Kissan : Totally Confused?

Brand : Kissan
Company: HLL
Agency:Lowe

Brand Count:232

Kissan in a way is a totally confused brand. Infact any brand from HLL's stable pass through a stage of utter confusion. The brand came into HLL's fold in 1993 when Brooke Bond India acquired the brand from UB Group.
In the year 2000 the brand was worth Rs 400 crore becoming a market leader in Jams squashes and Ketchup. The brand then went all the way south to become a spectator when its leadership positions was taken by new brands.
The utter confusion regarding the longterm strategy for Kissan brand was visible through the experiments that was conducted on this brand by Hll. HLL always wanted to make it big in the food business. Understandably so , the Indian processed food market is having a staggering size of Rs 2,80,000 crores and the market is highly fragmented. Now wonder an FMCG giant like HLL wants a slice of it.

But with a brand which had a tremendous equity during the late nineties and early 2000, HLL had weird plans. One of the major casualty of MS Banga's Power brand strategy was Kissan. During the early 2000, the brand Kissan was rebranded as Kissan Annapurna. Kissan Annapurna was marketing not jams and squashes by Atta,salt and other staple foods.Later Annapurna and Kissan was splited into two seperate brands , one concentrating on staple foods and other on processed foods. This migration strategy proved to be very costly for both Kissan and Annapurna brand.
Kissan was synonymous with Jams and Squashes during its initial years. Kissan Ketchup was a market leader in ketchup segment but these experiments and myopic strategies pushed the brand behind the focused and aggressive Maggi. While in squashes , the aggressive campaigns of Rasna and other cola marketers made the squash category irrelevant.

So all through the period 2001-2005, Kissan was in a sticky wicket. But now according to reports, the brand mandarins of HLL is now clear about Kissan as a brand for processed food like Jams ,ketchups and like.
That change is visible in the recent campaign of Kissan which takes a unique view of Ketchup. Taking the tagline " Ao banaye pakode bahetar" translated to " Making Pakode taste better". In these series of ads, the brand plays a second fiddle to the main snack. The brand takes the positioning of a "Great Accompaniment " .The same theme is reflected in the latest ad of Maggi featuring Javed Jaffri in a Jail.

Although the brand had problems at the strategic level, Kissan had its own share of innovations. It had a innovative squeezy package for the Ketchup which became very popular. Besides all migrations, its Jams were very popular . Kissan even used Rahul Dravid to endorse the brand.The brand also has came out with Low calorie jam to appeal to the health conscious crowd.

The unwarranted brand extension and migrations had made Kissan's brand equity suffer and that loss is not that easy to cover. Although Maggi had similarly extended itself to be an umbrella brand, the brand had a focus. But unlike Maggi, Kissan extended itself to Rice, Atta and even salt and also messed up by combining its name with Annapurna brand.
Kissan is a classic example of "Messing Up a Successful brand".

Brand Update : Titan

One of the most important components of a successful marketing strategy is innovation. Innovation can be interms of any of the marketing mix. This quality is clearly reflected in the brand strategy of Titan. This March, Titan has come out with a new collection of watches : Aviator Collection.

Aviator is the collection of watches inspired by the World War II fighter planes. The brand is targeting the upmarket global Indian. The range of watches are designed by the award winning designer Neil Foley . The designer has drew his inspiration from the rugged fighter planes like The Mustang,Spitfire, Hurricane , Messerschmidt ME 109 and the like.
The collection has 20 distinct styles and each watch has a name and a story behind it. The collection is differentiated by the unique sense of style and is following the psychographic segmentation.The price range is between Rs 4000-Rs 7000. The company press release also says that this watch is a celebration of JRD's first aircraft flight in India.

Titan has continuously experimented itself and this has helped the brand to be a superbrand. Aviator series, takes a cue from the Iconic Aviator of Ray-Ban and is trying to recreate the magic of RayBan Aviator. My doubt is whether the WWII series of aircrafts will inspire the new generation consumers?. Ofcourse there is no doubt that airplanes especially fighter aircrafts give a unique feeling to Men. Men always adore these beasts and the more ugly these fighters are, the more we tend to like it. The point is how many of us know the fighter planes of yesteryears?

Titan also has the answer, the answer lies in the unique tie-up with the National Geographic channel and the brand. Titan is sponsoring the Top Gun series of Natgeo which now airs a series on WWII airplanes. Hence the brand gets a boost and also free gyan to the TG about the warplanes. Interestingly Natgeo also has created a commercial for the Aviator Series showing real footages of the fighter planes.
So far so good. But my doubt remains.. But I feel that a watch collection that celebrates a Mustang looks more classy than a watch that celebrates an F16 isn't it?

Related Brand
Titan

Doy : Clear Skin, Healthy Skin

Brand : Doy
Company: VVF Ltd
Agency:Orchard Advertising

Brand Count:231

Doy is an interesting brand because of two reasons , first is that its an example of a contract manufacturer going in for forward integration ,second it was a brand that tapped a new segment in the highly competitive Rs 5000 crore soap market.

