Sanspareils Greenlands: Without Parallel

Brand : Sanspareils Greenlands
Company : Sanspareils Greenlands Ltd

Brand Count : 185

Many of us may not be familiar with the brand Sanspareils Greenlands but may be familiar with SG cricket bats. Sanspareils Greenlands ( SG) is the market leader in the cricket bat and cricket related accessories in India. Sanspareils is a french word meaning " Without Parallel "

The Indian Domestic sports goods market is worth around Rs 200 crore and has all the potential to grow in the coming decade. Cricket related products contributes to around 70% of the total market. The market is mainly considered as a cottage/small scale with the industry concentrated mainly on Northern India.The export market is much larger with an approximate figure of Rs 300 crore. SG is the largest exporter of cricket goods in India.

SG came into existence in 1932. The brand was primarily concentrated on exports and only in 1982, the company began selling in India under the brand name SG. SG is also the only authorised supplier of cricket balls to BCCI in the domestic circuit.But SG cricket balls are facing the end of the road because of the competition from the world leader " Kookaburra".

SG shot into prominence as the brand used by the Little Master Sunil Gavaskar. Gavasker used SG bats all through his long illustrious career. SG rode on the success of Gavaskar and introduced Sunny Tonny Range of cricket bats endorsed by Gavaskar.The bat became instant hit with the cricket fans in India.
Cricket bats are primarily made from English Willows. There are many types and specifications of bats and most of the professional bats are customised. The one and the only way to build a brand in cricket bats and accessories is to get a cricket star to use the bat. Sunil Gavasker has helped SG to stay on top of consumer minds for a long time.

roped in The power of the cricket star is so immense that it even results in new business venture for a company. The company in case is MRF which is a company manufacturing Tyres. MRF roped in Sachin Tendulkar to endorse its range of tyres and paid a huge amount of money to feature the brand in Sachin's bat. At that time MRF was not into bat making. It was a smart move to keep the brand on India's most loved cricket player's bat. MRF is also one of the first brand to feature in a cricketer's bat. Seeing MRF logo in bats, there was a flood of queries at sports good stores for MRF bats. Eventually MRF ventured into Bat making/marketing to tap the potential.At that time there was a regulation from Cricket board that non sports brand cannot feature on cricket bats. That also fueled the venture. Now MRF bats are endorsed by Lara, Waugh and Sachin.

Now many brands have started featuring in cricketer's bats. This has pushed up the cost of endorsement to as high as Rs 3 crore per year. But the investment is worth a hundred TVCs if the player is on form. But in the case of failing stars like Sourav and Sewag, the brand stays on the pitch for less than 2 minutes which makes the promotion a costly affair.

This new trend of non sports brand endorsing cricket bats is a setback for brands like SG. Traditionally these brands relied on the players for brand building and seldom do these brand advertise in the media. There is a chance that marketers will start buying " SPACE" on helmets and pads in the near future. That makes the cricket player look like a playing Hoarding. The cricket control boards will also be happy as long as their cash register is ringing.
Besides the marketing issues , another issue that affects SG most is the proliferation of cheap and fake products. Other than the professional players, the normal consumer is price conscious and will not pay much for a cricket bat/accessories.

The brighter side is that with the popularity of cricket touching the levels of religion, the cricket related products will do well. But the market despite the immense potential is small because of the basic lifestyle of Indians. Here unlike the west, Sports are considered as a waste of time.Parents restrict their kids from taking too much interest in playing any kind of sports. Our educational institutions also lack the proper set up for encouraging sports related activities. Hence the people who involve in sports are restricted to two groups
a. Those who want to take sports as career
b. Those youngsters who like to play. These youngsters stop their sports activities when they get a job/get married.
Those who play after reaching 30 years is small in number. That is the TG which have a lot of money to spend. Sadly sports marketers don't target this group.
Sports marketers should try to market SPORTS as a way of life and a way for keeping you healthy . Unless and until that happens, the market is going to be small.

Related Brands
Proline
Gatorade

Sources: SG website, eximbank report, sportstar
image courtsy: SG website

Maaza : Real Mango in the Bottle

Brand : Maaza
Company: Coca Cola
Agency: Leo Burnett

Brand Count : 184

Maaza is the market leader in the Rs 600 crore Indian Fruit drinks market. The brand which is now 30 years old have an iconic status in the segment. The brand came into existence in 1976. The brain child of Parle's Chauhan, the brand came into Coke's fold in 1993. Like Thums Up and Limca, Maaza also had its own power to live.

