Pee Safe : Your Personal Hygiene Expert

 Brand: Pee Safe 
Company: Red Cliffe Hygiene Private Ltd

Brand Analysis Count: # 597

Pee Safe is a very bold brand. Look at the brand name itself. Its ticks most of the boxes in the theoretical way of looking at the qualities of a good brand name. The brand was launched in 2013 and quickly became a pioneer in the development of a market for branded female hygiene products other than the sanitary napkins.

The Indian personal hygiene market is huge. pegged at around 85000 crore INR ($11 Bn) and growing very fast aided by the recent pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of many hygiene products and created opportunities for many players in this segment. The female hygiene category is small at about Rs 2500 crore and the category is dominated by sanitary napkins which are around 3600 crores.  

Pee Safe entered the market with a unique product - toilet sanitizer. The brand correctly identified a need in among the women who often travel as well as those office goers who have to use common toilets. The unhygienic toilet seats are a common cause of urinary tract infection which is common in India. The brand quickly gained adoption and became the world's largest selling product within a short period of time. 

Buoyed by the success of the seat sanitizer, the brand launched a series of products in the hygiene space like bio-degradable sanitary napkins, menstrual cups, sanitizers, intimate wash, tampons etc. The company uses digital marketing as the main promotion tool. The brand also has television star Anita Hassanandani as the brand ambassador. 

Pee Safe has positioned the brand as a hygiene expert and is aiming to be a one-stop solution for all hygiene needs of women. The brand is trying to cement its positioning through educational and informative videos about hygiene. In line with the current trend of brand laddering, the brand has also taken up cause marketing like women empowerment. 

One aspect that strikes about the brand is the name. The brand name Pee Safe obviously is constrained by the connection to intimate hygiene.  The company has circumvented this issue by following a family brand name brand architecture. The current brand architecture is that all products in female hygiene are named as Pee Safe. Other family brand names are Raho Safe, Palm Safe, Mosquito Safe etc.

 The company has launched other products like mosquito repellent, hand wash and under  Mosquito Safe brand, cleaning products under  Raho Safe brand, hand sanitizer under Palm Safe brand etc.

The smart idea is that " Safe" name is retained to link it to the current famous brand Pee Safe. The only challenge in this brand strategy is the increased cost in developing and nurturing the family brand names. The advantage is that the company is not constrained by the brand name in the launching of new products. 

Marketing Lessons From FOGG Deo

 This video explains the lessons in marketing from the success of Fogg beating the market leader Axe in the Rs 3500 crore deodorant market. Unilever is not a small player to beat and a relatively unknown company has changed the market dynamics humbling the market leader is an interesting story to learn. 

Brand Update : Colgate takes laddering to next level

 Colgate is taking the brand laddering to the next level in their 2020 campaign. The brand over time has moved from a functional benefit platform of strong teeth and healthy gums into a higher-level attribute of smile and confidence. The new ad has further strengthened the new higher emotion-based positioning based on the power of a smile. 

The ad strikes the audience with the surprise twist at the end of the commercial and brings a smile to the faces. The brand in a way has taken the risk of bringing emotion into the pool of category benefits. The familiar white coat, chalk and ink theme has given way to a series of the emotion-based campaigns with brand benefits such as confidence, new beginning etc. What it brings for the brand is a sense of freshness because the earlier functional benefit based ads were around for a long-time and a sense of boredom has set in at least in my case as a customer. The new ad helped to bring in a freshness to the brand and the unfamiliar plot brings a twist to the campaign.

Brand Update : HUL acquires VWash

 In an interesting move, the FMCG giant HUL acquired the intimate wash brand VWash from Glenmark pharmaceuticals. VWash is the market leader in the Rs 50 crore female intimate hygiene market which is yet to gather penetration into the mainstream market and has remained a niche. 

VWash is credited with the creation and popularisation of this category through high profile marketing featuring celebrities. The brand is expected to grow fast under HUL owing to the deep market knowledge and distribution strength owned by the FMCG giant. 

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Brand Update : Dettol Claims No.1 Spot in Indian Soap Category

In an interesting development, Dettol soap has claimed to be the number one soap in the India soap market, beating the long-reigning market leader Lifebuoy. The claim to the throne is helped largely by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

What is interesting is that both Lifebuoy and Dettol share similar positioning centred around health. Dettol is more focused on the health platform concentrating on the germ-killing benefit derived from the parent Dettol Antiseptic lotion. If the claim of Dettol is true, it is largely because of two factors. First, in this fearful era of the pandemic, consumers chose the safe option of germ-killing soap rather than a more generic promise of health. The second factor aiding the Dettol's success is the large number of soap variants launched by the brand. Dettol in the recent past launched many variants like menthol, aloe vera, Dettol with moisturisers. These variants helped attract the consumers who didn't like the original, more clinical parent version. 

To be fair to Lifebuoy, the market leader too did put a fight promoting its soap as a germ-killer but the legacy of Dettol was too strong for Lifebuoy to beat.

 

Brand Update : Fogg extends to talcum powder

As for any successful brands, it has to happen to Fogg also- Brand Extension. Fogg has extended itself into talcum powder category. It is a surprise move since according to certain reports, talcum powder market in India, worth at Rs 1400 crore, is on a decline thanks to the growing reach of deodorants. How ever, this hasn't stopped Fogg from launching the talcum product under the brand Fogg Master. 

The launch ad carries the same setting of the Fogg deodorant ad featuring the retailers. The new product is positioned based on the perfume content. It is an interesting move especially when the category is declining. Maybe it is to get into the minds of existing talcum powder users who may move later into the deodorant category. 

Cadbury Chocobakes : Cadbury inside

Brand: Cadbury Chocobakes

Company: Mondolez

Brand Analysis Count: 596

Ever since Mondolez International took over Cadbury, the brand has been on a roll, coming out with variants and new products. From a corporate umbrella brand, Cadbury had become an umbrella brand for all chocolate related products under Mondolez.

For a confectionary brand, brand architecture can be tricky and often confusing. This is because, one has the tendency to leverage the equity of a powerful brand at the same time, give enough room for various sub-brands to grow. We have seen that in the case of Diary Milk, where this brand has now become a family brand endorsing sub-brand- Silk and an innovative co-branding product with Oreo.

