Brand Update : Where is Fastrack heading ?

afaqs! today carried an interesting piece about Fastrack's new OOH campaign titled " Sorry for What".The new bold campaign features various models showing their shaven heads, unshaven armpits, guys wearing thongs and with nipples pierced . The campaign has the theme " Sorry for What ".  

Over the last few years , the brand has been trying to project itself as an iconoclastic brand. I think the brand is trying little too hard in driving its message. While the attempts are creatively nice and clutter breaking, the brand seems desperately trying to create controversy propelled image probably inspired by the likes of UCB.

Although there is nothing wrong in trying to be the Indian UCB, the brand should not be seen trying too hard to be rebellious. Its always uncool if you are making an effort to be Cool.

One grouse about this brand is that although the brand is for the younger crowd, the brand is pricing itself out of the market. No advertising can justify an out-of-value pricing. Fastrack's recent helmet launch was  priced too high to justify the value.

Having said that , I like the way Fastrack trying to create a differentiation using the brand image. It is experimenting and one should give credit for that. 

SKINN : Every Day French Perfumes

Brand : SKINN
Company : Titan Company

Brand Analysis : # 552

Titan Company has forayed into the Rs 2000 crore Indian perfume market with the brand SKINN. This is the first launch from Titan after the company has rebranded itself as  Titan Company. 

The launch of SKINN is a smart move because in my personal opinion, Indian perfume market is at a nascent stage with very little penetration.Business Line puts the penetration at 4%.

SKINN as a brand is launched with an endorsement from Titan. It was wise for Titan not to launch this brand as a sub-brand like Titan SKINN, rather SKINN is launched as an independent brand from the launch itself.

The perfumes are created in India but bottled and imported from France. The brand is positioned as  a " French Perfume".

According to reports, the company did ethnographic studies to understand the preference of Indian consumers towards this product category. French perfume houses Olivier Pescheux of Givaudan developed the men's range and Luc Berriet developed women's range. ( source)

The brand is running their launch campaign. The launch TVC however falls into the " Seduction" genre - which in a way is sad. I expected something different from Titan. Rather than seduction, the brand calls it Passion Ignited. SKINN has the tagline  " Everyday French Perfume for him/her" which is rather an  unimaginative tagline.

Watch  the ad here : launch ad of SKINN

The brands are priced in the range Rs 990  for 50 ml and Rs 1790 for 100 ml which makes it pretty expensive for an average Indian consumer. The brand is said to be targeting the young of the 23-27 age group. 

While there is a definite potential for a brand in the Indian perfume space , I wonder whether the brand has priced itself out of the market. Rs 1800 for a 100 ml makes this brand out of reach for many . At the same time, the brand does not have the equity to compete with the established imported brands. By pricing it aggressively, SKINN has lost an opportunity to be a Masstige brand which could deliver decent volumes. At the same time the premium positioning is not reflected in the launch TVC which somehow pegs the brand in the league of the Seductive Deo brands. So IMHO, it is an opportunity lost for SKINN to capture a fair-share of the growing market. 

Brand Update : Dear Engage, Parent in me requests - can you move on please !

Engage, the deo from ITC has made a quick impact in the Indian market. Within a year, the brand has claimed second spot in the India deo market with a volume market share of 8.1% ( source : ET). The brand playing on the " attraction " theme has taken it to the next level.

This season, the brand has come out with the new campaign for the "zero gas" cologne spray version.

Watch it here : Engage Deo

The brand's ads have always forced parents like me who have little kids to scramble for the remote to change channels. The new ad takes the " attraction" to the next level.
 While the rise of the Engage deo can also be attributed to the effectiveness of these ads, my personal opinion is that brands should also be little sensitive to the audience especially the family audience. Ofcourse the counter arguments would be that movies are much worse or explicit, that doesn't justify a suggestive ad.

I am getting old , I suppose. 

Libero : Love Every Moment

Brand : Libero
Company ; Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget ( SCA)

Brand Analysis Count : # 551

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) now has a competition from a global player in the Rs 4500 crore Indian baby care market. SCA which is a  $10Bn Swedish company has launched its range of baby products in the Indian market. SCA is a global hygiene and forest products company which is Europe's second largest diaper maker. 

SCA has launched its diaper and other baby products like soaps, baby lotion , powder etc. The brand is now running its campaign in my state Kerala for its range of products.

