Bidding a sentimental farewell to a fashionable brand

As RIL puts Vimal brand on the block, Ramanujam Sridhar speaks about his impressions and memories of the iconic brand.

IT WAS the summer of 1987, the city Ahmedabad, the venue, Mudra’s corporate office where I had been called for an interview for the job of branch manager of the agency’s Bengaluru office which was to be set up by the incumbent.

Mudra was not like any casual and informal advertising agencies of those days. It had an imposing corporate office and there was an aura around AG Krishnamurthy, the chairperson and managing director whom I had to meet. I walked into his huge cabin, the size of a basketball court only to be questioned by the gum-chewing Krishnamurthy “So why do you want to join Mudra?” (I later realised that he was trying to kick the smoking habit).

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South side story

The yellow metal holds a special charm for the South Indian. Inside a jewellery showroom in Chennai. There's no undermining the purchasing power of the small town customer. - K. Pichumani
 

The growth of brands such as Viveks, GRT Jewellers, Sulekha.com and Indian Terrain proves that the southern market is a lucrative one with much to offer the marketer.

I am an unabashed fan of the South. I was born in Madras, live and work in Bangalore and have spent 95 per cent of my working life in the South. I did try to work in Delhi and returned back to the safety of Bangalore after six months in the city that spawned jaanta hai mera baap kaun hai much like Napoleon from Russia.

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Who after Tendulkar and Dhoni?

In Indian cricket's brand landscape, once you get past the big two, there isn't any one name that commands universal attention.

A man walks past a billboard featuring Sachin Tendulkar, Mumbai, March 19, 2007

Brand Sachin: Tendulkar's consistent on-field success has translated into endorsement deals throughout his career.

It is no surprise that MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar are the two Indian sportsmen - and the highest-ranked cricketers - to feature in Forbes magazine's list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes for the period June 2011 to June 2012, having made $26.5 million and $18.6 million respectively. India is cricket's biggest market and Tendulkar was India's first national sporting brand, while Dhoni has arguably been better than any Indian sportsperson at spinning on-field success into endorsements.

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Masterchef Sanjeev Kapoor: A perfect recipe for marketers?

“I personally take all my brand endorsement decisions. I am the first point of contact, not the last one. So it goes without saying that I delve into depth and detail about the brand, product, everything. I would never endorse a brand if I didn’t believe in it” – Masterchef Sanjeev Kapoor.

He came, He cooked and He conquered the hearts of women of all ages and kinds. Sanjeev Kapoor mastered the art of Indian cooking and won both domestic adulation as well as international acclaim for his recipes for a perfect gastronomic delight. He is not just an icon for food connoisseurs, but also the marketing world’s favourite chef since his Khaana Khazana days on Indian television. He has been associated with many brands such as Natura Diet Sugar by Sugar Free, edible oil brand, Sweekar, Sapat Tea, and the recently announced association with Tata i-Shakti range of pulses.

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Time to move on?

I have always been an admirer of Fastrack’s advertising. Let me take you back in time to the launch of the brand. Titan Industries, as the market leader in the adult watches category, thought it appropriate to target the youth segment. Hardly earth-shattering given the size of the youth market in India and the enormous opportunity it presented then and continues to present even today. The fact that it had great genes and was an offering from Titan were great factors working in its favour. The brand leaned heavily on its lineage and the initial campaign (if my memory serves me right) had a series of four TV commercials featuring hip, sexy-looking watches in the backdrop of things that were really cool, like a bottle of Sprite, a girl in a bikini shaking water off her back to a can of Cola with the tag line “Fastrack cool watches from Titan”. The signature tune of Titan that people had started to hum by then was whistled as the background score to the commercials. The brand was launched with a bang and started carving a niche for itself.

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Da Milano & Hidesign: Bagging a luxury niche

International luxury brands, which were earlier the possession of the travelling elite, now have presence across high streets malls and shopping locales in India. However, among the Diors, Chanels, two Indian brands, Hidesign and Da Milano have managed to carve out their niche place in the luxury handbags market.

Contrary to popular belief, both Hidesign and Da Milano are home grown brands.

Redefining luxury
Notwithstanding the deluge of international luxury bags, both these Indian brands have continued with the same brand values that they started out with; to create products using the country’s strong heritage of craftsmanship.

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‘Hema, Rekha, Jaya aur Sushma’ get calorie conscious

FMCG company Nirma, the brand synonymous with detergent cakes and powders, recently launched global artificial sweetener brand Nutrasweet in the Indian market via its healthcare arm Nirlife. Yes, we all heard it right! Nirma has a healthcare division and in fact the company had forayed into the pharmaceuticals business way back in 2006. Not known to many, the pharmaceutical business of Nirma, has been producing medical products related to the critical care industry, it is now that the company is focusing on a more consumer centric approach with the launch of Nutrasweet. The company also launched a TV campaign, created by Ignite Mudra, to drive home the point that Nirma indeed has a stake beyond detergents.


According to Ravinder Siwach, Executive Creative Director, DDB Mudra the brief given by Nirma for the ad campaign was to launch Nutrasweet in a market that is dominated by Sugarfree. “Sugarfree has almost been synonymous to artificial sweeteners and the remaining few others have failed to make any dent. Thus, we had an insight and a fact. ‘Insight’ was that even if people were not overtly health conscious they like to do what they can for their health. And the ‘fact’ is that Nutrasweet is quite close to real sugar in its taste. Hence the idea of people hesitating in eating everything sweet and Nutrasweet urges them to indulge without a care. Hence the coinage and the refrain ab sweet ban gaya nutrasweet,” adds Siwach. Thus, towards the end of the TVC, the campaign clearly states the parentage of Nirma as the brand that has launched the global brand in the Indian market.

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Building the perfect property

When competition overwhelms the market and brands find it difficult to differentiate on unique attributes or price, it might be a good idea to invest in building a property?

When one thinks of Coke three things come immediately to mind: the Coke brand mark, the iconic bottle and the colour red. These are powerful attributes and provide instant customer recognition when used in combination or even individually. While Coca-Cola has spent hundreds of millions of dollars over decades to build these attributes, their success is not purely a result of time and money. It is thanks largely to the company’s understanding of one of the basic principles of branding — building strong product attributes that work as powerful differentiators.

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Consumer connect is key

With a generation obsessed with mobile phones and new technology, the question uppermost on everyone's mind probably is — to borrow a phrase from Samsung — Next is What? That also sums up the way Sumsung has been stoking the consumer’s curiosity before every big launch.

So months before the Samsung Galaxy Note was launched launched in India on November 2, 2011, the company set the ball rolling in the media. Looking back at the strategy, Ranjit Yadav, country head, mobile & IT, Samsung, says a number of things came together to make the launch successful. For the first time in India, Samsung conducted a multi-city event on the same day and at the same time to announce the launch. While the main event was hosted in New Delhi, audiences in Mumbai and Chennai were connected via video conference. This was followed by on-ground consumer events at variousmalls across the country wherein the audience was given the opportunity to playaround with the S Pen and explore the smartphone’s potential.

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The king of great moves

Chess offers good prospects for marketers, who could well be addressing a section of intelligent, high networth individuals in the future.

One evening, last week, as I was returning home after a long and taxing day, my mobile phone rang. “Viswanathan Anand has won the world championship.” My wife's uncle was literally shouting in excitement and tripping over words as he made this dramatic announcement. I hastily moved my phone further away from my ears till his tone became normal. He continued, getting back to his favourite refrain, “You never write about him or chess but keep writing about useless, overpaid cricketers.”

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