Pepsodent : Dishum Dishum

Brand : Pepsodent
Company : HLL
Agency " Lowe

Pepsodent was launched in 1993 by Hll to capture the market from Colgate. Launched in the platform of Germ fighting property, Pepsodent now have a marketshare of 17% in the Rs2200 crore oral care market.

Pepsodent have experimented with its positioning althrough its life. Initially Pepsodent was launched in the highly successful "long lasting protection for hours after brushing" platform. In 1999-2000 Pepsodent tried to fight the market leader Colgate by shifting to Benefits of germ fighting rather than Process of germ fighting. But the positioning failed and Pepsodent had to come back to the old positioning by 2001.

Pepsodent included the germ indicator to its pack in 2002 followed by an innovative Dental Insurance campaign which reinforced the germ fighting position.

HLL was trying hard to break the fort of Colgate which was holding a massive 45- 50% market share in the oral care market.Although Pepsodent and Close Up had together around 32% of the market , it was not enough. Then came the regional brands like Ajanta and Babool which really made a dent in the market share of the leaders.

Hll struck back with the famous Dishum dishum campaign ( that won many accolades for the agency). The insight for this campaign was that Mothers were really worried about the eating habits of their kids. From that insight came the Big Idea " let Pepsodent fight germs for You". The campaign and the smart pricing virtually killed the regional brands in the oral care market.

Pepsodent knew that they should expand the total market of tooth paste and decided to increase the market by increasing the usage of the product. Thus came the Bhoot campaign that is currently on air.
Pepsodent aims to teach the kids to brush at night ( with Pepsodent ofcourse) .Research shows that brushing teeth at night can reduce chances of tooth decay by 30%.
If HLL to be believed, 12 lakhs kids are brushing teeth at night now and mothers are happy

Pepsodent is a brand that has been carefully crafted although it struggled to find its soul, now the brand is all set to take off.

Whisper : shhh....

Brand : Whisper

Company: P&G

Agency : Leo Burnett

The female personal hygiene market in India is in a nascent stage. The market size is estimated at around rs 425 crore , some say$44mn.

The market is dominated by 3-4 players P&G, Johnson & Johnson , Dabur and Gufic. The product comes under low penetration product types. Since Indian women are not used to such products, the penetration is low but potential is high taking into account the increasing literacy and media reach. The segment commands a high brand loyalty.

Majority of the category customers still use home solutions like clothes rather than use an expensive sanitary napkin.

However J&J created this category with the launch of Stayfree during the early 80's. The heavy media investment along with the J&J endorsement opened up a new category. Stayfree was undisputed leader  till the launch of Whisper.

Whisper was launched in 1989 and  now account for 42% share in the sanitary napkin market in India. The brand is positioned as a premium brand. 

During the early years of launch, P&G had two responsibilities 1. educate the ladies about the product 2. Promote the brand.

The marketing of Whisper is a classic case of Brand building .The initial ads were striking ones featuring mother talking about educating the daughter about using sanitary napkins

.The communication was very sensitively planned since this product is something that we Indians seldom discuss in public. The campaigns was successful in erasing the stigma attached with these kind

 of products. Napkins were positioned as a modern hygiene way of protecting your lifestyle even on " those days" the ads said..

P&G has brought out lot of variants in this product trying to expand and create some waves in the market which is otherwise a dull market. Whisper is now giving  stiff competition from Stayfree from J&J. Stayfree is the market leader in this category. It is credited with creating the sanitary market. But the success has made this brand complacent. 

Whisper changed the game by investing lot of money in brand building. It brought the category out of closet and added a sense of  premiumness into the category. 

 Now Stayfree is trying to corner whisper in the price. Whisper is now being forced to bring out less priced variants. Since the market is growing , at present there is lot of room to play around. Recent reports also suggest that the brands were able to penetrate rural market also.

The brands in this category face the issue of low penetration. The customers are still shy about discussing these products that creates lot of hinderance in the category growth. 

