Brand Update : Thru a horrible campaign,Old Spice asks you to be Mantastic

In my marketing communications class, I used to show the globally famous " The man, your man could smell like" campaign featuring the Old Spice man Isaiah Mustafa ( watch here) as an example of a highly successful marketing campaign in 2010. Three years after, in 2013, P&G started showing that advertisement in the Indian market. The disconnect had started.

To my surprise, the brand owner decided to adapt the globally successful campaign to Indian market with Milind Soman taking the place of Isaiah Mustafa. And the outcome was hopeless.

Watch the ad here : Old Spice India ad 1
                               Old Spice India ad 2

I would say that Old Spice has done a horrible job in adapting a global campaign. I am not sure what the agency had in mind when they conceived this campaign ? While the original global ad had a strategy behind it, the Indian brand failed miserably in making any sense and  succeeded killing the brand's whatever image that is left in the Indian consumer's mind. 

There is total confusion in what the brand is aiming to convey and to whom ? While the Old Spice man from original campaign talked to the ladies with his famous " Hello Ladies " opening, the Old Spice Indian man doesn't know what he is talking about and to whom ?  And sadly at the end of it, the brand talks about " attraction " thus falling into the  same language that other brands are talking about. 

When a brand adapts a globally successful campaign, its inevitable that people will compare and its brand and agencies duty to do justice to the original creative. Here in my opinion, the brand fell flat in the adaptation. The ads are neither attractive nor share-able and is desperately trying to be funny which is sad. The new tagline Smell Mantastic is as horrible as the campaign itself. 

 The new campaign had virtually killed the earlier brand image of Old Spice. But instead of creating a new image, this adaptation had put a confused picture of the brand interms of the image. While the 2010 global campaign put Old Spice in a leading position in western market because the ad theme and message connected with the consumer. But thats not the case here. The adapted campaign neither connects nor conveys any message or makes sense. Hope in the subsequent ads, the creatives will do justice to the brand.

What a horrible waste of a good brand !

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.

Market Statistics : FMCG Market Shares

Today's ( 26/05/10) Economic Times carries interesting market share figurers of FMCG players across various categories in the Indian market. Thought of sharing.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Soaps 47 43.8

Detergents 37.4 36.8

Shampoo 45.3 46.9

Toothpaste 27.9 25.7

Skincare 46.5 45.4

Tea 22.4 21

Proctor & Gamble

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Detergents 13.9 14.6

Shampoo 24.1 22.6

Godrej Consumer Products

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Soaps 9.8 10.5

Dabur

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Toothpaste 9.6 10.6

Shampoo 6.1 5.5

Chawanprash 59.6 60.9

Nestle

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Coffee 41.1 41.8

Chocolates 25.2 25.2

Noodles 63.1 62.2

Colgate

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Toothpaste 49.8 51.2

Toothpowder 43.6 43.5

Tata Tea

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Tea 21.7 20.2

Brand Update : Rin Vs Tide Round II

After the high profile direct attack on Tide, Rin has entered the second stage of its aggressive marketing campaign. The brand has started a new campaign called the Rin 1 crore Challenge. The brand is running a commercial featuring the challenge.

This time, Rin has refrained from directly naming Tide . The brand is using the traditional format of masking the competitor in this challenge campaign. The brand has announced Rs 1 crore prize money if any other detergent can prove that it provides more whiteness than Rin ( conditions will definitely apply).

The new ad strikingly resembles the Rs 1 crore purity challenge campaign of HUL's Pureit brand. Pureit's successful campaign may have prompted Rin to copy the campaign format.

The new campaign is aimed at reinforcing the positioning of Rin as "The detergent that provides the best whitening of clothes". By offering a staggering amount, it is conveying the confidence about the brand promise. It is courageous on the part of the brand to make such a move.

Another striking factor about the new campaign is the new brand ambassador for Rin. No its not Amitabh Bachchan . Rin has roped in Kajol as the new brand ambassador. HUL has really flexed its marketing muscle fully. Kajol gives the campaign some amount of authenticity and attraction to the viewers. I doubt whether such challenge campaigns evoke customer participation but it gives opportunity for marketers to advertise and organize events for brand promotion.

