Brand Update : Parryware

Parryware has now embarked upon a new campaign focusing on its range of bathroom fittings and accessories. Feeling the heat from the competitors and also unbranded products, the brand has renewed its marketing thrust.

But the new campaign is a sad story all together. In my earlier post on Parryware, I had mentioned that Parryware has redefined the Bathroom fittings by innovating the concept of Glamourooms. The brand achieved super brand status through this smart positioning. But during 2003, the brand made a big mistake in changing its core positioning to " Add glamour to your life" and then changed the tagline again to " Surrender to the temptation " and crap like that.

The new campaign is shocking. The brand now adopts the tagline " What a bathroom!". Its a pity that the brand has come to a full circle. It has reached the stage where it has started its successful journey. From "Glamourooms " , the brand crashlanded to "Bathroom".Glamourooms differentiated Parryware when everyone was talking about bathroom fittings and now also things are not so different. The fact is that man companies are talking about glamorooms and now Parryware has started talking about Bathrooms. What a paradox.I don't see a logic and cannot understand why those creative hotshots at JWT could ever letgo of a highly successful positioning and land the brand back to square one !
Ofcourse I know that the answer will be " the old positioning has lost its charm". But I feel that its the job of the creatives to find ways to refresh these ideas not kill them for the heck of change. The brand now is in a state where it has lost is DNA. The ads may be good but the strategy is horrible. The brand has undone the entire equity built over its past years ( Glamouroom era).

Do You see any logic?

Related Brands
Parryware

Book Review : Services Marketing by Rajendra Nargundkar

Book review originally published in SCMS Journal of Indian Management April-June 2007

Title : Services Marketing:Text and Cases

Author : Mr.Rajendra Nargundkar

Edition : Second Edition

Pages : 481

Publisher : Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi.

Services Marketing has evolved to become a major stream of study across b-schools in India thanks to the boom in the sector. With analysts expecting further growth in the Banking, financial and Insurance sectors in the coming decades, the importance of this stream of study has become more visible.

In that perspective, Mr Nargundkar’s book on Services Marketing is indeed a valuable addition to the existing literature. Although there are may books dealing with Services Marketing, Mr Nargundkar’s book is refreshing and stimulating.

Services Marketing: Concepts and Cases follow the traditional 7 P as its foundation. The chapeters 2-8 focuses on explaining the 7 P’s: Product, Place, Promotion, Price, Physical Evidence,Process and People. Nargundkar follows a lucid style in presenting the concepts, which makes reading this book easy for management students. Mr. Nargundkar has followed the same style of his earlier book on Marketing Research, which is a preferred book of management students on that subject.

Services Marketing also touch upon the concepts like Strategy, CRM and its application and also some insights into retailing in the service angle. Besides the chapters on concepts, the book also offers mini cases and Perspectives, which give insights in to the application of these concepts in the practical world. The book is full of such boxed items and illustrations that too Indian examples which makes this book more attractive to the Indian audience. The chapter on Promotion has several print ads of Indian service firms, which speaks volumes about the importance of advertising campaigns in service industry. The book also has 30 cases, which offers a valuable pedagogical tool for faculty and students. The cases are a mix of conceptual and quantitative data and the author has been able to strike a balance between both types.

Although the book is refreshingly Indian, the book is only an adaptation of existing services marketing concept in the Indian context. The book is purely conceived and developed as a textbook for management students and it fulfills that promise. For a scholar on services marketing, this book may pass on as another basic textbook since the author has not tried to develop or propose any original model or concept. The book also does not provide links to any additional reading in terms of references.

Services Marketing: Text and Cases is a good basic academic textbook that is easy to read for students and pedagogically useful for academicians.

SAS Paper Leaf : Innovation

Brand : SAS Paper Leaf
Company: S A Saifulla & Company


Brand Count : 245

SAS is an offbeat brand and is a classic example of innovation. The brand claims to be the first in coming out with Paper Banana Leaf. The brand is owned by SAS Company based in Pudukottai in TamilNadu.

