MotoRokr: Music Addiction

Brand : MotoRokr
Company: Motorola
Agency: O&M

Brand Count: 230

Indian consumers never had it good before especially in the mobile phone market. From Rs 777 to more than Rs 2 lakh price ponts and from basic phones to most advanced smart phones, Indian mobile phone consumers are being pampered like no other..
Indian mobile phone market is huge worth more than Rs 30,000 crore growing at a pace that makes even the most optimistic analyst speechless.With Reliance Communication launching a Rs 777 handset, the market for cell phones will reach new heights.

Indian mobile handset's market is dominated by Nokia. According to different statistics, the market share of Nokia is around 40- 50 %. The market share has comedown due to heavy competition from the players like Sony and Motorola and host of other players. The huge market and the revenue potential along with the increased competition has forced marketers to go in for hard core segmentation strategies in this market. The market leader Nokia was not really into serious segmentation in early days since the brand had commanding market share. But it was the challenger brands like Sony Ericsson and Motorola which started offering specialized products to specific segments.
I think it was Sony Ericsson which started offering specialised phones and communicating specified brands for specific segments. Although Nokia had such models, its communication was more general. Sony having left out of the mobile race started offering CyberShot Mobile Phones targeting the customers looking for camera phones, In the segment of music phones, it extended its Walkman brand to the mobile phones with the Walkman series.This has forced Nokia to specifically target certain models as music and cameraphones.

Motorola was left behind in the segmentation game. It was busy focusing on the design game with its MotoPebl and MotoRazr. But 2007 saw Motorola coming in to the music phone market with a bang. MotoRokr was the answer to N-Series and Walkman.MotoRokr came into the market with a bang. Not because of the product but because of the communication. Motorola had struck a chord with its brand ambassador Mr Abhishek Bachchan.It is very rare to see a brand striking such a perfect brand Ambassador. The agency was also able to use AbhishekBachchan effectively to promote the brand Motorola.
For MotoRokr, Abhishek was at his best. The ads for MotoRokr was hilarious and striking.

Watch the ads here : MotoRokr

Although the brand Motorokr is not a feature packed smart phone ( competitors has better features) , the brand communication has set its foundation as a music phone. The brand is targeting 18-35 who has a passion for music. According to a report in Agencyfaqs, the big idea is that there is a thin line separating Music Loving and Music Addiction. The brand adopts the line of Music Addiction .
Although the brand launch ad has firmly set a positive launch pad for Motorokr, things are not as rosy as it seems. The brand faces intense competition with Sony Walkman series which has successfully leveraged its iconic Walkman brand equity to its advantage. Recently it had roped in Hrithik Roshan to endorse its range of music phones. The new ad adopts the tagline " The thump is here" to announce the brand war.Nokia will also be looking at this segment seriously because such fragmentation of market will be dangerous for a market leader.

For the customer its is Music Time...
Related Brand
MotoPebl

source :agencyfaqs,technews

Orbit Chewing Gum : Its Working

Brand : Orbit
Company: Wrigley's
Agency: BBDO

Brand Count:229

Orbit is one of the world's largest selling chewing gum brand.In India, the brand shares the market leadership with Center Fresh brand.Orbit was launched in India in 2004. This was India's first Sugarfree chewing gum and together with Perfetti's Happydent, this brand has rejuvenated the chewing gum segment in India.
Orbit can be termed as a functional chewing gum. The brand when launched differentiated itself from the existing chewing gums with its "sugar free" property. Along with that, the brand had its USP of its ability to reduce the chances of tooth decay by 40%.... surprising isn't it?
According to the brand, its is clinically proven that by chewing orbit for 20 minutes after a meal can reduce the chances of tooth decay by 40%. This is done by stimulating saliva production.The brand is positioned as a functional gum which prevents tooth decay and its sugarfree feature makes it a healthy option.The brand uses rational advertising to promote this brand.