Although the Indian soft drinks market is huge- valued around Rs 2 billion, the non carbonated drinks constitutes only 10% of the total market. With the Indian consumers expected to become more health conscious in the coming decade, the non carbonated market will witness a huge growth in coming years. The non carbonated drinks are dominated by fruit based drinks. The fruit based drinks market is further classified into Fruit Juice and Fruit Drinks and Fruit Nectar market. Fruit Juices typically have more than 85% fruit juice content while Fruit Drinks contain less than 15% fruit content. The rest is included in the fruit nectar category. While Maaza is the leader in the fruit drinks category, Dabur's Real is the leader in the fruit juice category. The nectar category is dominated by Frooti.
Maaza brand is synonym with the Real Mango. The brand initially was positioned as " Mango in the Bottle". The rich creamy taste of Maaza ratified the positioning and gave the brand a huge fan following. Along its product life cycle, the brand changed its positioning in tune with the times but keeping its core value intact. Although Pepsi tried to break into this market with its Slice brand, it was not able to make a market owing to the lack of clear positioning.

Maaza had the famous tagline" Botal Main AAM, Maaza hai Naam" translated loosely to " Mango in the Bottled Named as Maaza". The brand later metamorphosed to include the fun element. The tagline was changed to the famous jingle " Taaza Mango , Maaza Mango" loosely translated to" Excitement of Mango with Maaza".
Maaza was targeted at the whole family. The brand's primary consumers are children and the company at one point tried to tame the mothers ( influencers) by the campaign relating the brand to health. Maaza boasts to be fortified with calcium. Although kids are a huge fan of the brand,Maaza was clever enough not to restrict itself to being a Kid's drink. The new campaign featuring Satish Shah takes the brand to the next level of Friendship and Fun. The brand is laddering up to higher state of Friendship moments and is trying to tell the consumer " How drinking Maaza brings People together" : A tall order for a fruit drink... I still feel that the original positioning of Real Mango in Bottle still make sense.

The core brand value for Maaza is "Wholesome Funfilled Real Fruit Experience". The brand over these 30 long years has seldom diluted the core values. One time it changed its track was in 2001 where the brand tried to come out with Orange and Pineapple variants. Customers rejected it . It is a sort of Non-sense to extend a brand known as Mango in the Bottle to other flavours.
Maaza also experimented with packaging . The brand has ventured into smart attractive 1.5 litre Pet bottles and even to tetrapack. The brand also changed the look and changed its logo to become more contemporary.Coke surprisingly has spent considerable amount of money to build and sustain this brand. The brand returned the favour by being the largest selling fruit drink brand in India.

Related Brands
Frooti
Thums Up
Sprite
Rasna

Source: agencyfaqs,magindia,fnb,businessline
imagesource: agencyfaqs,cocacola website

Acuvue : Healthy and Convenient

Brand: Acuvue
Company: Johnson&Johnson
Agency: Lowe

Brand Count:183

Acuvue is a major brand in the Rs 60 crore contact lens market. Although the market is led by Bausch and Lomb with around 70% market share, Acuvue can be termed as the innovation leader in this segment.
Acuvue, the brand of the Johnson &Johnson ( J&J) is a pioneer in the disposable contact lens category. Acuvue was the first disposable contact lens brand in India. The brand is the market leader in the disposable lens category.

Although the eye-care market is estimated to be around Rs 1200 crore, the contact lens category forms a minuscule part of the market. The penetration of this category is abysmally low even in the metros (5%). The changing lifestyle hold immense potential for this category in the years to come.

There are many factors that has inhibited the growth of contact lens. The primary factor being the price perception. Contact lenses are perceived to be priced higher and considered to be out of reach for the middle class. Another factor is the health and maintenance issue. Users of contact lens will agree that regular /prolonged use of lens often causes irritation . Although the marketers talk about convenience, the lens should be cared more and the limitation of its use ( example : you should remove the lens while taking a nap/ cooking etc) makes the consumer averse even to try this category. More over consumers are not aware about this category and its uses. Some reports suggest that most users have a fear of inserting foreign object in the eyes which is termed as Pokeaphobia that further limits the popularity of this category.

The target market for contact lens category is the SEC A B in metros ages anywhere between 15-35. While the consumers aged below 20 will not have their say in the purchase of contact lens, it is the working youngsters who show the maximum potential for a contact lens marketer.

