Blatz Beer is Good for Your Baby

I've always had a suspicion that this was true. Thanks for nothing Surgeon General.

How to Write Good

Thanks to these tips, I'm writing more better than ever.
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Awkward Urinal

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Eno : Works in 6 Seconds

Brand : Eno
Company : Glaxo Smithkline Beecham

Brand Analysis Count : # 486

Eno is one of the major players in the Rs 400 crore antacid market. The brand is market leader in the segment closely followed by Gelusil and Digene. Eno is a heritage brand . The brand was born in 1850 created by James Grossely Eno and the product was so successful that  brand immortalized the founder. The brand was acquired by GSK in 1938. Ever since the brand has grown to become a $40 million brand. The brand is currently selling in 34 countries and India features prominent in the list. The brand was launched in India in 1972.

Eno is basically a fruit salt. The brand is special because of its unique powder form. The brand gives immediate relief to problems associated with gastric disorders and indigestion. The brand has been growing very fast in the segment owing to the rise in the lifestyle diseases faced by Indian consumers. Gastric problems are invariably linked to sedentary lifestyle and food habits. The rise in such problems has made the brand grow CAGR of  25% in 2009-10. 

One of the factors that created huge brand equity for Eno is the consistency in positioning.Eno, ever since its launch . The brand's basic promise is " Faster Relief " . What is more interesting is that Eno has quantified the benefit and tells the customer that Eno works with in 6 seconds. These two propositions has created huge brand recall and salience. 

Eno also invested heavily in campaigns. The brand had series of campaign highlighting its unique form and quick relief. One of the disadvantage faced by the brand because of the form was convenience. Since it was in powder form, it is not as convenient as tablets . To counter this, the brand launched Eno tablet in 2004. While the major competitors of Eno were tablets, Eno had the advantage of being fruit based and perceived to be healthy . 

The success of Eno prompted many players like Dr Morepen to enter the market with similar product. But competition could not sustain in the market or could disturb the leadership of Eno. How ever , the brand faced lot of category competition. Gelusil , Digene etc invested heavily in campaigns which gave tough competition for Eno. 

Eno countered this competition by innovating and not being complacent. To increase the choice /variety and to create excitement in the market, the brand launched four different flavors. The brand also introduced another variant which had Pudina as one of the ingredient. The introduction of flavors make the brand more approachable and effectively counters the competition brands like Hajmola. The brand also launched Eno in sachets. In the promotional front, the brand recently tied up with a bollywood movie " Yamla pagla dewaana".

Eno is a brand that did all possible strategies to defend its leadership position.The brand changed with times, introduced variants, invested in promotional campaigns to keep its share of the market. 

The Number 1 Reason for Midol

So true, so true.

The Harder a Wife Works, the Cuter She Looks!

"Vitamins darling, I always get my vitamins."

21 Unique Chandeliers

I will never own a chandelier, a.) because I break things too easily, b.) because I have an uncontrollable compulsion to swing on things, and c.) I am poor. But, just because I'll never own one, doesn't mean I don't think they are cool. Here are 21 unique chandeliers.

Made with various kitchen utensils.Made entirely of human bones.Putting old liquor bottles to use.Big brother has good taste.For

Turtle Burgers

Hey wife, can we have these for dinner?

Finding Yourself

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Zuska : Make a Smart Move

Brand : Zuska

Company : Zodhita Health Solutions

Brand Analysis Count : # 485

There is another deodorant brand in town. The new kid on the block is the brand named Zuska. Although the brand was launched a year back, I presume the brand is launched  nationally only now and the advertisement campaigns are run across various television channels.

Zuska is a brand from Zodhita Pharmaceuticals - a Mumbai based Pharma company. The company has mega plans to conquer large share of the Rs 700 crore Indian Deo spray market.

In my earlier brand analysis on deo products, I had observed the lack of differentiation among the players. Every one was positioning their brand as something that attracts the opposite sex to the extent that the deo ads were becoming disgusting.

