Cycle Agarbatti : Everyone has a reason to Pray

Brand: Cycle Agarbatti
Company: N Rangarao and Sons

The Indian Agarbatti market is worth around 1000 crores and is dominated by the unorganised sector.Hardly 15% of this market is branded. This market is unattractive because of high labour cost and lack of possibilities of differentiation and price sensitivity.

Cycle brand is owned by Bangalore based N Rangarao and sons. NRS were pioneers in branding this difficult market and Cycle brand is one of the largest agarbatti brand in India which have a market share of 8%.

Cycle brand was launched in 1948. In this commodity market,Cycle was positioned as a premium agarbatti brand. The brand was trying to differentiate by good packaging, marketing campaigns and quality. Cycle 3-in -one is the most popular which have three different fragrance sets of agarbattis in one pack.

Agarbattis are low involvement products whose purchases are often impulsive. Since there are a few brands in this category, customers makes purchase based on impressive packaging, fragrance or price. Since the price is less, there is little scope for brand loyalty.

Cycle brand has established itself in the market with some good marketing campaigns with emphasis on quality and fragrance. Recently NR sons have launched a new brand Lia with trendy packaging and good advertising.

The market is going to witness some serious marketing action with the entry of ITC. ITC is planning to make this a lifestyle product. ITC is launching a premium brand "Sphriha" which is manufactured by Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. ITC is also launching different brand in various segment viz Nivedan in the mid segment, Ashageet in the lower segment. With lot of cash for marketing, ITC will be a serious threat to Cycle.

The entry of ITC can be a positive factor also since the marketing effort will expand the market and thus Cycle brand will also benefit.

Agarbatti market is a very difficult market to crack because agarbatti is limited to pooja rooms only and there is a religious aspect to the product. The marketers have to take some lessons from "Nightingale" brand ( discussed in my previous blogs) to make an impact. The product have some inherent disadvantage like the residual ash and short burning time. Marketers have to take this brand out of pooja rooms. Theme based marketing can also be tried. Ash-less agarbattis can be an innovation worth thinking provided that attribute is considered important by the consumers. Healthy fumes can be used as a strategy to attack the lower priced incense sticks warning the consumers of health hazard of using unbranded agarbattis.

This market is worth watching for because it is a challenge for marketers to establish a value proposition in a commodity market.

Revive : Creating a Category

Brand : Revive
Company : Marico
Agency : Publicis


Brand Analysis Count : 409

Revive is an interesting brand. This is a brand which created the instant starch market in India. Revive can be considered as a classic example of branding a commodity.
Revive was launched in 1993. The brand was received very well by the consumer community. Revive targeted the urban middle and upper households which was willing to pay a premium for convenience.

Revive is also an example of a product that was developed to satisfy a unmet need. Indian households traditionally used starch to stiffen their clothes,especially cotton clothes. The process of making starch and using them was a tedious process for the homemaker. The homemade starch was quite messy and used to leave patches in clothes. It used to smell bad and was not suitable for color clothes.

Revive solved these issues at one go. The brand was initially launched in the powder form. The homemaker could make starch easy by just mixing the powder with water. It offered convenience and saved a lot of time. Another significant advantage of Revive was that it could be used in cold water. Traditional starch needed warm water. Revive also can be used in color clothes which was again a big advantage for the consumers.

It is difficult for the consumer to ignore a product that offers solution to their problems . Revive was successful because it made the life of homemaker little more easier. Revive too had its share of disadvantages. The problem was with the product form and the price. Revive was premium priced compared to the virtually "free" homemade starch. Hence convincing consumers to sample the product was tough. Since the product was in the powder form, consumers was confused about the quantity of powder that should be used.

The real challenge for Revive came when Jyothi Lab launched Stiff & Shine. Stiff & Shine was a liquid stiffener which was much convenient than the powder Revive. Jyothi Lab was trying the same strategy which it used to dethrone Robin powder blue.

But Marico reacted very fast to the challenge posed by Stiff & Shine. It launched the liquid version of Revive very fast and backed it with a heavy dose of campaign.
Revive is focusing on three main attributes in its campaigns- instant starch ( convenience),better stiffness for clothes and no patches.
The fight between Stiff & Shine and Revive is still raging with both brands now linking confidence and social acceptability . Both the brands are running similar campaigns ( using kids) claiming that clothes that are well ironed and shining will earn you self-respect and social acceptance.

