Zeiss : We Make it Visible

Brand : Zeiss
Company : Carl Zeiss India
Agency : Modern Medtech

Brand Analysis Count : 367

Carl Zeiss is a respectable name in the global lens' market. This decade old German company is named after its founder Carl Zeiss who was an optician. His company first started making lenses for microscopes and later extended his product range to cameras .

The company began its Indian operations in 1998. Although present in different verticals, the brand came into consumer space during 2005.

Carl Zeiss manufactures spectacle lenses under a joint venture with GKB Hi-Tech Lenses which is a home grown company. The spectacle lenses are sold under the brand Zeiss.

Indian spectacle lenses market is worth around $90 million ( Rs 360 Crore). Looking at the population, the potential is huge. But like many other products, this market is also dominated by unorganized sector which accounts for more than 75 % of the sales.

There are only two highly visible brands in the spectacle lenses category. One is the global major Essilor and other is Zeiss.

Zeiss has been trying to build its brand by consistently investing in media campaigns in India. It has been regularly advertising both in visual and print media.

The marketing of spectacle lenses is a difficult task because so far the category is regarded as a commodity. Consumers seldom ask for a specific brand of spectacle lenses since they are not aware of any brands neither they are aware of any specific advantages of using a branded spectacle lens.

So typically a consumer goes to the optician with his prescription and selects his spectacle frame and asks for the price of the lenses and gives the order. No where in the process , he asks for a particular brand for his lenses..
This offer tremendous opportunity for a marketer but it is not an easy task .
Zeiss has been trying to brand the commodity called spectacle lenses. But I am not impressed.

I have been watching the commercials of Zeiss for a while now. Frankly I did not knew that Zeiss was from the house of Carl Zeiss. I have heard about Carl Zeiss since the brand is famous as a camera lens. More over the latest mobiles from Sony and Nokia is now sporting Carl Zeiss lenses. Cameras which have Carl Zeiss lenses are often sold at a premium.


But the positioning strategy if Zeiss spectacle lenses is far from spectacular.

Watch the commercial here : Zeiss Spectacle lenses

The main USP of this brand is that it is branded...... Sounds funny isn't it ?

Zeiss is positioning itself as a spectacle with brand mark. For non-marketers, Brand Mark refers to the logo or symbol that the brand has.

I frankly does not understand the logic behind this positioning. Brand is defined as a name , term, symbol, logo which are used to identify and differentiate a product from the competitors .
But having a brand mark is never a differentiator. You cannot build a brand over its brand mark.....

Zeiss in their ads try to claim that " Brand nahi hai to style nahi " ( means if it is not branded, then it is not stylish ). It is true also. Consumers try to show off their brands. And successful brands are those where consumers are willing to act as living billboards.
Take Levi's or Nike, consumers are willing to show off. But not because they have brand marks.

First the company has to build a brand on certain core values or attributes . Once this is built, consumers will adopt the brand and act as the brand ambassadors. People does not buy Nike because it has the brand mark SWOOSH . But because they love the brand for its values embedded in " Celebrating authentic athleticism ". Consumers evangelize Apple not because of the brand mark but because of the innovation that is personified by the brand.

Here Zeiss has got it all wrong. Having a brand name or a logo is not suffice for consumers to love your brand. Brands should be built on strong attributes ( tangible or intangible). Brands with out brand values is at best a Label.

Zeiss thinks that its major competitors are the unbranded spectacle lenses. Hence the company feels that having a brand mark is the best differentiator. I was surprised to find that globally also the brand is positioned as a spectacle lens with laser marked brand mark.

Essilor has done a better job in promoting its brands like Transitions and Crizal. Consumers understand that these brands are having quality and certain important attributes.

Zeiss is a powerful global brand which has a reputation of being high quality manufacturer. The brand also has a powerful secondary association with the country of origin - Germany.

It should have taken some important attributes and promoted those attributes. Having a brand mark is an advantage but only after the brand is being built. People like others to see that their sunglass is a Ray-Ban because the brand has an image built on style and quality. Hence the Ray-Ban brand mark on the glasses make sense for the consumers.

First the brand has to understand the important attributes that customers look for in a spectacle lens. Then try to understand which are the most critical of those attributes which influences their decisions. Then develop the brand around those critical attributes. I don't think that the current USP of a brand-mark is considered important by consumers and is a sufficient reason for them to pay a premium for the brand.

Zeiss must go back and learn some basic brand building before investing such huge amount on money on meaningless campaigns.