Mondolez in 2019 forayed into the biscuit market using Cadbury. The new cookie brand was named Cadbury Chocobakes which in a way is a new journey for the Cadbury brand. The Chocobakes brand was launched in the chocolate-filled cookie category which was pioneered by Sunfeast's Dark Fantasy Chocofills brand. 

The success of Dark Fantasy may have motivated Mondolez to extend the Cadbury brand into cookies since the chocolate inside made a perfect case for the extension of the Cadbury brand into biscuits. 

In 2020, Mondolez made another surprising move to enter the Rs 2000 crore packaged cake category with the Chocobakes brand. The brand has launched a choco-layered cake in 2020. Thus from a single product brand, Chocobakes within one year became an umbrella brand and in line to come a category brand endorsing further products in the cookies and cakes category. 

Both the products are positioned using the proposition " Cadbury (chocolate) inside" where these products derive their equity from the parent brand Cadbury. It makes perfect sense since Cadbury has such strong equity and connection with chocolates. 

This brings into the concept of products as platforms. Gone are the days where products are treated as a standalone entity with limited extensions and variants. The rising costs and lesser product-lifecycles are forcing firms to look at faster ways to bring the products to the mind of the customers. When a brand becomes successful, marketers are trying to leverage the equity by extending it to multiple categories. Products and brands are becoming more like platforms that facilitate multiple product- launches. The downside of this is the confusing brand architecture and often forgetting to strengthen the parent brand whose equity is being milked by a number of products across various categories. 

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Brand Update : Neutrogena drops its fairness range

In an interesting move, Johnson&Johnson decided to drop the fairness product range from the Neutrogena brand line. Launched in 2005, Neutrogena wanted its share in the $450 mn fairness market in India but failed to catch up to the market leader HUL. The brand relied heavily on celebrity endorsements to gain traction in the market. 

According to news reports, J&J's decision to drop the fairness range is due to the growing pressure from the activist groups which consider fairness products as unethical products trying to exploit colour-based discrimination. The fairness product category has always been on the wrong side of marketing ethics. Activists feel that these products embed the seeds of colour-based discrimination and thus be banned. However, marketers feel that they are fulfilling a need of the consumers to look fairer and there is nothing unethical in that. This debate has become more prominent among the mainstream media with the recent racial discrimination issues that happened in the USA. The debate forced many marketers to relook their personal care portfolio through the lens of discrimination. 

Recently HUL also decided to remove the mention of fairness on their flagship brand Fair and Lovely. 

Marketers cannot be fully believed in what they say. The current actions can be another marketing move aimed to project the ethical side of these brands and owners. However, it is good to know that marketers are responding positively to the ethical issues raised by activists and reinforces the fact that the impact of society and activists group have a greater impact on marketing than ever before. 

Brand Update : For Savlon, Ownership changes everything

Since the launch of Savlon in India as early as 1993, the brand has struggled to become a mainstream brand in any of the segment it aspired to enter. Launched as a fighter brand against the market leader Dettol, Savlon couldn't make a sustained fight against Dettol. Even the brand owner Johnson & Johnson's equity did not help Savlon.

Then in 2015, the brand changed hands in India. ITC took over Savlon and the landscape changed to the brand. 

ITC had serious plans for Savlon and expanded the product range by launching sanitizers, liquid handwash etc which not only increased brand visibility at stores but also gave the brand entry to emerging categories in the personal hygiene segment.

The Covid-19 pandemic has proved to be a big boost for the brand because of the huge demand for sanitizers and handwash products. Savlon leveraging ITC's strong distribution network was able to make big inroads into the consumer's choice set.

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Kopiko : Anytime , Anywhere

Brand: Kopiko

Company: Mayora 

Brand Analysis Count: 595

Kopiko is a simple brand. It is India's popular pocket coffee candy brand. I was surprised to know that Kopiko is an international brand that too from Indonesia. The brand derives its name from the name of a Hawaiian coffee bean (Wiki). Kopiko was launched in India in 2008 and since then it has been a favourite candy brand. According to a report, Kopiko was the second-largest selling hard-boiled candy in India in 2017 with a sale of more than 350 crores. 

The brand has a simple proposition - it tastes like real coffee. That simple proposition and actual deliverables are what can create a good brand. And Kopiko was found to be delivering its promise and the brand was successful in gaining a fair share of the market.

India is a coffee-loving nation and that also has benefited the growth of this brand. There is competition for Kopiko in the market such as Coffy Bite which is a coffee flavoured confectionary but it is not a hard-boiled candy. Indian confectionery market is worth more than $1 billion and the market growth is more driven by the hard-boiled candy segment. 

Kopiko has been running various campaigns highlighting its major value proposition. Watch the new campaign :

The new campaign further extends the positioning by talking about the main benefit of coffee ie to keep awake. The advertisements of Kopiko is simple and straight forward and it conveys the brand's propositions well. The brand so far has not been adventurous in launching extensions or variants, which makes sense for such a simple brand. Internationally Kopiko is available in different coffee flavors. 

Brand Update : Fair & Lovely extends to soap again !

It was to happen and it happened (again). Fair & Lovely extended itself to the soap category. The creator and the market leader of fairness cream category have put a brave new front into the highly competitive and cluttered soap market. Although F&L created the fairness cream category, it was Godrej Fair &Glow who first created a fairness soap product. It is often seen in the marketing world, that pioneers often find themselves missing opportunities in related categories. 

It is not the first time that F&L is launching a soap. The first launch was in 2015 and then somehow nothing happened with the product in the market. 

In late 2019, the brand relaunched the soap extension as if nothing happened in 2015.

In a marketing perspective, the soap variant takes a dig on the competitor Fair & Glow by creating parity on the 'glow" proposition. The soap is promising glowing skin and the fairness promise is there from the parent brand. The launch ad is in line with the overall F&L positioning.

The soap is priced in line with market and this can be considered a masstige brand which is a strategy where the product is aspirational but priced reasonably so that a larger segment of customers can afford to purchase. 

Through extending the F&L, brand HUL is trying two outcomes. Firstly it wants to leverage the existing equity of F&L in the soap category. Secondly, HUL wants to reinforce its supremacy in the soap category by covering the entire category and not leaving any gap for the competition to take advantage. 

Happenstance : Extreme Comfort Engineered

Brand: Happenstance
Company: Mosons Enterprises

Brand Analysis Count: 594

Happenstance is a new brand of footwear launched recently. The brand is making a lot of noises in the social media which interested me to further look into the brand's background. Although little is known about the brand owners, from the website it is found that the brand is owned by Kerala based Moson's Group. 