Recently Marico took the fight to a new level by launching the liquid blue extension of Revive. I was surprised to see the ad of Revive liquid blue. No further details about this extension is available in the public domain .

Revive is a brand which is promoted heavily by Marico. The instant starch market is still very small and the task of the marketer is to increase the market size rather than to fight for the market share. The recent campaigns connecting the brand and social acceptance is targeted at non-users of this category motivating them to use the product.

The instant starch category has a great market potential and the brands should focus on increasing the category size. There is lot of room for growth for these brands when the category grows . Revive should resist the temptation of extension because the brand will reap rich rewards if it focuses on the category it created.

Related Brand
Ujala

Milton : Kuch Naya Sochte Hain ( Let's Think of Something New)

Brand : Milton
Company : Hamilton Housewares


Brand Analysis Count : # 568

Milton is one of the leading brands in the Indian home-ware market which includes products like casserole, flasks etc. Milton was launched in 1972 was a humble producer of small plastic items like tumblers. 

Milton's name was earlier synonymous with flasks. Milton and Eagle flasks were the two famous brands during eighties. Later came the casserole craze. Milton was able to capitalize on the popularity of  casseroles. Indian households lapped up the casserole and after functions like marriage and housewarming, homes were flooded with casserole gifts. 

Milton also had the ingredient brand Tuf Puf which was the name the brand gave to polyurethane foam. Tuf Puf became very powerful differentiator for Milton.

Over a period of time , the home-ware market has become a commodity. The products became the same with virtually no credible differentiation. 

In such a market, Milton has devised a two pronged strategy to standout. 

Innovation and Branding. 

The brand Milton already had a very good equity in the market. The company wanted to cement the equity by positioning Milton as a innovation driven brand that is sensitive to the consumer needs. Milton clearly identified the target consumer as an intuitive lady of the house. The brand wants to make life easier for the consumer through innovative products. 

In 2015, the brand initiated its first brand campaign " Kuch Naya Sochte Hain" translated to " Let's think of something new". The brand through the campaign tried to project its innovative products while stressing on the quality. 

One of the innovative product which served as an anchor for the campaign was the World's first microwave safe insulated steel casserole . Watch the ad here  called MicroWow. 

Along with this product, the brand also ran few more campaign TVC highlighting the new products. ( Glasslid casserole). 

Milton is a brand which stood the test of time and has been very proactive in moving to using innovation as a differentiator. 

Tanishq : Revitaliser of Tradition

Brand : Tanishq
Company : Titan Industries
Agency : Lowe Lintas

Brand Analysis Count : 382

Tanishq is a very interesting brand. Interesting because it is a brand that is trying to change the rules of an industry which is very fragmented. Tanishq is one of the first brands to create a national brand in the Rs 40,000 crore Indian Jewelery market.

The Indian jewelery market is huge and India is the second largest consumer of gold trailing behind USA. But the jewelery market is highly fragmented. The branded jewelery segment is hardly 5% of the total market.

Tanishq was launched in 1995. Since then , the brand has grown to a Rs 1200 crore brand even overtaking Titan watches interms of the turnover.
Tanishq is a retail brand. It is the chain of jewelery shops set up by Titan across the country. According to the company website, Tanishq has more than 104 stores across 71 cities. The chain is operating through a franchise system.

Titan has also another brand of retail outlets which is known as Gold Plus which is targeting the urban/semiurban consumers and small towns. Gold Plus has presence in more than 20 towns and Titan is planning a major expansion of these stores.

Titan planned to venture into gold business way back in late 1980's. During that period of foreign exchange crisis, a good way to earn the valuable foreign exchange was through gold business. But by the time the company figured out the business, the foreign exchange problem was over.

Although the jewelery market is large, doing business in this segment is not a cake walk. The market is complex and highly unorganized. The consumer behavior is also different compared to what we see in other products and categories.

Consumers tend to see gold as an investment and indulgence. Most of the individual consumers are loyal to their local jeweler /goldsmith. And for a brand like Tanishq, it had to break this traditional consumer buying process and also make them switch their loyalty from the goldsmith to the retailer.

In the state of Kerala where I live, the market is more organized. There are large chain of jewelers who have their presence across the state. Consumers tend to buy from these retail chains rather than make the gold jewelery from a gold smith.