It is nice to see the HUL reviving its competitive spirit. HUL is a marketing machine which went into slumber in the last few years. This is a company that has the best marketing minds of India. Good to see these minds back in action.

Somebody wake up P&G....

Related Posts

Rin Vs Tide Round 1

Rin Vs Tide Strategy

Brand Update : Rin Vs Tide , The Strategy

According to latest news report, the Calcutta High Court has restrained HUL from airing the controversial campaign against Tide. HUL has been given 72 hours to comply with the order ( Source)

The high decibel comparative ad of Rin generated huge buzz in the market. The direct comparative campaign evoked mixed reaction across the media. That single controversial ad generated crores worth of buzz about the brands in question.

The current high profile aggressive stand of Rin has a background story. There was a proxy war going on between Rin and Tide since December 2009. During December, P&G launched the low priced variant of Tide branded Tide Naturals. Tide Naturals was priced significantly lower to the Rin. Tide Naturals was launched at Rs 50 per Kg , Rs 10 for 200 gms and Rs 20 for400 gms. Rin was priced at Rs 70 per Kg at that time.

The reduced price of the Tide variant was an immediate threat to Rin. Since Tide already has an established brand equity, Rin was bound to face the heat. Although HUL had another low priced brand Wheel priced at Rs 32/Kg, Tide was not in the same category of Wheel.

Rin had to cut the price to resist the market share erosion. As discussed elsewhere in the blog, HUL was facing a steady erosion in the market share in most of the categories. In the detergent category itself, the brand faced a market share fall of 2.5% in December 2009. With P&G starting a price war, HUL had to react and it did by cutting the price of Rin by 30% to Rs 50 per Kg. ( Source ) .

HUL also reacted to the Tide Natural's price war in a ' Guerrilla Marketing ' way. It took P&G to the court regarding the Tide Natural's advertisement. The contention was that Tide Naturals was giving the impression to the consumers that it contained natural ingredients like Sandal. The court ordered P&G to modify the campaign and P&G had to admit that Tide Naturals did not contain any Natural ingredients. ( another example of a brand swaying over to unethical marketing practices).

While P&G opened a war in the price front, HUL retaliated by opening two war fronts. One was the direct comparative ad and other through the court order asking P&G to modify Tide Naturals Ad and to admit that Tide Naturals is not ' Natural'.

I think that it was Rin which won the Round 1 of this war. It generated enough Buzz about the brand with all the media talking about the campaign. Rin was also able to neutralize the aggression of P&G to certain extent.

Tide chose not to respond because further fuel to the fight can highlight the fact that Tide Naturals does not contain any 'Natural Ingredients " which may negatively affect the brand's standing in the consumer's mind. So it is better to play the role of a " poor" victim at this point of time.

P&G can celebrate because of the free advertisement it got for Tide Naturals because of the comparative ad of Rin.

It is interesting to see the academic angle of this concept called Comparative advertising. From my little digging of information, it was evident that the academic research is also clueless about the effectiveness of comparative advertising. There are enough evidence to prove that comparative ads work better than non-comparative ads and vice versa. So academicians are as clueless as the practitioners in this regard.

According to academic literature, Comparative ads are those ads which involves directly or indirectly naming competitors in an ad and comparing one or more attributes in an advertising medium ( Alan T. Shao, Yeqing Bao, and Elizabeth Gray,Comparative Advertising Effectiveness:A Cross-Cultural Study Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Fall 2004)

There are two broad types of comparative ads. One is the Direct comparative ads which compares the competitor in more than one attribute. The second type is the Indirect comparative ad which projects the brand as the Leading Brand rather than comparing on certain attributes.

In the marketing world ( globally) comparative ads are commonly used across categories. Some of the relevant observations regarding comparative ads are given below.

• Comparative ads are perceived to be beneficial to the consumers since more information is provided to him by the competitors. Comparative ads are encouraged in certain markets like USA by the regulators because it increases transparency and provides more information to consumers.

• The comparative ads generally result in counter arguments which often creates such a noise that it discounts the original argument/information. Consumers tend to discount the claims by both the competing brand because of the arguments.

