Kaytra : Interesting case of co-branding

Brand: Kaytra
Company: AVA Group

Brand Analysis Count: #583

Kaytra is an interesting brand story. The brand is from the AVA Group which is the owner of the famed Ayurvedic brand Medimix. Kaytra is a brand jointly created by AVA Group and the celebrity hairstylist and makeup artist Ambika Pillai. 

This is an example of co-branding and if you observe the logo, you can see the name of Ambika Pillai along with the Kaytra brand. It is not a unique case since Indian market has witnessed many such co-branding exercises. 

As a professional, Ambika Pillai commands a lot of respect in the market. Kaytra's brand promise is that it is created using the expertise of Ambika Pillai. The brand is positioned as a premium product with the personal endorsement from the celebrity hairstylist. 

The brand is now testing the waters in the Kerala market and according to media reports, the brand will be launched in other markets soon. Having said that, I have not seen the products in any of the supermarkets so far. Probably the brand is very selective in the distribution.

The advantage of Kaytra is that AVA Group has expertise in FMCG market and through Medimix has sufficient distribution reach. The second factor is that Ambika Pillai is personally vouching for the brand which adds a lot of power to the authenticity of the brand. The source of the brand equity for Kaytra is Ambika Pillai and her reputation.
On the promotion side, the creator has been able to get the endorsement from many of her celebrity clients and the brand is generating content about personal care in social media. Ads featuring Ambika Pillai is also aired on various television channels.

According to the brand website, Kaytra is the Sutra of good skin and good hair. Interestingly there is no tagline for this brand.

For a product in the hair-care space, the survival of the product solely lies on the tangible performance. Hope that the brand will live up to the expectations set by the creator. 

Mederma : Leave Your Scars Behind

Brand : Mederma
Company : Win Medicare Ltd ( Licensed from Merz Pharma)

Brand Analysis Count : # 504

Mederma is a globally renowned brand for scar treatment. The brand from Germany based Merz Pharma  is marketed in India by Win Medicare Ltd under licensing agreement. The brand was launched in India in 2005. 

Indian skincare market is pegged between Rs 4000-5000 crore characterized by heavy competition and micro-segmentation. All the major global brands have entered this highly lucrative market. Another less visible but huge market is the specialty skincare market otherwise known as Dermatology market. According to Express Pharma, Indian dermatology market is worth around $ 513 million (roughly Rs 2500 crore) . This dermatology market consists of prescription products and OTC products and most of this products are niche products.

Mederma is such a specialty product with expertise in treating scars. An interesting fact about this product is that it is derived from an extract of Onion. The brand currently upped its share of voice in the Indian market with a series of campaign highlighting the product efficacy. 

Watch the ad here : Mederma Kid

                             : Mederma Adult

The ad is simple and convey the message in a very effective manner. Most of the Indian consumers worried about scars but not aware about a possibility of scar management using creams. The brand's aim is to build awareness about such an option . 

Mederma does not claim to remove those scar marks permanently but helps make scar less noticeable.  Mederma has the tagline " Leave Your Scar Behind ". The tagline is the same globally for this brand. The main positioning of the brand is based on  regaining confidence and self-esteem of people faced with this issue. Scars, acne, pimples etc can cause a loss of confidence and social withdrawal in many people. This issue is growing since our locus of control has shifted outside and people are getting more and more worried about their image and social acceptance. Marketers are adding to it through campaigns highlighting the need for looking good, fair and beautiful. Mederma's pitch looks appropriate in the Indian context. 

Wella Kolestint : Deep, Longer Lasting Color

Brand : Kolestint
Company  : Wella ( P&G)

Brand Analysis Count : # 491

Competition is hotting up in the Rs 1200 hair color market in India. World's leading hair color brand Wella's Kolestint is upping the ante in the fast growing premium hair color segment in the Indian market. Wella is World's biggest cosmetic company based in Germany. Wella has a rich heritage dating back to 1880 and was  created by Franz Stroher. 

In 2003, the company was acquired by P&G.

Kolestant is the premium hair color brand from Wella. The brand was launched into the Indian consumer market in 2010. The brand is currently on a promotional overdrive with a series of campaigns across the media.

Indian hair color market has seen significant shift over these years. The segment was pioneered by Godrej Ltd with its hair dye products. From hair dye targeting the greying Indian consumer, the category has seen a remarkable shift in the last few years. Hair coloring has now become a part of  urban Indian consumer's personality. From a product used to mask ageing, hair color has become a part of fashion . While hair dye was predominantly used by the greying consumers, hair color has found tremendous acceptance across various age groups. Hair Colors infact has consumed the hair dye market atleast in the urban market.

This product category has found so much acceptance that ET puts the urban hair color market at Rs 600 crore growing at the rate of 25% per annum. This stupendous growth has got the attention of all major cosmetic brands to enter into this segment.

