Monte Carlo : The Way You Make Me Feel

Brand : Monte Carlo
Company: Oswal woolen Mills
Agency: JWT

Brand Count : 100

MonteCarlo is a premium knit wear brand in India. Launched in 1984, this brand is dominating the Mass + Class segment winter cloth market. Oswal has around 50% market share in this segment. With the booming retail sector driving the growth of Readymade clothing in India (estimated to be to the tune of Rs40 bn) no one can resist extending their brand to readymades. That is exactly what MonteCarlo is doing now.

MonteCarlo ( which is a super brand) has similarity with Color Plus (discussed in previous blog) in that it created a market for itself in a category that was dominated by lesser known brands. Monte Carlo was careful in brand building and the ads were catchy and theme oriented. Since I am in South India where there is little market for woolen clothes, still the ads shown in national channels used to excite me. The ads were full of "feel good" factors with great models and excellent imagery. All the ads had Romance and two people discovering a relationship. The print ads were like that of " ColorPlus" gave a premium touch to the brand. It is said that most of the earlier models of this brand are now superstars including Mallika Sherawat, Arjun Rampal to name a few. Monte Carlo is promoted with the baseline " The Way You Make Me Feel". The catchy point of the TVC s is the music which always set the tone for the message. The brand

is still communicated along the same themes since two decades.

The company spent lot of effort in making sure that the premiumness is not lost in campaigns. This is going to pay rich dividend when the brand is getting into the competitive world of every day wear.

The brand was extended to T shirts in 1999 with the brand Summerz. In 2001, the brand forayed into everday wear market under the sub brands Wonderhugs and Trouserz and introduced ladies wear in 2003. This year saw the national launch of cotton wears from Monte Carlo. The company was carefully ramping up the distribution and retail strategies to ensure that this brand succeed. The price range of readymades is in line with the premium brands like Van Heusan and Louis Philippe. So Monte Carlo can expect some serious competition.

With the kind of success this brand had in the winter wear market, it is reasonable to believe that Monte Carlo has the potential to be a " Color Plus". Hope that the brand will be built along the same themes that made it successful.

Eveready : Give Me Red

Brand : Eveready
Company: Eveready Industries Ltd
Agency: Rediffusion
Brand Count : 99

Eveready is a market leader in the 1500 crore drycell market in India. At present this brand holds around 47 % market share. Nippo follows with a market share of 28%. Eveready was one of the first brands in this segment. A flagship brand of BM Khaitan group, this brand is bracing for a marketing war against its competitors.The brand has a history dated as way back as 1934.

The brand is carefully nurtured by the company. Lots of money is being spent on brand building in a seemingly low involvement product category.

During the early ninties the brand created ripples in the market by its " Give me Red" campaign. The campaign changed the way batteries are perceived and the campaign was a hit among the target audience. The ad highlighted the color "Red" and for the next 16 years " red" was the central point in the brand campaign. The Give me Red campaign gave an instant recognition for the brand among the TG which was young 15-25. The rationale was the popularity of walkmans and portable music players which created a new market for batteries.

Buoyed by the success of the campaign and wanting to create more punch to the brand, Eveready roped in Amitabh Bachchan to endorse the brand. It was a costly affair and from then on the " Give Me Red" campaign got diluted. BigB and the campaign did not gel together. While the campaign was aimed at younger crowd, B was a misfit. Again should you need a celebrity to endorse a battery is another question altogether.( company says that Big B campaign raised the market share from 41% to 47% since 2003).

Now another campaign was kicked off by Eveready changing the positioning of the brand. While " Give me red" positioned the brand as an energetic and sturdy brand, the new campaign aims to look at more features rather than image. The new positioning strategy is to highlight the EMD( Electromagnesium) factor which will make the battery last more and give a good 15% more performance than its competitors.

The current campaign is full of hyperbole with Amitabh again as a shopkeeper. The ad seems like a parody of the successful Cadbury's " Pappu Pass Ho gaya" campaign (which had some novelty around it). The Eveready campaign yet again failed to utilize the charisma of Amitabh. The product may sell more because of the features not the campaign.

