Schmitten Chocolate : Love to Love it

Brand : Schmitten
Company : Rajhans Group


Brand Analysis Count : # 550

The Rs 4500 chocolate market has a new player- Schmitten. Schmitten is a Swiss chocolate made in India ! or to be fair, this chocolate is positioned as a Swiss chocolate. The new brand comes from Rajhans group which is a Rs 3500 crore real-estate developer. 

The new brand- Schmitten is positioned as a premium brand competing with the like of Cadbury Silk and Temptation. Schmitten is the mother brand which is being launched as a moulded chocolate like Dairy Milk. Schmitten also has another product - Hoppits which is a bar-chocolate like 5 Star.

According to newsreports, the chocolate although made in India is made with machine imported from Switzerland, Denmark and Germany and uses Ghanian coco beans and Swiss recipe.

Priced at Rs 80 for 70 mg pack, the brand resides at the premium end of the chocolate market.It is priced competitively for a luxury brand.

Schmitten is launched with the endorsement from Priyanka Chopra. The launch campaign is styled as a musical and the brand has the tagline " Love to Love It ".

Watch the ad here : Schmitten 

The basic premise of the brand's launch message is that its a crime to ask for a bite of Schmitten. The brand had a launch teaser campaign where various punishment for taking a bite of  Schmitten is shown.

Watch : Teaser Schmitten

The musical ad has some kind of a novelty in it but doubt whether the packaging and the ad has succeeded in creating the premium image for the brand. The ad purely talks about the story and doesn't convey any message regarding the USP of the brand.

My take on the launch campaign was that it could have been much better and the premium factor is missing in the ad.

Further the tagline " Love to Love it " is a confusing tagline. What does it actually mean !!

Having said that, since chocolate is an impulse purchase, Schmitten , with its celebrity endorsements would get consumer trials and eventually it is the product performance that is going to be the key. 

Brand Update : Xcent ropes in Shah Rukh Khan

Xcent launched by Hyundai in the sub-meter category has been well received by the customer. According to newsreport, the brand has sold around 35000 units since its launch. To boost the existing success,the brand now has decided to leverage its prized asset- the brand ambassador- Shah Rukh Khan.  

SRK has been the brand ambassador of Hyundai for the last 16 years. According to NDTV, this 16 years association is a record for any brand-celebrity in India. From the launch of Santro to the i10, SRK has been the integral part of the brand campaign for Hyundai. 

But more than the brand promotion, it is the performance of the products that create success in the Indian auto market.

SRK in the new campaign for Xcent amplifies the brand's promise of " more value for money ". 

Watch the ad here : SRK Xcent

In the new campaign, the brand had added an additional claim of " The real family sedan ". The well made ad pitches the brand against the tough competition from the likes of Honda Amaze, Tata Zest, Maruti Dzire etc. 

Zorrik 88 : Why this great product is not promoted?

Brand : Zorrik 88

Company : Pidilite

Brand analysis count : #549

There are some very useful products in the market which has great usefulness  and potential but seldom promoted by the brand owners. Zorrik 88 is one such product from Pidilite. I have neither heard of this brand before nor remember seeing any ad. I came across this brand when suggested by a hardware store.

I faced a nagging problem of a rusty and squeaky garage gate. Come rainy season,the gate become rusty and the wheels stuck. Putting lubricating oils seldom gave relief.Then one hardware store suggested Zorrik 88. The pack of the brand says it is a quick maintenance spray that cleans,protects lubricates and displaces moisture. Costing ₹60  for a 32 g bottle I thought of giving a try. A couple of spray into the wheels of the gate and bingo the gates began to roll smoothly without any noise.

A nagging problem solved in a minute.

Zorrik 88 was launched in 2006 and is positioned as a quick maintenance spray.  

I was left wondering why this brand was not promoted because rustiness and squeaky hinges and doors are a common problem in many households. This works better than the messy lubricating oil and has more convenience and ease of use than the oil. The problem with these type of products is that consumers search for these products only when the problem surfaces. There is little chance of consumers stock these product anticipating these issues. However in my opinion,this is a really useful product worth promoting. 