Kolestint is a premium hair color brand directly competing with the market leader Loreal. Hair color market is classified into three product categories - powder/cream/henna. Powder form is popular in the economy segment while premium segment prefers the cream product form. The top end brands target the SEC A segment of the Indian consumers.

The market leader Loreal is positioned on its brand equity and premiumness while the new entrant Kolestint is taking the benefit positioning. Kolestint's USP is that the hair color lasts much longer compared to competing brands. The brand had a consumer insight that most of the time, hair coloring goes unnoticed.Consumers complain that even after spending lot of money on hair coloring , the effect is not noticed and the coloring lasts only for a few days . Kolestint has used this insight to position the brand as a hair color that not only lasts longer but also will get you noticed. The brand has used this proposition very effectively using celebrity testimonials.The brand has used Noticability Attribute in its launch ad with John Abraham and Bipasha Basu.

The brand used popular television/bollywood celebrities like Shruti Seth , Ragini Khanna etc in the subsequent campaigns which talked about their own experience with the brand. In the follow up campaigns, the brand focused on Long Lasting Color benefit as the USP.

Watch the campaigns here : Shruti Seth

Here the brand is using the same strategy of Loreal to break into the market leader's position. Loreal have also used celebrity testimonial ads to boost its image.  Kolestint was wise enough to not to chose high profile celebrities for the testimonial ads because most of the time consumers discount those testimonial ads. The choice of popular cine/television artists like Shruti Seth gave more authenticity to the testimonial ads compared to high profile celebrities. 

In the hair color market, longer lasting colors and noticability are two major attributes that consumers look for. Kolestint has made a major marketing gain by focusing on those two important attributes. The brand has followed up its brand campaigns with a below-the-line activity of running a Switch Event across the markets. Consumers are asked to bring their unused non-Kolestint hair color packet and exchange it with Kolestint hair color. Since hair color products are experiential in nature, getting consumers to try the brand is very essential. These switch events aims at encouraging the users of competing brands to switch to Kolestint.

The premium hair color market is going to witness huge competition in the coming months. The market leader Loreal is not going to wait in the sidelines and will rather fight Kolestint directly . It will be a category worth watching.

Brand Update : Dazzler Moves into Personal Care

Dazzler brand which is endorsed by Eyetex has moved into personal care cateogry by launching its range of Talcum powders. The brand owners - Arvind Laboratories has been investing behind this brand which is targeting the youth. Dazzler so far was focusing on color-cosmetics.

Dazzler has been luring the customers with its hip-hop advertisement campaigns and very competitive pricing. The endorsement from Eyetex brand also helped Dazzler to gain acceptance from the customers.

The move of Dazzler to launch a talcum powder is a surprising one. The move can be qualified to be called as a brand extension ( category extension) because talcum powder belongs to a different category (personal care) while Dazzler's products were primarily in the cosmetics segment.

Brand extensions are always tricky and these extensions will succeed only if the parent brand is significantly powerful. I am not sure whether Dazzler has gained enough equity to support a brand extension to talcum powders. It also has to be noted that Dazzler itself derives support from the Eyetex brand and has not yet become independent.

The move for this extension may be part of a larger plan to develop Dazzler as a personal care + cosmetic brand in future. Brands like Pond's, Lakme etc has successfully developed themselves to be family brands endorsing a large number of products across various categories. Personal care is different from color cosmetics interms of attributes. Dazzler may find it difficult to manage these two categories using same set of attributes.

Having said that, Dazzler may have to set a clear direction for interms of the positioning . Now Dazzler color cosmetic campaigns are depending heavily on imagery to do the talking. The entire brand is revolving around the " Dazzler Girl " who is imaged as a modern, stylish, fashionable and thus radiates the brand's attributes. The same imagery is shown in the Dazzler's Talcum Powder advertisement.

Dazzler now should move to be come an independent brand with a clear positioning. The use of " Dazzler Girl " will give brand imagery but along with that, the brand should communicate some very relevant attributes that will support the positioning of a trendy fashionable brand. Now the brand is leaving lot for the consumers to imagine. There is no mention of brand's core positioning or its strengths and promises.I feel that it is time for Dazzler to define itself more clearly. Since the brand is moving across categories, it will be nice if the brand clearly communicates its positioning through the campaigns.

Related brand

Eyetex

Brand Update : Lacto Calamine (RIP)

After a long long time, there is some development for Lacto Calamine brand. This heritage brand was lying low with little or no support from the company.

This year, Nicholas Piramal decided to invest some energy into this age old personal care brand. The brand has been given a facelift, a new packaging and also a new positioning.
The brand has roped in the design consultant Elephant Strategy to revamp the brand. (read the design change report here)
The brand launched a variant containing Aloe Vera.

