Nutralite : Better than Butter

Brand : Nutralite
Company : Zydus Cadilla
Agency : Mudra
Brand Analysis Count : 325

Zydus Cadilla is a bold marketer. First it fought with the sugar by launching the sugar alternative - Sugarfree Natura and now its fighting with butter by relaunching the brand Nutralite.

Nutralite is table margarine. World over margarine are used as a substitute for butter. Margarines are fat derived from either animal products or vegetable oils. The veggie margarines are used as a healthy alternative for butter.

Nutralite was acquired by Zydus in 2006. The brand was then relaunched with a controversial positioning " Better than Butter ". The slogan prompted Amul to take the issue to ASCI which directed Zydus to substantiate the claims in their future campaigns.

The organized branded butter market in India is estimated to be around Rs800 crore ( source : Moneycontrol). The market is dominated by Amul.

Nutralite brand achieves relevance owing to the changing lifestyles of urban Indian consumer. The affluent laid back lifestyle has created lot of lifestyle diseases and prompted the urban Indian consumer to be health conscious. The increasing incidence of heart problems and diabetes has paved the way for the emergence of health foods. Zydus is trying to cash in on this health wave.

Nutralite is positioned directly as a healthy alternative to butter. Like the SugarFree Natura,

Nutralite also wants the health conscious consumer to choose it to the ordinary butter. The logic behind the positioning is that Nutrilite has less cholesterol and does not contain hydrogenated fats compared to butter. It also has PUFA ( poly unsaturated fatty acid ) and MUFA (monounsaturated fatty acids ) which are known cholesterol fighters.

The brand was relaunched with television commercial showing the husband indulging in Aalu Paratha without being worried about health.

Watch the T VC here : Nutralite First ad

The controversy over the slogan - better than butter has prompted the brand to slightly alter the positioning to :Healthier than Butter.

The brand is now running a high decibel campaign featuring Sathish Shah. The message of the ad is to encourage the consumers to indulge in food without worrying about health. The brand is targeting the ladies in the households who are worried about their husband's health.

Watch the Tvc here : No Excuses

Nutralite aims to corner 8-10% of the butter market. The direct attack on butter will definitely catch the attention of the consumer. But whether this attention will be translated to sales is something to watch for. Convincing the consumer to opt for Nutralite instead of butter is not an easy task. Firstly the brand has to convince the customer that the good old Amul Butter is unhealthy. Second it has to achieve parity ( Points of parity) with butter. Then it has to convince the customer that Nutralite is indeed healthy. Hence the brand has no other alternative but to directly attack butter.

Margarines are not popular in India and the category is non-existent. The high profile launch of Nutralite may also see an emergence of margarines as a new product category.

Brand Update : Fastrack

Fastrack is moving on. The latest campaign of Fastrack presents a significant deviation from the earlier positioning. The brand is running a new TVC with the new slogan : Move On

Watch the TVC here : Move On

According to agencyfaqs, the brand is trying on multiple presentation platforms. That means multiple levels of positioning and experimenting with different themes and slogans. While the target segment and the personality of the brand remains the same, the marketer will not stick to a specific message. A classic example of this type of strategy is that of Pepsi. The brand tries to add freshness to the entire brand communication without sticking to a core theme.

So Fastrack is moving away from the earlier theme revolving round multiple ownership which was reflected in the slogan " How Many You Have? "

The new ad is fun to watch but predictable and lacks freshness. This concepts has been used by lot of brands lot of times. While the earlier slogan had a purpose ( to make customers buy more) , the new theme is aimed at building a persona around the brand. The brand chose irreverance and noncommittal enjoyment as the main brand persona.

The brand still remains youthfull targeting the age group 15-25.

The new ad is about two young lovers ending their relationship and moving on ( without any remorse or sadness). In a report in agencyfaqs, the Lowe's creative director Mr RajeshRamaswamy defended the theme by saying that " Today's generation live in instant gratification.Without commitment they seek variety ". The brand is trying to catch that personality.

That is true to certain extent. But my doubt is whether this attitude is universal or homogeneous across the urban youth segment. I have seen this type of non-committal behavior among college graduates but when looking at the percentage, it is hardly 20-25%. They exhibit the same irreverence and non-committal attitude. But the majority are ordinary young guys/gals.

Most of the new brands that targets the youngsters are speaking the same language of irreverence , flirting, non-committal rebel types. The brands like Motoyuva and Virgin Mobile shows almost the same personality profile.
So my doubt is are all Indian youngsters are like these so called DUDES who have lot of girlfriends to chose and goes to late night parties and live a life that these brands portray ?

