Brand Update : Loreal

Business Line (30/04/09) had an interesting news. L'Oreal is going to bring out sachets. L'Oreal has been in the Indian market for the past 15 years. The brand is positioned as a premium skin care brand and enjoyed tremendous equity among the upper segments of the consumers. The brand have the famous tagline " You are Worth It " and the brand is endorsed by WHO is WHO of the glamour world.

The move evoked two set of reactions in me. The consumer inside me was happy because the brand became affordable while the marketing person inside me was apprehensive about the dilution of premium image due to this affordable SKU.

Sachet has been a double edged sword for most of the fmcg marketers. This SKU offered tremendous volume potential. In the game of sachets, there is no premium class . There is only one class -Affordable class. On the other hand, it is a tough task for marketers to get customers to move to the high margin bottles.

The question is whether the availability of Loreal products at the price points of Rs 5 or Rs 7 will dilute the brand equity ? Will the higher segments drift away from this brand because the product now has a low priced SKU.

Since this is India, the lower price point is only going to benefit the brand sales. Indians love value for money Masstige brands. The new affordable SKU will bring in lot of customers who once thought that the brand was unreachable / unaffordable.

This will enable the brand to get into a new set of customers who shied away from the brand. But the difficult task is to get the brand in all the shop formats ( if the company is aiming volume). Putting the brand in a sachet and restricting the distribution will not yield desirable results.

The only issue for the brand is to make the consumers trade up for larger SKU because sachets are low margin units.

Related Brand

Loreal

Read BL report here

Fa : Feel Good Freshness

Brand : Fa
Company : Henkel
Agency : Mudra

Brand Analysis Count : 397

Fa is one of the largest deo brand in India. The brand is from the global giant Henkel. I was surprised to know that Fa is one of the largest selling body care brand in Europe.
Fa was launched in India in 2000. The brand has a portfolio of talcs ,deos,bodywash, soap etc. It is a personal care brand endorsing multiple products.

Fa is famous in India for its range of Deos. I used to buy their unique glass bottled roll on deos that comes in various fragrances like Aqua, Lemon etc.

Despite its legacy and its international pedigree, Fa has not got the kind of respect an international brand gets.That is why the brand is still a small brand in the personal care segment compared to the brands like Lux, Ponds etc.

Fa globally is positioned on Freshness. Its global tagline is " Feel Good Freshness".

Regarding the marketing practices of this brand in the Indian market , Fa was never an aggressive player in terms of promotion or brand building. I remember a couple of ads of this brand but no memorable promotional campaigns. How ever the brand was able to create a strong association with freshness which is a strength for this brand.

Watch an ad for Fa here : Pink or Black

Most of the ads of Fa was directly imported from its parent brand's database. The advantage of foreign ads is that it creates an international image . But the biggest disadvantage is that the local connect will be lost. Brands like AXE escaped this danger but Fa failed to create a connect with the Indian consumer.

Why Axe was successful because they were talking to a globally connected younger crowd. But Fa is talking to an older crowd who do not feel connected with the brand. That is why this brand is not able to reach its potential.

Understandably this brand operates on a limited budget. Hence one cannot equate the promotinoal activities of Fa with brands like Axe. But  I have a feeling that the brand undertakes sporadic promotional campaigns rather than an organized contonuous brand campaign. 

As a consumer, it has been a long while since I came across any campaign of Fa either in print or in visual media. Henkel is a global gaint and has the money power to drive reasonable brand promotion. 

Fa had a relaunch in 2004 when the company undertook a rationalization of its product portfolio . Fa was identified as a core brand and its ad spend increased. 

Fa fights with the best brands in one of the hottest segment in the Indian consumer market. It battles the gaints like P&G, HUL and the likes. Fa also has a rich heritage and international pedigree. What the brand needs is the WoW factor and a great campaign. Dove made it to the iconic league through a great campaign - campaign for real beauty.

Fa desperately needs a break-through campaign. Freshness platform is a very relevant positioning for the brand but the brand has to utilize this platform through some clutter breaking campaign. If the brand continues to import its international campaign and continues its unorganized /unfocused media spends, the brand will at best survive in its current position. 

Fa has some good products , what it needs is some breakthrough campaigns.

