Symbiosis institute of management studiesResearch Paper On BRAND REPOSITIONING BY NEGLECTED ATTRIBUTES

Under the guidance of Dr. V. V. Ramasastry

Submitted By: Harish Kushwaha 1D 14Batch 2006 2008 Date of submission 01/03/07

Hypothesis:Brand Repositioning by Introducing new or neglected attributes gives an edge over competitorsOften companies neglect the requirements of customers and are too obsessed to make there product sell without understanding the requirement of the market. The irony is that they have a very good market share and they become complacent about the growing needs of the market. In return customers have no option but to use the product because of less or no alternatives available. Companies at time misread this as customer loyalty, however the truth is that customers are waiting for any opportunity to switch from the existing product to new product which gives better benefits. This hypothesis can be substantiated using the following examples:

Kiwi: Dont Worry, Be Happy:

Brand: Kiwi Company: Sara lee Agency: Grey worldwide

Kiwi is the challenger brand in the Rs 60 crore shoe care market in India. Kiwi was an active player in the shoe care market from 1994 onwards. The brand is owned by $18 billion Sara Lee corporation. In India, Sara Lee started as a joint venture with TTK corporation. In 2002, it became an independent venture. Now SaraLee has tied up with Godrej to market its products.

The shoe care market in India is small. This market was dominated by Cherry Blossom from Reckitt and Benckiser which earlier had a market share of 80%. Kiwi was the challenger brand and right now it holds a market share of 40 % and Cherry's market share decline to around 50%.

Kiwi has a history that dates back from 1906 when William Ramsay developed an unusually fine boot polish. He put the Brand name as Kiwi since his wife is a native of Newzealand. The brand grew so big that in 1967, the products were used worldwide under the banner Kiwi International. In 1984, it became the part of Sara Lee Corporation.

Shoe polishes are infrequently purchased products with very less involvement from the customer. Cherry Blossom had a generic brand status in the market. Wax polishes constitutes 70% of the market while liquid polish constitutes 20%. In order to displace the leader, Kiwi banked on Innovation strategy which the market leader failed to anticipate. Kiwi was the first one to bring International standard Liquid shoe polish in India .It also pioneered the Shoe shine sponge which was a blockbuster. Kiwi was also the first brand to launch Suede and Nubuck range. These new product launches and careful campaigns helped Kiwi to have a top of

the mind recall for the

brand. As in the case of Robin Liquid,

which failed to respond to Ujala's challenge, Cherry Blossom also failed to respond. While Kiwi talked about quality shoe care, Cherry Blossom was stuck

with Poor " Charlie Chaplin look alike " ads. Most of the new product launches of Kiwi was in line with the changing consumer preferences. When the consumers opted for semi casual Suede and nubuck shoes, Kiwi was quick to launch Shoe care products for that category.

Today in this hectic rush , seldom do we get time to polish our shoe s every day. Understanding this Consumer insight, Kiwi launched Express shoe polish which can be used to shine shoes when you are in a rush. These innovations surely helped the brand to create a market for itself. Sara lee also markets Metal Polishes and Drainer cleaner under Kiwi brand. The Shoe care market has all the potential to grow since the shoe market is growing ( Derived Demand ?)

Kiwi is a good example of how innovations can help in challenging a market leader.

Titan watches: What is your style?

Brand: Titan Company : TATA Agency: O&M Indian Watch industry is estimated to be around 1600 crores and Titan is riding on top of it with a market share of over 50%.

This is a super brand that has changed the way we look at (or wear) watches. A marketing success story, Titan is a brand that will be of interest to most of the marketers.