VVF is a company that was established in 1939 metamorphosed into a largest player in the Oleo resins and personal care manufacturer. The portfolio of VVF includes the Who is Who of the personal care industry ranging from J&J to Dettol.
Doy was launched in 1998 as a soap targeted at the segment of kids aged 3-11 years. At that time , there was virtually no competition in the category with only a single brand "Kids" from J&J. Interestingly VVF was manufacturing KIDS for J&J.
VVF launched Doy in 1998. The brand was a premium soap positioned as kid's soap. The brand differentiated beautifully from other soaps using Form as its point of differentiation. In Marketing texts we have learned about differentiating based on Form and Doy is a classic example for that. The brand came in shape and form that catch the attention of Kids. According to the brand website, Doy has Five basic variants

Pink Princess
Green Pixie
Samba Lion
Purple Mermaid
Mambo Elephant. Later the brand included more variants like
Lucky Duck
Bathman
Patch Eye
etc.

The unique shape of this soap made the brand very popular among the kids. Although the market share figures are not available, I feel that the brand had a reasonable run.
The brand's success is very much attributable to the right segmentation. When we look at the soap segment, J&J's soap is primarily targeted at infants and kids aged till 3. After that in most households, the kids use the same soap as the elders .Here is the gap that the brand has identified.
Not only that the brand used its form as a differentiator, it had its positioning based on its product qualities. Doy uses Olive oil as a major ingredient. Olive oil has many properties that suits skin care. Doy is positioned as a soap that makes the skin healthy. The brand has a tagline " Clear Skin, Healthy Skin. Initially the brand was promoted using TVC's

Watch the TVC here: Princess

Then the brand did some unthinkable act. It extended itself to an adult brand with the brand name Doy Care. The company launched Doy Care Creme : a cream based premium soap targeted at young women. The brand was aiming at the premium segment of the soap market. The brand also had a unique shape like the kids variants. Later came another variant aimed at the young girl's segment Doy Care Aloevera.

Watch the TVC here : Aloevera

In my experience as a consumer, the aloevera variant was a horrible soap ( I know its not meant for me...) because of its fragrance or lack of it....
As an academic , I feel that extending a Kids brand into adults was somekind of a suicide mission on the part of the brand manager. It is going to confuse both the consumers: Kids and young girls.
Regarding the parent brand Doy, the company is not at all aggressive in the market. Except for some sporadic ad campaigns, the brand is adopting a laid back attitude. There are news reports of many below the line promotions for this brand, but compared to its peers , the share of voice is very low.

With lot of competitors viewing this segment seriously, Doy better start getting more active. One comforting fact for Doy was that J&J 's venture into the Kid's segment with the brand KIDS was a failure despite its heavy campaigning and the backing of the equity of J&J.Now we can see that Johnson & Johnson is now communicating to the mothers that its baby soap can be used for Kids also. Pears is another strong brand eying this segment. The brand had a reasonable success in the TG also.

I personally feel that Doy failed to take advantage of the opportunity it had to create and own the kid segment. Primarily because of the lack of heavy investment in brand building.

source:agencyfaqs,financialexpress,doycare website

MotoRokr: Music Addiction

Brand : MotoRokr
Company: Motorola
Agency: O&M

Brand Count: 230

Indian consumers never had it good before especially in the mobile phone market. From Rs 777 to more than Rs 2 lakh price ponts and from basic phones to most advanced smart phones, Indian mobile phone consumers are being pampered like no other..
Indian mobile phone market is huge worth more than Rs 30,000 crore growing at a pace that makes even the most optimistic analyst speechless.With Reliance Communication launching a Rs 777 handset, the market for cell phones will reach new heights.

Indian mobile handset's market is dominated by Nokia. According to different statistics, the market share of Nokia is around 40- 50 %. The market share has comedown due to heavy competition from the players like Sony and Motorola and host of other players. The huge market and the revenue potential along with the increased competition has forced marketers to go in for hard core segmentation strategies in this market. The market leader Nokia was not really into serious segmentation in early days since the brand had commanding market share. But it was the challenger brands like Sony Ericsson and Motorola which started offering specialized products to specific segments.
I think it was Sony Ericsson which started offering specialised phones and communicating specified brands for specific segments. Although Nokia had such models, its communication was more general. Sony having left out of the mobile race started offering CyberShot Mobile Phones targeting the customers looking for camera phones, In the segment of music phones, it extended its Walkman brand to the mobile phones with the Walkman series.This has forced Nokia to specifically target certain models as music and cameraphones.

Motorola was left behind in the segmentation game. It was busy focusing on the design game with its MotoPebl and MotoRazr. But 2007 saw Motorola coming in to the music phone market with a bang. MotoRokr was the answer to N-Series and Walkman.MotoRokr came into the market with a bang. Not because of the product but because of the communication. Motorola had struck a chord with its brand ambassador Mr Abhishek Bachchan.It is very rare to see a brand striking such a perfect brand Ambassador. The agency was also able to use AbhishekBachchan effectively to promote the brand Motorola.
For MotoRokr, Abhishek was at his best. The ads for MotoRokr was hilarious and striking.