The solace about Zuska is that  brand owners had tried to bring in some differentiation on this brand by bringing in the dreaded Bacteria that is blamed for the bad smell of the sweat. Since bacteria neither have a union nor it can fast unto death, one should believe the claims of the brand.According to the brand, sweat does not have smell, it is the bacteria that causes the foul smell. Zuska will act as a barrier and will not allow the bacteria into the skin and thus prevent the sweat smell from happening. Atlast some brand is talking about something other than attracting females.

Watch the campaign : Zuska 

The ads which are now showing in the television is 30 sec ads which shows a fugitive ( or whatever) chased by the Police and even after running through the forest, there is no sweat . The ads are pretty basic and the plot is unclear. How ever the message is loud and clear and the bacteria looks  like caterpillars as usual.

The brand is trying to differentiate using three platforms - 

a. The USP of the brand is its anti-bacterial properties which I think is first in the category. The brand has to be congratulated for bringing in such a thought. 

b. The brand is also trying to differentiate using the form factor . Zuska is focusing on Deo Stick rather than body sprays in the commercials. Zuska has bodyspray in the product line but seems to recreate the category of deo sticks. 

c. Zuska also is differentiating itself using packaging. The package is new and standsout from the rest of the deo brands.

So Zuska has done its homework well and the rest is upto the effectiveness of the brand and its distribution reach. Zuska has adopted the tagline " Make a Smart Move ".  When the brand was launched in 2010, it had the tagline " Reach for More ". The ads doesn't convey any relevant meaning of the tagline. Perhaps the brand is talking about making a smart move by choosing the brand. Zuska has launched 4 sub-brands /fragrances - Odyssey, Rythem, Icon and Viva. Icon is the men's range. Besides the deo product line, the brand is also bringing in foot spray and deo soaps.

Regarding brand names, it is often said that choosing brand names is a risky affair because the names can take different meaning in different languages and contexts. Sadly Zuska also fell prey for such a small issue. When I saw the ad, I did a google search and landed up in a Wikipedia page of Zuska's Disease . Accidentally the brand shares its name with a rare disease. Although this may not affect the brand's sales or future, it is a reminder of the hundred of risks that a brand will face in its life.

Zuska is a relief in the cluttered deo market that has been stuck with the formula of chasing females. The brand has some clarity on the differentiation and how it is going to take off from here is what matters. 

Happy Father's Day!

*Note that I'm not promoting the church or the church website at the end of the video.

130TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!

Yes!!!!  this is it, we have been waiting for this trip for an age......

It was my 50th Birthday in April and it was my Dads 80th in May so we decided, and have been planning for ages, to have a huge, joint party at our Quinta in Portugal - wow, that sounds so grand...........

You have to remember we bought the farm 9 years ago and it was a total ruin, now it should accommodate a few people and we have 6 acres of terraces for camping!

This is how it looked when we bought it

Yes, a huge amount of work (we have done it all ourselves) later and we now have a beautiful house that is not finished but habitable, off the grid, we make all our own electricity, hot water and we have a bore hole for our water too, it is our ultimate dream - one day we will live here - and hopefully it will be soon....

In the mean time...........  We are planning a huge party, most of our joint families will be there, friends from the UK, Singapore, USA and Portugal will be joining us, most camping on our land, sharing everything, but it will be fun!!

So, we will be back on the 14th July, no orders will be processed between now and then - sorry, but my usual holiday helper, my son Ryan, will be there with us all!  please carry on with the comments and orders, I can still access emails there ( I have a Portuguese dongle! ) but nothing will be packed or sent out until the 14th.

I wish you all well, we are gone but (please) not forgotten..... I will be back before you know it and I have a really fab, new soap to launch, not telling what yet though.  Oh I forgot, I will be taking my fiddle and hopefully playing this for my Dad........

