Brand Update : Tata Indigo

One should admire the engineering team of Tata Motors for their path breaking efforts. Ofcourse the Tata Nano was the ultimate display of their talent but here I am talking about the new variant of Indigo . i.e Indigo CS..... CS means compact sedan.

Indigo has become smaller. The engineers in Tata tweaked the boot of Indigo and squeezed the length of the sedan within 4 meters. The cars which have less than 4 meters length qualifies for an excise rebate. Thus Indigo CS comes with a mouthwatering price of Rs 3.80 + ( ex-showroom) making it one of the cheapest sedans on the Indian roads.
The logic behind the launch of compact Indigo is to pre-empt competition and also to make the sedan more affordable to the consumers.
Recent launch of Logan had the potential to threaten the Indigo's position in the market. Logan - with its low price and good package had met with a good response both from consumers and auto-experts. Indigo CS variant will act as an effective Flanker brand for Indigo. Another reason is the huge potential space between a hatchback and a sedan.

Typically for a middleclass customer Sedan upgrade usually was a difficult dream. The entry level sedan costs anywhere from Rs 5 lakh + ( before the launch of Logan ) .The withdrawal of Esteem from the market also opened up a new opportunity for an entry level sedan. Even now for Indian consumers Sedan is preferred more than a hatchback ( preferences are changing) . Hence these customers opted for a luxury hatchback. Many marketers has used this opportunity to create the luxury hatchback segment which is now growing very fast.
This has affected Indigo verymuch. On one side , the competition from players within the segment and then competition from luxury hatchbacks. With the launch of Compact Indigo, Tata Motors is taking the fight into the hatchback's camp.
Indigo CS is launched with the slogan ' Class starts early '. The brand is eying the first time car buyers to stretch their budget a little and own a sedan rather than a small car. Now a potential Santro buyer have an option.
A usual question that comes to mind is whether the new variant cannibalize the original Indigo. I feel that to a certain extent it will cannibalize . But its better that the customer stays with the Tata models rather than go for a Logan or a i10. By launching this variant, Tata's sedan product range is now complete . In the entry level, there is CS, there are Indigo variants at the middle level and the lengthier Indigo XL at the higher end. Tata has ensured that in all these levels , customers get maximum value for money.
Will Indigo CS cannibalize Indica. The answer is Yes, but Tata will be happy since customers are paying more .

A reader had earlier commented that I am too emotional about Tata Motors and often forget the fact that their products lacks refinement . I know of Indica/ Indigo owners who are delighted with the performance of their cars and even chosen their upgrades from Tata Stable. Also I have seen many owners who had complaints about their Tata cars. I prefer to say that luck plays a part in whether your Tata car's performance. As a marketer, I feel that this should be an area of concern for the brand. Time is now ripe for Tatas to make their brands perfect interms of their performance. If Tata's could deliver Maruti like performance ( in terms of product quality) , nothing can stop them to become global majors.
Related Brands
Tata Indigo

Accenture : High Performance , Delivered

Corporate Brand : Acccenture
Agency : Rediffusion /DYR ( In India)


Brand Analysis Count : 307


Accenture is a unique marketing case study because of two reasons . It is one of the most aggressive corporate brand in the service industry globally and the second reason is the rebranding exercise which it undertook in 2001.

Accenture was formerly known as Andersen Consulting. Anderson consulting was the consulting arm of Anderson Worldwide. Anderson Consulting was established in 1989 when the consulting practice of Arthur Andersen was hived off to form a separate company. Arthur Andersen had established itself as one of the major accounting firms and had a global presence.
The consulting boom of 1990's boosted the image of Andersen Consulting. Soon Anderson Consulting had built a strong brand equity across various consulting domains. Both Arther Andersen and Andersen Consulting was independent business units under Andersen Worldwide.

The fledging consulting business prompted Arther Andersen to enter the consulting domain. This entry of Arther Andersen into the domain of Anderson Consulting started a messy fight between these two units which ended in the arbitrators courts. In 2000 Arbitrator ruled that Anderson Consulting was granted independence from Andersen Worldwide . Andersen Consulting had to forgo the brand in favor of Andersen Worldwide.

This forced the consulting firm to scout for a new brand name and identity. The brand name was selected among 500 alternatives. The process of selection of brand name was itself a unique event. Anderson Consulting had a huge brand equity among various business houses across different domains and geographies . Hence the new brand name had to reflect the existing brand values and should be relevant in the various geographies in which the company operated. More over the brand name and trademark should be available in the markets where the company was operating.

The company made use of legal experts from each country it operates to check whether the list of brand names are viable in respective countries. The process of screening also involved linguistic analysts from 47 countries and 200 languages to check the cultural sensitivities of the brand names considered. The company also checked with senior executives of the clients to get their perspective. All these efforts ended with the name ' accenture' . Incidentally the name was suggested by an employee named Kim Peterson . This fact itself that gave the name more charm.

