ONE MORE IDEA SIRJEE

4 months, 4 days, 7 hours and 11 minutes, wow!!! Fortunately I remember I do have a blog...After months of requests, threats and kicks, Dashboards back...blame it on me or “the recession-hit-MBA-syndrome” or “jus-got-a-job-i-better-slog” phenomena...I just couldn’t. But as they (God knows who) say good things always come back in life, can’t stay away from it!!!

So, I missed the zoo-zoos but almost all blogs covered it, I missed the IPL- big shit, I missed the branding of the political parties- crap- ultimately POP rules the game for them.

On a lazy Sunday morning, I get up! What better a breakfast than a slice of toast and Amul butter!!! Umm yea, I once was a calorie freak but if I can booze, damn the health alarm...

Swapping TV channels and eating the toast like I did when I was in Grade 1, I suddenly get an alarm in my head...Walk and Talk!!! Huh whats that! One more social streamer from Idea Cellular. This time Abhishek Bacchan plays the Secretary turned-Sarpanch turned-Principal turned-doc...and he gives gyan on staying fit while you talk on the phone!! Click here to see the 1 and half minute stunner by Lowe.



Although theres nothing unusual about the commercial considering IDEA’s history of social awareness campaigns it just the execution that makes it stand out from the earlier ones. Generally when social awareness comes in our mind, its the rural scene where a village girl gets educated or the clichéd communal harmony or exposure of sarkari babus..This time the brand has generated a social awareness campaign for the urban populous.

What makes it more interesting is that maybe its the first time some product which is totally unrelated to health has positioned itself on health platform! That is what Dashboard salutes and calls ‘Breakthrough Positioning’ wow- I feel like defining a new theory- Breakthrough Positioning is “Positioning your brand on a platform which is totally unrelated to your product attributes.” What this does to your brand- it leverages your brand to a level where your competitors can never have an answer to- simply coz it doesn't have anything to do with your ofering. Consider this- what can a Vodafone talk now (with or without zoo-zoos) about the health platform? Infact the best part of IDEA Cellular’s campaigns are that they are always generic in nature- they never talk explicitely about the brand. Textbooks might say venturing into such an act is a crime if you are not the market leader (Ref to case of Pepsodent failure) but then...what the hell – today’s new age of brand mantra is not restricted to any text book.

Let us spare a minute to see if actually the breakthrough campaigns done by Idea have actually worked in terms of sales and market share. Scanning through IDEA reports I found that IDEA had a subscriber base of 100 mn in late 2006. Early 2007 saw Abhishek Bacchan as the brand ambassador and the results of the social awareness campaign show that the base has just increased (currently 315 mn) exponentially. This means the campaigns have been effective. For telecom, the market is still dominant with the prepaid segment, which means along with campaigns - regular and effective revision of the offering boosts the subscriber base. There is a very low brand loyalty in this micro segment.

Are we done yet...neah how can any campaign be complete unless our critics bhais are heard. They haven’t disappointed us yet another time saying this might encourage people to use the cell phones when one shouldn’t. On a lighter note, click here for a spoof by some dude criticizing the idea of Waaak-ing and Taaaak-ing together because you waaaant be able to kaaancentrate on either of thaaaam. Yea right bro, maybe you need to get a life soon!!!Cheers!

NIMBooZ PAANI

Nimboooo Paani...well how many times have u been tempted to take a sip of this thirst super-quencher chilled Lime Juice which might come at Rs.3 or Rs.4 at any railway platform...Yea many! But then thanks to the awareness of hygiene and the habit of that smallest SMKU of mineral water that you've been hooked on to, you CANT have that Nimbu Pani..

Yups, Need Generated captured by no one but PEPSI CO.... Today,1st of March a similar incident happened with me....Dusty streets and scorching heat being at the 'worst best' I really felt like getting that lime n lemony delight... I was at a store which displayed a slew of PEPSI and COKE products squeezed to fit...As I was about to pick up LIMCA, I suddenly see a gray colored lime drink in a PET bottle waving to me from the PEPSI Fridge... Curious, I put back the LIMCA and pick up that 200 ml PET...Whooaa...NPL by PEPSI...

The name sounded weird first NIMBOOZ but then it has an instant connect with the nature of the product... I grab it and go to pay at the counter...Mr.Baniya struggles to find the MRP which shows that I was one of the first customers of this product... Standing below his fan (which felt like a hundred hair dryers tied up together) I sip the NIMBOOZ...hmmm typically lemony and has the same taste as the road side Nimbu Pani...moreover it does quench your thirst... Taking another sip I ask Mr.Baniyaa again, when was it brought, to which he says it was just about an hour ago...Wow I thought, that meant it was launched today...1st of March 2009.

Nimbooz, is an offering with real lemon juice, no fizz, and no artificial flavours..it comes in a pack same as TROPICANA's.From a press release I come to know that it is first launched in North and West followed by a national roll out subsequently. Nimbooz comes in three packaging formats of 200ml returnable glass bottles (RGB), 350ml PET and 200ml Tetra priced at Rs 10, Rs 15 and Rs 10, respectively. So why would someone buy the same Rs.3 thingy at 2-3 times the price?Well simply put, it comes from the house of PEPSI CO where quality is assured so you can drink real lemon juice which is assured of quality...

