Brand Update : Mentos

Brand Mentos is getting smarter and smarter. The brand which broke into the confectionery market with its " Dimag ki Batti jala de" campaign has hit the Big Idea jackpot. This year saw a new campaign from Mentos in the same line as its earlier campaigns. The ad features a young man in an auditorium with his squeaky shoes.

Watch the ad here : Mentos
The ad is maintaining its " Makes You smarter" tagline and this has been a hit in the market place.According to agencyfaqs, the ads has helped the brand to increase its marketshare in the soft mint category from 33% in 2005 to 48% in 2007. The company attributes this to the smart advertising. I would attribute this to the excellent quality of the product. The ads are made by Mr Rajesh Krishnan of Footcandles.
Mentos has been using Ordinary Life & Mentos Life and the tagline " Makes You think Smarter" since 2005 . The first in the series was the Classroom ad followed by the " Haircut".
Mentos is a classic example of the power of Big Idea. The "Makes You Smarter" idea can be used by the brand for decades and it gives such a flexible platform for the ad film makers and the creative team to make the consumers laugh.

As a consumer,I would wait for the sugarfree version of Mentos which can take this brand to the next level of leadership.

Related Brand
Mentos

Source:agencyfaqs

Belmonte: Suits Your Style

Brand: Belmonte
Company: SKumars Nationwide

Brand Count:233

Belmonte is SKumar's new brand in the Rs 80000 crore Apparel industry.Belmonte is launched in the midprice segment where the company believes that there is a gap for a new brand.
The launch of Belmonte is an example of the theory of targeting . SKumar has been a serious player in the textile industry for a long period. The brand Skumar also had a good equity in the market. But with the textile market getting hot with a slew of brand launches, SKumar needed to relook their strategy especially regarding the segments.
Much of the branding action was taking place in the readymade segment . Skumar tried their hand in the readymade segment with their brand Tamarind, but failed miserably. This may have prompted the company to look at different segments in the suitings where the brand has its strength.
The initiative got a boost with successful launch of Reid and Taylor brand in the premium segment. The latest launch of Belmonte is the foray of the company into the highly profitable mid price segment.
Belmonte is targeting the youth ( as usual the executives) and I feel it is a masstige product.The brand is aiming at the Midprice segment. Belmonte is endorsed by Shah Rukh Khan and is being positioned as a " Stylish" brand. The brand takes the tagline " Suits Your Style". The tvs are on air right now.Belmonte offers total wardrobe solutions and that includes readymades also.
Watch the TVC here : BELMONTE ADS

Belmonte has taken up style as its differentiator and Shah Rukh projects himself as the style icon( is he regarded as a style icon?). I don't think that any other brand has taken Style as its positioning platform hence Belmonte stands to gain some advantage. Since SRK is the brand ambassador, there is a chance that consumers will think about this brand as a premium brand and does not check it out. The brand may have to do PR to make sure that Belmonte is not perceived as unaffordable.

While Reid and Taylor takes care of the premium segment, Belmonte takes care of the Midprice segment and the lower segment is targeted by SKumars Brand.Reid and Taylor and now Belmonte will definitely give a boost to Skumars' brand portfolio. The company is trying for new launches at the super premium segment with the launch of international labels. It will be better if the company depends less on brand ambassadors and focus more on the brands like what Raymonds has done. In the long run it will prove beneficial for the brand.

Source: Businessline,fibretofashion,skumarwebsite

Marketing Funda : Absurdism In Advertising

In an interesting research paper by Leopoldo, John and Gautam at Oklahoma University, Absurd Ads are defined as those which have pictures,words,visuals or sounds which the viewers perceive to be irrational, bizarre,illogical and disordered. Going by that definition, 90% of ads that we see can be classified as absurd ads.The origin of the concept of absurdity has its roots in drama and literature. According to theorists, the use of absurdity in advertising is derived from literature and drama.

