World Player : Be a World Player

Brand : World Player
Company : Skumars

Brand Analysis Count : # 482

Another brand which has the potential to shake up the readymade market in India- World Player from Skumars is on the national rollout. But the eternal question remains - Can it meet the potential ?

World Player was launched by Skumars in 2010. It took almost one year for this brand to scale up the presence across the states. It is surprising that a national brand like SKumars would take such a long time to scale up the presence of a brand which has so much potential. 

The brand has a huge potential for two reasons :

• It is endorsed by Sachin Tendulkar.
• It is priced very very competitively.

I am not a big fan of celebrity endorsement strategy and I don't believe that all brands endorsed by Sachin have high potential. But for World Player, the presence of Sachin Tendulkar will add tremendous equity . I have a feeling that Sachin will do to World Player what Sunil Gavaskar has done to Dinesh Suitings. 

One of the factors that aid this brand is the pricing. One would expect this brand to be priced anywhere above Rs 1000, but surprisingly  Skumars has decided to price this brand between Rs 100- Rs 500. The brand is targeting youngsters aged 18-35 yrs. This brand is going to be a Mass Prestige brand.

By making pricing affordable, the brand has truly taken the price out of the equation in terms of marketing mix. Now branding and communication will decide the direction for the brand. Skumars should be commented because it didnot outprice the brand eventhough it had a celebrity like Sachin. Skumars has learned that lesson from its brand Tamariind which priced itself out of the market though endorsed by Hrithik Roshan.

By pricing the brand at Rs 100 - 500, the brand has not made itself cheap but affordable. The presence of Sachin Tendulkar will make the brand aspirational . I have seen a hoarding of the brand featuring Sachin and the brand had truly made itself aspirational. 

The brand uses the tagline " Be a World Player " which although a very plain basic tagline, will give creatives lot of space to work with. The tagline connects well with the brand ambassador also.

Skumars recently had lot of success with celebrity driven brand promotion. Be it Belmonte endorsed by SRK or Reid and Taylor endorsed by Big B, The company aims to break into the larger mass market with the cricket maestro Sachin. 

The presence of Sachin will create lot of expectations about the brand interms of the quality and design. The brand have to meet that high expectations which will be an Herculean task at a lower price-point.

The success of the brand will also depend on the brand's advertising strategy ( positioning) , the quality which it can deliver at the lower price points and the distribution. Skumars has a rich history and managing these will not be an issue. 

The only issue is the brand's future after the celebrity. But for now,  I am optimistic that the brand will truly create lot of ripples in the market.

Brand Update : Fiama Di Wills targets Men

Fiama Di Wills , the premium brand from ITC has now turned attention towards the growing men's grooming market. The brand has relaunched its range targeting the ever- beauty-conscious men by extending the Fiama Di Wills brand. 

Fiama Di Wills tried to enter the men's market in 2009 by launching a sub-brand Aqua Pulse. Fiama Di Wills Aqua Pulse shower gel was the product launched during that year.

This season saw a relaunch of the brand in shower gel and soap (bathing bar) form. Fiama Di Wills is currently running a TVC for the extension.

Watch the ad here : Fiama Men

This time around , the brand restricted the Aqua Pulse sub-brand to the shower gel variant and is using Fiama Di Wills brand to endorse the bathing bar while Aqua Pulse is mentioned in very small font.The main USP of the new variant is the sea minerals ingredient.

ITC has been putting heavy investment on the Vivel and Fiama brand portfolio. The brand has huge share of voice across the media. The equity of Fiama Di Wills will drive the initial sales of this variant.

I thought of Fiama Di Wills as a unisex brand and even though Deepika Padukone is the brand ambassador , the brand has been targeting both the genders. The launch of a specialized soap exclusively for men points to the effort of the brand to target this segment using a separate product. The launch also points to the recent trend in the Indian consumer family where individuals members like husband , wife, kids etc use separate  brands. 

One factor I noticed about Fiama Di Wills is the absence of a positioning platform for the parent brand. When the brand was launched, it had the positioning - Beautiful you , today , tomorrow. Later the tagline was lost among the numerous variants and campaigns. With the launch of multiple products targeting various segments, the brand needs to have a common positioning platform which connects all the variants together. Otherwise, the brand will have a confused state of existence in the consumer's mind. 