• Comparative advertising strategy is more effective for smaller brands rather than established large brands. By challenging a larger brand through comparative ad , the small brands tend to derive more acceptance and awareness than the larger brand.

• Comparative ads are found to be more effective for categories where consumers tend to use their analytical mind. Comparative ads tend to fail where consumers use imagery while evaluating the brands. For example, products like automobiles use comparative ads extensively and with effectiveness.
• There are also studies which shows that male consumers are more attracted towards comparative ads compared to female consumers.

Although Indian marketing world have seen lot of comparative ads, the current Rin Vs Tide is a rare case of direct comparative ad where the brand has taken the competitor brand's name and challenging it head on. That is the main reason behind the media noise about the campaign.

P&G India always was a laid back competitor in the FMCG market . Despite having the product portfolio and market strength , it never realized its potential. The company was happy with their minuscule market share in the various categories in the FMCG business . I am not sure whether P&G will react aggressively to the current HUL onslaught and if at all they did ,will it sustain the fight for long.

Related Post

Rin Vs Tide Round 1

Brand Update : Rin Vs Tide

Rin Strikes Again. But for the better or worse ?

Last day, I saw the latest ad for Rin , a comparative ad directly against the competitor Tide. It was a shocker.

Watch the ad here : Rin Vs Tide

This is the first time that HUL has directly compared Tide with Rin. The ad even have the tagline " Rin offers better whiteness than Tide".

According to ET, P&G has took HUL to court over this ad. The ad was timed to coincide with the long weekend so that HUL could play the ad before the Court hearing.

HUL is currently under severe pressure from its aggressive competitors. The market share of most of HUL brands has come down drastically over the last few years. The brands are facing pressure at all price points. Along with the domestic pressure, HUL is facing the heat from the parent Unilever. The Indian operations is under direct scrutiny by the Unilever CEO Paul Polman.

Last year, HUL tried to restructure its brand portfolio and increased the adspend on most of the core brands. But it could not arrest the decline of the shares of some key brands to the competitors like P&G , Godrej and ITC.

This desperation has clearly manifested in the latest ad for Rin. What on earth do a brand like Rin get into a direct comparative spat with its competitor. The ET report mentions that the ad was created because HUL executives feel that Tide is slowly neutralizing the whiteness (point of difference) USP of Rin. Hence Rin is trying to tell the consumers that it has more whitening property than Tide using a direct comparison.

In my personal opinion, Rin chose a wrong way of telling its superiority to the consumer . Last time I saw a direct comparative ad war was between Horlicks and Complan. Horlicks started the direct comparative ad and got a very very aggressive reply from Complan. The current status is that Horlicks stopped the comparative ad and Complan is continuing its aggression against Horlicks. It was an unnecessary move from Horlicks which woke up a laid-back competitor like Complan. I think that in that ad war, Complan won over Horlicks ( not in sales terms but in share of noise ).

The same thing is going to happen with Rin. It is going to lose this war primarily because there was no need for a direct comparison with Tide atleast in the ads. . If you observe the ad, 22 seconds of the 30 second ad is dedicated to Tide alone. That means in around 75% of the time, the ad talks about Tide. Interestingly the ad even mentions the USP of Tide as " It has fragrance and has whitening property". Then the rest of the 8 seconds talks about Rin. So if HUL has blasted some 30 lakh in the current promo, 22.5 lakh of it was spent on promoting Tide. Why should you ever mention your competitor in your ads ???

Watching the ad, one homemaker commented " I never knew Tide and Rin was from the same company, otherwise how can they show these two brands together in the same ad ? " .

The current campaign lacks any long term objectives. The brand is chosing a short-term path when the issue was a long-term competitive threat.Instead of spending such money on this crap ad, HUL could have run some serious sales promotional campaigns which could have prompted consumers to opt for Rin . It could have filled the retail outlets with Rin POPs. It could have run retailer campaigns to fill the shelves with Rin rather than Tide. HUL still has a huge distribution reach and strength compared to P&G, it could have won the war hands down had it capitalized on the retailer support alone. If Rin was too worried, it could have bought back Big B as the brand ambassador which could have added punch to the tagline " Chamakte Rahna".