Titan , a brand from TATA was launched in 1987. During that time Indian watch market was dominated by HMT . At that time watches were seldom stylish and was catering to the basic need of knowing the time. Titan changed all that. With its stylish watches and smart advertising, Titan took the market by storm. Titan infact changed the way watches was manufactured and marketed in India. HMT , a public sector company seldom bothered to respond. Titan initially pioneered the concept of " Gifting watches". The ads captured the

essence of gifting and a imagination of the market.

long with the trendy music, easily caught the

Customers who were fed up with ugly time machines welcomed the brand and Titan had a dream run for many years. Titan faced lot of problems later when the competition began to eat up the lower end of the market. Besides that, there was another problem. The brand was lacking innovation. To be more precise, the customers were bored by Titan.There was nothing new. Gifting proposition was no longer working . During this period, Titan made a big mistake. It wanted to play the volume game. For that Titan launched another brand Sonata. Sonata was a huge success because it was a cheap product but at the cost of the mother brand Titan. Titan was perceived to be a premium brand but with Sonata ( at that time " Sonata from Titan") endorsed by Titan took away the premium image from the mother

brand. It was a big costly mistake. Titan realised this mistake and took away the Titan brand from Sonata. Now Sonata is endorsed by Tata not Titan. Titan realising that the market wanted something to be excited about watches began an extensive marketing campaign. Titan carefully segmented the market and developed different subbrands for each segment. Sub brands like Edge, Steel, Dash, Nebula , Classique, Royale, Fast Track , Raga, and the recently launched Wallstreet . By having various products / models and subbrands, Titan was able to create freshness about the brand. Titan also moved away from gifting . Titan was positioning itself as a fashion

accessory rather than a time keep

ing device.

Titan also found its persona in Aamir. Aamir provided the much needed edge to the brand. Titan was careful in keeping the brand above the celebrity. The ads were fresh and neatly executed. Titan also was pushing another strategy . Watches was perceived as a one time buy and consumers seldom owned multiple watches. So Titan pushed the concept of " Matching Watches to Clothes" in the recent commercials. Since men are becoming more serious customers of fashion accessories, this is strategy that is worth trying out. For Titan, even if the concept fails, It has created the much needed freshness in the brand. Titan also made its presence in the ladies watch segment. It have a sub brand

Raga targeting the upwardly Mobile segment.

e ladies in the premium

Titan also relaunched the FastTrack brand of watched aiming the target segment of 18-30 yrs old. Earlier Fasttrack was targeted at 20-25 year olds and positioned along the line " Cool watches from Titan". Then the company found out that the youth in the age group of 11-20 years account for 42% of watch buying in India. Based on this insight the company relaunched the brand lowering the target segment to 18-30 year olds with the baseline " How many you have?". Again the strategy aimed at promoting the multiple watch owning concept. Fasttrack also launched a range of fashion accessories like Sunglasses trying to be a lifestyle brand. Indian watch market is clearly segmented and lot of serious players are fighting out in these segments . The lower volume segment has HMT, Sonata , Maxima fighting it out. The mid segment has Titan, Timex etc and the premium segment has Titan ,Citizen etc. The super premium segment is also hotting up with lot of international brands setting shops in India. Titan has carefully created a market for itself through careful segmentation and branding strategies.It is a brand that showed the world that Indians are good in Branding.

Parachute: Branding

a commodity

Brand : Parachute Company: Marico Agency:Ambience Publicis This is a success story of branding of a commodity. Hair oils and its use are deeply ingrained in to the Indian Psyche. This is a 1500 crore industry which is dominated by unbranded oils. The branded category accounts to around 600 crore. The majority of the hair oil segment is occupied by Coconut oil. This is a market that have very low entry barrier and that is the reason why the market is dominated by unbranded oils. Marico in early 1990's made a bold step in launching a brand in this segment. Paracute manufactured by Bombay Oil Mills was acquired by Marico in 1990's. Marico was a sister concern of Bombay Oil Mills. Parachute is the market leader in the branded hair oil market with a market share of around 53%. Marico has positioned Parachute in the platform of purity. This

focus on purity clearly differentiat ed the product from the rest of the unbranded oils .The purity was reinforced by careful packaging and communication. The brand was established emphasising Caring and Mother Daughter relationship.Parachute knew the pulse of the urban market and emphasised that the oil is non greasy and prompted the TG to experience the brand During the early 2000's the market witnessed a shift. Marico found that the market for hair oil is degrowing, because the consumer preferences are changing.

The youth now didnt want to have Oil - on- their hair look. This prompted Marico to look into the Value Added hair Oil market which was dominated by Dabur Vatika. Parchute's mother brand was also facing competition from Nihar of HLL stable. Marico decided to depend less on the basic Parchute oil and we saw a series of

new product launches. Marico launched Parachute with jasmine fragrance which was well received by the market. Also came Parachute Advansed and Parachute Sampoorna. Parachute Advansed account is with McCann while others are handled by Ambience.