Tanishq started off selling 18 carat gold jewelers. The brand at that time was positioned as a jewelery for daily wear . But the brand ran into difficulties since the consumers were too sticky about 22 carat ornaments. The light weight jewelery was still alien to the consumers.

Tanishq was depending heavily on the pull factor. The brand relied on the design ranges, the trust that the Tata brand carries and also the reliability factor.
One of the major hurdles that the brand faced was the brand recognition during its initial stages. People did not know about the Tanishq brand . Since gold is a high value- high involvement purchase, consumers were risk averse in trying out a new retail format like Tanishq. The consumers were also less responsive to the premium that Tanishq jewelery commanded.

It takes lot of time to change the consumer perception. It is harder if this behavior is rooted in tradition. Gold retailing is heavily rooted in tradition. If we look at the genesis of local jewelers, most of them have a long tradition and their business and clientele has been built over generations.
Since the pricing of gold jewelery is tricky and complex, consumers also tended to rely on their traditional store rather than experimenting with new stores.
But these have changed in recent times. The stores has been exploiting the consumers by complex pricing policies like " making charges", value addition etc which an ordinary consumer seldom understand.Tanishq has been trying to tap on this need for a honest gold retailer.

Along the way , the brand also had to fight the perception of being a premium brand. In a classic case of over positioning, the brand had to convince the consumer that Tanishq had jewelery which was affordable. Over positioning is where the brand narrowly positions itself and consumer tend to have a narrow image of the brand.

To tide over this issue, Tanishq came out with small priced collections which to an extend corrected the perception problem.
According to the company website, Tanishq had a turnover of over Rs 1200 crores.

The brand is very active across the media. Tanishq have a two prong branding strategy. The company have the main brand Tanishq and lot of sub brands for its different collections. Some of these brands are Solo, Aria, Diva , Collection G etc.
Tanishq recently roped in the new Bollywood diva Asin to endorse a collection.To tide over the issue of low margins, Tanishq has recently launched the diamond collection which is considered to be a high margin product line.
Tanishq has been trying to differentiate on the designs. It had built lot of product lines and has branded these lines. The brand feels that consumers will chose Tanishq for its designs.

Regarding the promotional strategies, Tanishq have the major issue is fighting the regional players. Consider the Kerala example, the brand Tanishq have zero visibility compared to the local jewelery chains. The local jewelers of kerala are advertising freaks and one of the largest spenders in print and visual media in the state.
Jewelers in Kerala have roped in most of the famous models and divas for their campaigns. Even ex-bollywood divas like Sridevi Jayaprada and Hemamalini are endorsing some of the Kerala Jewelers.

The jewelery business works in a different way. The business works like this. Most of the jewelers does not make these jewelleries. They are mere traders. They buy the designs from the jewelery makers and then display them and sell them on a mark-up. Most of the makers supply to all retailers hence retailers stock similar designs thus making this a commodity trading business with little scope of differentiation.

These jewelery chains then spend heavily on building their brands and luring the consumers . Now the stores are so desperate that they have sales executives who are canvasing the bride's parents. Marriage is the event where maximum gold purchases are done by the consumers. You cannot built volume in gold business by ignoring the marriage segment. And this segment is witnessing a dog-eat-dog competition . Gifts, referrels, discounts rule this segment. I am not sure whether Tanishq is geared up for such a volume business.

Among this noise, Tanishq is virtually non-existent. I think, this is the case in most of the states. Hence if Tanishq have to capture the market, it will have to take the brand promotion to the local market. Since the brand is operating on a franchise model, it will have difficulty in localizing its brand promotional activities. I do not remember any campaign which is highly memorable for this brand. In this business, one has to have a higher share of mind and share of voice in order to be successful.

The brand also faces the issue of flucutating gold prices. The concept of a fixed MRP in gold jewellery will not work and usually the mark-up and other charges vary with seasons and demand. When you are operating on a national scale, these issues makes the operations very complex. Jewelery business has not become a commodity business and margins also have come down drastically.

When Tanishq launched the everyday -wear, it was a concept that was ahead of its time. But I feel that the younger generation is now opening up to the concept of such a collection. The ballooning gold prices are also an opportunity for Tanishq to rejuvenate such a line of jewelery.

Tanishq has reached a position from where it can scale up the business to the next level . The brand has to localise its promotional campaigns which will inturn make the brand more visible among the local consumers.