Related brand 

Fiama Di Wills

Polycrol : Express Relief

Brand : Polycrol
Company : Piramal Healthcare


Brand Analysis Count : # 481

Indian Antacid market is worth around Rs 250 crores and growing at around 10% annually. The market offlate has been witnessing lot of activity with major players running a series of campaign across the media. 

The antacid market consists of prescription products and OTC products. Many brands have crossed over to OTC market to tap the larger potential market. 

Polycrol is a brand from Piramal group that is now launched nationally in the OTC antacid market. The brand which has a 40 year old history is a popular brand in the eastern markets of India. The brand is currently running a series of campaign in the television media.

The Indian antacid market is dominated by brands like Digene, Gelusil, Pudin Hara Eno etc. Digene is mainly a prescription brand while Gelusil is the leading brand in the OTC segment. 

Polycrol has chosen a benefit positioning approach. The brand, like Gelusil, is positioned as a brand that helps people to indulge as a foodie without any fear. But compared to Gelusil, Polycrol was able to execute the positioning in an interesting manner.

Watch the ads here : Polycrol ad 1, Polycrol ad 2 

The brand rightly captured the benefit of the product and conveyed in a simple but effective manner. 

In a marketing perspective, the brand was able to create an awareness through this campaign. Although this brand is in existence for over 40 years, I came to know about this brand only after the current ad campaign. 

Polycrol has entered the market which has brands like Gelusil. Gelusil has unmatched brand awareness and equity in the market. So fighting the leader is not easy for Polycrol.

Through the current campaign, although Polycrol has established awareness, the critical question is How this brand is better /different from other antacid brands ? Since the brand has positioned itself in the same platform as Gelusil, the question of differentiation arises. 

Polycrol is now promoting its nano pack priced at Rs 15 but does not talk much on the differentiation aspect. The thinking is that since Gelusil does not have a credible competitor , creating awareness and parity will drive more sales for the brand. The next step for the brand is to create the point of difference which is credible and sustainable. 

The pack talks about 'Express Relief ' and I think that the brand will be trying to differentiate on that platform.  It will be an interesting brand to watch for .

Brand Update : RIP Logan ( 2007-2011) , Welcome Verito

Logan is being laid to rest. Mahindra Rise , the new owner of Logan has decided to rebrand Logan to Mahindra Verito. The death of Logan marks the volatile life of a brand and the logical end of a sour Joint Venture between Renault and Mahindra.

The death of Logan brings into life a new brand Mahindra Verito. The product has a new brand name and a new set of marketing mix elements too ( may be except distribution  channel). It is expected that Mahindra will make some cosmetic change to the existing Logan and bring in a new identity for Verito. Verito is derived from the Latin word Veritas which means truth. It is said that Mahindra is particular that its vehicles name should end with O hence the name change !

The good news is that Verito will ensure that the car which is considered to be a good product suited to Indian conditions will continue its life. Mahindra is keen to develop new products based on the Logan platform and this ensures that the legacy of the brand will go on. And the existing owners of Logan can be relieved because the service support will continue. All these however depends on the success of Verito and the future relationship between Renault and Mahindra.

The rebranding of Logan to Verito makes sense to Mahindra because it marks the formal entry of the company into passenger car segment. Since the product is good, Mahindra needs to work on the branding part and the service support and I am sure that Verito will be a formidable brand in the market. 

Related Brand

Mahindra Logan 

Brand Update : Daikin focuses on Country of Origin Positioning

It has been 5 years since I updated about this brand. Last time I wrote about this brand, Daikin was having a fair share of  voice with lot of ads focusing on the Silence attribute. The brand was running the " Complete Silence " ads for a while and then went into silence for five long years. I don't remember any campaign from Daikin  during the last five years ( atleast in my place). But even without any hype, the brand still commands around 5% of the Indian  residential A/C market. The brand may be doing the sales activities in the B2B market in these years but in the consumer market, Daiken was having complete silence.

