Brand Update : Lifebuoy

Today I was surprised to see a Lifebuoy ad featuring Yuvraj Singh . On a quick search, I found an unconfirmed economic times report on Yuvraj Singh roped in to endorse Lifebuoy.
It is for the first time that Lifebuoy is being endorsed by a cricketer. And ever since the brand has repositioned itself as a family soap, it was not endorsed by any celebrity.
And according to media reports , HUL has resisted using cricketing celebrities for their brands.
However, as a marketer who loves the brand " Lifebuoy " , I am terribly disappointed.

Disappointed because of two reason :
a. The use of celebrity.
b. The choice of celebrity.

Lifebuoy do not need a celebrity. From the earlier days itself , the brand had built itself without relying on any personalities. Even without those beauties and hunks, the brand had given us some path-breaking advertisement campaigns. The brand had that terrific power to stand on its own feet. But then why the use of a celebrity ?

Secondly, the choice. Yuvraj is a terrific cricketer but I have never seen him " performing " in commercials. Secondly he is an absolute mismatch for the current positioning of the brand. Lifebuoy's latest positioning statement " Koi Dar Nahin " is based on the time tested promise of protection from germs. How Yuvi is going to do good with the current positioning is something to wait and watch.

The current campaign is for a contest as a part of the consumer promotion scheme and does not give any indication to a change in positioning. So we may have to wait for the next commercial to see whether Lifebuoy has taken a serious repositioning exercise. But how will Yuvraj add value to a family brand is something that confuses me. Only logic that I see is that Yuvi is a rage among Kids. I have a feeling that the brand has lost its confidence of standing on its own.


Lifebuoy has long been known for its commercials featuring kids . One of the latest commercials which I liked most is that of Lifebuoy Care. The TVC features a girl outsmarting boys in a football game.

Watch the TVC here : Lifebuoy football

Some of the blockbuster campaigns like ' Little Gandhi ' was made without the help of any celebrities. It will never be the same again with a celebrity.
But the temptation is so strong. Yuvi is expected to bring in lot of eyeballs from Kids and HUL hopes that kids will pester parents for Lifebuoy. But that sounds a little cheap for Lifebuoy who boasted " Koi Dar Nahi " ( No need to fear )

I would like to ask this question to Lifebuoy : Dar Gaya kya ? ( are you afraid ? )

Brand Update : Perk

After successfully launching the Ulta Perk, Cadbury's has launched yet another campaign for Perk. This time, the brand has got the communication right. The ad adopts the theme from the movies like Cast Away and adds a twist to it

Watch the ad here : Perk new ad

Although the theme is old, there is some thing refreshing about the execution. The brand now takes the new slogan "This is life, Take it Lightly " . The ad reminds me of the first positioning of Perk around the concept of
" light snack ".

The new positioning of Perk is refreshing and powerful. If carefully executed the new theme of " taking life lightly " has the power to catch the mind of the younger audience. The younger generation would love the attitude of taking life lightly.Also the theme has the power to sustain for a reasonable period of time.

LIC Health Plus : Scaring The Hell Out of You

Brand : Health Plus
Company : LIC

Brand Analysis Count : 318

Indian health insurance market is nascent but with huge potential. With only 10% of the population having some form of health insurance, Indian Insurers have seen just the tip of a gold mine. In a very wise move to unleash the potential of the Indian health insurance market, IRDA gave license to many life insurers to enter the market with new innovative health insurance products.

Surprisingly LIC also got itself into this lucrative market. Reports suggest that there are 315 million insurable persons in this market with an estimated market size of over $ 812 million . The market is estimated to reach $ 5 Billion by 2010.

The major issue facing health insurance market is the lack of awareness. Even in the urban market, the awareness about health insurance is very low.

It is not only the lack of awareness about the insurance policies but also the need for having a health insurance policy. This blind eye towards the need for health insurance is rampant in the middle-class who really needs such kind of insurance cover.