Himalayan : Live Natural

Brand : Himalayan
Company : Mount Everest ( Tata tea)
Agency : Rediffusion Dy&R

Brand Analysis Count : 334

Himalayan is the latest branding initiative by Tatas. The brand which originally belonged to the Balsara Group came to the Tata fold in 2007. In 2008, Tatas began to aggressively promote this brand.

The Indian bottled water market is around Rs 1200-1500 crore ( source: FE, Domain B ) . However Livemint puts the market at around Rs 8500 crore. The market is growing at a rate of 25% per year.

The bottled water is divided into Natural Water segment and Ordinary bottled water. In Natural water category, the water is packaged from the source and no processing is done. The ordinary bottled water is chemically processed. Natural water category is hardly 10% of the total market.

Himalayan is the market leader in the Natural water category . Before being taken over by Tatas , the brand was focusing on institutional markets and also international markets. Infact Himalayan is the only Indian brand of natural bottled water to be internationally accepted and markets across Europe and US.

Himalayan has now forayed into the consumer market in India. The market leader in Indian bottled water market is Bisleri with a market share of 16 % followed by Kinley and Aqua Fina with a share of 14% The rest of the market is dominated by regional and unorganised products.

Himalayan is a premium brand priced well above the ordinary mineral water. Hence the challenge is to convince the customers to pay a premium price for a product like water. The USP of Natural water is that they are Naturally pure and also has a distinct taste derived from its origin.

The brand is currently running a tvc across the country
watch the tvc here : Himalayan
The brand has taken the tagline " Live Natural " highlighting the main strength of the brand.

For a marketer of branded water,the challenges are many :

1.Water is a commodity : Hence to brand it and sell it is in itself a herculean task.
2.Water is perceived to be a freely available resource : Hence customers will have a mental block in paying for drinking water.
3.Between brands, to differentiate is not easy
4. The market is price sensitive.
5. The market is mostly restricted in terms of usage situations. Most of us buy mineral water only while traveling. ( ofcourse in places where pure water is unavailable, even households buy mineral water)

So far ,brands like Bisleri has built the market on Purity and Safety. Although we have lot of water sources, availability of potable water is still a problem. Especially when one is traveling , the risk is higher. Hence the bottled sealed water offered the solution. The wordings on the bottle further reassured the customers about the purity of the water.
Bisleri is almost generic to the category and has built the brand with heavy investment.

Himalayan has the task of adding more value to it because of the premium pricing. Hence the brand has to take some laddering up inorder to appeal to the consumers.
The current campaign lives up to the expectation. What was appealing about the brand was the Pink color and the bottle. My wife , after seeing the ad, exclaimed that she is tempted to buying the water.
Tatas has retained some of the unique brand elements like the color. But it had done some changes in the bottles and graphics . The bottle has been designed by SIPA of Italy and Rediffusion has done the other graphic changes. Like in the case of the global icon Absolut which uses bottle shape as differentiators, Himalayan is also trying to offer visual differentiation using label color and graphics.

Another strength of Himalayan is the brand name. Himalayan offers instant imagery of the Himalayas and brings in the visuals of Cool, Pure, Indian and Natural imagery.

Alarmed by the launch of Himalayan, Parle has launched another brand " From the Himalayas ". Tatas took the brand to the court and today's newspaper reports suggest that Tatas has won the initial round of fight. The contention of Parle is that Himalaya is a generic term and could be used by anyone.

In an interview with Financial Express , the CEO of Mount Everest Mr Pradeep Poddar made an interesting statement. He said " In my opinion , Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs flattens onto a continuum where self actualization vies for attention with basal needs. "
Infact this statement highlights the relevance of Maslow's theory even in this era. Although the theory has its drawbacks, it gives a clear idea of possible needs of an individual.
So when Poddar says about looking at these needs as a continuum,it makes more sense. So even when a customer feel a physiological need , there also exists a need for self actualization. So marketers can link their products to these needs that co-exists at a given point of time.
That is also the concept behind laddering . The brand while satisfying the functional need, also takes care of the higher needs.

Himalayan is now piggy backing on the strength of Tata Tea in reaching out to the Indian consumers. The brand can leverage the intense distribution strength of Tata Tea.
Unlike the ordinary mineral water, Himalayan hopes to give a new experience to the customers. The brand is trying to give the customers the same experience that beverages like cola gives to consumers. Although it is a ' Himalayan Task' it is not impossible.

