Consumer Insight : Please Play it Straight

Today, I got an email from an Indian e-retailer announcing a 50% value-back offer on purchase of any product from their website in the month of February. Greedy as Iam, I decided to check out the website which is owned by a premier media company.

As usual, all these offers comes with the ubiquitous term " Conditions Apply". Of course the company is definitely offering a 50% value back offer but as a consumer, it pays to know a little math.

Here is how the offer works.

When you buy a product from the website, the value-back offer is not given to the customer in cash but by Gift Certificates. The gift certificates are of value Rs 500, Rs 200 and Rs 100.

Ok so far so good.

Here comes the catch..

These gift certificates carry a minimum order value....

That means , a customer has to purchase ( again) a product of a minimum order value inorder to redeem this certificate.

For redeeming Rs 500 gift certificate, you have to make an additional purchase of Rs 2500.
For Rs 200, the additional purchase requirement is Rs 1000 etc.
And these certificates are valid only till March.

Further , you cannot club two gift certificates together.

If I purchase a product worth Rs 10,000,I would have got coupons worth Rs 5000. But if I wanted to redeem those coupons, I must purchase products worth Rs 25000 in the next month.

Frankly speaking, these sales promotions may do more harm to the marketer because there will be customers who may fall into this trap and then repent having given into the greed.Those customers may never come back to the website for purchase.

Is it beneficial to the company ?

In one way, such " Big " offers will prompt many consumers to visit the website. So the site benefits from the traffic generated by such offers. There are also chances that these consumers get attracted by either the price or merchandise and thus becoming a regular user.

In my personal opinion, these offers is akin to exploiting the greed of consumer. It pays more to be playing straight to the consumer. Give a straight discount or a plain cash-back offer rather than offers which puts the consumer into a trap . Make him feel happy about a bargain purchase.If he gets a bargain, he will come back for sure when ever he has money.

In this period, where consumers are wary about making big ticket purchases , these offers lure them into parting with their valuable cash. But if they feel that they got a raw-deal, the consequences will be terrible for the marketer's long term brand equity.

The primary aim of a marketer is to create a customer NOT making a sale.

Brand Update : Tata Safari

Tata Safari has launched a new TVC which further reinforces the " Reclaim your Life " campaign.

Watch the tvc here : Tata Safari

The ad asks a very pertinent question " when you look back in life, what would you remember?" and ends with the tagline - Reclaim your life.

Some of the factors which I liked about this ad was the
Catchy Phrases
Cool Music and
Exotic Locales

Its also interesting to note that the company was bold enough to show the product only at the last shot. That too for a very very small time.
I remember a report on afaqs about the same strategy used for the launch ad for Linea ( read the article here ). The article talks about the usual practice of advertisers using the long drawn product shots and using the entire airtime displaying the product and how the agency convinced Fiat to break this tradition.

It take lots of courage and persuasion to convince the client that some times it is better not to show too much of the product.

Tata Safari should be appreciated for being consistent in their positioning strategy. The brand has been reinforcing the same message but at the same time coming out with fresh ideas about reclaiming the life.

Related Brand

Tata Safari

Unwanted-72 : Bring Your Lost Moments Back

Brand : Unwanted-72

Company : Mankind Pharma

Brand Analysis Count : 377


I-pill now have a competition. Mankind Pharma . Mankind Pharma was established in 1995 and has its presence in antibiotics, ED , Gastro, Antifungal Cardio segments. The company has forayed into the OTC segment with a range of products from sanitary napkins to emergency pills.

Unwanted-72 is a morning-after pill. This emergency contraceptive pill is directly competing with the market leader i-pill from Cipla. I pill is the first OTC emergency contraceptive pill in India. These pills were allowed to market through OTC in 2005.

Unlike other contraceptive pills, emergency contraceptive pills are not a family planning tool. These pills are used to prevent unwanted pregnancy arising out of various situations like unexpected and unprotected intercourse.

I-pill has stirred up the market with a high profile, highly controversial ad campaign. The market has reacted quite positively to the product ever since.
As usual, the moral police of India has been creating lot of noise decrying this product as an anti-moral product. The noise made by these hypocrites have only helped increase the popularity of morning-after pills.

According to a report in Economic Times, 78% of pregnancies in India are unplanned and 5% are unwanted.There are about 1 million unsafe abortions in the country every year. Hence these pills offer a safe way to avoid pregnancy and abortion.

Critics say that the popularity of such emergency contraceptives will give wrong message to youngsters especially teens. These pills often acts as a confidence booster for these youngsters to go wild. These theories are based on the assumption that Indian Youth are the epitome of high moral values...
Another criticism about these products is that the marketers often suppress the information regarding side-effects of these pills.

