Brand Update : Odomos' experiment with product forms

In classic marketing textbooks, one of the strategies in managing the maturity stage of the product lifecycle is product modification. Theory suggests that there are two types of modifications - retention modification and conquesting modifications. Retention modifications are those which aims at satiating existing customers while the conquesting modification is aimed at getting new customers. 

Odomos has been in the market for decades and the challenge it faces is that stagnation in the market in terms of product penetration. Although mosquitoes are ubiquitous, Odomos is still a small brand in terms of size. This is probably because of lack of awareness and doubts about the safety of applying the cream directly into the skin. 

Odomos in recent years has addressed this problem head-on by launching a series of different product forms. Now the brand is available in the original cream form, liquid, gel, patch and now wearables and spray form. This strong marketing thought behind the brand should be appreciated. 

In the promotion front, the company has been very active. The target segment in most of the campaign is the children. I wonder why the company is restricting its target ( at least in the ads) to children. It is true that children are active outside the house and risk of them getting diseases is high, but the brand should have focused more on functional/benefit positioning targeting away from the age variable. 

The current campaign of Odomos is also well made which is themed in a rap setting but again focusing on children. 

The competitor Good Knight is also very active and since the product form differentiation is not insulated from emulation, other brands are also quick to come with their own versions. 

My personal take is that Odomos should think of a change in the segmentation strategy focusing on the proposition of a facilitator to active life since mosquitos are a nuisance to an active outdoor life. 

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V-Nourish : Real Ingredients, Wholesome Food

Brand: V-Nourish
Company: Veeba Foods

Brand Analysis Count: # 590

After the forward integration from an ingredient maker to a marketer of branded food products, Veeba has launched its new brand V-Nourish in the Indian market. The child nutrition market in Indian is worth around Rs 7000 crore and growing at around 12% YoY. The market is dominated by the likes of Horlicks and Bournvita. It is in this segment that an Indian company is going to fight for space. 

And the company is doing it in style. The brand has roped in none other than King Khan to endorse the brand. V-Nourish is positioned as a wholesome tasty food and comes on 4 variants. The brand has also launched a variant V-Nourish PediaPlus for kids from 2-5. 

The launch campaign is plain and simple straight forward talk by the celebrity about the brand benefits. There is not much scope for creativity in such a sort of theme.

It is really a coup of sorts for Veeba to having roped in SRK for the launch campaign. Although celebrity endorsement has become a common feature in advertising in India, the presence of such a star gives a big boost in terms of brand awareness for V-Nourish. To fight the likes of Horlicks, Bournvita, etc, you need such a headstart. Since this is a matter involving child nutrition, building brand trust is of paramount importance. Marketers at Veeba hope that SRK will help boost both awareness and trust for the brand. It is also interesting that SRK is seen to be a favorite for products involving kids - Byju's has also taken him as the brand ambassador. 

Brand Update : Colgate Moves to Higher Brand Values

In an interesting move, Colgate has moved from its traditional positioning of Strong Teeth to a much higher brand value of inner strength. The campaign started with Deepika Padukone and is currently taken forward with an endorsement from M.S.Dhoni and his wife Sakshi.

Colgate which rules the Indian market was very consistent with the brand's positioning. The imagery of the dentist and the demo using shell has remained the main theme of most of Colgate Dental Cream's advertising.

The new Colgate campaign talks about inner strength and tries to link the brand to the message. The tagline - Ander Se Strong which means: Be Strong from Inside. The new positioning is strengthened by the endorsement from Deepika Padukone and Dhoni. In a testimonial kind of ad, the brand uses the celebrities' personal experience to drive the new positioning. 

It is not that Colgate has completely moved to higher-order brand values. In a follow-up ad, the brand is also reminding the consumers about the original positioning based on calcium and strong teeth. As a market leader, Colgate has to constantly be ahead of the game in this highly competitive market. The Indian toothpaste industry is witnessing changes prompted by the initiatives by brands like Patanjali Dant Kanthi. The new campaign definitely helps Colgate stay ahead of the competitors for a while. 