India is the third-largest footwear consuming country in the world with estimated market size of INR 32000 crore. 75% of the market is dominated by the unorganized sector. Since this is a crowded market, it takes a lot of effort to make a significant foothold in this market. 

Happenstance is primarily depending on the social media space to create a mark in the mind space of the consumers. And celebrity endorsement is often the preferred route for establishing awareness, especially for a new brand. 

Happenstance launched itself using high profile endorsements from celebrities like Sushmita Sen, Radhika Apte, Rajkummar Rao in their campaigns. The theme of the campaign focuses on testimonial theme to drive the brand's strengths to the consumers. Happenstance means coincidence and is quite an unusual name for a footwear brand which itself is a curiosity building element.

The brand is built on the positioning of comfort. Happenstance achieves this positioning through the smart use of two trademarked ingredient brands - Fluffium outsoles and Buoyance footbeds. The brand also smartly uses the concept of "engineering" to build authenticity to the claims. Happenstance uses the tagline " Extreme Comfort Engineered " which adds to the positioning. 

The social media promotion by the brand is done through a large number of influencer posts across the various media. Youtube is full of reviews and unboxing of the brands by fashion bloggers. The brand had also used traditional media to a certain extent featuring celebrities and fashion models. 

Footwear is an experiential product and the user's perception towards the brand's claims will vary. However, the brand has done its initial homework pretty well and the challenge is to keep the momentum going. A problem with celebrity-driven marketing is that while the celebrity helps the initial brand pull, brands often find it difficult to sustain the momentum without such expensive promotions in the long run. Comfort based positioning is currently unexplored in the market where most of the brands are talking about style. While Happenstance has identified the positioning gap, it has to be seen how the product performance takes it to the next level of growth. 

Brand Update : Reid & Taylor in trouble

A brand which once made a mark in the Indian luxury men's wear ( worsted suit category) is now in deep trouble. Owing to a large amount of debt of the parent company SKNL, the brand is on the block for sale and the company is facing bankruptcy proceedings. 

Reid & Taylor is a Scottish brand which is reported to have a rich legacy of 180 years. However, a google search on the parent brand yielded no results. 

The brand which was launched in India in 1998 had a good run in the Indian market backed by high-power advertisement campaign featuring Amitabh Bachchan. The brand then went on to expansion too fast trying to cover the large Indian market primarily through exclusive brand outlets. 

One of the mistakes that the brand made was to chase volume when the product is an expensive one. This strategy contradicts itself since volume game cannot be played in the luxury segment. So when you want to expand in the market through exclusive outlets, the company need to ensure that the franchisee will get the return either through high margin or high turnover. In the case of Reid & Taylor, the high cost of expansion from the parent company created a cash crunch which impacted the promotion which in turn affected the sales. 

Now the situation is such that SKNL case is pending with the NCLT and there are several suitors interested in taking over this once-famous brand. 

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Vicco Vajradanti : Reinventing Itself

Brand : Vicco Vajaradanti
Company : Vicco

Brand Analysis Count: # 593

Vicco Vajradanti was one of the first products of Vicco which started its operations in a single room at the house of Sri Keshav Vishnu Pendharkar. Sri Pendharkar was a staunch believer of Ayurveda and wanted to create and popularise ayurvedic products in India. He started a small company named as Vishnu Industrial Chemicals Company in tribute to his father. This company later become popular as VICCO.  

Vajradanti was a toothpowder form in its early days and when the market shifted towards toothpaste, the company began to produce Vajradanti in the toothpaste form. Vicco Vajradanti quickly gained acceptance among people who were more inclined towards ayurvedic products. The brand was positioned as a true-blue ayurvedic product. 

Although the brand had a rich heritage and used to promote the products regularly, the toothpaste remained a niche player in the highly competitive market. Vicco was never an aggressive player in the market and slowly and surely, the brand failed to catch the attention of the new generation of customers. One should not forget that this brand was the pioneer in the sponsorship of television programs in India. This brand also was the first in putting their ads in video cassettes. 

This year, the brand is making a relaunch of sorts with the roping of Alia Bhatt as the brand ambassador. The new tvc features Alia and the famous jingle which made the brand famous. 

What the brand aims to do is to bring back the nostalgia using the old jingle and at the same time use the brand ambassador to appeal to the new generation of customers. 

The celebrity endorsement in recent years is being viewed as a panacea for all brand problems. The usage of celebrity in campaigns have become a norm which has in my opinion, commoditised this strategy.

Celebrities, if not used carefully is nothing but a glorified replacement of models in these advertisements. 

Same here in the case of Vajradanti. What best the brand can hope for is a quick dose of brand awareness in the market. To be fair to the brand, it needs a truckload of brand awareness to fight the high decibel war being fought on the toothpaste market especially in the ayurvedic segment. 

Indigo Paints : Be Surprised

Brand: Indigo
Company: Indigo Paints

Brand Analysis Count: 592

Indigo paints recently is making a lot of noise in the media with a high profile brand endorsement by the Ace cricketer M S Dhoni. The company which was born in 2000 is aiming to be a major player in the highly competitive Indian paint industry. According to news reports, the Indian paint industry is worth INR 40,000 dominated by Asian Paints, Nerolac, Berger paints etc. Around INR 10,000 crore is dominated by unorganized segment. 

Indigo paints is now a small player in this industry with a turnover of around 600 crores. Market leader Asian Paints have a turnover of INR 16500 crores. The company which started with lower end cement paint is now repositioned itself as the maker of innovative paint solutions.

The brand's strategy was to initially generate brand awareness for which it has chosen the celebrity endorsement route. MS Dhoni was roped in as the brand ambassador. What the brand did was interesting. Along with the brand ambassador, Indigo Paints also created a character Zebra which represented the brand. The ads feature humorous interactions between Dhoni and the zebra which makes the ads interesting. The concept of giving human-like characteristics to non-human entities is called anthropomorphism. 

Many brands use anthropomorphism to build brand personality. Here Indigo paints use the animated zebra which gives the brand a character of vibrancy. The zebra also balances the ad with enough representation for the brand. 

Indigo paints is running a series of ads familiarizing the customers with the range of products like exterior emulsion, floor paints, ceiling paints etc. The campaigns along with the presence of Dhoni is definitely helping brand in its effort to build brand awareness. 

