Cadbury's new brand of chocolate-covered wafer finger product- Crispello has launched a new campaign. What is interesting about the campaign is that there is a subtle shift in the positioning of the brand. If you remember the launch ad for the brand, the theme was that five young persons were driving the car and they hatch a plan not to share the chocolate with the fifth person since there are only four Crispello fingers.
The new ad takes the theme forward with a twist where the three robbers wake up the dude so that Crispello can be shared since the brand says that equal sharing is a must. Not sure whether this positive twist is intended, however positively always helps in branding. However, the creative quality (IMHO) is below par when compared with the usual Cadbury ads. With the market leader KitKat running high decibel campaigns with celebrities, Crispello has to up the game to a different level.
Marketing Agility or Agile Marketing is a concept from Project Management adapted to the marketing domain. The concept talks about the ability of the firm to make sense of the environment and rapidly iterate the plans from the feedback after execution.
Cadbury's Gems has always been a timeless brand with lovers across all age groups. The brand which is almost 53 years old in India has created a unique place for itself. So it makes sense when the brand thought of a theme of being ageless. But alas, the campaigns that the brand had created will destroy the brand's image and likeability. The campaigns with the tagline" Raho Umarless" which mean stay ageless was promoted on the premise of adults displaying their love for the brand in a bizarre manner.
In my opinion, these campaigns are nothing but disgusting. Firstly the brand is a bit confused about the target. Is it adults or kids or all? and what the ad does is that it repels everyone. Especially the way these adults in the ads eat Gems is repulsing. Then comes the worst of the lot- the 2021 ad. The new campaign marks the refreshing of the product with more chocolate. But the same outrageous campaign theme execution continues. I and my mother was watching the ad and at the end of it, both of us were saying - Yuck!
Nike is an iconic brand because of the power of advertising. The brand over its existence since 1971 has created some iconic advertisement epitomizing its brand mantra of " Celebrating Atheletisim". While spending big on getting the iconic athletes and sportspersons to endorse the brand, Nike was always careful to be grounded by communicating to ordinary people. So their brand campaigns always had advertisements that tend to motivate the ordinary you and me to try out something. 2021 saw a similar approach from Nike in their new campaign " Play New" which celebrates trying and failing.
Celebrating failures is nothing new in the motivational world but the way the agency Wieden & Kennedy executed the theme is nothing but brilliant. These ads testify to the power of storytelling and the power of advertising.
WhiteTone is a brand of face powder and cream which competes in the fairness segment of the Indian market. The brand is from Vini Cosmetics which is famous for the Fogg brand of deodorant. WhiteTone was launched in 2010 initially as a face powder and later extended into a face cream.
Indian talcum powder market is estimated to be around INR 1300 crore and is shrinking owing to the shift in consumer behaviour towards creams and other cosmetics. WhiteTone tried to differentiate itself in the talcum powder market by positioning itself as a face powder that enhances skin tone.
Despite the slowing popularity of powders, WhiteTone is banking on three benefits to lure the customers to the brand; oil-free look, even skin tone and fairness. The brand extension cream also follows the same promises.
What makes the brand interesting is the recent rebranding of the market leader in the fairness category- Fair & Lovely to Glow&Lovely. The rebranding was very well received by the media and consumer activists as a gesture endorsing skin colour neutrality. However, I feel that WhiteTone gains from such a move from the market leader. The fairness market is worth around INR 5000 crore and Fair&Lovely owns more than 42% share. While the basic positioning of the rebranded Glow&Lovely remains the same, WhiteTone may gain from the sheer brand name which talks about the brand's promise in a way Glow & Lovely may not be able to communicate. It is true that Glow &Lovely caters to a different segment than WhiteTone.
WhiteTone has increased its media presence and in my State- Kerala, the brand is spending heavily on the face powder promotion.
Nu-Shakti is an interesting brand trying to create a category in India. The brand is from the house of Royal DSM which is a Dutch-based company dealing with nutritional products. The company was not in the consumer space and Nu-Shakti is the first brand in this space.
Nu-Shakti comes under the category of nutraceuticals which broadly constitute all products that offer additional nutrition to the consumers. Nutraceuticals are further classified into functional foods and functional beverages. The global market for nutraceuticals is estimated at $250 billion and the Indian market constitutes around 2% which itself is a huge market at $5 billion. The market itself is poised for huge growth because of the lifestyle diseases and convenience factor.
Indian nutraceuticals market is primarily focused on nutritional supplements and drinks. It is where Nu-Shakti becomes interesting. The brand has a range of products that comes under the category of food-fortifying products. Nu-Shakti has two such products - Nu-Shakti Powermix for rice and wheat. The idea is that by adding a prescribed quantity of the product, the rice or wheat becomes rich in nutrients that are otherwise not present or lost in cooking. Along with these two products, the company has also launched a powdered beverage under the sub-brand Mixme.
The idea of fortified products is very relevant because consumers are now more sensitive to the nutritional value of the food and would be willing to invest in a solution that takes care of the nutritional needs which are non-chemical. The advantage of Nu-Shakti Promix is the convenience of the product in that one need to add a prescribed amount to get the desired nutrition ( as promised by the brand).
The brand was test-launched in Tamilnadu with the actress Remyakrishnan as the celebrity endorser and now has launched across the Indian market. In my state Kerala, the brand is promoting its Mixme powdered beverage on television channels.
The brand is priced at Rs 250 for 250 gram which is adequate for 25Kg of rice.
For a consumer, the promise of the brand seems to be interesting. The challenge for the brand is to create the believability of the promise of nutritional fortification and to encourage trial. In the launch phase, the brand tried to do that through celebrity and also through social media influencers. At Rs 250, the consumers need to be thoroughly convinced to create a sustainable sales pipeline. According to reports, the brand has identified the right promotional mix strategy in Tamilnadu and would be trying to replicate the same in the entire market. The launch time is also ripe since consumers are looking for multiple solutions to stay healthy.