Acko General Insurance Co : Digital Only Insurer

Brand: Acko
Company: Acko General Insurance Co Ltd

Brand Analysis Count: #589

This is the era of digital technologies disrupting traditional business models. The same is happening in the insurance industry in India too. Acko General Insurance Co Ltd is the first digital-only insurance startup in India. The company aims to sell its products only through online and operate only in the digital space. 

The Indian insurance industry is estimated to be around 1,20,000 crore and growing at 15-20% annually. The large population and limited penetration offer a large potential in this huge market. But the size of the market itself creates problems for the insurers. When the insurance industry opened up, a lot of global insurance players entered the Indian market but soon they found that cracking the diverse and large market is not that easy. This has led to a wave of consolidation in this space. 

Insurance in India is a highly regulated market and demands huge capital investment from the players. 

Acko is a startup which aims to disrupt this space. The company which launched its operations in 2017 is India's first digital-only insurance company. This means, unlike traditional insurance companies, Acko will not have a network of offices, rather everything will be app/web-based. This translates to lower cost and competitive pricing of the products for the consumers. Traditional insurers depend on a wide network of insurance advisors and offices to serve the customers. 

Acko launched its first product - auto insurance and claims to have reached the milestone of 20 million customers in the first year itself. 

To create awareness, Acko is running the campaign with the tagline " Full Paisa Wasool " insurance which means - complete value for money insurance. The brand is positioned as a value-for-money insurer and betting on low price as the key differentiator. 

The campaign which is humorous is also an example of using anthropomorphism in advertising. Anthropomorphism denotes the use of non-human characters in advertising for conveying human traits. 

As a consumer, there are certain issues that this brand needs to iron out. First is the awareness regarding the brand. While the advertisement is good and generates eyeballs, for a customer, building trust is vital especially in the case of insurance. Auto insurance, in particular, is a price-sensitive segment, however, the customer should first be assured that he will be taken care of by the firm. I had to search a little on the internet to find the pedigree of this company. Although it is true that this company is targeting digital-savvy customers, in the era of convenience the firm cannot entrust the trust-building task to the customer only. Further, the website of Acko also has very little information about the company.Second issue is differentiation. The idea of digital-only insurance although is new, is not protected from emulation by competition. The established firms will be ready with their own version in no time. How Acko will be able to tackle the competition will be an intersting to watch.

One of the important foundations of trust is the performance of the brand. If Acko is able to deliver the promise of its digital insurance products, this brand will create a new path for insurance startups in India.

Brand Update : Maruti Attempts Channel Differentiation using Nexa and Arena

In 2015, Maruti launched a new channel to cater to the company's foray into the premium four-wheeler segment. The new channel was branded as Nexa. Nexa catered to the premium range of cars from Maruti like Baleno, Brezza, Ciaz etc. The Nexa showrooms were designed to project a premium feel for the segment of customers that prefer premium cars.

It was a challenging move for the company because the multi-channel strategy has its share of problems like organizational challenges, differentiation challenges, channel conflict, redundancy etc. The need for a premium channel arose because Maruti started off as a maker of affordable cars. Its range of cars was never targeting the premium segment. Some of the earlier forays of Maruti into the premium segment also failed to achieve traction. 

Recently the company tasted its success with the mid-range and premium segment with some smart brand launches. Having a premium channel like Nexa enabled to company to give a different kind of experience to this segment.

In 2017, the company rebranded its traditional channel to Maruti Arena which sells the mass market brands like Alto, Wagon-R etc. The company also have a commercial channel and True Value channel for used cars. 

In theory, the company has followed a Marketing Channel Segment Differentiation strategy where the channels differ in terms of the customer segment which they cater. Another type of channel differentiation is Task Differentiation where the channel members differ in terms of the tasks they perform. 

Although the company has tried to create channel differentiation, there is still overlaps in terms of products. While some brands are exclusive to Nexa, some are available in both the outlets which can create potential channel conflict. Marketing Channel differentiation based on segments works well when there is a minimum overlap of characteristics across segments. Here in the case of automobiles, there is bound to be segment overlaps because of pricing overlaps as well as aspirational factors. We can see that the price of high-end variants of hatchbacks is equal to the price of certain mid-size entry-level variants. So the firms who have a channel differentiation strategy should ensure that these overlaps be kept a minimum.

