Brand Update: Domex launches a direct frontal attack against Harpic

 In a very interesting move, HUL's toilet and surface cleaner brand Domex has launched a direct attack on the market leader Reckitt & Benckiser's Harpic brand this season. According to LiveMint, the Indian hygiene market is worth around Rs 38000 crore and the toilet-cleaning market is alone worth Rs 1600 crore. Harpic is the market leader in this segment. 

Domex has been trying to counter the market leader by positioning itself as a germ-killer. With the pandemic scare in place, the hygiene market is expected to grow because of increased customer perception of cleanliness and hygiene. 

This year, Domex has launched a direct frontal attack on Harpic that too with a direct comparative advertisement. The campaign had both print and television commercials. In the campaign, the brand takes the route of additional benefit of the Domex in terms of removing the bad odour caused by germs. This campaign helps the brand to create a powerful point of difference. The current campaign is made for the Domex Freshguard variant. 

The ad will likely be challenged by Harpic but Domex will be riding on the benefit of the punch delivered by this comparative advertisement until that time.

Research on comparative advertisement effectiveness has suggested that such advertising is effective in generating favourable responses in terms of attitude and brand consideration for the sponsoring brand. Comparative ads can be positive and negative. Positive comparative ads try to convince the customers about the superiority of the sponsor brands while negative comparative ads try to tell the consumers what they lose by using the competing brand. Research suggests that in the case of direct comparative ads, the negative comparison works better. 

For Harpic, the logical next move would be to neutralize the Domex claims quickly rather than wait for the ads to be taken down. 

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Brand Update: Crispello New Ad Shows a Subtle Shift in Positioning

 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. 

Agile Marketing/Marketing Agility

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.

Brand Update : Cadbury Gems refreshes itself with more chocolate and a worst Ad

 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!

Campaign Trail : Play New by Nike / Brilliant Story Telling

 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.