The trend is favorable to products like Himalayan which has the health tag.
Whether Himalayan can reach the summit will be an interesting story to watch

Asian Paints: Every Color Tells a Story

Brand : Asian Paints
Company: Asian Paints
Agency: O&M

Brand Count : 211

Asian Paints is the market leader in the highly fragmented and highly competitive Rs 7750 crore ($1.73 Bn) Indian paint Industry.The organised sector constitutes around Rs 5400crore ( $1.2 Bn).
Asian Paints started its journey in 1942 with four young men in a garage in Bombay. The name Asian Paints was picked randomly from the telephone directory. The brand has traveled from that garage to become a Rs 1000 crore brand.From 1968 ,this brand occupies a premium position in the Indian Paint industry.

The story of the evolution of Asian Paints as a brand is interesting. The brand now has an iconic status in the industry thanks to some blockbuster big ideas from O&M. The brand once positioned as a mass market brand has evolved itself to a higher plane.

Indian paint industry can be broadly divided into two segments
a.Decorative segment which constitutes the wall paints : exterior and interior, wood paints etc
b.Industrial segment which consists of automotive paints, and paints for industrial sector.
Decorative segment constitutes around 75 % of the total paint industry and Asian Paints is the market leader with around 44% share. In the Industrial segment, Nerolac is the market leader.

In the decorative segment, it is interesting to see how Asian Paints have changed the buying process of the product like paints.Paints are usually considered to be a low involvement product. In earlier times, the decision of the brand was taken by the builder/contractor and the home owners does not involve much in the process may be the decision of color rest with the house owners.
Asian Paints realized the need for brand building even during sixties. But at that point of time, the company had a wide range of brands/subbrands. The focus of the company was on product innovation and service network and managing quality proposition.The brand focused on mass and rural market. Asian Paints had a mascot called Gattu who was created by the celebrated cartoonist R K Laskhman.These efforts made the brand a leader during the late sixties.

Then the company realised that although volume justified the leadership position, share of mind for the brand was very low.That was the result of the mass segmentation adopted by the brand. Rightly so because the industry was driven by channel driven promotions, building a brand at that time was" uncommon sense". During 1983, the company tried to reposition the brand as a premium brand. Asian Paints initiated the corporate campaign aimed to position the company as the number one player in the industry.The objective was to upgrade to a more margin premium product marketer .The corporate campaign " Spectrum of Excellence" was aimed to increase the Salience of the brand in a quiet market.

But this campaign failed to inspire any interest in the consumers and the company felt that the market is moving towards a commodity market where price is the most important differential. Asian Paints undertook a consumer research aimed at understanding the perception of consumers about the product category. The research revealed lot of interesting insights. Consumers felt that paints could change the mood of the space and it was a sign of festival and plenitude.It could make a gloomy place bright and pleasant. From this insight came the campaign of Asian Paints associating itself with festivals. Research also confirmed that customers tend to repaint their houses on the occasion of festivities. Thus born the campaign "Celebrate with Asian Paints". The campaigns were carefully crafted and there were different campaign for different regions. These campaigns effectively enhanced the brand equity of Asian Paints and established itelf as a premium brand. More than that , these campaign ensured an emotional connect with a brand in a low involvement category.The brand also phased out many subbrands and rest of the subbrands was brought under Asian Paint's umbrella brand.

During the late nineties the brand had to be reinvented. Because no longer festivities formed an important part in ones life. Since many brands went after festival seasons,the positioning platform has become cluttered.More over the consumer buying behavior has changed. The category was becoming less seasonal. People started associating more importance to home decor and interiors. The choice of color became a high involvement decision. From a low involvement category, paint was increasingly becoming a high involvement category.

The brand also went in a brand overhaul. The logo was changed to a contemporary upmarket one designed by Entreprise IG based in Singapore.The logo/design was to convey self expression, sophistication and Technology.

Thus came the birth of a wonderful positioning strategy created by O&M. The insight was that the brand is about people and homes and homes reflect the people living in it. Hence " Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai" translated to " Every Home has a story to tell". This campaign is a perfect example of a brand laddering up and connecting to a higher level in the mind of the customer. The campaigns reinforced the brand as a premium emotional brand.
Along with the campaign Asian Paints also ran parallel ads for its subbrands. Saif Ali Khan endorsed the premium brand Royale .For Apex Ultima, the campaign was highly localized and was different in different market.