 But with the huge market share and product sales, the channel members at this point of time may not be complaining too much about the cannibalization of sales. 

WLS : Live Natural

Brand: WLS ( Formerly Wills Lifestyle)
Company: ITC

Brand Analysis Count: 588

Wills Lifestyle was ITCs foray into Indian textile market. Launched in 2000, Wills Lifestyle initially was pioneering the premium fashion clothing market in India. The brand when it was launched was seen as an attempt by ITC to keep the equity of the cigarette brand Wills. Since cigarette brands cannot advertise, a clothing extension would be helpful in sustaining brand awareness. I viewed it as a case of surrogate advertising. 

Contrary to my assumption, ITC had other plans for the brand. Will Lifestyle quickly became successful as a premium clothing brand. The company expanded the brand franchise through retail stores across the country. In 2006, Wills Lifestyle became the principal sponsor of  India Fashion Week. Through this fashion event,  Wills Lifestyle became associated with fashion thus differentiating itself with the other clothing brands. However, the product was priced at a premium this restricting its scope into a niche brand.

Over a period of time, the clothing vertical became a laggard in the ITC portfolio and I presume that the company's foray into the FMCG segment had all the management attention. 

This year, the brand has a major restructuring. ITC has rebranded Wills Lifestyle into an acronym WLS. The brand also has a new positioning - sinless clothing which means 100% natural. 

With the rebranding, Wills Lifestyle has severed its ties with the cigarette brand. 

It is a very bold and risky move since at one stroke the brand has lost the source of its awareness. Now ITC will have to move the awareness of the older brand to the new brand name and that involves a whole lot of money. The new positioning of ' Naturalness ' is the buzz word in the FMCG space and ITC is hoping that the clothing market would also follow the trend. Also being natural is a good excuse to charge a premium!

WLS has adopted the tagline 'Live Natural ' to support the new positioning. The relaunch saw teaser ads across the print media. 

Wills is a powerful brand which has huge resonance among the male segment. Trading that powerful brand for an acronym does not make much sense in the marketing point of view. However, ITC may want to disassociate other businesses from the cigarette brand so that in future ethical questions can be avoided. 

A rebranding of this scale requires that the brand has to start afresh, right from identifying the source of brand equity to reworking all associated brand elements. With huge cash reserves, ITC does not have a financial issue in building awareness for WLS. What I am little skeptical is the " Natural " positioning platform of WLS. I don't see this as a compelling attribute, especially for a premium clothing brand. Time will tell. 

Brand Update : Horlicks pitches for Emotional Nutrition in the latest campaign

Departing from the usual pitch based on functional benefits, Horlicks now have moved into emotional territory with the new campaign Bottle of Love. Horlicks has been very consistent in the brand campaign throughout its brilliant life in the Indian market focusing on the benefits. The " Taller, Stronger, Sharper " proposition has been very well received in the Indian market and Horlicks continued to be the market leader in the segment in India. 

The new campaign is an interactive campaign which is emotionally laced targetting mothers. The campaign features Kota which is a place famous for competitive exam coaching. Aspiring medical and engineering candidates flocks to this place for coaching and the setup there is grueling and very competitive. Kota provides a relatable example of exam stress and Horlicks wants to provide solace to the kids. 

The campaign is very well made and has already become very popular in social media. 

The campaign is followed with ground activation where the brand wants the mothers to log into the site bottleoflove.in where they would get an empty bottle. They need to fill it up with anything that their kids love and Horlicks will ensure that the bottle will reach the kids. 

In recent interviews with the media, the campaign managers tell that the idea behind the campaign is the fact that every house will have one bottle of Horlicks and the bottle will serve as the carrier of emotional nutrition for the kids.

The transition from functional nutrition to emotional nutrition is a clever positioning move for the brand. The functional nutrition value proposition has been commoditized with a lot of brands taking up that positioning. Further, the Indian market has also seen new product launches specialized in functional nutrition. It thus makes sense for Horlicks to ladder to a higher order benefit and Emotional Nutrition fits perfectly. The concept is powerful and scalable across the brand portfolio and also resonates with the target market. 

Kudos to the brand marketers. 

