Brand Update - Axe gets further axed

Business Standard  reports that the woes of Axe continues unabated. In the quarter ended June 2014, Axe was relegated to third position,this time by WildStone . Fogg leads the market with 17% share followed by Wildstone with 6.9% and Axe with 6.8% share. The new entrant Engage from ITC has 6.5% share offers further headache for Axe.

Surprisingly Axe has been virtually silent atleast in Kerala market with virtually no promotions. If this trend continues, we are going to see this brand fading out from the Rs 2500 crore market which it created.

Brand Update : Now Alia Bhatt asks Why should boys have all the fun ?

Having tasted success as a women's only scooter, Hero Pleasure has set its sights on the younger ladies. The brand in its push to appeal to the younger crowd has roped in the latest bollywood star Alia Bhatt as the brand ambassador. 

Watch the new ad here : Hero Pleasure

Hero Pleasure was endorsed by Priyanka Chopra and with the change in the brand ambassador to a much younger actress, the brand is trying to bring in a much youthful persona to it. The positioning and the message from the brand remains much the same . Pleasure also has retained the tagline " why should boys have all the fun ". 

The theme of the new campaign is of nothing new and many things shown in the ad has been repeated by many brands. So as far as the new communication is concerned, the brand has taken the most- traveled route except for the new face. 

If one looks closely at the brand's logo in the TVC, the brand describes itself as a " Light and Zippy " scooter. The emphasis of light and zippy is aimed at the younger crowd. With the new push, Pleasure is also challenging TVS Scooty although later is a scooterette. According to newsreports, Pleasure sells around 25000 units per month. Together with Maestro and Pleasure, Hero Motocorp has around 19 % share in the Indian scooter market. 

Revotron : The 3 in 1 engine

Brand : Revotron
Company : Tata Motors

Brand Analysis Count : # 544

Revotron is the new hope of Tata Motors. Tata Motors which once was the number 2 in the Indian car market, is now finding it difficult to be in the top 5 thanks to the nagging quality issues coupled with a negative brand perception. This brand is another example of  ingredient branding.

But Tatas are known for its resilience and Revotron is the result of a serious introspection and investment in developing an indigenous petrol engine with global standards. And from the media reports , Tata Motors have managed to live up to the high standards set by itself. And after many years, media has been kind to Tata Motors with a fairly good reviews about the engine performance.

The 1.2 Ltr engine is being promoted heavily by Tata Motors ahead of the launch of the two major new products - Tata Bolt and Zest. The Revotron brand is endorsed by the Indian F1 Racing star Narain Karthikeyan.

Watch the TVC here : Revotron
The USP of the Revotron engine is the 3 driving modes which is usually seen in high end cars. There is a city mode, Eco mode and a Sports mode. For a value-driven brand like Tata Motors, this proposition is a very powerful differentiation.
Platforms and not products are now important to a company's success. For automakers, engines offer the platforms on which many products can be made. Honda has recently demonstrated the power of platform with the diesel IDtec engine.
Tata Motors hope that the better engineered Revotron would help build a better image for the cars produced under it.

Choco Moonz : Not Only But Also

Brand : Choco Moonz
Company : Perfetti VanMelle

Brand Analysis Count : # 543

Cadbury Shots now has a competition. Perfetti has launched its version of Shots branded as Choco Moonz. The new product has the same form factor as Shots but the difference is that Moonz has almonds inside it. 

Cadbury Shots has been a very successful product for Cadbury. It gained almost 3% value share within a year of its launch. The smart pricing and a very good campaign propelled the popularity of the brand. The brand's tagline " Man Main Laddu " has become a part of the lingo.

Every successful product attracts competition and Shots has got the match from the market leader of the candy-segment i.e Alpenliebe.

Choco Moonz is launched as an independent brand endorsed by Alpenliebe. 

One should appreciate the creativity in choosing the brand name- Moonz. The name is superb and apt for the form-factor of the product. 

The brand has chosen the value proposition as  - Not only Choco but also Almonds. The brand's micro-site informs that the tagline would be the quirky - "Not Only But Also " . This tagline indeed is interesting and can open many opportunity for creative promotional campaigns.

I think Perfetti has got most of the elements of the brand right. Pricing is at par with Shots and the brand is currently in a soft-launch phase and no ads has come to my notice as I write this blog. 