I guess not .

What do you think ?


Related Brand
Fastrack

image courtesy : agencyfaqs

Brand Update : Margo

Margo is set for a new life. The India's heritage brand is getting a brand ambassador in Rani Mukharjee. According to news reports, the Bollywood diva is set to breathe a fresh air into this brand.
In my blogpost on Margo two years back, I had recommended some heavy duty celebrity endorsement for the brand. Glad that it is happening .

Margo, which was in existence even in 1920s , derives its strength in the neem formula. But over these years, the brand failed to keep itself relevant to the changing consumers. But still the brand is popular in West Bengal and Tamilnadu.

The brand is now not in the radar of the new generation . The endorsement of Rani will increase the brand recognition among the target audience. According to reports, Margo is not changing its formulation and is being positioned on the Neem attribute.

But the brand may have to work on the fragrance. Without losing the neem essence, the brand may have to make the fragrance more attractive to the new consumers. The ads for Margo is yet to be aired , so I am not sure about the new positioning of this soap.
There is a silver lining for this brand. The soap market in India is increasingly cluttered and consumers to an extent is overloaded with new attributes and variants. In such a case, the common tendency of consumers is to look for a simple easy solution. Margo with its neem attribute can very well take that space.

Related Brand

Margo

Image courtesy : Sify

Marketing Q&A : Automobile Market segmentation

Marketing Practice Reader Krishnan asks this question :

"Is Indian automobile market (car) driven by family ? Is family influence more when someone buys a small car or a sedan ?"

The answer to the first question is both Yes & No. The major segment in the Indian car market is driven by family. This is because of the current state of Indian automobile market. The market is still evolving .

During the initial stages , every market will be unsegmented . But as the market matures, segments evolve. Marketers devise new methods /variables to segment the market. In the car market also, we had the market dominated by the family segment. The first attempt to segment was by Tata Sierra which tried to bring in the SUV segment. But the market was not ready to accept that product.

Indian car market is predominantly family oriented. In the developed market, we can see different family members owning different types of cars. One of my colleagues say that a typical American family will have a small car/office car , an offroader( or a truck) and a sedan . Our market is still to evolve to that stage. Still for most of us, cars are a luxury rather than a mode of transportation.

Hence , here the primary segmentation was based on the price of the car and also the nature of the car. So we have A segment, B segment, D segment etc and segments like MUV, SUV, Sedan, Hatchback ,small car etc .

The dominant segment ( small car/ hatchback) is driven by family. So the entire family takes part in deciding the purchase of the car. The major determinants being the size of the family, price, cost of maintaining like mileage , brand , type of car etc.

The buoyant economy and the emergence of neo-rich class has changed the dynamics at the upper end of the market. I know families which own more than 3 different types of cars to serve different purposes. In the case of such affluent family, the purchase considerations are different.

My feeling is that the launch of Tata Nano will also see some change in the way Indian car market is segmented. Now even middleclass can afford to have more than one cars. And cars may move from a luxury product to a mode of transportation.

Amway India: We Are Listening

Corporate Brand : Amway

Agency : Rediffusion Dy&R

Brand Analysis Count : 324

Amway is one of the global leaders in direct marketing. The name Amway is derived from the words "American Way " . Amway was established in 1959 by Jay Van Andel and Richard Devos. Amway global now have a presence in over 88 countries and has a $6.5 Billion turnover.

Amway was established in India in 1995 and commenced operation in 1998. Currently the company have 80 products in 4 categories. Amway operates in the following categories :
Personal Care
Home Care
Nutrition and Wellness
Cosmetics

Amway is often used as an example of a direct marketing company. The company sells its products using direct distributors called Amway Business Owners ( ABO). The model works on a business networking model .
The ABOs can build a team by recruiting a team of ABOs under him. The ABO earns commission on the products sold . Further , the ABO also gets commission for the sales done by other ABOs recruited by him. The payout is decided by the point system. The Amway business model also divides the ABOs into different categories based on the sales performance of the team. The payout varies with different levels.

Amway India in now a 800 crore company with its operation spanning across India. It has more than 4.5 lakh independent distributors and 117 offices across the country.
Considering the nascent stage of Direct Marketing Industry in India, Amway India has been reasonably successful. According to Business Line, the direct marketing Industry in India is estimated to be Rs 3150 crore.