Watch the ads here : MotoRokr

Although the brand Motorokr is not a feature packed smart phone ( competitors has better features) , the brand communication has set its foundation as a music phone. The brand is targeting 18-35 who has a passion for music. According to a report in Agencyfaqs, the big idea is that there is a thin line separating Music Loving and Music Addiction. The brand adopts the line of Music Addiction .
Although the brand launch ad has firmly set a positive launch pad for Motorokr, things are not as rosy as it seems. The brand faces intense competition with Sony Walkman series which has successfully leveraged its iconic Walkman brand equity to its advantage. Recently it had roped in Hrithik Roshan to endorse its range of music phones. The new ad adopts the tagline " The thump is here" to announce the brand war.Nokia will also be looking at this segment seriously because such fragmentation of market will be dangerous for a market leader.

For the customer its is Music Time...
Related Brand
MotoPebl

source :agencyfaqs,technews

Orbit Chewing Gum : Its Working

Brand : Orbit
Company: Wrigley's
Agency: BBDO

Brand Count:229

Orbit is one of the world's largest selling chewing gum brand.In India, the brand shares the market leadership with Center Fresh brand.Orbit was launched in India in 2004. This was India's first Sugarfree chewing gum and together with Perfetti's Happydent, this brand has rejuvenated the chewing gum segment in India.
Orbit can be termed as a functional chewing gum. The brand when launched differentiated itself from the existing chewing gums with its "sugar free" property. Along with that, the brand had its USP of its ability to reduce the chances of tooth decay by 40%.... surprising isn't it?
According to the brand, its is clinically proven that by chewing orbit for 20 minutes after a meal can reduce the chances of tooth decay by 40%. This is done by stimulating saliva production.The brand is positioned as a functional gum which prevents tooth decay and its sugarfree feature makes it a healthy option.The brand uses rational advertising to promote this brand.

Within a short span of time, Wrigley's Orbit became a success in the market.Buoyed by the success, Orbit extended the brand with Orbit White which is a whitening chewing gum. Orbit white is pitted against Perfetti's Happydent. For Orbit White, the company adopted an entirely new marketing strategy. Unlike Orbit , Orbit White adopted the Absurdism concept in advertising to promote the brand. Absurdism is using bizarre concepts and hyperbole to promote the brand. According to a research conducted at Oklahoma University, Bizarre ads tend to increase the visibility of the brands. Also such messages acts as clutter- breakers in a highly competitive market. Now in Indian market, we can see lot of marketers coming out with bizarre ads like Happydent, Amaron etc.
For Orbit White, the ads use the protogonist Dr Bhatawdekar and the heroine is a cow. The ads are quite funny and outrageous. The brand uses the tagline "Its working". Although I have come across lot of people who dislike this commercials, I personally like it. The latest ad have even a jingle which says " Yellow Yellow Dirty Fellow, White White Orbit White". And one ad have Dr Bhatawdekar insisting " Orbit White is a must for Bachelor Mans and Bachelor Womans".

Watch The tvc's here: Orbit White

Globally the Orbit brand adopts the tagline "For a good clean feeling no matter what" in India, Orbit uses " for a healthy teeth and prevents tooth decay " as its main message.

The product category became popular with the kids initially with bubblegums promoted heavily using consumer promotions.The popularity of cricket also helped this category to become popular with the grownups too. With the television showing cricketers chewing gums while playing, the category soon become a hit with the youth. Slowly this product became a part of " being cool" accessory in the campuses.But Iam surprised to find no cricketers endorsing this products.

But chewing gum manufacturers are facing lot of issues in the market. The primary one being the hygiene issue regarding the disposal of the product. We know that after using this product, it has to be disposed and often careless disposal of gum can cause the issue of hygiene . The careless disposal of chewing gum has raised serious issues in other developed markets and even has caused a ban on chewing gum usage. In India too, most of the educational institutions ban the use of chewing gums in the campuses because of the careless disposal. Although most products advertise on their wrappers on method of disposal, seldom it is practiced by the users. In future also, this issue can cause some restrictions to the product usage in public places.The marketers have to think of ways to curb this problem since it can cause some serious regulatory obstacles in the future.

Source:agencyfaqs,businessline,dna

Brand Update: TVS Apache

Apache has done to TVS what Pulsar has done to Bajaj. TVS which was struggling to get hold of the motorcycle market has found its balance with Apache.The brand which was launched one year back has become a best seller.Apache is now second to the market leader Pulsar. The brand has won rave reviews for its performance and it provided an alternative to those who did not like Pulsar.

In my previous post on Apache ,I have criticized the promotion and positioning and predicted the failure of Apache but I was proved wrong by the brand. The brand had a wonderful year and analysts expect the brand to perform better in the coming days.

Meanwhile the company has been running various campaigns for the brand. After the first ad, the brand had two campaigns
The second campaign was a dampener ( in my view) which lacked the big idea. The story is how a chick got interested on a dude riding an Apache.

Watch it here: Flower
The latest campaign takes this brand to a macho image. Here the Apache is equated to a Cheetah chasing as usual a "Chick" . But what I liked about the campaign was the shift in the personality of the brand. The brand manager now is pitting the brand straight on Pulsar.I am happy that the brand became more male.

Watch the TVC here: Cheetah

Related Brands
Apache