The basic reason behind this lack of awareness is because of two reasons :

a. The availability of inexpensive health care. Historically health costs were considerably low in the Indian market. This is because of government control over medicine costs .

b. In early days the kind of diseases and the cures were very much limited. Diseases were less and cures were also less.

c. The false belief that major illness will not happen to oneself.

d. The premium paid in Health Insurance is lost unless there is a claim to it. This is a major negative since premiums paid is lost.

Both these have changed. The cost of health care has risen beyond one's imagination.Government has limited the support on health care and medicines are becoming expensive.

The new lifestyle began creating lifestyle diseases which only have lifestyle cures that has lifestyle expenses attached to it . Now new diseases has arisen and new cures too. And no one has a guarantee of not getting a major illness.

It is in this context that health insurance attain paramount importance to ones life . From my observation, a major illness or a major accident can ruin the finances of a family. With the family size becoming smaller, the avenues of getting financial support is also thinning. Health insurance is a backup against such disasters. I remember a couple of instances where the entire savings of a family wiped out because the guy met with an accident.

Coming to the brand in context, LIC has launched its health insurance plan branded as Health Plus. Health Plus is an unit linked health insurance plan where the money invested will grow investment rather than lost as in the case of conventional health plans. But the premiums are expensive compared to the conventional types.

The new launch is backed by heavy advertising . The ads are scary and will scare your hell out of you. The ad shows a lady reading a magazine on her bed and suddenly the room morphs into a hospital room . The next scene shows a guy watching television sitting on a chair and suddenly the chair morphs into a wheel chair. The voice over says " Anything can happen to you anywhere and anytime " .

The ads and the message are very very disturbing. The message is hard truth but some truths can be really disturbing. A typical human reaction to such truth is denial and not acceptance. And most often the consumer will turn their head against such disturbing visuals rather than embrace the message. I am a person who has taken such insurance policies but for me also the ad was repulsive. You need not scare your consumers to purchase the product.

What Indian consumers need is real education about the need for having health insurance. The issue is not to make him disturbed so that he denies the truth and get on with life. So the message ought to be on a softer side. Since HealthPlus is a unit linked plan, one can add savings on premium as an attraction. Reliance Insurance had launched a campaign health + wealth which is more an attractive proposition.


The print ad for Health Plus also features a visual from hospital. These are displayed in hoardings too. It too is of bad taste. The execution of the message is with out taking the viewer's emotions into context.

The challenge is making the consumer realize the importance of protection against possible loss of financial security rather than worry about hospitalization expenses. The reason why I took health insurance is to protect my family from any financial shocks rather than cover the expenses ( which was secondary). I remember a friend asking me whether I expect any diseases to occur, when I explained to him the details of health insurance. He failed to understand that I took health insurance to safeguard my existing financial security from such shocks.

The consumers for these products are those who are healthy , alive and rocking. They hate to see themselves in wheelchairs or hospital beds. During this phase of life , one expects to live healthily always. To make him aware of a potential shock should be done in a more subtle way.

Brand Update : Onida

The summer is on and air-conditioner ads have started to peep in. Surprisingly one of the ads that caught my eye was that of Onida.

Onida and the devil is having a tough time . The main reason for this is the fight between the brothers : Gulu and Sonu Mirchandani and their brother -in- law Vijay Mansukhani over the control of the group.
The fight had severely eroded the share of the brand and even the marketing of Onida. Onida was staging a recovery after the successful relaunch of the brand and the return of the Devil. But the family feud made things difficult for the brand .

What is interesting about Onida this time is the branding . According to reports in Livemint.com, the creative duties of the brand has partly moved from Rediffusion to McCann Erickson.

But as usual, when the agency changes, the entire brand elements changes. For Onida, the change is always for the worse. When O&M took the brand from Avenues, the famous tagline " Neighbor's Envy, Owner's Pride " and the Devil was taken off. The brand suffered for almost 10 years and has never recovered since .The change of agency from O&M to Rediffusion again changed things and Devil returned in a new avatar and a new tagline " Nothing but the truth" came into existence.