Now the outcome of the ad war will be that HUL will be retrained by ASCII or the Court from further playing the ad . It means that Rin had adapted an unethical means against the competitor which will cause an unwarranted blemish on the brand reputation. Second outcome is that it will encourage Tide to be more aggressive in the market. Tide now has been officially and publically acknowledged as the competitor for Rin. Third outcome is that an ad war will start which will benefit the respective advertising agencies and the media.

Related Brands

Rin

Tide

Brand Update : Whisper

It has been long time I updated about the brand Whisper. Whisper has been a challenger brand . During the launch in 1989, this brand challenged the market leader Stayfree which was rather complacent from being the market creator and the leader. 

By smart brand building, Whisper made Stayfree shudder by garnering 40% share in the market. 

The last two years has seen a brilliant marketing fight between Stayfree and Whisper. Johnson & Johnson sharpened their marketing skills and regained its dominant position by waging a price war. 

J&J knew that P&G was burdened with high cost and it could not lower the price of Whisper. Further Whisper was positioned as a premium brand. The price was enabled Stayfree to retain the leadership position in the Rs 700 crore Sanitary Napkin market in India.

But Whisper did carry the fight on price by launching Whisper Choice which was the affordable variant for the price sensitive consumer. Its expected that Whisper Choice will bring in the volumes and take on the fight for leadership position.

Another significant development which prompted me to update this brand is the current campaign. 

Whisper has recently launched its global campaign "  Have a Happy Period " campaign in the Indian market. I sat in a state of disbelief when I first came across the campaign that boldly used the word " Period " ( common usage for Menstrual period) .  I think its the first time in India that some brand has expressively used this term in the mass media. 

Most of the ads for sanitary napkins shy away from the usage of  word 'Periods'  in their ads . Most used term was " Woh Din " meaning ' those days ' to denote the menstrual periods. So the new campaign made me curios as to whether Indian consumers have  matured enough to hear such terms through mass media. 

The campaign " Have a Happy Period " was created in 2005 by Ms Denise Fedowa who was a VP at Leo Burnett Chicago. This campaign is still running across various countries.  According to a report in Adweek, research shows that consumers are telling the marketers to be transparent and frank in their communications. 

The success of this campaign is a proof that consumers are  accepting frankness in marketing communication as long as it does not cross the limit of decency . 

Read a wonderful article in adweek here : Talk Dirty

P&G thinks that Indian consumers are also mature enough to understand the new found frankness with regard to Whisper. I agree because the TG of Whisper belongs to the educated sophisticated ladies who have more liberal world view. We are living in a generation where parents are not shy in telling their kids about menstrual periods and physiological changes. 

What is more interesting is that along with these campaigns, P&G is also running a below-the-line campaign called  Whisper School Health and Hygiene Education . The program tries to educate the teens about hygiene and care during these periods. The samples of Whisper is also distributed to the Teens. 

The idea behind the campaign is to catch the customers at the Point of Market Entry Stage . ( source ET). The kids are introduced to the brand at a time when they are about to use the category. And once the customer uses these kind of products, they stick to the brand. 

In order to build a community around the brand and also to encourage customers to talk about the brand, Whisper has launched a website specifically for this brand. The site is beinggirls.com which encourages the customers to interact with each other. The site also serves as a media to spread product information and new launches from the brand. 

I used to tell in marketing classes that one of the ways to increase the sales of a product is to find new uses for the product. I found an interesting report that AIIMS is planning to use sanitary napkins as bandages because its hygienic and have excellent absorbing qualities. Read here . 

