Royal Enfield : Royal Indeed

Brand : Royal Enfield
Company : Royal Enfield Ltd
Agency : RMG David


If you are searching for an Indian Icon which has survived the test of time, look no further , It is Royal Enfield.Established in India in 1955, Enfield is celebrating its 50 years of existence in India.
Enfield was born in Mid 19 the century in England. A firm named George Townsend established a small factory in Redditch Town in England for manufacturing Sewing needles.Later the firm started producing cycles and later motorcylces. In 1893, the products sported the name Enfield.
1931 saw the birth of Bullet. In 1935, the product acquired the modern look. Bullet was reintroduced in 1948-49 , redesigned byTed pardoe , Chief Draftsman of Enfield, England.

In 1955, the first factory was set up in India. In 1994 the company was acquired by Eicher and the company name was changed to Royal Enfield India Ltd.

The brand faced lot of problems all through its life in India. Bullet was always a Muscle machine. The product was the only power bike available in India and commanded a cult like following. Although the engine was not refined and produced lot of problem for the owners, it was treated with respect .
But along the time, Bullet lost its way. The company tried to play volume market and failed miserably. The reason being the product cannot be volume bike. It cannot be treated as an ordinary bike and required lot of care from the owners. Ordinary bikes can be treated roughly but not Bullet because if not cared, it can give lot of head aches for the owners.

Besides,the product had created lot of psychological barriers for the potential owners. The weight of the bike discouraged the skinny ones, the antagonistic gear/brake positions scared the rest. The kickstart needed powerful legs and so on..

Enfield realised this very lately. With new young blood (Sidhartha lal) in the helm of Royal Enfield, things are looking up.The company relaunched the brand with new communication and logo , corrected the flaws in the bike and repostioned the product.
The new launches of Bullet Electra and the cruiser Thunderbird and the introduction of electric start for the bullet were well received by bike enthusiasts. Bullet also changed the Gear/Brake in line with the ordinary bikes.

Bullet is now positioned as lifestyle bike not for the ordinary. It connects to the " pleasure of biking" and tags the masculine persona. The campaigns are well executed by RMG David and clearly communicates the stature of the brand among other bikes . It says " Every body makes way for the bullet". Thunderbird is launched as the cruiser bike and has already established its presence in this segment.

Recent Customer Satisfaction survey conducted by TNS auto division places Bullet in top order in customer satisfaction. This shows that the company has effectively spruced up the quality of this mean machine.

More over Royal Enfield also roped in Ravichandran from Bajaj as its chief executive. Ravichandran is well respected in the industry circle as a design specialist and marketing man.

Enfield has the iconic status in India and the company has put its acts together. We will see this brand reaching its deserving position in the Motorcycle segment in the coming years.

Old spice : Death of an Icon?

Brand : Old Spice
Company : Menzes cosmetics
Agency : Percept

This brand which is originally owned by P&G is a sad story of an Icon killed by apathy. Old spice is an international brand launched in India in 1969.
The first Old Spice product was called Early American Old Spice for women . It was introduced in 1937. In 1938, Old Spice for men were launched. Old Spice was manufactured by Shulton Co owned by William Schultz. Schultz developed Old Spice along the Colonial theme. Hence the nautical theme was chosen and Sailing ship especially Colonial Sailing ship was used the trademark. The Original ships that were used was Grand Turk and Friendship.

In 1990 P&G purchased the Brand from Shulton. The old ship was replaced by Sail boat/ Yatch in 1992.

In India from 1937 to 1993, the Old Spice was manufactured and marketed by Menzes Cosmetics Goa. Then P&G took over the brand and in 2001 again the brand was given back to Menzes cosmetics. In between the brand was licensed to Marico Industries but later the agreement was terminated.

Old Spice was generic name for After shaves in India. The cool Cologne and Lime fragrance was a run away success and the trade mark of the ship was unique. I still remember in 1990's trying desperately to find out collectible like lockets/ keychains .

Old Spice was positioned as a masculine brand with the baseline " mark of a man'. The advertisement was catchy with international models and thrilling themes.

But then something happened. The brand was put in the back burner. There was no marketing activity about the brand. No ads, No product launches, slowly the brand faded out of memory. Since there is no activity, the growth of the brand stopped and death of an Icon happened.

Still there are no successful Aftershave brands in Indian Market that can command the status of Old Spice of yester years. Old Spice had the potential to be an Icon. The brand was well known, the quality was good and there was some thing special about Old Spice and the Sail ship.

