Fair & Lovely : Chand ka Tukda

Brand : Fair & Lovely
Company : HLL
Agency: Lowe


Fair & Lovely ( FAL) is the brand that revolutionized the Indian Skin care industry. This brand is World's first and largest Fairness cream brand with a presence in 40 countries and a value of around Rs. 6 billion

Indian skin care market was dominated by conventional beauty care products like Bezan,Multani Mitti etc. FAL changed all that. Launched in 1975, FAL is the product born in the Unilever research center. In 1988 the brand went international. FAL commands a market share of over 70% in the Rs 1000 crore fairness market in India.

FAL virtually created and owned this category for long. In the fairness market, FAL enjoyed monopoly till Cavin Kare entered this lucrative segment with Fairever. The success of Fairever prompted many players like Godrej to tap the market.

FAL sustained the pressure from the competitor by careful branding and new product launches. The brand never failed to emulate and learn from the competitor .When Fairever launched the ayurvedic variant, FAL launched a much better variant. Then came the competition from Ozone Ayurvedics with their brand No Marks trying to carve a niche. HLL countered with FAL Antimarks and launched a controversial comparative ad that took the steam out of No Marks.

When Fair ever launched the soap, FAL also responded with soap. FAL never allowed the competitors to gain an upper hand in the market which it created.

FAL achieved such tremendous success because of careful branding and ad campaigns. Initially HLL to do some ugly talking about fairness. Some of the ads were controversial because of gender inequality and stuff like that. It was necessary at that period because the category was new and the brand should first talk about the need to be fairer.

Now the brand has laddered up to more aspirational values like "Transformation of Women" The insight is that the transformation will be more than skin deep. The ads showing a girl achieving the ambition of being a cricket commentator ( a male bastion) were very much effective in connecting with the TG.

HLL has also extended the brand to more aspirational values by launching Fair& Lovely foundation that works for Women Empowerment achievement and Transformation which are the qualities for which FAL stands for.

FAL have also launched a premium subbrand Perfect Radiance to tap the premium segment of the market.

Fair & Lovely was able to dominate the fairness market because of careful marketing and is a showcase of the marketing genius of HLL.

Read More

Pond's : As beautiful as you want to be !

Brand : Pond's
Company : HLL
Agency : O&M


Pond's range of products were in India from as early as 1947 . This is a brand that has celebrated Women's courage and personality. A brand that has tried to evolve with the changing persona of Indian Women.

Theron T Pond, a Pharmacist from Newyork introduced " Pond's Golden Treasure" in 1846. It was a Witch-hazel based wonder product. In 1914, Pond's introduced the cold cream and vanishing cream and that moment marked the brand's evolution to a beauty icon.

In 1955, Pond's merged with another company Chesebrough. In 1987, Unilever purchased the brand from Chesebrough- Pond's.

Pond's is a brand that has been carefully nurtured by HLL. Till 1980's Pond's were a household name in talcum powders. Later the talcum powder faced competition from other categories, we call it as boundary blurring. Hence Pond's had to enter to different categories in the cosmetic market. Pond's have a market share of around 65% in the 600 crore Indian talcum powder market. Subsequently Pond's also became a generic name in the Winter care market. Pond's brand was known more during the nineties for its cold cream.

HLL decided that the brand have potential to grow in the cosmetics market. So Pond's was positioned as an all purpose skincare brand. The Indian cosmetics market is estimated to be around 1850 crore and in that the skin care market is estimated to be around 1300 crores.

In a survey on customers by AC Nielsen ORG Marg in 2003 , Pond's were among the most trusted brands in India. It was not by accident. Pond's had certain qualities that created a trust among the users of the brand. Pond's is known for

consistent Quality
Constantly Improving &
Changing with times.

I feel that all brands should have these qualities to succeed in the market.
Pond's knew the pulse of the market which made it a top brand in the cosmetic industry.
Pond's is targeting at the premium skin care market in India which is estimated to be around 325 crore. Currently Pond's is also aiming at the super premium segment and the launch of super premium range is expected in first quarter of 2006.

The target group that Pond's is aiming are the ladies above 30yrs of age. It is trying to capture the skin care needs with anti- ageing ,skin rejuvenation and anti- wrinkle products. Currently this segment is dominated by Revlon and other foreign brands.

