Brand Update : “Eat 5 Star Do Nothing” and the Power of a Consistent Brand Theme

Cadbury Five Star has used its latest brand theme, “Eat 5 Star, Do Nothing”, to the hilt. This Valentine’s season, the brand has launched a new campaign that celebrates Valentine’s Day by doing nothing — and it has built a topical story around that idea with impressive consistency.

Valentine’s Day advertising is usually predictable. Brands flood the market with romance, gifting cues, emotional storytelling, and aspirational couples. In such a cluttered environment, the biggest challenge is not creativity — it is differentiation. Five Star manages to cut through this clutter by taking a contrarian route. Instead of joining the celebration, it mocks the pressure around the celebration.

The ad builds the hype effectively and delivers the punch with precision. It is topical, entertaining, and at the same time, completely aligned with the brand’s core personality. The brand is not “trying” to be relevant. It is simply extending its existing worldview into a seasonal context. This is where the campaign becomes a strong case study in branding. The most interesting aspect is not Valentine’s execution, but the power of a consistent brand platform. When a brand theme is strong and repeatedly reinforced, it becomes more than a tagline. It becomes a storytelling engine. It creates a familiar mental frame in the consumer’s mind, and every new campaign becomes easier to process, enjoy, and remember.

In Five Star’s case, “Do Nothing” is not just a line. It is a brand attitude — a cultural commentary on how modern life is overloaded with expectations. Such an approach makes the theme highly extensible. Whether it is exams, office stress, social pressure, or now Valentine’s Day, the brand can use the same platform to create new stories without reinventing itself every time.

This trend also highlights a key shift in advertising effectiveness. In a world of short attention spans and content overload, consistency often beats novelty. Brands that keep changing their positioning may win applause for individual ads, but they lose the compounding effect of long-term brand memory.

Five Star’s Valentine’s campaign is a good reminder that when a brand owns a strong theme, topical marketing becomes easier, sharper, and more impactful.

Stanley Tools : Work Faster

Corporate Brand : Stanley

Brand Analysis Count : 626 

The Indian hand tools market is a highly fragmented market with a market size of over $850 mn (6800 crore). The challenge in doing business in a fragmented market is the price-based competition. With many local players in the market, selling at a premium becomes a challenge, especially in a diverse, large market like India.

It is in this context that a brand like Stanley becomes intriguing. Stanley is a USA-based brand which has had a rich legacy since 1843. The company was founded by Frederick Stanley in Connecticut as a bolt and doorware company. From there, the company has grown to become a reputed player in the tools business. The company had a formal corporate presence in India from 1993. In 2010, the company merged with Black & Decker to become a major player in the Indian market. 

The tools and other related products that come in the B2B segment are basically used by professional plumbers and contractors. The interesting thing is that the growing popularity of DIY culture has opened a significant market for such products in India. Brands like Stanley will be able to reap the benefits of such an emerging trend. It is in this context that creating a brand becomes important. Stanley by design has created a brand based on the power of brand elements. The brand has been very wise in incorporating the brand element of colour in all products and packaging, thus creating a very prominent brand visual effect. The brand has a colour combination of yellow and black, which is itself very contrasting and visually striking. The brand has used these colours in the handles and all possible places in the product itself, along with the usual packaging. The combination gives a striking effect when the customer glances through the options. The power of brand elements has not got much attention in the branding sphere; the examples are plenty, but seldom do we see brands making the maximum use of colour combinations to create that stickiness in the mind of the consumer. 

Stanley as a brand is positioned as a brand that helps make work faster, and it does what it promises. The brand, with its history and focus on quality products, is well on its way to reaping the benefits of the emerging DIY culture in the times to come.

Maruti Suzuki and the Line Filling Strategy – Locking Customers Within the Brand

Maruti recently launched a new SUV - Victoris at a price starting from Rs 10.5 -20 lakhs, at the same time, it's bestselling brand Grand Vitara starts with the same price range. When I was watching the Victoris review, a famous autojournalist commented- why would Maruti Suzuki launch a new product at the same price range of its own product with the risk of cannibalization. In marketing theory, this is called line filling strategy where the company deliberately launch products within the same range of existing products. 

This risky strategy has its own advantages. The major advantage is that the brand is able to give a complete array of products across the price ranges and variants which often prevents the customers from going to another competitor. The brand by launching products with so much similarity is offering a wide range of options thus locking the consumer to the brand. If a consumer doesn't like a model in a price range, the brand thus offers another model within the same range. Often this is seen in FMCG, cosmetics etc where consumers search for variety, Maruti Suzuki has perfected it in the automotive segment. 

