Brand Update : Kinder Joy sharpens its Offering

Despite its higher price, Kinder Joy has found lot of popularity among the consumers. Recently Kinder Joy sharpened its product offering by launching a variant - Kinder Joy for Girls. This is a very significant and smart move by the brand . As a regular purchaser of the brand for my  girl child, often I find that the toy, that is the main attraction for kids, is usually more skewed towards boys. The cars and other characters appeal more to the boys than girls . Most of the time, my kid is not enthused by the toy but she keeps  hoping for a toy she could play with.

I was surprised to see when the shopkeeper gave me the option of choosing Kinder Joy for girls. And my girl was thrilled when she got a Barbie bracelet from the egg.

Now Kinder has made life easier for parents of girl child but if you have a boy and a girl, then you are in for trouble.

The move by Kinder offer lot of challenges in the distribution side, Firstly it needs to convince the retailer to stock these two SKUs . So more shelf space means more effort by the sales team. Since one cannot expect that both these SKU will move in the same way. So it will take some time for Kinder to get a grip on the demand of these two SKUs.

The launch of Kinder Joy for girls is an example of brand listening to customer needs and proactively addressing the needs. 

Related Brand

Kinder Joy : Surprise Inside

Brand Update : RIP Tata Tion ( 2009-2011)

Tata Tion- the non-carbonated beverage drink from Tata Beverages has bite the dust. The brand which was derived from tea extracts and the differentiator was the presence of Ginseng which gave the drink a healthy proposition was discontinued merely after one year of existence . 

Although the product had good intentions, consumers gave it a lukewarm reception. Two factors may have affected the life of the brand a) Taste b) Price . Tion's taste may have acted as a big downer and it never appealed to the masses. Second factor is the price. Tion was very expensive and even though Tata launched a smaller SKU, the quantity was never enough to quench the thirst. That was also the first impression when I tried out the brand. 

Another issue was the segmentation. Tion was not able to clearly focus on its TG. Who would actually buy a product like Tion ? Tion infact tried to cater to every one hence the brand positioned itself very loosely. The tagline " Why Let Go " is a result of such a unfocused positioning. The brand at best would appeal to the set of consumers who wanted a healthier alternative to softdrinks and that is definitely not youngsters.

Tion was bit too early in targeting the mass using the health proposition. Although many experts harp on the trend towards healthy foods, the idea is still in the utopian stage and has not translated into purchases . 

Related Brand 

Tata Tion - Why Let Go

Totem Pens : Carving Out a Segment

Brand : Totem
Company : Win Pens Pvt Ltd

Brand Analysis Count : # 518

Totem is an interesting brand. You may not have seen an ad of this pen but this pen is selling like hot cakes in various markets across India. Totem ballpoint pens are manufactured by Win Pens Pvt Ltd which is based in Culcutta. 

What is so special about Totem is that this simple pen effectively met  the need of the customers. Forget the fancy expensive pens or the highly advertised ones because many does not serve the basic function as effective as Totem. Many customers have realized that products like these perform much better than the high profile ones. 

Totem which is priced at Rs 3 is now one of the fast selling brands in the category. There is strong demand for this brand among students and also from office segment. The reason being the utility. Many pens in the sub Rs 10 category have serious quality issues. Most of the pens smudge , are not ergonomic and often the ink gets messy . I have seen many students (during their exams) carrying a piece of cloth to remove the smudge from their gel pens which messes up their answersheets. Many consumers say that products like Totem has more quality than its expensive counterparts. 

Brands like Totem virtually created a new segment of Rs 3 pens. Consumers ask for Rs 3 pens and many well known brands have started selling their products in this segment. The success of these products can be attributable to 

a) Value For Money

b) Utility

c) Better Performance

The Rs 3 category is now getting crowded with many brands entering the space. Totem has not invested in any brand building activities. Its playing the commodity game and soon can be outperformed by more established players. The company will be losing a big opportunity if its not able to capitalize on the current demand. Right now consumers are not asking for specific brand in this category and its a matter of concern for brands like Totem. Brands like Nataraj, Linc etc are capitalizing on their brand's awareness to make their way into this high volume category and for Totem, its losing an opportunity to build a brand .

Godrej Aer : Aer it Out

Brand : Aer
Company : Godrej

Brand Analysis Count : # 517

Godrej has entered the Rs 300 crore Air Care market with the new brand Godrej Aer. Godrej was instrumental in developing the category of air-freshners in Indian market through the JV Godrej - Sara Lee. Ambi-Pur was the brand which had created this category in India. But in 2011, Sara Lee sold its personal care division to P&G and the brand Ambi-Pur has moved to P&G.

Not to be left behind in the category which Godrej's JV had created, the company was quick to launch its own brand Aer in the Indian market. Godrej Aer is now running its launch campaigns across the Indian market. 

The brand has started off with some thoughtful branding strategies. To being with, Godrej has chosen a very powerful brand name " Aer ".Aer which is the marketer's way of using the generic word " Air" .