There are different type of absurd ads.
a.Surrealism
b.Anthropomorphism
c.Allegory
d.Hyperbole.

Surrealism is associated with distorted images,dream imagery and imaginative worlds ( Sunfeast). While Anthropomorphism is trying to connect /explain a non-human with a human(Chintamoni of Icici?). Allegory is the description of something in the pretext of another( Hutch dog ). Hyperbole is gross exaggeration to make a point(Happydent). ( From the above authors).
What I feel is that Absurdism in Advertising is a continuum. There cannot be an ad that does not have a dash of any of the above four types.Hence we should be placing the ads somewhere in the continuum where one extreme is the absolutely absurd ads like that of Happydent and the other extreme of an ordinary ad with less absurdity like the latest print ads of SBI. So I can put a hypothesis saying that it is a choice of whether the communication should be rational or non-rational. Orbit for example chose an rational one for its main brand and an Absurd ad for its variant Orbit White.
It is interesting to look at the reasons for marketers to go in for absurdism in advertising.Primary reason is that they don't care because all these postmortem and analysis is done by academics. Marketers often create hyperbole or absolutely bizarre ads like Centershock
to

• Create excitement
• Aid Brand recall
• Change the mood of the brand
• Reposition
• Entertain the viewers
• Spent the money they have for advertising ( joking...)
• Reminder ads
• When they have nothing rational to say about the brand.
• When nothing rational works
• All positioning opportunities are taken by the competitors.

Source: EFFECTS OF ABSURDITY IN ADVERTISING: THE MODERATING ROLE OF PRODUCT CATEGORY ATTITUDE AND THE MEDIATING ROLE OF COGNITIVE RESPONSES by Leopoldo, John and Gautam

Brand Update : Tata Indicom

After a series of horrible ads featuring Kajol and Ajay Devgan, Tata Indicom has initiated a new series of ads trying to differentiate the brand from the rest of the service providers. Indicom retains Kajol as its brand ambassador, but has completely taken a new tone in talking to the customer. While Indicom was using Kajol and Ajay Devgan to lure the middle and lower middle segments with its Lifetime prepaid card and following it with cheap handset offer, the latest campaign is aimed at a different TG. The new campaigns are targeting the existing mobile users ( of competitors) and not the first time users which was the TG of the earlier ads.

View the Ad Here: Marriage ad. Love ad, Car Ad
This time the brand is talking to the Rational side of the brain. The new campaign is revolving around 6 key differentiators for the brand:

1.BroadSpan Network for constant signal accessibility across narrow subways,basement,elevators etc.
2.Breathing cell cites for seamless connectivity in trains lifts etc.
3.Echo free filters for clear sounds.
4.High security network for absolute confidentiality.
5.T-sim based service that enable customers to switch mobile handsets to latest ones.

6.Gentle waves for echo friendly system.

The brand communicates that these are the six reasons why one should switch to Tata Indicom.
Here again the brand has shown its ability to innovate. The above features are common features but Indicom has communicated effectively that the brand is good in these features.Atlast some sensible campaigns from Indicom...

Related Brand
Tata Indicom

Image source:agencyfaqs

Kissan : Totally Confused?

Brand : Kissan
Company: HLL
Agency:Lowe

Brand Count:232

Kissan in a way is a totally confused brand. Infact any brand from HLL's stable pass through a stage of utter confusion. The brand came into HLL's fold in 1993 when Brooke Bond India acquired the brand from UB Group.
In the year 2000 the brand was worth Rs 400 crore becoming a market leader in Jams squashes and Ketchup. The brand then went all the way south to become a spectator when its leadership positions was taken by new brands.
The utter confusion regarding the longterm strategy for Kissan brand was visible through the experiments that was conducted on this brand by Hll. HLL always wanted to make it big in the food business. Understandably so , the Indian processed food market is having a staggering size of Rs 2,80,000 crores and the market is highly fragmented. Now wonder an FMCG giant like HLL wants a slice of it.