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

Premium : Pleasure,Ecstasy ,Euphoria

Brand : Premium
Company : JK Helene Curtis

Agency : Impulse

Brand Analysis Count : 401

Premium is one of the most under utilized brand in the Indian personal care category. A brand which has been in existence for more than 40 years has not been able to make its mark in Indian market.

Premium is a brand owned by JK Helene Curtis which is a Raymond's group company. Despite from a group that owns iconic brands like Raymond's and Park Avenue, Premium failed to reach anywhere near its peers.

What usually comes to my mind about this brand is its Cologne. Premium Cologne is one of the very few affordable colognes in the Indian market. I was initially surprised at the price of this brand because I felt that Premium would cost more.

Premium brand is not a failed brand . Infact company claims that Premium is the market leader in room fresheners.

Premium is an umbrella brand that endorses various products like Talc, Shaving products,perfumes and Room fresheners. There are experts who argue that the unrelated extensions have created problems for the brand.

In a report in Business Line, another brand expert suggested that the brand name Premium has created positioning issues for the brand. The name has caused a perception that the product is priced higher which created a problem of Narrow Positioning.

But more than the brand name, Premium is languishing because of lack of marketing effort. The company has never cared to create a Brand DNA for Premium. There is no brand manthra, no core brand values or a brand persona. There is not even a tagline that gives the brand an identity. There is also no memorable brand campaigns.

I personally feels that the company is not able to fit the brand in its portfolio along with Park Avenue. Park Avenue has its own range of men's toiletries and Premium may be sidelined for making space for Park Avenue range.

Premium is really a sad story. The brand has a good name, a good company to back it and an opportunity in the market but there is no will from the brand owners to develop it.

Denver : Ride Your Luck

Brand : Denver
Company : Vanesa

Brand Analysis Count : 404

Denver is a brand from Vanesa - which is a Delhi based company.I presume that this is a new brand launched recently. Not much information is available in the public domain about the history of the brand or the company.

Male grooming market is witnessing a lot of action in the recent past. Most of the cosmetics and personal care majors are eying this segment. The market size for male grooming products is estimated to be around Rs 600- 800 crores ( figures vary from source to source)

Denver is a new brand in this category. The brand has a range of personal care products ranging from Deos , skin care products and perfumes.

The brand has been very active in the media space with regular TVCs and sponsoring programs like Splitsvilla ( MTV)

Denver has many positive aspects going for it. The name "Denver " gives an international image to the brand. The company has done a good job in getting the packaging right although there is a striking resemblance with the Axe packaging. The brand has attractive design elements going for it. The brand is also reasonably priced at Rs 120 per can.

But the greatest let down is its positioning and advertisement campaign. The brand is currently running a tvc in many national channels.

Watch the ad here : Denver

By looking at the positioning of the brand, one can see that the brand has fallen into the stereotyping trap. The theme of girls falling for a man ( who use the deo) is a much "raped " theme. Every brand has used such a theme and for a consumer, watching such a theme based ad is a nauseating experience.

Brands fall into stereotyping because it is the easiest option. You get a girl , little clothes, a dude and a motorcycle and bingo the advertising is ready.

By following the much used path, Denver has forgone a wonderful opportunity to build a space of its own. There is no difference between what Denver, Axe, Wildstone, Setwet are saying. And these brands are spending whole loads of money to bore the consumers to death.

Denver has taken the tagline " Ride Your Luck " but fails to connect the brand with the positioning statement. It takes courage and wisdom to tread the path less traveled. But seldom brands take that big leap.

Imperial Leather : Everyday Luxury

Brand : Imperial Leather
Company : Cussons

Brand Analysis Count : 412

Imperial Leather is a brand which failed to make its mark in the Indian market. This heritage brand had all the good product qualities but because of its marketing practices ,Imperial Leather failed to realize its potential in the Indian market.

Imperial Leather is a British brand with a rich heritage. The brand has a history dating back to 1768. Imperial Leather was created in 1938 by Alexander Tom Cussons. (read the Wiki entry here). Now Imperial Leather is owned by the company PZ Cussons.

Imperial Leather came to India in 1996 with a JV with Ahmed Oil Mills ( Postman oil makers). The brand was positioned as a premium luxury bathing soap. In 1999, Cussons entered into a contract with Godrej to distribute the brand across the country. In 2001, the brand severed ties with Godrej and started operating on its own.

