Delhities were greeted with a fake front page ad last week (the kind of advertisements only the mighty ones can afford) - Shoppers Stop advocating a message of 'Start Something New' in an a classy b-w ad. It drew corollaries from Manmohan Singh's and the Indian Cricket team's success.
I was curious because it looked silly. So I did a bit of research on this to figure it out.
Business Objective
Being in the retailing business, Shoppers Stop has been a pioneer - and that's not just a juicy compliment. They were the the first in India (since 1991), they have a fruitful IT setup, and they have constantly expanded their product line, encouraging even unconventional tie-ups like Om Shanti Om movie clothing line. They have also pioneered in developing their B2B sourcing technique. Some online interviews revealed that they intend to rapidly expand to over 50 stores in 2 years, from the current strength of 22 in eleven cities.
The original logo now functions as the Raheja group's logo for retail stores. I was surprised to know about their diverse investments. Apart from Crosswords, they own other speciality store brands including HomeStop, mothercare, Brio and desicafe'.
Old logo
New logo
The Ad Campaign
The current campaign speaks of a logo change and a untenable 'Start Something New' tagline. Such rebranding campaigns communicate an underlying reason for the change, benefits (if any) to the consumer. This campaign seems to starkly lack that. Here's the comment from Ravi Deshpande, the man who suggested the idea:
"Shopping is a treat. It makes you feel like a new person. I felt that this could be made into an idea like “start something new”, so that life is looked at completely differently, something as different as responding to the environment and its issues, saving trees, recycling, being a child again, or just doing nothing. All of this with a fashionable twist to it."
Here's one of the Print Ads (source Agencyfaq)
In the formal rebranding ceremony held on April 24th, Shahrukh Khan tries to dispel the same cynicism evoked within viewers - "Its not just a logo change. Its much more". They have also plonked a CSR angle - "Think Green - Awareness for the environment". Don't see anything useful happening here (source video)
As a contrast, the AXIS Bank rebranding campaign focussed on a single message - we are still the same, using twins and other analogies. Or my favourite Vodafone campaign, used the pug and colours to simply imply change - Hutch is now Vodafone.
I am sure the management of Shoppers Stop have got strong business acumen. I just feel they have been a little confused about the utility/objective of the ad campaign and hence the poor output. Lets wait for the consumer response now.
Links
Detailed information on the Ad campaign (agencyfaq)
Shoppers Stop business investments in IT (DNA)
Interview with the CEO, Shoppers Stop (pdf)
Shoppers Stop homepage
Shoppers Stop - Analysis
About the blog
This blog has been initiated by IIM Lucknow Alumni as a platform to put forward our views on Marketing topics, primarily in India. That covers a wide spectrum from Advertising to Business strategy to Distribution to Virals. Occasionally we will also put up recommendations for articles, videos or slides put up by others on the net.
We look forward to your views and opinions on content that can be introduced here.
cheers
Editors - IIMLMarketing
Contact
A brief profile of the authors is given below:
Arvind Iyer - He's been working at P&G as Assistant Brand Manager since July 2008. He also maintains a personal blog.
arvindiyer84 (at) gmail (dot) com
Atul Gupta - He's been working at Motorola since June 2008.
atul.g8 (at) gmail (dot) com
Suhaib Iyaz - Working at Bharti Retail since June 2008.
suhaibiyaz (at) gmail (dot) com