Unlike Asian Paints, Indigo does not now have sub-brands. The brand has the tagline " Be Surprised" which in my opinion is a disconnect with the brand's products. Regarding the positioning, Indigo is focusing on the product performance saying that it is a better paint. So the message is more functional rather than emotional. Probably over a period of time, Indigo paints will move to better positioning in future. 

The paint market is a tough market with a lot of influencers. The painter, the retailer all have a significant influence on the purchase decision of the consumer. Indigo paints is definitely making its presence felt in this market in terms of advertisement visibility. 

Brand Update : 5 Star wants you to do nothing !

For now, Ramesh and Suresh are retired from 5 Star advertisements. The duo which gave a different narrative to the brand has kind of becoming boring because of familiarity. The duo can be hated or liked but could not be ignored.

This year, the brand has launched a new campaign in line with the earlier positioning of " Getting Lost in the taste of 5 Star". The new campaign which is humorous enough has the narrative of getting lost but a twist in the message -" It is good to do nothing"

The challenge faced by established brands like 5 Star is to be interesting and relevant across time. Since there is little scope for product-changes, the only variable is advertisement theme and positioning. While frequent positioning changes are not advised, these brands need to always deliver fresh creative campaigns. 

The new ad achieves the purpose of freshness and the new positioning platform is cheeky and has the steam to run a few seasons. The current advertisement story is not unique but the execution is very good. What I liked is the cheeky tagline " Eat 5 Star, Do Nothing". In a way, the brand has a competing narrative to KitKat which is based on having a break. 

One8 : By Virat Kohli

Brand: One8
Company: Virat Kohli

Brand Analysis Count: 591

One8 is a brand owned by the cricketing icon Virat Kohli. The brand is an interesting one in the perspective of the business model. Brands created and owned by sports stars are nothing new. There are very well-known and successful brands like CR7, KF and the like. One8 owned by Virat Kohli is special because of the star himself. 

One8 brand whose name is derived from the jersey number of Virat was created in 2017. Virat Kohli signed a long-term 8-year contract with the sports brand Puma for a whopping 130 crore, and it is said that the idea of One8 brand grew to fruition from that partnership. Soon Puma launched the One8 range of sports shoes endorsed by Virat Kohli.

 Just like the brand owner, the brand began to aggressively extend itself into multiple categories. The business model is basically a licensing arrangement. Now One8 has launched products under the following categories

Sportswear - Puma

Fragrance - Scentials

Innerwear - Artmas Fashions ( Lux)

Footwear - Aeon Sports

Energy Drink - O'cean

Kidswear

Restaurant 

and probably many more to come in future. 

As one can observe, the brand has been expanding into a wide range of categories. The question is whether a new brand like One8 has the equity to spread itself too far across multiple unrelated categories. 

The brand derives its equity from the celebrity owner himself. All the products under this brand are endorsed by Virat himself. While many sports personalities launch their labels close to retirement, Virat was wise enough to launch his brand much early in his career and there is a lot of years of cricketing left in him. 

Different categories of products require different story-telling and narratives. When one tries to capture multiple categories with a single brand, it creates a huge amount of strain for the brand's equity and personality. For a personality-driven brand like One8, having too much endorsement also reduces the exclusivity of the celebrity and has the risk of brand-dilution. 

In a profitability or revenue point of view, getting into maximum licensing agreement make sense. It is like make hay while the sun shines. However, too many extension that too in many unrelated categories is bound to have its price. 

Lessons of Leverage from Cadbury & Oreo

When you have two very popular brands, how often you think about leveraging the strength of those two brands for mutual advantage? Lessons are to be learned from the two most popular brands from Kraft foods - Cadbury and Oreo. When Cadbury was taken over by Kraft foods, many saw synergy in the business and not brands. However, Kraft foods have very cleverly leveraged the strengths of both the brands by launching variants exploiting the strength of both the brands.

Take the two products - Cadbury Silk Oreo which has Oreo biscuits inside and Oreo biscuits dipped in Cadbury chocolate. Consumers have different tastes, some like their chocolates to be crunchy while others would like creamy chocolates with no interference in between. But more importantly, consumers are craving for more consumption experiences. They are willing to experiment with different combinations and here loyalty seldom matters. 

So when the two brands which have powerful equity decide to collaborate and bring new products together, the experiences multiply manifold. Of course, there will be consumers who don't like these variants, there are original products for them. However, a large set of consumers of this category of foods love new varieties and combinations. 

While many FMCG brands bring out variants and combinations, it's very rare that such brilliant leverage of brand strength has occurred in the Indian market.

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Brand Update : Odomos' experiment with product forms

In classic marketing textbooks, one of the strategies in managing the maturity stage of the product lifecycle is product modification. Theory suggests that there are two types of modifications - retention modification and conquesting modifications. Retention modifications are those which aims at satiating existing customers while the conquesting modification is aimed at getting new customers. 

Odomos has been in the market for decades and the challenge it faces is that stagnation in the market in terms of product penetration. Although mosquitoes are ubiquitous, Odomos is still a small brand in terms of size. This is probably because of lack of awareness and doubts about the safety of applying the cream directly into the skin. 

Odomos in recent years has addressed this problem head-on by launching a series of different product forms. Now the brand is available in the original cream form, liquid, gel, patch and now wearables and spray form. This strong marketing thought behind the brand should be appreciated. 

In the promotion front, the company has been very active. The target segment in most of the campaign is the children. I wonder why the company is restricting its target ( at least in the ads) to children. It is true that children are active outside the house and risk of them getting diseases is high, but the brand should have focused more on functional/benefit positioning targeting away from the age variable. 

The current campaign of Odomos is also well made which is themed in a rap setting but again focusing on children. 

The competitor Good Knight is also very active and since the product form differentiation is not insulated from emulation, other brands are also quick to come with their own versions. 

My personal take is that Odomos should think of a change in the segmentation strategy focusing on the proposition of a facilitator to active life since mosquitos are a nuisance to an active outdoor life. 

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V-Nourish : Real Ingredients, Wholesome Food

Brand: V-Nourish
Company: Veeba Foods

Brand Analysis Count: # 590

After the forward integration from an ingredient maker to a marketer of branded food products, Veeba has launched its new brand V-Nourish in the Indian market. The child nutrition market in Indian is worth around Rs 7000 crore and growing at around 12% YoY. The market is dominated by the likes of Horlicks and Bournvita. It is in this segment that an Indian company is going to fight for space. 

