Wild Stone : Wild by Nature

Brand : Wild Stone
Company : McNroe Chemicals Ltd
Agency : Asian Shopping Club

Brand Analysis Count : 349


Sex Sells or does it ?

Well an ambitious chemicals company in West Bengal thinks that Sex sells . So when they wanted to sell deodorants they put that principle into practice.

The result speaks for itself. Their ad which is available in the youtube is watched more than 8 lakh times. A brand search in the google gives you 100 invitations to see the uncensored ads. So at times sex do sell.

Wild Stone is a market challenger. This brand from an unknown company has been able to make its presence felt in the market thanks to the controversy generated by the ad.

The ad is set in the background of Durga puja. The plot is that a homely bengali lady accidentally bumps into a stud and the Wild Stone perfume takes her into a fantasy involving the stud.
While youtube has the uncensored version, the channels are showing the heavily censored version.

Compared to the raunchy ad of Amul Innerwear, this ad is not of bad taste but ofcourse its highly suggestive ( I am talking about the censored version ).

In a report in Live Mint, the company clarified the heavy use of sex in their ads by saying that the TG which is 15-30 is highly influenced by these type of commercials.

Like in the case of Amul innerwear , these type of commercials helped these brands break the clutter. According to Live Mint, there are about 37000 television ads which are shown on every day. To make the customer discuss about the ad is not a child's play. For a small company with a limited budget, its a jackpot if their commercial is discussed and shared.

I think these controversial ads help these brands get the trial sales very fast. And for a new brand , getting trial sales is of significant importance. Because if the product is good, the customers will come back .

But there is a risk factor also. The risk comes from the regulators and civic society who will definitely cry foul. Recently Government has asked HUL to withdraw the commercial of Axe Dark Temptation.

Another risk is with the execution . The agency has to be very careful not to offend the customers. If the customer is forced to switch the channels because of the ad, its not going to help the brand.

In the case of Wild Stone Deo, the censored version has helped the brand to break the clutter and I bet many have checked out this brand. I am yet to find this in my city hence not able to comment on the price. I feel that is priced at a premium.

But there is another issue. From here to where ?

Amul Innerwear has released the follow up commercial which was again little controversial . For Wild Stone, the challenge is to bring the brand into focus.

The tagline ' Wild by Nature ' will prompt the agency to follow the current route which I feel may not do well with the brand. The brand should aim to build on the current eyeballs into developing a positive association with the brand through the follow up campaigns.

Related Brand
Amul Innerwear

Picture courtsey
Cutting the chai

Brand Update : Air Deccan RIP (2003-2008)

On August 30 ,2008, Kingfisher officially announced the rebranding of Simplifly Deccan to Kingfisher Red. It marked the end of a wonderful brand which rewrote the aviation industry in India.

Air Deccan was India's South West Airlines. It made air travel affordable and many Indians had a chance to experience traveling in a plane. Now it is a part of history.

As a marketer , I am upset at the demise of a wonderful brand. As a consumer I worry that I will not be able to have an affordable air travel. Without Air Deccan , air travel will not be the same again. Its back to the earlier days where flying will be restricted to rich and those who travel at their employer's expenses.

When Kingfisher took over this brand followed by rebranding it as Simplifly Deccan, I thought that Air Deccan will emerge as one of the best low cost carrier in India. I did not believe media reports that Kingfisher was only looking at the overseas flying license.

Now I feel these reports were correct. Kingfisher had the following agenda :
Kill the competition
Gain market share
Get the overseas flying licence.
Many new airplanes and routes.

By taking over Deccan, Kingfisher got a larger marketshare to fight Jet Airways. More over Air Deccan was creating huge problems for full service airlines. By taking over and killing this brand,Kingfisher has made life easier for all airlines.

For Captain Gopinath, its life as usual. As an entrepreneur , he has built a business, scaled it and then sold it at a best price.

The problem for Air Deccan was that it went public too early. When the companies become public, its operations are guided by the quarterly reports and stock markets. Stock markets never understand the logic of long term sustainable business models. If the quarterly results are bad, there is media / investor frenzy calling for blood.

For Low cost carriers, one cannot survive by looking at quarterly results. The business may bleed for long before attaining break-even. Especially in Indian aviation industry where there is still confusion in terms of policies.

