from the surroundings. That means the watch does not run on a battery. The brand is targeting the techie youth who would like to flaunt their gizmos ( source  : afaqs). 

The brand is currently running a campaign featuring the brand ambassador - Aamir Khan

Watch the ad here : Titan HTSE

The ads are undoubtedly well made and gives an ultra-cool image for the new range. Aamir Khan perfectly gels with the brand. Aamir and Titan can be termed as a classic example of a perfect celebrity-brand match.

The technology that drives HTSE is not something new. Citizen was a pioneer in bringing this technology to the watches through its Eco-Drive range of watches. Eco-Drive saved the Citizen brand from near-death and gave the brand a tremendous boost in the Indian market. Eco-Drive was positioned as a sophisticated ultra-cool watch and the brand caught the attention of the young Indian consumers who wanted to flaunt their savvy personality. While Titan was perceived as a great brand, it was never considered techy or ultra-modern .Titan felt that such a serious persona will alienate the young consumers who look for exciting , modern brands.  

According to Business Standard ( Link) Titan was working on technology to compete with Eco-Drive.And that effort has been fulfilled in the launch of HTSE. HTSE thus fills in a big positioning gap in the brand. The brand now can boast of being as technically advanced as any other watch brand in the world. 

One of the interesting factor that was noticed was the branding of this range. Titan chose to brand this range using an acronym HTSE. I am not really convinced about the effectiveness of this naming strategy. The brand could have chosen a proper name for the range rather than a dull acronym. It could have used HTSE as an ingredient brand and extended this ingredient brand to support all its other range of watches. So by using HTSE as a sub-brand, the company has limited the technology to a range of watches. So every watch that runs on this technology would come under HTSE range. If it had used HTSE as ingredient brand, that would have been a powerful differentiator and can be leveraged across the various sub-brands of Titan. Eco-Drive is used by Citizen as an ingredient brand and uses this technology to support all the range of watches. 

However as a sub-brand, HTSE has the potential to further Titan's leadership position among the lifestyle segment. This technology will help Titan to reposition itself as a exciting brand rather than the current image of a serious brand.

Related Brand

Titan

Marketing Practice Ranked As One of Top 10 Indian Blogs

It is with great pleasure to inform my dear readers that this blog has been rated among the Top 10 Indian Blogs ( Individual) by the reputed Global PR Firm Edelman.

This has been possible only because of the support and encouragement of the readers of this blog. Thanks a ton for the support and patronage. 

Brand Update : RIP Sparsh (2006-2008)

Sparsh which was expected to give a tough competition to Johnson & Johnson is history. Infact the brand was dead within a year of its launch. The brand was silently put to rest by Marico and there is no mention of the brand in the company website.

Sparsh was a serious foray by Marico in the baby personal care segment. The segment is hugely attractive with a major disadvantage - which is the presence of Johnson & Johnson. And it is really amazing to see that the brand equity of J&J is such a powerful entry barrier that even the best of FMCG marketers cannot break the stronghold of J&J in the segment.
Marico is not an ordinary player. The company had proven its marketing acumen with its successful brand portfolio. But in the case of Sparsh, the company had to beat a retreat. And beating a retreat in the baby segment market is one of the biggest mistake that  a brand can make.By withdrawing, the brand is breaking the trust factor which is very vital in surviving in this segment.

Sparsh could not survive because mothers preferred to be loyal to J&J because of the trust that J&J brand had with the consumers. It is not easy for a new brand to break that bonding. Wipro tried with its Baby Soft but was not successful. Now Sparsh bite the dust fighting the giant. 

So is it not possible to fight a giant like J&J ?. Theoretically it is possible. But it takes long years and millions of cash to be the profitable No.2 in the market . Not many companies were willing to burn that much cash. Although Sparsh is now dead, there are reports of a possible rejuvenation of the brand. It would have been wise if the brand fought really hard and stayed put in the market rather than surrender meekly within a year of launch.

Related Brand
Sparsh

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.
Related Brand
Mcvities

Brand Update : All Out Kills the Frog

In a sad development, the new owners of the brand All Out - M/s SC Johnson has killed the most powerful brand element of All Out- The Frog. The new campaign of All Out does not feature the famous All Out Frog which was instrumental in popularizing the brand across various segments.

From the birth of the brand, the frog has been the unique identifier and differentiator for All Out. The character was very much instrumental in conveying the effectiveness of the brand. 

People began to instantly understand the frog's symbolic meaning. But the Frog has now moved into history. The current campaign not only excludes the frog but the entire positioning of the brand has been changed. Instead of the frog, the brand is now following the typical laser effect that all other brands shows in their respective ads . The brand now has the tagline " All round protection for the family " and has moved away from being the " Yamraj for Mosquitoes ".

The removal of All Out frog is a definite retrograde step for the brand. The learned minds of the company forgot to appreciate the effort and the money that has been spent on creating such a powerful brand element. The frog was also a powerful differentiator for the brand. All these has been removed in one stroke. I don't understand the rationale or logic behind killing such a powerful differentiator . If that brand element was replaced by another powerful element, it would have been fine. But rather, the new campaign is nothing but a copycat of other similar brand's advertisements. So in a way the company has found an ingenious way to kill a powerful brand.

Related Brand

 All Out

Brand Update

Brand Update : Grow Up to Verito

After the rebranding of Logan to Verito, Mahindra has undertaken the most difficult task of positioning the new brand Verito. The task is tough because the brand needs to distance itself from its earlier avataar - Logan ( atleast in the positioning). And the latest campaign was able to do justice to the task of creating a new platform for the brand. 

