Parryware Glamourooms: Not Just Bathrooms

Brand : Glamourooms
Company: Parryware Glamourooms
Agency: JWT
Brand Count : 107

Parryware Glamourooms is India's superbrand in the sanitary ware market. This is a brand that redefined the way Indians viewed Bathrooms. A pioneer in branding and an expert in understanding changing trends, Parryware is a brand worth studying.

The Indian Sanitaryware market is estimated to be around 750 crore and in that market the branded wares is estimated to be worth around 360 crores. Parryware have a market share of around 42% (value share).

Parryware is a part of the EID Parrys of Murugappa group . In 2005-06 the company was hived off as a separate entity " Parryware Glamourooms". In 2006 ROCA of Spain took a 50% stake in the company and is set to roll out its international brands in the Indian market.

Parryware endeavored into serious branding this sanitary wares as early as 1983. In 1985 it introduced the Peacock shaped closets branded as Cascade which focused on saving water. Te product was highly successful and became almost generic to the category. In 1990 Parryware added a new word to Indian branding history " Glamourooms".

The launch created a huge wave of excitement in the otherwise a dull product. The purchase of sanitary wares was never a high involvement purchase. Seldom customers used to bother about the brands nor was willing to spent money on the bathrooms.
But Parryware changed all that. It said to the Indian consumers " No more bathrooms only glamourooms". This caused a spurt in the demand for aesthetic bathrooms.

The launch was perfectly timed. Earlier I remember that old houses seldom had Attached bathrooms. Then slowly came the concept of Bedrooms with attached bathrooms. Then came the focus on looking at bathroom more aesthetically as you look at any other rooms.

Parryware was a pioneer not only in branding this market but also an innovator par excellence.

Parryware is credited with innovating the concept of " Stainzfree" bathrooms, Introduce easy to clean surfaces, antimicrobial seat covers, touchfree electronic urinals and bathroom for Physically challenged people. These innovations coupled with some smart campaigns made this brand a market leader.

Parryware is also credited with being the first customer centric Sanitaryware company. It has the first B2C website for customers, customer care centres for helping the customers and for servicing. Parryware also changed the retail format for selling sanitarywares by creating shopping experience for customers through " Experience centres " which are retail outlets which are carefully designed to give customer an experience of the look of their bathrooms with Parryware.

The brand also keep track of the changing minds of the Indian consumer. There is a marked shift in the preference of Indian consumers from Wet bathrooms to a Dry one and Parryware is

ready for that also. With a strategic partner in ROCA, Glamourooms will be concentrating on the luxury and medium segment while ROCA will be concentrating on the Super luxury segment bringing in the International range to Indian market.

In 2005 the brand also ventured into the Rs 1200 Tap market aiming to become a Total Bathroom Solutions provider. The brand is made on the core values of Water conservation, hygiene and Technology.According to a report in Businessline , the customers have given a high rating for this brand on the values such as Relevance, Uniqueness and Reliability

Although the brand pioneered the concept of " Glamourooms" it found that the concept was copied by other players. Hence the brand changed its tagline to " Add Glamour To Your Life".

Then again the brand began to give importance to hygiene and changed its line to " Sparkling Clean Glamourooms ". Now the base line is somewhere between " Everything else can wait" and " Surrender To Temptation".

The shift in the positioning was not warranted ( in my opinion). From 2000 the brand is known for its Glamourooms but sadly their website no longer talks about this very own concept that made the brand. It is confusing whether it is the consumer who was bored by the positioning or is it the agency or is it the client? If its not the consumer , then why change it....

The brand is well poised to tap the future sanitary market in India, but the frequent changes in the positioning will dilute the foundation on which the brand has built its equity

Source : Businessline, superbrands.org, magindia, agencyfaqs , parryware website

Brand Update : Parryware

Parryware has now embarked upon a new campaign focusing on its range of bathroom fittings and accessories. Feeling the heat from the competitors and also unbranded products, the brand has renewed its marketing thrust.

But the new campaign is a sad story all together. In my earlier post on Parryware, I had mentioned that Parryware has redefined the Bathroom fittings by innovating the concept of Glamourooms. The brand achieved super brand status through this smart positioning. But during 2003, the brand made a big mistake in changing its core positioning to " Add glamour to your life" and then changed the tagline again to " Surrender to the temptation " and crap like that.

