Manjal Soap: Essence of Turmeric

Brand : Manjal
Company: Marico
Agency : Bates

Brand Count : 148

In one of my earlier posts on Vicco I had talked about the virtue of Turmeric and the failure of Vicco in capturing the essence of this ingredient. Here is a brand that rose to fame just because of the turmeric essence. Manjal is an interesting brand.The brand was launched in Kerala in 2005 by SD pharmacy which is a traditional ayurvedic pharmaceutical company. SD launched Manjal without much hope of making this brand a blockbuster one because of the fact that the market is highly competitive with brands like Medimix and Chandrika ruling the Southern markets.
But the company was surprised at the reception Manjal got from the public. Manjal is the Malayalam of the word Turmeric.

Manjal's launch was a soft one with the company focusing on inducing trial purchase . The company liberally gave sample packs with leading magazines together with placing the product attractively at the shops. The smart packaging and the simple message captured the attention of the consumers .At the super markets, the customers were prompted to smell the brand to feel the essence of turmeric in the soap. These initiatives together with the name Manjal ensured remarkable trial usage by the TG.The product which is of high quality ensures that customers are satisfied with their usage experience.

Manjal Brand name had the magic that created a 9 crore brand within 8 months of its launch.With such a blockbuster name, there was no need for further explaining the benefits of the soap. The product was promoted in media as a natural herbal soap.

The success of Manjal had its share of problems for its owners. SD was not able to cope with the growing demand of the soap because FMCG is a different ballgame altogether. Thus stepped in Marico as a suitor.Marico acquired Manjal in January 2006. Marico was looking for a brand in the soap category and Manjal was a high potential brand in the southern states.

Manjal was repositioned by Marico giving more importance to the essence of turmeric rather than as a family soap. The TVC features the use of soap replacing the traditional bath using turmeric powder which is often messy. The ad targets the young girls rather than the early TG of family.

Manjal is a brand that has a potential to be an important niche brand in the herbal soap category. The brand name and the product attributes has impressed the consumers. With an accomplished Marketer like Marico to support this brand, it is sure to go places.

source: economictimes,agencyfaqs.

Chandanam: Power of Brand Name

Brand : Chandanam
Company: SD Pharmacy
Agency: MAA Bozell

Brand Count : 205

Chandanam is an interesting brand. The brand is from SD Pharmacy which is a small player in the traditional ayurvedic medicine market. SD pharmacy came into limelight with the huge success of Manjal Soap( discussed elsewhere in this blog) which notched up an impressive turnover of around Rs 12 crore within a years time . Manjal Soap was later sold to Marico for an undisclosed amount.

Buoyed by the success of Manjal soap, SD pharmacy launched Chandanam Soap in 2006. The brand follows the same strategy of Manjal Soap i.e harnessing the power of brand names. Like Manjal ; which is the Malayalam word for turmeric, Chandanam is the Malayalam term for Sandal. The brand talks about the ingredient Sandalon which has the essence of sandal which will make the skin younger and also acts as a deodorant.
The brand unlike Manjal faces stiff competition from giants like Santoor and the heritage brand Mysore Sandal Soap. Also brands like Hamam has variants with Sandal ingredient.

Chandanam is marketed just like Manjal Soap, the packaging and the TVC's are strikingly similar and the company expects the market to accept this brand also. Another interesting fact is that SD pharmacy has not stopped with Chandanam. In 2007 the company launched its third brand of soap branded Mullappoo which is the Malayalam name for Jasmine. More amusing is the fact that the entire communication and packaging follows the same formula except that in case of Mullappoo the USP is the jasmine fragrance.It raises the question Whether a marketing formula works for all brands ? everytime?

One of the reason cited by the company for selling the brand Manjal was that the company lacked the resources to compete in FMCG segment . But in a report the company MD says he has no plans to sell Chandanam brand and will be marketed by the company itself. According to the website VCcircle.com, P&G has evinced interest in acquiring Chandanam.

The brands Chandanam and Mullappoo are classic case of the pulling power of brand names and these brands draw its strength from the ingredients. The brand names are derived from original generic local names.The brand is an example of a Descriptive brand. This strategy works because the consumers can easily identify the brand and its USP ( a very simple use of commonsense) . The company does not need to tell too much about either Chandanam or Mullappoo to a Malayali . The brand is also following the higly successful sampling strategy followed during the Manjal launch. Chandanam Samples are carried by popular magazines like Vanitha and Grihalakshmi followed by print ads and TVC's.Although the brand calls itself as Herbal soap, the soap is actually a Natural Soap.

The initial reports from the market suggests that Chandanam and Mullappoo has been well received. But the task to create volumes for this brands remains huge. The company may need heavy investment because two new brands were launched in quick succession and that too in a highly competitive market.These brands has to sustain the share of voice because otherwise the scope of these brands will be limited to a niche. Whether the company has plans to take this brand further or will it be sold of at a premium is something that has to be seen.

source: businessline,economictimes

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