Related Brand

Whisper

Oral-B : Dentist's Choice

Brand : Oral-B
Company : P&G
Agency : O&M

Brand Analysis Count : 280

Oral-B is a special brand. The brand is the global leader in the toothbrush market. Oral-B is a special brand since it bought so many innovations in a low involvement product like Toothbrush. Infact, Oral-B is a brand that made Toothbrush a high involvement product category.
Oral-B was created in 1950 by a Dentist Dr Robert Hutson. The first product was Oral-B 60 which had 60 tufs. In 1984 Oral-B was acquired by Gillette and in 2006 it came into P&G's fold with its acquisition of Gillette worldwide.
Oral-B came to India in 1996.Although globally Oral-B is a market leader, it could not replicate its global leadership position in India. In India, it is the second largest player behind Colgate.India is considered to be the second largest market for toothbrushes and the market is estimated to be around Rs 600-700 crore.
Oral-B is known worldwide for its innovation. Oral-B is a favorite example in marketing classes for Planned Replacement. The case in point is the innovative brand Oral-B Indicator. Oral-B Indicator was introduced in 1991. It had fading bristles which indicated to the customer that its time for him to change the brush. The innovation won Edison award for product innovation. Through the Indicator Bristles, Oral-B overcame a serious issue of delay in repeated purchases due to overuse. Typically consumers do not have an idea of when to replace a toothbrush. Often they stretch the planned life of the product thus posing a problem for the marketers. Oral-B Indicator changed all that.Dentists recommend that the toothbrush should be replaced every three months. Oral-B indicator is designed to remind the customer that time schedule for replacement. Now Indicator Bristles have become a standard feature in all Oral-B toothbrushes.

Although Indicator was referred in most of the marketing textbooks, the innovations of Oral-B is mind blowing. Some noteworthy innovations are listed below :
1984 : Oral-B revolutionized Kid's toothbrush market with its Star Wars range which had the characters in the toothbrush
1984 : The first Power Toothbrush launched under the Braun brand.
1987 : Oral-B Ultraplus was launched which had round head
1991 : Oral-B Indicator with fading bristles.
For the entire range of innovations , visit the brand website at : Oralb.com
2007 saw another mindblowing futuristic innovation from this brand- Oral-B Triumph with Smart Guide Technology. The toothpaste now comes with a wireless digital monitor which will guide the consumer to use the toothbrush in the ideal manner. The wireless digital monitor have a timer which guide the customer to brush for 2 minutes and also indicates the various motions and even indicates the replacement of the toothbrush head.
For details visit the brand website : Triumph with smartguide

These innovations have made this product category a highly segmented and a high involvement category. Earlier, the choice available for a consumer was whether the bristles are soft medium or hard. Now the choice is numerous. The introduction of power brushes ( battery powered) created a new premium segment of toothbrushes. The shape and the size of the bristles and toothbrushes also have changed. From the typical rectangular head to round shaped head. From straight bristles to Zigzag . Many things are happening to the good old toothbrushes. The interesting fact is that these innovations have created a change in the mindset of consumers. Earlier consumers believed that Toothpaste is the central product in the oral care/hygiene. Toothbrush's role is limited in the oral care. The innovations from these players have prompted the customers to think that toothbrush is also an important product that needs some serious thinking before purchase.

Oral-B is positioned as Dentist's Choice of Toothbrush. The brand uses the tagline " The brand more dentists use themselves worldwide". In India too, the brand uses the same tagline. The brand is currently on a hyperactive mode in India with lot of promotions in the visual media.

Oral-B also is getting on the volume game by launching a variant ShinyClean with a amazing pricetage of Rs 13.ShinyClean comes with five features :
Zigzag bristles for better cleaning
End Rounded Bristles.
Translucent Contour handle for better grip
Hygiene Cap
Indicator
At a price tag of Rs 13, ShinyClean is expected to rejuvenate the toothbrush market for Oral-B. Earlier Oral-B was positioned as a premium brand.
Oral-B is a marketer's icon. A brand which has brought so much value into a dull product category.

Olay : Love the Skin You are In

Brand : Olay
Company : P&G
Agency : Saatchi & Saatchi

Brand Analysis Count : 277

This July P&G launched its premium skin care brand Olay in India. Olay is a $2 Bn global brand has met with phenomenal success in all the markets it entered. Olay was born in the lab of a chemist Mr Graham Wulff in the early 1950's. At that time the brand was named Oil of Olay. Later when P&G acquired it, the brand was renamed Olay.
Olay was available in India as an imported product. Now P&G directly markets this brand with all the relevant marketing mixes in place.
Olay is tapping the premium slice of the Rs 2100 crore Indian skin care market. Olay has launched its first product in the anti-ageing segment with its Total Effects subbrand. Anti-ageing segment is still a niche with a market size of Rs 60 crore. The segment is but growing very fast.

