Happenstance : Extreme Comfort Engineered

Brand: Happenstance
Company: Mosons Enterprises

Brand Analysis Count: 594

Happenstance is a new brand of footwear launched recently. The brand is making a lot of noises in the social media which interested me to further look into the brand's background. Although little is known about the brand owners, from the website it is found that the brand is owned by Kerala based Moson's Group. 

India is the third-largest footwear consuming country in the world with estimated market size of INR 32000 crore. 75% of the market is dominated by the unorganized sector. Since this is a crowded market, it takes a lot of effort to make a significant foothold in this market. 

Happenstance is primarily depending on the social media space to create a mark in the mind space of the consumers. And celebrity endorsement is often the preferred route for establishing awareness, especially for a new brand. 

Happenstance launched itself using high profile endorsements from celebrities like Sushmita Sen, Radhika Apte, Rajkummar Rao in their campaigns. The theme of the campaign focuses on testimonial theme to drive the brand's strengths to the consumers. Happenstance means coincidence and is quite an unusual name for a footwear brand which itself is a curiosity building element.

The brand is built on the positioning of comfort. Happenstance achieves this positioning through the smart use of two trademarked ingredient brands - Fluffium outsoles and Buoyance footbeds. The brand also smartly uses the concept of "engineering" to build authenticity to the claims. Happenstance uses the tagline " Extreme Comfort Engineered " which adds to the positioning. 

The social media promotion by the brand is done through a large number of influencer posts across the various media. Youtube is full of reviews and unboxing of the brands by fashion bloggers. The brand had also used traditional media to a certain extent featuring celebrities and fashion models. 

Footwear is an experiential product and the user's perception towards the brand's claims will vary. However, the brand has done its initial homework pretty well and the challenge is to keep the momentum going. A problem with celebrity-driven marketing is that while the celebrity helps the initial brand pull, brands often find it difficult to sustain the momentum without such expensive promotions in the long run. Comfort based positioning is currently unexplored in the market where most of the brands are talking about style. While Happenstance has identified the positioning gap, it has to be seen how the product performance takes it to the next level of growth. 

Brand Update : Sparx adds Akshay Kumar to its Life

Sparx, the shoe brand from Relaxo has replaced the brand ambassador Neil Nitin Mukesh with the Action Superstar Akshay Kumar. 

Relaxo Footwear Ltd , the owner of the brand is on a roll these days. The company is seriously in to celebrity driven branding and has roped in stars like Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif to endorse its brands Hawaii and Flite respectively.

For the sports shoe brand Sparx, the brand chose to rope in a new brand ambassador - Akshay Kumar. The brand is running its print campaign now featuring the new celebrity.

As far as the brand's personality and positioning is concerned, Akshhay fits the bill perfectly. Akshay is the most atheletic Bollywood star and is the ideal pick for a sports brand. How ever, the celebrity is highly stereotyped by the ad campaigns and his stunt-oriented ad campaigns have lost the wow factor due to this stereotyping . Brands have failed to exploit his personal characteristics and is lured by the obvious athleticism and martial art stunts.

Sparx also is using the star in the same manner. This also-ran theme does not do any good to the brand except for some amount of attention and a possible recall. Sparx could have gained a lot if it tried to exploit Akshay Kumar's personal qualities like confidence, self-made, hardworking nature etc rather than just those flying kicks.

Akshay would definitely help the brand gain more eyeballs nationally but the way the ad campaigns are executed will define the brand's position in comparison with competitors. With global brands like Nike , Reebok etc have lowered their price points to cover the mass market, Sparx should try to make use of its celebrities much more powerfully rather than just gain brand awareness.

Related Brand

Sparx

Sparx Shoes : Add Sparx to Your Life

Brand : Sparx
Company : Relaxo Footwears
Agency : Arms Communications


Brand Analysis Count : 424

Sparx is a brand from Relaxo Footwears which is India's second largest footwear company. The company which started its operations in 1976 is famous for its hawai slippers. Relaxo footwears has a turnover of around Rs 400 crores.

Sparx is the foray of the company into the high end sports shoe market . The sports shoe market is worth around Rs 400 crore and is expected to grow very fast owing to the changing lifestyle and demography.

