Marketing Funda : Above The Line & Below The Line

Above the Line ( ATL) and Below The Line ( BTL) are the two most commonly used terms in marketing. Both these refer to the nature of promotional activities done by companies.

The simple and most common definition for Above the Line promotions is that ATL refers to all promotional activities done by companies through mass media. In common parlance Advertising is the major ATL activity and all other form of promotions except direct marketing falls below the line.

There is another jargon Through The Line (TTL) which refers to the activities that try to integrate both ATL and BTL.

Both ATL and BTL jargons does not form a part of the core marketing concepts hence you will not find a clear academic definition in marketing text books ( esp. Kotler).

Above The Line and Below The Line terms are centered around the word " LINE". So it is essential to understand the meaning of the term LINE inorder to see the difference between the two jargons.

Interestingly the term LINE is hypothetical and there is no defined boundary that exists between ATL and BTL

According to Mr Michael John Baker ( The Marketing Book) , the term came into forefront in 1954 through the practice of Proctor and Gamble, where the advertising agencies were paid differently from those who undertook promotional activities other than advertising. Marketers began to delineate activities other than advertising as a separate marketing practice called Below the Line Promotion.

Below The Line promotions include sales promotions, consumer promotions, PR, events , point of purchase promotions and all those unconventional tools that marketers adopt. Direct Marketing how ever could not be fitted into both these jargons and hence is kept stand alone.

Frankly there is no need for such a hypothetical boundary and classifications like ATL and BTL. The current developments that are happening in the media space makes such jargons highly irrelevant. Because boundaries are blurring. Now we see consumer promotions heavily advertised in mass media. Events are highly publicized using advertising, so the LINE is actually non-existant.

For example a viral video in Youtube which is watched by millions of netizens can be theoretically put as a BTL but it is reaching even more people than the traditional media like TV and print. The recent ZooZoo campaign of Vodafone cannot be bracketted along ATL and BTL because the campaign has already become viral with many blogs writing about it. The campaign was designed to be viral.

Fa : Feel Good Freshness

Brand : Fa
Company : Henkel
Agency : Mudra

Brand Analysis Count : 397

Fa is one of the largest deo brand in India. The brand is from the global giant Henkel. I was surprised to know that Fa is one of the largest selling body care brand in Europe.
Fa was launched in India in 2000. The brand has a portfolio of talcs ,deos,bodywash, soap etc. It is a personal care brand endorsing multiple products.

Fa is famous in India for its range of Deos. I used to buy their unique glass bottled roll on deos that comes in various fragrances like Aqua, Lemon etc.

Despite its legacy and its international pedigree, Fa has not got the kind of respect an international brand gets.That is why the brand is still a small brand in the personal care segment compared to the brands like Lux, Ponds etc.

Fa globally is positioned on Freshness. Its global tagline is " Feel Good Freshness".

Regarding the marketing practices of this brand in the Indian market , Fa was never an aggressive player in terms of promotion or brand building. I remember a couple of ads of this brand but no memorable promotional campaigns. How ever the brand was able to create a strong association with freshness which is a strength for this brand.

Watch an ad for Fa here : Pink or Black

Most of the ads of Fa was directly imported from its parent brand's database. The advantage of foreign ads is that it creates an international image . But the biggest disadvantage is that the local connect will be lost. Brands like AXE escaped this danger but Fa failed to create a connect with the Indian consumer.

Why Axe was successful because they were talking to a globally connected younger crowd. But Fa is talking to an older crowd who do not feel connected with the brand. That is why this brand is not able to reach its potential.

Understandably this brand operates on a limited budget. Hence one cannot equate the promotinoal activities of Fa with brands like Axe. But  I have a feeling that the brand undertakes sporadic promotional campaigns rather than an organized contonuous brand campaign. 

As a consumer, it has been a long while since I came across any campaign of Fa either in print or in visual media. Henkel is a global gaint and has the money power to drive reasonable brand promotion. 

Fa had a relaunch in 2004 when the company undertook a rationalization of its product portfolio . Fa was identified as a core brand and its ad spend increased. 

Fa fights with the best brands in one of the hottest segment in the Indian consumer market. It battles the gaints like P&G, HUL and the likes. Fa also has a rich heritage and international pedigree. What the brand needs is the WoW factor and a great campaign. Dove made it to the iconic league through a great campaign - campaign for real beauty.

Fa desperately needs a break-through campaign. Freshness platform is a very relevant positioning for the brand but the brand has to utilize this platform through some clutter breaking campaign. If the brand continues to import its international campaign and continues its unorganized /unfocused media spends, the brand will at best survive in its current position. 

Fa has some good products , what it needs is some breakthrough campaigns.

Brand Update : Loreal

Business Line (30/04/09) had an interesting news. L'Oreal is going to bring out sachets. L'Oreal has been in the Indian market for the past 15 years. The brand is positioned as a premium skin care brand and enjoyed tremendous equity among the upper segments of the consumers. The brand have the famous tagline " You are Worth It " and the brand is endorsed by WHO is WHO of the glamour world.

The move evoked two set of reactions in me. The consumer inside me was happy because the brand became affordable while the marketing person inside me was apprehensive about the dilution of premium image due to this affordable SKU.

Sachet has been a double edged sword for most of the fmcg marketers. This SKU offered tremendous volume potential. In the game of sachets, there is no premium class . There is only one class -Affordable class. On the other hand, it is a tough task for marketers to get customers to move to the high margin bottles.

