Brand Update : Havells Ventures into Small Appliances

Havells brand which made everyone look up with its clutter-breaking  " Shock Laga " ad has diversified into small appliances. Indian small appliances market is worth around Rs 5000 crore with premium segment contributing around Rs 1000 crore ( Source : Business Standard)

Havells is now running its commercials announcing the launch of the domestic appliances. By the theme of the ads, it is assumed that the foray is targeting the premium segment. Indian domestic appliances market is highly fragmented and intensely competitive. Brands like Philips, Bajaj  etc dominates the market. There are also local brands which have powerful equity in certain product-lines. Havells have already marked its presence in fans and water heater product categories.

Havells would be hoping that it can leverage the equity of its electrical products into the new product range. This time also , there is no specific brand value or USP that Havells is trying to project although subtly the ads try to position the brand as futuristic or technologically superior. In some ads, Havells is displaying the tagline " Future Ready " implying the futuristic technology that its product has. Having said that , the ads are able to convey the premiumness of the brand quite effectively.

I still see the absence of a corporate tagline for Havells as one of its major branding mistake. Since the brand is trying to be an umbrella brand endorsing products across categories, it is important to create a positioning platform for the corporate brand. Hope that the brand will get serious about its parent brand's positioning.

Related brand
Havells- Shock Laga Kya

Brand Update : Sure taps men's deo market

Unilever's global brand Sure which was launched in 2010 has launched a new variant Sure Men's Deo in the Indian market. The brand is a pioneer in developing the anti-perspirant deo category in India.Sure was initially launched as a women's deo. The brand initially imported its global commercials in India and later adopted a local communication strategy roping in celebrity endorsers like Bollywood actress Asin. 

Indian deo market is worth Rs 900 crore and growing at a pace of 25% ( source). 70% of this market is men's deo. Hence it make sense for Sure to launch a variant tapping this large segment.

The brand variant took the celebrity endorsement route by roping in the action hero Akshay Kumar as the brand ambassador. The brand is running a television campaign featuring the star.
Watch the ad here : Sure men
Thankfully the brand did not take the " seducing women" route and chose a rational positioning instead. The variant follows the same positioning of the parent brand - No Sweat.
The USP of Sure men's deo is that it works even at 58degree Celsius highlighting its efficacy in relatively hot Indian weather conditions. There is nothing much to talk about the creative part of the ad since it follows the same stereotyped typical Akshay Kumar commercial.
As a consumer, I feel that the anti-perspirant brands needs to take consumers in to confidence regarding the health-related worry of such products. A lot of consumers have  a worry whether anti-perspirants are good for health because it stops the formation of sweat which is essential for the regulation of body temperatures. Many consumers are shying away from the use of anti-perspirant because of this worry.
The deo market is getting crowded with lot of players vying for a pie of this growing category. Sure is trying to standout of the crowd by focusing on its " effectiveness". The endorsement from Akshay Kumar gives a definite advantage for this brand for sure.

Related Brand
Sure deo

Brand Update : Rasna brings back " I Love You Rasna " Tagline

After around 5 years of messing up and experimenting with various taglines and positioning, Rasna has reverted to its original and famous tagline " I Love You Rasna " in 2011. The brand is now running a campaign for Rasna Fruitplus with the original tagline.

Watch the ad here : Rasna 2011 ad 

The brand from 2006 has been unnecessarily dabbling with its taglines and positioning. The change in the classic tagline was  prompted by increased competition and to attempt to attract youth towards the brand. The tagline of Rasna was first changed to " Relish a Gain ". Then came the tagline " Taste the madness".The campaign theme was also drastically altered. The cute girl child which formed the protagonist was changed. The target segment was also changed to include adults.  The brand was totally confused as to how to go about attracting the youth who were hooked to aerated softdrinks. Rasna could have attempted this using a sub-brand rather than changing the parent brand's positioning strategy. 

One good thing that the brand did was to focus on the health platform. But the communication during these years were totally below average ( personal opinion ). Another smart marketing practice adopted by Rasna was to launch products at interesting price points like 50 paisa, Rs.5 Rs.10,Rs.15, Rs.20 to Rs 85. The brand came out with smaller packs, Sachets and a packaging innovation like Rasna Sticks at Rs 5. These price points acted as a strong entry barrier for the competing brands.