Brand Update : Palmolive Relaunched

Palmolive, one of the oldest brand of soaps in the Indian market has not been able to do justice to its existence. Despite its rich heritage, international pedigree and a strong parent, Palmolive has always remained a fringe player in the highly competitive Indian market. At one point in time, Palmolive had a range of products ranging from soaps to shaving cream. The shaving cream featuring Kapil Deva was a huge hit in those days.

Later, however, the company focus shifted from soaps and Palmolive was sidelined in the marketing front. There were sporadic interests in the brand but all those were
half-hearted ones.

This year, the brand is again making a comeback of sorts. The brand has launched a new range of facial bars with the positioning of being Natural.
The brand is currently running the relaunch campaign.
The company is trying to bring in some freshness to the brand in this relaunch. The brand is relaunched in three variants including charcoal variant.
The brand now has the tagline " Glow Naturally" indicating that Palmolive is trying to bank on the current trend towards natural products.

It is good to see some interest in developing this brand. Palmolive have strong awareness in the market but I feel that there is no strong association with the brand which it can develop. One of the task for Palmolive is to rediscover the source of equity and build on that.

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Brand Update : There is a little bit of Nerolac in your Life

Nerolac, which has a legacy of more than 100 years has always been playing second fiddle to Asian Paints in the Indian paint industry. Both in the field and advertising space, Nerolac was not able to beat the market leader Asian Paints. Probably after a long time, Nerolac had hit a bullseye in finding a credible message for its consumers.

The latest campaign of Nerolac- There is a little bit of Nerolac in your life, is a creative breakthrough for this brand. Everyone who has seen the ad was surprised at the message - the fridge, the car, the appliances are painted with Nerolac. That indeed is a powerful message which will change the way the brand is perceived. 

The basic idea is to leverage the brand's credibility in the industrial segment to the consumer segment. Indian paint industry which is worth around Rs 47000 crore is classified into Decorative Segment and Industrial Segment. Decorative Segment constitutes 75 % of the total market. Asian Paints is the market leader in the whole paint industry with a whopping 41% share while Nerolac has a share of 14 %. But in the Industrial segment, Nerolac leads with 35 percent share. 

To counter the market leader Asian Paints iconic campaigns capitalizing the emotions associated with color and home, Nerolac so far tried all strategies including roping in Big B for their campaigns but with limited success. 

This time, the brand roped in the energetic Ranveer Singh as the brand ambassador. But the star of the campaign is the Big Idea. The campaign is very effective in driving the home that the home appliances which usually have the durable painting are being painted by Nerolac. That message instantly conveys credibility to the brand. Nerolac was able to give a piece of very powerful evidence to its core strengths - performance credibility. Ranveer Singh brings a touch of humor to the whole proposition. 

This idea although very powerful does not have longevity in the sense that this cannot be continued for long. The brand needs to milk this idea within a short span of time and then move on with some sustainable proposition in the next phase of the campaign. For now, hats off to those brains who came up with this idea. 

Brand Update : Hamam ladders up to women empowerment

Hamam which has a rich legacy dating back to 1931 is charting a new course in its marketing communication strategy. This 300 crore brand from HUL has been positioning itself on the basis of its ingredients - Neem and Tulsi since its inception. 

In 2017, the brand tried to change its course moving from the functional benefit platform derived from its ingredients to a higher order benefit. In marketing parlance, it is called brand laddering. 

According to news reports, this is the first time that Hamam is moving away from the functional benefit positioning. 

The 2017 campaign #GoSafeOutside aims to use the " women empowerment" as the platform for brand promotion. The brand is taking up the cause of safety of girls for its promotion. 

The ad shows how a shy young girl is motivated by the mother to stand up on her own.

The concept of women empowerment is nothing new in the Indian marketing scene. Many brands including some soap brands like Lux have taken up this platform for brand promotion. 

In this campaign, Hamam encourages the young girls to take up self-defense courses that would give them the necessary confidence to go out of their safe zone. 

In 2018, the brand went further ahead with the campaign and tried to create a network of mothers called Hamam Mothers Safety Force. This network is intended to provide a watchful eye on the safety of young girls. 