The question is whether the availability of Loreal products at the price points of Rs 5 or Rs 7 will dilute the brand equity ? Will the higher segments drift away from this brand because the product now has a low priced SKU.

Since this is India, the lower price point is only going to benefit the brand sales. Indians love value for money Masstige brands. The new affordable SKU will bring in lot of customers who once thought that the brand was unreachable / unaffordable.

This will enable the brand to get into a new set of customers who shied away from the brand. But the difficult task is to get the brand in all the shop formats ( if the company is aiming volume). Putting the brand in a sachet and restricting the distribution will not yield desirable results.

The only issue for the brand is to make the consumers trade up for larger SKU because sachets are low margin units.

Related Brand

Loreal

Read BL report here

Brand Update : Spinz

Spinz now has a new brand ambassador. The brand has roped in the new bollywood diva Genelia as the brand ambassador replacing Asin. According to a report in Business Line, the brand had revamped its entire portfolio. Spinz had launched men's deo versions trying to make the brand unisex.

According to BL, Spinz has a market share of 5 % in Rs 450 crore deo market. Axe leads the market with a share of 23 %.The report also pegs the talc market at Rs 800 crore and Spinz has a share of 7 %.

The brand will retain its youth positioning. It came as a surprise to me that Spinz had launched male deos. I don't remember seeing any ads but if it is true, then the brand will have trouble because Spinz will essentially be perceived as a female brand. And Genelia will further reinforce the brand as a girly brand.

Spinz has not been able to leverage the opportunity of an affordable fragrance brand. The new brand ambassador may give some push to the brand but in my personal opinion, rather than depending on a celebrity , the brand should identify and invest in its own USP

Related Brand
Spinz

As I See It : Creativity Vs Extravaganza

Frankly I was shocked to see today's ( 30/04/09) Hindu Business Line. The front cover page was just a blank white sheet with the Business Line Masthead. A closer look reveals a two figures at the middle of the sheet with a "turn overleaf " message below.

In the middle it was written 2009 crore (2007-08) --- 3007 crore (2008-09)netprofit

Turning overleaf revealed that the ad was for Bank of India which announced its annual results. The results' details were published in the full innercover page advertisement.

The result is pretty impressive - a net profit growth of 50%.
But the Ad is not ....

White spaces are good... but too much white space shows that there is a hole in the pocket.

This is a time where every penny is precious. Whether it is a bank which is making huge profits or a business which is trying hard to survive. Here we see a full page wasted just like that with no purpose whatsoever.

There is no big idea . Remember it is not a brand building ad. It is an ordinary process for publishing annual results. That is why such a spending is nothing but a sheer waste of valuable marketing money.

There are many ways of telling the public about this stellar results. Let the top management visit all channels and give interviews, let the PR department make this result come in the front page of all newspapers. That is how such results should be marketed not by blasting money publishing white spaces in the front cover.

I had worked in media and I know how much such an ad costs. Definitely this is not the time for such lavishness. Every Paise counts.

John Wanamaker once said "Half the money I spend on Advertising is wasted;the trouble is I don't know which half ".

Pearlpet : Har Dil Ka Pet

Brand : Pearlpet
Company : Pearl Polymers
Agency : Imagine

Brand Analysis Count : 396

Pearlpet is a highly successful brand. So successful that the brand has become generic to the category. This is a brand that transformed the Indian kitchenware market. I still remember times where my mother used to store those curry powders in the Horlicks Glass bottles. Now a look the row of plastic containers in the kitchen speaks about the change that this brand has made to the Indian households.

PET stands for Poly Ethylene Terephthelate. PET bottles offered a very convenient safe storage solution for both the industry and households .

PET storage solutions have application in both industry and consumer segments. The pet bottles are used for packaging in various business like Softdrinks, Confectionery etc.

Pearlpet is a brand which was very popular at the home segment.The brand replaced the glass bottles and became the choicest storage solution for the households.
Pearlpet infact satisfied a need for a safe durable storage solution. Glass bottles were very good but had an inherent disadvantage of being unsafe and breakable.

PET jar offered a solution for this.The bottles were looking good, came in convenient sizes and shapes, was unbreakable and priced reasonable.

Pearpet was the first one to create a brand in this emerging category. Pearlpet was introduced in the Indian market in 1984. During those days, the brand advertised heavily and reports say that Malaika Arora was a model for this brand.

On the industrial market segment, the increasing number of brands in the fmcg ,softdrinks and confectionary segment increased the scope of PET products. Pharmaceutical segment also was a huge opportunity for such packaging solutions.

Pearlpet faces competition from two fronts. The greatest threat was from the unorganized local manufacturers. Since consumers do not significantly see a difference between branded and unbranded products, they choose the low priced unbranded bottles and packs. Chinese products also give a huge competition for Pearlpet.

At the higher end of the market, direct marketing giants like Tupperware and international brands like Rubbermaid has carved a niche for itself. They are giving competition at the premium end of the market.

In this highly competitive scenario,Pearlpet however is not aggressive in taking on the competition. The brand is still resting on its laurels. I do not remember seeing any ads/promos of this brand in recent times.Consumers now do not see much difference between Pearlpet and other unbranded ones. This is akin to leaving the entire market open for all competitors.

Pearlpet is missing out opportunities of grabbing maximum from a market which it had created. The brand still have a huge equity which it should nourish and invest . Although reports suggest that the brand have a larger share, the lack of brand promotion can be the Achilles Heel for this brand.