The company also changed its base line to " Kutch to hai Extra" from the highly successful " give me red". The only reason can be that the company officials and ad agency is bored by the baseline not because the customer has rejected the baseline. "Kutch to hai Extra " is actually diluting the intended positioning on the features. The new baseline have striking resemblance with Maggi Ketchup's baseline " Its different" where there is no difference as such. Kutch to hai extra loses significance because the ad is a hyperbole with no tangible benefits shown. So there is a risk that customer will not believe that there is some thing extra in Eveready.

All said and done, Eveready is having a major say in the market with its established brand and virtually no serious competition. But with the disruptive innovations like iPod and Mp3 players that do not need conventional batteries, Eveready should be alert to the changing market dynamics and a possibility of disruption. Already signs are their in the form of Mobile phones used as a walkman where the battery used is not the conventional one.

For now its " Give Me Red"

Nutan Stove :Brand with a difference

Brand : Nutan
Company: Indian Oil Corporation
Brand Count : 98

Nutan is a major brand in the Kerosene stove market in India. Nutan was a part of an energy revolution in India. The brand was launched in 1977. Developed by CSIR with funding and marketing support for IOC, this brand was a rage in Indian households during the 70's.

Now also the older generation will vouch for this brand. During the 70's the stove market was dominated by inefficient wick stoves which wasted fuel in soot or smoke. Nutan, developed by CSIR was a sootless stove that saved more than 20% fuel, less smoke producing and more efficient. It soon became the darling of households.

The production of Nutan was outsourced with IOC looking at the marketing of this brand as a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. Since the product is made as per ISI standards and the quality pegged high, the price is put at a premium over the other brands .

Nutan is in the midst of another revolution. 1990's saw the rise of LPG as the better fuel for households. Indian middleclass shifted to Gas stoves in no time. Further LPG eliminated many negatives that Kerosene stoves had especially on ease of use. With the rising kerosene prices and availability of low priced stoves has now impacted the sale of Nutan stoves ( it is a guess, I don't have market share figures).

I am not sure whether Nutan has a LPG stove, but this brand is slowly vanishing from Indian middle class consumer's mind. It is sad to see an ubiquitous brand slowly losing its relevance. My view is that Nutan had huge potential in the LPG stove market which is valued at Rs 9 Billion is dominated by like Butterfly and a host of unbranded players, it was an opportunity missed by Nutan.

Since Nutan is not a serious brand for IOC, may be no one was thinking about this brand.

If that brand was with a marketer, it would have realized its full potential.... Any one listening?

Tata Ace : Small is Big

Brand : Ace
Company: Tata Motors
Brand Count : 97

TATA Ace is the classic case of marketing success in India. What ever factors that Kotler have spoken about to successfully launch a new product, it is there in this product. Ace is Tata's answer to the marketing myopia of three wheelers.
Ace is a .75 ton truck in the commercial vehicle segment which is dominated by large trucks. It can be called India's first mini truck . Launched in May 2005, Ace has become a blockbuster and is expected to create a huge dent in the three wheeler goods carrier market.

Till the launch of Ace, the sub one ton loads were transported by the three wheeler goods carriers. Although the quality and performance of these three wheelers are less than desirable there was still huge demand for these vehicles. It is this market that Ace is trying to capture. It is the transportation at the " last mile" market that Ace has captured.

Ace had all the qualities of a winner. It is cute, the engine is good interms of mileage and performance, the comfort factor is very much there and more over it is a Truck and not an Auto. Priced competitively at 2.25 lakh to 2.40 lakh, Ace is a value proposition that no one can refuse.The brand was launched at a point where there was a need for transportation of good speedily and conveniently and in a cost effective manner.

The target segment are those who want to upgrade from these three wheelers. The brand Ace has its own limitations. Hence Tata was careful not to overhype the product so that it will "under promise " and " over deliver".