View Asian Paints ad here : Pongal :Saif Ad

Taking a cue from the success of Ghar campaign , the brand took ownership of the COLOR. The insight is that each color has a story to tell. The latest campaign reflects on the color and uses the campaign " Har Rang Kuch Kehta hai" translated to "Every color has a story to tell".The brand is so serious about the color that it has tied up with IIT to explore new colors and conduct research on colors.
Asian Paints is a classic branding story and the brand is still exploring and growing.

source:businessline,agencyfaqs,Ficci

Brand Update : Ultratech

After the success of the heavy duty rebranding exercise of L&T Cement to Ultratech, the brand has undertaken yet another branding venture. This time its not a rebranding but a brand migration. Aditya Birla Group has a premium composite cement branded Birla Plus. The company is migrating Birla Plus to Ultratech. Birla Plus was launched in 2003 and was being positioned as a Premium brand. The brand has been promoted across the media with the tagline " Is Cement main Jaan hai ". Now the high profile migration ads are on air. The rationale is very simple , both Ultratech and Birla Plus are premium brands from same stable. There is a chance of brand cannibalisation. The group feels that all premium cement offerings should be bought under the Ultratech brand for better synergy and cost rationalization.
The company has proved that if there is huge reserves of money, rebranding is not an issue. I feel that Birla Plus brand has lost its relevance when Ultratech was introduced. In the positioning front also, an emotional positioning taken by Birla Plus does not have relevance in the commodity business. By bringing all premium offerings under Ultratech, the company will be able to spent is promotional budgets more effectively.
Related Brand
Ultratech

Tata Salt: Salt Of The Nation

Brand : Tata Salt
Company: Tata Chemicals
Agency: Bates

Brand Count :155

Tata salt is India's first branded salt. The story of this brand is interesting because the brand came as bye product. Tata salt was launched in 1983. Tata Chemicals has their largest integrated chemical plant in Mithapur. The soda ash plant needed fresh water for their boilers. Hence to supply fresh water, the company started purifying sea water and it created high quality salt as a bye product in the process. This coincided with the government campaign with the support of UNICEF for promoting Iodised salt since iodine deficiency was a serious issue haunting the children's health.
This environment gave birth of one of the super brands and a classic case of branding a commodity in the Indian market.

The Indian salt market is estimated to be around Rs 1 Billion. The market is dominated by unbranded players. Tata salt have a market share of around 40% in the branded segment and 18% in the total market. The product salt is a low involvement and low value product with little scope of differentiation. Tata salt had the first mover advantage and was able to consolidate its position in the market thorough brand building.

1990 saw organised players eyeing the market. Captain Cook salt was launched in the market taking the " free flowing " feature as a differentiating factor. 1996 saw HLL extending its Annapurna brand to salts and positioning its brand on the platform of health and iodine content. 2001 saw the high profile launch of Dandi salt from Kunwar Ajay sari fame.Still 70% of the market is dominated by unbranded players.

Tata salt started its life positioning on the rational platform of purity. Since the corporate brand had the value of Trust engrossed in Indian consumer's mind, Tata salt was eagerly owned by the consumers. One of the major factors that accelerated the growth of branded salt and Tata salt was the effective campaign by the government to promote iodised salt. The campaign penetrated the market to as deep as 20% and the first mover Tata Salt benefited most out of it.

2002 saw the repositioning of Tata Salt on the platform of emotion. The brand owners felt that they should rise above the rational differentiation and try to emotionally influence the consumers. Hence Tata salt adopted its new tagline " Desh ka namak" translated " Salt of the nation". The brand is trying to associate itself to the nationalistic feeling of the consumers and is trying to fill a passion towards the brand. It is a herculean task for a brand that is in a category which is low involvement and low priced. To create involvement in such a category will be a tough task . But the campaign has raised the brand to new heights in terms of market share. Since customers usually are brand loyal and tend to use the same brand of salt every time ( convenience factor) , such high decibel campaigns helps in strong brand recall.

But the long term view of this category is challenging because the scope of differentiation has not been sustainable. There has not been any serious product development these years and this can recommoditise the category.The brand owners may have to think about value additions in the marketing mix to capture the 70% of unbranded segment.

source:tatasalt, superbrand, businessline, agencyfaqs,domainb