The success of Amway products is predominantly driven by the quality of the products. Amway India's products are mostly sourced from manufacturing units from India. It has outsourcing contracts with 5 major units in India. The products are sourced after strict quality checks.

Amway is a 100 % direct marketing company . That means the consumers will not get any Amway products from shops. The products can be bought through ABO's. Hence the sales are driven by the efforts of ABOs. Since the company does not advertise its brands, the only communication channel is through ABOs who visits households and make presentations. There are two tasks of a typical ABO : the first task is to sell Amway products and second task is to appoint new ABOs .

Typically direct marketing firms faces issues of reach and cost. Since the sales depend entirely on the independant distributors , the company has to pay huge commission. This results in the increased cost of the product. Hence the products become expensive resulting in lower sales.

Amways also faces this issue. The products of Amway are excellent but very expensive. For example, the Persona brand of soaps cost Rs 30 which is almost double the rate of an ordinary soap. Persona is one of the best soaps in terms of quality but price is definitely a dampener. Another example is the range of cosmetics under the brands Attitude and Artistery . Artistery is targeted at the premium class and Attitude at the middleclass. But the price of these brands make the consumer think twice before buying it. Hence the ABOs have a tough time convincing the value proposition.

In a value conscious country like India, the expensive tag of Amway products is the singular reason for the lack of popularity of its products.

Understanding this issue, Amway launched its first corporate branding initiative in India . The brand came out with a Television campaign highlighting the customer-centric approach .

Watch the TVC here : Amway

Amway uses the slogan " We are listening " . The idea revolves round the theme that Amway understands the Indian consumers and the products are derived from this understanding . The purpose of the campaign is two fold :

a. The company wants to build equity around the corporate brand which will enable the ABOs to tide over the initial customer resistance.
b. The enhanced corporate image will also attract people to join Amway as independent business owners.
Along with this, the company is also rationalising the pricing strategies. The company is launching a new range of value products like coconut oil , shaving creams. But here again the company will face certain issues . For lower priced products, the commission payout will be less and hence the ABO will have to sell more volume to get higher commission. Amway had introduced sachets for most of the products, but the low commission payout for sachets has prompted ABOs to try and sell high value items.

Another significant change that the company made was rationalising the entry cost for new ABOs. Earlier, a person had to shell out Rs 5000 to join the firm. The cost was to buy the Amway business kit which consists of various Amway products and brochures. The ABO can recover the money by selling these products. Now the company has introduced a starter pack for Rs 995 which does not have Amway products but brochures . This will be a big relief for the existing ABO since the higher joining costs turned away most of the potential ABOs.


Among the 80 products, one of the best seller for Amway is the Nutrilite brand. Nutrilite is a nutraceautical supplement and this brand contributes around 50% of Amway's turnover. The brand virtually faces no competition so far. The Indian nutraceauticals market is estimated to be around Rs 1500 crore and is rapidly growing. Many Indian companies are eying this segment and has serious plans to enter this segment.

Amway has understood that doing business in India will require a new business model. The company has started to take steps in the right direction. It had tried to rationalise prices and bring in new value products. But to balance the price , cost, quality and higher commission is no easy task.

Marketing Q&A : SEC Classification

Marketing Practice Reader Ajith Pillai asks a very important question

"SEC Classification is not exhaustive…how will you include a housewife..who is not working…but has some required education…what about households where there are two earning members…whose classification will you take…one who is a graduate sales man and the wife is a graduate shop owner… how can the classification of a house hold be done in this case…? I think its High time to Shift to LSM classification in india

Ajith is very true and SEC classification cannot be fully depended as a tool to understand Indian consumers. The main drawback of SEC is that it considers only two parameters , education and earnings. The classification also takes into account the education and earnings of the chief wage earner. So in the case of the example sited by Ajith, the classification fails.

Having said that , there is no alternative to SEC classification right now. There are experts who say that SEC 's failure is noted only on the top 10% of the classification. ie SEC A1 & A2 while the SEC still relevant in other sections where education and earnings of the CWE is a good indicator.

Ajith also mentions the relevance of using LSM. LSM stands for Living Standard Measurement. This is a proprietary tool used by HUL for better understanding of Indian consumers. LSM divides the Indian consumer class into 18 clusters based on 25 parameters. But since it is proprietary , I am not sure whether everyone will be able to use this classification.

It is time for Indian marketers to add more tools for understanding Indian market. The sheer size of the Indian market calls for a huge investment in research . Indian marketers still have some inhibitions in investing in such kind of researches.

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SEC Classification