Acuvue is a brand that had tried to make the category popular by addressing the two issues : cost and maintenance. The brand came out with disposable lens that can be used for two weeks and can be disposed thus freeing the customer from maintaitenance hassles. The brand became successful because customers of contact lens use ordinary glass as the primary eye wear and uses lens for special occasions/events. Primary need that these lens satisfy is the need for looking good. The brand is positioned as a healthy and convenient brand stressing the comfort factor. The brand has also embarked upon an e-trial initiative to prompt the potential consumers to try out this category. The consumers can go to the site and register themselves to get a trial pack of lens. The aim is to get the non users to try out this brand. The brand is optimistic that the majority of trial users will turn to be regular users. The brand is also trying to train the opticians because majority of sales happen at the shop and opticians acts as a major influencers.
Acuvue was also an innovation leader by coming out with lens that is bifocal and also color lens. One of the major innovation was the Acuvue 1-day lens that was launched in 2006. The new variant is a use and throw lens. It is the shampoo sachetisation of contact lens. The consumer insights is that people may need to look good on some special situations like marriage or interview or company presentation etc. One cannot afford to spent Rs 1000 just for that occasion. The solution is the 1-day use lens that costs only Rs 90. Theoretically it makes perfect sense.The product effectively seals a gap in the market.

But the larger issue is that the product related issues are limiting the category growth. The inherent product problems limit the popularity of this product category. The target which these marketers aim are those who will be using computers. Using lens while working on a computer will cause irritation in the eyes. This is just one example of how product problems can obstruct growth. Using lens while traveling in a motorcycle also is not advisable which alienates many young men from trying out lens or using it regularly. In such a scenario the 1-day lens or disposable lens make perfect sense. Till the contact lens marketers sort out the product related limitations, the category is going to remain a niche.

Related Brands
Essilor
Ray-Ban

source: businessline,rediffmoney,acuvue.com
image source: agencyfaqs.com,opitek-dietze.de

Maruti Gypsy : RIP

Brand : Gypsy
Company: Maruti Suzuki

Brand Count : 182

Gypsy was one of India's first sports utility vehicles. The vehicle created a breakaway category of SUV offroader from the existing jeep category which was dominated by Mahindra. Born in 1985, the brand was considered as an aspirational one by many young at hearts.The brand was positioned on the basis of its ruggedness. The brand was promoted as a pure offroader. The ads used to say that Gypsy could even climb trees. The positioning was reinforced by the success of the brand in rally and offroad events. Maruti also promoted such events to boost the brand as the ultimate offroader. The brand had the tagline of " There is a Gypsy in Everyone".

But the brand failed to capitalise on the first mover advantage although it is still considered to be one of the sportiest looking SUV in the Indian market. The brand is now confined to certain niche markets like Police and Army vehicle segments.
Gypsy was the rebadged version of Suzuki Jimny. Although Jimny is still surviving, Gypsy is in the last stage of its product life cycle. The brand which pioneered the offroader category sadly is dying when the SUV category has started growing. The brand failed because of the apathy of the company in investing in the brand. The product had inherent problem that created negative word of mouth and the company didn't cared to look at the negatives of the brand.
Gypsy although considered as a tough vehicle lacked many important attributes valued by a customer. The driving quality and the mileage was awful. The product was priced at a ridiculous premium which was not justified interms of the delivery of value.
The brand was priced at around Rs 5 lakh which is comparable with a entry level sedan.The product although looked excellent outside was a mess inside. The vehicle lacked space and comfort especially for the rear seat. It had all the qualities for an offroader but failed to understand that Indian consumers use offroaders on roads ( cities).The mileage was awful and that ensured that only those who fall head over heals over the looks only will buy this brand . Since MUL at that time was in the public sector, the brand was sold to Police and army. For the ordinary consumers, the brand did not made any sense.
Gypsy also did not change itself in tune with the changing industry requirements. The vehicle initially was severely underpowered for an offroader. The company enhanced the power from 975cc to 1300 cc only after 11 years. Gypsy King was launched in 1996 sported the more powerful Esteem engine but was priced steeply.
The last four years has shown that SUV category is growing very fast fuelled by the success of the likes of Mahindra Scorpio. Most of the global bigwigs in the SUV segment is now there in India. Suzuki also has launched its brand Grand Vitara in this segment. But in the current scheme of things, Gypsy was sadly not in the picture.

Compare the picture of the Suzuki Jimny (given in the blog) and Gypsy and see the difference. Had this brand changed its looks and feel in tune with the emerging category requirements, Gypsy could have been a major brand. But Alas.... the brand's fate is to be cited as an example of Marketing Myopia or is it Marketing Laziness.

