Inkfruit : Always On

Corporate Brand : Inkfruit

Brand Analysis Count : 338

Infruit is a unique brand with a special business model . The company is a e-retailer of designer T shirts. But there is a specialty in its business model. The brand aims to source designs from the consumers itself . It is another attempt to co-create with the consumers.

Inkfruit in its earlier avatar was known as Gnome was launched in December 2007. The company aims to discover the design talents in the country and provide a platform to exhibit their designs to a broader audience.

The model work like this :
The aspiring designers can send their designs to Infruit and these designs will be put to vote inside the Inkfruit community. The designs which gets maximum votes is eligible for a honorarium .
These designs are screen printed on T shirts which will be put on sale in the website. The company claims that the T-shirts are made of high quality and the screen printing delivers to the designs.

The T shirts is available for Rs 349 ( Plus delivery charges ) which I think is a reasonable price .

India does not have a pure T-shirt brand. Although most of the readymade brands have T shirts I feel that there is a scope for a pure-play T shirt brand. Because there is a wide acceptance of this category among all demographic profiles in the Indian market. Ladies, Kids, Gents, youth ;all like wearing T-shirts.

In this perspective, Inkfruit has done the right move in tapping this market. Here the differentiation is with design. The company smartly is trying to tap the design talents in the country in a very economical way. We know that reputed designers are costly while there is a huge design talent in India who are looking for platforms to express their skills. Inkfruit offers them the much desired platform.

But all are not rosy for the business model of Inkfruit. The concept of e-retailing is in the nascent stage. The penetration of Internet among the consumers is a vital variable in the success of any e-retailing venture.
There are security fears among consumers in using internet for shopping . To tide over this fear, Inkfruit has introduced Cash-on- Delivery at an additional cost of Rs 30.

With regard to the branding, Inkfruit has to have more clarity. Is it going to be a corporate brand or the T-shirt brand or is it going to be the store brand ?

From the pictures of T-shirts in the website , It is not clear whether there is Inkfruit label in it.According to the company, the name of the designer features on the label which would be a highly motivating factor for the designers.

So with regard to the brand, Inkfruit has to decide and convey its basic brand values to the consumers.
In the marketing perspective, I feel that Inkfruit should be branding its T shirts either using the corporate name or other suitable names. Then they can develop designer series based on the results of the community voting.

Another factor is the sustainability of the model . Inkfruit has tapped the enormous potential of ' Word of Mouse ' and the marketing team has been proactive in reaching out the bloggers and CGM publishers. So far Inkfruit has got tremendous support from the bloggers and online publishers. The brand has to take it forward to the next level of engagement.

T shirt is more of an experiential product which the consumer would like to see, touch and feel before going to make the purchase. So the challenge for the company is to tide over this experiential nature of this product and make the consumer to look at the design and then buy.

To do that , the company may have to induce the customer to make trial purchases. Although the price is reasonable at Rs 349, if a customer wants to order it through COD, then the cost will come to Rs 409. This can put off those customers who wants to try it off. So the company can rethink on the delivery/ COD cost to induce more trial purchases.

It is not easy to make the customers vote for designs and then buy from the website. That require lot of effort from the company . In branding jargon , the level is the Active Engagement where the consumer will use their personal time to participate in activities connected with the brand.

Inkfruit is a unique brand with lot of potential . The realization of this potential is dependant on the effort of building a community around this brand.
Checkout the brand site : Inkfruit.com

Pilot : The World's Most Reliable Pen

Brand : Pilot

Company : Luxor Writing Instruments Ltd
Agency : Lowe


Brand Analysis Count : 337

Two days back, while looking for a pen, I came across the good old Pilot Hightech Point 05. The pen brought back memories of student days where Pilot used to be the favorite pen especially for the exams. I gave in to the temptation and bought Pilot pen. The pen is just the same. The same style, same smoothness and same quality.

Pilot is a global brand. Ryosuki Namiki, a Professor at Tokyo Nautical School invented a gold writing tip for fountain pen. He along with hid friend Masao Wada established Namiki manufacturing co in 1918. In 1938, the company name was changed to Pilot Pens Ltd.
Pilot pioneered the fine art of writing by introducing path breaking products and evolved itself to be a leading brand in the writing instruments market.