What is interesting is that the brand have coined a new term Skinsurance .Skinsurance means that the brand is providing protection ( insurance) for the skin. It is a smart positioning statement.
The report in the Exchange4Media site gives a disturbing news also. The brand name Lacto Calamine is going to be shortened to the initials LC . This is to facilitate further brand extensions.

The company feels that the brand name Lacto Calamine is constrained because the name indicates the contents Lacto ( Milk) and Calamine lotion. Hence the brand cannot be used for extensions. This brand is one of those brands whose name restricts the extension. Other examples are Thirty Plus & Band Aid.

The company plans to slowly rebrand Lacto Calamine to LC in a phased manner. At first, the new brand name LC and Lacto Calamine will appear together and gradually Lacto Calamine will be phased out . LC will then be an umbrella brand that will endorse a range of personal care products.

So for all practical purposes, Lacto Calamine brand is going to be killed. Instead we will have a meaningless Two Letters LC.

I don't understand why Lacto Calamine brand has to be killed for a new umbrella brandname which is just a meaningless initial. Piramal could have easily launched a new brand for personal care products. Shortening Lacto Calamine to LC will not add any value and will not trasfer any equity to the shortened brand name. It is going to be just a waste of valuable promotional money.
Lacto Calamine is a niche brand. I think the company should have made it a profitable niche. Lacto Calamine is a good product with lot of good properties. It had the equity to remain a profitable niche but the firm think that it is better to convert it to a umbrella brand.

What the company should have done was to introduce a new meaningful umbrella brand for personal care products. It could easily integrate the Lacto Calamine brand into the new brand folio by endorsing Lacto Calamine by the new umbrella brand.

So RIP Lacto Calamine ( 1970-2009)


Related Brand
Lacto Calamine

Shilpa Bindi : Shilpa Char Chand Lagaye

Brand : Shilpa
Company : Paramount Cosmetics Ltd


Brand Analysis Count : 383

Bindi is a product that is very much linked to India's culture. The dot that Indian women adores on her forehead has been a distinct symbol of our tradition and culture . Although there are no historical references to the origin of bindi, some historians trace the origin of the product back to 4th century.

For all these years, this small dot has become an integral part of the facial make-up of Indian women. Bindi was earlier popular in the form of powder ( Kumkum) and liquid. Later came the era of sticker bindi. Both Kumkum and Liquid bindi's are messy and thus created a need for Bindi which is more user-friendly.

Sticker Bindis became popular because it was less messy and easy to use. Shilpa is the major brand in this category.
Shilpa is a brand owned by Gujarat based Paramount cosmetics which also own the brands like Shringar and Tips & Toes.

Over these years, bindi category also has changed drastically. While the sticker bindi was intended to replace the ubiquitous red liquid kumkum, slowly this product was also subjected to experiments.
From the plain bindi, the product began to take various size and shapes. The market has also moved towards different segments like designer bindi, bindi with swarovski crystals and so on.
The cost of this product have also changed with times. Now these products cost anywhere between Rs 5 to Rs 2000. There are designer bindi which costs even more.

The bindi market is dominated by unorganised sector. If you visit a fancy store, you will see a huge display of these bindis and ladies just swift through these for their favorite designs. The consumer looks primarily for the design while buying these products.

It is in this context that Shilpa brand assumes significance. Shilpa is a predominantly a plain-bindi brand. In my knowledge, the brand has not ventured into designer category. But this brand still commands immense brand equity among the consumers. The brand has high recall and there are loyal customers for the brand.

Consumers of this category buys both design and plain bindis. For frequent and daily use , consumers prefer branded well known plain bindis while on social occasions, they go in for the design bindis. I wonder why this brand has not moved aggressively into designer premium bindis. It had the brand equity to leverage and the move towards premium designer bindi will only increase the brand's visibility and equity.

One reason for the success of Shilpa brand is the trust factor . Ladies fear that constant use of sticker bindi can cause skin problems . Hence they prefer branded bindis for daily use.
Shilpa although is catering to a small market size had invested in building the brand. There were lot of ads for this brand.

Watch one of the ads here : Shilpa

There were two factors that made this brand sticky in the mind of the consumer. The main factor is the jingle. Shilpa had the famous jingle " Shilpa Char Chand Lagaye" which is still remembered by the consumer. Second factor is the packaging. The pack created a solid identity for the brand.
Since plain bindi purchase is a low involvement purchase, consumers were loyal to this brand since it was safe and easy for them.
But the brand faces the issue of competition from the unorganised segment .

Another significant threat for Shilpa is the changing consumer behavior. The demographic shift in the Indian consumers are a source of worry for traditional products like Bindi and Kumkum.
Whether the new hip-hop generation will continue using this product is a matter of concern.