Related Brand
Essilor

Brand Update : Bajaj Pulsar

Recently I saw an ad of Bajaj which showed that Bajaj XCD 125 is now in the DTSI Club . The DTSI which stands for Digital Twin Spark Ignition system was a technology patented by Bajaj.

This technology uses twin sparks at either end of the combustion chamber which gives faster combustion compared to the single spark plugs found in conventional engines. This twin sparks increases the power of the engine and offer better performance.

Bajaj did a great marketing move by patenting it and then branding this technology as DTSI. This is a classical case of ingredient branding. The DTSI was featured in the second generation Pulsar which was launched in 2003.

While Pulsar rode the wave in 2001 on the back of excellent styling and mind-blowing positioning , DTSI became the key differentiators for the brand after 2003. Pulsar was perceived to be a mean machine because of DTSI.

Pulsar thus created and ruled the performance bike category in India.

Its natural for any company to think of extracting maximum mileage out of a patented technology. Bajaj did just that by extending the DTSI technology to all its vehicle models including scooters . My doubt is whether Bajaj has commoditized the DTSI technology by extending it too much.

When DTSI was associated with Pulsar, it meant power , efficiency and performance . But what will DTSI mean when it is associated with a small scooter like Bajaj Krystal or a entry level bike like XCD.

Branding an ingredient is the same as branding a product. The consumers should feel that the ingredient brand is different from other ingredients . The concept of positioning also applies to ingredient brands.

In many ways, Bajaj has done correct strategies for DTSI. It patented it, protected it and branded the technology. But where it had failed was that it commoditized the ingredient brand.

Bajaj did not try to give a special personality for DTSI. Remember, DTSI had a strong secondary association with Bajaj Pulsar. Both the brands benefited out of this association. Pulsar used DTSI as a differentiator while DTSI got the performance tag from Pulsar.

But by making this technology available to all other brands without clearly looking at synergy was a big mistake from Bajaj. I have no doubt that the extension of DTSI technology to other brands will greatly help the sales of these brands . XCD will sell more when it has the DTSi technology.

When a measly powered scooter is also powered with DTSI, what is DTSI ? It had lost all its brand values which were power and performance. I don't think that XCD is anywhere near Pulsar in terms of power or performance. So in a way Bajaj has virtually killed this powerful ingredient brand.

The brand which is going to suffer most will be the flagship brand Pulsar. When every other Bajaj brands have DTSI, how is Pulsar different from rest of the crowd ?

The obvious answer will be the design. If it is so, then Pulsar could be beaten by any other bikes which are better designed. Having good looks is good for the brand but cannot be sustained over a period of time because :

Competitors can come with good looking bikes.
Designs can be outdated.

Both these are affecting Pulsar. Too many Pulsars on the road has made this brand dated in terms of looks. But DTSI was a powerful differentiator which cannot be copied since it was patented. But Bajaj , because of greed, faltered with one of the most powerful differentiators at its disposal.

Last month, I read a report saying that the newly launched Yamaha FZ 16 has become the number two brand in the 150 cc segment beating Apache RTR , Hero Honda Hunk and CBZ. In some markets, FZ also has beaten the market leader Pulsar. Without a clear differentiator, Pulsar is now more vulnerable than ever.

Is Bajaj listening ?????

Related Brand

Pulsar
Yamaha

Hyundai Accent : What Dreams Drive

Brand : Accent
Company : Hyundai Motors India
Agency : Innocean

Brand Analysis Count : 366

Accent is one of the highly successful long serving car brand in India. Launched in 1999 , this brand is now on its 10 th year in India. The simple fact that this brand has survived the highly competitive market in India speaks volume about the success of this brand.

Accent, when launched competed with the highly successful Maruti Esteem in luxury sedan market. While Esteem perished, Hyundai Accent is still managing its product lifecycle.

Accent is a brand which has survived only because of the product performance and quality. Frankly there is nothing to write about the marketing or branding strategy for this brand. Accent was a highly performing work-horse which was well designed quality product that offered excellent value for money. The company was able to make enough changes in the price which enabled the brand to ride the PLC effectively.

Accent now belongs to the entry level sedan market. When launched it was a premium car. Accent was an instant success because of its product quality and the rub-off from the success of Santro.

The company managed the product lifecycle of Accent using variants. Hyundai regularly updated Accent by launching different variants in line with the changing consumer expectations. There were four variants for Accent in 2002 which were GLS,GLX,GVS Tornado and Viva.

One of the most successful variants was the Accent Viva. VIVA launched in 2002 was positioned as a sporty sedan. The engine was tweaked to give more power and the variant was styled to give it a sporty look. Accent Viva was priced at a premium and was a successful niche variant.

