Amul Innerwear : Crafted for Fantasies

Brand : Amul
Company: JB Hosiery
Agency: Saint &Warriors

Brand Count : 239

Amul brand of innerwear is in the limelight for all the wrong ( right?) reasons. This brand from the Kolkata based Hosiery is a major brand in the Rs 5162 crore Indian innerwear market. Amul shares the brand name with the famous diary brand Amul and I wonder whether the two had fought a legal battle on trademark?

Amul innerwear have a huge share of voice. In 2005, the brand was the leading advertiser in TV among the innerwear brands. The brand was mainly targeting the mass market and the ads were also designed for the SEC B&C.According to agencyfaqs, the company is targeting mainly UP and Bihar which is their core market.

Now this brand is the hot topic in the blogosphere with a real controversial ad.
watch the ad here : Amul innerwear

Now that is clutterbreaking. The ad features a young bride washing her hubby's innerwear at a dhobi ghat. The ad has created so much controversy that it was challenged at the ASCI .But interestingly ASCI ruled in favour of the brand. The agency is all set to release a sequel to this advertisement.

According to the company officials the brand has reported a 35% increase in sales after the release of the advertisement.I was very much intrigued with the ad when I first saw it. And I must say that my first reaction was to change the channel since my whole family was viewing the TV at that time.I thought it was either an ad for condoms or for an aphrodisiac or a spoof. But never in my life I had an idea that it was for an innerwear. Did I liked the ad ... No not at all. My personal opinion is that the ad is of bad taste.

As the article in agencyfaqs aptly titled an article about this brand as " Crafted for controversies". The brand wanted controversy and publicity. The best way to get that is to create a controversial ad. That worked wonders for the brand. Just type Amul Macho and you will get all commentaries and opinions : some supporting and some criticizing. But people are talking about the brand.
Innerwear advertising is always challenging to the marketer. You have to find the differentiator and also convey that to the customer. The market is full of unorganised and unbranded cheap products. Only a section of the market is brand loyal. While VIP, Jockey etc are taking up the premium segment, the brands like Amul, Lux, Rupa etc are trying their luck at the mass market. Hence Amul was forced to take the clutter breaking approach to build the brand. Even I feel that celebrity endorsements had lost its sheen this market. Hence this brand 's new campaign qualifies for a guerilla tactic which was successful.

I feel that the agency has taken an easy path to publicity. Most of the publicity generated was negative. The iconic brand Axe uses sensuality to perfection without repelling the customers. The ads are watched and discussed. We marketers wait for the next creative.There the agency is enlightened. Here whether creative or not, the ad for Amul lacks that enlightenment or refinement.

Compare the amul ad with the latest ad of VIP : No Adjust
which is more sensible than the controversial one. Ofcourse the Amul ad delivered results , I am not sure whether VIP's ad delivered results.
Amul Macho uses the tagline " Crafted for Fantasies" which I am not sure as to its relevance.But for the TG I think it conveys the meaning.
The ad makes sense to the market it serves because it created instant brand recall and that is what is important in a cluttered mass market.
source:agencyfaqs

Brand Update : Hero Honda Pleasure

Hero Honda Pleasure is on a celebrity overdrive. After using Hrithik Roshan for a print ad, the brand is now running a TVC featuring Priyanka Chopra. The brand expects the Priyanka to neutralize the Preity Zinta effect of TVS Scooty.

Pleasure had only an average success in the market. The brand is expecting a surge in sales once the massive roll out of Just4her showrooms are completed.

Picture courtesy : businessline
Related Brand
Pleasure

Kent Mineral RO : For Mineral Rich Water

Brand : Kent RO
Company :Kent RO systems
Agency : Glaze Ads


Brand Count : 238

Kent is a challenger brand in the Rs 600-700 crore Indian water purifier industry dominated by none other than Aquaguard from Eureka Forbes. Kent was launched in 1995 by Mahesh Gupta an IITian .

Kent is positioned as a premium brand of water purifier targeted at SEC A&A + Most of the existing purifiers are based on Ultraviolet technology .The brand Kent is differentiated from the main competitor Aquaguard through its Reverse Osmosis ( RO) technology. The brand uses the Markonym " RO" to communicate this to the customer. Most of the existing water purifiers use Ultraviolet technology which is much inferior to RO technology.