HUL is known for such ground level activation in its various cause marketing campaign for its brands. The brand should be lauded for identifying a potent issue regarding women safety and doing something about it. The brand runs the hashtag " GoSafeOutside for this initiative. 

The success of a cause marketing campaign revolves around the relevance, brand connect and the impact. This campaign is very relevent in today's times. It needs to be seen how HUL carries this forward to create a lasting impact on the consumer's mind. 

Cadbury Crispello : Let Something Good Happen !

Brand : Crispello
Company : Mondolez India

Brand Analysis Count: #587

Cadbury recently launched a new brand Crispello in the Indian market. The new product is the company's second entry into the crispy chocolate segment, the first being Perk. The new brand will be fighting with the likes of KitKat, Galaxy etc. While this segment is dominated by chocolate covered wafer products like KitKat, Cadbury's Crispello is a wheat crispies covered with chocolate.

The Rs 8000 crore chocolate market is witnessing intense competition with global players fighting it out for the share of the pie. Now the who-is-who of the players are in the market and to be in the game, brands need to constantly innovate. 

Crispello is targeting the new generation of customer who is always looking for a variety of experiences. Crispello is targeting the customers who want light indulgence snacking options. According to company reports, the brand understands that customers of this generation want multi-textured and complex experiences and the brand aims to deliver that option. 

The new brand follows the same brand architecture of other Cadbury brands. The new product is endorsed by the category brand- Cadbury, followed by the family brand - Dairy Milk. 

The brand also follows usual positioning of Dairy Milk centered around the concept of " Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye ".

The launch advertisement is also in sync with the positioning. Interestingly Crispello is positioned as a healthy diet snack targeting women in Europe.

The strategy followed by Mondolez which has been ruling the Indian chocolate market is to keep the excitement going among the consumers. The Cadbury brand has seen a lot of product launches which had kept the brand in the limelight. Some of the launches have been highly successful in the likes of Dairy Milk Silk. 

With global brands like Mars, M&M etc stepping up the game, the market leader is also making aggressive moves to stay on top. Exciting times ahead in this market. 

Brand Update : Welcome back Santro

This October saw one brand coming back to life. Hyundai decided to name their new entry-level hatchback as Santro. Indian market is witnessing an interesting brand name phenomenon of a resurrection of dead brands. After Santro, Mahindra is launching the Jawa brand. Ads of Dianora ( remember Dyanora brand ?) brand is there in some channels in Kerala. 

Santro in the earlier avatar had a dream run in the Indian market. It paved way for Hyundai to become the second largest car maker in the highly competitive Indian market. However, Hyundai decided to put the brand to rest and opted for a strange alpha-numeric brand i10 as the successor. Although the brand found acceptance, it was not a blockbuster brand like Santro. 

The new Santro has no similarity with the old models. Neither in looks or in the technical specification. The product looks like a car born out of i10 and Chevrolet Beat. 

In the brand communications, Santro tries to link itself to the old Santro's USP of a tall boy design, however, the new Santro does not look like a tall boy. 

 Just like the relaunch of Baleno, here the company has used a very famous brand name for the new launch. There is no need to be nostalgic about it. There was some nostalgia when I heard the news of Santro relaunch but that vanished when I saw the new Santro being totally different from the old. 

So why a sudden rush for dead brands. The only reason is the brand awareness that some of these brands carry across all these years. For example, Jawa and Yezdi still have huge awareness among the Indian riders. We also know that these bikes were real headaches in terms of mechanical failures and ride quality. You need extra-strong calf muscles to make a Yezdi start. But since those were the only options, consumers tend to buy it. When better bikes came, these brands died. 

In the case of Santro, it had strong equity created out of excellent product performance. Old Santros are still running without any issues. 

By launching the new product with an old brand which has excellent brand awareness ( recognition + recall) gives a  real boost to the launch efforts. There need not be any investment in building awareness by using an old brand. Since Santro did not have any issues in the previous life, it does not come with any baggage. Hyundai just had to fuel a hype of an old brand resurrected, the media will take care of the rest of promotion because of the news value. The launch of Santro had earned a lot of earned media space just because of the brand name. 