In 2002 , the company launched the first diesel variant of Accent. The brand was the first one to launch the CRDI Diesel engine . Although the CRDI gained lot of interest, there was lot of problems for the diesel variants. Ultimately the diesel version was phased out in 2007.

Accent started losing in the segment when Ford launched Ikon . Later the segment became crowded with lot of product launches by the competitors.

At the branding front , except for the marketing of Santro, Hyundai in my opinion is a lousy advertiser. I don't remember any highly creative campaigns from them for any of their products be it i10, verna or Terracan. The quality of creatives for Santro also have come down drastically. They have always built their brands on the product performance.

For Accent also I don't remember any highy creative or good campaigns. But I remember some lousy ads of Accent trying to position it as a aspirational product. In those campaigns Accent had the tagline " Respect comes naturally ".

Accent had tried out different taglines during its different stages. The frequent changes in the tagline have really messed up the positioning of the brand. Accent is confused about whether it should focus on performance or image. The taglines of Accents were

Sheer Pleasure
Expect More
The Next Step
The Power to Excite
What dreams drive

Although the taglines were more performance oriented, the ads especially the television commercials was unfocused. The agency failed to understand that the core brand value for Accent was its product performance and value for money proposition.

Even in 2008 , Accent topped the segment in customer satisfaction in a survey done by TNS.

There were many rumors about the phasing out of Accent. But like Maruthi, Hyundai also does not believe in phasing out old brands. Auto analysts was predicting the phase out primarily because the brand was considered dated. It has been around for 10 years and consumers have become bored by the brand.
The rumor was further fueled with the launch of another mid size sedan Verna. In global markets Verna is sold as the new generation Accent . And in USA , Accent ( Verna) is one of the largest selling economy sedan.

With the launch of Verna, Hyundai reduced the number of variants for Accent. Now Accent has only one variant.

But Hyundai had other plans for Accent. In 2008 Accent was launched in CNG version. The CNG version is expected to boost the sagging sales of this brand. The launch also is an indication that Hyundai is not going to phase out this brand. This year, Accent was relaunched as Accent Executive with spruced up interiors.

One of the strong points for Accent is its design. Accent is still looking great. If Hyundai plans to keep this brand alive , it should focus on the design. Accent can ride the PLC by positioning itself as a stylish brand. It should experiment with colors and graphics. The product quality is already established,what the brand needs is excitement.

At this stage of the PLC, Accent will get a boost if the brand is endorsed by a celebrity. A high profile young film star can rejuvenate the brand for sure.

Best Marketing Practice : Be Proactive to Rumours

Yesterday my wife told me about an internal mail she received at her office. It said that Kurkure contains plastic which makes it more crispier than other snack foods . Further Appyfizz contains cancerous substances and if you take Mentos and Pepsi together, you will die.....
So no Kurkure and Appyfizz for our child from now on.

I tried to show my " Professorial " knowledge by telling her that these are baseless rumors and all these products are safe. But she rubbished it aside saying that the mail come from a very trusted friend of her.......

I was little upset by her comments, not that she doesn't trust me but by the fact that such emails and rumors can create lot of issues for the brand. A call to one of my friend in advertising confirmed that these rumors were running around for more than three years.

Although internet offers lot of opportunities for brand promotion, the biggest threat comes in the way of such rumors.
There are two typical responses to such a kind of malicious rumor. Do nothing hoping for this rumor to die a natural death or be proactive and do something about such rumors.

Marketers should take proactive steps in countering such malicious rumors that can later snowball into a viral negative campaign.

When I did a small google search on Kurkure, I was surprised by the results. The first result that came was a Kurkure blog which negated the rumors. More than that there was a paid link to the FAQ site of Kurkure which clarified further than the rumor was baseless.

That is a proactive approach to handling such rumors by Kurkure.

Marketers cannot stop anyone from making such malicious rumors. But they can effectively negate such rumors by acting on it.

Have a website : Its important for brands to have a place for them in the virtual world. Since internet is a media one cannot ignore, it becomes important for the brand to have a site.
Scan the net for such rumors : Marketers should need to scan the negative news that spread across the internet. This should be done on a regular basis.

Negate the rumor using Search engine optimization : The brand should negate the rumor immediately with out waiting for it to spread. Most of the Search Engine Optimizers will help the company to keep their information on top of the search engine listing. My logic is that when a netizen gets a rumor email, he will search for further clarification. If the company is not providing such a clarification then he will take decision based on the judgement. I am sure that those people who forward such malicious email believe that it is true . Otherwise he will not forward it and risk his credibility.