Within a short span of time, Wrigley's Orbit became a success in the market.Buoyed by the success, Orbit extended the brand with Orbit White which is a whitening chewing gum. Orbit white is pitted against Perfetti's Happydent. For Orbit White, the company adopted an entirely new marketing strategy. Unlike Orbit , Orbit White adopted the Absurdism concept in advertising to promote the brand. Absurdism is using bizarre concepts and hyperbole to promote the brand. According to a research conducted at Oklahoma University, Bizarre ads tend to increase the visibility of the brands. Also such messages acts as clutter- breakers in a highly competitive market. Now in Indian market, we can see lot of marketers coming out with bizarre ads like Happydent, Amaron etc.
For Orbit White, the ads use the protogonist Dr Bhatawdekar and the heroine is a cow. The ads are quite funny and outrageous. The brand uses the tagline "Its working". Although I have come across lot of people who dislike this commercials, I personally like it. The latest ad have even a jingle which says " Yellow Yellow Dirty Fellow, White White Orbit White". And one ad have Dr Bhatawdekar insisting " Orbit White is a must for Bachelor Mans and Bachelor Womans".

Watch The tvc's here: Orbit White

Globally the Orbit brand adopts the tagline "For a good clean feeling no matter what" in India, Orbit uses " for a healthy teeth and prevents tooth decay " as its main message.

The product category became popular with the kids initially with bubblegums promoted heavily using consumer promotions.The popularity of cricket also helped this category to become popular with the grownups too. With the television showing cricketers chewing gums while playing, the category soon become a hit with the youth. Slowly this product became a part of " being cool" accessory in the campuses.But Iam surprised to find no cricketers endorsing this products.

But chewing gum manufacturers are facing lot of issues in the market. The primary one being the hygiene issue regarding the disposal of the product. We know that after using this product, it has to be disposed and often careless disposal of gum can cause the issue of hygiene . The careless disposal of chewing gum has raised serious issues in other developed markets and even has caused a ban on chewing gum usage. In India too, most of the educational institutions ban the use of chewing gums in the campuses because of the careless disposal. Although most products advertise on their wrappers on method of disposal, seldom it is practiced by the users. In future also, this issue can cause some restrictions to the product usage in public places.The marketers have to think of ways to curb this problem since it can cause some serious regulatory obstacles in the future.

Source:agencyfaqs,businessline,dna

Brand Update: TVS Apache

Apache has done to TVS what Pulsar has done to Bajaj. TVS which was struggling to get hold of the motorcycle market has found its balance with Apache.The brand which was launched one year back has become a best seller.Apache is now second to the market leader Pulsar. The brand has won rave reviews for its performance and it provided an alternative to those who did not like Pulsar.

In my previous post on Apache ,I have criticized the promotion and positioning and predicted the failure of Apache but I was proved wrong by the brand. The brand had a wonderful year and analysts expect the brand to perform better in the coming days.

Meanwhile the company has been running various campaigns for the brand. After the first ad, the brand had two campaigns
The second campaign was a dampener ( in my view) which lacked the big idea. The story is how a chick got interested on a dude riding an Apache.

Watch it here: Flower
The latest campaign takes this brand to a macho image. Here the Apache is equated to a Cheetah chasing as usual a "Chick" . But what I liked about the campaign was the shift in the personality of the brand. The brand manager now is pitting the brand straight on Pulsar.I am happy that the brand became more male.