The new campaign is shocking. The brand now adopts the tagline " What a bathroom!". Its a pity that the brand has come to a full circle. It has reached the stage where it has started its successful journey. From "Glamourooms " , the brand crashlanded to "Bathroom".Glamourooms differentiated Parryware when everyone was talking about bathroom fittings and now also things are not so different. The fact is that man companies are talking about glamorooms and now Parryware has started talking about Bathrooms. What a paradox.I don't see a logic and cannot understand why those creative hotshots at JWT could ever letgo of a highly successful positioning and land the brand back to square one !
Ofcourse I know that the answer will be " the old positioning has lost its charm". But I feel that its the job of the creatives to find ways to refresh these ideas not kill them for the heck of change. The brand now is in a state where it has lost is DNA. The ads may be good but the strategy is horrible. The brand has undone the entire equity built over its past years ( Glamouroom era).

Do You see any logic?

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Parryware

Marketing Strategy : How to Brand a Commodity

How to Brand a Commodity

First published here at Adclubbombay.com.

We are living in an era where brands are becoming commodities and commodities increasingly being branded. Commodity can be broadly defined as those products which are undifferentiated and consumers buy these products on the basis of the price. Price is the most critical factor that determines the choice of purchase of commodities.

Many product categories are becoming commoditized owing to the huge number of products that enter the market and the inability of marketers to find meaningful differentiation. Consumers do not see much difference between the products/brands and make their choice based on price. Marketers worried about this trend increasingly concentrate on cutting costs and selling products at the lowest possible price and thus effectively making the product a commodity. While marketers should prevent products becoming commodities, increasingly companies are looking towards branding product categories which was usually considered as commodities.

Indian market has witnessed lot of success stories of marketers successfully branding commodities like salt, atta etc.

Moving away from Price

One of the major challenges for marketers trying to brand commodities is to move away from price based competition. It is not easy to convince the customers to make choices independent of price while buying a commodity. The task for the marketers is to show more value that will justify the premium paid.

Tata Salt was a pioneer in branding salt. Tata had the backing of a strong brand name. Besides taking advantage of the strong brand equity, Tata Salt was one of the first iodised salt brands and the iodine content proved to be a great value addition. The launch of Tata Salt coincided with the Government of India’s initiative to promote iodised salt. Tata Salt positioned itself on the basis of purity and trust. Another player in the branded salt market Captain Cook tried to add value by promoting its Free Flow feature. The strong promotional campaigns and the very relevant value additions shifted the focus of consumers away from the price.

Differentiation

The most important determinant of a successful commodity branding is the differentiation. The marketer has to establish a very strong meaningful and relevant differentiation to the commodity if he wants to develop a brand in that space. Creating a successful differentiation is not easy in commodity marketing. There is a strong constraint of cost while searching for a meaningful differentiation. The brand will be targeting a price sensitive customer who may not be willing to pay a high price for a differentiated commodity.

Most of the marketers try to use Quality as the key differentiator. Quality is a strong differentiator but the brand has to establish a significant difference between the existing product and the brand to convince the customer about the quality. Parry’s sugar is India’s first branded sugar. The brand is trying to differentiate on the basis of purity and is positioned as a refined pure sugar.

Branding

The brands in the commodity space may have to grab a major share of voice for establishing itself in the category. The brands which have been successful in the commodity space have invested heavily in branding and promotion. Once the brand is established, the promotional spends can be rationalized.

While branding commodities, marketers have to use the various brand elements to the maximum. The colour, brand name, logo, mascots have significant impact on the consumer’s perception about the brand.

Packaging also plays a significant role in successful commodity branding. Brands like Pillsbury, Aashirvaad have caught the consumer’s attention through careful packaging. Parachute which has created a brand in the coconut oil category has put in lot of investment in packaging and brand promotion.

Celebrities also play an important role in building a brand in the commodity space. The use of celebrities creates an immediate impact on the consumers during the initial phase of branding. The disadvantage is that the use of celebrities can push up the cost for the marketers. BPCL used Narain Karthikeyan and MS Dhoni to endorse its Speed range of Premium petrol.

Brands should be innovative while entering the commodity space. Nightingale is a highly successful brand in the highly fragmented Notebook/Diary category.The brand was built on innovation. Nightingale introduced theme based notebooks and Diaries which became an instant hit. Parryware changed the entire sanitary industry with the concept of Glamourooms.

Branding a commodity is not an easy task. Marketers have a better chance of success in this market only if they are able to create a meaningful differentiation for their offerings.