Watch the ad here : Mahindra Verito

The ad takes the brand out of the Logan's rational positioning and puts some personality  into the brand. This is very significant for the brand because Logan was positioned purely as a rational brand and Verito needs to create a distinct personality away from Logan. Mahindra thus chose to do that literally by bringing in a personality called the Verito Man. Verito Man although has some legacy qualities of Logan like rationality, the brand has become more human. The brand has a new tagline " Grow Upto Verito" asking the small car owners to move up to the brand. The brand now is talking to the owners of small cars who are contemplating to move to a bigger car.

For a start, the ad seems to be good.The idea of a Brand Man is nothing new and idea has been used many times by different brands.In the case of Verito , this concept of Verito Man can be used to create a brand personality which will be critical for the brand's future.

 Verito's prospective buyers anyway is not going to be allured by the ads but will be driven by the logic of buying a value for money sedan. But Verito Man will definitely bring the brand into their choice set.

Soon after the rebranding, lot of Verito is on the road and that is a good sign for the brand. 

Ruf N Tuf : Struggling to Survive

Brand : Ruf N Tuf
Company : Arvind Mills

Brand Analysis Count : # 488

Ruf N Tuf  was an innovative brand which virtually revolutionized the Indian jeans market. It was also a brand which ultimately failed to capitalize on the tremendous growth that it created. Born in 1995, Ruf N Tuf was India's first Ready To Stitch jeans brand. Ruf N Tuf along with Newport Jeans virtually made the jeans category penetrate into the semi-urban and rural markets.

During the 90's jeans gained much prominence in the urban markets. Although there were enough room for all the players in the market, Arvind mills felt the need to expand the market by targeting the rural/semi urban market. The strategy was partly driven by the increased competition from the urban market by well known global labels.

Ruf N Tuf was a brilliant idea. The concept was to sell the ready-to-stitch jeans to the consumers who were not accustomed to buying readymade clothes. The ready-to-stitch brand was very affordable and broke the price barrier for this category. Jeans were no longer an aspirational product but became affordable to a larger section of the market.

The idea of ready to stitch jeans caught the attention of the consumers. The brand was highly successful in the initial phase of the lifecycle. Consumers liked the very relevant brand name and the price was the real game changer. For 299 one was able to afford a good quality jeans when the average prices of readymade brands was over Rs 700. The brand had the Bollywood Action Hero Akshay Kumar as the brand ambassador for Ruf N Tuf. These tactics made the sales of the brand soar during the initial phase of the brand's life.

The successful run of Ruf N Tuf did not last long. The brand faced significant problems from counterfeits which merely copied the brand elements and fooled the consumers. Ruf N Tuf tried to manage the counterfeits by embossing log on the jeans pocket but these measures found little success.
The brand then began to face another issue which is directly linked with its product performance. The idea behind Ruf N Tuf's business model is that the tailor will stitch the jeans in a way that is comparable with the readymade ones. That assumption proved wrong. Consumers began to feel that the tailors were not able to bring the finishing in a perfect manner compared to readymades. The local brand made use of this weakness by launching low quality jeans with good stitching and competitive price. This strategy of local brands virtually killed the market of Ruf N Tuf.

To counter the onslaught from local readymade brands, Ruf N Tuf reduced the quality of the product and tried to compete on price. That strategy too failed to click in the market. Since the market of Ruf N Tuf was highly price sensitive, the local brands took advantage of the weakness of Ruf N Tuf. The presence of Newport and Ruf N Tuf  started creating problems in the company's product line. These brands began to cannibalize each other despite having different distribution channels.

These issues created huge inventory issues for Arvind Mills during the early 2000 forcing the company to put Ruf N Tuf in the freezer. The brand was on the verge of being killed. In 2004, the company decided to rejuvenate the brand by associating with Big Bazaar. According to the arrangement, the brand will be available only through Big Bazaar. Thus Ruf N Tuf virtually became a private label ( not theoretically ).

The story of Ruf N Tuf provides some insights to the difficult task of marketing. The consumers loved the idea of a ready-to-stitch jeans  and the low price. But they are not ready to compromise on quality and fit. And the business model of Ruf N Tuf had no control on the tailor who made the final product. Hence the brand was not able to control the complete experience to the consumer which ultimately lead to the demise of the brand.

The next question is that if the ordinary shirtings and suitings can thrive then why not Ruf N Tuf ?  I think its because of the points of parity . Ruf N Tuf's point of parity was established with readymade Jeans and not textiles. Hence the consumers expected Ruf N Tuf to be having the same stitching quality as the readymade jeans.Hence the comparison with readymade jeans is inevitable.I think the brand could have carved a better market if it had established parity with denim clothing rather than readymade jeans.
The current strategy of associating with Big Bazaar ensures the survival of the brand. Through the extensive chain of stores, the brand rightly ensures that it reaches its desired TG through Big Bazaar. Big Bazaar offers instant reach to the bargain hunters and price conscious consumers. In that sense, the brand has struck on a workable strategy. Having said that , from a mainstream brand to a private label ( somewhat) it is a fall from grace. The solace is that the brand is still alive.

Acti Life : Daily Nutrition for Adults

Brand : Acti Life

Company : Zydus Wellness

Brand Analysis Count : # 487

Acti Life is a new brand in the Rs 2000 crore Indian Nutriceautical market. The brand is trying to create a new category of Adult Nutritional Drink in India. It is a bold step on the part of Zydilla to create a new segment in the highly cluttered health drink market. Acti Life is a new brand in the Rs 2000 crore Indian Nutriceautical market. The brand is trying to create a new category of Adult Nutritional Drink in India. It is a bold step on the part of Zydilla to create a new segment in the highly cluttered health drink market.

The health drink market in India is dominated by brands focusing on child nutrition. The mega brands like Horlicks, Bournvita, Complan all have spent huge amounts of money in developing the health drink market in India. The competition in this market is huge and often has lead to all out war between the brands.Horlicks, the market leader, was the first brand to understand the potential for a brand for adults. That resulted in the launch of Horlicks Lite and later Women's Horlicks. These were product-line extensions and the brand's primary focus was on the kid's segment.