Imperial Leather during its launch time was one of the few luxury bathing soaps in the Indian market. The brand, because of its classic packaging and excellent product qualities gained popularity among the higher income households. Even middle class consumers like my household indulged in the brand once in a while.

The brand was characterized by its packaging and its product qualities. The soap especially the white soap was really good interms of its lather and fragrance. The classic characteristic of the brand was the metallised logo embedded on the soap. That logo gave the soap a premium luxury look.

The brand was hopping to cash in on the distribution reach of Godrej but the deal did not work out well. The brand failed miserably in the promotion front also. Except for the initial promotional efforts during the launch, Imperial Leather was virtually silent across the media. Another reason was the high price. Since the brand was virtually silent, it lost the connect with the consumers and couldn't justify the high price.

Imperial Leather was positioned as a Luxury Soap with rich creamy lather. The brand had the tagline " Everyday Luxury" .

I cannot remember a single ad of this brand anywhere in recent times. In the plethora of soap brands, how can a brand survive without any promotion ?

The brand is still available in supermarkets but I am not sure whether Cussons has any solid plans of Imperial Leather in India. Globally, the brand still has a lot of equity and even has extended itself into baby products. It is sad that such a brand could not survive in the Indian soap market.

Imperial Leather did not become highly successful because of laidback promotional strategies. The company never invested heavily in promotions and this cost the brand dearly. Imperial Leather is slowly fading away from the consumer's mind. The newer generation consumers has heard about this brand but never used this brand . If this situation persists, Imperial Leather may not be able to survive in the Indian market.

The way forward for Imperial Leather is to go back to its core brand promise of " Everyday Luxury ". The brand needs heavy loads of promotions to make a place for itself in the highly competitive soap market.

Brand Update : Liril

In my last brand update on Liril, I mentioned the relaunch of Liril as Liril 2000. This week's Brand Equity carried a story about the new adventure of Liril 2000. Read it Here .

As mentioned in the report, Liril is currently repositioned as a soap that refreshes 2000 vital body points.

I was really surprised at the news that Liril is copying the international brand Lever 2000 of the parent Unilever. The positioning of Lever 2000 and Liril 2000 is the same. The only difference is that Lever 2000 is white in color.

I would say that this marks the sad demise of one of the iconic brands in India. Liril has lost its entire brand personality and now is degraded as the poor cousin of another brand. This is strikingly similar to the automotive brand Maruti Zen which again had this same sad story.

HUL in recent times is in the process of bringing in international brands by replacing Indian brands. Clinic All Clear has been changed to Clear. Now Liril is being morphed into Lever 2000.

This is very surprising that a company like HUL ,which has built some of the iconic Indian brands, resort to killing its brands to make way for brands from its parent company.

I cannot buy the argument that Liril 2000 was launched to rejuvenate the Liril brand. If you are rejuvenating a brand, why should you copy the positioning of another brand and import its entire brand elements and even advertising ? A possibility of Liril 2000 being rebranded as Lever 2000 cannot be ruled out . HUL is notorious for such extra-ordinary marketing practices.

If you were really keen on rejuvenating Liril, any person with common sense will tell you to bring back the old memories. A campaign with the old jingle and the imagery will instantly bring this brand back to life. Every newspaper, channel and blogs will write about the comeback of Liril. (Now also blogs and newspapers are writing but not praising the brand) . But alas....

To be fair to Liril, I liked the concept of rejuvenation and 2000 body points. I would have loved it ,if it was for Lever 2000 but not for Liril On the positive side, the old imagery and the ads are popular among a segment of consumers who has now become old. For the new generation, they may have heard about the famous waterfall and the girl but never have experienced the it in real time. So for an uninitiated 20 year old, Liril 2000 may be a new experience. That may be what HUL also is hoping for....

Related Brand
Liril
Brand Update - Liril

Gatsby : Inspired by a Movie

Brand : Gatsby

Company : Mandom Corporation ( Japan)

Brand Analysis Count : 416

I used to notice Gatsby brand of hair gels in beauty salons.I have seldom seen any advertisements of Gatsby but the popularity of this brand among salons often surprised me. This has prompted this small post about this shy brand.

