Book Review : One Land One Billion Minds

Hi,
Another addition to the Marketing Practice : a section on books. Starting with a review of " One Land One Billion Minds " published originally in SCMS Journal of Indian Management Vol iii Oct-Dec 2006

Title : ONE LAND ONE BILLION MINDS

Insights on branding in India

Author : Ramanujam Sridhar

Edition : 2006

ISBN : 81-85984-17-4

Price : Rs.850/-

Pages : 400

Publisher : Productivity and Quality Publishing Pvt.Ltd., Madras.

The book by Ramanujam Sridhar talks about his journey from the world of finance to the universe of marketing and branding. Starting a career in Banking and moving over to the world of advertising, Mr.Ramanujam is known for his advertising acumen.
The book is an autobiographical insight into the Indian marketing and Advertising. Spread in 13 chapters, the book is rich with examples and case studies that make it and interesting reading.
The book starts with a peep into the travel of the author from banking to advertising and moves over to the most important topic of Understanding Indian consumers. Moving over, the author covers the concept of brands and brand management. Then towards the end of the book, the author explains his views on the role of advertising and public relations.

The book emphasizes on the importance of brands and more importantly on the strategy that should drive the brands. He cites many prominent Indian brands that succeeded because of careful planning. While criticizing on the over use of Celebrity endorsements, the author gives certain guidelines on using Celebrity to the brand’s advantage. The author also gives an effort to give the readers an insight to the future of brands in India.

The experience of the author is shared to the readers when he deals with the Advertising part of the book. He reminds the Brand Owners about the power of advertising and how advertising build brands. The case of Advertising agency’s position in the Client –Agency relationship is dealt with in the chapter aptly titled “Is Your Ad Agency Truly Your Partner? The author says, “Truly great work happens when the agency feels electrically charged about the client and his brand.”

The topic selections, the name of the book and the profile of the author, build up lot of expectations about the book for a reader. The readers would expect a highly insightful commentary on Indian brands will little disappointed after reading the entire book. The reason is that although there are lot of examples and consumer insights, the author has been saying the obvious. For an uninitiated to the world of advertising and branding, this book will prove to be a storehouse of information. But for a management graduate of a marketing practitioner, the concepts are not new and the examples already discussed in various forums. The author often repeats lot of points again and again in various occasions sometimes gives a feeling of boredom. For example, TVS Victor and Titan feature in different chapters more than once. Although the book starts with an autobiographical note, somewhere the personal touch is lost in the book that leaves the reader craving for more of his personal experience than the oft-repeated theories.

Neat layout and impressive presentation makes this book easy to read but at the end of the book, messages fail to get imprinted in the mind.

Market Statistics : Volume 4

Topical Steroid Market Size (Skin care) : Rs 100 crore Source : ET 9/6/07

Digital Camera Market Size : 7 lakh Units per annum source : ET 9/6/07

Size of Luxury Market : $ 444million Source: ET 09/06/07

Used Car Market Size : 1 million units Source : ET 09/06/07

Home Furnishing Market Size : Rs 15,000 crore Source : ET 09/06/07

Indian Soft Drinks Market size : $ 2 Billion Source: ET 09/06/07

Telecom Equipment Market Size : Rs 75000 crore Source: ET 06/06/07

Air Conditioners ( AC) Market Size : Rs 3600 crore Source :Businessline 5/4/07

Branded Home Furnishing Market Size : Rs 5000 Crore Source :Business Line 02/02/07

Indigenous Tiles Market Size : Rs 700 Crore Source : Businessline March 2007

Food & Beverages Market Size : $5640 Mn Source : AC Nielsen 2007

Shampoo Market Size : Rs 1800 crore Source : Business Standard 29/05/07

Frozen Non Vegetarian Snack Food Market Size : Rs 150 crore Source : Businessline 08/01/07

Frozen Vegetarian Snackfood Market Size ; Rs 200-250 crore Source Businessline 08/01/07

Industrial Glove Market Size : Rs 150 crore Businessline 05/05/07

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