It is in this context that the launch of Acti Life becomes significant. Acti Life is targeting adults ( age 18 and above) and is harping on an impressive list of nutritional benefits as its USP. The brand is trying to educate customers that different age group has different nutritional needs and hence need specialized brands like Acti Life.The brand is now running a campaign telling people to switch to specialist brand like Acti Life

Watch the TVC here : Acti Life

The brand has done basic homework on the segment and the brand's microsite is full of educational literature on the need for such a dietary supplement. The challenge is to convince the consumers to buy and that too regularly. The brand is very optimistic in telling the consumers that it has to be taken two times daily .Acti Life comes in two flavors - Chocolate and Coffee. The main differentiator for the brand is the presence of  Prebiotic Actifibres which enhances digestion and reduces cholesterol levels. 

The brand has adapted a rational positioning platform and the initial campaigns are focused on taking about the rational benefits.The brand has the tagline " Daily Nutrition for Adults " which is a basic tagline which doesn't inspire much analysis.

The challenge for the brand is to bring in the habit of taking such a product. I think that Indian adults are little hesitant to purchase a health drink for themselves. There is an inertia in choosing such a product and most consumers will shrug away from admitting that they could need a health drink . Also there is a perception that health drinks are for kids. These are the two issues that Acti Life needs to address if it wants to break into this demographic segment. 

Eno : Works in 6 Seconds

Brand : Eno
Company : Glaxo Smithkline Beecham

Brand Analysis Count : # 486

Eno is one of the major players in the Rs 400 crore antacid market. The brand is market leader in the segment closely followed by Gelusil and Digene. Eno is a heritage brand . The brand was born in 1850 created by James Grossely Eno and the product was so successful that  brand immortalized the founder. The brand was acquired by GSK in 1938. Ever since the brand has grown to become a $40 million brand. The brand is currently selling in 34 countries and India features prominent in the list. The brand was launched in India in 1972.

Eno is basically a fruit salt. The brand is special because of its unique powder form. The brand gives immediate relief to problems associated with gastric disorders and indigestion. The brand has been growing very fast in the segment owing to the rise in the lifestyle diseases faced by Indian consumers. Gastric problems are invariably linked to sedentary lifestyle and food habits. The rise in such problems has made the brand grow CAGR of  25% in 2009-10. 

One of the factors that created huge brand equity for Eno is the consistency in positioning.Eno, ever since its launch . The brand's basic promise is " Faster Relief " . What is more interesting is that Eno has quantified the benefit and tells the customer that Eno works with in 6 seconds. These two propositions has created huge brand recall and salience. 

Eno also invested heavily in campaigns. The brand had series of campaign highlighting its unique form and quick relief. One of the disadvantage faced by the brand because of the form was convenience. Since it was in powder form, it is not as convenient as tablets . To counter this, the brand launched Eno tablet in 2004. While the major competitors of Eno were tablets, Eno had the advantage of being fruit based and perceived to be healthy . 

The success of Eno prompted many players like Dr Morepen to enter the market with similar product. But competition could not sustain in the market or could disturb the leadership of Eno. How ever , the brand faced lot of category competition. Gelusil , Digene etc invested heavily in campaigns which gave tough competition for Eno. 

Eno countered this competition by innovating and not being complacent. To increase the choice /variety and to create excitement in the market, the brand launched four different flavors. The brand also introduced another variant which had Pudina as one of the ingredient. The introduction of flavors make the brand more approachable and effectively counters the competition brands like Hajmola. The brand also launched Eno in sachets. In the promotional front, the brand recently tied up with a bollywood movie " Yamla pagla dewaana".

Eno is a brand that did all possible strategies to defend its leadership position.The brand changed with times, introduced variants, invested in promotional campaigns to keep its share of the market. 

Zuska : Make a Smart Move

Brand : Zuska

Company : Zodhita Health Solutions

Brand Analysis Count : # 485

There is another deodorant brand in town. The new kid on the block is the brand named Zuska. Although the brand was launched a year back, I presume the brand is launched  nationally only now and the advertisement campaigns are run across various television channels.

Zuska is a brand from Zodhita Pharmaceuticals - a Mumbai based Pharma company. The company has mega plans to conquer large share of the Rs 700 crore Indian Deo spray market.

In my earlier brand analysis on deo products, I had observed the lack of differentiation among the players. Every one was positioning their brand as something that attracts the opposite sex to the extent that the deo ads were becoming disgusting.

The solace about Zuska is that  brand owners had tried to bring in some differentiation on this brand by bringing in the dreaded Bacteria that is blamed for the bad smell of the sweat. Since bacteria neither have a union nor it can fast unto death, one should believe the claims of the brand.According to the brand, sweat does not have smell, it is the bacteria that causes the foul smell. Zuska will act as a barrier and will not allow the bacteria into the skin and thus prevent the sweat smell from happening. Atlast some brand is talking about something other than attracting females.

Watch the campaign : Zuska 

The ads which are now showing in the television is 30 sec ads which shows a fugitive ( or whatever) chased by the Police and even after running through the forest, there is no sweat . The ads are pretty basic and the plot is unclear. How ever the message is loud and clear and the bacteria looks  like caterpillars as usual.

The brand is trying to differentiate using three platforms - 

a. The USP of the brand is its anti-bacterial properties which I think is first in the category. The brand has to be congratulated for bringing in such a thought. 

b. The brand is also trying to differentiate using the form factor . Zuska is focusing on Deo Stick rather than body sprays in the commercials. Zuska has bodyspray in the product line but seems to recreate the category of deo sticks. 

c. Zuska also is differentiating itself using packaging. The package is new and standsout from the rest of the deo brands.