I was really surprised to know that Gatsby is an international brand with its origin in Japan. The brand is owned by Mandom Corporation. Gatsby is a leading men's beauty care brand in Japan.

Gatsby brand was born in July 1978. The most interesting fact about this brand is about the brand name.The brand name was inspired by the movie " The Great Gatsby " starring Robert Redford. ( Read the History here). I think Gatsby is one of the rare brands which derived its brand name from a movie.From a hair gel brand, Gatsby then morphed into a complete beauty care brand for men with wide range of products in Japan.

No information is available about when Gatsby was first launched in India. How ever, the brand have significant popularity among hair stylists . It has to be noted that Gatsby also has a strong retail presence also.Recently Gatsby launched its range of deos in the Indian market.

What is puzzling is the lack of any sort of brand promotion for Gatsby. Internationally this brand is famous for its hair care products. The brand's latest launch of " Moving Rubber " Series of hair gel was a hit across various markets. But this brand has so far being very silent in the Indian market. The competing Indian brands like Brylcream and Parachute After Shower are very aggressive interms of share of voice.

The recent launch of deo range is an indication that Gatsby is getting interested in the Indian market. The men's grooming market in India is witnessing lot of action and the pie is getting larger. We may see some action from this brand also in future.

Neutrogena : Dermatologist Approved

Brand : Neutrogena
Company : Johnson & Johnson
Agency : White Canvas

Brand Analysis Count : 414

The 2000 crore Indian skincare market now has a new member. The leading international skin care brand Neutrogena was relaunched in the Indian market recently. Neutrogena is one of the leading premium skincare brand with its origin in USA. The brand is owned by Johnson & Johnson.

Neutrogena was born in 1930 founded by Emanual Stolaroff .Emanual started a small cosmetic company called Natone. On a trip to Europe in 1954, Stolaroff heard about a soap developed by a Belgium scientist Dr Edmont Fromont. Emanual bought the right to market the soap in United States . The soap was Neutrogena soap. The soap became so popular that the company name was changed to Neutrogena Corporation. In 1994, Neutrogena Corporation was acquired by J&J. (Read the story here)

Neutrogena was first launched in India in 2005 ( source).But the brand was never heavily promoted by the company. 2009 is witnessing a rejuvenation and relaunch by the company. It seems that J&J is going all out to corner a share in the Indian skin care market. It recently launched another brand Clean & Care in India.

Frankly speaking , I never knew that Neutrogena was such a famous International brand until I searched for it for the purpose of this post. I was also surprised to find that Neutrogena belonged to Johnson & Johnson.

Neutrogena has a strong brand equity across various global markets. It is also promoted heavily by the company . The brand relies on a host of celebrity actors and models like Diane Lane,Jennifer Garner and Vanessa Hudgers , Natasha Mcelhone to build its popularity. Although celebrities create an aura of premiumness for the brand, the real driver for the brand's acceptance is the quality and efficacy of the products.

In India too, the brand has taken the celebrity route to create an impression.It has roped in bollywood actresses like Manisha Lamba and Prachi Desai to endorse the product range. The brand is currently running a television campaign featuring Prachi Desai .

Watch the tvc here : Neutrogena

Although the brand has started off with Indian celebrities, in future the brand may bring in its campaigns featuring its international brand ambassadors.

Neutrogena is positioned as a premium skincare brand which is approved and recommended by Dermatologists. The brand is following its global positioning here also. The rational positioning is supported by the dose of high profile celebrity endorsements.
It will be interesting to see how Neutrogena will fight for its space in the highly competitive Indian skincare market.

Brand Update : Pears

It has been a long time since I wrote anything about Pears. The fact was that there was no big development about the brand for the past two years. The brand is regularly and consistently promoted across various media.

The brand extended itself to kid's category with the launch of Pears Junior and also into personal care segment with products like face wash. Pears also launched variants like Mint, Aloe Vera,Oil control etc during this period. Although the brand launched these variants, the core positioning of the brand remained the same for the original soap.

Recently I saw the new commercial of Pears

Watch it here : Pears

The brand is very consistent about the positioning strategy. Pears is built on the wonderful relationship between the Mother and

Child. All Pears ads captured this emotion quite perfectly. The brand focused on its " Transparency " and is positioned as a " Pure and Gentle " Soap.

