Indian Badminton League - Net Lagao, Pyar Badhao

Cricket has been the cynosure of Indian sports and the success of IPL seasons one after other manifests how insatiable is Indians’ hunger for cricket.

A slight change in this stance where other sports like Tennis, Football, Hockey and Badminton are getting some attention as well, hence, is quite refreshing. We have had competitions on the line of IPL in other sports and Indian Badminton League is latest one to register. Indian Badminton League was kicked off with player auctions and now we are seeing the promotional advertisement of IBL on major TV channels.

                           

The ad scores well in all aspects.

It moves from one frame to another while keeping its theme and message intact. Starting with a couple at home who gets into an argument to a courthouse with lawyers fighting with each other to the tension at Line of control, the context and communication is succinct.

Context – The IBL is promoting its maiden season and attempts at garnering a bigger audience for the event by building interest and curiosity around the league event

Theme – Various set-ups suggesting a contest between two parties and a badminton net that interestingly finds its way in such chaos. The background score propagates the intended message of bringing people together with the help of net and badminton (& hence, IBL)

Message –The ad cleverly use some serious situations and place a badminton (net!) in the middle of the scenes. The message propagated by the score emphasizes on building love and trust and how badminton can do that. Hence it suggests the audience to fasten a badminton net and build lovely relationships.

“..Ky rakha hai anban me, pyar hai bas badminton me…Ye khel dilo ko jodta hai..Net lagao Pyar badhao..”

Ad Promise – Badminton brings people closer (Hence embrace it and watch the coming IBL)

TG – All sports enthusiasts (Especially badminton)

Response requested – The ad clearly notifies the audience of the starting date of IBL and channels on which it will be telecasted. Hence, the requested response is the audience viewership for the event.

The ad puts forth the message in a cleverly packaged theme which is funny as well as serious at the same time. It does a wonderful job as a promotional tool but how will this cricket-crazy country respond to the maiden season of Indian Badminton League, only time will tell!

Cheers,

Learnings from famous marketing failures - 'New Coke' Blunder by Coca-Cola

In the 1970s, Coke’s chief rival, Pepsi-cola which had very recently positioned itself as a youth brand successfully, introduced the Pepsi Challenge.This challenge tested consumers' taste preference while being blindfolded.To utter dismay of Coca-Cola, most of those who participated in this challenge preferred Pepsi’s sweeter formula over Coca-cola's longstanding taste.  

  
                               


When Roberto Goizueta became chairman in 1981, Coke’s numero uno status was being seriously threatened, not just by the rival Pepsi-Cola but also by its owned brands like Fanta and Sprite. Americans had started to view coca-cola as a stout but slow and historic company and this was not doing any favour to the company. This opinion was largely created by the youth branding which Pepsi assumed and a seemingly feeble response from coca-cola to the pepsi's rising popularity.

Under tremendous pressure to act and stop this landslide, Coca-Cola committed the first mistake.Coca-Cola concluded that the problem was primarily due to the product and not product's perception. They started to believe that consumer preferences have changed and now sweeter is better.

Coca-Cola worked on a new formula and based on 200,000 taste tests which largely favoured the new formula over the old coke as well as the rival drink Pepsi-cola, Executives at Coca-cola were sure that it was time to turn the tides in their favour by introducing the new formula for coke. Thus, New coke was introduced.

Second mistake was to shut the production of the old coke altogether and hence the only coke offering from Coca-cola was the new coke.

When its customer found out that the new coke is a changed formula and hence a different taste and the legendary Coca-cola which by then had found its association with american culture and history was killed by the Coca-cola executives, things went berserk. A large population of US boycotted the new coke. Large number of hate messages and letters were received by the company. This decision since then is known as 'the biggest marketing blunder of all time'.

Coca-Cola went into damage control mode. Starting with a public apology and the famous "We have heard you" comment by the the Chairman, Roberto Goizueta. Eventually, Coca-cola had to bring back the old formula while the drink was branded as the "Classic coke".

As a result of this, the loyalty to the old coke (Now, classic coke) increased even more than the old coke and Coke was back to number one with reasonable lead.

Learnings from the marketing failure of New Coke -

• Product perception is as important as product itself
• Never underestimate the emotions attached to a brand
• Imitating your competitors can never be a long-term strategy
• Save your market research from any possible biases
• Have courage to accept your mistake and correct it

Cheers,

Battle of Health drinks in India

  Indian consumers now are more conscious than ever about their health and dietary requirements. Various

reasons behind this growing inclination of Indian consumers towards healthier food and beverages are as follows

• High level of consumerism backed by risingincome levels (~$400 in 2001 to ~$1100 currently (Health accounted for ~10% of household expense & is rising)
• Exposure to wide product offerings in developed markets
• Higher rate of urbanization (27% in 2001 to 31% in 2011)
• Rising health issues owing to changing lifestyles
• Aggressive marketing by health food and beverages brands
• Rising concerns among Indian consumers about the efficacy of traditional foods in terms of quality, purity and benefits
• Two faced nutritional problems – one due to excess of nutrition and other from deficiency of nutrition

Health-food drinks form a major part of the health food industry. Below are certain points with respect to the HFD (health-food drinks) industry in India.

