Oris : The Better Switch

Brand : Oris
Company : L&T

Brand Analysis Count : # 555

L&T which is one of the largest player in the construction and infrastructure industry  launched their brand Oris on the consumer electrical space in 2013.  It was recently that the brand has started making noise in the media.

Indian switches and distribution boards market in India is worth around Rs 2400 crore . The home segment itself is around Rs 1400 crore. The market is dominated by Anchor Electricals but now the market is flooded with national and international brands.

Switches has now moved from functional to aesthetic product. Design of the switches and similar electrical products has become an important attribute. Oris claims that it is inspired by music and the switches looks like the keys of a piano. Earlier Roma brand of switches also claimed to be inspired by the piano keys. The USP of the brand is the LED indicator which is branded by L&T as Intelli-i that helps to identify the position of switches in the dark. The company is also offering 12 year warranty for the switches.

Watch the ads here : Oris switches

It is interesting to note the L&T which is a well known Corporate brand has chosen to have a different brand name for its switches. It would have been easy if the company decided to call its switches L&T switches. One of the reasons would be to create a premium brand name and L&T as a brand name is not sexy. 

Since the brand name Oris is new, L&T is running another campaign building the association with the corporate brand L&T. Watch the ad : Leveraging L&T ( it is in Malayalam Language).

The tagline of Oris is " The Better Switch " which I would consider as an unimaginative tagline. Again since Oris is not going to be restricted to switches alone, a tagline anchored on switches is a myopic step. My understanding is that Oris would be later launching a range of electrical accessories including probably MCBs and in future may be fans lights etc. In that case, the company may have to scout for a new tagline. Instead , the company could have started off with a positioning which can be transferred to multiple products in future.