From Fastrack to Yawn-track

There once was a brand that did everything off –white. It was the voice for the youth, edgy, trendy, affordable and more than anything else on-point every time. Then it all went firang, aspirational, premiumization, imagery conscious etc. etc. and associated bull shit like that.

That in short, is the story of fastrack

The brand that started off from the house of Titan, shook off the stiff upper lip Tata heritage of the mother brand to be a rebellious teen with an attitude that reeked of the millennials before the term was coined. One of India’s best youth targeted brand no doubt.

From getting the sex symbol John Abraham on board in the early years to an orgasm imitating “Yes Sir!!” commercial; from the suggestive “How many you have?” to a non-chalant “Move On”- Fastrack was always bang-on with the pulse of the youth. The “move on” campaign was the last impactful piece of communication. Off late though, the models are all foreigners, the execution un-relatable and the attitude has crossed over the lines of cool to venture into wanna-be.

Usually such drastic changes are a result of some shake up in the organization. The recent changes reflect a desperate attempt to come across as bold rather than a confident execution of a naturally born rebel.

This seems to be a perennial problem with all of Titan’s brands. Wanting to be something they are not. Titan continues to try and convince us that is not an uptight brand, Fastrack wants to be international and Raga is being pushed as the modern Indian woman’s brand when it is all about ethnic sensuality.

One wonders how long before the organization gets its marbles in order on the brand building front. For all the massive turnover, the equity is very suspect!

 

 

 

The Colonial Cola War

Decades ago, Coca Cola virtually forced Parle to sell off its brands Thums Up, Limca,  Gold Spot and Citra. While Thums Up and Limca managed to survive, itra and Goldspot were sacrificed to make way for Fanta and Sprite respectively.

There were multiple attempts to kill off Thums Up too, just to ensure that Coca Cola as a brand is well entrenched and an undisputed leader. Of course a white washed colonial mindset is hardly a match of pure greed. So once it was evident that killing Thums Up would only mean ceding ground to Pepsi, Coca Cola swallowed its western pride and allowed Thums Up to continue.

I bring this up because one of the most unspoken topics of Indian marketing is the racist and step motherly treatment meted out to Indian brands that MNCs acquire. At times even good old greed cannot make them see reason.

Coca Cola started investing in Thums Up with the sole objective of keeping it float and flank the mother brand with it. The equity of brand Thums Up was always and continues to be much higher than what Coca Cola as a brand could ever hope for.

And yet, while Coke went about launching Diet Coke, Coke Zero, the flop Vanilla Coke etc. Thums managed to get its first extension only now in the form of Thums Up Charged. It is unfathomable that had Thums Up been with an Indian organization, they would not have attempted to piggy back on the brand’s equity with extensions.

Where exactly is Limca too? One hardly sees the brand in terms of BTL branding or ATL communication. Being relegated as a flanker brand for Sprite.

Coca Cola is just one of the many MNCs who acquire Indian brands only to kill them and make space for themselves. Because truth be told, the most potent threat to MNCs have always been brands and organization that understood India better

While Unilever and P&G fought bitterly in detergent market, it was Kanpur based Ghadi detergent making a mark

While Unilever and Reckitt bombarded media in the 99% penetration category, the biggest competitors are Godrej, Wipro and ITC

So as Thums gets its first variant, irrespective of the success or the failure of it, the desi cola has no doubt brought the gori company to its senses all on its own.

Someone bury Lever’s Ayush already !

Dear Unilver India,

Consider this as an open letter that every Indian personal care product consumer wants to pen to you but will never actually bother to.

For the longest time, you have tried to push Ayush as an Ayurvedic brand into our households. It has been strongly resisted and we shall continue to resist it. It is appalling that you believe that your vulgar display of media spends will make us change our minds. Ayush was a battle lost long ago. It doesn’t help that your lack of confidence in the brand is naked to us with the branding of “LEVER” Ayush.

You never bothered to call it “LEVER” Fair & Lovely or “LEVER” ponds or “LEVER” Dove. this crutch of “LEVER” is an embarrassing attempt at trying to beg for an opportunity from the consumers. It lays bare your hollow claim that the brand has any pull amongst us. Not to mention your commercial with Akshay Kumar was downright tacky and cringe worthy. Hell even ASCI pulled you up for it!