Picture/ad source : Afaqs

Tide : Neat strategy

Brand : Tide

Company:P&G

Agency; Leo Burnett

Tide is the largest selling detergent brand of P&G worldwide. Tide was launched with much fanfare in 2000.

Indian detergent industry is estimated to be around Rs5000 crore and is dominated by the marketing giant HLL. P& G although was in the Indian market for a long time was not a serious player in the detergent market. But when the Indian market opened up and the economy began to prosper, P&G could not resist entering the Indian marketin a big way. As always MNCs are too proud of their brands that they want a premium from the consumers. Here also ,Tide was launched as a premium brand and as usual got a luke warm response from the value conscious Indian consumers. P&G had to settle with a miniscule 8 % of the detergent market.

Then came 2003 and the price war started and now there is no premium brands in the detergent market in India. The price war enabled P&G to popularize the brand and increase the penetration. Although HLL and P&G did not increase their marketshare because of the price cut, the overall market size increased because the regional players lost their share to these giants.

P&G had a serious problem after the price cut because there was a chance of cannibalizing between Ariel and Tide because there was no significant differentiation between the two brands.

Now Tide has found its formula, the same global positioning as a Detergent that cleans perfectly. So using whiteness ( safedi) as a base Tide has now unleashed the campaign highlighting its whitening power against HLL's Rin which has the same positioning.

The campaigns has a desi touch and well executed. The pricing is competitive and hence HLL is forced to rope in none other than Big B to defend Rin.

Through the new strategy Tide aims to capture the safedi segment while Ariel will fight Surf in the Color segment.

A marketing fight worth watching....

Complan: Complete Planned Food

Brand : Complan
Agency : Leo Burnett

Baseline : Extra growing power


Complan is a major brand in the 1200 crore malted beverage segment in India. A brand once owned by Glaxo was acquired by HJ Heinz in 1995. Heinz is a $9.2 Bn conglomerate that has operations in 200 countries and is famous for its Ketchups.

Complan has always been positioned as a Complete Planned food with its famous baseline " I am a complan boy : I am a complan girl"
The market for malted beverages has been stagnant for a while. But recent years it has been seeing some activity, the reason being that Indians are forced to be health conscious. Complan also found itself to be stagnant in terms of market share. The researches found that although the brand is established and popular among its users, the brand is not growing because it failed to attract new users.
This can be dangerous because a brand can sustain only if it is able to attract new users to its fold. Hence Complan changed its promotional strategy from targeting the existing users to attracting new users. The baseline was changed to " extra growing power" and ads were mainly targeting the non users of the product.

The change in the positioning is also due to the increasing competition from Horlicks and other GSK products in the segment.
Complan have also launched Complan: Family , a variant aiming at all members of family as a part of expanding the target market. Another interesting strategy was the launch of Complan sachet priced at Rs5 for 15gm complan . I am little confused at the exact purpose of the sachet launch , may be they want to explore the bottom of pyramid

Complan has been an established brand in the Indian health drinks market.The brand was carefully positioned and nurtured by its owners. With the competition getting hot all the time the brand is reinventing itself . It will be worthwhile to watch the fight of David And the Goliaths in this market .......

Air Deccan : Simplifly

Brand : Air Deccan
Agency : Orchard India ( unit of Leo Burnett)
Baseline : Simplifly

Launched in 2003, this low cost airline of India has changed the Indian Aviation industry for the better. Dominated by government owned airlines and one private player in Jet, Indian aviation never had been in the mind of the Indian middle class.

Then came the visionary Capt.Gopinath with a ( crazy ) idea of a low cost airline for the masses. The large airlines shuddered at the prospect of a low cost airline in the country. How can any one forgo the monopoly. But It happened.

It was disheartening to see the reports that Air Deccan's maiden flight caught fire and was grounded. I bet the bigwigs in the airline industry were very happy at that tragic incident ( no serious mishap happened but it was a terrifying incident for the company) . I wrote off the airline at that time but Capt. Gopinath did not or infact he could not. He had a dream and he could not just write off that dream ( Am I being Dramatic ?) .