• HFDs are divided into two categories – White powders (Horlicks, Complan etc) and Brown powders (Bournvita, Boost etc) with a share of 65% and 35% respectively. Some other facts are –
• Health drink powders consumed as milk substitute & nutrient boosters
• India’s Health-drinks market pegged at around 4000 crores (90000 tonnes) and expected to reach approximately 8000 crores by 2016
• India is world’s largest malt-based drinks market with a share of almost 22% in the world’s total retail volume(Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as malting)

Major players in the HFD segment in India are as follows -

• GlaxoSmithKline
• Horlicks (With variants)
• Boost
• Maltova
• Viva
• Kraft-Cadbury (Mondelez International)
• Bournivita (With variants)
• Heinz
• Complan (With variants)
• Amul
• Nutramul
• Pro

Market Share in Indian HFDs Industry

Target Group and Positioning

Horlicks  - ‘The great family nourisher’ that offers pleasurable nourishment with a delicious range of flavors

All Health Food Drink’s generic TG : Middle income group and above, Metro/Urban/Semi-urban.

• Junior Horlicks 1-2-3
• Target Group : Toddlers (Consumption) Mothers (Communication)
• Positioning : An easy-to-digest drink for fussy toddlers providing them with essential nutrition value
• Junior Horlicks 4-5-6 with growth boosters
• Target Group : Preschoolers (Consumption) Mothers(Communication)
• Positioning – A nutrition packed health food for active preschoolers with who have a busy schedule and need to remain charged
• Mother’s Horlicks
• Tagline : Healthy mothers for healthy and smart babies!
• Target Group : Pregnant and Breast-feeding women
• Positioning : A superior nutritional supplement for pregnant and breast-feeding women to meet their daily nutritional requirements
• USP : DHA as ingredient and ability to provide 100% RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance) for the TG
• Horlicks Lite
• Target Group :  Adults
• Positioning – Especially designed to provide nutrition to adults and provide them with strength and stamina to keep going
• USP : Only HFD to be endorsed and certified by Diabetes India
• Horlicks
• Tagline : Proven for making kids taller, stronger and sharper
• Target Group : Kids aged 5-15 years and Mothers (Communication)
• Positioning : A nutritional supplement that positively enhances      physical and mental growth of kids
• USP : Huge emphasis on the “proven” efficacy for child’s mental & physical growth on the basis of results from a series of researches
• Boost
• Tagline : Boost is the secret of winning energy
• Target Group :  Children and adults looking for  an energy drink
• Positioning : Always  positioned as an energy drink hence the tagline. It is promoted as being the only HFD proven to increase stamina by  three times
• USP : Strong Sportsmen endorsements(Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni) leading to brand following by kids
• Bournvita
• Tagline : Tayyari  jeet ki (preparing to win)
• Target Group :  Children aged 5-15 years  & Mothers ( For Communication)
• Positioning : Help kids to grow faster and enhances goodness of milk(Calcium)
• USP : Strong advertising and taste appeals most in the category  to the TG
• Bournvita Li’l champs
• Target Group : Children aged 2-5 years & Mothers(For Communication)
• Positioning : Most effective for kids due to DHA and whey protein content
• USP : Packaging to attract kids and attached offers/gifts for kids
• o   Complan (COMplete PLANned)
• Tagline : Extra growing power with Complan
• Target Group :  Children aged 5-15 years  & Mothers ( For Communication)
• Positioning : Help kids to grow taller at twice the rate
• USP : Backs its ‘tall’ claims by multiple researches
• Complan with Memory Chargers
• Target Group : Children aged 5-15 years  & Mothers ( For Communication)
• Positioning : Improves memory and cognitive abilities in kids
• USP : First HFD to target memory and cognitive benefits. Backs claims by results of an independent research

Prospects of Indian HFD market

o   Indian HFD market is a growth market with 

tremendous opportunities (Check graph)

o   India has one of the youngest population in the 

world making it a long-term HFD market (TG)

o   Still considered as one of the growth markets in 

terms of rising income reinforcing the long-term 

prospects

o   Rising awareness among consumers due to 

exposure to developed markets (More people than 

ever travelling abroad, foreign TV channels, global

offerings) adds to TG everyday

o   Due to foreign origin of most of the HFD products

(mostly developed markets) which have stricter

laws related to food safety, the products don’t need much

tweaking(& expenses) in that aspect

Consumer Behaviour(HFD purchase)

• Consumers attitudes regarding HFD purchase is largely influenced by quality attributes of the product
• 
  

• No direct relation between brands and their sensory perception

• 
  
• Price, quality attributes and sensory perceptions are three major factors that makes a brand in the eyes of consumer better than other         

• 
  
• Value for money(Nourishment vs price), price and packaging are ranked in the same order for influencing purchase decision         

• Brand loyalty stands out as a very significant factor in HFD purchase

Age segment

• Biggest TG is the age group of 5-15 years in terms of products offered to each TG 
• Other segments have exactly same number of products offered for them (Of the  brands considered in this analysis).
• Horlicks is present in four out of five segments while Bournivita covers three segments by its offering. 
• Complan, Boost and Maltova covers one segment each.