The only issue that I see is the emphasis on almonds as the differentiating factor. Moonz has put its entire USP in Almonds which in a way put a constraint on the brand. It would have focused on making brand a differentiator and gave more product flexibility to Moonz. 

Let us see how Cadbury Shots react to Moonz. 

Market Stat : Ice cream market

According to a report in Outlook Business, Indian Icecream market is worth Rs 3620 crore and premium segment constitutes 10% of this market.

The percapita consumption in India is 250 ml while that of US is 20 litre in a year.

Amul leads the market with 30.5 % share and HUL 's Walls with 20.7 % . According to the report the market is growing at 15-20% each year and is expected to double in the next four years. That means the market will be Rs 5330 crore in 2018  

Brand Update : Maggi with Madhuri wants to make pursuit of health enjoyable

In the latest campaign for Maggi Atta Noodles, Nestle has roped in Madhuri Dixit as the celebrity. The new ad promises Maggi to be healthy and enjoyable- which has been the brand promise for years.
watch the ad here : Maggi with Madhuri

According to media reports, the brand wants to make health enjoyable. The reports suggest that often kids view the pursuit of health to be boring. ( source ) and increasingly kids stay inside immersed in video games and playstations ( certain sections of course ) .Hence the brand took the proposition - health ko mazedaar banao ( make health enjoyable ) as the central theme of the current campaign. and it makes sense also. 

Brand Update : Orient Electricals rebrands to Orient Electric for a bigger market play

In a significant move, Orient Electricals has rebranded itself to Orient Electric. In the new avatar, the brand aims to be a significant player in the Rs 5200 crore Indian home appliances market. Orient - a brand from CK Birla group is a major player in the electric fan category. The Rs 642 crore brand now is spreading its wings to a much broader market play.

Orient is a well known brand in the fan category. But that itself can be a limitation for a brand which is aiming to be relevant to other categories as well. Hence Orient decided to rebrand itself so that it could endorse a wider array of products.
Thus the company rebranded itself to Orient Electric with a new logo and new tagline " Switch to Smart".
The rebranding is backed by a series of campaigns featuring the brand ambassador MS Dhoni. The ads are well crafted and unlike many celebrity oriented campaigns, Orient has made a difference by putting the brand in the limelight.

The ad has the theme " The next generation is smarter " and the message is conveyed through a smart kid that outwits Dhoni. The ad effectively conveys the brand's pitch of its new generation avatar.
Watch the campaign here : Orient TVC 1
                                          Orient TVC 2
The new foray of Orient is into a market which is cluttered and highly competitive. The brand's equity in the fan cateogory together with the new high profile campaign will do a lot of good for the brand aiming to be a major player in the home appliances market. 

Marketing Myopia : ICICI bank charging fee for rewards redemption

Last day when I got my ICICI credit card bill, an interesting notice was enclosed along with the bill. The notice stated that from June 12, the redemption of my reward points which was accumulated  because of the " Loyalty Program" of ICICI bank will attract a charge of Rs 99 + tax. 

Oh really .... What the hell !!

This comes from one of the largest marketing machine in the Indian banking industry and I am totally confused about the logic of this move. Then I happen to read an article in Business Standard and was happy to know that even the journos doesn't have a clue as to what is happening. 

First things first. 

ICICI bank in a way pioneered the concept of rewarding the consumers for their banking transactions. Where reward points existed for credit cards, ICICI introduced reward points for savings bank too and for that they partnered with Payback which facilitate the reward management. 

In my understanding, reward programs are considered an effective way to increase brand loyalty. It is a common method used by marketers to reward loyal and regular customers. There are two sides to rewards. 

Firstly it rewards the existing customers to use more of the service or product and also it acts as an incentive for new customers to be loyal to the product. The thumb-rule is that the rewards must be enticing enough to encourage the customer to see value in being loyal.

Here the smart brains of ICICI bank loyalty program has decided to charge the customers who wants to redeem the loyalty points earned. 

Does it make any sense ???  

First the bank says that you will be rewarded with Payback points if you use the credit card and uses reward points as an incentive to become a loyal customer and then charge the customer when it comes to actual redemption.  It is short-termism at its best. 

You are going to charge the customers for being loyal ?? Common dear marketer , you must be living in the seller's market which is dead a decade ago. 