So Zuska has done its homework well and the rest is upto the effectiveness of the brand and its distribution reach. Zuska has adopted the tagline " Make a Smart Move ".  When the brand was launched in 2010, it had the tagline " Reach for More ". The ads doesn't convey any relevant meaning of the tagline. Perhaps the brand is talking about making a smart move by choosing the brand. Zuska has launched 4 sub-brands /fragrances - Odyssey, Rythem, Icon and Viva. Icon is the men's range. Besides the deo product line, the brand is also bringing in foot spray and deo soaps.

Regarding brand names, it is often said that choosing brand names is a risky affair because the names can take different meaning in different languages and contexts. Sadly Zuska also fell prey for such a small issue. When I saw the ad, I did a google search and landed up in a Wikipedia page of Zuska's Disease . Accidentally the brand shares its name with a rare disease. Although this may not affect the brand's sales or future, it is a reminder of the hundred of risks that a brand will face in its life.

Zuska is a relief in the cluttered deo market that has been stuck with the formula of chasing females. The brand has some clarity on the differentiation and how it is going to take off from here is what matters. 

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.

Related Brand

Sunfeast Fit Kit

Nestle Bar One : Kaafi Hai ? Not Enough !

Brand : Bar One
Company : Nestle India

Brand Analysis Count : # 484

Bar One is a brand which was languishing in the product portfolio of Nestle for around two decades. The brand recently got some attention from the owners and its future is being rewritten. Bar One was launched in India in 1991 ( in some sources its given as 1994). The brand when launched was positioned as an energy /snack bar- some thing that you can eat in between times.

Bar One initially was well promoted by Nestle so much so that at one point in time, Bar One had a market share of around 5 %.But Nestle's attention soon shifted to non-confectionery items and Bar One was pushed aside interms of strategy and investment. I still remember the old Bar One jingle
Nestle Bar One Ba Ba Bar One
For those in between times ......

Later the brand had the tagline " Get More Out of Life " ( see the storyboard)

Bar One is a caramel based chocolate which has naugat and chocolate similar to Cadbury's 5 Star. The brand was positioned as a high energy funky chocolate which is essentially a small snack. The brand was well ahead of its time especially in the Indian market with respect to positioning. Indian consumers were not familiar with the concept of chocolates as a snack when Bar One was launched.

Second factor is the weak positioning of Bar One. Infact Bar One did not had a powerful positioning compared to the competitor . The focus on "energy bar" was too early for the Indian market. Later the company itself ditched the brand by stopping brand promotion.

Bar One in terms of brand competition competed with Cadbury 5 Star. 5 Star had tremendous brand power during the nineties and Bar One could not hold out with the competition. How ever Nestle did not kill the brand but put it on the sidelines. The interesting part is that the brand was available in the retail outlets even when the brand was silent in the media.
The major reasons ( in my opinion) for the brand's lackluster performance are Packaging and Positioning. The earlier packaging was dull compared to the 5 Star's golden packaging. The package for confectionery is significant because this is a product that is bought impulsively and the packaging conveys a strong cue for the purchase. 

In 2010, the brand was relaunched with a new packaging and price. The new packaging is bold and lot of golden color splashed across it. After a long while, the brand had a reasonably attractive packaging. The relaunch also saw a new positioning for the brand. The brand sadly messed up on the positioning in the relaunch also. The brand came out with very poorly executed campaign positioning Bar One as a chocolate that will attract girls !!!

Watch the ad here : Bar One 

The brand now has the tagline " Kaafi Hai " meaning " Its enough ". I really don't understand the connection between the brand and the tagline. One notion can be that Bar One is enough to satisfy your hunger ? Anyways the ad series with the new tagline may not be enough to lift the brand's fortunes. But the strong presence at the retail outlets coupled with the tendency of consumers to try out different brands will once again add more sales for this brand.
Bar One desperately needs investment in serious brand building. The brand is capable of building a position in the market dominated by Cadbury's brands. Bar One also has strong recall among the consumers backed by better taste and reasonable pricing. It needs more focus on developing a meaningful positioning . 5 Star has already owned up the " Taste" platform . The current campaign of Bar One is below average and will only make matter worse for the brand. 

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. 

Related Brand

J Hampstead

The 

Koutons : 50% + 40% Off

Brand : Koutons
Company : Koutons Retail India Ltd

Brand Analysis Count : # 483

Koutons is a brand story which has gone sour. This 1000 crore corporate brand is now facing the worst period of its existence- facing mounting debt and bad press regarding the financial position and the stock price moving southward. 

Koutons , the brand owned by Koutons Retail India Ltd was born in 1991. The original name of the company was Charlie Creations which was later rechristened as Koutons. Koutons is both the corporate brand and an individual brand . The company has a range of readymades with the brand name Koutons. Along with it , the company also has other brands of clothings like Charlie Outlaw, Le Femme etc. The current post focuses more on the individual brand.

Koutons Retail is a classic entrepreneurial story. The company was founded by Mr. DPS Kohli. Mr Kohli and his family owned a television manufacturing business which was destroyed during a riot. Mr. Kohli  had to suffer huge financial losses from that even and had to work as an insurance surveyor for long . Later he ventured into the retail textile business.

Koutons grew really fast. The company became India's largest retail apparel chain in a span of 10 years . In 2009, the company had around 1400 Exclusive Brand Outlets (EBO) making it the largest apparel chain. The company had a turnover of around Rs 1000 crore in 2008-2009.

Koutons was a brand built on a very unique strategy - deep discounting. Deep discounting is a pricing strategy where the brand offers huge  ( often mind-blowing) discounts on an unusually high MRP ( Maximum Retail Price) . So the consumers are attracted towards the product seeing the huge discounts which are actually not a discount ( in pure sense). 