Rasna is the market leader in the power-segment of Rs 1000 crore Indian prepared beverages market. The powdered beverages segment is valued around Rs 400-450 crore. Source : Business Standard.  The market has witnessed lot of competition but these competitors were not able to make a big dent in the market share of Rasna. Even the globally renowned brand like Tang was not able to make its mark in the Indian market. 

The brand hold tremendous recall and equity in the market and is the preferred choice to consumers thanks to the earlier brand building efforts. The kids who relished the " I love you Rasna " era has now grown up and the brand needs to establish the same connect with the next generation. Unlike the earlier Rasna generation, the new kids are growing up with Pepsi, Coke and Lays. 

In the last few years, the brand was trying to woo the so called " Youth " towards itself and messing up the brand. Afaqs Reports say that the brand earlier desperately wanted to break out of the earlier positioning worrying that it will be perceived as a kid's brand . I don't understand why the brand wanted to breakout from kid's market ( which is sufficiently large). In that process, the brand went into a positioning mess. 

How ever, Rasna did many right things in the other marketing mix elements. The brand priced itself smartly, launched many variants including squash and glucose powder , strengthened its distribution reach . 

Now the brand got back to the old ways. I am not sure about the reasons for this reversal of positioning strategy. How ever, it brings back the old memories for sure. 

Related Brand.

Rasna

Brand Update : Blackberrys wants to Go Sharp

India's premium textile brand- Blackberrys has been relaunched with a new positioning. The brand which earlier expressed itself as 'Sharp, Smooth and Sure ' now decided to be Sharp. Blackberrys is now running a television campaign with the new positioning.

Watch the new ad here : Blackberrys Go Sharp

The brand has not gone for a major repositioning exercise but has attempted to tweak its positioning and focus on one core brand value. The brand Blackberrys had three brand values which formed its positioning strategy. The key attributes were Sharp, Smooth and Sure ( Intelligent, Classy/Fashionable and Confident). Now the brand decided to focus on one attribute ie Sharpness in the brand communication. The tagline of Blackberrys has been changed to " Go Sharp". 

Having said that , the brand has not fully removed the other attributes. The new campaign also touches on fashion and confidence attribute but the most visible communication is anchored around ' sharpness'. According to a newsreport , the brand owners feel that the earlier positioning is too lengthy for the consumers to understand. Hence there arouse a need for a shorter positioning statement . Hence from the three attributes , the brand decided to chose to Go Sharp. The thinking is very correct because there is no need for a brand to communicate all its brand values through its positioning statement.  The positioning statement would ideally focus on the most important of the brand value ( or attribute). 

The current ad went above my head, and  I found it difficult to decipher the exact meaning conveyed by the brand through this advertisement. Thankfully this report gave lot of insights into the current campaign. As per the report, the protagonist represent the sharpest mind who is chased by the paparazzi .   

" Go Sharp " is a nice tagline and the concept and thinking behind the branding is also good .The ad also aims to be clutter-breaking ( although I couldn't get the idea). The problem now most textile brands face is the clutter. All brands now talk about their protagonists to be the best in the world. Hence Blackberrys ' current pitch will be lost in the sea of celebrities and super-human brand ambassadors. 

Related Brand

Blackberrys 

Brand Update : RIP Tata Indicom ( 2006-2011)

Tata Indicom is dead. The CDMA brand from Tata Teleservices is going to be integrated ( migrated / replaced/exorcised) to Tata Docomo. According to various newsreports, the Indicom brand will be killed and the entire mobile telephony and related services will be brought under the Tata Docomo brand. 

By bringing the entire services under a common brand, Tata Teleservices will be able to reduce the marketing costs and avoid brand confusion. 

But a dead brand is a dead brand. For me every dead brand is a failed brand. 

The new move also marks the larger role played by NTT Docomo in the mobile services JV with the Tata. The branding to Tata Docomo shows the prominence of DoCoMo brand which is the primary brand and Tata brand name is being used as an endorser brand. 

Tata Indicom as a brand was not able to create any strong image in the consumer mindspace. The poor quality ads and confused positioning put the brand way behind aggressive competitors like Vodafone, Idea and Airtel. But compared to Tata Indicom , DoCoMo is an aggressive brand and the promotions are clutter-breaking. By bringing all services under a single brand especially in a low-margin, highly competitive market like cellular services make immense business sense. 