Identifying this gap, Kent was wise enough to own this technology and is now known as the brand which pioneered RO technology in India. In competitive strategy, the brand Kent adopted a bypass attack on the market leader Aquaguard.Here the company has leapfrogged new technologies to supplant existing products ( Kotler).Although RO technology is superior to UV, the major drawback is in the price front. While UV purifiers sells at Rs 5000-7000 range, the price of RO based purifiers starts at Rs 15000. This big differential in the pricing is expected to come down with the increase in the volume of RO purifiers.

We know that having a superior technology is not a recipe for success in marketing front. The brand faced two major issues, one to establish the brand equity and second to educate the customers about the new technology. The brand then chose the eay way out in establishing the brand inthe market i.e through celebrity endorsement. Kent roped in the Dream Girl ( or lady) Bollywood diva Hema Malini and surprisingly her daughter Ahana to endorse the brand. Hema Malini gave the brand instant eyeballs in the sense that viewers ( including mine ) was intrigued with the new brand Kent. The media chosen was print and TV. Hema Malini made sense because the target audience who are Mothers could easily identify with this celebrity homemaker. More over the presence of Ahana made this a family brand .

Last year ,the brand roped in Hema Malini's eldest daughter Esha Deol to support the brand . Thus Kent became the only brand which is endorsed by a celebrity mother and two daughters. According to reports, the new brand ambassador Esha is expected to give this brand an entry into the younger generation customers. The move also makes sense with the rise of lot of young professionals managing their own homes.
The brand had gained good reputation in the market which has prompted the market leader Eureka Forbes to come out with its own range of RO product.
Besides water purifier, Kent also innovated a fruit and vegetable purifier. This when used on vegetables and fruits, will clean the impurities and make them fresh. But the price of Rs 5000 makes it little unaffordable to ordinary customers.
Kent is positioned on the specific feature whereby the mineral content of the water is sustained even after purification. Hence the brand takes the positioning platform of Mineral Rich Pure Water which also acts as a differentiator.
The real impact of this brand on the market leader Aquaguard will be felt when the price of the RO purifier will match that of the popular UV purifiers. It will take a little while before that happens. Industry watchers predict that the product is moving towards the Reverse Osmosis Purifiers . When that happens Kent RO will reap the rewards of its investments.

Source: Kent website,businessline

Brand Update : Eyetex

I had written last year about the brand Eyetex and its initiative to tap the new generation with the new brand Dazzler. The Senior Management of the firm was kind enough to provide me further information about the brand which I would like to share with you , Excerpts from the mail
"

• Last year we sold 23.4 million pieces of our traditional EYETEX Kajal,
• We believe that no brand of any Eye Care Cosmetic sells such a volume in India - value is a different matter,
• This year, the target is appr. 25.8 millions of pieces - the low growth is due to the near saturation level of penetration,
• We also produce five varieties of Eyeliner Liquid under the same brand EYETEX - but this is synthetic product like the Brands that you have mentioned,
• We sold 1.42 millions pieces of our EYETEX Eyeliner Liquid in 2006-07;
• We believe that this is the Second largest next to LAKME who are reported to have sold close to 4.0 millions pieces of their Eyeliner liquid,
• This year the target is 1.75 million pieces
• In your state KERALA, our Eyeliner Liquid is by far the Number I Brand in volumes - this can be easily verified,
• These 1.42 millions sales in 2006-07 comes on top of just 1.60 lakhs pieces of Eyeliner Liquid sold as recently as 2000-01,
• As your BLOG aptly titles - Eye On The Next Generation - we are also into Eye Mascara {since 2005}, Eyebrow Pencils {since 1975},
• We are also into - under the Brand DAZLLER - Nail Polish {3 varieties}, Nail Polish Remover, Lip Sticks {2 sizes}, Lip Gloss, Compact Powder, Liquid Makeup {Foundation Cream}, Lip Eye Makeup Remover etc.,
• We are also the largest BRAND in the Kumkum business in India - the Umbrella Brand is EYETEX and this has sub Brands namely POORNIMA, PALLAVI & DIVYAA,
• We sell Kumkum in Powder, Paste, Liquid, Pencil & Sticker forms,
• In 2006-07 we sold over 64 million pieces of different varietis of Kumkum

"

Great going for a heritage brand like Eyetex. It is always good to see Indian brands keeping their forte even after the onslaught of Global brands. But the threat is real. A dipstick study at my institute revealed little percentage using the heritage brands and majority going towards global brands ( may not be statistically relevant) . But these brands has their strength of the equity that it has created over these years. Only thing they have to do is to strengthen it.

Related Brand
Eyetex

Brand Update : Lays

What I have feared has happened. The brand mandarins at Pepsico or at JWT seems to be bored with the highly successful tagline " No one can eat just one". The brand Lays has changed its positioning statement to " Har Program Ka Main Food" which means " Main Food for All Programs" .