Pilot came to India in 1982 in collaboration with Luxor Writing Instruments Ltd. The market at that time was dominated by ballpoint pens especially Jotter pens. The first product from Pilot in India was Pilot 05 micro-tip. Retailed at Rs 10, the brand gave a new writing experience to the Indian customers. The pen was lot smoother and the micro-tip gave a new freshness to the writing. So even though the product was expensive, it became a huge success.Micro-tip virtually changed the pen's market in India by creating a segment in itself.

Then came the Pilot 05 Hightech point . Priced at Rs 25, the brand had the USP of ' three dimple technology which enabled consistent flow of ink. The pen could also be refilled. Pilot had by then established its reliability and quality in the mind of the consumers. The pens became aspirational for most of the students.

Success of Pilot pens can be attributable to its ability to satisfy a need in the Indian market. Pilot pens combined the positives of both fountain pens and ball-point pens. People favored fountain pen because it enhanced one's handwriting and ball-point pens where popular because it was easy to use . Fountain pens was messy and refilling it was a boring routine. Pilot was a pen which had ink but it was not messy compared to a fountain pen.

The brand was also promoted heavily by Luxor. At one point of time, Pilot was endorsed by the actor Shekhar Suman. The tagline of the brand was " Pilot : Reads well, writes well ".

But during the late ninetees, the brand became stagnant. The reason was the increased competition from me-too products. Soon consumers had a lot of choice. Luxor also focused more on its other brand Parker. Hence in the media also, Pilot was not active. The high profile entry of Add Gel Pens also sidelined this brand.

One of the important reasons for Pilot's fading relevance is that the brand now does not have any meaningful Point of Difference. All the competitors have achieved parity with Pilot interms of technology . Even some have came out with superior technology than Pilot.

But still Pilot holds a unique position in the mind of the consumers. The brand still is one of the oldest and largest selling pen in that segment ( I do not have figures ).Luxor has launched a series of new pens under the brand Pilot. Now Luxur holds 15% marketshare in the Rs 1500 crore writing instruments market.

After using Pilot 05 after many years, I wonder whether this brand is being under- utilized by Luxor. According to reports, the brand has been focusing more on below-the line promotions. But the brand has the potential to do more.

Indian consumers also have become more choosy in terms of this category. There are customers who like micro-tip , some like a more heavy tipped pens, some go for style and image, some for the ergnomics etc. Pilot has to adapt to the varying customer requirements. Luxor has not been able to launch the new products of Pilot which are available in other parts of the world.

It is time for Pilot to ladder up to a higher plane rather than closeted as a mere pen. So far the brand has not compromised on quality and image . But the equity is slowly fading because of lack of promotional support.

The brand is a highly functional, reliable and quality writing instrument. Worldwide , Pilot takes the core brand value on reliability . But here Reynolds has already taken the reliability position. But Pilot can always take the core value of " Fine Writing ". It is something that all Pilot users will vouch for.

Marketing QA : Product line extension and Brand Extension

Marketing Practice reader Onam Jindal asks this important question about the difference between product line extension and brand extension.

For most of the marketing students, these terms are confusing. The different definitions in the text books makes it more confusing.

Interestingly the definitions of PLE and BE are different in two editions ( 11 & 12 ) of Kotler's Marketing Management text book.

In the eleventh edition of Kotler's Marketing Management,

Product line is defined as a group of products with in a product class that are closely related because they perform similar function, are sold to the same customer groups, are marketed through the same channels, or fall within given price ranges.

Line extensions consist of introducing additional items in the same product category under the same brand name , such as new flavors, forms, color, added ingredients, package sizes etc. For example Lux soap comes in different variants like Lux Crystal Shine, Lux International etc. So when Lux comes with a new variant, it is a line extension.

Brand extension happens when a company uses its existing brand name to launch products in other categories. For example, Woodlands which is a shoe brand extends itself to readymades and accessories.

This definition has certain ambiguities because the term category can be interpreted in different ways. For example , when Lux brand is extended to Shampoos , is it a product line extension or brand extension ?
The answer is : if we take personal care as a category, then the extension is a product line extension since soap and shampoos belong to the same category. But if we take soap and shampoos as different categories, then the extension is a brand extension.