This time too, the brand follows the same theme. The significant addition is that now Pears has a tagline - Masoom.

Masoom translates to Innocence . So Pears now celebrates a new brand value - Innocence.

The new campaign is nice but as a Southie I did not quite understood the dialogue. But the cute child and the theme always work the magic.

I am assuming that Pears brand is serious about the Masoom Tagline. Masoom concept works very well for Pears. The concept of innocence fits with the " transparency " and Pure & Gentle positioning.

Pears was one of those brands which did not have a tagline. With out the help of the tagline , the brand was able to communicate its core positioning. The core brand values of Pears was communicated through visual cues .

The tagline of Masoom seems to gel with the brand. Whether and how the brand is going to use this tagline in future is something to watch for.

Related Post

Pears

Brand Update : Wild Stone

Wild Stone has become milder. It is interesting to see a brand evolving and trying to find the right kind of positioning. Wild Stone which started off as a very very naughty brand is now moving to a mature , approachable platform.

In the last few years Wild Stone has been experimenting with its positioning. The brand looking at the huge potential in the deo market created a stir with its "explicit" controversial ads. But those ads were infact doing lot of negative word of mouth in the media space. Although Wild Stone brand got noticed, the image got entangled in the negative mindset. The brand had the tagline of " Wild By Nature " and its ads were nothing but wild.

Later Wild Stone's marketing was taken up by Future Brands ( source) . Then a shift happened in the brand's approach. The brand became subtle but of course it couldn't let go its " sexual overtones". The brand adopted the new tagline " Barely Legal".

Now the brand is running a new campaign for its variant Wild Stone Aqua.

Watch the tvc here : Wild Stone Aqua

The new ad is a refreshing change from the earlier campaigns of Wild Stone. The ad is nicely made and the brand's positioning theme fits in nicely with the ad. What is more interesting is that Wild Stone has adopted a new tagline " It happens". The new tagline is a far better one than the " Barely Legal " . More over " It happens " gives the agency lot of room to work on. And also it gives a message that Wild Stone man doesn't have to " Try Too Hard". Hopefully the brand will retain the new tagline and explore its possibilities.

The positioning of Wild Stone is not a remarkable one. Almost all the men's deo has adopted the same positioning of " Women Chasing Men". Brands like Axe Fuel,Denver, Set Wet Zatak all have adopted the same theme. The advantage that I see in Wild Stone is that the brand has adopted an Indian theme while all the other brands are going for foreign models and settings. This can prove to be a good advantage for Wild Stone. Although the market leader Axe is going great guns with regular product launches, its ads have become little detached with the Indian market ( my opinion). Axe may face the issue of a consume disconnect if it continues to import ads.

Related Brands

Wild Stone

Axe

Denver

Fuel

Fa

Rexona

Brand Update : Lux

Lux got bigger. The brand has come back in style. Lux released its first commercial featuring the most famous "Star Couple " of bollywood - Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan. The brand is currently running this high profile campaign across the media space.

Watch the ad here : Lux new ad

HUL has been facing lot of heat from the competition. Most of its best sellers were losing market share and competition getting aggressive day by day. Despite having very popular brands, HUL began losing shares especially in the personal care category.
The HUL brands are facing tough competition from players like ITC , Wipro ,Godrej and the like.

Recently I checked on the HUL products purchased at my home , I was surprised to find that we have dropped many HUL products from our shopping list. In the soap category itself, we never purchased an HUL soap for the past 3 months or so. These spaces are now occupied by brands like Vivel,Dettol, Santoor etc.

In my earlier update on Lux, I mentioned that HUL is not promoting the "original " Lux and not using the equity of Aishwarya Rai. The new campaign involving the two biggest stars of bollywood gives a huge thrust to the brand.

Ordinary consumers seems to be very much impressed by the new campaign. My mother liked the ad so much that she plans to buy Lux soon.

Personally I feel that the ad could have been different. The theme is nothing new and is used by many brands before. But the Star Couple makes the theme irrelevant. The charm and the chemistry of the couple make good the flaws in the "big idea".The ad has a sticky factor and in that sense Lux benefits.