Lonesome River Blues


XXXXXXXXXX

Brand Update : RIP Sunfeast Fit Kit

Even God was not able to save this brand. The much hyped sub-brand of Sunfeast - Sunfeast Sachin's Fit Kit is dead. The brand is not available in any of the shops in my state and sources say that the brand was discontinued shortly after it was launched.

  The company so far has not given any hint ( in any media) about this brand being discontinued. I am making the assumption that the brand is being discontinued for the reason that it is not present in an important  market like Kerala. 

So how can a brand which is co-created and endorsed by none other than Sachin Tendulkar himself suddenly went out of the market ? That too when the market is flooded with "healthy biscuits " ? Fit Kit was touted as the first celebrity co-created brand in India. The brand had everything going for it - the marketing muscle of ITC, brand Sachin, etc but still it was not well received by the Indian consumers. The question baffles me. 

In the case of Sunfeast Fit Kit, one probability can be that the brand was too early for the market.The market size is too small for such a large investment and the quantity the market can absorb was limited to justify such a huge investment. Sunfeast thought that with Sachin's endorsement, the brand will grow and will carve out a niche of " Multi - grain " biscuits. But the product did not grew as big as the brand thought it would be. 

Secondly , the target market for Fit Kit was the kids and they would not eat a biscuit just because Sachin endorsed it. The taste and the variety matters more than the health benefits. With a plethora of brands and variants available in the market, getting kids to stick to a variant is near impossible. The poor volume offtake may have prompted the company to relook its investment in this brand. 

More than anything , the category demands heavy continuous investment in brands and ITC may have decided to route the investment to the entire basket of biscuits rather than only Fit Kit. 

These are only possibilities. Only the company officials know the exact reasons why such a much hyped brand be taken off quickly. The failure of the Fit Kit is a grim reminder of the weakness of  celebrity driven brands.

Related Brand

Sunfeast Fit Kit

Jarritos Mexican Cola

It was Thursday, and just like every Thursday, I had just polished off a bag of pork rinds and a bottle of spray cheese. As usual my cheese and pork "salad" had left me parched, so I went on the hunt for something delicious and refreshing when I came across Jarritos Mexican Cola. I gotta say, I don't regret having my mom buy it for me, because it was delicious. Also note how handsome and smooth

Living in 320 Square Feet

Awesome Sleeping Bag Bed

Anyone know where I can get one?
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My New Soap Display

Lots of people have made lovely comments about my new soap display stand shown in the last blog posting so I thought I would show you how It was done.

Firstly - get yourself a good, friendly carpenter!  

Mine is called John Salter and as well as being a friend and fellow pilot he also does some work for my partner Rik who is a builder.  I sat down with John and we designed the stand together just with an idea, pencil and paper and not much else.  He then went away and built it for me.  We decided to make the stand out of pine not MDF which would have made the thing far to heavy.

Creating the look

I knew I wanted the shelves to fit quite a few soap ranges and I really wanted it to have the look of a market stall.  Many people who visit my stalls at the various farmers markets in the area often comment on how nice my wooden trugs look.  I made these myself out of pine, painted them in a variety of different colours, distressed the look with a sander and finished them with a couple of coats of varnish.  They have withstood the test of time very well and do look good.  I use laminated cards for each soap with the illustration, explanation and ingredients on my trugs, however I knew there would not be space for this on the shelves so I planned a painted blackboard strip that could be market up with blackboard pens and, again, would help to give the impression of a market stall.

The trugs and my lovely Rik at Taunton Flower show last year

Christmas in Exmouth

 Then John turned up with the unit and I could not have been happier.  I think it looks really great just in pine!

Finishing the look

I mixed cream emulsion paint with acrylic colours to get the finished colour I wanted.  Each shelf was painted twice, firstly with a light colour, then, once dry, overpainted with a much darker version.  Between the two layers I rubbed the corners and edges with a candle to wax up the areas that I wanted to look distressed and worn.

