Market Stat : Ice cream market

According to a report in Outlook Business, Indian Icecream market is worth Rs 3620 crore and premium segment constitutes 10% of this market.

The percapita consumption in India is 250 ml while that of US is 20 litre in a year.

Amul leads the market with 30.5 % share and HUL 's Walls with 20.7 % . According to the report the market is growing at 15-20% each year and is expected to double in the next four years. That means the market will be Rs 5330 crore in 2018  

Brand Update : Maggi with Madhuri wants to make pursuit of health enjoyable

In the latest campaign for Maggi Atta Noodles, Nestle has roped in Madhuri Dixit as the celebrity. The new ad promises Maggi to be healthy and enjoyable- which has been the brand promise for years.
watch the ad here : Maggi with Madhuri

According to media reports, the brand wants to make health enjoyable. The reports suggest that often kids view the pursuit of health to be boring. ( source ) and increasingly kids stay inside immersed in video games and playstations ( certain sections of course ) .Hence the brand took the proposition - health ko mazedaar banao ( make health enjoyable ) as the central theme of the current campaign. and it makes sense also. 

Brand Update : Orient Electricals rebrands to Orient Electric for a bigger market play

In a significant move, Orient Electricals has rebranded itself to Orient Electric. In the new avatar, the brand aims to be a significant player in the Rs 5200 crore Indian home appliances market. Orient - a brand from CK Birla group is a major player in the electric fan category. The Rs 642 crore brand now is spreading its wings to a much broader market play.

Orient is a well known brand in the fan category. But that itself can be a limitation for a brand which is aiming to be relevant to other categories as well. Hence Orient decided to rebrand itself so that it could endorse a wider array of products.
Thus the company rebranded itself to Orient Electric with a new logo and new tagline " Switch to Smart".
The rebranding is backed by a series of campaigns featuring the brand ambassador MS Dhoni. The ads are well crafted and unlike many celebrity oriented campaigns, Orient has made a difference by putting the brand in the limelight.

The ad has the theme " The next generation is smarter " and the message is conveyed through a smart kid that outwits Dhoni. The ad effectively conveys the brand's pitch of its new generation avatar.
Watch the campaign here : Orient TVC 1
                                          Orient TVC 2
The new foray of Orient is into a market which is cluttered and highly competitive. The brand's equity in the fan cateogory together with the new high profile campaign will do a lot of good for the brand aiming to be a major player in the home appliances market. 

Marketing Myopia : ICICI bank charging fee for rewards redemption

Last day when I got my ICICI credit card bill, an interesting notice was enclosed along with the bill. The notice stated that from June 12, the redemption of my reward points which was accumulated  because of the " Loyalty Program" of ICICI bank will attract a charge of Rs 99 + tax. 

Oh really .... What the hell !!

This comes from one of the largest marketing machine in the Indian banking industry and I am totally confused about the logic of this move. Then I happen to read an article in Business Standard and was happy to know that even the journos doesn't have a clue as to what is happening. 

First things first. 

ICICI bank in a way pioneered the concept of rewarding the consumers for their banking transactions. Where reward points existed for credit cards, ICICI introduced reward points for savings bank too and for that they partnered with Payback which facilitate the reward management. 

In my understanding, reward programs are considered an effective way to increase brand loyalty. It is a common method used by marketers to reward loyal and regular customers. There are two sides to rewards. 

Firstly it rewards the existing customers to use more of the service or product and also it acts as an incentive for new customers to be loyal to the product. The thumb-rule is that the rewards must be enticing enough to encourage the customer to see value in being loyal.

Here the smart brains of ICICI bank loyalty program has decided to charge the customers who wants to redeem the loyalty points earned. 

Does it make any sense ???  

First the bank says that you will be rewarded with Payback points if you use the credit card and uses reward points as an incentive to become a loyal customer and then charge the customer when it comes to actual redemption.  It is short-termism at its best. 

You are going to charge the customers for being loyal ?? Common dear marketer , you must be living in the seller's market which is dead a decade ago. 

Another factor is the reward itself. If the reward one gets from the Payback was superb, then 99 INR may be justified but what you get for 1000 reward points is a silicon egg beater or a Prestige LPG hose  ( what a wonderful reward)  for which I need to pay additional  Rs 99 + tax. 

Although I have a Payback card , I have never bothered to look at the points because the so called rewards are no-rewards. So am I bothered about the Rs 99 charge, no because I don't intend to redeem it .  

But as a marketer, what ICICI bank is right now doing is defying all theories. 

Brand Update : Pond's extends to male category

Pond's has been traditionally viewed as a feminine brand. More so because of the products that the brand endorses. Starting with the cold cream, the brand has moved to various skincare segments. In a recent move , HUL has decided to launch Pond's skincare products aimed at men. 

The first product to be launched was the men's face wash. The variant or rather the brand-extension was launched with the upcoming actor Varun Dhawan as the brand ambassador.
Watch the ad here : Pond's men's facewash 

The ad is predictable and compares the brand to a battery charger for the face. Pond's men's facewash has the tagline " Face ka charger" and touts coffee bean's extract as the USP.

According to AC Nielsen, the male grooming market is estimated to be Rs 4000 crore and skincare is the biggest growing category with around Rs 443 crores ( Source). Hence the launch from HUL make sense.

Whats puzzling is why HUL decides to launch a predominantly feminine brand like Pond's for this opportunity.

Ideally (IMHO) HUL should have launched a brand exclusively for men's category instead of extending a Rs 1000 crore brand from a feminine category . Ofcourse Nivea is doing the same thing but doesn't mean that HUL which has the capacity to launch new brands should not launch a new brand. 

My argument is that Pond's will not be able to bring in lot of masculinity into Pond's without hurting the parent brand's persona and will always be constrained by the parent brand's perception. Since the market in question is so huge, HUL has wasted an opportunity to launch a powerful brand exclusively for men. It already have brands like Denim, Aramusk etc which could have been used for this opportunity. Why Ponds ?

Brand Update : Colgate rules the toothpaste market with 57% share

Today's Business Standard has an interesting report on Colgate which despite facing tough competition from major brands was able to hold on to the market share. Infact the brand was able to improve upon the market share. ( read the report)

According to the report, the Indian toothpaste market is around Rs 5000 crore and Colgate has around 57% volume share. Even in the Rs 2000 crore toothbrush market, Colgate commands over 42% share. This is despite the fact that there is an increased competition in the market and the competitors are the likes of HUL, P&G etc.

Some of the lessons of marketing is outlined in this report.

• Consumer Awareness
• Innovation in plugging product gaps
• Rural penetration through distribution augmentation

I feel that the brand's consistency in communicating and its aggressive media communication has helped the brand in good stead . The brand was quick to respond to competition although in the case of Sensodyne, the brand was outsmarted.The launch of Active Salt , Visible White also helped the brand to keep itself in the top of the mind of consumer.