Thursday, February 28, 2008

MotoYuva : Aab Apni Suno

Brand : Motoyuva
Company: Motorola
Agency : O&M


Brand Analysis Count : 312


After creating a rage with some smart campaigns for Motorockr, Motorola is back again with another brand MotoYuva. Motoyuva , as the name suggest is a brand targeted at the youth . It is Motorola's latest venture into the fast growing entry level mobile handset market in India.

Indian mobile handset market is huge with an annual sale of any where between 60- 70 million handset. The entry level mobile phones dominate in the volume share . Motorola had another couple of models in this segment like C118 but Motoyuva is different.
The difference is that this is the entry level brand targeting the youth segment ( age 18-29) and also it is a brand rather than a dry model number.
It is worthwhile to note that it was Motorola which had started branding various models deviating from the practice of the market leader Nokia. Nokia followed the model numbering because of the ever changing models and technology.
But Motorola tackled this issue by branding a series. For example Motorazr was the series brand name and there were different models under this series.
Similarly Motoyuva started with the first model Motoyuva W180. The brand was an entry level phone with FM Radio and Hindi dictionary and speaker phone.

The brand was launched with a crazy ad which took me a while to understand when I saw it the first time.
Watch the ad here : Motoyuva 180

Motoyuva W180 had a tagline " Motoyuva aaya to aapka beta gaya " meaning ' when Motoyuva comes you will lose your son to it ' .
The idea is that the phone is fully loaded that the young ones will be lost in the phone.

The success of W180 prompted Motorola to extend the series with a basic music phone. Thus came the new variant MotoYuva W230. 230 comes with MP3 player with expandable memory at a tempting price of around Rs 3100.

What was interesting was the campaign.
Watch the campaign here : Motoyuva 230.

The ad shows a young boy using the music phone to escape from the nagging father. According to agencyfaqs, the consumer insight that drive this ad is that today's youth use music as an escape route. The ad is well made with a catchy score ( Adnan Sami) and a cool dude and a very realistic papa character. The brand uses the tagline " ab apni suno " meaning ' Now hear what you want to hear'

Soon after the ads was on air, one of my students raised a point that this ad will be offensive/irritating to the father and thus may not allow the son to buy this model. The reason he pointed out is that the TG for this brand may have to depend on the father for the money.
I also read a couple of blogs which aired similar views.
So the question arises as to the logic behind such a campaign berating father who can be the sponsor for the purchase of this phone.

The fact is that everything about the ad is realistic. It is a fact that for teenagers and youngsters , fathers are usually perceived to be nagging , complaining and criticizing . Often fathers become a big stumbling block in their quest for freedom. It is a fact that music mobiles are a rage among youngsters and it is a fact that they use music to shut themselves from the external world.
But whether to use these facts for a TV commercial is something that is debatable......

The simple fact that this campaign has become a talking point justifies the purpose of this ad. In this season where almost every brand is making hell of a noise trying to sell a '5 mp mobile camera phone ' to music mobile with a thump, it is not easy to make us discuss Motoyuva .

The company knew that this ad may create some murmurs , but the main purpose was to break the clutter. The ad achieved that to a large extent. The ad makes us chuckle and we watch because the characters look so natural.

The larger question remains whether the PAPA will object to buying this phone.. Some will and some may not. In majority of the cases, Parents leave the choice of the mobile phones to their sons and thus the ad may not affect the sales.
For these segment, it is the value that matters. At Rs 3100, if the customers including PAPA feels that Motoyuva provides value, the purchase will be made and other wise it will not.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:40 AM

    Comprehensive take. I had been not very hopeful of earlier ads like the one where the father brings a fake head along with new phone for his son. But this ad, as you say is quite practical.
    The marketing guy for this prod is my (and Puru's) classmate; and I was discussing a point with him that what after this product. Moto is known for higher end engineering marvels, if they are breaking in entry level then they need to have next launches ready.
    I had touched the topic in my post here

    Also pls give feedback on the latest post on undercutting

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous3:20 AM

    "berating father who can be the sponsor for the purchase of this phone"
    The phone is for the youth, and one of the defining characteristics of the youth is freedom. The target audience of the phone is no longer reliable on their "berating father" for sponsorship esp. for a phone which boasts of an attractive price tag.

    ReplyDelete
  3. came to your blog through this ad as I purchased this handset. Dint know it was launched in Feb, the set still carries a lot of appeal.

    about the ad, a good analysis, interesting to read it, reminded me of my MBA days. However, on mktg front I'd like to add that the ad is also meant to be a satire between a lot of dad-son pairs with unnderstanding dads; it also acts as eye-opener for many not so understanding dads and lastly, dads dont always accompany sons on their buying trips.

    I know comments can always be made on any analysis and this is just that :))

    Kudos once again for the wonderfully nice blog though, m sure it'd be helping a lot of MBA students.

    ReplyDelete

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