For a consumer, the death of this brand is a huge loss. Its visible also. All airlines have jacked up prices, cut many routes and scaled down their operations. This has prompted many consumers to depend on Railways again. If Air Deccan was alive, it could have rode this season with lower prices. That's what a low cost airlines will do when every airlines increase their prices.
Kingfisher Red will not play the game of Air Deccan. It will be a flanker brand that will fight Jetlite. But never will you be able to fly at reasonable rates.

Related brand
Air Deccan

Consumer Insight # 5 : You are just a Number

I just had a enlightening conversation with a Vodafone Customer " care " center. The unsolicited call came and poor me attended. It went on like this

Lady : Sir, This is from Vodafone customer care center

me : yes

Lady : Sir We wanted to check whether you have activated our GPRS services.

Me : I have activated the GPRS services

Lady : Sir Do you know that you can download pictures and wallpapers from Vodafone website

me : See I don't use this service

Lady : Ok Sir.... What is your name ?

me ( Stunned ) : What ?

Lady : What is your name sir ?

me : You called me and you " should " be knowing my name !!!!!!

Lady : No sir, we only have your number.. Please give your name so that I can enter your name in the system.



I sat there wondering what is happening to marketing.

A company calling a customer and telling him that ultimate truth

Dear Customer .. You Are Just a Number.

Consumer Insight # 4 : Fish Rots From The Tail

There is a book titled " Fish Rots from the Head ", written by Bob Garratt, talks about the role of Board of Directors and the crisis in the boardroom. As the title of the book indicates, Bob feels that the decay of the company often starts with the passive attitude of the Board of Directors.


But I have a different opinion.

Yesterday I went to my bank which is India's largest private sector bank. I have limited my visits to the bank owing to the horrendous customer experience and has been relying on the passive but decent ATMs.

I have been banking with this bank for last five years and I must say that none of the officials including the Branch manager whom I have interacted during the opening of account works here now. It seems that people here changes every week.

I would say that its a clear sign of decay and decay starts with the tail . If Board of Directors are Head, then the front office ( customer service) will be the tail isn't it ?

In a classic article titled " Best Face Forward " in HBR December 2004, the authors Rayport & Jawroski clearly states that in this competitive world, customer service or rather customer experience is the only available competitive advantage.

But we can see that many companies turning a blind spot when it comes to customer service. Your company loses its competitive advantage the moment you outsource customer service. Firms spent lot of money bringing the customer to the company. But when the customer reaches out to the company, it gives a raw deal.

Why do companies do this kind of basic business stupidity ? There is only one reason - cost.

Customer service is a costly business. Its costly because it involves people. And most businesses look at human resource as a cost center . So for a business , it makes perfect sense to avail cheap labor through outsourcing its customer service. If China offers a cheap customer call center service, I bet most of the Indian companies will outsource from China.

So firms reduce the number of their customer service staffs . The existing staffs are given double workload. Often these guys forget how to smile . These people are under severe emotional labor. They have to give their best face forward irrespective of their emotional situation. These guys/gals may have their personal/professional problems but cannot afford to show it to the consumer. So their stress level will be equal or higher than those in the sales field.

How many companies are sensitive to these issues ? To add to this issue, some firms give sales target to the customer service executives.

But for a customer, what is lost is the experience . In most of the new generation banks , customers are just numbers. In a rush to reduce the human interaction ( which is costly) companies invest in technology believing that technology can replace human interaction.

Its true that when comparing to rude staff, machines are better . But not always.

What the companies need is a judicious mix of people and technology. We are forgetting that we are living in an experiential economy. Customers - whether small or big, are looking for experience especially in the service sector.

When the market is growing, all these customer service issues are set aside . Firms look at break-neck growth . The key focus is customer acquisition. But market does not grow indefinitely. At some point of time, growth will stop and what you have will be the existing customers whom you have forgotten.

When you go back to these customers who was given a raw deal, you get back what you have given them.

Brand Update : Yamaha

In an interview with CNBC TV18, Rajiv Bajaj was asked about competition. His reply was he get jitters with the new launch of Yamaha R15. What Pulsar done to the motorcycles, R15 may repeat it.

