Brand Update : Kent RO

Kent RO has landed its brand ambassador in deep trouble. Today Hema Malini who also is a Rajyasabha MP asked a seemingly innocent question in Parliament. " Whether government has any plans to reduce the excise duty of RO purifiers ? " This question has created a controversy which may snow ball into a terrible headache for Hema Malini.

According to the Parliamentary ethics, a member should not raise a debate or an issue which has a conflict of interest ( personal interest). Since Hema Malini is the brand ambassador of Kent which manufactures Reverse Osmosis (RO) based water purifiers, the war cry has already began.

Politics apart, I was aghast when I watched Hema Malini sweating in front of a seemingly soft journalist in Headlines Today. If the interviewer was Karan Thapar, Hema Malini would have got a heart attack. The actress is not a politician for sure and she messed up the entire interview

This brand ambassador was asked the following question.

Journalist : Madam, Can you please explain to us what RO system means ?
Hema Malini : mmmmm........ Helloo
Journalist : Madam, Can you please explain to us what RO system means ?
Hema Malini : I don't know the technical details.
Journalist : Madam , You endorse this brand and can you explain..?
Hema Malini : See the advertisement for more details...

( this is not a verbatim transcript)

The scrolling now says : Hema does not know about Reverse Osmosis.

Well..........

When I write about brands and celebrity endorsements, many readers and students ask for my opinion about the importance of celebrity endorsement in a marketing strategy. This episode highlights one of the pitfalls of celebrity endorsements. These occurrences can be rare. But it can happen.
In this case , Reverse Osmosis is the differentiation that Kent tries to project with the brand ambassador and now in a high profile controversy, the brand ambassador admits that she knows little about what she says ( along with her daughters) in the advertisement .

Embarrassing for the brand and for the brand ambassador.

Will it create any problems for the brand?
Only for the short term . Because customers are wise enough to understand that a brand ambassador does not know any thing about the product which he/she endorses. This episode is just another proof.

Will this create problem for Hema Malini ?
I think so. She may have a lot of explanations to do before the ethics committee.

This celebrity goof up is just a warning signal for all marketers. Make sure that your brand ambassador knows a little bit about your product. Atleast the Meaning and Spelling......

Related Brand
Kent RO

Source : Headlines Today

Kit Kat : Have a break , Have a Kit Kat

Brand : Kit Kat
Company : Nestle
Agency : JWT

Brand Analysis Count : 261

Kit Kat is one of the world's largest selling chocolate brands. I am little nostalgic about this brand because when I was doing the management degree course, the war between Kit Kat and Perk was at the peak. I still remember doing a retailer survey to find out who was winning the fierce marketing battle at that time.

Kit Kat was born in 1935 as Chocolate Crisp. The company which manufactured this brand was Rowntree Ltd of York, England. The brand was renamed as Rowntree Chocolate Crisp in the year 1937 and acquired the brand name Kit Kat shortly after Worldwar II . The brand was acquired by Nestle in the year 1988. According to Wikipedia, Kit Kat derived its name from the Kit- Cat Club which was a literary club located in Christopher- Catling (Kit- Cat) Pie House. Except for US, Kit Kat is marketed by Nestle while in US the brand is marketed by Hershey's.

Kit Kat was launched in India in 1995. The brand was an instant hit because of smart marketing as well as the novelty of the product. Kit Kat is wafer covered in chocolate. During the time of the launch , there was no such kind of product although wafer biscuits were available in the market. The high profile launch of Kit Kat and Perk created a new segment of Wafer Chocolates. Though a new segment was created, none of the brands were able to sustain or grow this segment.

Kit Kat was launched as a young vibrant snack . The brand was positioned as an anytime snack ( similar to Perk). Kit Kat differentiated itself based on its finger shaped wafer bar( product form). More than the shape, Kit Kat differentiated itself by a ritual. We all know that to teach an Indian consumer new way of doing things is one of the most difficult tasks for a marketer. Nestle has proved to be a master in that. Using smart advertising, Kit Kat taught Indian consumers a new way of eating this product. Kit Kat used advertisement to promote a ritual for eating a Kit Kat. The ritual has the following steps:

Remove the wrapper.
Separate a finger bar using your finger
Break the bar
Eat it.

Surprisingly customers accepted this ritual. Even now, after over 12 years of this campaign, still customers follow this ritual. That shows the power of smart advertising. And I think that the campaign succeeded because
It made sense. ( Its first time customers are seeing such a product form)
&
The ads were cool.