Olay has launched its Total Effects anti ageing solution after much consumer research. It had conducted research on over 6000 ladies of age between 30-69 years from three continents and identified 7 signs of ageing.
1.Fine lines and Wrinkles
2.Sagging skin
3.Uneven skin tones.
4.Age spots
5. Appearance of pores
6. Dull skin
7.Dryness

Total Effects is differentiating itself through the presence of the ingredient VitaNiacin. VitaNiacin is a patented formulation that contains Niacinamide Vitamin B3 ,Vitamin E and Provitamin B5 Pathenol + sunscreen protection.
Olay true to the concept of Global Brand and Local strategy has launched itself with a series of promotional campaigns. The brand has the bollywood diva Sushmita Sen as the brand ambassador. Currently Olay is running two campaigns in the visual media. One campaign is th Olay brand building campaign featuring Sushmita Sen and another is for the Total Effects moisturizing lotion.
Watch the Tvc : Total Effects
For the Total Effects range, the company uses a testimonial type of campaign featuring a Model/TV Anchor. The focus is more on the functional benefits of the product rather than harping on any emotional benefits. The brand is positioned as a brand that celebrates beauty within and outside. The brand worldwide uses the tagline " Love the skin you are in ". The brand believes that Looking Good and Feeling Good are inseparable. Loving the skin we are in is the most beautiful feeling of all.
Olay Total Effects is priced at Rs 599 for a 50 gm bottle. By Indian standards, this accounts for a premium category. Olay Total Effects is targeting ladies between the age 30 - 60. Besides this anti-ageing product, Olay has introduced cleansers, facepack and moisturizing lotions. The brand is expected to introduce its blockbuster range of products in India in a phased manner.

The premium skincare segment was in a vacuum ever since HUL decided to cater to the masstige segment by repositioning Lakme and Ponds. Now with P&G and ITC seriously looking at premium segment, the market is going to witness a marketing war in days to come.

Head & Shoulders : Making Hair Soft & Dandruff Free

Brand : Head & Shoulders
Company: P&G

Brand Count : 240

Head & Shoulders is world's No.1 anti-dandruff shampoo. A power brand from P&G , this brand made its debut in India in 1997. In the highly competitive Indian shampoo market which is estimated to be worth around Rs 1800 crore, Head&Shoulders is a major player in the Anti-Dandruff niche. The entire shampoo market is dominated by HLL with a whopping market share of around 46%.
When the brand was launched in India, the anti dandruff market was in its nascent stage and dominated by Clinic All Clear. The high profile launch of Head & Shoulders fueled the growth of this specialty market. Now anti-dandruff segment constitutes around 15% of the total shampoo market. While some reports suggest that Head & shoulders lead this segment, there are no exact market share figures available. My feeling is that Clinic All Clear has a lead over Head & Shoulders.

Head & Shoulders is positioned as a pure play anti-dandruff shampoo and for these 20 years has stuck to this positioning.When the brand was launched, it really gave HLL brand Clinic a run for its money. The brand had carried its heritage as worlds largest selling anti-dandruff shampoo and also maintained a good share of voice. The brand used the Markonym ZPT ( Zinc Pyrithine)Formula which has anti-fungal properties as its differentiator.
But during the 2000, Clinic All Clear outsmarted Head & Shoulders through some very aggressive campaigns. As usual HLL banked on high profile celebrities to endorse this brand. Shah Rukh and Shahid Kapoor and recently John & Bipasha made sure that Clinic All Clear retain its share of mind. Surprisingly during this period, Head & Shoulders kept a low profile.

It was during 2005 that Head & Shoulders began its aggressive campaign to regain the lost market.The brand roped in the bubbly Preity Zinta to endorse the brand. Earlier Ajay Jadeja had endorsed the brand.During this period, the brand also extended its positioning from Anti-Dandruff to "Soft hair + dandruff removing " proposition. The brand also introduced different variants like Menthol, Aloevera, Black, Naturally Clean,smooth & silky to increase the product line depth.
The brand also changed ZPT formula to Vitazinc to support the new positioning. Along with the new brand ambassador, the brand also talked about eliminating 5 problems arising out of dandruff : Flakes,Irritation,Itchiness,Dryness and Oiliness.The new extended positioning makes sense in the new consumer environment where customers are looking more at combo products rather than specialty products.
Although Head & Shoulders has aggressive in the market, it is still lagging behind Clinic All Clear in terms of creative campaigns. Globally, Head & Shoulders had come out with some highly creative campaigns which was not replicated in India by the agency.The brand is now available in a new look and with the aggressive campaigns, the brand hopes to keep its Head High

Whisper : shhh....