Koutons has a popular discount scheme  known as 50% + 40 % off. So there is a 50% off on the MRP and then another 40% off on the discounted price. So  the consumers obviously are delighted to get a shirt with an MRP of Rs 1500 for as low as Rs 450. Another very successful offer was " Buy 4 garments for the price of One ". Seeing this unbelievable offers , consumers flock into the showrooms and buy what ever that is available .

Along with the deep discounting strategy, the brand also invested some money in the brand building.Koutons has the tagline " The way ahead, always " . It had campaigns featuring foreign models and usually the showrooms are located in upmarket malls thus giving the impression that Koutons are a premium brand.  But frankly no one really knows whether Koutons really sells a shirt for Rs 1500. 

But nobody was complaining because consumers got a feeling to getting a good bargain and that is what matters. So this model worked well for the firm for more that 20 years. As usual, 20 years is pretty long time for consumers to learn the discounting model. The sales started drying up and the cost and inventory started building up. More discounts followed and revenues started sliding. The company landed itself into a financial trouble. ( source).

The brand really was able to tap the " value for money " psyche of the Indian consumer. Indian consumers like a good bargain and for long years, the firm was able to capture profit out of it. But the popularity of other discount outlets of established brands and the quality issues of Koutons paved the way for the downside for the brand. According to some newsreports, the company faced the issue of inventory mis-estimates and huge debts. 

I also have bought the brand believing that I got a good bargain later found that I was a victim of a very clever marketing strategy. Often some students ask me whether Koutons will lose its brand equity if it gives discounts like that, assuming that they sell the product at MRP atleast in some outlets. In the case of Koutons, they sell by these discounts.

In the deep discounting model, the brand is secondary. What matters is the  attractiveness of discounts and high media spents announcing the discounts. It is not the brand that pulls the customers but the perceived bargain. Ofcourse the consumers should feel that the brand is aspirational . So it is a kind of a very risky , clever strategy. Project aspirational image and use discounts to pull the consumer in.

Koutons as a company is in financial trouble and the fate of the brand depends on how the company survives the crisis. The deep discounting model will work in a market like India as long as the firm is able to project the aspirational image. It lacks the glamour of brand-building but may work for short-term. In the long term such deep discounting will eventually kill the brand. 

Brand Update : Kara Skincare fights the mighty Hand Kerchief

After a long period of silence, the tissue wipes brand Kara from Aditya Birla Group is back in action. Launched in 2008 with much fanfare, the brand went into a long silence throughout 2010. The product was not even visible in the supermarkets and were silent across media. Now the brand is back with a bang with a new positioning and celebrity power. The brand also had a trademark issues with Dabur's Kaya brand since Kaya also had tissue wipes which was later settled ( source). 

Skincare Wipes are an emerging category in India. We Indians are not yet familiar with the idea of using paper tissue instead of our very own hand kerchief. But this trend is visibly changing with the new generation being open to the idea of carrying tissue instead of the hanky. This is the trend that Kara wanted to see and capitalize.

It can be said that the brand went in for a relaunch. The brand sports a new positioning and a tagline. The new positioning of Kara is very interesting since it pitches itself as an alternative to the ubiquitous hand kerchief. The brand also have roped in two celebrities to endorse - Sharman Joshi and Anushka Sharma.

The brand had moved away from the earlier positioning of " feel good " to hygiene. This is a major shift in the positioning platform of this brand. For that purpose, the brand had pitted against hand kerchief saying that using hand kerchief to wipe the face is a " bad habit " since we use hanky for lot of unhygienic purposes (as highlighted by the ads) .
The ad features these celebrities  highlighting the unhygienic nature of the hanky and encouraging people to use Kara Skincare wipes. The brand is talking about three basic benefits - Cleansing, Nourishing and Deodorizing. Kara Skincare has Cucumber, Aloe Vera and Mint oil  as ingredients to support the claim.

Watch the ads here : Sharman Kara 1, Sharman Kara 2 , Anushka 1 , Anushka 2

The current attempt of Kara is interesting and the brand has the guts to take on the generic competitor hanky head-on. The fact is that many consumers are unaware of the unhygienic nature of hanky and we believe that since it is washed daily , hygiene is taken care of. The ads highlight is issue nicely. The brand currently has adopted the tagline " Face Refresh Karne Ka Specialist "  ( Specialist for refreshing your face !).

The big question is whether the consumers will actually see the tissue wipes as an alternative to hanky - atleast for the use of  wiping the face. The answer is both yes and no. There is a section of our society which already is open to such extra-conscious about the hygiene. Most of the young girls have started using wipes because of convenience factor. These people will adopt the idea first and then there is a chance of more consumers adopting this product.
The brand had earlier tried to position itself  on the feeling good platform highlighting the benefits but consumers did not respond warmly to it. This may have prompted the brand to take an aggressive approach. The direct comparison with hand kerchief will definitely make consumer look at this brand seriously.

Another interesting aspect of Kara's strategy is its focus on both the genders. When launched, Kara was focusing on female segment but now it is explicitly targeting the male segment through Sharman Joshi. The brand also is not projecting itself as a hip-hop brand so that it does not alienate the larger segment of the society . So the brand had put the characters of the ads as common folks .

The strategy of fighting head-on with generic competition is a very risky but bold strategy. Here the brand is trying to create a parity with the hanky . The rationale is that Tissue Wipes is a new category and brand and category competition is not what should be addressed at this stage.
Making this category into a mainstream is the challenge that Kara faces and it has done the homework well.

Related brand
Kara Skincare wipes

Brand Update : Barclaycard RIP ( 2008-2011 ?)

According to newspaper reports, the Barclay's Corporate which runs the credit card business has decided to put Barclaycard on the block. The report further suggest that Barclays is going to scale down its retail operations owing to the bad debts accumulated during recession. The unofficial number of creditcards of Barclays is put at 2.4 Million.

