Chevy Spark : Full of Life !

Brand : Spark
Company: Chevrolet ( GM)
Agency : Leo Burnett

Brand Count : 242

Spark is the latest entrant to the highly crowded and comptitive Indian car market. Spark is the second life for the erstwhile Matiz brand of Daewoo Motors. When Matiz came to India in 1995, the brand was a huge success. The cute car loaded with luxury soon created a premium small car segment giving significant competition for Santro.

But the internal financial crisis and subsequent death of Daewoo Motors almost killed this brand.. almost. 2007 saw this brand rebirth as Spark. Although GM denies that Spark is not Matiz reloaded, the resemblance cannot be ignored. In marketing terms, Spark should be considered as a new product launch.

Spark makes huge sense for the ambitious plans of GM to dominate Indian market. No marketer can make headway in Indian market without their presence in the Small car segment which constitutes almost 80% of the Indian car market. The small car market dominated by Suzuki is not an easy nut to crack either. And since no manufacturer can match the cost structure of Suzuki , the small car should be highly differentiated.
Indian small car market has evolved itself over the last decade into different segments within itself. The current market looks like this

Rs 1.8 lakh - 3.5 lakh :Maruti 800 ,Alto ( Basic Small Car)
Rs 3- 4 lakh :Santro /Wagon R/Zen Estillo /Spark/Indica ( Premium small car)
Rs 4 lakh and above : Swift,Fusion,UVA ( Luxury small car)
( This is my classification)

Spark is directly competing with Hyundai Santro and Maruti Wagon R in the premium small car segment. Priced very competitively at Rs 3-4 lakh, Spark is definitely will hit Santro hard -for a simple reason that customers were waiting for a choice. Be it Santro or Wagon R, customers are pretty bored by these two models which are there in the market for pretty long period of time. If you are a person who doesn't like the tall boy design, then there was no other choice but go in for Indica. Now Spark fills that gap effectively.
Not only that Chevrolet had priced the brand rightly, it had also marketed this brand correctly.Spark is positioned as a fun (cute) car and aptly uses the tagline " Full of Life". The vibrant colors and the cute looks is definitely going to make this car desirable . Customers may buy this brand just for the looks.
The brand is promoted heavily through TVC's which effectively captures the brand's essence.

Watch the TVC here : Spark
Although the brand faces intense competition from the leader Santro ( which has already giving huge discounts to counter Spark), for a while Spark may not be able to match Santro. But I feel that Spark will create a market for itself. The positioning of Spark as a vibrant lively brand is going to help it a lot. The brand will be attracting the young customers who are desperately looking for something different ( from the OLD Santro and the STAID Wagon R).
Like any products, the ultimate test for this brand will be on the ROAD. If Spark can prove itself to be a trouble free car on the road, Chevrolet have a winner at hand.

Market Statistics : Retail Sector In India

Source : Current economic statistics and review of the week 2006 EPW

Boomer : Boom Boom Boomer

Brand : Boomer
Company: Wrigley's
Agency : Grey

Brand Count : 241

Boomer is a pure kids brand. When most of the chewing gum marketers are spending heavily on the adult segment with sugarfree variants and outlandish ad budgets and creatives, Boomer followed the kids.
I feel that Boomer now takes the position of BIGFUN which was the best selling chewing gum during my school days. BigFun is currently not in the market.

Boomer was launched in India in 1995 by Joyco-which is a confectionery major from Spain.Boomer actually revived the chewing gum market in India and in 2000 became the single largest brand in the segment with a market share of over 40%. But later the company lost out to Perfetti which redefined the entire confectionery market. In 2005 Joyco was taken over by Wrigley's . Today Boomer is fighting for leadership position with its competitor Big Babool .

Boomer is targeting kids aged 10-15 . I am little confused about the positioning of this brand because I could not make out the exact positioning strategy. But Boomer focuses on the fantasy hero who helps the kids who land up in the midst of villains. Its a kind of story book fantasy that this brand tries to adopt. The brand has effectively made use of its brand elements like the Boomer Hero and the famous jingle "Boom Boom Boomer". Hence this brands is positioned as a friendly companion for the little customers. The ads of Boomer is another example of Absurdism in Advertisements.
Boomer is an international brand and uses the same Boomer Hero. Worldwide this brand uses the same theme to promote itself.
The brand thus have advantage of its competitor because Babool lacks such powerful brand elements. Boomer is able to catch the attention of kids through various heroic stories of Boomer and that can very often translate to sales. Moreover in the kids confectionery, the product sales now are driven by sales promotions rather than brand. Kids may choose Babool if it offers more goodies than Boomer.
In the highly competitive market for Kid's mindshare , Boomer stands to gain because of the strength of its brand elements.