The brand used the world famous campaign " Have a break, have a Kit Kat". I think it is one of the best taglines a brand can have. From the tagline itself, its obvious that the brand is positioned as anytime snack. The brand targeted the young crowd and the ads were in line with the TG. The segmentation is based on the Usage Occasion.

Surprisingly , during the 2004-05, the brand changed its famous tagline of Have a break to " Kit Kat Khao Khush Ho Jao" translated to Eat Kit Kat , Be Happy. I am not sure why brands change their famous and successful taglines. Kit Kat is currently running campaigns based on this tagline. I have seen some reports of legal hindrances faced by Nestle in copyrighting the tagline " Have a break " , but for a successful tagline like this , Nestle already have taken copyright from the customers. Even if the competitor uses this tagline, only Kit Kat benefits. But Kit Kat is now struggling with establishing the new tagline.

In 2007 , the brand made a smart move by launching a new variant Kit Kat Lite , which is a low sugar low calorie variant. The launch is in line with the trend in the Indian market for healthy foods. The brand is now promoted with a cool commercial. I am sure the ad will appeal to the hip -hop crowd.

Watch the commercial here : Kit Kat Lite
Kit Kat lite is promoted as a healthy option for all the calorie conscious. The variant uses the tagline " 50% less sugar, 100 % taste, don't think Just bite" . There is also a brand site justbite.com. I am little skeptical about the attractiveness of " 50% less sugar" : whether it is compelling enough for a calorie conscious to take the bite. However, the brand has to be lauded for the initiative.

Kit Kat faced tough competition from Perk during the nineties , but now Perk is also struggling to find the right positioning after discarding its original positioning. Both the brands have struggled to expand the market for this segment. I personally feel that Kit Kat may do well if it gets back its original positioning based on the tagline " Have a break".

source: wikipedia, nestle.in

Brand Update : Polo

Nestle's Polo has got back its original tagline " Mint with a Hole ". The brand is running a new campaign featuring the world famous tagline. Remember that Polo had discarded the famous Hole campaign and took another tagline " Polo Ghao seethi Bajao " . I think it had cost the brand dearly. Competing brands like Mentos ( industry competition) and host of other mint based chewing gum brands like CenterFresh and Happydent has eclipsed this brand which was a pioneer in the mint segment.
The new campaign revolves round the question " Where is the Hole " and the TVC ends with the voice over " The mint with a Hole "

Read the complete story board here : Agencyfaqs.

Although the brand has lost valuable time by messing up with a successful positioning, its good that the brand finally got its acts together. The agency has done well in introducing the old tagline in an interesting manner. But the brand has to understand that the industry is moving towards the " Sugar Free " products. Worldwide Polo has a sugarfree variant and I think its time the brand brings such a variant here because the competition from Happydent and Orbit is eating into the Ordinary Mint segment.

Related Brand

Polo

Book Review : Know- How

Title : Know -How
The eight skills that separate people who perform and those who don't.

Author : Ram Charan

Publisher : Random House
Book review # 4

Know-How is a must read for all business students and professionals. After reading this book , I must admit that I became a fan of the author Ram Charan. Ram Charan is known for making complex business concepts simple and this book is a classic example of that skill.

Know-How is what separates leaders who perform from those who doesn't, the author says. He defines this quality as follows

" Know- How is about what you must both do and be to lead your business in what is shaping up to be the most challenging business environment in decades." ( page 2)
He also cites certain personal traits that is an absolute must in developing and deploying Know-How. They are
Ambition, Drive and Tenacity, Self Confidence, Psychological Openness, Realism and Appetite for learning. ( P.17)
The author then spends the rest of the book explaining the eight know-hows that will guide the leader to greatness. The eight Know-Hows are listed below:

1. Positioning and Repositioning : This refers to finding a central idea for business that meets customer demands and that makes money. This was one of my favorite chapters where Ram Charan emphasis indirectly that Marketing is a strategic function. He cites innumerable examples to stress the fact that a customer focus is important when trying to position /reposition your business. He uses the simple example to cite the importance of customers " If the dog does not eat the dog food , You will lose money ".
   
2. Pinpointing external change : Detecting patterns in a complex world to put the business on the offensive.The author warns the corporate leaders to look for signs of impeding changes that can either disrupt your business or provide new opportunities.
3. Leading the social system : Getting the right people together with the right behaviors and the right information to make better , faster decisions and achieve business results. In the HR perspective, Ram Charan exhorts the leaders to understand the social system in an organisation .
   
4. Judging people: Calibrating people based on their actions, decisions,and behaviors and matching them to non-negotiables of the job. Do you have a right succession plan in place ? In this segment, the author gives invaluable guidelines to spot the future leaders of the business. He cites the examples of Jack Welch, Nardelli ,Jeff Immelt to substantiate the importance of getting and retaining good people.
   
