Brand Update : Santoor

This season, Santoor has launched another brand extension - Santoor Deodorant. The brand now has a wide range of products under its brand portfolio. Now Santoor has soap, talc, face wash and now deodorant.

The brand is slowly but steadily moving in the direction of becoming a personal care brand rather than a soap brand. This 600+ crore brand was on a roll last year becoming one of the largest selling soap brands in India. The brand consistently invested in brand building and never shied away from spending in advertising.

The new extension is to cash in on the opportunity for a deo brand for ladies. Although there are many deo brands for the female segment, the market is growing and opportunity exists for new brands also.

I raise the issue of brand dilution when ever I see brand extensions. Although I am a critic of brand extensions, this strategy is inevitable for many reasons. In the case of Santoor, these extensions are a part of Wipro's strategy to make Santoor a family brand for personal care products. Brands like Pond's , Lakme , Vaseline have successfully metamorphosed into Family Brands.

The talking point about Santoor is the positioning. For over 25 years, the brand has been talking about the concept of " For a Younger Looking Skin". All the campaigns were reinforcing that message consistently and powerfully. When the brand moved into talcum powder, it had to deviate from "younger looking" to "freshness". In the case of deo also, the brand is talking about freshness.

Now if Santoor aspire to be an umbrella brand , it may have to dilute or change the core brand positioning of " Younger looking skin " and include brand value like Freshness . This is relevant for products like Deo and Talc . For other products like facewash or creams , the classic positioning will work for the brand.

Another factor is that Santoor soap derives its strength from Turmeric and Sandal . The brand even derives the name from these two ingredients. The positioning also derives strength from these two ingredients. Now when the brand expands its product portfolio, it has to look beyond these two ingredients. Hence if at all the brand wants to expand its horizon, it may have to find other sources of strength.

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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....

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Rin Vs Tide Round 1

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Brand Update : Getz RIP (2004-2010)

Another brand is going to be laid to rest. According to news reports, Hyundai has decided to phase out Getz with in two months. The brand is already offered at steep discounts in dealerships across the country.

Getz was the first luxury hatch back to be launched in India. The brand in a way was far ahead of its time. It was launched in a market predominantly oriented towards sedans. The failure of Getz was because of two reasons :

a. Value Proposition

b. Positioning

c.Competition.

The failure of Getz and success of Swift are two sides of the same coin. Both brands belong to the same segment and almost in the same price band. But while Swift rocked the market, Getz had to bite the dust.

Getz when launched in the market was very aggressively priced. Infact the brand was priced at par with sedans like Ford Ikon and Indigo. Indian consumers were not able to understand the value proposition of a high priced Getz. The brand also was not able to tell the consumer as to why they should chose Getz compared to a Sedan. The problem with such a high pricing strategy is that it creates an impression in the consumer's mind which will be difficult to change. Theoretically this is called narrow positioning.

When Maruti launched Swift, Getz suffered because consumers perceived Swift to be a better value for money car compared to Getz. The reason is that consumers know that Maruti cars are less costly to maintain than Hyundai cars. Swift was bigger, sporty and competitively priced which put Getz in a very tough situation.

The campaigns for Getz was also way off the mark. The brand never had a clear positioning . When it was launched, there was no USP or differentiation. The brand started talking about fun then moved to space. So it lacked a clear brand identity which further accelerated the decline .

In marketing terms, we say that brand should offer some compelling reasons to customers to buy. Getz was not able to give any such compelling reasons. The brand had lot of design similarity with Zen which defied its pitch on premiumness. Swift had a radical design which created a newness to the brand.Getz did not have such a "wow" factor.

The recent launch of Hyundai i20 was the final nail in the coffin for Getz. i20 has more chance of survival because the segment of premium hatchback has now developed. Consumers are now aware of this segment and there is genuine consumer interest in this segment.

Getz could have reaped the benefit of the segment it had created , had it offered itself at the price range of Rs 3.5 - 4 lakh. ( I know it is easy to sit in my chair and suggest the pricing strategies). That price range could have done wonders for this brand.

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Marketing Strategy : The PR Factor

The PR Factor

Originally Published Here in Adclubbombay.com

In marketing theory and practice, Public Relations have often been a neglected child. Even in the companies’ promotional mix, Public Relations have been given less focus and importance. But in this period of resource constraint, Public Relations have assumed importance that no marketer can afford to ignore.

Traditionally Public Relations department were more concerned with managing media than anything else. This function was characterised by the mundane job of preparing and releasing the press releases and maintaining vital contacts with the media. With the advent of consumerism, corporate began to take serious note of managing the noise about the company and the brand in the media space. Public Relations then assumed the role of crisis management and were put into action whenever such a negative vibes began to surface.