While other automotive companies cannot copy this strategy because there are a lot of consumers in India which when thinks about buying a car, thinks first about Maruti and then its options. The brand doesn't want these customers to move out of the brand. Further this heavy list of brands and variants acts as a powerful deterrence against the competitors eliminating any gap for them to enter. Having said that Maruti too had the gap in the SUV segment which was capitalized by Mahindra and Tata Motors. In the EV segment also the market leader was trumped by Tata Motors. But once the company finds a platform, it fills the models to prevent customer switching.

Maruti’s strategy of line filling may look risky on paper, but it works because of its brand gravity—Indians still think ‘Maruti first’ when buying a car. By flooding price bands with options, the company prevents leakage to rivals and maintains dominance. The real test will be whether Maruti can apply this same formula to the fast-growing EV market, where it has already ceded ground to Tata Motors. If history is a guide, once Maruti finds a viable EV platform, it will quickly fill every gap to keep customers locked within its brand orbit.

Brand Update : Vim Expands from Dishwashing to Floor Cleaning

 This has to happen and it happened, after ruling the dishwashing category with around 50% market share, Vim has extended to floor cleaning segment with the launch of Vim Ultra Pro cleaning liquid. Typical to HUL style, the brand has a " technology " to back the positioning based on effectiveness. Earler, marketing academics and practitioners were very cautious in product-line and category extensions. there were many critical academic articles ( even in HBR) on the risks of product extensions. However things have changed, market has become fragmented and competitive and brand managers doesn't have time and patience to build and sustain new brands.

 So it make sense to squeeze the juice out of popular brands and make the most of it in related and sometime unrelated categories. So it makes sense for HUL to use Vim - a brand with terrific equity to a familiar category - floor cleaning. What is surprising is that Vim has not used the ' lemon' based association in the new extension. Rather it chose to use " ultra pro" something it have borrowed from mobile phone ( iPhone) branding - ultra pro, can we expect ultra pro max later ?? The brand extension has lot of promises like cleaning power, fragrance, germ killing but the basic positioning is the cleaning power because that is what customer wants. The brand is entering to a segment which have brands like Lizol, Harpic, Nimyle and whole lot of small brands. But the strength of Vim is definitely going to help in customer trails and rest is all about brand's performance.

The entry of Vim into floor cleaning is more than just another extension—it signals HUL’s intent to transform Vim into a broader home-cleaning masterbrand. With the right mix of equity transfer, consumer trust, and product performance, Vim Ultra Pro could challenge entrenched players like Lizol and Harpic, and reshape the dynamics of India’s ₹8,000 crore floor cleaning market.

x

Gala Cleaning Products – Innovation as the Brand’s Key Differentiator

 Brand: Gala

Company: Freudenberg Gala Household Products (FGHP).

Brand Analysis Count: 625

Gala is an interesting brand in a market that rarely gets glamour – household cleaning products. Created in 1982 as an exporting firm, Gala transformed itself into a ₹500 crore brand through relentless innovation and a strong customer focus. In 2009, it entered a joint venture with Freudenberg Home and Cleaning Solutions (FHCS), forming Freudenberg Gala Household Products (FGHP)—a partnership that brought global design expertise and Indian market understanding together.

I first came across Gala through its pioneering No Dust Broom. Traditional Indian brooms suffered from "bhusa"—loose dust and debris that made sweeping inefficient. In 2014, Gala addressed this pain point head-on with its No Dust Broom, eliminating “bhusa” from day one. This single innovation paved the way for Gala's entry into Indian households, positioning it as a brand that actively listens to its customers and addresses genuine issues.

The FHCS partnership further expanded Gala’s innovation pipeline, leading to products like spinning mops, easy-twist mops, and ergonomically designed toilet brushes. With premium product design, a strong retail presence, and an international appeal, Gala has built brand equity that prompts many online users to wonder whether it’s an Indian brand. I became a Gala customer not because of advertising, but because of the brand’s ability to solve problems and its omnipresence across retail and online touchpoints.

Looking ahead, Gala is well-placed to lead the Indian cleaning tools market into its next growth phase. With increasing urbanisation, hygiene awareness, and global aspirations, the brand can expand to include eco-friendly materials, smart cleaning tools, and export-led growth. If it continues to innovate while keeping its customer-first philosophy, Gala can dominate the Indian market and become a global name in household cleaning solutions.

Marketing Practice : Smell as a Brand Element

Crayola has taken a significant step in branding by trademarking the iconic smell of its crayons, a scent deeply associated with childhood memories. This move highlights the growing importance of sensory elements in brand identity, showcasing how companies are now leveraging unique, non-visual brand elements to create emotional connections with consumers. The "Crayola smell" is not just a fragrance; it's a powerful reminder of creativity and nostalgia. As brands continue to innovate, integrating sensory trademarks could be a game-changing strategy for deepening customer loyalty and differentiation in the market.

#Branding #SensoryMarketing #Trademark #CustomerExperience #Innovation