Brand Benefits Segments

• HFD as Energy drinks and source of essential nutrients (specific to TG, eg. Toddlers, Mothers etc) is most common positioning adopted by brands(25%). 
• Equal number of products offer benefits related to physical and mental growth (19% each).
• Recently Horlciks and Bournivita in particular have also adopted a new proposition where they promise to enrich and strengthen the nutrient value of milk. With only 12% of considered brands adopting this positioning it holds the last position.

Key Success Factors in HFD Market

• Strong market and consumer behaviour understanding to gauge consumer expectations and market offerings ( Gap Analysis)
• Unique, clear and relevant brand proposition to the consumers
• Sensory appeal is very significant since end-consumers are kids who are fussy about taste and flavours
• Clear distinction between communication for kids and mothers since both are significant players in purchase decision and require different satisfaction points to finalize on a product and purchase
• Competitive pricing since price and value for money are important attributes in purchase decision for HFDs and it is very important to remain affordable yet attractive to consumers
• Backed by strong distributions system and feedback mechanism to ensure availability and a connect between brand and consumers

Cheers,

PS : For details regarding each brand's claims and their tryst with reality, TVC analysis and some more informaiton on this topic, you  can have a look at the presentation on slide share.- Link

Cadbury's Perk - The energy run gone wrong?

Cadbury’s India(Mondelez International) recently aired its latest commercial on perk which is being called – ‘ Bhag ke shadi’. The ad is in continuation with the other ads offering the same brand promise. The ad is supposed to reinforce the benefit of high energy as is showcased by its previous commercials and how it makes life fun. But have they been able to do that successfully this time around?

No doubt that this ad is probably the most interesting, funny and eye-catching among the series of ads aired with the same brand promise of perk being a quick source of glucose energy and creating fun moments. This has made the ‘shadi’ ad one of the more talked about ads in the industry circles and has also generated quite a few positive responses on the theme and execution of the ad and how it has attracted and made its audience laugh.

My personal take is that the ‘shadi’ ad is a diversion in the theme from its earlier ads, doesn’t manifest the brand promise as succinctly and most importantly, which we fail to recognize – is too funny for a message to piggyback.

The two most significant reasons why emotions like humour and fear are incorporated in an advertisement are –

• Get the audience’s attention on the go
• Allow the brand message/communication/promise to piggyback on this emotion

Unfortunately, the ‘Shadi’ ad does a wonderful job on the first point but fails miserably on the second account. This is because the ad is too funny for the audience to give notice to the message tried to be communicated by the brand and a surprising irrelevance between the message and the theme chosen.

Some might argue that the idea of running while getting married reinforces the idea of high energy due to consumption of glucose rich perk and well, it’s a fun way of living life. Really?  

The other ads on the ‘glucose energy’ platform were interesting as well as funny and did demonstrate the ‘energy’ and ‘fun’ aspect quite clearly.

Jogging Ad (Click to watch video)– Very clearly the ad shows that the man is up for another set of workout (jogging) after having the glucose rich perk and the lighter moment of daughter tricking her father to meet her friend makes the ad naughty and funny.

Chase Ad (Click to watch video) – A college chase of a boy by three girls to tie rakhi on his hand and how he outruns them easily, thanks to the glucose rich perk, puts the message in broad daylight for its audience. The theme of the advertisement also emphasize on the “life ke mazey lo” aspect.

Doors Ad (Click to watch video)- A boy who is too tired to fight a burglar in his building due to a tiring 'collection day', finds the energy to fight him with the help of perk. The ad clearly shows how perk with its rich glucose ingredients makes it a quick and effective source of energy.

 Shadi Ad (Click to watch video) - This ad is all about a fun theme but with no relevant context. How could a running-wedding ever be fun to anyone? The idea of characters in the ad to think of having a running-wedding because they just ate perk is even more absurd. Unlike the other two ads, this ad through its execution doesn’t tell its audience that perk is a rich of glucose and there can be real-life fun moments by consuming it.

To add, the advertisement without a strong and clear message is too funny for people to remember if it was an ad for perk or jogging shoes or a matrimony site.

In the opening scene, the female actor says that her father started crying on hearing about wedding and the next thing she come up with is to run away and get married. A little insensitive, isn’t it?

This ad sure must have given laughs to its audience but I’m not sure if perk can expect any perks from this one.

Cheers,