Barclaycard was launched with much fanfare. The brand offered several differentiators which was later matched by other players. The company was in the dilemma of choosing between high risk Vs growth. Finally it decided to sell of the credit-card business and concentrate on other banking domains. 

Credit card brands are a confused lot. On one hand they want the users to splurge  and on the other hand, they worry about bad debts. Greed makes these brands charge exorbitant charges which adds to bad debts. It is a vicious cycle.

Having said that, Barclays had a reasonably good business albeit small in market size. That may bring in some suitors who wanted to scale up their business. Barclaycard failed because the brand lacked the distribution reach which is essential to scale up. The recession add to its voes for fear of accumulating bad debts.

Anyways another brand is going to die. RIP

Related Brand

Barclaycard

News reports

Brand Update : Bajaj Discover Zooms Ahead

It has been almost 6 years since I wrote about Bajaj Discover. A lot happened in these years about the brand. And those development was indeed surprising. Now Bajaj Discover is the second largest selling motorcycle in India . Since the introduction in 2004, the brand has moved through interesting phases to reach the top crossing the one million units sales per annum. 

The brand had a dream start with the endorsement from Jackie Chan. Discover instantly topped interms of awareness and image. The brand was launched as a part of the grand strategy of moving the consumers away from the 100 cc bikes towards more powerful 125 cc bikes. The commuter segment of the Indian motorcycle market was dominated by 100 cc bikes and Hero Honda ruled the segment.

The grand strategy failed and Discover was having tough times. Bajaj experimented heavily with the Discover brand by launching the brand in various engine capacities. Discover was initially launched in 125 CC later in 115 cc, then in 135 cc , then 100 cc and 150 cc. Most of these variants failed in the market. But somehow Bajaj decided to keep the Discover franchise alive. 

The fortune of the Discover brand turned with the launch of  the 100 cc variant. Ironically Bajaj resisted launching any products in that segment and it had the hypothesis that consumers will desert 100 cc m/cycle for more powerful bikes. But it had to bite the bullet and launch the100cc Discover and sales went through the roof.

The discovery of the potential of Discover was through a series of flawed product strategies. The dominant logic of the firm was that the era of 100 cc bikes were over which was a flawed logic. Consumers still found logic in using 100 cc bikes so Hero Honda thrived. 

The company got the positioning right for the 100 cc Discover . The brand talked about mileage ( 100 kmpl ) and that together with the premium image of Discover propelled the sale of the variant.The firm was right in pricing the brand competitively in the market. 

The success of Discover prompted the company to experiment more with the brand. Discover 150 was launched to act as a flanker brand for the premium Pulsar. Now Discover 125 is also being launched . It seems that there is hell lot of money at Bajaj for experimenting with brands.

Bajaj plans to use Discover for the volume game and the focus will be to give the right product mix to the commuter segment which forms the largest chunk of M/cycle market. The 100 cc and 150 cc experiment worked well for the franchise while the rest failed. 

Related brand

Bajaj Discover

World Player : Be a World Player

Brand : World Player
Company : Skumars

Brand Analysis Count : # 482

Another brand which has the potential to shake up the readymade market in India- World Player from Skumars is on the national rollout. But the eternal question remains - Can it meet the potential ?

World Player was launched by Skumars in 2010. It took almost one year for this brand to scale up the presence across the states. It is surprising that a national brand like SKumars would take such a long time to scale up the presence of a brand which has so much potential. 

The brand has a huge potential for two reasons :

• It is endorsed by Sachin Tendulkar.
• It is priced very very competitively.

I am not a big fan of celebrity endorsement strategy and I don't believe that all brands endorsed by Sachin have high potential. But for World Player, the presence of Sachin Tendulkar will add tremendous equity . I have a feeling that Sachin will do to World Player what Sunil Gavaskar has done to Dinesh Suitings. 

One of the factors that aid this brand is the pricing. One would expect this brand to be priced anywhere above Rs 1000, but surprisingly  Skumars has decided to price this brand between Rs 100- Rs 500. The brand is targeting youngsters aged 18-35 yrs. This brand is going to be a Mass Prestige brand.

By making pricing affordable, the brand has truly taken the price out of the equation in terms of marketing mix. Now branding and communication will decide the direction for the brand. Skumars should be commented because it didnot outprice the brand eventhough it had a celebrity like Sachin. Skumars has learned that lesson from its brand Tamariind which priced itself out of the market though endorsed by Hrithik Roshan.

By pricing the brand at Rs 100 - 500, the brand has not made itself cheap but affordable. The presence of Sachin Tendulkar will make the brand aspirational . I have seen a hoarding of the brand featuring Sachin and the brand had truly made itself aspirational. 

The brand uses the tagline " Be a World Player " which although a very plain basic tagline, will give creatives lot of space to work with. The tagline connects well with the brand ambassador also.

Skumars recently had lot of success with celebrity driven brand promotion. Be it Belmonte endorsed by SRK or Reid and Taylor endorsed by Big B, The company aims to break into the larger mass market with the cricket maestro Sachin. 

The presence of Sachin will create lot of expectations about the brand interms of the quality and design. The brand have to meet that high expectations which will be an Herculean task at a lower price-point.

The success of the brand will also depend on the brand's advertising strategy ( positioning) , the quality which it can deliver at the lower price points and the distribution. Skumars has a rich history and managing these will not be an issue. 

The only issue is the brand's future after the celebrity. But for now,  I am optimistic that the brand will truly create lot of ripples in the market.

Brand Update : Fiama Di Wills targets Men

Fiama Di Wills , the premium brand from ITC has now turned attention towards the growing men's grooming market. The brand has relaunched its range targeting the ever- beauty-conscious men by extending the Fiama Di Wills brand. 

Fiama Di Wills tried to enter the men's market in 2009 by launching a sub-brand Aqua Pulse. Fiama Di Wills Aqua Pulse shower gel was the product launched during that year.