Browsing more, I came to know that PepsiCo has drawn up an intensive consumer activation campaign to market Nimbooz. The 360 degree marketing communication plan will revolve around building awareness through multi-city launches and road shows, comprehensive 3D activation, leveraging Out-of-Home (OOH) media, radio, press and outdoors. Complimenting the on-ground initiatives is the TV commercial that reflects Nimbooz’s ‘Ekdum Asli Indian’ proposition. The company will also undertake aggressive trial generation and sampling initiatives will also be taken forward across major cities of the country. A special ‘Nimbooz Highway Gadi’ has been created that will visit the four major highways connecting Delhi to Jaipur, Dehradun, Agra to drive trails and consumer education. “The proposition of the Indian refresher perfectly captures the mass appeal of this product and will certainly drive consumer connect,” said Alpana Titus, executive VP (flavours), PepsiCo India said.

Verdict, great product, right time to launch, summer is at the doorsteps and till May, there will be enough mileage that the brand will get...which will certainly result in the impulse buying sessions...Argue about the type of extension (since 7up moves out of the aerated category), but the logical fit is justified!!7 up has always existed with a Lime platform...so go on and try this product...

EX-TENSIONS

Apologies, apologies & more apologies!! I know dashboard has been out since a long time. Thanks to the recession and economic slowdown, I had to keep a keen watch on the placements at my BSchool. Now that the dirt is settled, DASHBOARD is back. Also would like to thank the avid followers of the blog. Although not of the magnitude of a PIL, I did get requests, threats and even blackmails from my friends and fellow bloggers to continue writing. Thanks and am sorry to disappoint you!
But if you have noted, in the past month or so, there haven’t been any path breaking marketing campaigns, repositioning or anything. Credit goes to the pessimistic sentiment of the market, most of the brands have delayed new product launches, ofcourse they wanna play safe!

Ok, but we can’t stop because of that right! So here I am, just sharing my views on extensions! The brand in discussion is SET WET by PARAS PHARMA. I’ll jot down the reasons why this is a peculiar example.

Before that, we all know about the 4 types of extensions. Ref: Fig
1. Brand Extension
2. Line Extension
3. Product Development
4. Multiple Branding

To brief about the brand, PARAS started the brand SET WET as a Hair Gel in 2005. The brand had an appeal in the growing market for hair gels. The urban youth liked the brand which showed raunchy campaigns where women went gaga over the jazzy hair-dos! The hair gel market was at a premature stage and the entry was logical with only a few players in it, namely Brylcream and a host of gray market gels.

Going by the website the customer profiling says: SET WET caters to men who want more than just the ordinary. What I could make out of the brand’s mission statement :- to meet the styling needs of the modern Indian man, to make every man very very sexy and to drive women wild!

Now, ofcourse PARAS leveraged on the equity of the brand name SET WET since they catered to the same segment of demography which used the Hair Gel! Pure case of BRAND EXTENSION. Like Dettol launched Dettol Soaps after the antiseptic liquid. One of the first articles I ever read about branding spoke volumes of choosing a right brand name keeping future extensions in mind. Well, just think of it. SET WET Deo. A Deo is supposed to work as an anti-perspiration and well...keep you dry (technically) and fresh. This is where you find a mismatch!

A pity really this is a dilemma brand managers faces in the long run, whether to leverage on the equity of an existing brand (BRAND EXTENSION) or give it a new brand name (NPD).

Well theoretically let us try matching this case with the four constructs of FIT for brand extensions:-
1. RELEVANCE: The extent to which the core brand attributes are relevant or important to the brand extension category.
The core brand attributes are of brand SET WET are APPEAL APPEAL and APPEAL. You have the same blondes (teacher, colleague, stranger) going crazy over the guy who comes with a deo. So there is a certain degree of relevance.

2. RECOGNITION: The extent to which consumers understand the reasoning as well as the logic of the brand extension.
This is one construct which looks weak. The extent of logical fit between the hair gel and deo is something that can only be explained because PARAS wanted to create an umbrella brand which catered to the men’s cosmetic category.

3. CREDIBILITY: The extent to which the core brand has attributes which are credible and acceptable to conduct and sell the brand extension.
The core brand did have certain credibility attached to it since the product inherently was good and did sell a lot because of the right timing of launch. So yes, there was credibility.

4. TRANSFER: The perceived ability of a brand to transfer their skills and experience to the brand extension.
The perceived ability of brand SET WET to transfer the appeal that it had created for hair gels to the deos was also prevailing. So it did transfer the skills of satisfying an urban male who could in turn satisfy a woman.

So my friends, theory claims to support the decision of a brand extension (3/4) thats upto 75% but then still there should be times that the parent company should trust the brand managers to recreate the magic they did with their earlier brands.

DISCLAIMER: THE ABOVE CONTENT COMES FROM THE GRAY CELLS OF AN ORDINARY GUY. PLEASE DONOT INCREASE OR DECREASE THE EQUITY OF THE BRAND BASED ON THE ABOVE!!! LOL ...COMMENTS WELCOME!!