My other beauty tools makeup collection
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Halls : Thandi Saans Ka Blast
Brand : Halls
Company : Cadbury India Ltd
Agency : Contract Advertising
Brand Analysis Count : 421
Halls is one of the largest selling cough drops brand in the world. The brand claims to have 50% share in the International cough drops market.Halls brand was born in 1930 when Halls Brothers invented a Metho- Lyptus formula that alleviates throat irritations. Later in 1964,
Warner- Lambert acquired the brand and began to aggressively sell the product in the US market.
Halls came to India in 1968. The brand was initially sold as a therapeutic candy in the cough lozenges market. In 2003, Halls came into Cadbury's fold when it acquired the confectionery business of Warner-Lambert/Pfizer network ( Source : Halls Brand Site).
Halls had a series of ups and downs in the Indian market. At one point of time during the ninetees, the brand was the market leader with a share of over 30%. But at point in time , Warner- Lambert increased the price of Halls from 50 paise to 75 paise. The effect was devastating. The brand began to lose its share because consumers found it difficult to find the change in order to buy the product. It was easy to find a 50 paise but finding 25 paise was not easy. And the shop keeper will never return the 25 paise if given Rs 1. (source ).
Halls was promoted heavily by both Warner- Lambert and Cadburys. Halls is one of the heavy spenders in the category. But despite the heavy share of voice, Halls had a huge positioning problem.
The Rs 200 crore throat lozenges category is an interesting category. With in these category, there are certain subsegments which may not be visible to the consumer. For example, there is a therapeutic lozenges category which are medicinal in nature and sold through chemists. Strepsils belong to this category. While Vicks is perceived to be medicinal in nature, the product can be sold in all kind of shops. Halls belongs to the candy sub-segment within the category.
While most of the throat lozenges products are sold on medicinal platform, Halls wanted to differentiate itself. Hence the brand chose to position itself on the " Cool and Refreshing " Platform. But instead of focusing and establishing this platform, the brand kept oscillating between " medicinal throat relief " and " Refreshing" platforms. If you look at the series of ads of Halls across its lifetime, the brand was confused about its core brand value. In one ad, the brand will be concentrating on " Sore Throat " while in another it is taking about refreshing breath,
The brand was not confident about ditching the " sore throat " and embrace the " cool + refreshing " platform. This confusion eroded the brand's chances to become the market leader in this category. The brand failed to understand that it cannot be everything to everybody. It is commonsense that brands should try to occupy a unique position rather than trying to please everyone.
It was in 2008 that Halls finally decided to focus on the " Cool throat " platform . The brand used hyperbole to communicate this message to the consumer.
Watch the ad here : Halls Airplane Ad
Personally I did not like the ad because the action of the person who took Halls was contradicting the " Coolness " factor promoted by the brand. But the hyperbole or the exaggeration worked to brand's advantage. The brand was able to clearly communicate its core brand promise to the consumer.
It shows when a brand understands its core brand mantra. The decision of the brand to focus on the " coolness " had its impact on the quality of brand communication. Halls came out with its latest ad reinforcing its core positioning.
Watch the ad here : Halls Polar Bear ad
It is again Hyperbole at its height. The message is spot-on and the exaggeration works well to reinforce the core positioning of the brand. The brand has the tagline " Thandi Saans Ka Blast " which communicates its coolness promise.
Halls is facing competition for its positioning also. Recently Parle Xhale also has started its campaign highlighting its 'coolness'. Watch the ad here.
I hope that Halls will stay focused on the current positioning platform. Ofcourse by doing so, it may lose some consumers but in the long run the brand will benefit with the focus.
Monday, October 5, 2009
WootStock Art
A quick post here to talk about Wootstock happening Oct 19, 20 and 21st in SF and LA. My friends Paul and Storm are putting on the event with the help of Wil Wheaton, Mythbusters Adam Savage and a bunch of other cool guests. My involvement? Not much, really. Except I was able to design this totally awesome gig poster and T-Shirt for the event in the style of one of my favorite artists, R. Crumb. If you're anywhere near the area, definitely do make it to the second SF show or the LA show. Thanks to the aformentioned celebs for allowing me to share a bit in their coolness
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Brasso : Branding without Advertising
Brand : Brasso
Company : Reckitt & Benckiser
Brand Analysis Count : 420
Company : Reckitt & Benckiser
Brand Analysis Count : 420
This post is inspired by an article which came in the Economic Time ( Source). The article mentions the brand Brasso as an example of a brand which has become a 100 crore brand without spending much on advertising.
Brasso is a 105 year old brand from Reckitt & Benckiser . The brand was born in 1904 when a Reckitt official traveled to Australia and discovered the potential of a such a product. In 1905, the company brought the brand Brasso into the market. ( source).
The brand has become almost synonymous with metal polish across the world. The brand became generic after the two world wars. Brasso is heavily used by armed forces across the world . In India too, Brasso is heavily used by the armed forces. According to ET, around 12800 litres of Brasso is used by the armed forces every month.