In this IPL 2011, the brand started making some noise. The brand is now showing some reminder ads and the presence is also felt in OOH media. 

What is interesting about the brand now is that it has been repositioned. The brand has done away with the attribute based positioning and is trying out the Country of Origin proposition. The brand has adopted the positioning " With Love from Japan " . From a highly creative Complete Silence to basic Made in Japan  tag seems intriguing.

Along with the tag, the brand seems to have adopted some aspects of  parent company's approach to branding. Infact the brand has imported some brand elements from the parent. Daikin now introduces a mascot for the brand - a character called  Pichon- Kun. Pichon-Kun is a mascot which is a droplet with a small body. The mascot embodies the brand's philosophy of best of nature, fresh and eco-friendly. 

Globally, the brand uses the tagline " Here , There , Everywhere". 

The new brand line " With Love from Japan " at first sounded very archaic to me. I thought that the era of Made in Japan tag was over. But on thinking, I have a feeling that this could work in practical sense better than high profile branding stuff. The association of quality and innovation is still very much connected with  Japanese products. But the issue is that most of Japanese brands sell their Chinese made products so the manufacturing excellence associated with Japanese products have diminished significantly. If Daikin could reinforce the connection of quality and Country of Origin, then the consumers will embrace the product.

The brand has been existence in India for the last 10 years . The brand has a market share of hardly 5 %. This surely means that the brand has not reached its potential. One of the factor being the lack of investment in brand building. 

The brand can boost its sales if it could position itself as a true blood Japanese product (like Toyota) emphasizing on quality , innovation etc. But that need a series of campaigns reinforcing each of those attributes rather than just advertising the  " Made in Japan " tag.

Related post

Daikin - Complete silence  

Maa : Sweet Taste of Success

Brand : Maa
Company : Cavin Kare

Brand Analysis Count : # 480

Maa is a serious challenger brand in the Rs 500 crore Indian fruit juice market. This South Indian brand is on the way to a national launch is expected to give a tough competition to brands like Frooti and Maaza. Maa brand was originally created by Maa Fruits Pvt Ltd. The brand was acquired by CavinKare in 2008. Ever since the acquisition, the brand has been growing consistently in the markets like Kerala and TamilNadu. 

The Indian non-carbonated Beverage market is around Rs 3500 crore and of which fruit based drinks constitute around Rs 3000 crore. The market is divided into various categories like 100 % fruit juices, fruit based drinks ( that has less than 20% fruit pulp) , nectars which has fruit pulp between 25% -85%.

Maa for the last two years has been consolidating its position in the South India. The brand has scored well interms of distribution reach and brand awareness. The brand is closely associated with the mango flavor but also has three more flavors - Apple Guava and Pineapple.

Maa has also invested lot of money in brand promotion. The brand had adopted a positioning strategy based on aspiration and success during the relaunch in 2008-2009 under Cavinkare. The brand targeted the young consumers and positioned itself as a brand that will refresh you to move towards success in life.

Watch the ad here : Maa Success

In 2010, the brand resegmented the market and ran a campaign targeting kids rather than older consumers. The brand is running this commercial in the media this season.

Watch the ad here : Maa Mother 

The two ads however are poles apart interms of marketing strategy. Since the company is going to fight the likes of Frooti and Maaza, it will be proper if the brand identifies the right STP.

The success of Maa in South India is largely driven by smart distribution strategies. The brand is heavily promoted by the retailers and in some cases the retailers stock only this brand and no other mango drink. Since consumers are willing to switch between brands in the case of beverage category , Maa was able to boost the sales and establish connection with the consumers. The brand will be hoping to recreate the same strategy in the Northern market also.

In the branding front, the lack of a clear positioning is evident from the past campaigns. Maa needs to have clarity in its brand manthra and core value proposition. The brand is highly associated with Mango drink and the brand should be clear whether it should reinforce that association or try to position itself as a multi-fruit drink. Getting retailer support will also be a key determinant of the success of Maa in the National market. 

It is good to see a brand growing and scaling up for more challenges and a larger market. Maa should get its marketing funda sharp and clear and then take on the leaders with confidence.