Another factor is the reward itself. If the reward one gets from the Payback was superb, then 99 INR may be justified but what you get for 1000 reward points is a silicon egg beater or a Prestige LPG hose  ( what a wonderful reward)  for which I need to pay additional  Rs 99 + tax. 

Although I have a Payback card , I have never bothered to look at the points because the so called rewards are no-rewards. So am I bothered about the Rs 99 charge, no because I don't intend to redeem it .  

But as a marketer, what ICICI bank is right now doing is defying all theories. 

Brand Update : Pond's extends to male category

Pond's has been traditionally viewed as a feminine brand. More so because of the products that the brand endorses. Starting with the cold cream, the brand has moved to various skincare segments. In a recent move , HUL has decided to launch Pond's skincare products aimed at men. 

The first product to be launched was the men's face wash. The variant or rather the brand-extension was launched with the upcoming actor Varun Dhawan as the brand ambassador.
Watch the ad here : Pond's men's facewash 

The ad is predictable and compares the brand to a battery charger for the face. Pond's men's facewash has the tagline " Face ka charger" and touts coffee bean's extract as the USP.

According to AC Nielsen, the male grooming market is estimated to be Rs 4000 crore and skincare is the biggest growing category with around Rs 443 crores ( Source). Hence the launch from HUL make sense.

Whats puzzling is why HUL decides to launch a predominantly feminine brand like Pond's for this opportunity.

Ideally (IMHO) HUL should have launched a brand exclusively for men's category instead of extending a Rs 1000 crore brand from a feminine category . Ofcourse Nivea is doing the same thing but doesn't mean that HUL which has the capacity to launch new brands should not launch a new brand. 

My argument is that Pond's will not be able to bring in lot of masculinity into Pond's without hurting the parent brand's persona and will always be constrained by the parent brand's perception. Since the market in question is so huge, HUL has wasted an opportunity to launch a powerful brand exclusively for men. It already have brands like Denim, Aramusk etc which could have been used for this opportunity. Why Ponds ?

Brand Update : Colgate rules the toothpaste market with 57% share

Today's Business Standard has an interesting report on Colgate which despite facing tough competition from major brands was able to hold on to the market share. Infact the brand was able to improve upon the market share. ( read the report)

According to the report, the Indian toothpaste market is around Rs 5000 crore and Colgate has around 57% volume share. Even in the Rs 2000 crore toothbrush market, Colgate commands over 42% share. This is despite the fact that there is an increased competition in the market and the competitors are the likes of HUL, P&G etc.

Some of the lessons of marketing is outlined in this report.

• Consumer Awareness
• Innovation in plugging product gaps
• Rural penetration through distribution augmentation

I feel that the brand's consistency in communicating and its aggressive media communication has helped the brand in good stead . The brand was quick to respond to competition although in the case of Sensodyne, the brand was outsmarted.The launch of Active Salt , Visible White also helped the brand to keep itself in the top of the mind of consumer.

Brand Update : Axe in deep trouble

The Times of India ( 23/05/2014) has a disturbing news for all Axe ( brand) fans. According to the report, the brand which had an iconic status and which was a market leader in the Rs 2100 crore Indian deo market has slipped into 3rd position. ( Source)

According the newsreport, Fogg is the leader in the deo market with a share of 17% and the second player is Park Avenue with a market share of 8%. Axe has been relegated to third position with a share of only 6%.

The reason is very simple. Axe failed to differentiate !

How ironic isn't it ? The brand which virtually built the deo market in India and ruled for many years but then fail at marketing ! 

To top it , the brand comes from one of the best marketing companies in the world - HUL .

The brand should have seen the writings on the wall . There were a plethora of brands copying the " seduction" theme . But the brand put up a brave face and refused to react . Soon Axe lost its mojo . 

I am not saying that Axe should have changed the basic proposition but it should have drove the agency guys to come up with break-through campaigns ( I know its easy to say) But rather than reacting strongly at the competition , the brand steadily imported its global advertising to the Indian market and watched its share go down the drain. 

Usually when I criticize the HUL, I get nasty comments about being an armchair critic . But let me stick out my neck and say that Axe failed in marketing and that is sad !