Hyundai had priced the new Santro in a sweet spot and according to auto-portals, the product offers excellent value for the price paid. Automobile market success heavily depends on product and service related attributes and less on brand-related attributes. Santro again depends on how the car works and with Hyundai's track record, it will not be a problem for the new brand. 

Brand Update : Skoda lures with Peace of Mind

Skoda came into the Indian market way back in 2002 with the highly successful premium sedan Octavia. Ever since the brand has created an image of a premium brand with very sturdy cars. However, the brand was eclipsed when the Indian market saw the likes of BMW, Audi, and Mercedes fighting it out with new models and brand promotion

. Somewhere down the line, the brand went into a slumber, my assumption is that when the Volkswagen brand was promoted heavily, Skoda went into sleep.

2018 is witnessing a comeback of sorts for this brand. According to newspaper reports, Volkswagen group is planning to put Skoda brand in the center of India 2.0 strategy. 

One of the issues that the brand is facing is the perception ( rather truth) of Skoda being expensive to maintain in terms of service and spare costs. This issue was faced by Ford who ran a big campaign trying to change the perception. 

To change the perception, Skoda is offering warranty and service package to the car owners and a celebrity-driven brand campaign. 

The brand has roped in Boman Irani as the celebrity endorsing the new campaign. Interestingly Boman Irani is also endorsing Cars24 portal. Seems like he is the new favorite of Auto brands. 

Skoda needs to change the perception of being expensive to maintain since the brand is expected to launch a series of products that will drive VW's share in the Indian market in the coming years. 

Because of this perception, Skoda cars are not in the consideration set of most of the customers who look for an upgrade in the mid-range segment. In my opinion, Skoda is a kind of squeezed in the Indian car market with the luxury segment being dominated by brands like Audi, Benz, BMW etc while the premium segment is witnessing the intense competition between the likes of Honda and Suzuki. 

The money that the brands like Skoda and Ford had to incur to change the perception of being expensive to maintain brand is a lesson to marketers. Perceptions are easy to create and often created without a thought. Once the perception is set in the mind of the target market, it will burn a hole in the brand's pocket for a long time. 

Sting : Electrifying Energy, Ultimate Taste

Brand: Sting
Company: Pepsico India

Brand Analysis Count: #586

Sting is the Pepsico India's challenger brand in the Rs 200 Crore sports and energy drink market in India. According to Livemint, Indian sports and energy drink market are in a nascent stage with a consumption of 45.2 Million Liters in 2016. Redbull rules the market with a share of 64%.

The size of the Indian market and the growing interest of the consumers towards non-carbonated and less sugary drinks has made this a very attractive market for these products. Moreover, the government has come out with norms for energy drink market which makes a clear regulatory framework for the players. 

Sting is launched with the positioning of product performance. The tagline of the brand is " Electrifying Energy, Ultimate Taste". The launch ad is effective in communicating the positioning but cannot be claimed as anything creative because it reminds of the Center Shock ads of the past. The ad is targeting the health conscious young Indian consumers. 

The brand is priced almost 50% less than the market leader Redbull. I have not seen this brand in my city. I guess, the national rollout has not happened yet for the brand. 

Indian sports and energy drink market is still a niche market. Although there is a shift towards healthy drinks, consumers ( in my opinion) is little confused about the product usage. In marketing terms, the category lacks salience. The brands in the category need to educate the consumers about the product usage and usage situations in order to expand the category. Although we can argue that the product descriptor ( energy drink) is there in the product label, that will only help in category identification. If the category needs to expand, it should make more usage situations for the product. Currently, the category is popular among sports enthusiasts which restrict the growth of the market in terms of market size. 

The low price of Sting may induce more product usage for the brand and thus offer a challenge to the market leader. However, Sting needs more than the quirky launch campaign to challenge Redbull. 

Brand Update : Is Santoor testing a new positioning ?

Santoor, one of India's largest brand has been on a roll these days. Recently, the brand became the second largest selling soap by volume, toppling HUL's Lux ( Source). The success of the brand is attributed to the consistency and focus in brand building.