We understand that our fling with Patanjali is making you tremble hence let us make you shiver in fear by admitting that it isn’t a fling. Patanjali is here to stay. For an organization that has brands ranging from Dove to Lakme, Pears to Fair & Lovely, it is astonishing how you could never crack a “natural/ayurvedic/herbal” skin care brand. The chinks in your armour are showing.

Instead of attempting to resurrect a dead horse or making a laughable attempt at naturals with a Citra, how about you actually acquire a home grown naturals brand instead?

Knowing when to give up and admit a failure is a sign of a mature leader too.

 

 

Sincerely,

The consumer who brushes teeth with Dantkanti and Shampoos hair with Kesh Kanti

Brand Kangana v/s The Kangaroo Court

Just when you thought you had heard it all about the Kangana Ranaut and the nepotism debate, along came her latest rounds of interview blowing away the sleek satin covers of bollywood.

Brand Kangana has established itself firmly as the biggest badass of bollywood. Over decades of this film industry, men have traditionally been the brands with few women establishing themselves as one clearly.

There is Madhubala – the timeless beauty, Rekha – the enigma, Hema Malini- the dream girl, Madhuri Dixit – the dancing diva, Aishwarya Rai – the fairytale perfection and now Kangana Ranaut- the rebel with a cause.

Except the above, no female bollywood celeb has ever had a clear mind space positioning that one could crystal into a brand stature. What is exciting about Kangana is the fact that she is choosing to create her brand by destroying the set up of the industry that she belongs too. In a very twisted way, she is pulling off an Apple equivalent of the mobile phone industry in bollywood.

I remember a time about 25years ago where the biggest bollywood power centers were the trinity – not the Khans but Madhuri, Sridevi and Juhi. The 3 women together controlled much of bollywood. Look at late 80s to mid 90s, the phase during which Amitabh Bachchan was no longer the angry young man and Shahrukh khan was not the lover boy. The biggest brands of bollywood were 3 women!

Somewhere along the line, bollywood went extremely regressive. The progress made by Sridevi, Madhuri and Juhi in terms of establishing the female as an equivalent of a male star was lost. The 3 made more money than their male counterparts in many movies.

Until Kangana single handedly pointed out the double standards of the industry, every single female star was content playing an insignificant lead to a Khan in a 100cr+ movie. The era of everyone from Kareena Kapoor to Asin, Katrina Kaif to Sonakshi Sinha vying to be unnoticeable under the shadows of their male counterparts.

Brand Kangana is built without an association with any male influence. It is a brand which the youth of this country that voted Modi to power strongly identifies with.

Her latest interview in Aap ki Adalat very firmly establishes Hrithik as the pappu or Rahul Gandhi equivalent of Bollywood and herself as Modi.

Kangana is a rare example of a REBEL brand archetype in Indian industry. Long overdue and refreshing.

So while the nepotistic Kangaroo courts of bollywood heralded by the likes of Karan Johar judge her for everything from her accent to character in general, this Queen is too cool to care.

floating in a paper boat

Rarely does it happen that a brand gets it right from day 1. Even more rare is for that brand to be a beverage brand targetting adults. A few years ago, Hector Beverages launched paper boat drinks. A unique idea of completely Indian home-made flavours packaged in a ready to drink beverage format. What followed was a string of products from jaljeera to jamun, from aamras to golgappa pani. All positioned for adults who reflect back to simpler times and innocent childhood. Whether by design or by accident, the fact is the core working age group in India has seen a sea-change in its lifestyle. It is a generation that grew up in a pre-liberalization India. Where access to products and services was difficult and existence was much more family and community driven. Cut to today, their life is much more isolated. Has moved from spending vacations with cousins to solo back packing trips. In this massive transition, the innocence of their childhood is a fond memory and paper boat latched on to that nostalgia which no other brand even remotely thought of.