And the company is doing it in style. The brand has roped in none other than King Khan to endorse the brand. V-Nourish is positioned as a wholesome tasty food and comes on 4 variants. The brand has also launched a variant V-Nourish PediaPlus for kids from 2-5. 

The launch campaign is plain and simple straight forward talk by the celebrity about the brand benefits. There is not much scope for creativity in such a sort of theme.

It is really a coup of sorts for Veeba to having roped in SRK for the launch campaign. Although celebrity endorsement has become a common feature in advertising in India, the presence of such a star gives a big boost in terms of brand awareness for V-Nourish. To fight the likes of Horlicks, Bournvita, etc, you need such a headstart. Since this is a matter involving child nutrition, building brand trust is of paramount importance. Marketers at Veeba hope that SRK will help boost both awareness and trust for the brand. It is also interesting that SRK is seen to be a favorite for products involving kids - Byju's has also taken him as the brand ambassador. 

Brand Update : Colgate Moves to Higher Brand Values

In an interesting move, Colgate has moved from its traditional positioning of Strong Teeth to a much higher brand value of inner strength. The campaign started with Deepika Padukone and is currently taken forward with an endorsement from M.S.Dhoni and his wife Sakshi.

Colgate which rules the Indian market was very consistent with the brand's positioning. The imagery of the dentist and the demo using shell has remained the main theme of most of Colgate Dental Cream's advertising.

The new Colgate campaign talks about inner strength and tries to link the brand to the message. The tagline - Ander Se Strong which means: Be Strong from Inside. The new positioning is strengthened by the endorsement from Deepika Padukone and Dhoni. In a testimonial kind of ad, the brand uses the celebrities' personal experience to drive the new positioning. 

It is not that Colgate has completely moved to higher-order brand values. In a follow-up ad, the brand is also reminding the consumers about the original positioning based on calcium and strong teeth. As a market leader, Colgate has to constantly be ahead of the game in this highly competitive market. The Indian toothpaste industry is witnessing changes prompted by the initiatives by brands like Patanjali Dant Kanthi. The new campaign definitely helps Colgate stay ahead of the competitors for a while. 

Acko General Insurance Co : Digital Only Insurer

Brand: Acko
Company: Acko General Insurance Co Ltd

Brand Analysis Count: #589

This is the era of digital technologies disrupting traditional business models. The same is happening in the insurance industry in India too. Acko General Insurance Co Ltd is the first digital-only insurance startup in India. The company aims to sell its products only through online and operate only in the digital space. 

The Indian insurance industry is estimated to be around 1,20,000 crore and growing at 15-20% annually. The large population and limited penetration offer a large potential in this huge market. But the size of the market itself creates problems for the insurers. When the insurance industry opened up, a lot of global insurance players entered the Indian market but soon they found that cracking the diverse and large market is not that easy. This has led to a wave of consolidation in this space. 

Insurance in India is a highly regulated market and demands huge capital investment from the players. 

Acko is a startup which aims to disrupt this space. The company which launched its operations in 2017 is India's first digital-only insurance company. This means, unlike traditional insurance companies, Acko will not have a network of offices, rather everything will be app/web-based. This translates to lower cost and competitive pricing of the products for the consumers. Traditional insurers depend on a wide network of insurance advisors and offices to serve the customers. 

Acko launched its first product - auto insurance and claims to have reached the milestone of 20 million customers in the first year itself. 

To create awareness, Acko is running the campaign with the tagline " Full Paisa Wasool " insurance which means - complete value for money insurance. The brand is positioned as a value-for-money insurer and betting on low price as the key differentiator. 

The campaign which is humorous is also an example of using anthropomorphism in advertising. Anthropomorphism denotes the use of non-human characters in advertising for conveying human traits. 

As a consumer, there are certain issues that this brand needs to iron out. First is the awareness regarding the brand. While the advertisement is good and generates eyeballs, for a customer, building trust is vital especially in the case of insurance. Auto insurance, in particular, is a price-sensitive segment, however, the customer should first be assured that he will be taken care of by the firm. I had to search a little on the internet to find the pedigree of this company. Although it is true that this company is targeting digital-savvy customers, in the era of convenience the firm cannot entrust the trust-building task to the customer only. Further, the website of Acko also has very little information about the company.Second issue is differentiation. The idea of digital-only insurance although is new, is not protected from emulation by competition. The established firms will be ready with their own version in no time. How Acko will be able to tackle the competition will be an intersting to watch.

One of the important foundations of trust is the performance of the brand. If Acko is able to deliver the promise of its digital insurance products, this brand will create a new path for insurance startups in India.

Brand Update : Maruti Attempts Channel Differentiation using Nexa and Arena

In 2015, Maruti launched a new channel to cater to the company's foray into the premium four-wheeler segment. The new channel was branded as Nexa. Nexa catered to the premium range of cars from Maruti like Baleno, Brezza, Ciaz etc. The Nexa showrooms were designed to project a premium feel for the segment of customers that prefer premium cars.

It was a challenging move for the company because the multi-channel strategy has its share of problems like organizational challenges, differentiation challenges, channel conflict, redundancy etc. The need for a premium channel arose because Maruti started off as a maker of affordable cars. Its range of cars was never targeting the premium segment. Some of the earlier forays of Maruti into the premium segment also failed to achieve traction. 

Recently the company tasted its success with the mid-range and premium segment with some smart brand launches. Having a premium channel like Nexa enabled to company to give a different kind of experience to this segment.

In 2017, the company rebranded its traditional channel to Maruti Arena which sells the mass market brands like Alto, Wagon-R etc. The company also have a commercial channel and True Value channel for used cars. 

In theory, the company has followed a Marketing Channel Segment Differentiation strategy where the channels differ in terms of the customer segment which they cater. Another type of channel differentiation is Task Differentiation where the channel members differ in terms of the tasks they perform. 

Although the company has tried to create channel differentiation, there is still overlaps in terms of products. While some brands are exclusive to Nexa, some are available in both the outlets which can create potential channel conflict. Marketing Channel differentiation based on segments works well when there is a minimum overlap of characteristics across segments. Here in the case of automobiles, there is bound to be segment overlaps because of pricing overlaps as well as aspirational factors. We can see that the price of high-end variants of hatchbacks is equal to the price of certain mid-size entry-level variants. So the firms who have a channel differentiation strategy should ensure that these overlaps be kept a minimum.