The current campaign although expensive gives the required thrust for Lux. Lux badly needed some thing new to bring back the consumers who switched to other brands and never returned. The brand had made a strong comeback and that too in style.

Related Brand
Lux

White Ice : Play It Cool

Brand : White Ice
Company : Midas Care Pharmaceuticals.

Brand Analysis Count : 428

The list of deo brands that promises raving girlfriends is endless. We have one more to add to the list - White Ice brand of deos.Like any other brand in this category, White Ice also promises men of girls falling for them and attaining the " Nasal Nirvana".

Frankly I am at loss. Either it is true that girls do get easily seduced by the deo fragrances or men believe that deos work magic with girls. Either way, brands that take on this most "raped" theme of " girls chasing guys" are increasing day by day.

When I wrote a critical post on Denver (another deo with same positioning) , a reader pointed out that the sale of Denver increased many fold after their campaign. In that case , I assume thatthe number of frustrated Indian men is increasing at an alarming rate.

White Ice is a brand from Midas Care pharmaceuticals. Midas Care is a company that specializes on aerosol products and is famous for brands like Climax and Relispray.

White Ice is running a TVC in most of the channels highlighting its positioning as the ultimate women attractor ...

Watch the TVC here : White Ice

The brand joins the bandwagon of Axe, Denver,Setwet and Wildstone in harping on the same promise . I wonder whether there is any relevance in the concept of differentiation ???

It may be true that when a brand advertises, there is going to be a visible spike in the sales. But this may not be sustainable over time if brands doesn't care to differentiate. For example , a consumer may try out this brand after seeing the ad, but if the brand wants him to come back, it should create a distinct place in the consumer's mind. A marketer will not be able to spend huge amount of money in advertising to keep the high brand recall. A highly differentiated brand enable to reduce the advertising expenses over a period of time.

White Ice adopts the tagline " Play it Cool" which is the same tagline of John Players. I wonder if the ad agency ever bothered to check the tagline before making it public.

Most of the challenger brands fail in realizing the importance of investing in the long term. They are happy with the immediate spike in the sales and profits. Brand building can be possible only if the brandowners realize the need for proper differentiation. The more time they spent in identifying or creating differentiation, more sustainable the brand will be.

Bigger is the problem for Axe deo. Its famous and once unique positioning platform is now killed many times. It cannot wish that when other brands use the same positioning, Axe benefits. More than the new entrants, Axe is in a dangerous position and desperately needs to reinvent itself. It will be interesting to see how HUL takes on this ultimate positioning challenge.

Garnier : Take Care

Brand : Garnier
Company : Loreal India
Agency : Lowe Lintas

Brand Analysis Count : 437

Garnier is a brand that epitomizes smart marketing practice. This is a brand that came to India in 1991 and crafted a special place for itself in the Indian market.This is one global brand which has understood the dynamics of Indian market.

Garnier came to India with its Ultra Duox range of shampoos. The brand is amass market brand from Loreal which has a range of global premium personal care brands like Maybelline, Ralph Lauren., Diesel ,Vichy etc. Loreal started its operations as a joint venture with MJ Group . Later in 1994, the company started its own operations.

All through these years, Garnier had a very consistent marketing approach. What I liked about this brand was the kind of investment that it had put in for marketing activities. Ofcourse all these happened because it had the support of its parent company.

Garnier can be considered as a masstige brand. Although positioned as a premium offering, the brand was wise enough to price it reasonable. Currently Garnier is targeting the middle and upper socio-economic class.

Globally Loreal is a company that is famous for its product innovation. Garnier too has built its brand by launching new products on a regular basis. A strategy based on product innovation works best for a brand like Garnier. When the consumer sees regular new product flow from the brand, it creates a sense of excitement with in the consumer which will prompt her to stick to this brand.Garnier was the first brand to introduce a cream based hair coloring solution.

Garnier is now present in a diverse range of personal care product categories. It is present in the hair-care and skin-care segments.
The brand have two sub-brands : Garnier Fructis and Garnier Ultra Doux. Fructis is an interesting sub-brand which has clicked in the Indian market because of its positioning as a fruit based product. Consumers readily embraced this variant because it made sense to depend on a natural shampoo rather than chemical based one.