In the twelfth edition , this ambiguity is put to rest. The latest edition of Kotler & Keller 's marketing management text book defines Brand extension as follows :

When a firm uses an established brand to introduce a new product, it is called brand extension.
Brand extensions can be classified into two : Line extensions and category extensions.

Line extensions happen when the brand launches the new product in the same category targeting a new segment through new flavors, added ingredients, package sizes etc.
Category extensions happen when the parent brand is used to enter a different product category.

So according the new definition, Brand Extension becomes the umbrella concept which can be used whenever a brand uses its name to any new product. The gurus has introduced a new term category extension to replace Brand Extension in the earlier definition

So now Lux coming with a new flavor is broadly a Brand Extension and more specifically a line extension.
Woodlands extending to apparels is broadly a brand extension and more specifically a category extension.

Meera : Healthy Hair for Years

Brand : Meera
Company : Cavinkare
Agency : Bates 141

Brand Analysis count : 336

Meera is a classic example of ethnic marketing in Indian context. Ethnic is defined as that which is pertaining to or characteristic of a people ( group) sharing a common and distinctive culture. Ethnic marketing is understanding those distinctiveness and adapting product and marketing strategies inorder to appeal to that group.

Meera is famous for its herbal hair wash powder. The tradition of using powder hair wash lies in our culture and tradition. Traditionally Indian women relied on powdered herbs to nourish their hair.

Then along with changing lifestyles, new products like shampoos began to take the place of these herbal powders. While hair oils have retained their position in the hair care market, the use of hair-wash powder was reduced to a niche.

It is in this context that Meera as a brand becomes interesting. The brand not only catered to the niche but also has developed this market and evolved to become an umbrella brand for more traditional hair-care products.

Although there was many companies who were selling powder hair wash, most of these players belong to the unorganized sector . Shaw Wallace had a similar product but the firm was not promoting that line. Cavinkare began to aggressively built the brand and Meera became the market leader in that category.
Herbal hair wash product typically consists of powder/essence from Shikakai , green gram, tulsi, veliver, reetha , hibiscus ,feenugreek etc.

When time passes by, these traditional products tend to lose relevance . Traditional products fade from the market for many reasons like
a. Better new products : New and better products make some traditional products less relevant.
b. No marketing : Because of lack of marketing, many traditional products fade from the consumer's mental space.
c. Product availability.
d. Changing consumer preferences
e. Non-viability of manufacturing and marketing traditional products.

In the case of herbal powder market, the products are unattractive to urban market because these are not easy products. Herbal powders are often messy and the user has to spent lot of time in using the product. In this fast life, the urban consumers are looking for fast solutions.

In my observation, consumers with grave hair problems tend to go back to these herbal products because of they feel worthwhile to invest time in using these products.

Meera as a brand has made the choice easy for the consumers. Instead of using unbranded products, consumers trusted Meera since it came from a well known company. The brand also is available in sachets thus making it convenient for the consumer to buy the product in smaller quantities. Meera uses the slogan " Healthy hair for years " highlighting the efficacy of the product.

Buoyed by the success of the hair-wash product, Cavinkare extended Meera into shampoos and soaps.
In 2004, the brand extended itself to the highly lucrative hair-oil market. Indian hair-oil market is worth around 1800 crore.

Inorder to differentiate Meera herbal oil , the company relied on a smart packaging design. The oil bottle had a visibly suspended porous cylinder containing the herbal ingredients and the consumer can see the oil deriving the nourishing from these herbs on a continuous basis. The brand virtually put into practice the dictum - " The differentiation should be observable ".

Meera is a popular brand in South India. Infact in another classic case of localising the marketing /product strategy, the brand launched Meera Chemparathi Thali in Kerala. Chemparathi is the regional name for Hibiscus. Hibiscus powder is used by Keralite as a traditional hair-care solution. Meera cashed in on this and launched the variant.

Meera is a brand which keep the hope of traditional products alive. The acceptance of this brand by consumers also gives a proof about the efficacy of traditional solutions.

With regard to the brand, Meera has extended itself to many product categories where the brand lacked competence. For example in the shampoo segment, Meera does not have a clear differentiation . In the case of soap also Meera does not have a USP. The brand was successful in offering some differentiation in oil but there the competition is huge.

