Monte Carlo : The Way You Make Me Feel

Brand : Monte Carlo
Company: Oswal woolen Mills
Agency: JWT

Brand Count : 100

MonteCarlo is a premium knit wear brand in India. Launched in 1984, this brand is dominating the Mass + Class segment winter cloth market. Oswal has around 50% market share in this segment. With the booming retail sector driving the growth of Readymade clothing in India (estimated to be to the tune of Rs40 bn) no one can resist extending their brand to readymades. That is exactly what MonteCarlo is doing now.

MonteCarlo ( which is a super brand) has similarity with Color Plus (discussed in previous blog) in that it created a market for itself in a category that was dominated by lesser known brands. Monte Carlo was careful in brand building and the ads were catchy and theme oriented. Since I am in South India where there is little market for woolen clothes, still the ads shown in national channels used to excite me. The ads were full of "feel good" factors with great models and excellent imagery. All the ads had Romance and two people discovering a relationship. The print ads were like that of " ColorPlus" gave a premium touch to the brand. It is said that most of the earlier models of this brand are now superstars including Mallika Sherawat, Arjun Rampal to name a few. Monte Carlo is promoted with the baseline " The Way You Make Me Feel". The catchy point of the TVC s is the music which always set the tone for the message. The brand

is still communicated along the same themes since two decades.

The company spent lot of effort in making sure that the premiumness is not lost in campaigns. This is going to pay rich dividend when the brand is getting into the competitive world of every day wear.

The brand was extended to T shirts in 1999 with the brand Summerz. In 2001, the brand forayed into everday wear market under the sub brands Wonderhugs and Trouserz and introduced ladies wear in 2003. This year saw the national launch of cotton wears from Monte Carlo. The company was carefully ramping up the distribution and retail strategies to ensure that this brand succeed. The price range of readymades is in line with the premium brands like Van Heusan and Louis Philippe. So Monte Carlo can expect some serious competition.

With the kind of success this brand had in the winter wear market, it is reasonable to believe that Monte Carlo has the potential to be a " Color Plus". Hope that the brand will be built along the same themes that made it successful.