Air Deccan is modeled in the lines of low cost airlines like South West airlines (a Harvard case study ) which was the only profit making airline during the slump that followed 911. There was a huge market for a low cost airline in India. The overall economy was shining and middle class was spending money and executives were traveling frequently.

Targeted at the frequently traveling middle class, Air Deccan is now a force to reckon with. After 2 years, Airdeccan has discovered a viable pricing model and has revolutioned the industry by offering tickets at Re 1 and Rs 500.
Having tasted success in domestic market, Air Deccan is going international through its subsidiary in Srilanka .Deccan knows that Indian officials will not favour the Airdeccan going global so it choose to go via SriLanka.

AirDeccan always tried to explore new markets and now is targeting the First class train travelers.

Although there are many noises about the service as such , we must understand that the prices are really low and it takes lot of effort to keep it that way.
Hats off to Air Deccan.....

Bajaj Discover : Discover the positioning!

Brand : Discover
Company : Bajaj
Agency : O&M


Bajaj has been on a roll these days and if the stock valuations are any indication of firms performance, then Bajaj is Bachchan of two wheelers. It had been an interesting story of Bajaj , interesting in the marketing and strategic point of view of how a company which thrived during the closed economy has evolved to a dynamic company in a free market economy.

The brand has evolved from " Hamara Bajaj" TO " No one can beat a Bajaj" TO " Inspiring Confidence".
Rahul Bajaj , the Part time Chairman of the company has been instrumental in facilitating this change from a Fuddy Duddy image of a scooter manufacturer to a dynamic young M/Cycle manufacturer.

Bajaj which was proudly known as world's largest manufacturer of scooters in the nineties found to its surprise one day that Indians now don't like scooters, they like m/cycles. Bajaj first thought it is not possible. How can people who once waited for 3 years to get a scooter can think of buying a m/cycle. But ultimately numbers proved the point. Bajaj no longer mattered in the new scheme of things. Hero Honda is the leader in the motorcycle segment (which was once dominated by Yezdi, Enfield and Java) and scooter sales are coming down.

Bajaj still believed that things were as usual, people prefers scooters, m/cycle is just a fad, no one can beat a bajaj ...... but ..,

Once Bajaj has realised that Indian consumers have changed, It has to change and it changed for the better.
Bajaj came with a series of M/Cycle launches but it took a long time before Bajaj could establish itself in the M/Cycle market. This proves the point that as a marketer, you cannot take customers for granted no matter who you are.

Pulsar helped Bajaj to establish itself as a serious player in the Indian M/cycle market. Bajaj had failures in establishing its presence in the executive segment where Hero Honda's splendour rules .

Hence Bajaj launched Discover DTSI with much fanfare. The brand ambassador was none less than the legendary Jackie Chan. Things were perfect for a bestseller. But has Discover delivered?

Still No.
Partly because Bajaj is still struggling with the positioning of the brand. The same mistake was done with Caliber. Bajaj is trying to sell Discover by its looks. But then the new commercial suggest something else. The new commercial with a Harry Potter look alike is well executed but has no marketing significance. What is being communicated to the customer ? Just like the Hoodibaba campaign involving cartoon characters which actually killed the product, Discover campaigns are based on Fantasy.

It will be helpful for Bajaj if it realises or rather study its target market.
" M/cycles are used by adults above 18 educated and the product is M/cycle that is used for transportation" Bajaj knows this more than I do, But then how can you sell a Motorcycle to an Adult based on fantasy?
Bajaj should decide on which platform Discover is going to be placed at. Is it going to be sold as a stylish bike or performance or both?
Positioning has to be realistic and should differentiate the product from the competitors. That is theory and it works also.
Here M/cycle cannot be sold on the basis of some fantasy or cartoons, Bajaj should realize that. Discover had a dream launch. If Bajaj fails to capitalize on that then this product will be another Caliber .

Bajaj can relax for while because Hero Honda's new bike Achiever is also poorly positioned and campaign stupidly executed..