This season saw a relaunch of the brand in shower gel and soap (bathing bar) form. Fiama Di Wills is currently running a TVC for the extension.

Watch the ad here : Fiama Men

This time around , the brand restricted the Aqua Pulse sub-brand to the shower gel variant and is using Fiama Di Wills brand to endorse the bathing bar while Aqua Pulse is mentioned in very small font.The main USP of the new variant is the sea minerals ingredient.

ITC has been putting heavy investment on the Vivel and Fiama brand portfolio. The brand has huge share of voice across the media. The equity of Fiama Di Wills will drive the initial sales of this variant.

I thought of Fiama Di Wills as a unisex brand and even though Deepika Padukone is the brand ambassador , the brand has been targeting both the genders. The launch of a specialized soap exclusively for men points to the effort of the brand to target this segment using a separate product. The launch also points to the recent trend in the Indian consumer family where individuals members like husband , wife, kids etc use separate  brands. 

One factor I noticed about Fiama Di Wills is the absence of a positioning platform for the parent brand. When the brand was launched, it had the positioning - Beautiful you , today , tomorrow. Later the tagline was lost among the numerous variants and campaigns. With the launch of multiple products targeting various segments, the brand needs to have a common positioning platform which connects all the variants together. Otherwise, the brand will have a confused state of existence in the consumer's mind. 

Related brand 

Fiama Di Wills

Polycrol : Express Relief

Brand : Polycrol
Company : Piramal Healthcare


Brand Analysis Count : # 481

Indian Antacid market is worth around Rs 250 crores and growing at around 10% annually. The market offlate has been witnessing lot of activity with major players running a series of campaign across the media. 

The antacid market consists of prescription products and OTC products. Many brands have crossed over to OTC market to tap the larger potential market. 

Polycrol is a brand from Piramal group that is now launched nationally in the OTC antacid market. The brand which has a 40 year old history is a popular brand in the eastern markets of India. The brand is currently running a series of campaign in the television media.

The Indian antacid market is dominated by brands like Digene, Gelusil, Pudin Hara Eno etc. Digene is mainly a prescription brand while Gelusil is the leading brand in the OTC segment. 

Polycrol has chosen a benefit positioning approach. The brand, like Gelusil, is positioned as a brand that helps people to indulge as a foodie without any fear. But compared to Gelusil, Polycrol was able to execute the positioning in an interesting manner.

Watch the ads here : Polycrol ad 1, Polycrol ad 2 

The brand rightly captured the benefit of the product and conveyed in a simple but effective manner. 

In a marketing perspective, the brand was able to create an awareness through this campaign. Although this brand is in existence for over 40 years, I came to know about this brand only after the current ad campaign. 

Polycrol has entered the market which has brands like Gelusil. Gelusil has unmatched brand awareness and equity in the market. So fighting the leader is not easy for Polycrol.

Through the current campaign, although Polycrol has established awareness, the critical question is How this brand is better /different from other antacid brands ? Since the brand has positioned itself in the same platform as Gelusil, the question of differentiation arises. 

Polycrol is now promoting its nano pack priced at Rs 15 but does not talk much on the differentiation aspect. The thinking is that since Gelusil does not have a credible competitor , creating awareness and parity will drive more sales for the brand. The next step for the brand is to create the point of difference which is credible and sustainable. 

The pack talks about 'Express Relief ' and I think that the brand will be trying to differentiate on that platform.  It will be an interesting brand to watch for .

Brand Update : RIP Logan ( 2007-2011) , Welcome Verito

Logan is being laid to rest. Mahindra Rise , the new owner of Logan has decided to rebrand Logan to Mahindra Verito. The death of Logan marks the volatile life of a brand and the logical end of a sour Joint Venture between Renault and Mahindra.

The death of Logan brings into life a new brand Mahindra Verito. The product has a new brand name and a new set of marketing mix elements too ( may be except distribution  channel). It is expected that Mahindra will make some cosmetic change to the existing Logan and bring in a new identity for Verito. Verito is derived from the Latin word Veritas which means truth. It is said that Mahindra is particular that its vehicles name should end with O hence the name change !

The good news is that Verito will ensure that the car which is considered to be a good product suited to Indian conditions will continue its life. Mahindra is keen to develop new products based on the Logan platform and this ensures that the legacy of the brand will go on. And the existing owners of Logan can be relieved because the service support will continue. All these however depends on the success of Verito and the future relationship between Renault and Mahindra.

The rebranding of Logan to Verito makes sense to Mahindra because it marks the formal entry of the company into passenger car segment. Since the product is good, Mahindra needs to work on the branding part and the service support and I am sure that Verito will be a formidable brand in the market. 

Related Brand

Mahindra Logan 

Brand Update : Daikin focuses on Country of Origin Positioning

It has been 5 years since I updated about this brand. Last time I wrote about this brand, Daikin was having a fair share of  voice with lot of ads focusing on the Silence attribute. The brand was running the " Complete Silence " ads for a while and then went into silence for five long years. I don't remember any campaign from Daikin  during the last five years ( atleast in my place). But even without any hype, the brand still commands around 5% of the Indian  residential A/C market. The brand may be doing the sales activities in the B2B market in these years but in the consumer market, Daiken was having complete silence.

In this IPL 2011, the brand started making some noise. The brand is now showing some reminder ads and the presence is also felt in OOH media. 

What is interesting about the brand now is that it has been repositioned. The brand has done away with the attribute based positioning and is trying out the Country of Origin proposition. The brand has adopted the positioning " With Love from Japan " . From a highly creative Complete Silence to basic Made in Japan  tag seems intriguing.

