Brand Update : Vivel & Fiama Di Wills

Its raining celebrities at ITC 's personal care brands. In a major marketing initiative, ITC has roped in two of the hottest bollywood stars to endorse its personal care brands. In my earlier post on Vivel Di Wills, I have expressed my confusion over managing Vivel Di Wills and Vivel.

The latest TVC surprisingly features a new campaign for Vivel featuring Kareena Kapoor endorsing Vivel ( and not Vivel Di Wills) . The positioning of Vivel is same as that of Vivel Di Wills. That makes me wonder again .....
Now the only difference may be is in the flavors . Vivel Di Wills may have some exotic flavors while Vivel comes in usual stuff like sandal ... ( I don't really know !).

Any how ITC has hell lot of cash and can afford to have as many experiments as they wish. It is we, the poor Professors, sweating before the students trying to explain the logic or lack of it .

In another campaign, ITC has introduced Deepika Padukone to endorse the premium personal care offering Fiama Di Wills.
These high profile campaigns especially the celebrities is sure to give HUL nightmares. The celebrities being used by almost all soap brands have hurt Lux the most.

Brand Update
Vivel Di Wills

ING Vysya Life Insurance : Mera Farz

Brand : ING Vysya Life Insurance ( IVL)
Company : ING Vysya
Agency : Rediffusion Dy&R

Brand Analysis Count : 316

In most cases, we discuss branding in relation to products rather than services. Some how there is a feeling that unlike products , building brands through promotions lacks significance in the marketing of services. Usually service brands are built on functional dimensions rather than on imagery.

Hence it is taken for granted that if the service provider delivers excellent functional performance , the brand will automatically grow.Five years back , financial service firms focused on their sales force and below -the- line promotion and shied away from aggressive brand building through advertising.

But the increase in competition and the cut-throat warfare on the field forced the service firms to venture into aggressive brand building through advertising.This trend was initiated by the aggressive brand promotion by telecom service providers. Financial services firms began to realize that having a good brand will make the life of a salesperson a lot easier.

The latest aggressive candidate in the financial services branding is ING Vysya Life Insurance ( IVL ) . IVL launched its insurance services in 2001. Now it has grown into size with presence in 246 cities and 300 odd branches.

What has interested me is the current campaign run by IVL. The brand did not have a good run in the Indian market. According to media reports, the IVL has a market share of only 1.2 %. The primary reason being that the strategy of the company is slow and steady growth rather than aggressive growth. So very rarely you get a call from an ING Vysya Insurance advisor.

The brand first launched its campaign in 2007 when it identified the core brand value. ING Vysya Life Insurance decided that the brand stands with the consumer in helping him fulfill his responsibilities towards themselves and families. Thus IVL took up the slogan " Mera Farz " which means " My Responsibilities ".

Watch the campaign here : Mera Farz 1

The ad was well made but nothing special in terms of creativity and was not intended to deliver any result on the field. But this gave the brand a vital direction for the future.
This year, IVL came out with another set of campaign which captured the attention of the audience .

The new campaign took birth from a very important consumer insight that with every happy moments , comes certain burden of responsibilities " . The thought of these additional burden creates a " Sinking Feeling " in the mind of that person and it will take away some degree of joy from him.

From this insight came this campaign : Sinking Feeling
The ad show three situations
1. Marriage
2. Birth of a child
2. Daughter getting admission to a expensive college.

The protagonist in all these cases feels a sense of sinking with the burden of added responsibilities.

What I noticed from the reaction of my family members is that the idea has clicked. There was a little smile in everyone's face when they saw this ad.

There is no doubt that the idea is a BIG Idea but the execution was a little too straight. Personally speaking , I did not liked the term " BURDEN " . In Hindi the term used is "Bhari" and in Malayalam the term used is "Bharam"- both these terms are used to denote Burden and also heaviness.

When my child was born, I never felt it as burden but it is true that there was added responsibility but never a burden. Even the child's education to be termed as a burden is too harsh . It was not the visuals but the term " Burden " that I disliked about the ad.

The message behind the campaign is that ING Vysya's plans help you to experience the joy of responsibility.

Then came another ad which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Watch the ad here : ING Goa

The ad shows the husband Satheesh literally sinking into the floor when his wife tells the friends about 'their ' plan to buy a house in Goa. Even after seeing the ad many times, we all still liked the look of the harassed " Satheesh " . That was a wonderful execution.
The big idea of ' Sinking Feeling ' has the potential to last for some time because it stems from an actual consumer insight.