Ambi-pur is the most visible brand in the air-freshner category in India. Air-Wick is another brand which is focusing on the home category . There are also many local and imported brands in this category.Odonil was one of the pioneers in the room-freshner category but some how this brand is restricted to washrooms ( pun intended). This lifestyle product is expected to see better growth in coming years. According to reports, this category is growing at the rate of 20% each year.

Godrej in the launch campaign is focusing on the car -freshner segment of the category. 

Aer has tried to tackle the market using two differentiating attributes. First factor is the design. Aer has put lot of thought into the design aspect of the container. The design is eye-catching and very contemporary. Second differentiator ( in car freshner) is the ON/OFF switch. The brand is harping on this factor in the television commercial .

Watch the ad here : Aer 

Godrej Aer's focus On/Off switch  as the key differentiator may not be sustainable since any competitor can easily replicate the feature. Launching the brand purely on this easily copy-able feature is a marketing mistake on the part of Godrej. Its also surprising to see that Godrej is downplaying the wonderful design element of the brand. The brand is focusing on functionality + fragrance as the main focusing point. The brand has the tagline  " Aer it Out " and has put its mission as to change the way air smells and spells. The brand has priced the product a little above the Ambi-Pur but I feel that the design will encourage many consumers to switch to this product for a trial.

Related brand

Ambi-pur

Marketing Funda : Why "iPhone Killer " is a bad marketing idea

The marketing world is now full of wannabe iPhone Killers - the new products that aims to kill the market leader or iconic brands. Although Frontal Attack is a celebrated strategy in marketing text books, the risks are pretty high and the possibility of a bloodbath is even  higher. Market Challengers will do better if they don't attack iconic brands directly.

The recent Apple Vs Samsung war of smartphones and the ultimate fall out of painful lawsuits warrants a recheck on the strategy of a frontal attack on market leaders.  Apple rule of the smartphone market with iPhone has prompted many mobile marketers to try and comeout with " iPhone Killers" but with no success. Market leaders like iPhones are seen in many markets. In India we have market leaders like Colgate, Alto, Maggi, Axe, Parachute, Johnson & Johnson, Horlicks etc who command a very large share of mind and also the market. There were many attempts from market challengers to dethrone these leaders by directly confronting them. In many cases, these challenger brands stay in a distant second position while the market leaders are not pretty much hurt. 

The famous wars between Pepsodent Vs Colgate, Maggi Vs Top Ramen J&J vs Sparsh , Complan Vs Horlicks were high profile frontal attack by market challengers but could not dethrone the leaders from their positions. My hypothesis is that rather than frontally attacking the leaders especially iconic brands, competing brands will do well if they could build a position that avoids direct comparison with the market leaders . Its not a blue ocean strategy where you would go in search of a new market but positioning away from the market leader so that consumers would not directly compare the brand with the market leader attributes.

The problem with a direct frontal attack is that consumers will directly compare the attributes with the market leader and if the competing brands do not have strong parity and even stronger differentiation, the strategy will have a negative fall out. In the case of iPhone, the competing brands which tout themselves as iPhone killers were not able to create strong parity with this iconic product especially in the brand image front.

Market challengers could do well if they can position their product away from the iconic brand and create a market and grow by expanding it on their unique strengths . 

Its my hypothesis, what do you say ??

Brand Update : Axe Extends to Soaps

Axe deo , the market leader in the Rs 1000 crore Indian deo market has extended itself to soaps. In the typical Unilever style of experimenting with successful brands the current guinea pig brand is Axe. The rationale is very simple  a) The soap market is witnessing a growth while deo market is now full of competition

b) With Cinthol brand becoming unisex, there is a vacuum for a men's soap brand and Axe is the best fit for filling the gap.

c) The lure for incremental profits from an established brand.

Indian soap market is around Rs 6500 crore and the men's grooming market is around Rs 1500 crore ( Economic Times). The brand may be looking to become an umbrella brand endorsing multiple products across the men's grooming category. The big question is whether these extensions will make the original deo brand vulnerable ? 

I think so.

I wonder why Axe is being extended when there is so much competition in the deo market. Axe is now attacked both on positioning front as well as on product attributes front. The Axe positioning is aped by most of the deo brands to the point that everything is so predictable and boring. Now HUL is further diluting the brand by its extension into a different category. 

The new extension carries the same positioning as the Original Axe brand . Axe bathing bar has the tagline " Engineered for Guys ". The ad campaign follows the same theme as the Axe Deo brand.

Watch the ad here : Axe Deo

Priced at a premium of Rs 35, Axe expects the brand loyalists to be the early adopters for this brand. HUL will be leveraging on its huge distribution strength and its reach to make sure that Axe Bathing Bar is available across the markets. To be fair to this experiment, Axe globally also is extended to various categories like Body Wash, Talcum powder etc but none of the extensions has been as successful as the original product. The same will be the case in the case of Axe Soap also.