Along with the tag, the brand seems to have adopted some aspects of  parent company's approach to branding. Infact the brand has imported some brand elements from the parent. Daikin now introduces a mascot for the brand - a character called  Pichon- Kun. Pichon-Kun is a mascot which is a droplet with a small body. The mascot embodies the brand's philosophy of best of nature, fresh and eco-friendly. 

Globally, the brand uses the tagline " Here , There , Everywhere". 

The new brand line " With Love from Japan " at first sounded very archaic to me. I thought that the era of Made in Japan tag was over. But on thinking, I have a feeling that this could work in practical sense better than high profile branding stuff. The association of quality and innovation is still very much connected with  Japanese products. But the issue is that most of Japanese brands sell their Chinese made products so the manufacturing excellence associated with Japanese products have diminished significantly. If Daikin could reinforce the connection of quality and Country of Origin, then the consumers will embrace the product.

The brand has been existence in India for the last 10 years . The brand has a market share of hardly 5 %. This surely means that the brand has not reached its potential. One of the factor being the lack of investment in brand building. 

The brand can boost its sales if it could position itself as a true blood Japanese product (like Toyota) emphasizing on quality , innovation etc. But that need a series of campaigns reinforcing each of those attributes rather than just advertising the  " Made in Japan " tag.

Related post

Daikin - Complete silence  

Maa : Sweet Taste of Success

Brand : Maa
Company : Cavin Kare

Brand Analysis Count : # 480

Maa is a serious challenger brand in the Rs 500 crore Indian fruit juice market. This South Indian brand is on the way to a national launch is expected to give a tough competition to brands like Frooti and Maaza. Maa brand was originally created by Maa Fruits Pvt Ltd. The brand was acquired by CavinKare in 2008. Ever since the acquisition, the brand has been growing consistently in the markets like Kerala and TamilNadu. 

The Indian non-carbonated Beverage market is around Rs 3500 crore and of which fruit based drinks constitute around Rs 3000 crore. The market is divided into various categories like 100 % fruit juices, fruit based drinks ( that has less than 20% fruit pulp) , nectars which has fruit pulp between 25% -85%.

Maa for the last two years has been consolidating its position in the South India. The brand has scored well interms of distribution reach and brand awareness. The brand is closely associated with the mango flavor but also has three more flavors - Apple Guava and Pineapple.

Maa has also invested lot of money in brand promotion. The brand had adopted a positioning strategy based on aspiration and success during the relaunch in 2008-2009 under Cavinkare. The brand targeted the young consumers and positioned itself as a brand that will refresh you to move towards success in life.

Watch the ad here : Maa Success

In 2010, the brand resegmented the market and ran a campaign targeting kids rather than older consumers. The brand is running this commercial in the media this season.

Watch the ad here : Maa Mother 

The two ads however are poles apart interms of marketing strategy. Since the company is going to fight the likes of Frooti and Maaza, it will be proper if the brand identifies the right STP.

The success of Maa in South India is largely driven by smart distribution strategies. The brand is heavily promoted by the retailers and in some cases the retailers stock only this brand and no other mango drink. Since consumers are willing to switch between brands in the case of beverage category , Maa was able to boost the sales and establish connection with the consumers. The brand will be hoping to recreate the same strategy in the Northern market also.

In the branding front, the lack of a clear positioning is evident from the past campaigns. Maa needs to have clarity in its brand manthra and core value proposition. The brand is highly associated with Mango drink and the brand should be clear whether it should reinforce that association or try to position itself as a multi-fruit drink. Getting retailer support will also be a key determinant of the success of Maa in the National market. 

It is good to see a brand growing and scaling up for more challenges and a larger market. Maa should get its marketing funda sharp and clear and then take on the leaders with confidence.

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. 

Related Brand 

7 Up

Nutricharge Man : Smart Nutrition

Brand : Nutricharge Man
Company : Tropical Wellness Pvt Ltd

Brand Analysis Count : # 479

Indian nutraceutical market is estimated to be around Rs 4500 crore . The nutraceutical market consists of products like functional foods, nutritional supplements etc. The market is on a growth mode and is expected to touch more than Rs 10,000 crore in a few years.

Tapping this high growth market is a new brand  - Nutricharge Man. This brand is marketed by Tropical Wellness Pvt Ltd and manufactured by Panjon Pharma Ltd.  

Nutricharge was launched in a phased manner and the brand was in certain market from 2010. In 2011, the brand has been launched nationally. Nutricharge Man is a nutritional supplement in the form of capsules. The product contains 35 essential nutrients  which will supplement the normal food. The logic is that the regular food may not be able to supply all nutritional requirements and hence one needs to take the help of such nutraceutical products.

The most interesting factor about this brand is that Nutricharge Man is endorsed by none other than Amithabh Bachchan. The brand is currently running a print campaign in most of markets featuring the brand ambassador. The communication of the brand is quite rational and informational in nature. The brand ambassador talks about the need for a healthy life enhanced by Nutricharge. The brand has adopted the positioning platform of Smart Nutrition. 

The brand is targeting the middle-aged man who is health conscious and has the potential ( fear) of contracting  lifestyle disease. 

When I saw the print ad of this brand, I went on to search about this brand and to my surprise, little was available on the internet. The brand has a well made website but there is no mention about the company that makes this brand . Since this is a health related product, consumers will look for details like the brand -owner because they have to trust the product before consuming it. Although Big B will give credibility to the brand, it is important that the consumers know about the manufacturers of a product like food supplement. 

The brand has definitely boosted its prospect rightaway with its association with Big B. But the downside is that it will be perceived to be a brand for older men rather than the middle aged man. The brand is targeting the people above 40 years of age.  The competitors of this product is the products from brands like Amway ( Nutrilite). 

In a way Nutricharge will be creating a new category of OTC nutritional supplement. The brand is relevant since there is a huge rise in lifestyle diseases and burn out in the middle age is now a common phenomenon.