Libero is positioned as a natural product which is skin friendly. The brand is emphasising natural positioning by comparing it to mother's touch. The brand has the tagline " Love Every Moment" which is not something that the brand projects. The brand is currently putting its muscle behind the Natural positioning. 

Watch the ad here  : Libero 

The Indian baby care market is huge by its sheer size . Economic Times estimates that there are ~ 50mn babies in the age group 0-2 years and 304.8mn in the age group of 0-12. The market for baby apparel , footwear and baby cosmetics is estimated to be around $12 bn growing at a CAGR of 17%.

The diaper market is around 2500 crore and baby toiletries market is around Rs 2500 crore.  

J&J has a strong foothold in the baby toiletries market. 

SCA has launched a whole range of products in the Indian market with a branded house strategy. All the products launched has the family brand - Libero. The company is heavily promoting the brand in the visual media. But here one issue is that since the brand is new, consumers would be unsure about trusting it. It is surprising to see why the brand is not promoting its " Swedish Country of Origin" since it would have helped in establishing credibility in this highly sensitive market. 

Brand Update : Colgate Slimsoft Charcoal toothbrush will make you say WhattheBlack !

A black bristled toothbrush for your white teeth !!

Colgate has done something unusual in the Indian market- a black colored toothbrush branded as Slimsoft Charcoal. The brand which is available in other parts of the world is now launched in India with much fanfare.

What is unusual and interesting about the new product is the color of the toothbrush itself. Black color is something that will be in the last option when one chose a color for the toothbrush bristles. However Colgate chose to play contrarian and launched it in the market.

The brand claims to have charcoal infused bristles which will remove bacteria and plaque better than ordinary bristles. Now only Colgate knows what is meant by charcoal " infused" bristles. 

Whatever it might be, the launch is pretty interesting. Conventional wisdom says that black color may repel a customer from buying a toothbrush for cleaning your teeth. Just like whether one would choose a black color liquid floor cleaner !

But marketing is all about defying conventional wisdom.

The black color is definitely intriguing for a consumer and this will prompt him to try the brand. But he may have fight the natural urge not to chose black color . Novelty, the backing of the Colgate brand and the relatively low risk would be the factors that will aid the new product to induce trials. 

To hardsell the new launch, Colgate has initiated a social media campaign with the hashtag : # Whattheblack. The initiative where the brand reached out to key influencers like bloggers with a mystery black gift with only the indication of whattheblack site. The intrigued influencers spread the message on their platforms and according to the reports, this went viral ( source) 

What the new product will definitely do is the bring back some kind of energy back to the toothbrush market. 

Marketing Funda : Brand Refresh

This post is inspired by  my learned Twitter friend @vijaysankaran when he queried about my opinion about the brand refresh by Raymond. I was more familiar with Re-branding and not refresh which lead to more learning about this term. 

Brand refresh is a term that signifies slight modification of the brand ( or brand elements). Radical modification or change of brand elements implies re-branding. 

Refreshing of brand usually happens under following conditions 

• The brand is perceived to be old.
• Brand is trying to appeal to a new segment , for example younger crowd.
• When there is a change in the brand positioning.
• When there is a shift in the characteristics of the TG.
• When the brand elements need modernization . 
• When the brand launches products in other categories ( Brand Extensions)
• When you feel consumers are bored with the brand.
• When nothing else can be refreshed !

Brand often do these refreshing by slightly tweaking the logo/color/tagline /positioning etc but as per the theory , radical changes in the brand elements are entitled to be called as Re-branding. Hence there is only a thin difference between re-branding and refreshing.

As the term implies, refreshing brand make sense especially when one cannot make any radical changes in the product. For example, for products like softdrinks, the product attributes remains the same and only thing that can be changed are the brand related attributes like taglines , slogans etc. 

Brand refresh can be done by 

• New campaigns 
• Changing taglines and slogans ( or introducing a tagline )
• Introducing or changing imagery
• Changing the protagonists in the campaigns
• Introducing brand extensions
• Introduce a brand element which was not there before .
• Re-positioning 
• Re-targeting 

My take on this term is that what ever activities that marketer undertake to make brand fresh without radically affecting the brand elements can be termed as brand refresh. One article rightly compared  Brand Refresh to a Makeover. ( source ).