Now since the brand is back with the company that has launched it, let us hope that the brand revives itself. The void is still there. Neither Axe nor Gillette has the legacy of Old Spice.

Set Wet : A cool cool brand

Brand : Set Wet
Company : Paras Pharma

When I first saw the ad of Set Wet hair styling gel, I thought it was an international brand. Then the little" P" at the side of the screen revealed that the brand is from Paras Pharma. Paras is a company that dares to experiment and a smart marketer. Paras clearly identifies unmet needs and satisfies them effectively. Take the case of Moov and Itch guard, the successful brands from Paras which are leaders in their respective niches.

Set Wet is such a bold step . The brand which has already made people look up with its smart advertising aims to establish it self in the Rs400 crore male grooming market which is growing at a fast pace. The fact that 15-34 year old males are now earning big money ( thanks to IT and ITES), it is a market no marketer can discard.

Except for Gillette and HLL & Sara Lee ,there are no serious players in the male grooming market. Gillette while dominates the shaving products market, HLL created and owns the Deo market with AXE and Rexona.There was a brand OldSpice which was synonymous with after shave in India ( what happened to that brand will be dealt with in the coming blogs) The hair grooming market is dominated by Brylcreem from Sara Lee TTK. Set Wet is trying to compete head on with Brylcream which has a market share of 75% in the hair cream market.

Paras wants to have a brand in the male grooming segment and made a perfect start with Set Wet which has also been extended to perfumes. The perfume market is valued at about Rs1800 crore dominated by foreign brands at the upper end of the market.

Perfumes and deos were products that were not popular in India mainly because of cultural factors. We are not much bothered about the odour and bad odour was never considered as a taboo until HLL came and taught us that smelling bad is not good. The deo market saw a jump from 0 to 72 crores in just 24 months.

The void in the Indian perfume market gives tremendous opportunity for a product like Set Wet.The campaigns of Set Wet have an international look since we Indians consider any thing PHOREN as the best. Positioned as a Cool and naughty brand, Set Wet has a lot of potential.

Dettol : 100% protection, Is the brand protected?

Brand :Dettol
Company :Reckitt and Benckiser
Agency: JWT

The brand has been well known for years. Dettol is Rs 300 crore brand of Reckitt and Benckiser formerly Reckitt and Coleman. Dettol is a 70 year old brand . Launched in 1936 as an antiseptic lotion, the brand became a generic name for antiseptic lotion similar to Xerox in Photocopiers.From its launch to 1980's the brand had a dream run with virtually no competitors. Having no competition is a problem, the growth will be stagnant.

During 1980's Dettol found that the sales are remaining stagnant, the reason being that the brand has its presence in most of the households but are seldom used . Hence the repeat purchases are not there.

Dettol had to expand the usage beyond cuts and bruises. Hence Reckitt and Coleman unleashed a campaign aiming to expand the usage of the brand to an all purpose antiseptic that can be used for shaving,rinsing, and as a general disinfectant.
Dettol have always been positioned as a 100% germ fighter with germ fighting and protection as the core value.
Since the antiseptic lotion market was stagnant Reckitt wanted to leverage the brand to other categories . Dettol saw over these years plenty of brand extentions. The first launch was the soap in 1990's. The initial launch was unsuccessful because the brand moved from core value of protection to love and care. Since the brand faltered in its positioning, failure was imminent.
The soap was again relaunched with positioning as " 100 % protection" and now have a reasonable market share of 12% in the premium category.

The next extention was in the form of liquid soap.The liquid soap category is only 12 crore worth but the hand wash category is expected to grow to 100 crore.
The brand also tried to extend to talc, band aid, and shaving gel but failed miserably in those categories.
Even as the brand is extending, Reckitt failed to strengthen the mother brand and faced competition in that category from Savlon.

Now Dettol is trying to make a foothold in the soap market with the launch of Dettol with moisturizer and glycerin variants. It has also launched a body wash recently.

This brand is a classic case for brand extention failures.We can see a brand struggling to find its place in the market. Some time success can be very disturbing. Xerox wanted to extend to computers but failed miserably. Similarly Dettol wants to do some thing with the brand because it was successful . Now after all these failures, still Dettol is trying with variants forgetting the core brand. I am not saying that you should not extend the brand, But don't do it at the expense of the mother brand . When an antiseptic brand tries to extend to a segment which is essentially cosmetic, it cannot compete with the major players on the cosmetic platform , what at best can happen is that the brand can exist as a niche brand extending its core value and creating a niche .