Recently an interesting twist has happened in the brand's approach to positioning. The brand relaunched its Santoor Gold in a new avatar. Santoor Gold was launched in 2015 as a premium variant differentiated by the presence of Sakura extracts and saffron as the ingredient. The product was launched initially in the southern states like AP. Three years later, the variant is relaunched. This time the sakura extract is missing and prominence are given to the saffron and sandal ingredient.
More importantly, the ad of this variant does not follow the core positioning of the parent brand - the mistaken identity.

This is a drastic change in terms of the brand's positioning strategy.

Watch the old ad of santoor gold here










.
The earlier campaign of Santoor Gold followed the mistaken identity theme. The question remains as to why the brand chose to tread a new path for its variant? One scenario is that the brand is testing a new positioning different from the age-old one with the new variant. The second scenario is that the brand chose to have a new positioning for the variant targeting a much younger crowd.
However, theoretically, it is always better to have the variants following the positioning theme of the parent brand otherwise the synergy of the brand-line promotions will be lost.

Prepair : Be Prepared

Brand: Prepair
Company: Vini Cosmetics

Brand Analysis Count: #585

Recently Vini Cosmetics Ltd, which is famous for the Fogg brand, launched a new brand Prepair ant-ageing segment. The Indian anti-aging market is worth around Rs 1500 crore ( as per Business Standard) and around Rs 2600 crore as per IIFL. The market is at a nascent stage but is expected to grow owing to the aging population and expansion of the category by marketers. 

The market already has seen global brands like Olay in the past. However, Olay was skimming the market with its premium positioning. Later the market witnessed the entry of HUL with Ponds Age Miracle range and Nivea with Q10 Plus. But these global brands tried their luck in the premium space of the segment. 

Vini Cosmetics has probably spotted the gap in the market and has launched the brand Prepair aiming at the larger pie of the segment at a lower price point. Prepair is created as a family brand endorsing multiple products in the anti-aging segment. The company has launched Prepair regenerating skin cream for women as Prepair 4050. For men, the company has launched Prepair 40+; probably men won't mind if the brand says openly that it is for the age group of 40 above. The brand name is a compound brand name or Lexical brand name combining Prepare and Repair. The tagline is Be Prepared. 

The brand is launched with ads that are aimed at category development. The ads are plain-vanilla informative in its execution. 

There are separate campaigns for male and female segments.
The large FMCG market in India offers a lot of opportunities for niche products. The Indian market is such that these niche markets often grew to become large segments. Vini Cosmetics is betting on the anti-aging personal care segment as one which has the potential to grow big.

Too Yumm! : Eat Guilt-Free

Brand: Too Yumm!
Company: Guilt Free Industries ( Sanjiv Goenka Group)

Brand Analysis Count :# 584

Too Yumm! is a brand which created a lot of interest during the IPL 2018. This is a new brand from the RP-Sanjiv Goenka group. It's for a long time such a big ticket launch is happening in the FMCG space. 

Indian salted snacks market is worth Rs 23000crore as per Economic Times. The salty snacks market is further divided into following sub-segments; India namkeens valued at Rs 9500 crore, Potato Chips valued at Rs 5500 Crore, Extruded snacks valued at Rs 4300 crores and Bridges valued at Rs 3400 crore. (Read the ET report here)

Too Yumm! is positioned as a healthy alternative to the existing potato-based chips dominated by Lays. As India moves towards more healthy snack options, the new brand aims to take advantage of this trend. 

Since Too Yumm! is fighting the giants like Pepsico, the brand has taken an aggressive stance. It has roped in the Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli as the brand ambassador. Virat was recently in news for declining to renew the Pepsi contract. He has taken a stance that he would endorse only products which are promoting good health. (Source: NDTV). So getting Virat to endorse Too Yumm! is a big coup of sorts. 

The brand is positioned as a guilt-free healthy tasty snack. The introductory advertisement was very loud in conveying the message of a guilt-free snack. 

The brand uses the tagline " Eat Lot, Fikar Not"  and the terms " Fikar Not" is retained in the subsequent campaigns which means worry not. The brand later followed up with the launch of multi-grain chips which has the proposition of baked not fried benefit. 

The ads also had some shock value with a fitness icon like Virat endorsing chips and also the visuals showing him non-stop munching. In the later part of the ads, the endorser clarifies on the healthy nature of the product. 