Use Public Relations : The best tool to handle such events is to use the PR department. Use all mass media to convince the customers that the product is safe. Have a permanent link in your website to offer clarification about such reported rumors. If the rumor has snowballed into a big crisis, have your senior executives issue statement clarifying the issue. It it is health related, have doctors endorse your product's safety standards.

Open a channel for customers to contact you : The channel can be either an email or a phone number where the customers can clarify any doubts about the brand.

I know it will be difficult for a brand to react to each and every rumor that does the round. But the effort is well worth it.

Brand Update : Kamasutra Condoms

After a long while, Kamasutra has come out with a new campaign. The current campaign is little different from the earlier ones in that the brand has shed the sensual route and has become more subtle.
The last campaign from Kamasutra was revolving around the theme of experimenting which was highlighted by the tagline " who do you want to be tonight ".

The latest ad shows a " button less world' where the guys roaming around with their button-less shirts. The teaser says " get ready to lose your buttons ".

Watch the TVC here : Kamasutra new ad

The brand has the new tagline " Most wanted men ".

This is a serious deviation from the core personality of the brand. KS is always perceived to be an extrovert, on-the face , open and a naughty brand which does not shy away from talking straight.
All through the life of this brand, its known to be controversial, sensual brand. Subtle was never this brand's character . So those who were expecting another set of shocking ads are bound to be disappointed.

The brand has also changed its tagline to " Most wanted men ". This new tagline is also a dampener. The tagline is very similar to that of Moods ( My Man !) . I think that the brand could have chosen some thing different from Mood's tagline.

Its interesting to note that in India, government is taking more initiative in promoting these products rather than the private players. Most of the condom marketers are not aggressive in their spends . One reason is that most of them are minting money by supplying it to the governmental agencies and NGO's . There are also reports that suggest that since government is selling cheap condoms through the same channel, premium condoms are losing the market.


In 2007 , the brand have extended itself to personal care by launching its range of deodorants and aftershaves. So far I have not seen any KS personal care products in super markets. I think it is an opportunity wasted.
KS have an equity which could be easily leveraged by the company in the personal care segment . It would have become a worthy competitor for Axe ,had the company "shamelessly " promoted this brand. How ever the company chose not to aggressively promote the personal care range. It would have filled the gap for a " Adult " personal care brand in the Indian market.

Related Brand

Kamasutra

Moser Baer : Rewriting the Future

Corporate Brand : Moser Baer
Agency : TBWA

Brand Analysis Count : 365

Moser Baer is a leading player in the optical media storage market in India. Not only that ,this Indian company is world's 5th largest manufacturer of Optical storage media. Founded in 1983, this brand has morphed from a business brand to a consumer brand.

Moser Baer started its operations by manufacturing time recorder units in collaboration with Maruzen Corporation of Japan. In 1998, the company diversified into manufacturing of 5.2 inch floppy disk. In 1999 the company went on to manufacturing of CD-ROMs and DVDs.

The Indian optical media industry is estimated to be around Rs 1500 crore. Moser Baer leads the market with a market share of around 40%. The brand is having a global share of around 20% in this industry.

The optical media storage industry is dominated by CD-ROMs. The trend is now moving towards DVD and latest Blu-Ray discs.

The CD/DVD industry is guided by the penetration of the respective disc drives . It is estimated that 75 % of the computers are sold along with the CD Drives and this factor have more impact on the sale of CDs at the consumer end.

If we look at the market evolution of these products, during the formative years, ordinary users never considered the CD drive as a part of the standard PC. CD Drives was considered as a luxury because of the high cost. This has severely restricted the popularity of CDs at the consumer end . CDs during those years was targeting the software segment.

When the CD drive price crashed, it became a part of the standard PC offering which paved the way for the popularity of CDs. Another big market for these products is in the entertainment sector.

Currently the market is moving towards DVD's since the cost of DVD writers/players have come down drastically.

Moser Baer operates in a market which is highly dynamic and volatile.This is a market which is full of disruptive innovations . One can never predict the lifecycle of a product. A small technological innovation can make a product irrelevant. It had happened in the case of Floppy Disks . The MP3 revolution has severely impacted the CD industry aswellas the entire music industry.

Hence to operate in such a volatile environment requires high flexibility in operations and strategy. The simple fact that Moser Baer was able to handle the Floppy to CD transition is a remarkable example of flexible product strategy. It takes corporate vision to identify the changes that are happening in the environment and then take a proactive step in addressing those issues.