Now for non South Indian Readers, Banana Leaves is.. no was an integral part of one's lunch. With the changed lifestyle, the use of Banana Leaf is now restricted to Marriage Feasts and also during festivals like Onam ,Vishu, Ponkal etc. Banana Leaf is also used in restaurants to serve traditional south Indian meals.
This tradition has taken some serious threats due to the change in the lifestyle and also because of the rapid urbanisation that we see now. The banana leaves are becoming scarce in cities and towns. In the earlier days, every house had Plantain cultivation and getting banana leaves was not an issue. But now in cities where flats and congested living has become a norm, who has the time and space to maintain such plants? Now frantic search for Plantain leaves is common during festive seasons and one has to pay even Rs 2 for a leaf ( which was available free in olden days) which is a stark reality of today.

Catching this need , SAS company has comeout with artificial paper banana leaf which solves the problem of the urban masses. This is an innovative blend of tradition with modernity. Although eating a feast or a sadhya in a artificial leaf will not give the thrill of the original, one should appreciate the logic and smartness behind this innovation.
The brand aims at the following target customers and usage situations:
1. Restaurants who serve traditional sadhya .
2. Hotels who supply parcel meals.
3. Caterers
4. Unexpected guests, functions ( households)
5. Export markets where south indians are more eg. middle east
6. Lunch packs during picnics outings etc.

The Brand faces competition from local unbranded players. But the website of SAS claims the following differentiators: Hygienic, sterilized, withstand high temperature hence ideal for packing,. The brand also claims that it cannot be torn and uniform in size. More than that it is available in all departmental stores and supermarkets. The brand is priced Rs 12 for a pack of dozen. Hence the brand takes advantage of the convenience and ease as its main selling point. The brand also advertises heavily on Television .

I feel that the brand will fare well in the institutional sales at hotels and restaurants. At the consumer end, since the usage of Leaves are limited to specific occasions , one cannot expect steady sales at this front. For that the brand may have to spent lot of money tackling the seasonal issue for this traditional product.One way is to prompt the customers to stock atleast one pack of this product for emergency situations. A campaign in this regard can drive some sales for the short term. Once the customers are comfortable with this product, SAS can be assured of some steady sales at the customer end.
Whether the brand will thrive or not, SAS Paper leaf is a classic innovative marketing story.

Source : saspaperleaf.com
imagesource : healthynspicy.blogspot.com

Real Twist : Come ,Let Us Twist

Brand : Real Twist
Company : Dabur
Agency : Lowe

Brand Count : 244

Dabur has come out with a new brand Real Twist in the highly lucrative Indian Fruit Drinks market. The above statement is wrong... because Real Twist is not a new brand but a Product Line extension and the brand is not new because it was launched way back in 2005. But since the brand is now having an entirely new marketing mix, I thought I would call it a new brand.

Dabur's Real brand of fruit juices are market leaders in the Rs 350 crore Fruit Juices + Nectar market. The brand has a whopping 85% share. But this market is small compared to the Rs 1200 crore Fruit Drinks market which is dominated by Frooti and Maaza.More over this market is growing at an impressive 25%. Interestingly majority of customers doesn't fully understand the difference between fruit juices , nectar and fruit drink. The deciding factors behind their purchase decision is Product quality , Price and Promotion.Dabur which aspires a high growth in FMCG and foods business cannot ignore this mass market.

Dabur's Real brand which has a variant named Real Activ is positioned on the Health platform. Recently Real is running a campaign " Tastes Like a Real Fruit". Although Twist is now launched as a product line extension, on a closer look the Real brand is just endorsing the new brand. I feel that over time Twist will have its own identity. When it was launched initially in 2005, it was a real product line extension. But now it seems to be a real product launch rather than a relaunch.

Twist is a fruit drink which is positioned as a fun brand. The target group is obviously young people which forms a larger part of the consumer population in this category. Currently Twist is promoted heavily in Television. Twist is really a Mango drink with an addition of other fruits. There are initially two variants with Mango remaining the base in both the variants.