Coming back to the brand, Mankind has been aggressive in tapping the emerging OTC product market in India. The company has been promoting its Sugar- substitute brand Kalorie 1 heavily using Wasim Akram as the brand ambassador.

Unwanted-72 has an interesting brand name. I was surprised at the brand name when I saw this brand's commercial . First I thought it was naive on the part of the company to name a contraceptive brand as Unwanted -72. The name sounded very amateurish and too theoretical. I thought i-pill was a stylish name compared to unwanted-72.

But later on further thinking, i found lot of logic in using such a brand name. According to text books, brand names have to be simple , easy to understand and remember and should be able to convey the purpose of the brand. If you look at theory , Unwanted-72 is an ideal brand name.

Unwanted denotes Unwanted Pregnancy
72 denotes the hours within which this pill has to be consumed after the intercourse.

So Unwanted-72 makes sense

or does it ?????

Well ... for a lady who is so tense and worried about a possibility of an unwanted pregnancy , does the brand name matters ?

Even if you put the brand name as After-Screwed - Up Pill, consumers will buy it provided it is effective..

My personal opinion is that the brand name is too amateurish .Parents will have tough time explaining it to a kid who sees the ad and asks about the product. In the company point of view , the brand name is so simple and direct, that every one can understand what the product is.If you are targeting a mass market, such a simple brand name is very advantageous.

Related Brand
I-pill

Unibic : You Deserve a Great Day

Brand : Unibic
Company : Unibic India
Agency : G3 ( Sister concern of Grey)


Brand Analysis Count : 376

I used to notice this brand of biscuit when I shop at the supermarket. But I did not buy since I thought it was an imported one. But to my surprise, I found it to be Indian -made when I checked the label. Now I am even more surprised to know that Unibic is one of the reputed biscuit manufacturers in the world.

Unibic is a Australian company established in 1950 known for manufacturing specialty biscuits and cookies. Unibic came to India in 2005. The company now have three brands : Anzac, Bradman and Butter Cookies.

Unibic is targeting the premium segment of the Rs 8000 crore biscuit market in India. The premium segment is only Rs 400 crore but offers a potential for growth in future.

The brand came to India with its two brands : Bradman and Anzac. Both these brands has an interesting story to tell.
Bradman cookies is chocolate chip cookies launched specifically in India. The company got the rigthts to use the name of the Legendary Don Bradman for this cookies. Chocolate Chip Cookies were the favorite cookies of this cricketing legend and Unibic got the rights from the Bradman Foundation.
Bradman Cookies was launched during the Bradman 20/20 cricket match held in 2005. But the brand went in for trouble with the Bradman family disputing the use of the legend's name for cookies.

Anzac is an interesting brand aswell. Infact when I saw this brand in the supermarket, I was not impressed with the brand name. It was a unusual name for a biscuit. But after reading about this brand, I am sure going to buy some.
Anzac stands for Australian & New Zealand Army Corps....
Yes.. .Anzac is a soldier's biscuit. This brand has a historical connection with the Army.
The story is that during the 1914 World War I , a new batallion was formed between Australian and New Zealand Armies which was called Anzac .
Anzac fought a heroic war in the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. The war was a costly failure.
The legend is that the wives, mothers and sweethearts of the Anzac soldiers lovingly baked soldier's biscuits which became known as Anzac biscuits.

Unibic launched Anzac biscuits to celebrate the tireless work of these ladies who baked the biscuits so that their loved ones could brave the tough times.

Unibic uses a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Anzac biscuits to help the war widows and those soldiers who lost their limbs during wars.

In India too, Unibic follows the same principle. 3% of the sales of Anzac biscuits are used to help war widows and Jawans who are in need of artifical limbs. ( source : unibic website)

Unibic follows a social marketing principle for all its brands. Globally , the company supports such social initiatives through association with various charitable organizations.

On the promotional side, the brand is not an aggressive promoter compared to its competitors. Infact some of their advertisements landed them into trouble in the past.
When Unibic was launched, it directly pitted itself against the market leader Britannia .
The tagline of Unibic was " Why have a Good Day when you can have a great day ? "

The ad was pitted against Brittannia Goodday which was the premium offering from Britannia.
Britannia challenged the ad in the court and Unibic had to take out the advertisement.

The brand had a couple of tvc also : Watch here
How ever the brand's campaign was not impressive compared to its competitor's high profile campaigns.

The biscuit market in India is a tough nut to crack . The branded segment is dominated by Brittannia and Sunfeast while there is a big unorganized segment dominated by local players. The consumers are also less brand loyal and the margins are also low owing to higher raw material costs.

Unibic does not concentrate on the mass market but is focusing on the niche like Speciality Cookes and Health Biscuits.
As of now, Unibic is very low in terms of share of mind and share of voice. The brand lacks proper positioning and also is keeping a low profile in promoting the product. It has gained lot of shelf space at the retailer end but if the consumer is not familiar with the brand, he is not going to give it a try.

