Gatorade: Tested In The Lab, Proven On The Field

Brand: Gatorade
Company: Pepsi
Brand Count : 104

Gatorade, the $ 3bn Iconic brand is in India.Launched in 2004 , the brand is keeping a low profile in the Indian market. This global brand is dominating the world's sports drink market for more than 35 years.

The brand came in to existence as a result of a research by the University of Florida. The researchers was trying for a drink to help their football team called the Florida Gators to beat the dehydration. That year the Gators became champions because of this drink.

Gatorade came into Pepsi fold when Pepsi acquired Quaker Oats. This brand have a market share of over 70% in the US market.
The brand had a soft launch in India. One factor is that the market for sports drink is in its nascent stage in our country. While in US and the west, Sports coexist with the studies while in our country it is mutually exclusive.
But reports suggest that Gatorade have users from across ages and is not confined to athletes. With increasing popularity of health and fitness activities, there is a growing market for such drinks. Gatorade is not a product for the mass market since it is a functional benefit led drink catering to a niche ( but a growing niche). The drink is being promoted by a " special sweat team" from Pepsi who will be meeting potential clients at the various " Points of Sweat" like gyms, sports centers etc.

Pepsi has roped in Kaif and Pathan to endorse the brand. Priced reasonably at Rs 45 for 500 ml, this is a brand to watch for.

Skoda: Obsessed With Quality

Brand : Skoda
Company: Skoda Auto
Agency: IB&W
Brand Count : 103

Skoda came to India and conquered. The brand now holds around 25% of the luxury car market in India. That too without much advertising. This is a classic case of Slow Skimming in marketing theory. The brand also proves that good products sells itself.

Skoda came to India in 2001. A Czech brand owned by Volkswagen, the launch of Skoda was a low profile one. It would not be an exaggeration to say that no body knew about this brand being launched in India. The only source was the news items and the auto reviews.

Soon, people seem to be noticing a beautiful sturdy car that bear a logo that was not seen before. The brand slowly began gain popularity and that too through word of mouth. The brand is known for its ruggedness and high value and quality. No wonder Indian consumers took this brand to their hearts. The first brand from the Skoda stable was Octavia in the C-class category. In 2004, Skoda launched its flagship brand Superb which is a luxury sedan that is to compete with Mercedes Benz.

The company baseline say about their "obsession with quality" and Skoda customers will vouch for that. Built with care, this car is known for its comfort and surprisingly " Mileage". This has greatly boosted the popularity of this brand since the value for money proposition was too good to resist.

The company follows it strategy of being Measured, steady and Understated. And time has proved that this equation has worked in India. The brand tried to create some noise by advertising but the brand is selling for itself. One of the ad was intended to create some controversy but it did not. However with or without these campaigns, the brand was bought by the TG.

When the Skoda says that " We make cars that last for ever" , I believe that they really mean it.

Dove : The Mildest One

Brand : Dove
Company: HLL
Agency: O&M
Brand Count: 102
Dove is a $2 bn brand waiting to spread its wings in the Indian Premium soap market. Dove was globally launched in 1957. This brand came to India in 1995. Internationally this brand has a cult status and is a major player in the global premium soap market.

The brand is positioned as the Mildest Soap. Dove is PH neutral and this makes the soap soft on all kind of skin types. Internationally this brand is positioned as a brand that celebrates the " Real Beauty" . Dove defines real beauty as " beauty is not about how you look but about how you feel". The Dove's official site " campaignforrealbeauty.com" highlights this brand value. I think this is one of the best brand values a beauty product can have.

In India, the brand did not had the success of its global counterpart. One reasons are the small " Premium " market and another is the price barrier. Dove's initial price was around Rs50 that put off even the premium customers.

The brand has undergone some repositioning in recent times. Earlier the brand was positioned on the platform of " Trial for Results" idea. Later it was changed to the moisturizing platform.
The brand is claiming that it is milder than the 25 leading soaps thus proving its legitimacy to being the mildest soap in the country. Globally also this brand is positioned not as a soap but a cream bar.

Although the "Campaign For Real Beauty" and the mildness are excellent selling points, the brand is still not able to catch the fancy of Indian beauties. With lot of sales promotions happening with the brand like 1+1 free , there is a possibility of brand value erosion.With the brand now priced at Rs 28, the price has somewhat become reasonable.

I feel that still the brand does not fit into the " value for money" proposition for the Indian consumer. It is a truth that Indian consumer looks for " Value " even in premium products. Dove have a negative point in that the soap usually does not last enough ( partly because of our bathroom habits). This have reduced the value proposition for this brand.

With the emergence of an attractive market in the premium cosmetic market in India, Dove have lot of potential to become a key player, it has got the positioning right, now it has to set the " Value" right for the Indian consumer.

Taj Mahal Tea : Wah Taj

Brand : Brooke Bond Taj Mahal
Company: HLL
Agency: O&M

Brand Count : 101
TajMahal tea is the market leader in the 15,000,000 Kg Indian Premium leaf tea market. This 40 year old brand is constantly evolving to the changing times. The brand which is estimated to be worth Rs 200 crore, so far had a consistent promotional strategy which placed itself in the top league. But with the competition catching up in the form of Tata Tetley and the fear of young consumers moving away from the brand is causing a concern to the brand owners. The brand has already undergone 4 makeovers.

This July saw the relaunch of Taj with a new baseline and world class packaging. The new makeover comes after a change in the communication strategy in 2002-03 . Tajmahal tea was positioned by HLL as the best tea. This " hazaron me ek" tea was promoted using the baseline " Wah Taj " and endorsed by the tabla maestro Ustad Zakeer Hussain.

The brand was consistent in using the same promotional strategy and the baseline. But in 2003 the much popular baseline was changed to " Sabse Khas Taj Ehsas" from the famous and simple " Wah Taj". 2006 saw the brand going back to the same famous positioning " Wah Wah Taj" with an additional "Wah".

HLL is cautious about the brand because Tata Tea has serious plans to capture a major chunk of the premium tea market. Taj cannot rest in its laurels. The problem with highly successful brands are that over a time , the brand fails to understand the changing demographics of the customer. So after some years, the brand will surprisingly find itself redundant. It happened with old favorites like Chetak and Iodex. HLL is careful that it does not happen to Taj.

The brand still uses the same brand ambassador and is concentrating more on North India (I suppose because it is long time since I saw an ad of Taj while the Tata Tea brand ' Kannan Devan" is having higher "share of voice " in South India esp. Kerala. )

I feel that Taj Mahal tea need some more " share of voice". Some times I feel that if Bachchan says "Wah Taj" it creates more impact at this point of time, although Big B endorses anything from underwear to paints.

This brand is with India's best marketing minds :the HLL, they know better isn't it?

Wah Taj..

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"