5. Molding a team : Getting highly competent , high-ego leaders to coordinate seamlessly.
6. Setting goals : Determining the set of goals that balances what the business can become with what it can realistically achieve.
7. Setting laser-sharp priorities : Defining the path and aligning resources , actions and energy to accomplish the goals
8. Dealing with forces beyond the market : Anticipating and responding to societal pressures you don't control but that can affect your business.

Some of my favorite quotes from the book.

• Will the dogs eat the dog food ? p.44
  

• The key element of positioning Know-how- the mentality to dissect which new or already existing market segments would contribute to moneymaking and which would detract, and the psychological inclination to confront reality sooner rather than later. p.50
• Detecting changes in the external environment and linking them with the positioning of your business is what I call business acumen . p56
• The know-how of pinpointing and taking action on changes in the external environment is one of the most important skills you must master in your job. p58
• The greatest challenge today is finding new opportunities for profitable and sustainable growth in the complex and tough environment. To achieve and objective like this, you have to be psychologically comfortable to go beyond traditional thinking about an industry and sense what is happening on the outside, connect the dots and discover what the new opportunities are. p68
• Jeff Immelt has the capacity to take in huge amount of detail and sift , sort and select it to make sense of it. p69
• Seven questions to make a sense of world around you . P71
  
• What is happening in the world today?
• What part of my frame of reference has worked for me? What hasn't worked for me?
• What does it mean for anyone?
• What does it mean for us?
• What would have to happen?
• What do we have to do to play a role?
• What do we do next?
• Every company has a social system.Social system describe the various ways people come together to do their work. Managing social system has two parts : determine what critical decisions and trade-offs must get made and by whom, to accomplish your business goals. Then use that insight to design disciplined ,routine regularly scheduled meetings. p80
  
• The defining qualities /behaviors that companies would need for the future : Collaboration, candor, informality, accountability and realism. P 105
• Selecting leaders is not risk free but paying attention to whether the person is making the transition lets you address problems quickly. P 138
• Principles involved in molding a team of leaders
• Share numbers, reasoning and results to share a common view of the business and its context.
• Have the psychological courage to confront behaviors that harm the team's effectiveness.
• Anticipate, surface, and resolve conflicts.
• Pick the right people.
• Provide prompt feedback and coaching.
• Recognize and avoid derailers.
• Its the people who must bring the priorities to life. Therefore whenever you set new priorities, you have to ask, Do we have the right people to carry them out? P 221

Know-How is a remarkable book which is lucid and easy to understand. What differentiates this book from the rest is the innumerable examples which the author has distilled from his vast experience .

Seven Seas Cod Liver Oil : Where is it ?

Brand : Seven Seas Cod Liver Oil
Company : E Merck


Brand Analysis Count : 260

Seven Seas is a brand that gives me a touch of nostalgia.The small golden colored capsule was a part of my day during my childhood. Seven Seas was marketed in India by Universal Medicare Ltd.

Seven Seas has a rich heritage, this global brand came into existence in 1935. The brand is owned by the UK based Seven Seas . Seven Seas was later acquired by the global pharmaceutical major Merck.

In India , Seven Seas was very popular as a nutritional supplement. Although the promotions were virtually nil for this brand, Seven Seas became popular through word of mouth. The golden capsule gave the visual incentive for kids to have it. So popular was the brand that even vegetarians ( my own experience) took the capsule. One of my colleague remarked that the brand became popular through Non Resident Indians ( NRI's ) who bought this product from abroad.
Cod Liver Oil is rich in Omega3 , DHA , Vitamin A and D. The nutritional value of Cod Liver oil is unmatched . Seven Seas globally is positioned as a nutritional supplement and its USP is that it has the finest Cod Liver Oil. Globally the brand uses the tagline " The Big Fish in Omega 3 " .

In India , the story of this brand is different . Since the brand changed hands from Universal Medicare to Merck , the brand began to vanish from stores. The original marketer Universal Medicare meanwhile launched a competitive brand SeaCod . Now in most of the shops only Seacod is available.
I am not sure what really caused this brand to vanish from the market. What ever be the reason, Seven Seas is missing the Health trend which is now visible in the Indian market. Now most of the customers ( former) of Seven Seas have become old. The new generation is slowly forgetting this brand . Its an opportunity lost for a heritage brand which had a good brand equity.

Market Statisitcs : Indian Retail Opportunity

Size of Indian Retail Market Across Segments




















Source : Business India July 2007 , Merrill Lynch Indian Retail Report 2007