After the paint was completely dry, I got out my little hand held sander and worked on the edges and corners until the paint layer on top came off and exposed the lighter colour underneath and, in some places, the wood.

Close up of the final distressed look

 The whole thing was then finished with a couple of coats of mat varnish to seal it.

The finishing touches were made by using photoshop and a variety of good quality images of my soaps, I managed to create a montage of my top products with my name underneath.  I got this printed out on a large photo printer courtesy of Claire Sloane and Edd King at Exmouth Studio  (thank you soooo much guys!). The photograph was then stuck onto the top of the stand and the base board cut out with a jigsaw to make a soap silhouette across the top.

The whole thing was then stocked up, chalk names added and a product information sheet printed.

All in all, I am very happy with it.  It is only a prototype and there is room for improvement, it is also quite large, fine for a big retailer like Dart Farm but not ideal for a smaller shop. I would like to work with John to tweak the design, maybe look at making something half the width or with only two shelves.  A lot of work and not cheap to produce but I think it makes the difference.

If you want to have control over how a retailer displays your soaps you need to provide them with something that shows off your products to their best advantage and in a way that you want.  I think eye (and nose) level is best it will catch the customers both visually and with lovely wafting soap smells - sure to stop them in their tracks!  The alternative is to have your soaps shoved in a basket in a dark corner - well at least it could be.  A final tip, always go and have a look again a few days after the soaps get in there (if you can, of course) check that simple things are right, like the correct soaps in the correct places etc.

Id love to hear what you think, how do you solve the problem of displaying your creations?

Grass Couch

Alright, I admit it, I wasn't saved in the rapture, and Macho Man Randy Savage was. There is no justice. Oh well. So the other day I was sitting in my front yard when the police came by and said something to the effect of, "You can't have a couch on your front lawn, and you need to be wearing pants." After a scuffle and a citation, I acquiesced. After a brief search, I found the perfect

Nestle Bar One : Kaafi Hai ? Not Enough !

Brand : Bar One
Company : Nestle India

Brand Analysis Count : # 484

Bar One is a brand which was languishing in the product portfolio of Nestle for around two decades. The brand recently got some attention from the owners and its future is being rewritten. Bar One was launched in India in 1991 ( in some sources its given as 1994). The brand when launched was positioned as an energy /snack bar- some thing that you can eat in between times.

Bar One initially was well promoted by Nestle so much so that at one point in time, Bar One had a market share of around 5 %.But Nestle's attention soon shifted to non-confectionery items and Bar One was pushed aside interms of strategy and investment. I still remember the old Bar One jingle
Nestle Bar One Ba Ba Bar One
For those in between times ......

Later the brand had the tagline " Get More Out of Life " ( see the storyboard)

Bar One is a caramel based chocolate which has naugat and chocolate similar to Cadbury's 5 Star. The brand was positioned as a high energy funky chocolate which is essentially a small snack. The brand was well ahead of its time especially in the Indian market with respect to positioning. Indian consumers were not familiar with the concept of chocolates as a snack when Bar One was launched.

Second factor is the weak positioning of Bar One. Infact Bar One did not had a powerful positioning compared to the competitor . The focus on "energy bar" was too early for the Indian market. Later the company itself ditched the brand by stopping brand promotion.

Bar One in terms of brand competition competed with Cadbury 5 Star. 5 Star had tremendous brand power during the nineties and Bar One could not hold out with the competition. How ever Nestle did not kill the brand but put it on the sidelines. The interesting part is that the brand was available in the retail outlets even when the brand was silent in the media.
The major reasons ( in my opinion) for the brand's lackluster performance are Packaging and Positioning. The earlier packaging was dull compared to the 5 Star's golden packaging. The package for confectionery is significant because this is a product that is bought impulsively and the packaging conveys a strong cue for the purchase. 