Pond's uses the baseline " As beautiful as you want to be " I consider it as one of the best baselines currently on air. It tries to redefine beauty as something more than superficial. The baseline of Pond's cold cream " Googly Woogly Woosh" does not convey any meaning but the ads are lovely.

I have serious reservations of other ads of Pond's but I hope it appeals to the target market.

Pond's is a brand that is not complacent. In the talcum Powder category , Pond's have many variants like Dream Flower, Sandal, Prickly Heat ,and recently relaunched Magic. This has ensured that the leadership position remains intact.

Pond's is a brand for " Well grounded, self assured, and confident " women. HLL have used campaigns and events ( the prestigious Pond's Femina Miss India) to create and capture the beautiful moments in the life of the Indian Women.

Read More

Pears : Pure and Gentle

Brand : Pears
Company : HLL
Agency : Mcann Erickson


Pears is one of the oldest soap brand in the world. Launched in India in 1902, the brand commands a unique position in the mind of the people. There is still virtually no competition for the brand in its segment.

Pears is unique from other ordinary soaps in that the glycerin is retained in the soap. Pears is famous for the transparency and company shows it as the sign of purity. The soap is mellowed under controlled condition and is individually polished and packed in cartons. The traditional Pears is amber coloured and there are two variants.

Pears originally was born in London in 1789. The makers of the soap were A&F Pears London owned by Andrew Pears and Thomas J Barratt( who is considered by some as a pioneer of advertising). They developed the 3 point strategy in promoting pears 1. Spot the gap in the market 2.Develop the product to fill the gap 3. Convince as many to buy the product. These three points are still valid in contemporary marketing. Even during that period, the product was promoted by smart advertising. The makers, co-opting with John Everett 's painting "Bubbles", blurred lines between ads and Art. They even came out with controversial ads at that time to promote the brand.

In 1917 Levers acquired the brand. In India Pears targets the premium segment of the market. Although the brand has a legacy, it is lagging behind Dettol in the category with a market share of around 4-5% in the segment and less than 1% in the overall soap market.

HLL has tried to strengthen the brand with two variants : Blue for Germ fighting and Green for Oil Control.

Of late , the brand is facing competition from Doy Aloe vera which offers similar quality at a reasonable price.

Hll has always supported the brand with careful advertising. The brand is promoted with the positoning as a Pure and Gentle soap. The transparency of the soap acts as the visual cue for purity and the glycerin content as the sign for gentleness. Pears commercials highlight the virtue of the soap using Mother and Child as the central theme . "Pears Mother" is used as the central character to appeal to the emotions of the target market.

Although this brand has been carefully nurtured, the brand remains a niche player in the soap segment.

Read More

Dettol : 100% protection, Is the brand protected?

Brand :Dettol
Company :Reckitt and Benckiser
Agency: JWT

The brand has been well known for years. Dettol is Rs 300 crore brand of Reckitt and Benckiser formerly Reckitt and Coleman. Dettol is a 70 year old brand . Launched in 1936 as an antiseptic lotion, the brand became a generic name for antiseptic lotion similar to Xerox in Photocopiers.From its launch to 1980's the brand had a dream run with virtually no competitors. Having no competition is a problem, the growth will be stagnant.

During 1980's Dettol found that the sales are remaining stagnant, the reason being that the brand has its presence in most of the households but are seldom used . Hence the repeat purchases are not there.

Dettol had to expand the usage beyond cuts and bruises. Hence Reckitt and Coleman unleashed a campaign aiming to expand the usage of the brand to an all purpose antiseptic that can be used for shaving,rinsing, and as a general disinfectant.
Dettol have always been positioned as a 100% germ fighter with germ fighting and protection as the core value.
Since the antiseptic lotion market was stagnant Reckitt wanted to leverage the brand to other categories . Dettol saw over these years plenty of brand extentions. The first launch was the soap in 1990's. The initial launch was unsuccessful because the brand moved from core value of protection to love and care. Since the brand faltered in its positioning, failure was imminent.
The soap was again relaunched with positioning as " 100 % protection" and now have a reasonable market share of 12% in the premium category.