The brand gained its generic status purely by word of mouth. The very simple fact that this product is used by armed forces gave it tremendous authenticity. In the consumer space, the product has limited usage.The rich heritage and the word of mouth gave the brand enough recall when ever there is a need for a metal polish. Since the brand is selling without any advertising, the company is also happy to let the party run.
But the problem with such a brand is that there is a possibility that the brand misses out in opportunities. Many consumers does not know that Brasso can be used to clean scratched CDs and even repair scratches in plastic products. Unless the brand communicates regularly , there is a chance that the brand will miss out in capitalizing its strengths and in finding new uses for the product.
Brasso is a 105 year old brand from Reckitt & Benckiser . The brand was born in 1904 when a Reckitt official traveled to Australia and discovered the potential of a such a product. In 1905, the company brought the brand Brasso into the market. ( source).
The brand has become almost synonymous with metal polish across the world. The brand became generic after the two world wars. Brasso is heavily used by armed forces across the world . In India too, Brasso is heavily used by the armed forces. According to ET, around 12800 litres of Brasso is used by the armed forces every month.
The brand gained its generic status purely by word of mouth. The very simple fact that this product is used by armed forces gave it tremendous authenticity. In the consumer space, the product has limited usage.The rich heritage and the word of mouth gave the brand enough recall when ever there is a need for a metal polish. Since the brand is selling without any advertising, the company is also happy to let the party run.
But the problem with such a brand is that there is a possibility that the brand misses out in opportunities. Many consumers does not know that Brasso can be used to clean scratched CDs and even repair scratches in plastic products. Unless the brand communicates regularly , there is a chance that the brand will miss out in capitalizing its strengths and in finding new uses for the product.
Marketing Funda : Articles on Marketing -2
Mont Blanc's first Television ad in
Use a Human Sales Approach http://bit.ly/3xrSb7 II interesting read
How Corporate Responsibility Can Survive the Recessionhttp://bit.ly/38bpa7 II Nice read
The 7 Deadly Sins of Public Speaking http://bit.ly/2mmQJy II good read for students
Brand Perceptions, Slogans and the Mind http://bit.ly/2nRq7t II absolutely must read for marketers
Why Small Companies Are Better at Customer Servicehttp://bit.ly/D59x5 II sincere empathy & Commonsense..
Understanding business development http://bit.ly/PzeB1 II xcllent insights from Seth Godin
Creating The Brand Halo Effect http://bit.ly/4rmxZM II Must read for all marketers
Putting the Art of Leadership into Practice http://bit.ly/iyqxe
Where's Your Lean? http://bit.ly/4OJ8v excellent article on communication
Putting the Art of Leadership into Practice http://bit.ly/iyqxe nice insights
Creative Strategy Importance: Visual or Verbal? http://bit.ly/aWdVqII great funda
What gets measured must get done http://bit.ly/13J72H very true indeed
A case to spend money on advertising http://tinyurl.com/mc5q68from stanford
Branding lessons from Gillette http://tinyurl.com/klasud
Mastering The Multiple Brand Strategy http://bit.ly/Zslcp important lessons to be learned
The Art of Giving Praise http://bit.ly/9HzIk lessons for professors and salesmen
How to Be Childlike http://bit.ly/QcLTF II inspiring
Managing in an upturn, keep expectations lowhttp://tinyurl.com/lmsqth niceone
Future Group's Mythological Marketing http://bit.ly/isF0v II atlast some Indian originated management principles
How to Make Solving Problems Fun http://bit.ly/olkfh II nice read and practical too
Decoding Leadership http://bit.ly/OVzAS II simple insights
Excellent story on 3M , 6σ Vs creativity http://tinyurl.com/26ywre
Sub-Brands & Line Extensions http://bit.ly/9L2ZE II subbrands can create confusion if not clearly defined
How Lakme brand is trying to change itself http://tinyurl.com/r4bpjy
Nice article on Carnation auto owned by Jagdish Khattarhttp://tinyurl.com/qztb5u
Inside Procter & Gamble's New Values-Based Strategyhttp://bit.ly/3wgUJw II excellent article
Understanding Indian consumer http://tinyurl.com/qofyxl by Rama Bijapurkar
Use Salesmanship to Energize Your Organization http://bit.ly/uhlRi II couldnt agree more
Salespeople: Don't Talk About Price on the First Datehttp://bit.ly/Ixv4u xcellent, but will it work?
How to Make Metaphorical Magic in Your Speechhttp://bit.ly/2cUXA1 excellent article on communication
Do Interesting Things http://bit.ly/xXADM This really inspired me
Get off my land! Leading vs. Poacher Brands (Part 1)http://bit.ly/UG3Yi funda
Category Builders vs. Category Killers http://bit.ly/icPKj excellent article from Alries
Citizen Sweety Blouse: Draupadi Cheer
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)