Garnier is positioned as a nature- based ( green) innovative personal care brand which takes care of your skin. The brand has a very catchy tagline " Take Care ". Garnier's positioning strategy is more product based in the sense that it has tried to emphasis individual product properties rather than a common brand image. Most of its commercials are emphasizing on product strengths and innovation. The brand is an example of the success of rational product based advertising success. The brand is also sending a message that Indian consumers are also influenced by rational messages and product innovations rather than mindless emotional blah-blahs.

Another interesting marketing strategy adopted by Garnier is its advertising execution. True to its global parentage, Garnier was careful in its advertising theme. It uses a blend of foreign and Indian models and themes for its campaign.Garnier ads can be termed as localized international advertising which has a global touch but does not appear alien to Indian realities. The brand uses a careful blend of celebrities and models in their campaigns without relying much on their individual persona. Their products are always the stars in their campaigns.

Recently Garnier launched another new innovative product in the Indian market - Garnier Shampoo + Oil 2 in 1 shampoo. This is something that Indian consumer has never seen before. And a product which Indian consumer find little difficult to believe. Shampoo and oil are something that is not supposed to work together. Infact shampoo is used against oil. ndian consumers are habituated to using oil regularly and time usually works against using them both. And since these two products are supposed to work against each other and time factor prevents them from using both, Garnier has thought of a plan to integrate north-pole and south-pole together.

Garnier Oil + Shampoo is a blend of 3 oils and shampoo. According to press release, the oil will work within to strengthen the hair and shampoo will clean the hair. This shampoo variant contains three oils - Olive,Avocado and Shea oil.

Recently , one of my earlier students talked to me about this brand launch. She and her group had suggest such a product combination during a project presentation to me as a part of the marketing course three years back. I remember taking the group to a series of tough questioning ( in other words -blasting) about the acceptance of such a product in the Indian market. She was delighted that such an idea being implemented in the real marketing world.

My primary doubt is whether the brand be able to convince the customer that shampoo and oil can go together ? Here the brand is trying to redefine a negative relationship between two attributes and trying to convince the customers that there is a scope for these two working together positively. According to Prof Kevin lane Keller, this strategy is difficult but once established , it can be a powerful differentiator. What the brand has to do is to develop a credible story that consumers can agree ( source : Strategic Brand Management by Keller)
Watch the commercial here : Garnier oil Shampoo

Whether these innovations fail or succeed, Garnier gains much equity through these steady stream of product launches. The premium positioning , smart pricing, heavy investment in brand promotion, innovative products and strong distribution reach has enabled this brand to create a special place in the Indian personal care industry. A lesson for aspiring brands.

Brand Update : Lux

Lux has a new endorser. True to the brand's heritage of being endorsed by the reigning queens of Bollywood, the brand has roped in Katrina Kaif as the new Lux girl.

The brand is currently running the campaign featuring Katrina across the channels for its new Purple Lotus cream variant.

Watch the ad here : Katrina Lux ad.

What is interesting is the change in the tagline of the Lux brand over the last few campaigns. Ever since the brand discarded its classic tagline of " Filmi Sitaroan ka saundarya sabun" , Lux has not been able to find a fitting tagline. The brand later adopted the taglines " Celebrating Beauty " and then later to " Why worry about beauty " . The last campaign had the simple voice over like " Lux with Beauty Oils ". The brand this time has further reinforced the USP of the brand as " Soap with cream and beauty oils".

This time Lux has used a new positioning " kaliyon se Thwecha ke liye" translated to " Skin as soft as budding/blossoming flowers ". While Lux with beauty oils is a more rational feature oriented pitching, the brand is also talking about the brand promise of a " Softer looking Skin". It is good the see Lux settling with its USP and positioning.

But the gain of Lux has resulted in a loss for another brand Dyna. Dyna which is the soap brand from Anchor Group was banking on Katrina Kaif for building the brand. The entire Dyna brand was heavily depended on Katrina rather than its positioning or differentiation. With Katrina ending the association with Dyna, it will be interesting to see the future of Dyna brand.

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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 : Vivel Extending to Fairness Cream

ITC's soap brand Vivel has launched its fairness cream extension in the Indian market. The brand has been launched in Kerala and is expected to offer stiff competition to the market leader Fair & Lovely.