On January 1, 2001, the rebranding happened. For the first 3 months 6000 TV spots were aired and over 1000 print ads were splashed across the world. The entire campaign cost the company around $ 175 mn. The new campaign highlighted new capabilities in consulting, technology , outsourcing & alliances. The brand took the tagline : High Performance. Delivered. At the end of 2001, the brand achieved the same recall and equity of the earlier name Andersen Consulting.

Now Accenture is valued at $ 6.5 Billion and is a respected consulting firm across the world. Now the entire brand promotion revolves round Tiger Woods who is the brand ambassador. Since 2003, Tiger Woods has been an integral part of Accenture's branding. Tiger Woods is the embodiment of high performance so is Accenture. The latest campaign runs on the theme ' We know what it takes to be a Tiger '

Accenture came to India in 2005. The brand now has serious business in India and the brand is running their campaigns aggressively in the Indian market. The branding campaign is predominantly in print. The brand looks at the following audiences :
a. Domestic and potential clients
b. Potential employees
c. Existing employees.

What is more important in this brand's strategy is that Accenture celebrates performance. The campaign is not restricted to Ads but also lot of events and research. Accenture's research on High Performers and high performing companies are path-breaking. The website is also rich with case studies and insights.
Accenture is a true case of a brand living upto its values and manthra.

Dabur Chyawanprash : Zaroorat Hai

Brand : Dabur Chyawanprash
Company : Dabur
Agency : Mccann Erickson

Brand Analysis Count : 306

Dabur Chyawanprash is an interesting brand for anyone who is interested in marketing. Two factors makes it special. First factor is that this is a truly Indian product and a product which is very close to our heritage and mythology. Second factor is the effort of market leader in rejuvenating the category.
Chyawanprash is an ayurvedic health supplement. The name is derived from Hindu Mythology. The story goes like this. Chyawan was the son of Bhingu and Puloma. He was physically weak and later in his life Ashvini Kumars came to his hermitage and offered him a divine medicine " Prash " which made Chyawan young and healthy. The name Chyawanprash came into existence based on this mythology.
Dabur Chyawanprash ( DCP) is a heritage brand which came into existence in the year 1949. The brand is now ruling the market with a marketshare of around 60 - 70 %. The total Chyawanprash market is estimated to be around Rs 300 crore ( AC Neilsen Retail Audit 2006-07 ).
Chyawanprash is popular as a kid's health tonic. Parents used to rely on this product for their kids especially if the kids are between 6-16. Because the tweens are usually hyperactive and less inclined to taking foods. Hence Chyawanprash offered a solution to the worried parents. The ayurvedic tag also alleviated worries of side-effects .

Over a period of time Dabur Chyawanprash began to face tough competition not from other chyawanprash marketers but from health food drinks market . Infact the generic competition was hurting DCP more than the brand competition. The health food drinks like Horlicks, Bournvita, Complan etc appealed more to kids than the Chyawanprash. The modern lifestyle also made this product look dated. There was also a perception among the consumers that Chyawanprash is something that has to be consumed when you are not feeling healthy.

From my own example, I was not considering this product category for my kid. But when my child had a series of cold and fever, I started looking at this product category. Hence this perception was limiting the potential for a brand like DCP. Another perception in the market was regarding the user profile. The category is perceived to be of use to only 'kids and aged' and not for adults. These issues severely restricted the growth of the category.

DCP although was ruling the market faced the issue of stagnation. The stagnation was a result of category stagnation rather than saturation. The only option left for DCP was to rejuvenate the entire product category.
In 2007, Dabur undertook a major repositioning exercise for this Rs 150 cr0re flagship brand. The purpose of repositioning was to :
Stretch the market for Chyawanprash
Make the brand more contemporary
Reinforce new set of attributes.

The brand identified two segments : Adults and Kids as the focal point in the repositioning exercise. A series of TVC and print campaigns were released to target both the segments. The campaigns were aimed at parents. The consumer insight was that people care about their loved ones than oneself ( source : Hindustan Times).

The entire campaign was based on the theme of 'role reversal '. The ads featured the brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan asking the audience to understand the challenges of being a kid, a father and a mother. The campaign involves mother taking the role of a kid, father and son taking the role of a mother and thus understanding the physical and metal exertions involved in each role. The ads end with the Voice-Over ' Dabur Chyawanprash , Zaroorat hai sabko ' ( meaning - DCP : essential for everyone ).

DCP earlier had the slogan - Zaroorat Hai and was positioning itself as a health tonic which is essential for kids. The new tagline broadens the segments by including every member of the family. In the new positioning the brand retains the core brand manthra of ' Natural health tonic' but stretches the segments to include adults.
By positioning it to adults does not mean that the brand has lost its sight on kids. The brand makes itself relevant to kids by a series of campaigns featuring a new brand ambassador Vivek Oberoi.

By positioning itself to new segments, the brand aims to realize its full potential . DCP now stresses on the new set of attributes : health , stress and diabetes. While the standard Chyawanprash takes the health attribute, Dabur launched Chyawanshakthi to take on the stress platform. Chyawansakthi is positioned as a stress reliever and energizer.

