Brand Update : Sprite

On September 2008, Sprite launched a new variant Sprite Xpress with much fanfare. The various news reports celebrated this launch as a packaging innovation which Indian market is witnessing for the first time.

Sprite Xpress is the 350 ml Pet bottle from Sprite. The innovation that the company boast is that this is an " On The Go " Pack. That means that you can carry it with you when you are traveling..

What's new in that ?


According to the Press Release,
"
the new pack is a strategic initiative aimed to build strong connect with the youth. It is designed to offer convenience and adapts to the dynamic and on the move lifestyle of the consumers "

Frankly I did not knew that a simple packaging can do lot of strategic " things " to the consumers.

Coca Cola has been heavily promoting the Sprite Xpress. The variant is being promoted using a long peppy television advertisement .

Watch the campaign here : sprite xpress

The ad is catchy with a good background song . The ad revolves around the theme " outwit to outrun " and have a new tagline ' Ghumo Ghumao'.

The issue with this ad is that the entire foundation of the ad is based in Hindi. The song and the taglines are Hindi. When the ad is to be shown in the South Indian market, the agency will have tough time translating these in local language without losing relevance and sounding funny.


After seeing the ads I couldn't understand the innovation. After a little googling, I finally understood.

The innovation is in the pricing. Sprite was available in three packs : 300 ml glass bottle pack, 500 ml Pet bottle and large one litre Pet bottle.

Now the new pack is 350 ml in Pet bottle priced at Rs 15. The new pack is aimed at those customers who want single use packs while on the move. So offering the single use Pet bottle makes marketing sense.

With regard to the pricing, the new Xpress pack is priced Rs15 . Although psychologically seem to be lower than Rs 20 for 500 ml, in actual sense, the consumer is paying more for less.

In that way Coca Cola is gaining more than Rs 1 per bottle as margin. In a business with wafer thin margins, getting Rs 1 more is nothing but innovation.

That also justifies the extravagant promotion for this variant. The ads have been shot in Malaysia and runs for a full 60 seconds which really costs a bomb at the current advertisement rates.
The true innovation is with regard to the use of OOH media by this brand. According to reports, Sprite has launched a series of 3 D outdoor creatives on various outdoor platforms like elevators, buildings, hoardings etc.

Sprite has to create a big hype around Xpress and brand it as a packaging innovation because it is priced high. As customers , we have to pay more for such kind of " innovations ". The paradox is that this is from a brand which says " No Bakwaas " only seedhi bath ( straight talk !)

On a marketing practice perspective, Sprite has done a good job in launching such a variant. There will be lot of customers especially youngsters who want such single serve bottles which can be taken along with them. The problem with the existing 300 ml glass bottle is that one cannot take it on the go.

According to reports, the company is planning to launch Xpress packs for its brands like Coca Cola, Thums Up, Limca etc.

For customers : you have to be clear about what you are paying for... baki all bakwas

Related brand

Sprite

J Hampstead : Nothing but the Best

Brand : J Hampstead

Company : Siyaram
Agency : Percept

Brand Analysis Count : 358

J Hampstead is a brand from the house of Siyaram . J Hampstead is an international brand of worsted textile which was acquired by Siyaram in 1995.

When the brand was launched, it was positioned as a premium suit brand with a price ranging from Rs 1000- 1500 p.m. The high price was because the fabric was imported from Italy. Later the brand went in for local fabric and a price restructuring happened which saw the brand retailing at the range of Rs 500-1000 per meter.

J Hampstead is an interesting brand. I think this is one of the very few brands in the consumer space which have an " Initial " along with the brand name. Besides this trivia, the brand is interesting for its experiments with celebrity endorsements.

According to Financial Express (26 July 2008) the market size for worsted suiting is around Rs 1600 crores.

J Hampstead from the start itself has relied heavily on celebrity endorsements. It is also a brand that was unlucky because in most of the occasions their celebrities got into trouble and the brand had to discontinue the campaign.

The famous endorsers for J Hamptead was the tennis duo Mahesh Bhupati and Leander Paes. These tennis stars were roped in when they were in the peak of their careers. But the personal relationship between Mahesh Bhupati and Leander Paes became sour and led to lot of negative press coverage around their fight. This prompted the brand to take off the campaign featuring these players.

Then came the big gamble. J Hampstead was endorsed by the entire South African cricket team. Instead of choosing a single player, the brand took the entire team as the endorsers. The South African team was considered to be very professional and clean. There were campaign featuring the entire team wearing J Hampstead suitings. But then came the unpredictable misfortune. Hanse Cronje , the celebrated SA captain was accused of match fixing. This forced the brand to shelve the entire campaign.

At one point of time Geoff Boycott also endorsed the brand.
Then for a long period, the brand kept off the celebrity bandwagon.