Amaron : Lasts Long , Really Long . TingTong !

Brand : Amaron Company :Amara Raja Agency: O&M Amaron is a disruptive brand in the automotive segment. Launched in mid 2000 , this brand has created some excitement in the rather dull automotive battery market in India. Amara Raja has been a leading player in the industrial battery segment. In 2000 they forayed in the lucrative Automotive battery

market which is predominantly dominated by players like Exide. Automotive battery market can be categorized into two: OEM and replacement market. OEM segment is dominated by established players while replacement market is dominated by local players and other non branded batteries. Car Battery replacement is viewed as a grudge purchase by the car owners. No one thinks of battery until it breaks down. This product comes under the category of High Involvement and Low Interest product. We can consider this as a slow moving consumer good . Amaron wanted to differentiate itself from the existing players in the market. It had to do so because the product category is SMCG with low interest. So the question is how to create that excitement. The Indian automotive battery market is worth around 1200 crore. Organised players constitute 40% of that market. The first thing the company has done was to create the product differentiation with respect to the product feature. Amaron decided to bringout the Zero maintenance battery into the Indian market ( I think it is the first company to do so). That means that we needn't check for the water level and so on. Amaron also ensured that the product commands the best quality so that the product can be positioned as a premium brand. Then came the form differentiation. Conventional batteries were all looking alike with a transparent body and blue/ red top. Amaron decided on a black body with

fluorescent green logo splashed over. Th

ere was also another

reason for the black body. There is a possibility of government regulations stipulating the use of Recycled plastics for battery. Amaron is using such plastics so it need not effect the changes once the regulations are implemented. And since the water level needn't be checked, Black body will have no problem for the customers.

The purpose of using fluorescent green was that since our country is very hot, the color should stay in Promotional materials , hoarding and in the product. So green was chosen. Then came the differentiation regarding the advertising. Amaron decided that it will do the breakaway advertising. Traditionally conventional battery ads seldom

sells battery. It is the sheer

distribution and the

presence of well established brand name that does the selling. So Amaron wanted its ads to look different and establish the brand name in this crowded market. So O&M decided to have a un-battery like campaign for Amaron. For the first time in India "Claymation" ie using clay models + animation was used for advertising .Amaron ads were classic examples of " Clutter busting". The ads were attention grabbing and outright funny. It won many awards for the agency and Amaron grabbed 6% market share in a short span of time. The Amaron Campaign Pandu Mangal has been well received by the public and research shows that Amaron has a top of the mind brand recall . The ads coupled with claymation and hyperbole effectively communicates the positioning of " lasting long" . The jingle "TingTong" has also been a smash hit. This is a brand that is a classic case of smart marketing and careful differentiation. I hope this brand " Lasts Long, really long" ( I just bought one for my car !) Ting Tong.

Ujala : Char Boondom Vala

Brand : Ujala Company: Jyothi Lab Agency: Situations Advertising and Marketing

Ujala is a brand that revolutionized the fabric whitener industry. I consider Ujala as a super brand(although it is not considered by Super brands ) because 1. It changed the usage habit of the target market. 2. It dislodged the leader 3. It created a category for it self. 4. It has become a generic name. You can seldom see such brands. Ujala was launched by Jyothi Lab in 1993 in south India and its national launch was in October 1997. At that time liquid fabric whitener was non existent category. The category that was existent was the powder blue and was created and dominated by Robin Blue from Reckitt and Coleman. Robin Blue was generic brand at that time . Ujala was not seen as a competition for Robin by Reckitt -a typical case of

marketing myopia. The reason was that Robin commanded a huge market share and the liquid form required customer education and that is a hell lot of money to be spent on ads.