 But with the huge market share and product sales, the channel members at this point of time may not be complaining too much about the cannibalization of sales. 

WLS : Live Natural

Brand: WLS ( Formerly Wills Lifestyle)
Company: ITC

Brand Analysis Count: 588

Wills Lifestyle was ITCs foray into Indian textile market. Launched in 2000, Wills Lifestyle initially was pioneering the premium fashion clothing market in India. The brand when it was launched was seen as an attempt by ITC to keep the equity of the cigarette brand Wills. Since cigarette brands cannot advertise, a clothing extension would be helpful in sustaining brand awareness. I viewed it as a case of surrogate advertising. 

Contrary to my assumption, ITC had other plans for the brand. Will Lifestyle quickly became successful as a premium clothing brand. The company expanded the brand franchise through retail stores across the country. In 2006, Wills Lifestyle became the principal sponsor of  India Fashion Week. Through this fashion event,  Wills Lifestyle became associated with fashion thus differentiating itself with the other clothing brands. However, the product was priced at a premium this restricting its scope into a niche brand.

Over a period of time, the clothing vertical became a laggard in the ITC portfolio and I presume that the company's foray into the FMCG segment had all the management attention. 

This year, the brand has a major restructuring. ITC has rebranded Wills Lifestyle into an acronym WLS. The brand also has a new positioning - sinless clothing which means 100% natural. 

With the rebranding, Wills Lifestyle has severed its ties with the cigarette brand. 

It is a very bold and risky move since at one stroke the brand has lost the source of its awareness. Now ITC will have to move the awareness of the older brand to the new brand name and that involves a whole lot of money. The new positioning of ' Naturalness ' is the buzz word in the FMCG space and ITC is hoping that the clothing market would also follow the trend. Also being natural is a good excuse to charge a premium!

WLS has adopted the tagline 'Live Natural ' to support the new positioning. The relaunch saw teaser ads across the print media. 

Wills is a powerful brand which has huge resonance among the male segment. Trading that powerful brand for an acronym does not make much sense in the marketing point of view. However, ITC may want to disassociate other businesses from the cigarette brand so that in future ethical questions can be avoided. 

A rebranding of this scale requires that the brand has to start afresh, right from identifying the source of brand equity to reworking all associated brand elements. With huge cash reserves, ITC does not have a financial issue in building awareness for WLS. What I am little skeptical is the " Natural " positioning platform of WLS. I don't see this as a compelling attribute, especially for a premium clothing brand. Time will tell. 

Brand Update : Horlicks pitches for Emotional Nutrition in the latest campaign

Departing from the usual pitch based on functional benefits, Horlicks now have moved into emotional territory with the new campaign Bottle of Love. Horlicks has been very consistent in the brand campaign throughout its brilliant life in the Indian market focusing on the benefits. The " Taller, Stronger, Sharper " proposition has been very well received in the Indian market and Horlicks continued to be the market leader in the segment in India. 

The new campaign is an interactive campaign which is emotionally laced targetting mothers. The campaign features Kota which is a place famous for competitive exam coaching. Aspiring medical and engineering candidates flocks to this place for coaching and the setup there is grueling and very competitive. Kota provides a relatable example of exam stress and Horlicks wants to provide solace to the kids. 

The campaign is very well made and has already become very popular in social media. 

The campaign is followed with ground activation where the brand wants the mothers to log into the site bottleoflove.in where they would get an empty bottle. They need to fill it up with anything that their kids love and Horlicks will ensure that the bottle will reach the kids. 

In recent interviews with the media, the campaign managers tell that the idea behind the campaign is the fact that every house will have one bottle of Horlicks and the bottle will serve as the carrier of emotional nutrition for the kids.

The transition from functional nutrition to emotional nutrition is a clever positioning move for the brand. The functional nutrition value proposition has been commoditized with a lot of brands taking up that positioning. Further, the Indian market has also seen new product launches specialized in functional nutrition. It thus makes sense for Horlicks to ladder to a higher order benefit and Emotional Nutrition fits perfectly. The concept is powerful and scalable across the brand portfolio and also resonates with the target market. 

Kudos to the brand marketers. 

Brand Update : Palmolive Relaunched

Palmolive, one of the oldest brand of soaps in the Indian market has not been able to do justice to its existence. Despite its rich heritage, international pedigree and a strong parent, Palmolive has always remained a fringe player in the highly competitive Indian market. At one point in time, Palmolive had a range of products ranging from soaps to shaving cream. The shaving cream featuring Kapil Deva was a huge hit in those days.

Later, however, the company focus shifted from soaps and Palmolive was sidelined in the marketing front. There were sporadic interests in the brand but all those were
half-hearted ones.

This year, the brand is again making a comeback of sorts. The brand has launched a new range of facial bars with the positioning of being Natural.
The brand is currently running the relaunch campaign.
The company is trying to bring in some freshness to the brand in this relaunch. The brand is relaunched in three variants including charcoal variant.
The brand now has the tagline " Glow Naturally" indicating that Palmolive is trying to bank on the current trend towards natural products.

It is good to see some interest in developing this brand. Palmolive have strong awareness in the market but I feel that there is no strong association with the brand which it can develop. One of the task for Palmolive is to rediscover the source of equity and build on that.

Related Post

Palmolive Da Jawab Nahin

Brand Update : There is a little bit of Nerolac in your Life

Nerolac, which has a legacy of more than 100 years has always been playing second fiddle to Asian Paints in the Indian paint industry. Both in the field and advertising space, Nerolac was not able to beat the market leader Asian Paints. Probably after a long time, Nerolac had hit a bullseye in finding a credible message for its consumers.

The latest campaign of Nerolac- There is a little bit of Nerolac in your life, is a creative breakthrough for this brand. Everyone who has seen the ad was surprised at the message - the fridge, the car, the appliances are painted with Nerolac. That indeed is a powerful message which will change the way the brand is perceived. 

The basic idea is to leverage the brand's credibility in the industrial segment to the consumer segment. Indian paint industry which is worth around Rs 47000 crore is classified into Decorative Segment and Industrial Segment. Decorative Segment constitutes 75 % of the total market. Asian Paints is the market leader in the whole paint industry with a whopping 41% share while Nerolac has a share of 14 %. But in the Industrial segment, Nerolac leads with 35 percent share. 