Of course the beverages aren’t just for rose tinted moments looking at the past. It is now a popular mixer in private parties and restaurants whipping up unique cocktails all over. What a way to re-mix your palette and update it to your modern needs. Everything from the basic product flavours to the packaging is unique about the brand. The “drawing” class creatives used across are so distinct it builds a highly differentiated brand presence every single time. By far one of the most thought through and intelligently handled brands in the country.

Of course, the basic theme of paper boat will continue to be relevant. The challenge is to keep updating the product offerings and communication themes to cater to the nostalgia. a 28 year old, 10 years down the line perhaps may not identify with the flavours or the Malgudi Days music used in communications recently that has a special place in the hearts of the entire 28yrs+ folks. There will be something else thought, what is hip and happening today will need to be adapted into flavours and communications 10 years down the line. If you think about it, it is a case of a brand updating itself with history rather than the present consumer trends.

Can’t wait to see how this brand evolves for the next generation that will suffer from quarter life crisis!

A Good Tease

As far as I remember, India’s first major prolific teaser campaign is something that the beverage brand Frooti undertook with Digen Verma. Though Everest communciations, the creator of the campaign apparently did not view it as one in the conventional sense. None the less, in times when there was little exposure to the concept of viral marketing, Digen Verma broke clutter and got people talking about it. The outcome was the repositioning of brand Frooti in an attempt to increase its association with young adults.

Alas, that was one of the few impactful teaser campaigns. Most brands now undertake a preview of their campaign deeming it a teaser. In reality, few of them have any teaser element to it at all. There may be a few twitter hasthags around it but very low genuine interest. I personally view teaser campaigns as a form of art that has seduction at its core. It is not about how you get people talking about your brand, it is how do you elicit an interest in the story you are keen to tell. In an era driven by impressions and market shares, the art element in marketing is certainly under threat.

The last attempt at a good teaser campaign was the launch of Durex denim condoms in India. People spoke about it, there was a lot of press activity to promote the idea and yet, there as so little organic noise. The tech promoted trend achieving marketing never delivers the results that an organic word of mouth does. Which brings me to one of the best and I am very sure an unintentional teaser campaigns I have come across – Baahubali2

The magnum opus movie Baahubali ended at a cliffhanger of a note- the death of the title character at the hands of his faithful aide Katappa. The year was 2015. This week witnessed the release of its concluding part Baahubali2. Between the two, an unending teaser campaign was under way titled “Katappa ne Baahubali ko kyun mara?” – “Why did Katappa kill Baahubali?”

Internet memes, built in jokes in multiple sitcoms, internet mailers, whatsapp jokes, the question became a part of everyday conversation in this nation of over a billion people. All at practically zero cost. If this isn’t a good teaser campaign I wonder what is! The makers unintentionally perhaps unleashed one of the biggest teaser campaigns in India.

So as the news trickles in that Baahubali2 has raked in over Rs.100 crore- (a billion) in a single day, it re-enforces my belief that a good old teaser campaign backed by an amazing content can create an impact like few other things can.

Kellogg Un-special K

It is so sad to see a brand with enormous potential being choked by the organization. Kelloggs never had a chance to begin with in India with an uphill battle of bringing cereals to a country where breakfast is hard to distinguish from a lunch or a dinner or dessert. From aaloo paranthas to poha. From Idlis to actually jalebis!

 

The journey has been interesting with launch of a plethora of products prime among them Chocos – which differentiated highly on the flavor and addressed the kids segment.

 

Then along came Special K – 2 week challenge to get thinner. Now that was a proposition! Who does not want to lose some weight? Breakfast has already been built up to have some connection to weight loss. It appealed to the modern sensibility of an evolving and more exposed urban class.

 

Which is why it was heartbreaking to see Special K go to #NoMoreExcuses and weight management. Weight management is inherently such a passive and status quo premise. It is like saying to consumers – we do nothing. Well congratulations, you don’t taste remotely as good as my breakfast of decades and to top it, you don’t give me any benefit either! Great going!

 

Nobody wants to manage weight. Everybody wants to lose it. The promise of dropping a size and a visible difference was what made Special K – SPECIAL. Now with management, it is no longer special. It is no longer appealing, interesting or calling for any action.

To put it in internet slang, it’s a Meh-K not Special-K anymore.

 

Best of luck trying to push this down people’s throat.