The new arrangement is not making things better. In 2007, Onida launched a new campaign for its A/C and with a new tagline " It can change your life ".
Now the new campaign for the air conditioner features a new Devil and the tagline has again changed to " Experience the desire " .

Onida is proving to be a case study about " How to Mess up a wonderful brand ".

As a marketer, I believe that the ownership of the brand should be with the Company and not the agency. But what is seen is that the brand managers 'outsource' the strategy to the ad- agency. Things are consistent till the agency handles the account. But when the agency moves on , the new agency resist continuing the existing strategy since it was crafted by the competitor.

So whatever be the quality of the existing branding strategy, the new agency will try to change it. This has resulted in many brands drifting from time-tested successful themes to uncharted territory and often sink in confusion.
Onida which already is in deep trouble is moving on to further confusion with an unnecessary change in the positioning strategy. The brand has not been able to consolidate the earlier theme based on 'truth'. Even before establishing it, the brand has repositioned again.

Can anyone explain the logic ?

Related Brand
Onida

Idea : An Idea Can Change Your life

Brand : Idea
Company : Idea Cellular
Agency : Lowe Lintas


Brand Analysis Count : 317

Idea is an interesting brand in the mobile service provider market in India. The brand is interesting because of its troubled history and the current marketing practices.

Idea in its earlier avatar came into existence in 1995 as Birla communications. In 1996 the company was rechristened Birla AT &T. In 2001, the company again restructured into Birla Tata AT&T. During that time, this combine was the talk of the town. Here you have three major players coming together to tap the promising Indian cellular market. But nothing happened. Soon the much touted JV failed and Birlas bought out the entire stake from the other two players.

In 2002, the birth of the " Idea " brand took place. By looking at the history, its obvious that nothing may have happened to the brand. I would say that the market also did not demand heavy investment on branding during those times. Much of the connections happened based on tariff and offers.Idea was more focused on expanding the network and improving the infrastructure during those years.

Idea as a brand began to take shape in 2006. I think that till that time, the brand owners were not sincerely committed to the brand ( My Assumption). However by the end of 2005, major investments were seen in the brand.

According to the Idea website, the brand has taken Innovate, Stimulate & liberate as the core brand values. But its doubtful whether these brand values are communicated to the consumers.
Idea is now having a market share of around 15- 17% share in the entire mobile communications market.

Even after 2006, Idea as a brand was never in the limelight. A major factor was that the investment on the brand was erratic. Most of the ads were highlighting the new tariff plans. During that time, companies was frantically rolling out new tariff plans trying to bring in customers through attractive offers.

Idea displayed its brand value - innovation through various offers and schemes. Idea My Gang was an example of such an innovation. The Closed User Group specifically targeting young customers was the first of its kind.

Idea brand got a major boost in 2007 when the brand roped in Abhishek Bachchan as the brand ambassador. Reports suggest that Abhishek and Idea had a 3 year contract which cost the company around Rs 30 Crore.
The entry of Abhishek gave the brand a lot of eyeballs. The brand had chosen a tagline " An Idea Can Change Your Life " and the entire brand communication was around this theme of ' an idea changing the life '. Before Abhishek coming in the campaigns, the brand had done a series of campaign highlighting the positioning around the theme.

In my opinion, the major breakthrough for the brand came from the campaign involving Abhishek as the Sarpanch ( village chief)
Watch the Tvc here : Number & Name

Although many viewers scoffed at the ' idea ' , the ad gave the brand lot of mileage. Also it gave some confidence behind further investment in the theme revolving around " idea" and 'Communication' changing ones life.
The latest commercial where Abhishek plays the role of a guide and using sms to communicate with a deaf tourist further popularised the brand
Watch the tvc here ; Idea guide

I must say that both these campaigns had a sticky factor. The sticky factor was indeed the performance of Abhishek Bachchan. This single factor has made the brand Idea and the tagline " An Idea can change your life " very popular. The latest campaign has a new additional slogan " What an Idea " which also has the potential to become a popular lingo.