Watch the TVC here: Cheetah

Related Brands
Apache

Brand Update : Colgate

Colgate has started aggressively promoting its niche variant Colgate Sensitive toothpaste. This is a unique variant aimed at the segment of customers having tooth/gum problem.According to a report more than 80% of Indians have dental problems like gingivitis. Sensitive is a variant that specifically address this segment. The brand is said to give relief from pain after continuous use.Colgate sensitive also has anti plaque and anti-tartar properties. The promotion of Colgate Sensitive is to popularize the therapeutic segment which is not much popular in India. Colgate uses its famous and controversial tagline " No. 1 Brand Recommended by Dentists".
Related brand
Colgate

Lion Dates: Makes Your Day Complete

Brand : Lion
Company: Lion Dates Pvt Ltd

Brand Count:228

Lion Dates is an Off Beat brand in the sense that there is no glamour attached to this brand but it is an interesting brand because of its success. The brand has been successful in popularizing a foreign food in India but also brand a commodity.
Dates are popular fruit of the Middle East and 90% of dates are consumed in the producing countries. Lion Dates started operation in 1978 and in 1995, it consolidated its operations under the banner Lion Dates Pvt Ltd.

The company imports dates from Oman because Omani Dates are considered to be of superior quality. Starting from a mere three containers in 1995, Lion dates now imports 25 containers (500 tonnes) of Omani dates last year making India the second largest importer of Dates after France.

How did a small Trichy based company did that? The answer lies in smart marketing and brand building. Lion has been aggressively promoting dates as a product itself. In marketing theory , we talk about communication strategies vary according to the various stages of market development. Here the brand was dealing with an alien product and the primary communication task was to impress the consumer about the product's benefit rather than the brand.
Hence the earlier communication of the brand was around the qualities of dates.The brand concentrated on TamilNadu and later branched out to South India . The brand initially used a simple proposition of " Be Like A Lion" as its main theme. The brand mainly targeted Kids and Mothers as their TG.
The brand was aware that to brand a commodity, it has to take some serious points of differentiation. The brand used Quality and Hygiene as is POD's. Lion was the first branded Dates to come out with Seedless dates. As a consumer, I would vouch for the quality of this brand. Lion also came out with different packaging and convenient SKU's that made this brand a leader in the market.
Once the product became popular, the brand faced competition from unbranded dates. To counter the competition, the brand came out with a campaign highlighting the quality and hygiene of the brand.
The company also tried to leverage the popularity by introducing India's first Date syrup which can be used to make various drinks and even substitute sugar. In 2007 the company launched a new drink based on Omani Date seed with the brand name "Takof" which is made from roasted dates mixed with chicory.The brand is not yet promoted in the market.

Dates have exceptional nutritional value. The fruit contains Potassium,iron calcium,magnesium etc and is considered to be an energy boosting snack. Dates are also recommended by Doctors for older people.
The quality of brand communication for Lion dates has improved considerably over time
. The brand has now adopted new tagline "Makes Your Day Complete" highlighting the nutritional value in a more professional manner.I feel that the brand should position itself as an energy snack and raising the TG from Kids to a larger audience.
Buoyed by the success of Lion Brand, the company extended this brand to various other products like Honey, pickles etc ( in my opinion will dilute the parent brand).

Lion is a brand that has clearly demonstrated the ability of a marketer to brand a commodity.

Parle Musst Bites: Too Tempting

Brand: Musst Bites
Company: Parle


Brand Count:227

Parle has ventured into the new sunrise product line of snack foods. These days the snack food market is seeing lot of action with ITC launching its Bingo range of snacks during the World Cup.
Parle is now put its weight behind its new brand Musst Bites.

Musst Bites is a launched with a series of humorous ads. Watch the TVC here: Musst

Musst Bites is positioned as a tasty snack food too tempting to be part with. Although this positioning is not something new ,the brand is favored by the reasonable execution. The ads are fun to watch and simple. But there is the problem of the brand not able to differentiate itself from the likes of the market leader Lays. In a way, the brand is taking the same positioning as the Lays. But Lays is far too good in terms of positioning.

Parle yet again has failed in its brand communication. Here in this case the brand was not able to find a Big Idea.Although the agency has done a reasonable job with the oft used idea, this will not help the brand in breaking into the bastion of Frito Lays.
Related Brands
Bingo

imagesource:agencyfaqs