Related brand
Sunfeast

Brand Update : Toyota Innova

Innova which created the luxury MPV segment in 2005 has reinvented itself . This January , Toyota launched a refurbished version of Innova. The new Innova has a new front bumper and have a sporty look . The interiors have also been spruced up.

Since its launch in 2005, the brand had a dream run. According to domain-b website, Toyota has sold over 1,60,000 units since its launch. The brand have a market share of over 36 percent in the segment.
The brand virtually ruled the premium segment without much competition. The brand also had the exemplary Toyota quality which created a benchmark for future competition.

The relaunch of Innova is a pre-emptive strategy by Toyota because of the recent launch of Mahindra Xylo. Toyota knew that Xylo can be a dangerous competitor. The simple fact that Mahindra shook the SUV market with Scorpio makes it a worthy comeptitor for Toyota.

So as a market leader, Innova had to respond to competition. I am impressed with the speed in which Innova reacted to Xylo launch. According to reports, the MPV segment witnessed a degrowth in 2008. Mahindra is expected to bring consumer interest back to the segment. The pricing and the quality of Xylo is reported to be good enough to give Innova a tough year ahead.

The degrowth of MPV segment is due to the lazy marketing by Innova. Innova also became laid back last year in terms of promotions and product improvements. The brand shot into limelight through some classy adverting featuring Aamir Khan. Later Aamir was dropped and Innova went into silence. There was just one campaign for Innova in 2008.

Although the MPV segment have few intra-segment competition, they compete with other segments. Hence the high profile launches of premium cars in other segments will have its effect on Innova.
In my personal opinion , consumers in India evaluate products across segments while making a decision. So a consumer may look at Scorpio and Skoda together and then make a choice. Hence when all other brands are making noise, Innova lost many customers because of its laid-back promotions.

Xylo has really warmed up this brand and Innova has responded early to the competition. The brand does not have much issues on the product side but there is an issue in the promotional side. The brand really needs a heavy dose of promotions to retain its glory.

I am sure that Innova may be missing Aamir Khan......

Related brand

Innova

Kohler : The Bold Look

Brand : Kohler
Company : Kohler India


Brand Analysis Count : 375

Kohler is a global brand which has a unique position as a designer kitchen and bathroom accessory brand. This American brand has a rich history dating back to 1883.

Kohler was launched in India in 2006. The company is in the business of power systems , kitchen and bath accessories. Indian bathroom accessory market is worth around Rs 2500 crore and Kohler is aiming the premium segment of the market.

The brand came into my notice when I saw the advertisement of Kohler, where the lady asks the famous architect to build a house around a faucet.

Watch the commercial here : Kohler Architect

I frankly did not like the ad. What in the world one would imagine such a situation where you fall in love with a faucet or a closet ? I thought it as absurd when a person wants the architect to build a house matching a bloody tap.

Infact that lousy ad prompted me to go and search for this brand. And surprisingly now I am impressed.Impressed because Kohler wants people to fall in love with their products. Impressed because of the kind of innovation that the company try to bring into a product like bathroom fittings, taps and closets.

It would not be an exaggaration to say that Kohler has an iconic status in this segment. The brand is in the forefront of innovation and some of the products are really mind-blowing.

For example, Kohler has a brand - Purist Hatbox toilet which is a one piece tankless toilet .It has electronic actuation and Quiet close toilet seats. The design is totally unique and minimalistic.

The brand hence want to be a desire- object. Another interesting thing about this brand is its commercials. It is sad that Kohler chose its worst commercial for India.

Actually Kohler is famous for some of their commercials. One such campaign is known as " As I See it " .
In this campaign, Kohler partners with nationally recognized artists and photographers and create ads . The artists are free to use Kohler products to create the imagery. This campaign has won several awards for the brand. The campaign was launched in 2002 and is executed by the brand's ad agency GSD&M Idea City. Kohler launched the campaign in India in 2008.

Kohler globally has been positioned as an object of desire, unconventional and bold. The brand has the tagline " The Bold Look " . The " Bold Look" campaign originated in 1960 when the brand tried to experiment with bold , unconventional designs. The Bold Look later bacame the reflection of the culture and attitude of the company. If you closely look at most of their products, the brand has tried to break away from the conventional mould.

Kohler is trying to create a new perception about bath fittings and accessories. The brand is targeting the upwardly mobile Indian consumer segment who would like to have the best of all worlds. More over , bathroom fittings and faucets have become lifestyle products. Indian consumers are now mimicking the west for their home designs. People now want " dry " bathrooms , bathrooms which look like " living rooms "....

All these have created huge potential for a designer brand like Kohler.

Related Brand
Parryware