CDMA services also did not quite clicked in the Indian market and consumers were not convinced about the technological supremacy of CDMA over GSM. Now that Tata Teleservices got a foothold over the GSM services through the Docomo JV, the relevance of Tata Indicom's CDMA services has diminished considerably. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire CDMA services will be put in the backburner by Tata Teleservices. 

RIP Tata Indicom ..

Related Brand

Tata Indicom

Vodafone Blue : For Facebook Lovers

Brand : Vodafone Blue
Company :Vodafone

Brand Analysis Count : 502

Vodafone Blue is a Facebook dedicated mobile phone from Vodafone. The brand is thoroughly interesting because of its unique positioning. Vodafone Blue was launched in September 2011 targeting the ultimate Facebook fan. 

It is not unusual for a mobile service provider to dabble into the hardware . But most of such launches went largely unnoticed by consumer. This bundling of hardware and software although very much popular in the Western market is not yet being popularized in the Indian market. 

Vodafone Blue is manufactured by Alcatel and is co-branded by Vodafone and Facebook. This brand is an example of co-branding between two service providers. India is witnessing a huge surge in social networking usage. Facebook is leading the pack with an estimated 33 million Indian users. Vodafone is a leading player in the Indian mobile telephony with an estimated subscriber base of around 143 million. So coming together to tap synergies is the aim of this co-branding exercise.

Since most of the mobile service providers are grappling with the issue of wafer-thin margins, data usage is being viewed as a revenue generation & survival opportunity by most players. The rise of popularity of social networking sites provides ample opportunity for mobile service providers to gain revenue and also increase subscriber base. Vodafone's interest in this venture will be to increase its data usage subscriptions. For Facebook, India is a crucial market both interms of users and also advertisers. Partnering with a major player like Vodafone will bring in more users and importantly more usage of its site. So on paper , everything sounds logical and good.

Vodafone Blue's USP is its tight integration with Facebook. The product can be said as a Facebook phone and the product is aiming to give a pure Facebook experience to the consumers. This is not the first brand to come out with a Facebook phone. Earlier HTC has launched HTC ChaCha brand with a dedicated  Facebook button. Vodafone Blue has product features like - dedicated F button, FB is always working on the background, easy sharing of photos and messages etc.

The big question is whether Indian consumer needs such a product that is heavily integrated to only one social networking site ? The product is a niche but only time will tell whether this product is going to have enough takers to justify its existence. It is true that Facebook is hugely popular in India but will a consumer be willing to shell out Rs4500 for a dedicated phone is  a doubtful proposition.

There are many good things about this phone. The hardware is decent so are the looks. But there are many other phones in the same price range that offers many more features than Vodafone Blue. Hence for an average consumer, Vodafone Blue may not be a compelling buy. 

Another interesting facet of this brand is its communication. The brand is running a high profile tvc for its launch.

Watch the ad here : Vodafone Blue 

The ad conceived and executed by Ogilvy  is being shot as a Broadway Musical. This is the first time that an Indian brand has taken up a Broadway musical theme. The ad was interesting as a first-watch then became too long and boring. 

Although the ad had some elements of creative brilliance, the purpose of the ad baffled me. Is that ad for Facebook or Vodafone Blue ? Do Facebook needs such a campaign explaining FB features ? Why such a long ad failed talk any single feature about the phone ?? 

According Business Standard,  the brand is targeting non-metro consumers. The brand feels that the next social networking wave will come from these tier II cities. In that case the advertisement is way off the mark. Secondly, the consumers who already are the users of FB need not be re-educated about FB features. So an expensive advertisement made to show creative brilliance and no strategy.

According to the reports, Vodafone is offering one year unlimited FB access to the buyers of Vodafone Blue. The phone comes locked with the service providers and the consumer has to chose a pre-paid plan for this phone to enjoy the FB services. 

I am no expert in forecasting the success of brand launches. Vodafone Blue is an interesting experiment in the social networking space. A dedicated social networking phone without over-focus on any one social networking site would have worked better, but here in the case of Vodafone Blue, it is a co-branding initiative. Time will tell whether this experiment was worth it or not.