Philips Aquatouch : Shaver for the modern man

Brand : Aquatouch
Company : Philips

Brand Analysis Count : # 542

Philips has been recently pushing its electric grooming products aggressively in the Indian market. The company has been seriously building its product portfolio in the Indian market with focus more on small appliances, LED , audio devices and personal grooming products.

The big push came in 2012-13 when the company launched ad with the celebrity John Abraham for the Philips Men grooming range. Watch the ad here 

The company estimates that the men's grooming range would be around Rs 1500 crore and the market especially the young consumers are moving towards the more convenient electric devices. 

The company cites several market research studies which show that youth views these shavers to be convenient and consumers are worried about the cuts and nicks which they get by using traditional shaving products.

Although Philips' electric shavers are in the market for the last ten years, the bigger marketing push has come during this season. 

The company is now pushing the wet shavers branded Aquatouch primarily because Indian consumers are habituated using the shaving cream + water combination. The brand is running as series of ads featuring the benefits of the Aquatouch.

Watch the ad here

The brand is rightfully positioned itself as the " Shaver for the Modern Man " and the product directly attacks the traditional shaving razors. This is indeed a warning signal for Gillette. 

What is interesting about the product is not the strategy of Philips but the silence of the competitor - Gillette .

The pioneer and innovative powerhouse of the grooming market is surprisingly silent about electric shavers and trimmers.

Let me pen down my take on the Philips' thrust on the electric shavers. 

My prediction is that there is a high possibility of electric shavers and trimmers becoming a large category. The combo products which enables men to trim and shave will be a very profitable category and will dominate the higher end of the market. This is going to have serious problems for Gillette brands like Mach range and the Fusion range. 

The reason is the increasingly the consumers are now experimenting with their facial hair. Especially the younger market. They have now all types of mustache and beard and the conventional shaving razors are not flexible enough to cater their needs. 

Now many dabble with a trimmer and the good old razor. But soon time will come when these convenient electric shaver + trimmer will capture the upper end of the market. This can drive the expensive Mach and Fusion brand to be irrelevant to the Indian consumer. Looking at the economics , electric shaver is more economical than the expensive cartridges of Gillette . 

Wondering why Gillette which practiced " Planned Obsolescence " to the core by cannibalizing the existing products with innovative new ranges silent on the direct attack by Philips ? Are they practicing Marketing Myopia ??

Marketing Insight : What drives brand trust ?

Last day, I went to buy a small appliance as a gift, there were two brands- one was an instore brand and another a very well known brand. The in-store brand product looked very good with more features than the national branded product. At the similar price point , the instore brand looked a very good buy.  

When my wife asked my  " expert" opinion, I urged her to go for the national brand despite the fact that I knew that the private label brand would have been a better choice. 

On introspection, I found that what I was doing by choosing the national brand was risk-reduction. That is what branding is all about isn't it ? The national brand offered a much less featured product so on a value calculation, the private label offered more value. But as a consumer, the national brand offered less perceived risk.

So why did I as a consumer felt that the national brand offered less risk compared to the private label ? 

Firstly, the brand was reputed ( familiar) and its legacy gave me comfort that it would not fail me in terms of performance. Secondly, as a consumer, I had a positive experience with the brand which made me trust the brand more than the private label. Thirdly since the product was an electrical appliance, the perceived risk is more compared to another product category. 

So for marketers, creating trust for a new brand is not easy especially in product categories have high perceived risk ( common sense !) . And brand's role is that of risk-reduction. And as a consumer, I can say that for me a brand would be trusted if it is familiar and has perceived product expertise. 

What do you think are the drivers for brand trust as a consumer ?

VWash : Creating Intimate Hygiene category

Brand : VWash

Company : Glenmark

Brand Analysis Count : # 541

After making the face and under-arms of the Indian consumers fairer, marketers are moving to uncharted territory. Indian market is witnessing the development of Intimate wash category in the Rs 1500 crore female hygiene market. This category came into public domain with the brand " Clean & Dry " from Midas Care. 

Clean & Dry with its very explicit campaign raged lot of criticisms owing to the way the brand message was executed. 

Watch the ad : Clean & Dry

The controversies helped the market to notice this category but I have a negative opinion about the way the brand executed its communication message. 

VWash is the competing brand in this category from the pharmaceutical major Glenmark.Unlike Clean& Dry, the brand has took the positoning in a much more subtle way.