PR never acquired the status of a long term strategic tool for brand promotion. Despite the advantages, marketers were clue-less about using PR as a permanent promotional tool. The fundamental reason is that the power of PR lies in the media. It is a tough task to get the brand /company featured in a newspaper. And it will be a near impossible goal to regularly feature in the media. So virtually marketers believed themselves as powerless in managing their voice in the media space.

But not anymore..

The increasing penetration of internet and the evolution of social media have thrown open new set of opportunities for managing public relations. For that, marketers have to redefine the concept of public relations in the new digital world.

Redefining Public Relations

As the term implies, Public Relations is managing relationship with public. But marketers so far have tried to define Public Relations as managing media. When we redefine PR as managing relationship with public, it is no longer dependent on the media. Media becomes one of the many tools that can be used to reach out to the public.

Why PR was highly dependent on traditional media was because there was no other viable alternative channel to reach the public. Hence traditional media assumed significance as the sole aggregator and distributor of information to the public. Since the audience relied heavily on traditional media, the responsibility of media also increased. All these made the media very powerful. Marketers then tried to manage media so that their message could be given prominence. And now PR has assumed the status of a mere press –releasing mechanism. Companies began to rely on external PR agencies that had the right contacts with the media to get their releases published.

By defining PR as media management is stripping this powerful tool and relegating PR to a necessary evil rather than a strategic tool. When PR is defined as a tool for managing relationship with Public, it acquires strategic importance.

Reaching out to Public

The fundamental objective of PR is to build and manage relationship with the stakeholders. Traditional PR tools like press releases, lobbying, inviting journalists to the factory, press meets etc are all passive actions surrendering the power of information to the traditional media. The assumption is that without media, information flow to the public cannot happen. This assumption has prevented many marketers in identifying and investing in new methods of reaching out to the public.

The internet has opened up a new media which could be effectively used by the marketer to reach out to the public. While television and newspapers are the most effective media to reach masses, marketers have to create new channels and mediums through which they could communicate to the public.

PR is not free.

PR is often defined as a non-paid form of communication and this view of PR has prompted marketers to ignore investing in building PR assets. In a rush to get the ‘free publicity’, marketers tend to spend huge amount of money on short-term publicity stunts that may not have much effect on the brand equity.

Marketer should start to think about investing in Public Relations. Investing means that marketers should be able to built and manage new channels for communicating with the stakeholders. These include creating dedicated PR personnel, toll free numbers, well designed websites and more importantly a long term strategy.

Have a story to tell

PR is about relationships and brands have to first take the initiative in reaching out to the public. Having a toll free number or a website is not enough for a consumer to get in touch with the company. This is where the long term strategy comes into play.

Both the public and the media are fond of stories. Brands need to tell touching stories if it wants to catch the fancy of the media and public. Brands like Apple, Harley Davidson are powerful storytellers and both media and the public are hungry for more stories. Hence the starting point of any PR activity is to create stories. Create a powerful story and media will love you for it.

Harnessing Social Media

Social media has assumed lot of significance in recent times. Marketers are still clueless on ways to use this powerful media to their advantage. Social media have also tilted the power balance of traditional media. Now there is a true democratization of information and media no longer commands the power it had a decade ago.

The challenge is to use the social media for maintaining public relations. Marketers have to be self-less in dealing with social media. Hence candid sharing of information and thoughts can be facilitated through this media which has the power to generate very valuable word-of –mouth publicity.

Be a good citizen

While venturing into PR, it is important for marketers to be good corporate citizens. Brands which strive for good causes have always been the darlings of media and the public. So while creating powerful stories, marketers should pitch for that story which strikes a chord with the public.

Infosys has built its brand not by spending huge money on advertising .It became the media’s darling because it represented a story, it is a good citizen and the management invested in managing the relationship.

25 Best Indian Brand Slogans

This is my pick of 25 best Indian Slogans

1. Pepsi : Yehi hain Right Choice Baby

2. Thums Up : Taste The Thunder

3. Surf : Daag Acche hain

4. Tata Safari : Reclaim Your Life

5. Asian Paints : Har Khar Kuchch Kahta hein

6. Air Deccan : Simplifly

7. Rasna : I love you Rasna

8.Frooti : Fresh N Juicy / Why Grow Up

9.Coca Cola : Thanda Matlab Coca Cola

10. Raymond's : The Complete Man

11. Bajaj Pulsar : Definitely Male

12. Dairy Milk : Swad Zindagi Ka

13. Peter England : The Honest Shirt

14.Bingo : No Confusion, Great Combination

15. Boost : Boost is the secret of our energy

16 Polo : The mint with a hole

17. Lifebuoy : Thandurusti hain vaham

18. Ceat : Born Tough

19.MRF : Tyres With Muscle

20.Havelles RCB : Shock Laga Kya

21.Idea : An Idea can Change your life

22. Hutch : Where ever you go , our network follows

23. Maggi : Taste Bhi, Health Bhi ( Ketchup : Its Different)

24. Onida : Neighbor's Envy , Owner's Pride

25. Kingfisher : The King of Good Times

*The list is random and not ranked according to my liking

I may have missed some good ones. Please share your list of best Indian brand slogans.