The next extention was in the form of liquid soap.The liquid soap category is only 12 crore worth but the hand wash category is expected to grow to 100 crore.
The brand also tried to extend to talc, band aid, and shaving gel but failed miserably in those categories.
Even as the brand is extending, Reckitt failed to strengthen the mother brand and faced competition in that category from Savlon.

Now Dettol is trying to make a foothold in the soap market with the launch of Dettol with moisturizer and glycerin variants. It has also launched a body wash recently.

This brand is a classic case for brand extention failures.We can see a brand struggling to find its place in the market. Some time success can be very disturbing. Xerox wanted to extend to computers but failed miserably. Similarly Dettol wants to do some thing with the brand because it was successful . Now after all these failures, still Dettol is trying with variants forgetting the core brand. I am not saying that you should not extend the brand, But don't do it at the expense of the mother brand . When an antiseptic brand tries to extend to a segment which is essentially cosmetic, it cannot compete with the major players on the cosmetic platform , what at best can happen is that the brand can exist as a niche brand extending its core value and creating a niche .

Read More

Johnson's baby soap: A trusted brand

Brand: Johnson's Baby soap

Company : Johnson & Johnson

Agency : Lowe

J&J is the market leader in the Rs200 crore Indian Baby Care industry. J&J India, known better for its baby soap is a part of the global health care conglomerate was established in India in 1947. in 1948 J&J launched the first baby powder in India. J&J 's parent company was established in 1886 in New Brunswick in Newjersy USA.

J&J has an impeccable tradition of social responsibility and brand building. The Tylenol case and Johnson's credo is a case study for the Ethics course in MBA programs.

In India, J&J has been the undisputable market leader in the baby care market with its soap, lotion and shampoos having virtually no competitors. The reason: No Indian brands were able to get the trust of the Mothers.Wipro tired its hand with the Wipro baby soft but could not make a significant impact on J&J's market share.

J&J was never complacent about the brand. Although it commanded superior or should I say it owns the entire category of baby care with share of more than 75%, J&J nurtures the brand with careful campaigns. The campaigns are touchy and reinforce the positioning of the brand as a premium baby soap on base of Mother-child relationship. The famous campaigns " papa ko kya malum" emphasis the fact that J&J knows that mothers decides ( know better ) about what is good for the baby.

J&J also have brought out many variants of the soap with different ingredients and scents. The recent Baby Soap with rich milk is an example. The brand is supported with smart advertising . The term "Johnson Baby" is used among the public to denote chubby looking babies -that is the power of this brand

Recently J&J have tried to extend its market not only to the baby but to small kids also. The recent campaign " skin same to same" is an attempt to expand the target market. The reason being since the baby care market is dominated by one player, the market is remaining stagnant. Hence to grow J&J needed to expand the market. So the positioning for this market will be " Skin soft as a baby skin". This brand shows the power of good positioning. Owning the " Mother-child relationship" is the best thing that has happened to this brand.

Not contet with the baby and kids, J&J is now trying to woo mothers to using the baby soap. To what extent this is going to succeed is another issue altogether. As long as J&J do not tamper with the successful "mother-child" relationship platform, any experiments is welcome. Hope Lowe will not bring a Father to the picture or ask Shah Rukh to endorse the baby soap.

Read More

Lifebuoy: Thandurusti hain vaham

Brand : Lifebuoy
Company ; HLL
Agency : Lowe


This is a brand that was launched in 1895. Well that is pretty old isn't it? Looking at the life of Lifebuoy is interesting for a marketing person.The brand has reinvented itself and that too successfully.

The brand was initially positioned in the health and value platform. Targeted at the male with a unique jingle " thandurusti ki raksha kartha hai lifebuoy, lifebuoy hai jahan thandurusti hai vaham". The campaigns showed footballer players and athletes using the soap and the jingle followed made it a soap for the male. The soap was brick red and carbolic ingredient with a unique smell (chryselic perfume) that distinguished itself from other feminine brands and making it the largest selling soap brand in the world

In the year 2002 the company changed the positioning and I would say a historic decision. The brand was no longer a masculine brand. The brand was repositioned as a family brand.The brand was no more carbolic, the perfume changed and new ingredient Active B which eliminate harmful germs was introduced. The campaign was " a pretty girl who was teased for having a pimple then after using Lifebuoy Gold, retorts I don't care" was an instant hit among the public. The company maintained the health platform but targeted at the family so that the brand usage goes up. It was a risk that no marketer will take for a brand that was there for 100 years. HLL have to thank god for surviving that repositioning.