In 2008, the brand came back with the celebrity endorsement strategy but with a difference. J Hampstead is now endorsed by Ms Priyanka Chopra. I think that its the first time that a male textile brand being endorsed by a female celebrity. ( I am not sure whether any other brand targeting males are endorsed by female celebrity)

According to media reports, the agency feels that such an endorsement will be a communication innovation. The campaign featuring Priyanka has been shot in Paris and is currently on air in most of the channels

Watch the campaign here : J Hampstead

So the question arises whether the strategy of a female celebrity endorsing a suiting brand make sense ?

According to reports, Priyanka Chopra is now the hottest star in bollywood with a huge 'male' fan following. The purpose of this campaign is to create brand recall rather than build a long term brand equity . Hence the logic using Priyanka works in advantage to the brand by tapping the 'huge' fan following. (This is the version of the agency)

The theme of the ads also reflects this thinking. Priyanka getting impressed /fascinated by a hunk wearing J Hampstead. Another ad showing Priyanka ' playing' with the material getting impressed by the stuff.

The brand is being positioned as one for the modern independent stylish gentleman who can easily make an impact on the beautiful ladies. J Hampstead earlier had the tagline of " The world's Finest Fabric ". For the new campaign there is a new tagline " Nothing But the Best ". The brand is currently using both the taglines in the campaign.

The brand is facing competition from the likes of Raymonds and Reid & Taylor. Both these brands have created a clear cut differentiation. So will Priyanka Chopra measure up against Amithabh is the key question.

The brand is also looking at that perspective. Textile brands have roped in who is who of the bollywood. Shah Rukh ( Belmonte) Salman ( Mayur) Big B , all have been booked. Hence why not create a difference by choosing a lady.

Frankly , I am not able to predict whether this strategy will work for the target audience? Honestly I am not impressed by the ads because there is nothing new in what is being said.

There are advantages in using Priyanka Chopra because those who like her will watch the campaign. And if the news reports that she has a huge male fan following is true, then that will be positive although it has to be seen how much of those fans belong to the brand's TG.

What I detest is the desperation of the brand about celebrities. Why should a brand go after a female celebrity when they feel that all male celebrities have been booked by the competitors. Does the brand have an identity on its own ? Suppose all celebrities die, what will J Hampstead do ? Will it kill itself ?

Marketing Funda : Marlboro Friday

On November 12 , 2008 , Honda Motors India shocked the Indian autoworld by offering the biggest discount of 40% for its hybrid Civic. The country's first hybrid car Honda Civic was introduced in the Indian market this June. The launch price of Civic Hybrid was Rs 21.5 Lakh. Now the car is sold at Rs 13.5 Lakh.

Naturally the news was the talk of the town. For two reasons, first was the quantum of discount.It was the largest discount seen in that sector and second was that no body expected a price cut from a car maker like Honda.

Now the reason for the price cut has been officially out . The price cut was to clear the inventory . Honda had expected that the customers will buy the new generation Civic Hybrid for the prohibitive cost of Rs 21.5 Lakh. How ever Indian consumers gave this product a miss.

The huge price did not justify the value offered by the car. For one reason, Indians do not care too much for the eco-friendly proposition. We like eco-friendly cars but not at the cost of Rs 21 lakhs. Infact the hybrid feature was not motivating enough to justify the price. The dampener was the 105% import duty which forced Honda to sell the brand at such a high price.

The Civic Hybrid was imported as a completely built unit . The first shipment of 25o cars reached India this June. So far Honda was able to sell only 30 cars.

For high technology products and also products with " limited edition/Special edition" tags have only limited shelf life. When time passes, their value also erodes. Hence Honda had to sell off the inventory. To add to this problem, another shipment of 250 hybrids were on the way.

Honda maintains that the current discount is applicable for 190 cars only. That means the next lot of hybrids will be costing more.

All these events remind me of the famous Marlboro Friday.

On April 2 1993, Philip Morris which is a global cigarette major cut the price of its flagship brand Marlboro by 20 % in the US market. This sent shocking wave across the consumer market in USA. The stock market reacted violently and Philip Morris stock went down by 23 %. The entire consumer goods stocks fell drastically on that day. The market felt that consumer companies have buckled under the pressure of low-price competitors.

Philip Morris at that time was reeling under the pressure from discount brands . The low priced Cigarette brands was eating away the market share of Marlboro which was the market leader.

The branded cigarette business at that time also faced serious issues like
a. Demarketing by government
b.Restrictions on advertising and promotions.
c.Threat of law suits.
d. Price competition from discount players.

Philip Morris justified the price by saying that the price cut is a part of the major shift in the business strategy for long term growth. Many analysts blasted the company and predicted that the iconic brand status of Marlboro will bite the dust.
Philip Morris argued that it will not be able to withstand if it does not react to the price competition.