Marketing Strategy : Going Back to Basics

Going Back to Basics

Originally Published here in Adclubbombay.com

In the 1973 classic text, “Management: Tasks, Responsibilities & Practices”, Peter Drucker asks firms to answer five very pertinent questions.

What is our business?

Who is our customer?

What is of value to the customer?

What will our business be?

What should our business be?

Even after 36 years, these simple questions are of profound importance to marketers who are facing one of the toughest times since Great Depression. These questions are more relevant today than ever before. During the period of exuberance, firms tend to forget to answer these key questions and land up in a trouble of their own making. Firms forget value, customers and commonsense when faced with unprecedented growth. This over confidence resulted in inflated prices, aggressive expansions and unrelated diversifications. It is time for marketers to revisit these basics and set their focus on consumer.

Defining the business

One of the fundamental questions that marketers should ask themselves is to clearly define the business. While defining the business, one has to be careful about setting the scope of the business. Too narrow a scope can severely limit the growth of the business. Too broad a definition can cause confusion.

If a marketer narrowly limits the definition of his business by focusing on the product, he will find himself in a state of marketing myopia – a term popularised by Harvard Professor Theodore Levitt. A myopic organization defines its business narrowly which blurs the organizations ability to spot competition from other categories. Further, myopia limits the marketer’s ability to change itself according to changing consumer preferences.

When a marketer becomes too focused on his product, he fails to understand the competition from different types of products satisfying the same consumer need. Although this may sound very simple and obvious, many large organizations and brands have suffered out of this myopia. For example, Scooters which once ruled the Indian market suffered near –death stage due to competition from a different product category of motorcycles. IPod has now occupied the position once owned by Walkman. Ujala redefined the cloth whitener category with a different product form.

The key to a proper business definition is to take the focus away from product and focus on consumer. Marketers must define the business around the customer. The focus should be on the customer rather than the product. Once the organisation redefines itself making the customer as its centre, a world of opportunities will be thrown open.

Too broad a definition blurs the focus of the firm. It is where the firm must be able to understand the consumer it serves. Apple Computers were able to leap forward with its products like Iphone and IPod because it understood the consumers and never restricted itself to be a computer manufacturer.

Understanding the Consumer.

In the highly insightful book “ What the customer wants you to know “ Dr Ramcharan states an important rule – “ The more you know about your customer, the better you and your company will be at identifying and devising products and services that will help address them “

Marketers should be able to collect all the information about the consumers and their buying behaviours. One of the key strength of Hindustan Unilever Ltd is their enormous knowledge about the Indian consumer psyche. This has enabled them to create new products and new business models which are very much in line with consumer’s needs and wants.

Who buys the product and why he buys the product are the two important questions that a marketer should be able to answer.

Consumers buy solutions and not products. Value has been the keyword for success in Indian market. Products that do not have an intrinsic value will not survive in the market. The crisis that most firms now face is a result of the failure of firms to keep their products with in the value expectation of the consumer. When the consumer confidence dips, he turns to those products that offer value. Even in times of recession, consumer needs are not exhausted. He just postpones the decision to indulge till the confidence is back.

The future of business

Predicting the future of business is often the most difficult tasks for a marketer. And marketers have to make decisions regarding the future course of actions.

To predict and determine the future of a business should be based on the firm understanding of the consumer. According to Peter Drucker, this task of making judgements about future should start with a demographic analysis. Demographic analysis is the study of the population and the trends.

Indian market is also witnessing a demographic shift with the younger consumers now becoming the major consuming segment. Those brands which foresee such a demographic shift would be ready with new products and strategies targeting the young consumers.

This calls for massive investment in developing knowledge about customers and their behaviour. Many Indian advertising agencies have realised this need and created specialized departments and Chief Knowledge Officers who are in charge of creation and dissemination of knowledge.

The market environment is in a state of constant changes. Take the case of media. Five years back, very few predicted the explosion of social media in India. Blogging was unheard and Orkut and Facebook was not in vogue, no one was Twittering. Even now Indian marketers are clueless on how to understand the social media and take advantage of the popularity of orkut and facebook.

This is the right time to go back to basics, redefine the business and make the entire business operations centred on the consumer. There will be pain in the process but it will be worth the effort.