When the first TVC featuring this new tagline was aired during the world cup, I thought it was a temporary change in tagline to suit the event. But now the new tvc is on air with the same tagline. My personal feeling is that the brand has decided to try suicide because it is bored with the success. When no competitor is having the capacity to kill your brand, then why not try it yourself.
For so many years, the tagline "No one can eat just one" was able to communicate the brand DNA to the customers. Those who liked Lays would say with conviction that you cannot stop eating Lays. The creative guys at JWT had the flexibility of using this tagline to come out with new and different campaigns. But yet, someone out there felt experimenting.
The new tagline has taken the focus away from the USP of the brand ie. "Taste" to the " Usage Occasion " which is not a strong differentiator as the previous one. By doing so, the brand has given away the best differentiator it had...

It was the same case with Pepsi, it had the habit of messing up the tagline just in the name of freshness and experimenting. From the iconic tagline " Yehi hai right choice baby" to ?????? can anyone remember the new tagline?
I am not saying that the brand shouldnot experiment with its taglines and positioning. I am not saying that tagline is the MOST important brand element. But the point is that a change in the successful tagline should be guided by solid reason. Messing up a blockbuster positioning statement like " No one can eat just one" is going to cost heavily on this brand. Frito Lays may be investing lot of money experimenting new taglines in coming days... I pity them.

Related Brand
Lays

Popy Umbrella : Dancing In The Rain

Brand : Popy
Company: Popy Umbrella Mart
Agency : Jelitta

Brand count : 237

Popy is the market leader in the fiercely competitive umbrella market in Kerala. Looking at the number of umbrellas it sold every year, I think that Popy is largest selling umbrella brand in India. Annually this brands sells more than 2 Lakh umbrellas.

Popy has a legacy that is associated with the rise of the product umbrella from a staid ugly accessory to an interesting product. The brand comes from a family that is credited with branding a product that once was considered commodity.
In 1954 Mr Thayyil Abraham Varghese established St George Umbrella mart with its base in the Alleppy District of Kerala. Soon the brand St George began aggressive marketing which made the brand number one in the market. In 1995, the family business split into two : Popy Umbrella mart and John's Umbrella mart. The competition between these two companies marked the umbrella market in Kerala - a haven of innovation and smart marketing.

Umbrella market is a highly seasonal one ( not a big discovery from my part !) and selling a seasonal product is any marketers nightmare because he may have to sell all the inventory during the season and also device methods to tide over the seasonality factor also. On the top of it, the product category was considered a commodity.
But Popy and Johns did wonders in the market. These brands made brands out of commodity through sheer innovation. But Popy got a headstart with its successful campaign that caught the attention of the consumers. The popular malayalam jingle " Mazha mazha kuda kuda mazha vannal popy kuda" became an instant hit in the market.

The brand Popy ( also Johns) is more interesting because it was able to make the product from a lousy dull product to a lifestyle product through sheer innovation. The brands made innovations that are aimed at all segments of customers be it kids, young customers or older ones. Some of the innovations are include auto-open/close umbrellas,walking stick like umbrellas,5 fold ones, umbrellas with steel rims water gun umbrellas for kids, umbrella with torch, umbrella that is too small in the size of a Ray Ban?,umbrella that has UV protection,umbrella in different colors etc.
If I have to write all the innovations, it will take two blog posts because that is the extent of innovations that these brands have done.This season the brand has come out with a Laser umbrella aimed at kids.
On the marketing front also the brands have carefully segmented the market according to the age and demographical variables and innovated to suit their needs. For example, one of the common problems faced by lady commuters is the problem they face with the closing of umbrella when they board a bus. The auto-close umbrella will close the umbrella with the click of a button. Also the brands come out with another umbrella that will resist heavy wind. For the older ones, the brand has umbrella that double as a walking stick.These small but customer centric innovations have kept the product an exciting one.
These innovations also has helped the brand to command a premium over the usual black ones.The brand comes in different price range from Rs 59 to Rs 35000. Popy has tie- up with Futai umbrellas of Taiwan mainly for the sourcing of cloth. The brand has more than 140 varieties of umbrellas in the market.

Despite these innovations and smart marketing, the brand faces issues from the entry of cheap umbrellas from China.These can take away the mass market from Popy because mass market is price sensitive and the product is seasonal. The life of umbrellas are less than 2 years and customers may not be brand loyals. Both Popy and Johns are on an overdrive to build the brand equity so as to sustain the imminent price war.