Agency : By Design India Pvt Ltd
Brand Analysis Count : 436
Binani Cement is one of the mid-sized cement brands in the highly competitive Indian cement industry . Binani cements belongs to to Braj Binani group. The group ventured into cement manufacturing in 1997 . Binani Cements is now a 1900 crore company with significant presence in states like Rajasthan ,Delhi, Punjab , Haryana and Gujarat. The company also has presence in foreign countries like Middle East and China.
Indian cement marketers has long been trying to brand this commodity. Binani is one such player who has taken up branding in a serious manner. The brand is relying on the celebrity power to build its equity. Binani Cement used the cricketing master Sunil Gavaskar to promote its brand during the launch phase in 1997. After a long period of silence, the brand began to invest heavily in brand promotion from 2007.
The brand chose the ever green Amitabh Bachchan as the brand ambassador in 2007. There was lot of buzz during the time big B was chosen to endorse a cement brand.
Binani Cement started using Big B in the television commercials in a dignified manner. This is one of those brands that tried to make use of Bachchan's charisma to the brand's advantage. The ads were laden with subtle humor and according to the reports, Binani cement's sales surged during these campaigns.
Watch the camp
aigns here : Binani Cement 1, Binani Cement 2
The brand did a smart move by taking advantage of the fact that both the brand and the brand ambassador name starts with B. The cement brand began to call itself Big B. While the brand gains by the association, there were many critics who argued that now Big B will be associated with cement rather than celebrity.
Binani cement has the tagline " Sadiyon Ke liye" which means " for centuries ".
Although the ads featuring Bachchan was well made, I felt that it lacked a punch. The brand lacked a powerful message . I would even say that the brand is not able to convey its brand manthra to the consumers. That may be the reason why those ads did not stick with the consumers.
To be fair to the brand, it has to be highly appreciated to venture into investing money in building a brand in the commodity space.
Related Brands
Ultratech
Gujarat Ambuja
Indian cement marketers has long been trying to brand this commodity. Binani is one such player who has taken up branding in a serious manner. The brand is relying on the celebrity power to build its equity. Binani Cement used the cricketing master Sunil Gavaskar to promote its brand during the launch phase in 1997. After a long period of silence, the brand began to invest heavily in brand promotion from 2007.
The brand chose the ever green Amitabh Bachchan as the brand ambassador in 2007. There was lot of buzz during the time big B was chosen to endorse a cement brand.
Binani Cement started using Big B in the television commercials in a dignified manner. This is one of those brands that tried to make use of Bachchan's charisma to the brand's advantage. The ads were laden with subtle humor and according to the reports, Binani cement's sales surged during these campaigns.
Watch the camp
aigns here : Binani Cement 1, Binani Cement 2The brand did a smart move by taking advantage of the fact that both the brand and the brand ambassador name starts with B. The cement brand began to call itself Big B. While the brand gains by the association, there were many critics who argued that now Big B will be associated with cement rather than celebrity.
Binani cement has the tagline " Sadiyon Ke liye" which means " for centuries ".
Although the ads featuring Bachchan was well made, I felt that it lacked a punch. The brand lacked a powerful message . I would even say that the brand is not able to convey its brand manthra to the consumers. That may be the reason why those ads did not stick with the consumers.
When trying to brand a commodity, the brand should stand for something significant. It should be either strength , quality , trust , heritage, etc. Although Binani Cement has a good tagline, the emphasis was not there on any significant USP. The brand could have done much better if it had focused on a key strength of the brand and used the celebrity to emphasis that strength. For example Gujarat Ambuja has owned the USP of Strength and Ultratech is taking the positioning as Engineers Choice. So when comparing with these competitors, Binani Cement does not have a clarity in its positioning. It seems that it is trying to derive some strength through association with a celebrity. Such a celebrity dependent positioning strategy is not advisable for the brand . Ideally Binani could have identified its strength and used celebrity to highlight that strength.
To be fair to the brand, it has to be highly appreciated to venture into investing money in building a brand in the commodity space.
Related Brands
Ultratech
Gujarat Ambuja
Interesting article. Brands seek to differentiate and in this market that is difficult as the product here is more of a commodity. As such the differentiator is via the 'softer' brand values based on emotion and trust of the buyer
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether 'softer' values have any influence over commodity branding. As far as i know Cement is more of a B2B commodity.Who among us will argue with contractor over choice of cement brands??? I wonder... I guess such kind of B2B oriented companies should concentrate on USP which is more to do with product rather than investing on 'Big B' brand building... yeah this could increase the awareness level but then will it zero down to profits? looking for authors view...
ReplyDeleteAnitha, am working with Ultratech cements. as per my experience i believe that cement is both B2B as well as B2C commodity. both are in a same proportion. So it is important to concentrate on attracting both kind of customer...
Delete@ suzanne , well said. do you think Binani has done the right communication strategy ?
ReplyDelete@athira, since product features are commoditised, there is no other way but to go for softer values. it does have influence over the consumers but depends on how well those values are communicated. But as you rightly said, brands must look for USP but what happens if it can't find any ??
ReplyDeleteNew agancy leland mate
ReplyDelete