The Marlboro price cut was followed by a price restructuring exercise by the company across the product line. While the price of premium brands were reduced, it increased the price of its own low priced brands. The aim was to reduce the gap between the premium brands and the low priced brands.

The price cut was executed initially through sales promotions like coupons and offers like one + one free. Later the discount were made permanent .

The brand felt that once the price differential between premium and low priced brands are reduced, customers will choose the branded ones.

Although for the short -term, Philip Morris suffered revenue loss and share price beating, the strategy proved to be correct. After a year, the price competitors suffered and customers began to buy the brand. Marlboro regained its lost market share and share price of Philip Morris went back to sunny times.
The whole event is now known in the marketing world as Marlboro Friday.


I think that the price cut of Honda in India should be called as by Hybrid Wednesday.

Unlike the Marlboro price cut, Honda Civic price cut is not strategic but tactical. But the price cut throws some relevant marketing questions .

The most important question is about the brand equity. Many think that such a drastic price cut will hamper the brand equity of Honda. Since the price cut is for a specific variant, I don't think that Honda as a brand will suffer. Remember that Honda brand is build on attributes like quality, technology ,innovation etc which are still very relevant .

Another question that arises is the fate of those customers who had bought the car for Rs 21 lakh. Obviously when there is such a drastic price- cut, the existing customers are obviously going to be pissed off. According to reports, Honda is planning to compensate the existing customers although its not legally binding. Since there are only 30 customers who suffered because of price-cut, it makes marketing sense to compensate them because these customers are ' innovators ' who have lot of ' value ' among the target audience.

Although Honda claims that price cut is for 190 cars only , I have serious doubt whether they will be able to sell the next lot of hybrid cars for anything more than 15 lakhs. In a way the brand has fallen into a price range by its own making. It will also be a price benchmark for all those car marketers who have plans to launch their own hybrid cars.

What is interesting is that although Honda has misjudged the pricing during the launch, it had corrected the mismatch swiftly. It takes lot of guts for marketers to admit that they had made a mistake.
Honda quickly acted on the inventory problem and rightly identified the new price. According to reports, with in a day of announcing the price cut, Honda was able to sell a whopping 98 cars. So in a way the entire event help discover the price for such an innovative technology based product.

Market Statistics : IRS 2008 Round 2

The latest Indian Readership Survey Round 2 results are out. The top newspapers of India interms of their Average Issue Readership ( AIR) are as follows

1. Dainik Jagran : 1.62 crores
2. Danik Bhaskar : 1.30 crores
3. Hindustan : 92.73 Lakhs
   
4. Malayala Manorama : 84.17 Lakhs
5. Amar Ujala : 80.73 Lakhs
6. Daily Thanthi : 76.81 Lakhs
7. Enadu : 68.31 Lakhs
8. Times of India : 67.12 Lakhs
9. Ananda Bazar pathrika : 66.76 Lakhs
10. Rajasthan Pathrika : 66.71 Lakhs

There exists now a confusion between AIR and TR ie Average Issue Readership and Total Readership.

Media planners use AIR to decide on their media plan. AIR refers to the estimated readers for a single issue. Average Issue readership is derived from the recency. Recency denotes the number of people who have read the publication within the publication interval. For example for Dailies , the AIR is those who have read the paper yesterday.

Total Readership is the cumulative of AIR and Claimed Readership ( CR) . While AIR is the readership for one insertion, CR is used in a broader perspective to include addons and supplements.

The readership surveys use the Masthead method. In this method , the respondent is shown the Masthead of the publication and is asked whether he has read the publication.

The major difference between CR and AIR is that AIR denotes those who have read the publication with in the publication time interval. While CR represents those readers who claim to have read the publication but may or may not have read it in the interval .

So if a respondent say that he has not read a paper yesterday then he will not be considered as an Average Issue Reader. How ever if he claims to have been reading this paper but not yesterday , he will be considered in Claimed readership figure.


From IRS 2008 Round 2 , MRUC has moved to Total Readership as the standard rather than AIR. Some media planners are of the opinion that AIR provides better information about the reach of a publication rather than TR.

Usually Claimed Readership figures are more because of replication.

The latest IRS results also has thrown in some interesting trends in the media habits of Indian consumers.

Regularity of reading print media including both dailies and magazines have come down .The average frequency of reading also has come down for all print media. The average viewing / listening time for media like TV , Radio and Internet has increased.

The average time spent on media like TV , Radio increased while the time spent on print has declined. Average time spent in television is 99.4 minutes and 81.1 minutes on radio. How ever time spent on Internet has declined.

Another interesting fact is that the fragmentation in Television media has caused a decline in the time spent with one channel. That means that viewers are not brand conscious with regard to television channels but are program conscious. On the other hand time spent per title for print has gone up.
It was also revealed that print media is losing out in claiming the attention of young Indians. The readership for print among the age group 20-29 has declined by over 16 %.