Watch the ad here : VWash ad

While Clean & Dry focused on the fairness which repulsed many opinion ( also opinionated) leaders, VWash chose to take the less controversial hygiene route. VWash is positioned as a hygiene product and talks about common issues like irritation and itchiness. 

So VWash in my opinion was able to take the category out in the public domain in a much more civilized fashion than the category innovator.The health pitch would also prompt the Indian consumers to buy these products without any inhibition. 

 And interestingly the company was able to put the product displayed in prominent places in the chemists shop owing to the brand's relationship with that channel.  

Increasingly Indian market is seeing lot of new products and pitches which raises the question whether marketers are testing the " Line of Control " . Similar question marks were raised when Nivea launched the Under-arm fairness deo. But now many brands including the likes of Dove has a variant for that purpose. 

May be this category of intimate wash products may become a part of the female hygiene market in India too. 

Market Statistics :Soaps

According to Business Standard ,Indian soap market is worth INR 10000 crore. HUL's lifebuoy is the largest selling soap with 15%share.
Lux market share is 13-14 %
Dettol at 8.5 % and Santoor at 8.2%.

Brand Update : Cadbury India to be rebranded as Mondolez India, What it means to brand Cadbury

According to Economic Times report, Cadbury India is going to be rebranded as Mondolez India. This was predicted after the iconic company was taken over by US based Mondolez International. It is interesting for a brand enthusiast as to see how this affect the iconic brand - Cadbury.

Cadbury has a huge equity in India and is consistently rated high in most of the brand ratings in terms of trust and popularity. So what happens to Cadbury after the company is renamed to Mondolez.

Firstly, Cadbury after the re-naming of the company will no longer be a corporate brand. Then what will it be ?

If one looks at the brand architecture of products from Cadbury India, Cadbury acts as the brand endorser for most of the products - whether it is 5 star or Dairy Milk or Shots. Cadbury thus extends its powerful equity to all the chocolate brands from its stable. So powerful is the equity that when Mondolez launched its Oreo biscuits, it chose to endorse the brand with Cadbury .

Cadbury had its equity derived from the rich heritage dating back to 1824 . The brand has grown to an iconic status through the brands like Dairy Milk. So this is one of those family brands which derived its equity through the success of the brands it endorsed and also as a leader in the chocolate category. As a corporate , Cadbury became strongly associated with chocolates and became the world's second largest confectionery company. 

In my opinion, although the Cadbury has lost its status as Corporate brand, it will be retained by Mondolez India as a family brand which endorses the chocolate products from its stable. 

While earlier, Cadbury earned its equity in the capacity of a corporate brand ( being the largest, most respected confectionery company) that source is now lost because it is no longer a corporate brand. So from where will the brand gets its equity from ?  Now since Cadbury is no longer a corporate brand, Mondolez needs to create new sources of equity for this iconic brand. Cadbury needs to be nurtured as a family brand and the company no longer can take the strength of this brand for granted. If it is going to be relegated as logo on the pack of the products, that will be  a sad state for an iconic brand. 

How marketers visualize deadly Germs !

Indian marketers are in love with germs. Many brands have taken up the task of protecting Indian consumers from the deadly attack from the germs. Keedanu is often the generic term used by Indian marketers to denote the germs. 

For many brands, especially in the cleaning segment, the basic USP of most of the brands is the germ-fighting. Marketers have chosen different ways to visualize the germs. While some brands have tried to make the visualization close to reality, some brands have chosen to go beyond reality. 

A peep into how marketers visualize the deadly germs.

DETTOL

Dettol has been in the forefront of fighting germs and the USP of the brand is " Be 100% Sure". This brand has visualized germs in a realistic manner.

Dettol Handwash 

Dettol Soap

LIFEBUOY

Lifebuoy  is a brand which fights Dettol in terms of the positioning. While Lifebuoy soap which boasts of protecting consumers from 10 types of Keedanu has chosen to depict these germs in a realistic manner.

On the other hand, Lifebuoy handwash has gone the exaggerated way with the deadly germs taking up the form of animals with hands legs and even tails. Some looks like octopus.

Lifebuoy Handwash

Pepsodent

Pepsodent is another brand which talks about fighting germs and the brand has also tried to visualize germs in a more realistic manner.