The Indian sports shoe market is now dominated by global icons. The fight is intense between Nike , Adidas and Reebok and the new generation is lapping up these brands . It is in this market that a domestic brand is trying to make its mark.

It is true that in the Rs 10,000 crore Indian footwear market, there is plenty of space of various brands and Sparx is aiming for the same segment that the global icons are fighting for.

Sparx is relying on the celebrity power to position itself as a premium sports shoe brand. Premium interms of image and not interms of price. The brand is using the Bollywood hero Neil Nitin Mukesh as the brand ambassador . Sparx has adopted the ad slogan " Add Sparx to your life" and the brand has the tagline " Go for It" . The brand could have added some more imagination while selecting the taglines.

Watch the TVC here : Sparx

The ad which looks nice,definitely gives the brand a premium look . But there is no Big idea. The theme is old and often used by lot of brands in the past. There is no positioning nor a differentiation . What the ad generates is a fair amount of brand familiarity.

The question is whether brand familiarity is enough to generate sales. To a certain extent it helps. Shoes is an experiential product . The customer has to first try it out and feel the comfort/design etc before the purchase. So if the brand is familiar, consumers may try it out and if the product is good, they will buy. But a brand cannot just rely on familiarity to promote its purchase. It should offer a compelling reason for the consumer to reject Nike or Adidas and go for this brand ( assuming that Sparx is aiming at that segment).

If the brand is looking at a segment that cannot afford global brands like Nike, then the current strategy works. Sparx brand is priced around Rs 1300-1500 range but the problem is that with a little more money consumers can trade up to a Reebok or a Nike. That calls for a serious look at the marketing basics of Positioning and Differentiation.


Sparx is a brand from a very established footwear maker. It has the resources and the reach which are essential pre-requisites for success in the Indian market. The brand has evoked lot of curiosity with its association with the celebrity. Its success will depend a lot on how it takes the communication from curiosity to engagement.

Carona : RIP 1953-2003

Brand : Carona
Company : Carona Ltd

Brand Analysis Count : 361


Carona was a heritage brand of India which was once the second largest footwear company in India. The brand is now no more. Carona is one of those brands which could not withstand the competition which came after 1991.

Carona was a brand which thrived during the license raj. The brand thrived along with Bata. Infact Carona was fighting head on with the market leader Bata. In my home town , Carona store was just opposite to the Bata store. There were only two choices for quality footwear Bata and Carona.

Carona in a way imitated Bata in every possible manner . The shops and the products were extremely similar. When Bata launches one style, Carona quickly followed suit. Both Bata and Carona was instrumental in popularising canvas shoes in India. These shoes was a rage among kids at that time .

In 1992, Carona tried to tap the premium segment by launching the German sports shoe brand Puma in the Indian market. This was to counter the popular Power , Northstar and Hush Puppies brand from Bata.

Carona made a big mistake while launching Puma. The company felt that the Indian consumers will fall for the global brand . The Puma brand was priced above Rs 600. At that time the Bata brands like Power and Northstar was retailing in the range of Rs 200 -300. Puma was a big flop in the Indian market because of wrong pricing. The joint agreement was revoked by Puma in 1998.

The environment changed drastically during late 90's with the market opening up. All the footwear companies faced the issue of tough competition and increased costs. The cost was primarily attributed to the heavy workforce that these companies had.

New brands like Liberty, Action, Lakhani etc began to corner the market with new designs and fashion. Foreign brands like Nike ,Reebok and Adidas began to market aggressively which further worsened the position of Carona.

Both Bata and Carona went in for big trouble those days. Bata had the backing of their foreign parent which helped them sail through the restructuring exercise. Carona did not had that luxury.Bata was able to sustain itself by launching new models at affordable price ranges. But Carona was not able to excite the market with new launches. Both Bata and Carona had its own showrooms which became expensive to maintain. .Carona went in to BIFR fold in 1998.

In 2003, BIFR recommended closing down of Carona. BIFR noted that Carona Management did not have the will or the capacity to sustain the company. Carona went into eternal sleep in 2003. Carona was a brand that failed because of mismanagement. Somewhere the company lost its control over the costs. It failed to understand the competition and respond to it.