Brand Update : Liril

After a long long time, the iconic Liril is back. Yesterday I saw the new tvc for Liril. The campaign looks foreign, complete with foreign models and settings.

The new tvc talks about 2000 points in our body which when touched will refresh us!!!! The ad uses the theme of a playful interaction between a father and baby to drive home the power of touch and these 2000 sensitive body points.

The ad claims that using Liril will rejuvenate those 2000 body points to keep you FRESH...

Well... some brands will never learn from mistakes. After the dumping of the famous imagery of Liril girl and the waterfall, the brand has never recovered. The fall of this iconic brand was accelerated by some stupid campaigns like Uff Umma and mindless product-line extensions like Orange Liril.

Now comes another half-hearted attempt to rejuvenate the brand. Although the new ad has a touch of class, it does not gel with the brand image of Liril that we had in our mind.

Another interesting development is that the entire product has also being changed. The brand packaging has been changed to dark green and the shape of the soap is changed to rectangle.

I still don't understand why the brand has not thought about bringing back its iconic positioning on freshness and its brand element of waterfall and still famous music. I am not saying that the brand should exactly replicate the earlier ads but it can creatively take advantage of that brand image which is still there in the consumer's mind.

Liril's consumers has become old and the new generation does not know much about this brand. But the collective memory and images are still there in the consumer space. It is also interesting to note that no other brand has been able to take up the space of Liril. So there is still lot of opportunity for Liril but going by the new campaign, that opportunity has been wasted miserably.

As a consumer , I still miss this soap.



Related brand
Liril

Brand Update : Eveready

After a long period of silence, Eveready is back on the media space. The brand has launched a new campaign in 2009.The new campaign, known as The Red Light Painters in the ad world , is already making noise among the advertising community.

Watch the ad here : The Redlight Commercial

One of the welcome development with the new campaign is that Eveready has gone back to the famous classic tagline " Give Me Red". Earlier, Eveready has changed its iconic tagline to ' Kuch to hai extra".
The current campaign is for Eveready Ultima batteries.

Frankly speaking , I did not understand the new Eveready commercial. The commercial started with the message that it was made entirely from LED lights, torches and camcoders. And then there was a mouse and the Eveready cat ..... Finally the cat caught the mouse.. That is what I understood.

Today Afaqs carried a story on the new commercial. Read it here.

Only then I understood that there was a story behind the commercial. According to afaqs, the brand is targeting the 15-25 yr olds. May be I did not understood because I am not in the TG.

My feeling is that the new commercial does not tell anything to the consumers. There is no compelling story about Eveready and how the brand is different from its competitors.

The brand is going to face a critical survival issue in future. More and more products are now running on rechargable batteries. Except for clocks and torches, most products which used disposable batteries are now being used with rechargable batteries. For products like clocks, consumers are not too worried about the brand. They will choose any of the major players rather than be loyal.

So in such a scenario, Eveready should be chalking out a survival strategy. It is not about the brand but about the product category.
In my case as a consumer, let me give you the list of products that run on battery in my house : Three clocks
Two remotes
Two Torches

While the new age products like cameras, Ipods, Mobiles,laptops are using rechargable batteries that comes bundled with the product.
In such a scenario, the market for non-rechargable battery market will be limited to a certain households and certain products. There are chances that the entire category getting extinct in future .
I personally think that Eveready is suffering from marketing myopia. The brand has not forayed into mobile batteries or laptop batteries. India is a big market for mobile phones. And typically the batteries need to be replaced. But never seen the brand venturing into this market dominated by chinese makes.

Even in the rechargable segment , Eveready has not done anything to expand the market. These areas may drive the business in future. If the brand is focusing on urban market, without a presence in these segments, I doubt how the brand will survive focusing on the traditional non rechargable batteries.

How ever, I am glad that the " Give Me Red " is back .

Related Brand
Eveready

Marketing Funda : Logic of brand extensions

My article on logic of brand extensions published in adclubbombay.com : read it here

Marketing Funda : The Difficult Task of Differentiation

My article on Differentiation published in Adclubbombay.com : Read it here

Brand Update : Fastrack

Fastrack has recently launched a new campaign based on its new positioning " Move On " .The latest campaign comes in two version - His Story and Her Story

Watch the commercial here : His Story
Watch the commercial here : Her Story

The new ads are an extension of the Move On positioning of the brand. The brand is based on the current psyche of youth .The premise of the new positioning is that Indian Youth tend to be very "detached " in their relationships.

The new campaign has taken this premise to a new level. While the previous campaign was based on a romance break up , the new campaign goes deeper than just flirting.

The ad is definitely interesting and the two versions makes it more interesting. The younger crowd is going to enjoy it .

How ever the question is whether the brand is taking the Move On concept a bit too far. It is true that such kind of dating and experiments happen and the debate is still there as to whether such a kind of indulgence is to be encouraged or not.

I am not a moral advocate or a Srirama sena member !!! . I personally believe that it is the choice of an individual to live the life he/she wants provided it is within the social framework.

It may be true that the younger generation are non-committal in their relationship. It is also true that there is a trend of irreverence and " take it or leave it " attitude prevalent among the urban youth community.

But the question is whether a brand like Fastrack should align with such a trend ?

Read the perspective of Adman Lakshmipathy Bhatt here .


There is nothing immoral or unethical in the new TVC. But I personally feel that such a trend among the new generation is not something that should be celebrated.

"Gotta get rid of him " and " Who s next " seems too extreme for me ( conservative as Iam). How ever I am sure that the youth will love it .


Related brand

Fastrack

Premium : Pleasure,Ecstasy ,Euphoria

Brand : Premium
Company : JK Helene Curtis

Agency : Impulse

Brand Analysis Count : 401

Premium is one of the most under utilized brand in the Indian personal care category. A brand which has been in existence for more than 40 years has not been able to make its mark in Indian market.

Premium is a brand owned by JK Helene Curtis which is a Raymond's group company. Despite from a group that owns iconic brands like Raymond's and Park Avenue, Premium failed to reach anywhere near its peers.

What usually comes to my mind about this brand is its Cologne. Premium Cologne is one of the very few affordable colognes in the Indian market. I was initially surprised at the price of this brand because I felt that Premium would cost more.

Premium brand is not a failed brand . Infact company claims that Premium is the market leader in room fresheners.

Premium is an umbrella brand that endorses various products like Talc, Shaving products,perfumes and Room fresheners. There are experts who argue that the unrelated extensions have created problems for the brand.

In a report in Business Line, another brand expert suggested that the brand name Premium has created positioning issues for the brand. The name has caused a perception that the product is priced higher which created a problem of Narrow Positioning.

But more than the brand name, Premium is languishing because of lack of marketing effort. The company has never cared to create a Brand DNA for Premium. There is no brand manthra, no core brand values or a brand persona. There is not even a tagline that gives the brand an identity. There is also no memorable brand campaigns.

I personally feels that the company is not able to fit the brand in its portfolio along with Park Avenue. Park Avenue has its own range of men's toiletries and Premium may be sidelined for making space for Park Avenue range.

Premium is really a sad story. The brand has a good name, a good company to back it and an opportunity in the market but there is no will from the brand owners to develop it.