In a marketer's perspective, the brand has ticked all the right boxes. The company has enough cash to burn in promotions. The brand has chosen the right brand ambassador and the positioning is also relevant in this environment. The brand is also priced at par with the going rate. Currently, the brand is available only in select cities. 

The challenge for the brand is to sustain the differentiation. The proposition of a healthy snack is not defendable since the competitor can easily launch their own versions. Secondly, the momentum contributed by the high profile brand ambassador is also not a long-term solution. 

Too Yumm! is all poised to ride the healthy snack food trend for now. 

Brand Update : Patanjali is making Colgate Confused !

Patanjali's Dant Kanti has really made the market leader Colgate in a tight spot. The aggressive promotions and the positioning based on Ayurveda has slightly dented the market share of Colgate. More than the market share, the Ayurveda push may shift the parameters on which the consumers decide on the toothpaste purchase. 

During the initial phase, Colgate tried to counter the Dant Kanti's challenge by strengthening the existing variant  Colgate Herbal and Colgate Salt. But that did not make an impact on the forward march of Dant Kanti. 

Colgate then used the flanker brand Cibaca to fight the challenger. Earlier, when the price warriors like Anchor and Babool challenged Colgate, the market leader used Cibaca to neutralize the threat effectively. This time, the same strategy was used by launching Cibaca Vedshakti which boasted of the natural content. The flanker brand was priced at almost 30% lower than Dant Kanti. 

The strategy seemed to have failed. Recently Colgate launched another variant Colgate Swarna Vedshakti in the Ayurveda space. This time the market leader is launching a direct attack on the competitor with the flagship brand. 

The variant is priced at a premium to the challenger brand. The new variant is positioned as a toothpaste that combines traditional with modern. 

The ads follow the testimonials from mothers to build authenticity to the brand. The current campaign is aimed at increasing the adoption of the brand. 

Now Colgate has two variants with the similar brand name ( or part)- Colgate Cibaca Vedshakti and Colgate Swarna Vedshakti with different prices. My hunch is that Colgate is migrating Vedshakti to the parent brand and may discontinue Cibaca Vedshakti in near future.

Colgate has realized that Dant Kanti is not about fighting on price. Patanjali is making the Ayurveda segment of the toothpaste market which was a niche in to a mainstream segment. If such a shift happens then Colgate's leadership position will be under threat. Colgate probably had done the right thing by fighting Dant Kanti with its flagship brand. 

Management by Obligation : Influencing without Authority

Framework for building Brand Trust

Kaytra : Interesting case of co-branding

Brand: Kaytra
Company: AVA Group

Brand Analysis Count: #583

Kaytra is an interesting brand story. The brand is from the AVA Group which is the owner of the famed Ayurvedic brand Medimix. Kaytra is a brand jointly created by AVA Group and the celebrity hairstylist and makeup artist Ambika Pillai. 

This is an example of co-branding and if you observe the logo, you can see the name of Ambika Pillai along with the Kaytra brand. It is not a unique case since Indian market has witnessed many such co-branding exercises. 

As a professional, Ambika Pillai commands a lot of respect in the market. Kaytra's brand promise is that it is created using the expertise of Ambika Pillai. The brand is positioned as a premium product with the personal endorsement from the celebrity hairstylist. 

The brand is now testing the waters in the Kerala market and according to media reports, the brand will be launched in other markets soon. Having said that, I have not seen the products in any of the supermarkets so far. Probably the brand is very selective in the distribution.

The advantage of Kaytra is that AVA Group has expertise in FMCG market and through Medimix has sufficient distribution reach. The second factor is that Ambika Pillai is personally vouching for the brand which adds a lot of power to the authenticity of the brand. The source of the brand equity for Kaytra is Ambika Pillai and her reputation.
On the promotion side, the creator has been able to get the endorsement from many of her celebrity clients and the brand is generating content about personal care in social media. Ads featuring Ambika Pillai is also aired on various television channels.

According to the brand website, Kaytra is the Sutra of good skin and good hair. Interestingly there is no tagline for this brand.

For a product in the hair-care space, the survival of the product solely lies on the tangible performance. Hope that the brand will live up to the expectations set by the creator.