Voracious readers-Group A4- Source- Business line

Brands endorsed or endorsers branded?

-By Tanushree Mam

Ø  Marketing folklore has created many famous icons. Consider:

Murphy Baby, Amul Baby, The Zodiac Man, The Liril Girl, Gattu, The MRF Muscle Man.

Ø  Contrast this with: Celebrity A endorses X paint brand, Celebrity A endorses X cellular service.

Ø  First case – the brand was an integral part of the identity. Second case- the brand is conspicuous by its absence.

Ø  Era of seventies and eighties :

·         Marketers came up with consumer propositions which were rooted in the brand.

·         Each of the campaigns had a business story behind the advertising that was created for the brand.

Ø  Current trends:

·         Advertising centred on celebrity endorsers.

·         Two broad kinds of advertising

o   Story seeks to link the brand with the characteristics of the celebrity. Eg. Lux, campaign with leading stars of different eras.

o   Celebrity is merely a prop.

Ø  Celebrity is fulcrum of brand story, assumes greater importance.

Ø  Sometimes there is no fit between the endorser and the brand.

Ø  Bagging a celebrity to endorse a brand seems as a sign of corporate one-upmanship.

Ø  There is a need of well-defined brand strategy and a celebrity who is congruent to the strategy.

L’Oreal hopes for facelift with Ayurveda insights, India-specific products

-By Nupoor Mehra

·         L’Oreal hopes to accelerate its growth in India by making products specific to the market, including those that draw insights from Ayurveda.

·         L’Oreal India, with revenues of Rs 1,600 crore last year, accounts for a tiny part of global revenues of €20 billion. The big markets for L’Oreal are the US, China and Japan.

·         “India is not in the top 10 currently. But it has been growing at 25-30 per cent over the last five years, driven by the growing aspiration of the middle class, even in small towns. But it has a high groeth rate,

·         Garnier introduced a hair colouring mixture in the tube form. This came out of the insight that Indians prefer to do frequent ‘touch-up’ at home. Indian consumers are also adept at mixing colours on their own with precision

·         The company, which also retails brands such as L’Oreal, Matrix, Lancome and Kiehl’s, wants to take this “Indovation” (Indian innovation) to the next level.

·         “We will look into Ayurveda to see if we can combine the efficacy of this ancient science with modern processes.”

Canon India plans to beat smartphones with compact cameras

-By Nupoor Mehra

·         Canon India is planning to market compact cameras with improved features such as higher resolution, zoom ratio and better lens to combat the onslaught of smartphones.

·         Canon India, admits the market has been “compressed” by smartphones. But adds, “If there’s Rs 10,000 in the pocket, smartphones are high on the wish list, but I don’t believe they will replace taking pictures with a camera.”

·         Canon India intends to grow 26 per cent over the previous year. Its camera and copier businesses account for a third each of its revenue. Printers account for 30 per cent. India accounts for one per cent of Canon’s business worldwide.

·         Canon has expanded the pricing range of compact cameras from Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000. The “mainstream” price is around Rs 10,000, he says. The profusion of smartphones has resulted in more picture-taking which in turn motivates people to go in for DSLR cameras. The market has grown by over 30 per cent over 2011 in India, he says. Canon’s DSLR business grew by 61 per cent in volume terms.

·         At present, one DSLR is sold for every 10 compacts but he would not be surprised if the ratio changes to 1:2 in about five years, he says. In 2012, total DSLR sales touched 2.16 lakh units; the digital camera market was estimated at 29.9 lakh units. Kobayashi observes that Indians have moved from “taking pictures to enjoying the pictures” and this bodes well for the industry. Canon wants to cater to specialist and niche segments as well, such as movie cameras and remote control cameras.

·         In a branding move, Canon has invested Rs 70 lakh in putting up neon signs at the New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore international airports. The company has been in India for 15 years now.

               Reebok charts new retail concept, marketing initiatives in India

§  -By Rati  Sawant

·         The sportswear major Reebok is undertaking a new retail concept and marketing campaign here to chart out a new growth story, after last year’s alleged Rs 870 crore fraud.

·         Besides using its brand ambassador and Indian cricket captain M S Dhoni, the firm intends to use well known personalities from different walks of life such as musicians, entertainers and professionals in its campaigns to enhance its brand equity in India.

·         Going forward, the company will focus on introducing new products, marketing initiatives and a new retail concept to grow business here.

·         The company will train its sales people about nutrition and where to work out in order to assist customers, he said, adding that the model is already being followed in markets such as the US.

·         “Our target is that in 2013, 50 of our stores in India, mainly in the metros, will follow this concept. Over a period of time we want all the Reebok stores (around 500 at present) to adopt this,” O’Toole said.

·         Commenting on the new marketing initiatives, he said the company will soon launch a campaign ‘Live With Fire’ featuring Dhoni.

                      No plans to enter baby talc category, says Emami.

-          By Prajakta Sarmalkar

·         Kolkata based FMCG company Emami has decided against a national launch for its kids talc under the Boroplus franchise.

·         After testing marketing the product in Andhra Pradesh last year, the company is sceptical about the acceptance of its kids talc in a category dominated by MNCs such as Johnson & Johnson.

·         Boroplus already has a prickly heat powder under its franchise and extending it as baby talc might not work.

·         Their biggest challenge would be to get these set of consumers to buy more than one talcum powder as most would not like the idea of buying separate talc for kids.

·         Emami was targeting kids in the 5-12 age group with another prickly heat powder positioning it as a ‘total defense’ talc. Bororplus also has products such as antiseptic cream and lotions with actress Kareena Kapoor endorsing it.

·         The FMCG company intends to focus on the hair care and skin care categories but would like to stay away from saturated and penetrated categories such as soaps and shampoos dominated by MNC companies.

·         But it certainly intends to add more products under its largest selling Navratna oil where it is the market leader with a 54 per cent share in the category. Navratna has also been extended as talc and has high profile brand ambassadors such as Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan.

               Tiranga Bangle – ‘healing’ with a tinge of patriotism

                                                                                - By Vaibhav Pathak.

·         On Friday, Shashi Tharoor launched ‘Tiranga Bangle’, an initiative by Naveen Jindal’s Flag Foundation of India.

·         The Foundation was set up in January 2002 after Jindal won a seven-year-long court battle that enabled Indians to display the national flag with honour and pride at their homes, offices etc.

·         The Tiranga Bangle is made of copper and designed with tri-vortex technology from South Africa.

·         Tri-vortex is a sound frequency-based technology used to treat materials and products that can be used for health benefits. The bangle claims to provide ‘natural, environment-friendly and non-chemical-based healing’.

·         The bangle, it was claimed, worked wonders for people suffering from arthritis, gout, carpal tunnel syndrome or other pain-related ailments.

·         Jindal said he was glad that such distinctive technology was being used in India and was confident that it would help people lead a healthier lifestyle.