DCP also makes the category attractive to diabetic/ diabetic prone consumers by launching Dabur Chyawanprakash. Chyawanprakash is targeting the high density of diabetic patients in our country which makes a highly lucrative market.To take on the competition from the health food drink market, Dabur is planning a foray into the HFD market with a new brand.

News reports suggest that the new gamble has paid off pretty well. What I liked about the repositioning is the execution of the entire idea. Without making much hue and cry, the brand had very subtly made itself relevant to adults.

Brand Update : Reid & Taylor

Reid & Taylor is currently running a new campaign " Dress Code " .The campaign features Amitabh Bachchan in his usual self. The new campaign is aimed at stretching the usage of the brand. The campaign involves a series of print and TVC. The message is simple : You are constantly being watched. Whether you are in office or enjoying life, there are lot of eyes watching you, hence be in your best always.
The TVC is little difficult to understand but the ' idea' is worthy.
Within a short period of time, Reid & Taylor had made an impact in the market. The brand is perceived to be an expensive one ( it is !!) so there is a chance that the customers will use the brand only on certain 'occasions' . The new campaign aims to counter this perception.
It has to be recalled that the earlier campaigns stressed on occasions like Boardroom , marriage etc. Even in the new campaign some hangover is there since they talk about boardroom, M&A etc.Focusing on occasions to use a brand can severely restrict the usage of the product. Once this is registered with the mind of the consumer, it will take a lot of money to change that perception. However the new campaign brings back the style factor in the brand which was missing in the earlier ads.

Related Brand
Reid & Taylor

Brand Update : Cadbury Dairy Milk

Cadbury has been aggressively promoting the latest positioning " Kuch Meethi ho jaye " . The brand has for a while using Amitabh Bachchan to maximum. The latest story involves BigB craving for Dairy Milk when the car driver mention the word 'Meetha ' or Sweet.
Watch the Commercial here : Diary Milk

The brand want itself to be synonymous with Sweet. The new campaign comes after the successful ' Pappu pass ho gaya ' and ' Miss Palampur " campaigns. Both these campaigns were aimed at generating social acceptance of consumption of chocolate during occasions to celebrate .

The new campaign want to increase the Brand Salience of Dairy Milk. Theoretically Brand Salience refers to the depth and breadth of brand awareness. While depth talks about how easily the brand is recalled. Breadth talks about the range of purchase and usage situations that this brand has been recalled ( source : SBM by Keller). Dairy Milk has immense depth of awareness and now the brand wants the consumer to remember it whenever he/she thinks about sweet.

Through these campaigns , Dairy Milk wants to move above the category constraint of " Chocolate " and spread its awareness whenever the consumer thinks about having something sweet. This strategy is to tide over the limitation that a product category can create regarding consumption of a product. The first two campaigns was to popularize Dairy Milk connecting it to various usage situations while the new campaign is to increase the breadth of the purchase situations by saying that buy Diary Milk whenever you want to have something sweet.

This time the brand has taken a 360 degree approach towards brand promotion. The brand has an interactive website meethamoments.com which contains lot of interactive fields and downloads.

Brand Update : Surf Excel

An SKU is commonly defined as an inventory control count or a unique identifier for each of the products that can be ordered from a supplier ( Wiki). This is a common term used in relation to inventory control and often represented by a numeric. Another definition goes like this ' SKU or Stock-Keeping Unit is actually what is stocked i.e the unique combination of a particular flavor, quality/ price level, packet size , color / model specifications etc and also the identifying brand name ( source - a paper published in South London University by Jaywant, Andrew,Gerald)

But for a marketer, SKU's are something more. It is a tool which is used by marketer to realize some of his objectives. It can be used to
fight competition,
acquire new customers,
provide more choice to the customers
trade pressure
enable sampling etc.

The reason for all these fundas is because of the latest launch from Surf Excel - Sixer Pack. Most often , small packs are used by marketers to make the product affordable to a larger market. We have seen the success of Shampoo sachet and later the rush of the marketers across categories providing smaller packs.
Here Surf Excel is trying to promote the sachet customers to higher volume SKU's.
The logic behind Surf Excel Sixer Packs is simple - Surf Excel now comes with a unique pack of six chota packs (sachets) . Each sachets is for one day's use hence the sixer pack is for a week. The Sixer pack costs only Rs 10.
What I liked most is the way in which the brand communicated this idea to the consumers . Watch the ad here : Sixer Pack
Lowe has once again used the charm of kids in communicating the message.

The question arises as to the purpose behind introducing this new SKU. I think that it is to encourage the current sachet users to buy a convenient sixer pack rather than buying one or two sachets. The price is also psychologically comfortable . Another purpose is to make the brand more affordable to a larger market. The new pack will encourage those who use low priced brands to tryout Surf Excel on a regular basis. Those price conscious consumers may still buy low priced brands but will also buy Surf Excel Packs for their best clothes ( a possibility ! ).

Related Brand
Surf Excel