It is not easy as we think. Take the example of CD replacing the Floppy Disk. The company has to first identify this as a disruptive innovation . Then they have to forecast the impact of this technology in their business. Then devise the strategy to handle that disruption. The problem here is timing. In technology marketing, timing is the key. We have seen big companies humbled by start-ups ( Microsoft Vs Google ) because the large firms fail to forecast the impact of these changing technologies on their business.

In the case of storage media disruptions are happening on a regular basis. We have seen Floppy Disk getting eliminated by CDs, CDs getting irrelevant by USB Disks, DVDs etc. There is heated argument whether DVD will be replaced by Blue-Ray discs

Look at the removable memory devises or the flask disks, these devices are increasingly making CDs irrelevant. These USB memory disks are portable , reusable and easy to use. These devices are a big competition for CD and DVDs. More over the various online file storing sites and file sharing sites makes life more dangerous for firms like Moser Baer.

So how will a company survive in such a very fluid environment.?

It calls for a very flexible product strategy. Such a strategy allows the managers to experiment and pull the company into different directions. Product Managers will be looking for emerging areas /technologies and will be investing in those new areas. Although this strategy is sexy, it is highly risky. Not all new technologies are disruptive. So it takes lot of wisdom and luck to spot and act on such a technology.

Last two quarters has been very bad for the company owing to the increase in the production cost and decrease in demand due to competition from other categories. One of the raw material for CD/DVDs is polycarbonate which is a byeproduct of oil industry. The rise in oil prices has increased the cost for this raw material.

It is this scenario which may have forced Moser Baer to undertake many related and unrelated diversification. In 2006, the company forayed into entertainment business. The company launched an entertainment division which focused on distribution of movie CD/DVD. The company procured around 10,000 movie titles and aggressively started distribution.

Moser Baer shocked the movie industry by launching movie CDs and DVDs for as low a price as Rs 28 and Rs 34 respectively. At that time, a DVD used to cost minimum Rs 150 and CDs at around Rs 80. The move made lot of sense because the expense for Moser Baer was limited to promotional and distributional expenses.

According to reports, Moser Baer adopted an FMCG model of distribution for these CDs. The reason was to drive the volumes in order to compensate for the low price. The low price of Moser Baer movie CDs was a deadly blow to the pirate- mafia which was a major threat to the entire movie industry.

This move of Moser Baer was complimented by the low priced DVD players that entered the Indian market. The price of a branded DVD player came to the level of 2000-5000 which enabled many households to own one.

Another diversification of Moser Baer was into the Rs 12000 crore PC peripheral market which include products like CD/DVD drives , hard disks, speakers etc. Moser Baer expects to corner 20 % of this lucrative market .
In the business market, Moser Baer has diversified into manufacturing of photo-voltaic cells which is used in harnessing solar energy.

A major unrelated diversification for this brand was into the consumer durables in 2008. Moser Baer entered the consumer durable space with a high decibel launch of LCD televisions and DVD players.

Watch the tvc here : Moser Baer

Although the corporate tagline for Moser Baer is " Rewriting the Future " , the company decided to have a seperate tagline " Ultra Life " for its consumer durable venture. The brand is projecting itself as the advanced fururistic technology brand. For the movie CD venture, the brand has another tagline " Hello Happiness ".

In a branding perspective, the same brand has three different positioning strategy in three different categories. Theoritically this will result in brand dilution.


I seriously doubt the logic behind Moser Baer entering a space where it has virtually no standing . It does not have the brand equity nor the marketing strength to fight the competition. In this space it will be fighting all the major consumer durable brands of the world like Sony, Philips, LG, Samsung, Onida, Panasonic and what not.

Moser Baer may be a well known brand in the CD category but it is a zero in the consumer durable space. The only advantage for the brand is the brand familiarity. Consumers have seen this brand but that is not sufficient to counter the competition of established brands like Sony.

Moser Baer is trying to fight the war using price as a proposition. The price of LCD TV is much lower than the established players. Hence the price + brand familiarity may give some head start for the brand.

Another serious issue for the brand will be the time and energy needed for Moser Baer to establish itself in the consumer durable space. The company may have to devote considerable resources , both money and managerial time ,to be successful as a consumer durable major. This will seriously impact the investment needed in its core business. In this period, when cash is the king, the brand may have to spend judiciously .

Moser Baer has also launched products like USB disks in order to pre-empt the competition from that category which makes more sense than the consumer durable venture. It could have spent more energy on establishing itself in the USB media space and even launch products similar to ipods.
It makes more sense if Moser Baer concentrated on Memory ,Storage and even PC peripherals space rather than spent valuable resources on highly competitive market like consumer durables