Brand update : Amul

I cannot resist the temptation of sharing some of the Amul Topicals with You. Enjoy.
Related Brands: Amul

Brand Update : Dove

After building its equity as one of the mildest soaps available in India and having created a small space in the premium segment of soap market, Dove has extended itself into hair care segment.Although internationally Dove has a range of hair care products, officially the range is introduced into Indian market this year.

Indian shampoo market is segmented on the basis of price. The top segment consists of premium brands like Lo'real,Garnier and other imported brands, midsegment consists of popular brands like Clinic, Sunsilk,Lakme,Head & Shoulders etc and the lower segment dominated by Sachets and local price warriors.
It is evident that the premium segment was created and dominated by Loreal and Hll feels that it should be having a brand in that segment too. Dove will be pitted against Loreal and is positioned as a premium shampoo with moisturizing properties. The presence of milk lotion acts as the differentiator. The brand takes the strength from the equity of its soap and will be trying to leverage on that strength. The brand uses the tagline " More beautiful hair with every wash" to promote the range.
The extension of Dove to shampoo is an example of brand extension. There are industry experts who say that this extension will fail because the customers can never relate Dove to haircare. I feel that for HLL Dove brand is the best bet to counter Loreal.

Related Brand
Dove
image courtesy :businessline

Head & Shoulders : Making Hair Soft & Dandruff Free

Brand : Head & Shoulders
Company: P&G

Brand Count : 240

Head & Shoulders is world's No.1 anti-dandruff shampoo. A power brand from P&G , this brand made its debut in India in 1997. In the highly competitive Indian shampoo market which is estimated to be worth around Rs 1800 crore, Head&Shoulders is a major player in the Anti-Dandruff niche. The entire shampoo market is dominated by HLL with a whopping market share of around 46%.
When the brand was launched in India, the anti dandruff market was in its nascent stage and dominated by Clinic All Clear. The high profile launch of Head & Shoulders fueled the growth of this specialty market. Now anti-dandruff segment constitutes around 15% of the total shampoo market. While some reports suggest that Head & shoulders lead this segment, there are no exact market share figures available. My feeling is that Clinic All Clear has a lead over Head & Shoulders.

Head & Shoulders is positioned as a pure play anti-dandruff shampoo and for these 20 years has stuck to this positioning.When the brand was launched, it really gave HLL brand Clinic a run for its money. The brand had carried its heritage as worlds largest selling anti-dandruff shampoo and also maintained a good share of voice. The brand used the Markonym ZPT ( Zinc Pyrithine)Formula which has anti-fungal properties as its differentiator.
But during the 2000, Clinic All Clear outsmarted Head & Shoulders through some very aggressive campaigns. As usual HLL banked on high profile celebrities to endorse this brand. Shah Rukh and Shahid Kapoor and recently John & Bipasha made sure that Clinic All Clear retain its share of mind. Surprisingly during this period, Head & Shoulders kept a low profile.

It was during 2005 that Head & Shoulders began its aggressive campaign to regain the lost market.The brand roped in the bubbly Preity Zinta to endorse the brand. Earlier Ajay Jadeja had endorsed the brand.During this period, the brand also extended its positioning from Anti-Dandruff to "Soft hair + dandruff removing " proposition. The brand also introduced different variants like Menthol, Aloevera, Black, Naturally Clean,smooth & silky to increase the product line depth.
The brand also changed ZPT formula to Vitazinc to support the new positioning. Along with the new brand ambassador, the brand also talked about eliminating 5 problems arising out of dandruff : Flakes,Irritation,Itchiness,Dryness and Oiliness.The new extended positioning makes sense in the new consumer environment where customers are looking more at combo products rather than specialty products.
Although Head & Shoulders has aggressive in the market, it is still lagging behind Clinic All Clear in terms of creative campaigns. Globally, Head & Shoulders had come out with some highly creative campaigns which was not replicated in India by the agency.The brand is now available in a new look and with the aggressive campaigns, the brand hopes to keep its Head High