Reckitt was wrong. There was a customer need waiting to be satisfied.Powder blue had its inherent disqualification. Customers were not fully satisfied with the product. Ujala provided the solutions. Powder blues were messy, had to be used in large quantities hence less value for money, even after rinsing, there were traces of blue on the clothes etc. Reckitt was also slow in responding to competition. The liquid variant of Robin came very late. Ujala carefully positioned itself as a 1.Reasonably priced 2. Conveniently packaged 3.Superior whitening alternative to Robin Blue. Mr. Ramachandran who is the Chief Executive of Jyothi Lab was a marketing genius . He spent a lot of money on smart advertising. During 1990's the jingles of Ujala was all around in the radio. From 26% in 1998, Ujala commands a market share of 70% in the category now.

Ujala campaigns executed by Situations Advertising is known for its simplicity and effective use of jingles to promote the brand. The Jingle " Aya Naya Ujala Char boondom Vala" effectively communicates the brand attributes. It is also interesting to know that the consumers use around 3-5 drops of Ujala. That shows the trust that customers have in the brand.

Although we say that changing the usage habits of Indians is the most difficult things to achieve, Ujala is a brand that showed it is possible

Close Up : Kya Ap CloseUp Karthe hain?

Brand : Close Up Company: HLL Agency:O&M CloseUp is the original youth brand in Indian toothpastes. Launched in 1975, this brand is the first gel toothpaste aiming at the youth segment. HLL through CloseUp have created and owned a segment for itself. The 2200 crore toothpaste market that was dominated by Colgate Dental Cream needed some competition and Hll used CloseUp effectively to fight the market leader.CloseUp was a disruptive brand that changed the structure of toothpaste market in India. With the red colour and smart advertising , it forced the market leader to change its strategy and launch a gel variant. The customer insight was that people are conscious about their breath and want to get close with each other with confidence. Based on this insight the brand was positioned on the Fresh Breath platform . The campaign was executed showing "Happy couples having fun together". Even film Theatres had corners called as "Close Up Corners". The brand had the aspirational persona in it. Close Up have used films and filmi songs to appeal to the Indian youth. Close Up was the f

irst brand to introduce the " Self Check" of breath. The famous " HA HA" was the idea of Close Up introduced in year 1987. In 2004 Close Up again was relaunched. During that period, the fight between Pepsodent and Colgate was hotting up. Both of these brands were owning the oral care platform and CloseUp 's share was coming down. Close Up found that its mono-attribute focus is losing the sheen .Hll relaunched CloseUp With Vitamin and Flouride . Thus CloseUp offered more than Fresh Breath it also offered Oral Care. Close Up launched lot of variants that bombed in the market. The variants like Oxy fresh and Eucalyptus Blue failed in the market. HLL decided that only the Lemon variant will continue. The reason behind the failure of variant is because Close Up is a Sensorial brand. And in such kind of brands, variants will not work. In categories which are more rational, variants will work. Colgate have given a run for money for Close Up with their gel variant. The "Talk To Me" campaign was a run away success. Colgate failed to capitalise on that campaign- that is another issue. But the gel variant took the breath out of Close Up. Close Up had to reinvent to keep the category that it created. The account was shifted from JWT to O&M. Now the mother brand is focusing on three attributes : Fresh breath, White Teeth and Strong Teeth. O&M have brought out a campaign " Kya aap Close Up Karthe Hain" which was perceived as "cool" among the market.

The recent campaign which aims at positioning on the "Smile " factor is a damp

squib, the campaign is poorly e

xecuted and treats

the target market as a bunch of adolescents who will do any thing to attract the opposite sex. Indians never was bothered about the way they look, let alone how their teeth look like. That is why 33% of urban market is not using tooth pastes and 67% of rural still use the traditional way of brushing teeth like neem sticks. So when the ad shows that a young person being conscious about their teeth, it does not click.( my opinion). I guess the agency have run out of ideas. This is a brand that have created a category for itself. It will be sad if it cannot dominate that category. But that is what marketing is all about " survival of the smartest".

2004 saw the

launch of Hanes innerwear in the Indian

market.Hanes is a 105 years old global brand which is worth around $2.2 Billion. The brand is launched in India by Sara Lee India Ltd. Hanes has targeted itself with "original Tagless Comfort". The emphasis on "Tagless " comes from the global research which showed that 2 out of 3 men are irritated by the tags in the innerwear. The brand is launched in India with some smart advertising from Mccann.