But with a brand which had a tremendous equity during the late nineties and early 2000, HLL had weird plans. One of the major casualty of MS Banga's Power brand strategy was Kissan. During the early 2000, the brand Kissan was rebranded as Kissan Annapurna. Kissan Annapurna was marketing not jams and squashes by Atta,salt and other staple foods.Later Annapurna and Kissan was splited into two seperate brands , one concentrating on staple foods and other on processed foods. This migration strategy proved to be very costly for both Kissan and Annapurna brand.
Kissan was synonymous with Jams and Squashes during its initial years. Kissan Ketchup was a market leader in ketchup segment but these experiments and myopic strategies pushed the brand behind the focused and aggressive Maggi. While in squashes , the aggressive campaigns of Rasna and other cola marketers made the squash category irrelevant.

So all through the period 2001-2005, Kissan was in a sticky wicket. But now according to reports, the brand mandarins of HLL is now clear about Kissan as a brand for processed food like Jams ,ketchups and like.
That change is visible in the recent campaign of Kissan which takes a unique view of Ketchup. Taking the tagline " Ao banaye pakode bahetar" translated to " Making Pakode taste better". In these series of ads, the brand plays a second fiddle to the main snack. The brand takes the positioning of a "Great Accompaniment " .The same theme is reflected in the latest ad of Maggi featuring Javed Jaffri in a Jail.

Although the brand had problems at the strategic level, Kissan had its own share of innovations. It had a innovative squeezy package for the Ketchup which became very popular. Besides all migrations, its Jams were very popular . Kissan even used Rahul Dravid to endorse the brand.The brand also has came out with Low calorie jam to appeal to the health conscious crowd.

The unwarranted brand extension and migrations had made Kissan's brand equity suffer and that loss is not that easy to cover. Although Maggi had similarly extended itself to be an umbrella brand, the brand had a focus. But unlike Maggi, Kissan extended itself to Rice, Atta and even salt and also messed up by combining its name with Annapurna brand.
Kissan is a classic example of "Messing Up a Successful brand".

Brand Update : Titan

One of the most important components of a successful marketing strategy is innovation. Innovation can be interms of any of the marketing mix. This quality is clearly reflected in the brand strategy of Titan. This March, Titan has come out with a new collection of watches : Aviator Collection.

Aviator is the collection of watches inspired by the World War II fighter planes. The brand is targeting the upmarket global Indian. The range of watches are designed by the award winning designer Neil Foley . The designer has drew his inspiration from the rugged fighter planes like The Mustang,Spitfire, Hurricane , Messerschmidt ME 109 and the like.
The collection has 20 distinct styles and each watch has a name and a story behind it. The collection is differentiated by the unique sense of style and is following the psychographic segmentation.The price range is between Rs 4000-Rs 7000. The company press release also says that this watch is a celebration of JRD's first aircraft flight in India.

Titan has continuously experimented itself and this has helped the brand to be a superbrand. Aviator series, takes a cue from the Iconic Aviator of Ray-Ban and is trying to recreate the magic of RayBan Aviator. My doubt is whether the WWII series of aircrafts will inspire the new generation consumers?. Ofcourse there is no doubt that airplanes especially fighter aircrafts give a unique feeling to Men. Men always adore these beasts and the more ugly these fighters are, the more we tend to like it. The point is how many of us know the fighter planes of yesteryears?

Titan also has the answer, the answer lies in the unique tie-up with the National Geographic channel and the brand. Titan is sponsoring the Top Gun series of Natgeo which now airs a series on WWII airplanes. Hence the brand gets a boost and also free gyan to the TG about the warplanes. Interestingly Natgeo also has created a commercial for the Aviator Series showing real footages of the fighter planes.
So far so good. But my doubt remains.. But I feel that a watch collection that celebrates a Mustang looks more classy than a watch that celebrates an F16 isn't it?

Related Brand
Titan