Vivel's fairness variant is branded as Vivel Active Fair and comes in three SKUs - the 50 gm pack is launched at a price of Rs 70, 25 gm at Rs 38 and 9 gm sachet at Rs 5. The brand is running its launch

campaign with big splash in major newspapers . Vivel Active Fair is banking on its ingredients like vitamins, minerals and moisturizers along with SPF 15 sun protection rating.

In a direct challenge to Fair & Lovely, Vivel is selling its sachet at Rs 5 ( introductory offer) compared to FAL's Rs 7. Indian personal care market is driven by sachets and the Rs 5 price point will help Vivel to achieve the important customer trials. Rs 5 price point is also beneficial

to both customers and retailers because of the coinage factor. This pricing may force HUL to lower the price of FAL's sachet.The Indian Fairness Cream market is worth around Rs 1700 and growing at 15% .

ITC is making lot of headway in its personal care business. The brands like Fiama and Vivel has successfully made their mark in terms of brand visibility. Although the company may not be making money in the personal care business because of the heavy promotional investments, these brands have built a strong foundation that can fuel further growth.It is common for brands in the personal care business to go for brand extensions. Vivel is trying to transform itself to a personal care brand rather than just a soap brand.

It is interesting to see that the brand refrained from using celebrity to endorse the fairness cream. I wonder why ?

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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.

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Vi-John : Building Brand on Celebrity Power

Brand : Vi-John
Company : Maja Healthcare (Vi-John Cosmetics)

Brand Analysis Count : # 489

Do you know that Vi-John is the largest selling Shaving cream in India ? I didn't knew that till I saw Shah Rukh Khan spreading this message across the media. The marketing world is full of surprises. Vi-John which is from the house of Maja Healthcare is an interesting brand. There are lot of interesting facts about this brand which has virtually grabbed attention nationally through the endorsement from none other than Shah Rukh Khan.

Vi-John is not a new brand. The brand has been in existence from 1960 and has a strong presence in the rural market.According to certain reports, the brand has around 60% penetration in the rural market. That makes the claim of " largest selling shaving cram " valid.

Vi-John is also known for its innovation in the distribution strategy. Unlike the usual personal selling brands which focus on retail formats, Vi-John tried to innovate on the distribution by pushing it through saloons. The brand also have huge equity in saloons which has helped the brand tremendously. One of the main reason for the success of Vi-John is the keen awareness about the consumer needs. While global giants like Gillette failed to impress the rural consumer, Vi-John understood that rural consumer needs are different and its shaving cream produced more lather, better fragrance ( strength) than the competitors. 

Vi-John is not only into shaving products but a whole range of personal care products. The company has roped in celebrities like Sonali Bendre, Bipasha Basu etc. 

Vi-John has come into limelight with the endorsement from SRK for its shaving cream range. The brand is currently running a commercial featuring SRK.

Watch the ad here : Vi- John 

The advertisement is very basic with the usual stuff like Women , Smooth Shave and Keedanu (Germs). The brand ambassador stresses the fact that Vi-John is the largest selling Indian shaving cream and that adds lot of power into the brand's plan  to enter the national market.

 The brand has moved from its low-key channel based strategy to a highly aggressive celebrity based pull strategy to cater to the larger market. Although this strategy gives immediate results interms of popularity and trials, the sustainability of such a pull strategy will depend on the investment on promotions. These expensive celebrity based pull has a potential of draining valuable resources over-time and the brand hopes that the market returns will justify the investment made on such promotions.

The high profile campaigns how ever fails to give a brand identity to Vi-John. The umbrella brand Vi-John does not have a positioning on its own. The brand neither has a tagline nor a core positioning which could be extended into various product categories. Since Vi-John is an umbrella brand, the company should have tried to develop a positioning for the core-brand and then used various campaign for its products. But instead, the firm tried to promote its shaving products first. The only issue is that people will start perceiving Vi-John as a shaving product brand rather than a personal care brand.

When promoting a brand which endorses multiple product categories, it is essential to develop a brand positioning hierarchy which shows how each of these products will be positioned and how the umbrella brand will be used to promote these products. It will be wise for Vi-John to think of developing a brand personality for its parent brand and then leverage that across its product range.

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.