Mayur Suitings : Stars Ki Pasand

Brand : Mayur Suitings
Company: RSWM ( LNJBhilwara group)
Agency: Foresight Mkg & Communication

Brand Count : 201

Mayur Suitings is a brand from the Rs 600 crore Rajasthan Spinning &Weaving Mills( RSWM) and is one of the famous Indian textile brand. This 30 year old brand is famous for its penchant for celebrity endorsements. Mayur is having a market share of about 7 % in the 10,000 crore Indian suitings market.

Mayur shot into limelight during 1995 when the brand roped in Shah Rukh Khan to endorse the brand. Shahrukh has not reached the stardom during those days but everyone knew that he will one day become the King. ShahRukh endorsed Mayur for 4 years from 1995 to 1999. The ads which proclaimed ShahRukh "Mayur" Khan was a hit which propelled Mayur to the big league.
Later the brand was endorsed by Chandrachur Singh, Sharad Kapoor , Lisa Ray and Virendra Sewag.

Mayur is a classic case of Celebrity endorsement which shows both the positive and negative aspects of using a celebrity. Here is a brand that became successful because of celebrity but in the same case, the brand could not make use of the celebrity to its advantage.After ShahRukh, the brand was not able to sustain the momentum. With ShahRukh, the company hit upon a novel idea of catching the stars with potential to make it big. That may be one of the reason why Chandrachur Singh was roped in. But he could not make it to the big league. Later the brand moved from movies to cricket by roping in Virendra Sewag . Sewag was in the peak of the career when he started to endorse Mayur. In 2007, Sewag was dropped and Salman Khan became the endorser.
The brand is so addicted to the celebrity that the tagline is " Stars Ki Pasand". It sounds like the younger brother of Lux soap which is " Sitaron ka saundarya sabun". Like Lux, the brand also faces the issue of customers not believing that the celebrity actually use the brand ( are they ?).
The use of celebrity in the case of Mayur makes some sense because the brand is a mass market fashion brand that is aimed at SEC B,C and D category. Hence for these segment, celebrity endorsement gives instant popularity and credibility for the brand.

On theflip side, "Stars ki Pasand" offers no meaningful differentiation for the brand since the believability of the positioning is minimal. The brand is in the "Value for Money " category which itself makes " Stars Ki Pasand" unbelievable. For Lux, Celebrity is in the brand's DNA. But unlike Lux, Mayur could not build that to its DNA even after 30 years of existence. The reason is that Lux is endorsed by all the leading ladies in the Bollywood while Mayur could not afford that luxury. Mayur tend to use only one celebrity at a time ( till the contract expires) . A five or six stars endorsing the brand at the same time could have done wonders to reinforce the positioning but seldom companies can afford that. The failure of the celebrity to perform and excel also has acted against the brand. Chandrachur , Sharad and oflate Sewag has been at the lowest ebb of their career graph
The lacklustre performance of these stars have a huge negative impact on the brand equity of brands like Mayur who solely depend on the celebrity for the strength. While brands like Lux, Pepsi and the like uses celebrity, they do not derive the strength from the stars. The stars usually amplifies the already strong equity of these brands. But in the case of Mayur, the very existence of the brand is dependant on the celebrity. There is no innate differentiation for the brand. In other words , the brand fails to stand on its own. The question to ask is why do customers buy a brand ( Mayur) .People buy for its quality and value for money proposition which are the brand's innate strength. But all the ads of Mayur shows the celebrity and the brand and the celebrity will say " Mayur Celebrity Khan" .... thats it.

On the positive side, the endorsements by celebrities gave this brand a Masstige image which many marketers consider a competitive advantage in the Indian market.

The company has big plans for this brand. Currently Mayur is a Rs 100 crore brand and company wants it to be Rs 300 crore brand in five years time. The brand has been updating its product with the latest innovations in the category. Mayur already has a Nano tech collection and is slowly extending to ready-to-wear segments. The brand also has plans to move into premium category and has launched a collection branded Glazano.

Mayur faces the crucial issue of discovering a meaningful differentiation based on the brand rather than on the celebrity. The brand faces competition from super brands like Raymonds, Grasim and Reid and Taylor. The Ex-icon for Mayur, Shah Rukh is now endorsing another brand Belmonte from Skumars .Although Mayur is targeting a much lower end of the segment,the brand has to rediscover itself to reach its ambition.

Source: fibre2fashion,lnjbhilwara.com,businessline,agencyfaqs.