These campaign has brought the customer's attention on this brand. The insurance advisors now will have a chance to spent less time talking about the company and more time selling the plans

Marketing Practice featured in ALLTOP

Marketing Practice blog is featured in ALLTOP.com. Alltop is the new venture of Mr Guy Kawasaki. Alltop is a content aggregator with a difference. It looks simple, uncluttered and does not overwhelm the readers compared to other site aggregators.

Check out the new site here : Alltop
Marketing Practice is featured in the small business section .


A big thank you to the ALLTOP team

Brand Update : Kit Kat Chunky

Kit Kat has launched its globally successful variant Chunky in India this year. Kit Kat Chunky is a king size single finger variant of KitKat.
Kit Kat Chunky was globally launched in 1999. The high profile launch was a result of an internal rejuvenation project ( project Tyson) to lift up the sagging Kit Kat brand. Kit Kat Chunky was an instant hit and was touted as Nestle's most high profile brand success in that decade.

The reason for the variant launch in 1999 was because of the lack of popularity of original Kit Kat among the 18-25 year old. Chunky made the brand popular again in that segment.

In India , the brand has been launched in two variants : African Choco and Hazel nut
The variant is being promoted through TVC. Watch the commercial here : Kitkat Chunky

The look of the product itself raised some questions in me. The product is so Un Kit Kat like . Instead of the famous four finger product you have a single finger chunky chocolate bar. The packaging is also entirely different from the original brand. Will it not affect the parent brand ?

The success of this variant globally shows the paradox of marketing. The success of Chunky itself contradicts the 'conventional ' wisdom of Brand Extensions that extensions should be in line with the original brand's core values and strengths. Here that rule is broken that too successfully.

Having said that I feel that one has to be very lucky to get away with that kind of extensions. In India the market for wafer based chocolates has been negligible. Although Perk and Kit Kat had initial volumes, these brands now occupy a negligible share in the total chocolate market. The reason for Chunky's launch is to address this issue. Compared to the wafer chocolate, Chunky is a full finger Chocolate with added crispies like nuts. The launch is from the insight that Indian consumers like to have more chocolate than anything else.
But Kit Kat Chunky is not the first brand to try out these products. I remember Cadbury's having a Chunky range which later faded in the market . Whether Chunky will raise the fortune of Kit Kat is some thing to watch for.

Related Brand
Kit Kat

Brand Update : Poppins

Poppins has launched a new campaign with a catchy slang " Doon Kya " . The new ad is aimed to create a viral ,anchoring the slang.

Poppins always had a irregular promotional strategy with short bursts of promotional investment. The latest being the campaign " Goli Rainbow Wali". According to agencyfaqs, the brands feel that it is alienated from the intended target market i.e 8-10 yr old.

In the new campaign , the brand give the message that Poppins has so many flavors that you will give it to everyone.

These days marketers are using catchy slogans to sustain the interest in the brand. Its not a new phenomenon and we know the catchy slogans of Pepsi , Coke ,Frooti etc but the difference here is that now marketers depend on local slang to catch the audience's attention.

The advantage of using a popular local slang ( usage) is that if successful, the slang can sustain the brand for a long time. The disadvantage is that in a country like India where we have different languages, local slangs cannot have a national appeal. For example in the Poppins' case, the usage " Doon Kya " is alien to South Indians and you maynot be able to find an appropriate local slang to substitute the original one.

The fact is that most of the time advertising agencies are not sensitive to the language diversity of our country . In my experience , I have seen many ads created by reputed advertising agencies being messed up by unprofessional dubbing. Even agencies does not bother to approach native dubbing artists for the ad. In most of the ads dubbed in my language - malayalam, the dubbing is done usually by a Tamilian and usually it sounds horrible.

For the Poppins ' Doon kya' also the kids in South Indian states may not be impressed with the idea. On the other hand, there is also a chance that these things catch up with the non-Hindi speaking customers but the odds are less.

Watch the Poppins ad here : Doon Kya


Related Brand
Poppins

Coffee With Sundar

Blogger Mr. Sundar was kind enough to e-interview me on his blog " Coffee With Sundar " . Where I talked about my blog and academics in general.

You can read it here : Coffee with Sundar

ahem .... It was my first e-interview as a blogger...