Source:marutigypsy.com,wikipedia

Related Brands

Tata sierra

Market Statistics :Volume 2

This is the second volume of market statistics:

Organised shoe market size : Rs 93 billion

Premium shoe market size : Rs 2000 crore

Sports shoe market size :Rs 400 crore

Carbonated Soft Drink Market size : Rs 5000 crore

Powdered Soft Drink Maket size :Rs 90 crore

Milk Food Market size : Rs 1000 crore

Soft Drink Concentrate Market size : Rs 250 crore

Shaving Preperation market size : Rs 150 crore

Steel storewell market size : Rs 800 crore

Fairness Market size : Rs 1000 crore

Mouth wash market size : Rs 35 crore

Breath Freshener market size :Rs 110 crore

Adult confectionery market size : Rs 1100 crore

Diary market size : Rs 5500 crore

Organised diary market size : Rs 500 crore

Greeting card market size : Rs 250 crore

Household cleaner market size : Rs 400 crore

Phenyl market size : Rs200 crore

Organised cleaner market size : Rs 40 crore

OTC market size : Rs 7500 crore

Pain and Rub market size : 300-400 crore

Tetrapak fruit drink market size : Rs 300 crore

CSD market size : Rs 700 crore

Deo market size : Rs 150 crore

Organised Luggage industry : Rs 600 crore

Total Luggage Market size: Rs2000 crore

Soft luggage market size :Rs 600 crore

Moulded Luggage market size : Rs 500 crore

Cycle Market size : Rs 2800 crore

Ceramic Industry : Rs 2800 crore

Processed Milk market size : Rs 10,000 crore

Branded Atta market size: Rs 700 crore

Agarbatti Industry : Rs 1000 crore

Vacuum Cleaner market size: Rs 350 crore

Worsted suit market size : Rs 2000 crore

A/C market size: Rs 3000 croe

Domestic Mint market size:Rs 170 crore

Ready Made market size : Rs 40 Billion

Antacid Market size: Rs 220 crore

Sanitary Market size: Rs 750 crore

Organised Sanitary Market size : Rs 360 crore

Sugar Confectionery Market size : Rs 1200 crore

Denim market size: Rs 9000 crore

Perfume market size: Rs 85 crore

Insurance market size : Rs 400 billion

Pension plan market size : Rs 1000 crore

Condom market size : Rs 110 crore

Baby oil market size : Rs 250 crore

Baby care market size : Rs 3 Billion

Household insecticide market size : Rs 1300 crore

Related Story:

Market statistics Volume 1

Spinz : Fragrances That Transform

Brand : Spinz
Company: CavinKare
Agency: Rubecon

Brand count : 181

Spinz is India's very own brand of perfume. The brand once the market leader had lost out of the race at one point of time is trying to make a comeback in the fiercly competitive Indian market. Spinz was launched in 1997. The brand was an instant hit in the Indian market was strongly associated with fragrance.
Indian perfume market is small with a value size of Rs 65 crore. The market is tough for account of following reasons.
a. The penetration of perfumes in abysmally low at less than 1% even in the urban market. The low penetration accounts for the fact that Perfumes do not figure in the priority list of most of the Indian consumer. Here in India, body odour is not a taboo. People don't feel embarrassed if they smell bad. They don't even bother to check whether they smell bad or not. Although this psyche is slowly changing : thanks to the effort of Deo marketing companies.

b. The astronomical prices of perfumes often discourages the Indian consumers to indulge in this category. Although there are many perfumes ( local) which are low priced, most of the well known brands are priced out of reach of ordinary Indian consumer. The low quality of the low priced perfumes, often create a negative feeling on the Indian consumer about the value proposition in this category.
c. The grey market and spurious brands act as another deterrent for the consumer.There are fakes of all the well known perfume brands available at every corner of the country. Hence there is no guarantee that the brand which has been bought is a fake one or the original.

CavinKare saw opportunity for a brand that was reasonably priced and ensured good quality to the consumers. That gap gave birth to the Spinz brand. Spinz was positioned on the basis of fragrance. The brand also lived up to the positioning and offered exciting fragrances but priced reasonably. The brand also experimented with packaging. Cavinkare was the first firm to popularise sachet in shampoos ( Velvette was owned by Cavinkare's founder's father). The company tried to make perfumes affordable by introducing sachet perfumes for a price of Rs 10. The company also introduced one time use sachet for Rs 2. All these efforts was to increase the penetration of the category as such. The brand also tried to create a Spinz day to popularise perfumes. Feb 12 was marketed as fragrance day but that initiative did not became that popular.
Buoyed by the positive response of Spinz perfumes, the brand extended itself to talcum powders. The Indian talcum powder market is worth around Rs 650 crore is dominated by Ponds from HLL. Spinz talcum powder was positioned on the same platform as the perfumes. The brand has its stronghold in South India.
Spinz perfumes faced lot of problems during early 2000. The reports suggest that the brand faced lot of packaging issues that prevented it from further growth. In 2005, the brand was rejuvenated. Cavinkare has put new vigour into the brand. The company has roped in South Indian Film actress Ms Asin to endorse the brand. In the new avatar , Spinz is being positioned as a young cheerful modern bubbly brand. The brand retains its positioning based on the fragrance.The brand has enough space to grow because of its excellent value proposition.

Related Brands
Ponds
Yardley
Cuticura
Rexona
Oldspice
source:businessline,cavincare website,magindia