To counter the market leader Asian Paints iconic campaigns capitalizing the emotions associated with color and home, Nerolac so far tried all strategies including roping in Big B for their campaigns but with limited success. 

This time, the brand roped in the energetic Ranveer Singh as the brand ambassador. But the star of the campaign is the Big Idea. The campaign is very effective in driving the home that the home appliances which usually have the durable painting are being painted by Nerolac. That message instantly conveys credibility to the brand. Nerolac was able to give a piece of very powerful evidence to its core strengths - performance credibility. Ranveer Singh brings a touch of humor to the whole proposition. 

This idea although very powerful does not have longevity in the sense that this cannot be continued for long. The brand needs to milk this idea within a short span of time and then move on with some sustainable proposition in the next phase of the campaign. For now, hats off to those brains who came up with this idea. 

Brand Update : Hamam ladders up to women empowerment

Hamam which has a rich legacy dating back to 1931 is charting a new course in its marketing communication strategy. This 300 crore brand from HUL has been positioning itself on the basis of its ingredients - Neem and Tulsi since its inception. 

In 2017, the brand tried to change its course moving from the functional benefit platform derived from its ingredients to a higher order benefit. In marketing parlance, it is called brand laddering. 

According to news reports, this is the first time that Hamam is moving away from the functional benefit positioning. 

The 2017 campaign #GoSafeOutside aims to use the " women empowerment" as the platform for brand promotion. The brand is taking up the cause of safety of girls for its promotion. 

The ad shows how a shy young girl is motivated by the mother to stand up on her own.

The concept of women empowerment is nothing new in the Indian marketing scene. Many brands including some soap brands like Lux have taken up this platform for brand promotion. 

In this campaign, Hamam encourages the young girls to take up self-defense courses that would give them the necessary confidence to go out of their safe zone. 

In 2018, the brand went further ahead with the campaign and tried to create a network of mothers called Hamam Mothers Safety Force. This network is intended to provide a watchful eye on the safety of young girls. 

HUL is known for such ground level activation in its various cause marketing campaign for its brands. The brand should be lauded for identifying a potent issue regarding women safety and doing something about it. The brand runs the hashtag " GoSafeOutside for this initiative. 

The success of a cause marketing campaign revolves around the relevance, brand connect and the impact. This campaign is very relevent in today's times. It needs to be seen how HUL carries this forward to create a lasting impact on the consumer's mind. 

Cadbury Crispello : Let Something Good Happen !

Brand : Crispello
Company : Mondolez India

Brand Analysis Count: #587

Cadbury recently launched a new brand Crispello in the Indian market. The new product is the company's second entry into the crispy chocolate segment, the first being Perk. The new brand will be fighting with the likes of KitKat, Galaxy etc. While this segment is dominated by chocolate covered wafer products like KitKat, Cadbury's Crispello is a wheat crispies covered with chocolate.

The Rs 8000 crore chocolate market is witnessing intense competition with global players fighting it out for the share of the pie. Now the who-is-who of the players are in the market and to be in the game, brands need to constantly innovate. 

Crispello is targeting the new generation of customer who is always looking for a variety of experiences. Crispello is targeting the customers who want light indulgence snacking options. According to company reports, the brand understands that customers of this generation want multi-textured and complex experiences and the brand aims to deliver that option. 

The new brand follows the same brand architecture of other Cadbury brands. The new product is endorsed by the category brand- Cadbury, followed by the family brand - Dairy Milk. 

The brand also follows usual positioning of Dairy Milk centered around the concept of " Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye ".

The launch advertisement is also in sync with the positioning. Interestingly Crispello is positioned as a healthy diet snack targeting women in Europe.

The strategy followed by Mondolez which has been ruling the Indian chocolate market is to keep the excitement going among the consumers. The Cadbury brand has seen a lot of product launches which had kept the brand in the limelight. Some of the launches have been highly successful in the likes of Dairy Milk Silk. 

With global brands like Mars, M&M etc stepping up the game, the market leader is also making aggressive moves to stay on top. Exciting times ahead in this market. 

Brand Update : Welcome back Santro

This October saw one brand coming back to life. Hyundai decided to name their new entry-level hatchback as Santro. Indian market is witnessing an interesting brand name phenomenon of a resurrection of dead brands. After Santro, Mahindra is launching the Jawa brand. Ads of Dianora ( remember Dyanora brand ?) brand is there in some channels in Kerala. 

Santro in the earlier avatar had a dream run in the Indian market. It paved way for Hyundai to become the second largest car maker in the highly competitive Indian market. However, Hyundai decided to put the brand to rest and opted for a strange alpha-numeric brand i10 as the successor. Although the brand found acceptance, it was not a blockbuster brand like Santro. 

The new Santro has no similarity with the old models. Neither in looks or in the technical specification. The product looks like a car born out of i10 and Chevrolet Beat. 

In the brand communications, Santro tries to link itself to the old Santro's USP of a tall boy design, however, the new Santro does not look like a tall boy. 

 Just like the relaunch of Baleno, here the company has used a very famous brand name for the new launch. There is no need to be nostalgic about it. There was some nostalgia when I heard the news of Santro relaunch but that vanished when I saw the new Santro being totally different from the old. 

So why a sudden rush for dead brands. The only reason is the brand awareness that some of these brands carry across all these years. For example, Jawa and Yezdi still have huge awareness among the Indian riders. We also know that these bikes were real headaches in terms of mechanical failures and ride quality. You need extra-strong calf muscles to make a Yezdi start. But since those were the only options, consumers tend to buy it. When better bikes came, these brands died. 

In the case of Santro, it had strong equity created out of excellent product performance. Old Santros are still running without any issues. 

By launching the new product with an old brand which has excellent brand awareness ( recognition + recall) gives a  real boost to the launch efforts. There need not be any investment in building awareness by using an old brand. Since Santro did not have any issues in the previous life, it does not come with any baggage. Hyundai just had to fuel a hype of an old brand resurrected, the media will take care of the rest of promotion because of the news value. The launch of Santro had earned a lot of earned media space just because of the brand name. 

Hyundai had priced the new Santro in a sweet spot and according to auto-portals, the product offers excellent value for the price paid. Automobile market success heavily depends on product and service related attributes and less on brand-related attributes. Santro again depends on how the car works and with Hyundai's track record, it will not be a problem for the new brand. 