In 2010, the brand was relaunched with a new packaging and price. The new packaging is bold and lot of golden color splashed across it. After a long while, the brand had a reasonably attractive packaging. The relaunch also saw a new positioning for the brand. The brand sadly messed up on the positioning in the relaunch also. The brand came out with very poorly executed campaign positioning Bar One as a chocolate that will attract girls !!!

Watch the ad here : Bar One 

The brand now has the tagline " Kaafi Hai " meaning " Its enough ". I really don't understand the connection between the brand and the tagline. One notion can be that Bar One is enough to satisfy your hunger ? Anyways the ad series with the new tagline may not be enough to lift the brand's fortunes. But the strong presence at the retail outlets coupled with the tendency of consumers to try out different brands will once again add more sales for this brand.
Bar One desperately needs investment in serious brand building. The brand is capable of building a position in the market dominated by Cadbury's brands. Bar One also has strong recall among the consumers backed by better taste and reasonable pricing. It needs more focus on developing a meaningful positioning . 5 Star has already owned up the " Taste" platform . The current campaign of Bar One is below average and will only make matter worse for the brand. 

I can now let you into my little/big secret.....

NATURALLY MADE SOAPS ARE NOW AVAILABLE AT

DARTS FARM, TOPSHAM NEAR EXETER!

If you couldn't tell, I am rather excited.  I took my soaps to show Michael Dart 4 weeks ago and he agreed to stock them but until they were actually in place I didn't want to say anything - just in case it jinxed it.

Darts Farm (for those of you who don't know the place) is a large farm shop which has branched out over the last 40 years to become one of the biggest and best farm and local food retailers in the South West.  The Dart Brothers are passionate about local food and products, still working the land and producing seasonal vegetables and produce for the shop and their 'pick-your-own'.

As I only live 5 minutes away Naturally Made Soaps is the obvious choice as a local soap stockist.  As you know my products are natural, contain no palm oil, no parabens and no Sulfates.  Wherever possible I use local products in my soaps, for example all my soaps are made using Norsworthy Dairy Goats Milk

Darts Farm have won numerous awards such as the prestigious Best Local Food Retailer in the BBC Radio Four's Food and Farming Awards for 2010.  They are definitely known as a favorite haunt for all foodies, however the Darts are very keen to expand their local craft products as well and that is where I came in.

The new Naturally Made Soaps stand

I hope this is just the start of a fruitful and fun partnership and I am very happy to be working with an amazing shop that has great ethical credentials and is actively looking to promote all local businesses.

If you are local, do go and have a look at my display, any comments or suggestions will always be gratefully received.

Brand Update : J Hampstead takes Hrithik as Brand Ambsassador

The premium suit brand J Hampstead from Siyaram has roped in Hrithik Roshan as the new brand ambassador. The new set of commercials are in the pipeline for the brand featuring the new brand ambassador. The brand is still focusing on the celebrity route for brand building. 

J Hamsptead had earlier used the Bollywood Diva Priyanka Chopra to endorse it. The move was different since not many Male brands roped in female celebrities to endorse it. The celebrity endorsement route had worked for the brand in creating certain amount of awareness in the market. The brand is now worth around Rs 50 crore and grew about 20% CAGR in 2010. In 2009-2010, the brand launched its international range of readymades in India.

The entry of Hrithik will add the style quotient for the brand to a large extent. The brand is targeting the upwardly mobile 35 + consumers who look for high quality stylish cloths. The brand's major competitor is the market leader Raymond's. 

The celebrity powered branding works well in creating lot of awareness/visibility to the brand but brands are built on meaningful differentiation. Here J Hampstead is focusing on Quality as the key differentiating attribute. But quality is an attribute that is taken by every other competitor in the market. Along with the celebrity, J Hampstead needs to identify a relevant differentiator if it wants to fight Raymonds. The problem with celebrity endorsement is that it will help get the brand noticed. If the brand wants consumer to remember, message is important. 

Related Brand

J Hampstead

The