My personal view is that despite getting these eyeballs , Idea has not been able to get its acts together. I still feel that the brand has not yet found its true essence. There is a glaring disconnect between the message in the ads and the brand. Infact as far as cellular service market is concerned, Idea as a brand does not stand for anything.
I feel that despite the ads being sticky and well made, there is nothing mentioned about the brand Idea. No message to the consumer as to what the brand stands for , what it means, and what it does. At best these campaigns will do is to increase the brand recall. Nothing further than that.
Idea is also heavily investing in events as a media to build the brand. It is associated with some of the popular shows like Idea Rocks India, Idea star singer & Idea Andhra idol ( reality shows).

The brands in this industry has already recognized the importance of investing in brand building and is trying to corner as much mental associations possible because many aspects of the services are getting commoditzed. The features like connectivity, tariff plans and coverage are almost standardized. There is intense fight in the Value Added Service domain but I feel that it will also get standardized. Vodafone is now on an overdrive to position itself as a VAS leader. The new entrant Virgin Mobile is also started coming out with new ideas life incoming calls which pays the subscriber money !

So the challenge is to get the brand embedded in the mind of the consumer so that they chose the brand instead of the plan or a feature . For that Idea may have to define a certain position.

My personal opinion is that Idea has not found its true self. The brand has everything going for it except the idea !. The brand has a good name , a good logo, a catchy slogan , a cool brand ambassador and lot of money but what a paradox - the right idea is missing.

The slogan and the theme focusing on the idea concept is powerful. However when executing, there has to be a connect between the Idea brand , the function ( the service provider) and the Idea ( concept). The latest TVC is the closest interms of connecting the functionality of the brand and the concept. But not enough.

An Idea can change your life . But which idea will change this idea's life ?

Brand Update : Cinthol

Cinthol , the flagship brand of Godrej Consumer Products Ltd is set for a makeover. The brand has roped in Hrithik Roshan as the brand ambassador. The new campaign is on air featuring Hrithik performing out -of- the- world stunts.

Watch the TVC here : Cinthol

Cinthol interestingly is the only masculine soap brand available in the Indian market. Ever after Lifebuoy repositioned itself targeting family, there has been no soap except Cinthol targeting male. The reason may be that marketers felt that soaps are usually bought for the family and used by multiple members . The decision of the soap brand usually is taken by the lady in the house. And moreover, soaps were never considered to be a part of the male grooming product category.

But things are different now. There is a marked shift in the consumer interest towards male grooming products. The category has expanded from shaving products, deo etc to face wash , hair care , face creams etc. The shift is also a result of the emergence of Metrosexual male and also of the Urban Nuclear Family where every individual members have the freedom to use individual products. So typically a modern household may see husband and wife using two different brand of soaps.

In this context , the relevance of Cinthol as a masculine brand achieves paramount importance for Godrej. Even without much promotion, Cinthol has a share of over 2 %. While Business Standards pegs the brand size to be around Rs 80 crore, Businessline puts the brand's size to be Rs 200 crore.

More than the new users, Cinthol's strength has been a strong brand loyal customers. This is both a strength and weakness. The prime challenge for Cinthol is to be relevant to the new Male.

The new campaign features a new look for Cinthol and a new slogan. The last ad of Cinthol featured the slogan " Get Ready Get Close " .
The new slogan for Cinthol is " Don't Stop" . The brand promise is
24 hour confidence &
Long lasting freshness.
Although the slogan has been changed, the positioning has been in a consistent line. Cinthol has long been positioned on the basis of the properties of Deo, freshness and confidence.
The new slogan tells the audience to have confidence to do what ever he likes. The execution of the concept is little out of the world but interesting to watch.

Regarding the choice of the celebrity , Cinthol has pulled off a coup by roping in Hrithik. But what I have seen is that Hrithik has not been exploited as a brand ambassador. Brands like Acer and even Coke was not able to fully exploit this celebrity.
My first impression about the ad is positive but the ad is not enough to raise the brand to a level of an icon. Having said that the slogan " Don't Stop " with core brand values of Freshness and Confidence give the brand lot of power to move ahead.

Related Brand
Cinthol