Pepsodent Germs

Colgate

Colgate which is the principal opponent of Pepsodent has gone to depict the germs in a comic fashion. The germs although deadly looks cute and funny. But beware : Looks often deceive !

Colgate Germs

Lizol

Floor cleaners are another saviors for consumers in the fight against the germs. Lizol which is the major brand in this category also have realistically portrayed the "Deadly Germs" 

Lizol germs

Danone Yogurt 

According to Danone, there is good bacteria and bad bacteria. Good bacteria are round shaped,  cute and colorful.

The award for the best creative visualization of the deadly KEEDANU goes  to

DOMEX !!

Nothing beats the visualization of germs as done by Domex. These germs comes from the labs of Steven Spielberg. The Domex germs are organized and there is a leader who is plotting war against the humans. But thankfully Domex saves the world.

Wikipedia

This is what Wikipedia gives as image for bacteria !

E Coli

MRF ZVTS : The comfortable radial

Brand : MRF ZVTS
Company : MRF Ltd

Brand Analysis Count : # 540

Tyres which are generally boring products belonging to a whopping Rs 45000 - 50,000 crore category has seen many interesting brands being built. Although tyres belong to a high-involvement category owing to the high cost of purchase ( replacement category) but the purchase is seldom enjoyed by the consumer.

MRF is the market leader in the Indian tyre market with a share of ~ 27 %. ZVTS is the radial brand from MRF. What is interesting about ZVTS is the care that the company has took in branding and positioning this brand.

ZVTS was launched in 2000 and was expected to drive the MRF's entry into the radial segment. The replacement market for tyres are huge and MRF was expecting that ZVTS would make its mark in this segment. What makes interesting about ZVTS is the consistency in the brand communication.

MRF ZVTS is positioned as the " Most Comfortable Radial ". The positioning has been consistent in the entire 14 year history of the brand. In the initial years, the brand was endorsed by Sachin Tendulkar. 

It is also interesting to see how the brand communicated the positioning in their ads. The brand has maintained a consistent imagery in most of their campaigns. The brand used  the imagery of a small child enjoying the drive , car floating in the air etc. These imagery has been consistent in the brand's communication and has effectively communicated the positioning clearly to the consumers

Watch the ad here : ZVTS ad

                              Zvts old ad

The imagery , in my opinion, is one of the best and very relevant one in communicating the brand's proposition of a comfortable radial. Hopefully the brand will not change is powerful imagery in future.

In the brand architecture , MRF has followed a policy of carefully creating sub-brands like ZVTS, Wanderer, ZLO and developing USPs for each of these sub-brands. For example, Wanderer is for SUV and ZLO is for " high speeds". Along with this MRF has been careful about building and nurturing the parent brand also.  

Brand Update : Kingfisher Airlines brand for sale. But who will buy ?

According to reports, the creditors of the defunct Kingfisher Airlines has decided to sell the brands - Kingfisher Airlines and other related trademarks. It is said that KFA owes Rs 7000 crores to the creditors.Naturally the news was carried with lot of importance by the media. 

My first reaction was who wouldn't want to get such a great brand ! I had the impression that Kingfisher brand was up for sale.

When we look at the fine print, things are not that attractive. According to media, the creditors have control over " Kingfisher Airlines " and not the Kingfisher beer brand. And reports also suggest that five years ago, Kingfisher Airlines brand was valued at Rs 3000 crore.

Now the question is who would be interested in Kingfisher Airlines brand ?

My guess would be that none would be interested in that because KFA as an airlines brand has lost the source of value. The value was lost in two aspects -

a) The airlines is defunct so there is no functional value for the brand.

b) The major source of equity for Kingfisher Airlines' brand was from the Kingfisher beer brand which remains with the UB group. 

I think the creditors had made a huge mistake in taking Kingfisher brand , which is an intangible asset, as a collateral without understanding how that brand derived its value. Kingfisher Airlines as a standalone brand does not have much value if de-linked with the beer brand and the brand owner with whom the brand had lot of linkage. Who ever that made the pitch to the creditors was a great salesman !

Now for a suitor, buying Kingfisher Airlines brand at a high cost doesn't make sense since this brand now has the liability of a  "failed brand "  image. One can buy this brand to prevent that brand from flying again for ever but its not worth it !

So who would be interested in buying  a dead brand ?