Brand Update : Axe finally respond to competition through Axe Signature

So finally a response from HUL to competition. After being relegated to No.3 in the deo market by Fogg and Wildstone, Axe finally launched its answer to the competition- Axe Signature Collection Deo.

It was surprising that HUL which is supposedly the best marketing machine in India took so long to respond to competition. Its almost a replay of the Nirma- Surf episode where the market leader was slow in responding to local competition eventually to find itself dethroned as  the market leader. HUL (in my opinion ) was very slow in reacting to Fogg's entry into the market with the No-Gas proposition. The result is that Axe has been beaten down to number 3 in the market.

Now HUL has responded with a variant branded as Signature Collection. The basic USP is the variant is 3X times more perfume. The brand has the tagline " Don't Fade Away" 

Axe Signature is running its campaign across the channels. The television commercial retains the seduction proposition but is now subtle with that message. The message the new variant is pushing is the long-lasting fragrance. 

Watch the ad here : Axe Signature

The " Don't Fade Away " proposition is smart because that idea is different from the current market leader Fogg's no-gas USP. So Axe is now telling the consumers that it is better than others because other fragrances fade away. The packing resembles Fogg Black Collection cannot be wished away as a coincidence.

Although the message is nothing new, Axe has executed the campaign nicely.

Priced at Rs 225, Axe has priced this variant lower than the competition. 

The entry of Axe into the no-gas segment has market as shift in the market dynamics. The no-gas segment is now growing at 30% and is already worth around Rs 250-300 crore in the Rs 2500 crore deo market. This segment which is now named as body-perfume segment is where all the action is. 

The launch of Signature is expected to arrest the growth of Fogg and Wildstone. Since this is a launch from Axe, old loyalists are bound to try it. Rest is all dependent on the delivery of the promise. 

Positioning Sharing : Axe Signature's long lasting fragrance proposition is not new, the brand Set Wet deo already has the same positioning ( Watch the ad). 

Long-lasting is a widely used positioning. Across various categories brands has been using this positioning and the novelty and believe-ability of this positioning has come down drastically. Pepsodent ( dishum-dishum) , Amaron ( lasts long really long) Colgate Total are some of the brands that share the same positioning. 

RIP Accent ( 1999-2013) Reborn Xcent (2014)

Brand : Xcent
Company : Hyundai
Brand Analysis  : # 548

While there are many conflicting views about re-birth in the human world, the brand-world is full of brands dying and getting re-born in another avatar. One such case is Hyundai Accent. The once best selling sedan from Hyundai died in 2013 when sagging sales prompted the company to pull the plug on one of the most successful automobile brands in India. 

In 2014, Hyundai launched its first sub 4 meter sedan Xcent. The similarity in the brand name cannot be wished away as a mere coincidence. The company wants to continue Accent's legacy and equity into the new born brand.

Compact sedans has been a rage in the Indian market which is primarily fueled by the low tax applicable to sub 4 meter cars.The segment is led by Maruti Dzire. While manufacturers take advantage of the tax factor by putting a boot to the existing sedans, consumers find the proposition of value. Indian consumers have a thing for sedans because it raises the status. So even if the boot looks ugly, consumers are happy buying an ugly sedan than a beautiful  hatchback. 

Xcent is positioned as an affordable family car. The brand uses the tagline " Multiplies your life"  to convey its value for money proposition. 

watch the tvc here : Xcent 

With the price starting at Rs 4.66 lakh, the brand has got the customer attention. According to reports, the company is finding it difficult to handle the demand from the market. 

Regarding the branding, Hyundai may have wanted to carry over the equity of Accent to Xcent. Accent as a brand has strong association with a full fledged sedan. So using that brand to launch a compact sedan  has some risk. Also Accent as a brand is perceived to be an old one. Xcent is a new product in a new platform ( Grand i10) with the fluidic design philosophy. So Xcent was the smart move by Hyundai to get the best of both the brands. 

Smart indeed.