Some interesting links for further reading
Exchange 4 Media
IRS

Rapidex English Speaking Course : Best Seller

Brand : Rapidex English Speaking Course
Company : Pustak Mahal

Brand Analysis Count : 357

Rapidex English Speaking Course is an offbeat brand. A brand which has been in existence for over 15 years has not come into limelight as an example of a good marketing practice.

Rapidex English Speaking Course is a book ( series) from the famous publishing house - Pustak Mahal. This is a book aimed at those people who would like to speak plain spoken English.

I was surprised to find that this book has been in the best seller list for long time. According to the publisher website , Rapidex has sold more than 25 million copies so far, making it one of the most successful book brands in India.

Its also a unique brand where the publisher has tried to promote this book as a product by carefully crafting all the marketing mix strategies.

The product is a very simple straight forward book. Rapidex English Speaking Course is designed as a self study book published in local language like Hindi, Tamil , Malayalam etc . The aim of the book is to give basic spoken English lessons to the reader.

The target segment consists of those who have education but lack the ability to speak English.
The product priced reasonably at Rs 150 also is in line with the value proposition. This book is often taken by those who are worried about getting a job and want to learn to speak basic English quickly.

Pustak Mahal has invested heavily in building this brand. The single column print ads were frequently placed in newspapers and magazines. The tipping point for this brand came when the legendary cricketer Kapil Dev endorsed this course. Kapil was frank in admitting that he benefited from this book. This singe endorsement took the brand sales to new heights.

Another interesting feature I have noticed is that all these years, the brand has never changed its looks. The color schemes and the calligraphy still remains the same. The brand has been able to create a distinct identity by retaining all these brand elements.

The brand buoyed by the success of the English course tried its luck by launching Rapidex computer course. But to my knowledge the extension was not as successful as the parent product.

Now India is seeing a new wave of English language courses. With the Call center boom, new format of language training has evolved and has emerged as a big business. Even in this period, Rapidex is holding on as the first step in the spoken English learning. To keep up with the changing needs, the book also now comes with tutor CDs.

Rapidex is a good example of successful marketing practice. The brand could do more if its able to raise its share of voice positioning itself as the best self study spoken english course available in the market. We already have a culture which consider English learning important. And Indian consumers are aware that the present education does not add much importance in enhancing English speaking skills.
In such a scenario, the relevance of Rapidex brand is as high as in the past.

Best Marketing Practice : Living the Story

Every brand has a story and the success of the brand depends on how well they tell the story to the consumers.
After a near -death experience in the Indian market, Yamaha have slowly started telling a compulsive story. In my last update on Yamaha, I had blogged about their new launch Yamaha YZF R15. Priced at Rs 1,25000, the brand has already made a strong start.

R 15 is positioned as the urban racing machine. The brand boasts about its racing instinct and most of the auto reviews have written positive words for this machine.

Last day I was watching the Auto Car show in UTV i and happen to see the report on the racing championship for R 15 owners held in October 2008. The first racing event was held in September.
I consider this event as one of the best marketing practice where a brand truly living the dreams it has painted for its customers.

The racing event promoted by Yamaha was not for the racing professionals but for the ordinary owners or R 15. But the entire racing was done on the professional race track. So many guys were able to realize their dream of participating in an actual race using their bike.

Its not the first time that a bike brand associating itself with racing . TVS Apache RTR was positioned along the racing platform. Even the market leader in performance bike - Pulsar also was associated with racing attributes.

But R 15 has gone the extra mile by making racing real by launching such an event. I bet that many of those R 15 owners who participated in the race was seeing the racing track for the first time. They also got the chance to burn the rubber and live their dream - thanks to the brand.
This event is also an outcome of the clear understanding of the consumers who buy such a bike.

Those who can shell out Rs 1 lakh for a bike will definitely a bike enthusiast who wanted to burn the rubber and make a statement. These customers will also be the key opinion leaders among their community be it students or professionals. So a racing event will be the best possible way to make them feel good about their purchase.

The customers of R 15 can participate the event by paying a nominal amount of Rs 500. According to the report , the company will handle the transportation of the bike to the racing venue. The riders are given enough training before letting them loose on the race track.

The brand is going to have lot of advantages by organizing such an event. First is the reinforcement of the brand's positioning of a sports bike. The event also will make the opinion leaders to hook on to their brand. Those who have participated this even will cherish those moments and will have generated lot of positive word of mouth . It also will strengthen the case of pricing the brand at Rs 1.25 lakh .

Another interesting factor is that this event is not for potential customers but existing customers. So this case is an example of a successful "After Marketing' . 'After Marketing ' is a jargon that is used for all marketing activities that are done after the sale is over.

Related Brand

Yamaha