Watch the ad here : Real Twist

The brand uses the tagline :" AAo Twist Kare" translated to "Come Let us Twist" . The ads are well made and creates some amount of fun and energy for the brand. Essentially the brand is trying to promote itself as a highly young and vibrant brand.According to reports, along with the promotion , the brand's strong point is the price. Twist is now retailing at Rs 10 for 200 ml and Rs 25 for 600 ml and Rs45 for 1200 ml. The attractive price with some good promotion can give Frooti some serious touch of competition. For the customers the endorsement from Real will give them some confidence about the health factor in this drink. And since Twist is not going to depend on Real for its existence, there is no issue of the dilution of Real's equity as a healthy Fruit Juice.
As a lover of ads, I am impressed by the ads in the sense that it is fun and not boring. But the real test of Twist comes in the product performance.Frooti sensing the competition has already running a few campaigns. The competitors are going to up their ante and lot of ads may be on air soon.
Dabur has always surprised market watchers. This company which had the image of a chyavanprash company has changed itself to become the one of the major FMCG company in India. Twist is the byeproduct of their aggressive growth strategy. Will TWIST make a REAL difference is something to watch for.

What do you think?

Source : businessline, businessindia,agencyfaqs,ET

Brand update : Clinic All Clear

Clinic All Clear has launched India's first anti-dandruff shampoo for men. The brand is launched in two variant : Active Sport and Hairfall Decrease. According to the press release, HUL has conducted intensive research which revealed that Men's scalp is significantly different than the female scalp and hence require specialized care. Also men's scalp is found to have 33% more dandruff than that of females, reason being more sweat and less hair care. These insights have helped the company to launch a variant addressing this segment.
Although the company states these reasons, the real reason behind this launch is that Men's grooming market is booming. Clinic wants to retain its overall leadership position in the shampoo market and does not want to be lagging in a booming segment. Moreover, the brands like Garnier is already targeting men for their shampoo range.
It is interesting to note that Clinic is smart enough to retain and extend its core positioning of No Dandruff for this variant also. The brand is priced at Rs 130 for 200 ml and Rs 72 for 100 ml and Rs 3 for sachet. The packaging is also eye-catching and stylish. The new launch is expected to make the male grooming market more interesting and is going to see a lot of new launches.
Related Brand
Clinic All Clear

Hindustan Unilever Ltd : Adding Vitality to Life

Brand : Hindustan Unilever ltd
Company: HUL
Agency : Lowe


Brand Count : 243

Its now official. From today onwards, Marketers have to learn to call India's Largest FMCG company by its new Name : Hindustan Unilever Ltd. The company has officially rebranded itself.

According to the press release, the rebranding aims to align this brand along its global positioning of the parent Unilever.

According to the CEO of HUL Mr Douglas Bailey the new logo and name symbolizes the idea of vitality. He says

“The identity symbolises the benefits we bring to our consumers and the communities we work in. Our mission is full of promise for the future, opening up exciting opportunities where we have competitive advantage for developing our business and our new identity will help us confidently position ourselves in every aspect of our business.”

There is more to the new logo than it meets the eye. The logo is a combination of 25 icons that symbolizes the vision and mission of the company, the brands and the concept of vitality. The new corporate brand takes the tagline " Add Vitality to Life".
The twenty five icons form the unique U of the new corporate logo.

Incorporated in 1933 as Lever Brothers India ltd and adorning the name Hindustan Lever ltd in 1956, HLL never was serious about its corporate brand. All these years, this FMCG giant was building individual brands.
It was in 2005- 2006 that HLL seriously began to use its corporate logo in its TVC's. The company felt that a powerful corporate brand can give power to individual brands especially the new brands.
This year, the company made a huge change in its logo and the name.From the reports, I feel that the company is embarking on a serious corporate brand building activity in the years to come. This makes sense because theoretically Corporate brands Legitimizes products and individual brands individualizes it. This was important for those product categories which need to establish trust because of high cost or high customer involvement. Hence you can see consumer durable brands and automobile brands using both Corporate Brands and Individual brands together.

The current rebranding of Corporate brand is not going to make a difference in HUL's position in the market. The reason being that all of the HLL's brand stand independently from the corporate identity. I also doubt whether customers care about the company behind the Surf ?
The new brand is also unique since it is the only market in the world where Unilever has allowed the use of regional name . To show solidarity to Indian market, Unilever is retaining the term Hindustan in the new brand name.