Brand : Whisper

Company: P&G

Agency : Leo Burnett

The female personal hygiene market in India is in a nascent stage. The market size is estimated at around rs 425 crore , some say$44mn.

The market is dominated by 3-4 players P&G, Johnson & Johnson , Dabur and Gufic. The product comes under low penetration product types. Since Indian women are not used to such products, the penetration is low but potential is high taking into account the increasing literacy and media reach. The segment commands a high brand loyalty.

Majority of the category customers still use home solutions like clothes rather than use an expensive sanitary napkin.

However J&J created this category with the launch of Stayfree during the early 80's. The heavy media investment along with the J&J endorsement opened up a new category. Stayfree was undisputed leader  till the launch of Whisper.

Whisper was launched in 1989 and  now account for 42% share in the sanitary napkin market in India. The brand is positioned as a premium brand. 

During the early years of launch, P&G had two responsibilities 1. educate the ladies about the product 2. Promote the brand.

The marketing of Whisper is a classic case of Brand building .The initial ads were striking ones featuring mother talking about educating the daughter about using sanitary napkins

.The communication was very sensitively planned since this product is something that we Indians seldom discuss in public. The campaigns was successful in erasing the stigma attached with these kind

 of products. Napkins were positioned as a modern hygiene way of protecting your lifestyle even on " those days" the ads said..

P&G has brought out lot of variants in this product trying to expand and create some waves in the market which is otherwise a dull market. Whisper is now giving  stiff competition from Stayfree from J&J. Stayfree is the market leader in this category. It is credited with creating the sanitary market. But the success has made this brand complacent. 

Whisper changed the game by investing lot of money in brand building. It brought the category out of closet and added a sense of  premiumness into the category. 

 Now Stayfree is trying to corner whisper in the price. Whisper is now being forced to bring out less priced variants. Since the market is growing , at present there is lot of room to play around. Recent reports also suggest that the brands were able to penetrate rural market also.

The brands in this category face the issue of low penetration. The customers are still shy about discussing these products that creates lot of hinderance in the category growth. 

Picture/ad source : Afaqs

Tide : Neat strategy

Brand : Tide

Company:P&G

Agency; Leo Burnett

Tide is the largest selling detergent brand of P&G worldwide. Tide was launched with much fanfare in 2000.

Indian detergent industry is estimated to be around Rs5000 crore and is dominated by the marketing giant HLL. P& G although was in the Indian market for a long time was not a serious player in the detergent market. But when the Indian market opened up and the economy began to prosper, P&G could not resist entering the Indian marketin a big way. As always MNCs are too proud of their brands that they want a premium from the consumers. Here also ,Tide was launched as a premium brand and as usual got a luke warm response from the value conscious Indian consumers. P&G had to settle with a miniscule 8 % of the detergent market.

Then came 2003 and the price war started and now there is no premium brands in the detergent market in India. The price war enabled P&G to popularize the brand and increase the penetration. Although HLL and P&G did not increase their marketshare because of the price cut, the overall market size increased because the regional players lost their share to these giants.

P&G had a serious problem after the price cut because there was a chance of cannibalizing between Ariel and Tide because there was no significant differentiation between the two brands.

Now Tide has found its formula, the same global positioning as a Detergent that cleans perfectly. So using whiteness ( safedi) as a base Tide has now unleashed the campaign highlighting its whitening power against HLL's Rin which has the same positioning.

The campaigns has a desi touch and well executed. The pricing is competitive and hence HLL is forced to rope in none other than Big B to defend Rin.

Through the new strategy Tide aims to capture the safedi segment while Ariel will fight Surf in the Color segment.

A marketing fight worth watching....