Johnson's baby soap: A trusted brand

Brand: Johnson's Baby soap

Company : Johnson & Johnson

Agency : Lowe

J&J is the market leader in the Rs200 crore Indian Baby Care industry. J&J India, known better for its baby soap is a part of the global health care conglomerate was established in India in 1947. in 1948 J&J launched the first baby powder in India. J&J 's parent company was established in 1886 in New Brunswick in Newjersy USA.

J&J has an impeccable tradition of social responsibility and brand building. The Tylenol case and Johnson's credo is a case study for the Ethics course in MBA programs.

In India, J&J has been the undisputable market leader in the baby care market with its soap, lotion and shampoos having virtually no competitors. The reason: No Indian brands were able to get the trust of the Mothers.Wipro tired its hand with the Wipro baby soft but could not make a significant impact on J&J's market share.

J&J was never complacent about the brand. Although it commanded superior or should I say it owns the entire category of baby care with share of more than 75%, J&J nurtures the brand with careful campaigns. The campaigns are touchy and reinforce the positioning of the brand as a premium baby soap on base of Mother-child relationship. The famous campaigns " papa ko kya malum" emphasis the fact that J&J knows that mothers decides ( know better ) about what is good for the baby.

J&J also have brought out many variants of the soap with different ingredients and scents. The recent Baby Soap with rich milk is an example. The brand is supported with smart advertising . The term "Johnson Baby" is used among the public to denote chubby looking babies -that is the power of this brand

Recently J&J have tried to extend its market not only to the baby but to small kids also. The recent campaign " skin same to same" is an attempt to expand the target market. The reason being since the baby care market is dominated by one player, the market is remaining stagnant. Hence to grow J&J needed to expand the market. So the positioning for this market will be " Skin soft as a baby skin". This brand shows the power of good positioning. Owning the " Mother-child relationship" is the best thing that has happened to this brand.

Not contet with the baby and kids, J&J is now trying to woo mothers to using the baby soap. To what extent this is going to succeed is another issue altogether. As long as J&J do not tamper with the successful "mother-child" relationship platform, any experiments is welcome. Hope Lowe will not bring a Father to the picture or ask Shah Rukh to endorse the baby soap.

Lifebuoy: Thandurusti hain vaham

Brand : Lifebuoy
Company ; HLL
Agency : Lowe


This is a brand that was launched in 1895. Well that is pretty old isn't it? Looking at the life of Lifebuoy is interesting for a marketing person.The brand has reinvented itself and that too successfully.

The brand was initially positioned in the health and value platform. Targeted at the male with a unique jingle " thandurusti ki raksha kartha hai lifebuoy, lifebuoy hai jahan thandurusti hai vaham". The campaigns showed footballer players and athletes using the soap and the jingle followed made it a soap for the male. The soap was brick red and carbolic ingredient with a unique smell (chryselic perfume) that distinguished itself from other feminine brands and making it the largest selling soap brand in the world

In the year 2002 the company changed the positioning and I would say a historic decision. The brand was no longer a masculine brand. The brand was repositioned as a family brand.The brand was no more carbolic, the perfume changed and new ingredient Active B which eliminate harmful germs was introduced. The campaign was " a pretty girl who was teased for having a pimple then after using Lifebuoy Gold, retorts I don't care" was an instant hit among the public. The company maintained the health platform but targeted at the family so that the brand usage goes up. It was a risk that no marketer will take for a brand that was there for 100 years. HLL have to thank god for surviving that repositioning.

2004 also saw another repositioning for the brand. The target was the "discerning housewife" and the positioning was " health protection for family and me".
The new campaign by Lowe was right on target and still does not dilute the age old positioning of Health and freedom from germs.

The brand personality also changed from health to warmer , versatile and socially responsible. Hll have also given this brand a rural thrust through its CSR initiative " Lifebuoy Swasth chetana". UNICEF under its health initiative have found that the habit of using soaps to wash hands can reduce the chance of diarrhea among the kids dramatically. UNICEF needed 150256 soaps and HLL agreed to supply it. Now 70mn families and 18000 villages are covered under this initiative.

This is a unique brand that have survived the test of time and "ideas of marketing professionals". Still when I see lifebuoy, that jingle keeps singing in my mind
" Thandurusti ki raksha kartha hai Lifebuoy,
Lifebuoy hai jaham
Thandursty hai vaham
Lifebuoy........."