Brand Update : Skoda lures with Peace of Mind

Skoda came into the Indian market way back in 2002 with the highly successful premium sedan Octavia. Ever since the brand has created an image of a premium brand with very sturdy cars. However, the brand was eclipsed when the Indian market saw the likes of BMW, Audi, and Mercedes fighting it out with new models and brand promotion

. Somewhere down the line, the brand went into a slumber, my assumption is that when the Volkswagen brand was promoted heavily, Skoda went into sleep.

2018 is witnessing a comeback of sorts for this brand. According to newspaper reports, Volkswagen group is planning to put Skoda brand in the center of India 2.0 strategy. 

One of the issues that the brand is facing is the perception ( rather truth) of Skoda being expensive to maintain in terms of service and spare costs. This issue was faced by Ford who ran a big campaign trying to change the perception. 

To change the perception, Skoda is offering warranty and service package to the car owners and a celebrity-driven brand campaign. 

The brand has roped in Boman Irani as the celebrity endorsing the new campaign. Interestingly Boman Irani is also endorsing Cars24 portal. Seems like he is the new favorite of Auto brands. 

Skoda needs to change the perception of being expensive to maintain since the brand is expected to launch a series of products that will drive VW's share in the Indian market in the coming years. 

Because of this perception, Skoda cars are not in the consideration set of most of the customers who look for an upgrade in the mid-range segment. In my opinion, Skoda is a kind of squeezed in the Indian car market with the luxury segment being dominated by brands like Audi, Benz, BMW etc while the premium segment is witnessing the intense competition between the likes of Honda and Suzuki. 

The money that the brands like Skoda and Ford had to incur to change the perception of being expensive to maintain brand is a lesson to marketers. Perceptions are easy to create and often created without a thought. Once the perception is set in the mind of the target market, it will burn a hole in the brand's pocket for a long time. 

Sting : Electrifying Energy, Ultimate Taste

Brand: Sting
Company: Pepsico India

Brand Analysis Count: #586

Sting is the Pepsico India's challenger brand in the Rs 200 Crore sports and energy drink market in India. According to Livemint, Indian sports and energy drink market are in a nascent stage with a consumption of 45.2 Million Liters in 2016. Redbull rules the market with a share of 64%.

The size of the Indian market and the growing interest of the consumers towards non-carbonated and less sugary drinks has made this a very attractive market for these products. Moreover, the government has come out with norms for energy drink market which makes a clear regulatory framework for the players. 

Sting is launched with the positioning of product performance. The tagline of the brand is " Electrifying Energy, Ultimate Taste". The launch ad is effective in communicating the positioning but cannot be claimed as anything creative because it reminds of the Center Shock ads of the past. The ad is targeting the health conscious young Indian consumers. 

The brand is priced almost 50% less than the market leader Redbull. I have not seen this brand in my city. I guess, the national rollout has not happened yet for the brand. 

Indian sports and energy drink market is still a niche market. Although there is a shift towards healthy drinks, consumers ( in my opinion) is little confused about the product usage. In marketing terms, the category lacks salience. The brands in the category need to educate the consumers about the product usage and usage situations in order to expand the category. Although we can argue that the product descriptor ( energy drink) is there in the product label, that will only help in category identification. If the category needs to expand, it should make more usage situations for the product. Currently, the category is popular among sports enthusiasts which restrict the growth of the market in terms of market size. 

The low price of Sting may induce more product usage for the brand and thus offer a challenge to the market leader. However, Sting needs more than the quirky launch campaign to challenge Redbull. 

Brand Update : Is Santoor testing a new positioning ?

Santoor, one of India's largest brand has been on a roll these days. Recently, the brand became the second largest selling soap by volume, toppling HUL's Lux ( Source). The success of the brand is attributed to the consistency and focus in brand building.

Recently an interesting twist has happened in the brand's approach to positioning. The brand relaunched its Santoor Gold in a new avatar. Santoor Gold was launched in 2015 as a premium variant differentiated by the presence of Sakura extracts and saffron as the ingredient. The product was launched initially in the southern states like AP. Three years later, the variant is relaunched. This time the sakura extract is missing and prominence are given to the saffron and sandal ingredient.
More importantly, the ad of this variant does not follow the core positioning of the parent brand - the mistaken identity.

This is a drastic change in terms of the brand's positioning strategy.

Watch the old ad of santoor gold here










.
The earlier campaign of Santoor Gold followed the mistaken identity theme. The question remains as to why the brand chose to tread a new path for its variant? One scenario is that the brand is testing a new positioning different from the age-old one with the new variant. The second scenario is that the brand chose to have a new positioning for the variant targeting a much younger crowd.
However, theoretically, it is always better to have the variants following the positioning theme of the parent brand otherwise the synergy of the brand-line promotions will be lost.

Prepair : Be Prepared

Brand: Prepair
Company: Vini Cosmetics

Brand Analysis Count: #585

Recently Vini Cosmetics Ltd, which is famous for the Fogg brand, launched a new brand Prepair ant-ageing segment. The Indian anti-aging market is worth around Rs 1500 crore ( as per Business Standard) and around Rs 2600 crore as per IIFL. The market is at a nascent stage but is expected to grow owing to the aging population and expansion of the category by marketers. 

The market already has seen global brands like Olay in the past. However, Olay was skimming the market with its premium positioning. Later the market witnessed the entry of HUL with Ponds Age Miracle range and Nivea with Q10 Plus. But these global brands tried their luck in the premium space of the segment. 

Vini Cosmetics has probably spotted the gap in the market and has launched the brand Prepair aiming at the larger pie of the segment at a lower price point. Prepair is created as a family brand endorsing multiple products in the anti-aging segment. The company has launched Prepair regenerating skin cream for women as Prepair 4050. For men, the company has launched Prepair 40+; probably men won't mind if the brand says openly that it is for the age group of 40 above. The brand name is a compound brand name or Lexical brand name combining Prepare and Repair. The tagline is Be Prepared. 

The brand is launched with ads that are aimed at category development. The ads are plain-vanilla informative in its execution. 

There are separate campaigns for male and female segments.
The large FMCG market in India offers a lot of opportunities for niche products. The Indian market is such that these niche markets often grew to become large segments. Vini Cosmetics is betting on the anti-aging personal care segment as one which has the potential to grow big.