Nestle Alpino : To Love is to Share

Brand : Alpino
Company : Nestle

Brand Analysis : # 530

Nestle Alpino is the company's latest offering in the Rs 5562 crore Indian chocolate market. The premium end of this market is witnessing interesting action with Cadbury's Silk, Ferrero Rocher , Toblerone leading the fight. According to reports, 30% of the market is now consisting of premium chocolates.

Nestle always had been a laggard in the Indian chocolate market. After Kitkat and Munch, the company did not have any serious launches. It seldom fought the leader Cadburys and neither did it tried to respond to any of the launches from the market leader.

This year, Nestle stirred up the market with the launch of its premium offering branded as Nestle Alpino. Alpino has a striking resemblance to Ferrero Rocher. The packing and the product form puts Alpino directly pitched against Ferrero Rocher. That comparison gives the brand a premium image without any effort.

Nestle Alpino is being positioned as a chocolate that should be shared. There is a romance touch to this brand and this is highlighted in the launch campaigns.

Watch the TVC here : Nestle Alpino

Besides the product attributes like the chocolate bon-bon with creamy inside, what makes Alpino different are the love messages written inside the Alpino wrapper. There are more than 150 such messages inside the wrappers. This makes the brand a very cute affordable gift of love. 

Nestle has been investing heavily in boosting the distribution and POP promotions for Alpino and it is showing too. The brand is priced at Rs 25 a pack and the pricing is spot-on. Ferrero Rocher although is in similar price range has a perception of being an expensive product and this have prevented many from buying it frequently. But Alpino was able to create an image of an affordable luxury.

Alpino has all the potential to become a success in the Indian market and may eclipse Ferrero Rocher's brand in India. The fact that now Indian consumers are increasingly opting for premium chocolates rather than traditional mithai also favors product like Alpino. 

Brand Wars : Pepsodent Vs Colgate

The August of 2013 saw the beginning of another war in the toothpaste market. Pepsodent, the challenger brand from HUL directly attacked the market leader Colgate with a high profile comparative advertisement. The ads directly compared  Pepsodent Germicheck with Colgate Strong Teeth with claim that Pepsodent Germicheck is 130% better in fighting germs than Colgate Strong Teeth.

Watch the ad here : Pepsodent vs Colgate

While this is not the first time that Pepsodent has frontally attacked Colgate. 

Pepsodent is a small brand compared to Colgate. According to ET, Pepsodent Germicheck has a market share of 6.4% while Colgate strong teeth has a market share of over 29.4%. For a challenger brand like Pepsodent, fighting the leader directly certainly puts the brand in limelight.

In India, brands do engage in such direct attacks. Law does  allow certain level of comparative advertising provided it does not disparage the other brands. Usually the challenged brands take the matter to either ASCI or to the court. But since these take time to settle, the comparative ads may have achieved its objectives.

Most of the time, the challenger brand uses research evidence to support their claims of superiority. In this case, Pepsodent claims that it has 130% more germ attack power than Colgate. The fine print says that Colgate is indexed to 100 %. So is Pepsodent in a sense puffed up the numbers to make it seem extraordinarily superior to Colgate.

It is interesting to note that Pepsodent Germicheck chose to attack Colgate Strong Teeth rather than Colgate Total. Colgate Strong Teeth is the largest brand in the Colgate portfolio but this brand is not claiming any germ killing attribute. Colgate Total is the brand which claims the germ killing attribute. So rather than fighting the Colgate Total, Pepsodent Germicheck decided to launch the attack on Colgate Strong Teeth.

Direct comparative ads, that too against an established market leader most often works for the challenger brand. It has the shock value and the ensuing marketing war gets the challenger brand eyeballs and media spaces especially in social media. Frontal attack using such tactics has its fair share of risks. The market leader often will react with full might which may destroy the challenger brand. In this case , it is the fight between the titans and if there is a war, both will bleed.  

Sunfeast Dark Fantasy : Escape into One

Brand : Dark Fantasy
Company : ITC

Brand Analysis : 529

Sunfeast Dark Fantasy is the story of a brand which started its journey as a sub-brand and later acquired the status of a standalone brand. ITC forayed into the  biscuit market in 2003 and Sunfeast Dark Fantasy was launched in 2005. It was only after four years, that ITC thought of taking the brand to the next level.

Dark Fantasy's success can be attributed to the careful detail with which the brand was built by ITC. ITC took a risk in positioning Dark Fantasy as a premium biscuit brand. The premium space was vacant in the Indian market and marketers was unsure how consumers would react to a premium biscuit offering. 

To do this, Sunfeast tried to build the brand among emotional platform taking on the proposition of   ' Indulgence'. So here is a biscuit which would appeal to your sensuous self and take you through an experience of indulgence. It was a risky proposition and ITC backed the theme through some heavy campaigns. 

The brand had the tagline " Pure Indulgence " when it was launched. The USP was the packaging. Dark Fantasy in a way assured in a new wave of packaging in the biscuit market. The bold use of colors and calligraphy supplemented the brand's positioning as a premium biscuit. Later the tagline was changed to " Escape into One ". Dark Fantasy had twin packaging - there is an outer cardboard box and individual choco fills had wrapper packaging. That gave the brand a premium feel.

Watch the ad here : Dark Fantasy 

Rather than restricting itself as a premium biscuit, Sunfeast Dark Fantasy tried to create a space for itself by launching a new variety called Choco fills. Choco Fills are essentially biscuits with   chocolate filled inside. Although these types of biscuits were available, through smart packaging, Dark Fantasy brought lot of interest into this category. Now choco-fills are very popular that competitors like Parle had to launch a new brand in this category.

Buoyed with the customer response to Choco Fills, Sunfeast has extended this packaging strategy to its Cookie category by launching Delishus brand of cookies.
Dark Fantasy can be termed as a packaging success story. The brand has showcased the power of packaging and its influence in the positioning and brand image. Its not the first time that ITC has leveraged the power of packaging , it had tasted success in the FMCG category with Fiama and Vivel which differentiated  through smart packaging..The success of Dark Fantasy has created a freshness wave in the biscuit category with lot of colors and forms emerging from the leading brands. For consumers, shopping for biscuits is becoming  a delightful experience.