I did not believe that statement. I viewed the launch of R15 with cynicism because of the price tag.

Can anyone think of buying a bike for Rs 100,000..

But a conversation with my journalist friend who handles the automobile-column in a leading newspaper changed my perception. According to him, R-15 is selling like hotcakes.

In my last post on the brand Yamaha, I had suggested that the brand needs was a statement. And it did make a statement with R15

R 15 is a stunner interms of looks. Auto reviews say that it doesn't disappoint interms of the performance.

More than that ,Yamaha got the timing correct. The market was evolving and there was a need for a motorcycle which made a statement. Two factors paved the way for the wide acceptance of R 15.

First was the emergence of a new set of customers who wanted a bike and was willing to pay the price to look different. R15 gave that fillip to this segment. These guys liked fast bikes and wanted something that suited the Indian conditions.

Second was the dealer support. Price wars among the bike marketers had significantly eroded the margins. R15 gave the dealers their required margin and they gave enough support for this bike.

Pulsar was too popular to be exclusive so the bike had to be exclusive and the higher price ensured that not everyone could afford this bike.

Whether R 15 will deliver volumes or not, it has given a new lease of life to Yamaha. The brand which was once an icon now have a chance to regain its lost status.

Related Post
Yamaha

Himalaya Herbals : Himalaya First

Corporate brand : Himalaya
Agency : Meridian

Brand Analysis Count : 348

Himalaya is a leading player in the highly fragmented Indian ayurvedic industry. Himalaya was born in 1930. The founder of this group is Mr M Minal who sighted an opportunity in tapping the abundant ayurvedic resources available in our country.

The branded ayurvedic OTC drugs market in India is worth around Rs 19000 crores. But much of these is being shared by many localized players .
Himalaya is famous for its liver supplement brand Liv.52. This brand is promoted through the ethical route and at one point it was the third best selling drug in Indian market.

Himalaya shot into limelight with the high profile launch of its OTC brand Ayurvedic Concepts. Ayurvedic Concepts was launched in 1999. The brand was launched with much hype and was successful in getting the initial mindshare.

Ayurvedic Concepts was promoted by heavy load of television commercials featuring an English speaking Dadima ( old lady). But then the brand did the unthinkable. After spending a truck load of money in promoting Ayurvedic Concepts, the company decided to create another Umbrella Brand . Thus corporate name Himalaya became the umbrella brand and Ayurvedic Concept brand was killed in the process.

I think its the dilemma faced by most of the Ayurvedic drug marketers. The sheer size of the brand portfolio makes it impossible for a marketer to think about individual brands. Most of the ayurvedic medicine marketers have an ethical line of products that they sell through prescriptions. Then they have another line of OTC products. Again the complexity of ayurvedic treatments makes the number of medicines in the list very large.

So the challenge is more than marketing. Firstly the company has to provide a full range of products. Otherwise the doctors will not support the company. Secondly it has to find the resources to support the OTC venture. So in a way , allocation of marketing resources becomes a complex decision process. So the company decision for a unified brand identity is logical but the lesson learned was little costly.

In an interview in Express pharma online, the company CEO Mr Raviprasad cites an important consumer behavior regarding the purchase of Himalaya products. According to him. customers of this brand first will have a single positive experience and then he moves to other products from the brand.

That means that a customer will try out Himalaya product because of some urgency/prescription or referral and out of that experience, he will try other products.

This insight has prompted the company to launch a campaign Himalaya First . The campaign was intended to bring in the first time users to the brand.

Himalaya is also credited with its initiative to launch the first ayurvedic boutique shops for the brand. I was amused when I first saw an exclusive Himalaya store in my city. I wondered whether it makes sense to launch an exclusive branded shop for an ayurvedic brand.

I personally feel that Himalaya thinks a little ahead of times. Perhaps the brand wanted to be a Body Shop in the wellness segment. The company has opened more than 225 stores across India.

But the task is to make the customers to use these wellness products. The brand should be thinking about tapping some celebrities to attract the consumers. The key is to link Himalaya brand to wellness. Even today, consumer associate ayurveda with remedial action rather than as preventive solutions. The task is to make the consumer use this products as a preventive solution that will provide wellness. Someone like Akshay Kumar or Salman Khan can give a heavy boost to this brand.