Its a tough choice for a marketer to resist the temptation of leveraging a successful niche brand to mass market categories. But on hindsight, it is always wise to keep niche brand a niche brand.

Big Fun : Rest- in - Peace

Brand : Big Fun
Company : Gum India Ltd


Brand Analysis Count : 335

Big Fun was one of the hottest selling chewing gums during the Eighties. The brand evokes lot of nostalgia in me and reminds me of the countless fights that I had with my parents to buy this brand.

Big Fun was launched in 1985. At that time the bubblegum market was at the nascent stage. It was this brand which initially created the bubblegum market in India.
Big Fun was also one of the first brands in confectioneries to focus on sales promotion as the core promotional strategy . The brand initially started by offering the pictures of Disney characters to induce the kids . The brand was also harping on the BIG bubbles that can be made with it.

But the real tipping point came with the 1987 Cricket world cup. Big Fun ran a highly successful campaign focusing on cricket. The brand offered a series of collectible pictures of cricketing stars along with the bubblegum wrapper.
Along with the pictures, there was also runs/wickets which the kids would collect and keep score. At the end of the sales promotion, the kids can exchange the scores with some gifts like comics and goodies.

The scheme was a super-hit. More than the goodies, kids started collecting these pictures for the love of cricket. Favorite star's pictures was traded and kids began to buy the product for the pictures rather than the bubblegum.
Those were the days of Kapil, Viv Richards, Holding, Gavaskar, Vengsarkar, Shastri .

Bubblegum during those times was not as sophisticated as today's. Big Fun was hard rectangular shaped with a syrupy taste. One has to do a lot of chewing to make it mellow and also to make the first bubble.


Picture courtesy : Kadalamittai.blogspot.com




I also happen to see the old ad of Big Fun from the blog of Soumya Dip : Cutting The Chai.

The brand was cashing in on the cricket fever during those times. But in the early nineties the brand died . I am clueless on the reasons behind the death of such a highly popular brand. There is a possibility that the company ran into financial trouble and together with the decline of the popularity of the entire bubblegum category may have caused the death of Big Fun. The product also was not tasty enough to sustain the brand once the sales promotions' effect is gone.

I was now wondering why companies were not running such promotions during IPL. If a brand has done similar promotion during this era , will it create the same magic that Big Fun has created 20 years back ?

Big Fun is yet another brand that has faded from the memory of consumers. Another sad story of a home grown brand biting the dust.

Brand Update : Onida

Onida has ventured into mobile phones. The brand has launched the phones in the price range of Rs 1500-8000. The brand hopes to cash in on the equity of the brand in the white goods segment.

Onida was facing the issue of rivalry between the brothers over the control of the business. At one point of time, there were reports of the brothers putting the brand on the block .Now it is said that they have reached a consensus and the focus is again on the business.

It is in this scenario, that the brand has extended to mobile phones.The power of Onida brand was visible during the recent spat between the brothers. Despite the management issues, the brand was able to hold on to double digits market share in the CTV segment. During the last year, the brand was virtually silent in terms of promotions and had messed up the positioning by constantly changing the slogans.

Onida mobiles also carry the same positioning of the parent brands . The slogan used in the print ad is " Call Your Other Side ". The brand calls itself " Wickedly tempting" which will bring the spunkier side in you.

I feel that the brand has jumped into this category too early. The brand although enjoys a good equity has not been nurtured in the past couple of years. So without nurturing the core brand, any extension is going to have a negative impact . On the other side, the extension can also bring freshness to the core brand . Onida may be hoping that the extension can rejuvenate the brand.

But the issue is that mobile phone market is a highly competitive market with Nokia ruling the game. Almost all consumer durable majors have their line of mobile phones and almost all celebrities are booked by different brands. The latest being Samsung endorsed by Aamir Khan.
Hence to get eyeballs in this category requires hell lot of investment. And I bet Onida may have to compromise on other categories if they want to seriously enter the mobile segment. The brand may be hoping that the noise made in this segment will also have an effect in other categories also.

Second is the huge investment needed in product development. The models in this segment has a shorter product lifecycle and Indian consumers are now learning the habit of changing mobiles every year. Again more money to be spent on R&D and less money on brand building .