2004 also saw another repositioning for the brand. The target was the "discerning housewife" and the positioning was " health protection for family and me".
The new campaign by Lowe was right on target and still does not dilute the age old positioning of Health and freedom from germs.

The brand personality also changed from health to warmer , versatile and socially responsible. Hll have also given this brand a rural thrust through its CSR initiative " Lifebuoy Swasth chetana". UNICEF under its health initiative have found that the habit of using soaps to wash hands can reduce the chance of diarrhea among the kids dramatically. UNICEF needed 150256 soaps and HLL agreed to supply it. Now 70mn families and 18000 villages are covered under this initiative.

This is a unique brand that have survived the test of time and "ideas of marketing professionals". Still when I see lifebuoy, that jingle keeps singing in my mind
" Thandurusti ki raksha kartha hai Lifebuoy,
Lifebuoy hai jaham
Thandursty hai vaham
Lifebuoy........."

Read More

Liril : Bring back the Liril girl

Brand : Liril

Company : HLL

Agency : Lowe

If you are looking for a case of an iconic Brand that is going to be killed by poor marketing strategy , look no further, here is Liril for you.

Launched in 1975, the year I was born, this is a brand that built a segment or should I say category for it self in the Indian market. The brand is also the testimony to the genius of India's Ad man Alyque Padamsee. This is what he says about the Liril Brand

The name Liril had been registered by Hindustan Lever from a list sent to them by Unilever in London. Levers were very keen that the soap have striations, wiggly stripes of different colours running across the tablet. I recommended the tablet be blue - because waterfall is blue with white striations. Hindustan Lever was very excited and produced 1,000 tablets for testing.
At this point Derk Wooller, the Marketing Controller of Hindustan Lever's soaps division, stepped in and suggested we add the freshness of lime to our story. He felt that though the waterfall had tremendous emotional appeal, Liril needed a rational ingredient to clinch the deal. I was not averse to this but suggested that we do an `As marketed' test: Blue Liril versus Green Liril with limes. I was wrong and Wooller was right. The rest is history."
Alyque Padamsee in his book A Double Life.

The brand was a run away success and the Liril girl became the talk of the town. The brand has

beenconsistentt with its communication and the effective use of brand imagery. Further on brand imagery can be found in this article , visit http://www.blonnet.com/catalyst/2004/09/23/stories/2004092300100200.htm

Liril was positioned on the freshness platform right from its birth. The girl and the waterfall with the unique jingle ensured that the freshness is experienced by the audience. Liril can be called as an experiential brand and the communication perfectly supported that.

Liril did not change its positioning for 25 years although the models changed, the brand communication was consistent. Then some nut in the company or the agency thought that they should change the communication that worked so effectively. The rest as I say it " Liril became history".

Liril has changed the imagery and the jingle in the name of freshness .The new jingle or the ad never had that freshness. That is why Liril had to change the Ads twice with in a span of five years. Mind you Liril never changed its imagery or the Jingle for 25 years...

Reports say that Liril had to change because of its stagnant marketshare. I think there are reasons for declining market share which can be that the brand failed to understand the changing consumer expectations. There was a flurry of brand launches during the past 10 years and Liril was sleeping all the time " may be resting on the laurels" . It should have hold on its positioning of ' freshness " not by changing its communication but by communicating more, developing variants, bringing in flanking brands or variants and thus owning the whole segment for itself.

But it never happened , Liril tried to introduce the Icy mint variant very late and that too with a different jingle and imagery. We knew that the Old Liril had died. HLL could have used the same communication strategy . Then came the horrible experiment of Orange Liril with a stupid Jingle OOFYUMMA.... excuse me what the hell is that?

The product failed. Then came the new campaign involving a couple and a new jingle " La-ira -ela", the ad was good but where is liril ?

Like Onida , Liril has to come back with the old imagery and old jingle that made liril what it Is ( or WAS?) [ It is a prediction].

When it does that consumers will take the brand to their heart .

Laaaaa lalalala laaa ...................

Read More