Although the product took around Rs180 crores to develop, the brand is giving rich returns for Tata Motors. The company is working overtime to deliver the orders and is looking for expansion of production of Ace. Even Ace is looking at overseas and is exporting to Srilanka and Bangladesh.

The success of Ace has opened up a new category in the commercial vehicle market. It is reported that Ace had already captured 65% of the small commercial vehicle segment and is expected to contribute an additional turnover of Rs 2500 crore.It is again a sign that Tata Motors have identified the DNA for marketing success in Indian market.

Tata Ace : Small is really BIG......

Tea Board of India : Absolute Crap campaign

Brand : Tea
Company : Tea Board of India
Agency: O&M
Brand Count : 96

If you want to see how government money can be wasted, look no further, it is there in your idiot box in the form of the Tea Board of India's campaign to increase the popularity of tea. The domestic consumption of tea is largest in India to the tune of 700 mn Kg. But the Board feels that there is still immense potential left for this commodity. Another problem anticipated by the board is that the younger generation is moving away from this drink to carbonated drinks. More importantly Coffee is considered " Cool" by the next gen , thanks to marketing efforts by Branded Coffee outlets like Barista, Coffee Beans etc.

So Tea Board wants to replicate the success of campaigns like Operation Flood and National Egg Coordination committee. The budget was fixed and the task entrusted to the most creative agency in the country ( rather world) , O&M.

The Outcome was a damn Squibb. The directionless campaign is a sheer waste of money and in any angle you look at it, the campaign will be given the award of the " Hopeless campaign of the year".

The idea behind the campaign is to promote the image of tea drinkers as being " Cool " to appeal to the younger generation. So the ad " dreadfully" tries to compare tea drinkers and " definitely not a tea drinker" and exhorts that tea drinkers are " cool". The baseline of the campaign says " Chai Piyo, mast Jiyo" has no connection with the message of the ad.

The apathy of O&M in executing the idea is evident may be because they feel that anything goes for a " Government board". But the agency has virtually damaged its reputation ( atleast in my mind) as a " serious creative agency". A demanding client will squeeze the creativity out of any damn agency, but it takes a "serious creative agency" to deliver creative output even for a small client.

WorldSpace : Unlimited Music

Brand : WorldSpace
Company: Worldspace India Ltd
Agency: Enterprise Nexus
Brand Count : 95
WorldSpace is a pioneer in the satellite radio business.
Worldspace was launched in India 5 years back is now getting their act together. This brand is all set to revolutionize the way Indians listen to music ( provided they make the right moves).

During the initial launch phase Worldspace faced lot of problems with regard to all the 4 P's of marketing. Since it was an entirely new product, the customers had to be educated about it and it is never easy. The fact that Indians was new to the concept of Paying subscription for a radio service made it more difficult for this brand to make headway.

With regard to the pricing also WorldSpace was launched with exorbitant price both for its receiver and the subscription which putoff the "value conscious" Indian consumer. Reports also say that initially the company faced problems in sourcing receivers for Indian market. All these factors virtually killed the future if this brand.

Last year saw the relaunch of WorldSpace . The brand was relaunched with aggressive marketing using TV Print and outdoor campaigns. The company rightfully reduced the entry price barrier by bringing in receivers that costs less than Rs.1500 . The subscription rates was also rationalized. This created a huge wave of interest in the Indian market. With 35 channels that offered unmatched range of entertainment with an affordable price tag was an offer that was too good to resist.

The first set of consumers who took the product was the retail shops. Worldspace offered an alternative to the conventional CD players. Now even a small retail shop can afford to have channel music without bothering about CD's.

Although the retail Shops have embraced this brand, it is still a tough call for Worldspace to enter into households. Although the ads have generated lot of interest among the music lovers, the subscription rate ( although it is reasonable) is playing spoilsports. This calls for much more than Non Personal promotions. It will be better if WorldSpace also look at meeting consumers directly and convince them about this beautiful service.I feel that since this product is new to Indian consumer, it needs some personal selling efforts. Once the brand breaks into the Indian households, the brand can sit back and relax.

This is a brand which has great potential and is going to create ripples in Indian entertainment industry.