Mango Drinks - A comparison of TVCs

To provide some base to the analysis, I'll briefly describe the fruit based beverages market in India- divided into 3 categories shown below.

I personally feel that the consumer does not differentiate between fruit drinks / nectars. Frooti, Maaza, Slice all fight for the same mindspace. The juice category (spearheaded by Real) however has clearly scooped a separate space for itself. If you are preparing the strategy for a product (marketing followed by communication strategy), you need to have an idea about the consumer's buying behaviour before deciding how to action communciation objectives. So here are two suppositions:

1. Beverages are low involvement products. In simpler words - They are low cost and I do not go through extensive information search prior to purchase.
2. There are few differences between the brands - in terms of features, taste, pricing etc

Hence, the brand choice is driven by habit rather than any sort of loyalty. (reference: Assael Consumer Behaviour)

Thus the communication objective is that through constant repetition I need to connect with the consumer (who passively receives such inputs). In simpler words - after all the hoochamoocha of marketing, as my consumer stands at at Kirana store, he/she should say "Bhaiya ek Frooti dena" before coming down to option2 or 3 (A similar scenario holds for modern retail outlets, where the consumer should pick up my brand over the other stacked products).

Now that we are thinking on the same platform, let us explore what such products require from TVCs. The framework used in this discussion is the Rossiter-Percy grid. I've summarized the grid recommendations here. (More details are available here). The grid splits ads across Level of Involvement and -ve/+ve reinforcement. Beverages are clearly benefit based products (As a contrast Harpic, Insurance, Clearasil would be -ve reinforcement). The Grid suggests that:

Sell on emotions - try and trademark an emotion
Visuals on their own must do the selling (as contrasted with an informative narration)
Sparse Copy, Strong Slug Line
Celebrity Endorsements and/or humour works well here

Bless the Admakers for dovetailing the theory. Makes our analysis easier! Now lets indulge in the fun activity of nitpicking advertisements.

Maaza (view storyboard)

Maaza has continued to use Satish Shah Kaushik in their campaigns. The baseline is 'Bina Gutli Waala Aam' - claiming Maaza is as pure a version of mango as any other variety. They have used an obvious version of humour - a cheeky kid outsmarting an older person (usually handled by confectionery commercials like Candyman, Mentos). The visuals are below average - long footage for small narratives. At the end, the baseline clearly stands out - so Maaza earns points for that.

Slice (view ad)

They have used a fresh/unique baseline of 'Aamasutra' (a play on the word 'Kaamasutra'). This matches with the suggestion of trademarking an emotion - though I feel its a weak tagline for a mango drink. They have used Katrina in the ad - the first actress to endorse a juice brand. Visuals are again unique for a mango drink, but the excess white reminds me of Air Conditioner Ads!

Will Katrina help break away from the beverage clutter ?

Frooti (view storyboard, ad)

They have reinforced the impression that Mango in India is synonymous with Frooti - explicitly connecting the brand with indulgence in consuming mangoes. Unlike the cheesy nature of Maaza humour, this one is more understated and contemporary (like Vodafone, Virign Mobile commercials). The visuals are a treat, especially the kids getting whacked for mango aspirations! Makes one nostalgic and giggle at the same time.

I personally feel that Frooti has created the best advertisement of the three. I hope that some data on sales would validate these opinons. Till then, enjoy the season of mangoes.

p.s: I hope your understanding and respect for Marketing theory has inched ahead :)
Sources:
Afaqs: 1,2,3
Beverages Industry: 1,2
Blog : Marketing Practice

Cinthol - Analysis

[Warning - A bit heavy on marketing concepts and jargon. Reader discretion is advised :) ]

Ironically, this product has a tagline '24 hour confidence'. When I read this recent article on Cinthol's strategy, it scared me. In a typical MBA marketing course, we were trained to confidently handle such hypothetical scenarios. Say you are the brand manager of a X year old brand. The market share has dipped from 9% to less than 2% over the last few years. You need to define activities to be undertaken to revive market share to X%. Here's what we'll usually come up with:

1. We'll understand a) what are the new/changed/evolved consumer needs b)perception of our brand
2. We'll do repositioning based on existing brand values and on insights from the previous step.
3. We'll use heavy advertising campaign - print, TVC, Outdoor to communicate the change.
And of course we'll throw in some social networking, a bit of online experience and web2.0 jargon to boot.

(And this is a best case scenario. Usually MBA class participation is diminished, the objectives blurred and the output a khichdi of activities)

The brand is doing all of that.
And that's what scares me.

Cinthol Activities

1. Understand changed consumer needs
'Cinthol has always been associated with the alpha male personality. We have revived it, but in a more contemporary manner'
2. Reflect the change in product communication
'The new communication has a masculine tonality, but it is targeted at young adults who aspire to an active lifestyle.'
3. Have a distinctive celebrity endorsement(which according to HarishB was the right thing to do)
4. Reflect the change in packaging (view)
5. Run a planned campaign for 12-18 months bringing together all the above elements
6. Have a website for interacting with customers and creating tribes of like minded users.

One half of me (the MBA part) is acknowledging that Cinthol has been pumped with all the right ingredients. The other half (the consumer part) is indifferent to the efforts being made for the brand. A website for this brand ? So what! ( Objective according to them - 'It will bring together like-minded individuals who keep on moving, irrespective of the hurdles in their life.') Maybe, just maybe some Cinthol loyalists will reach the website.

The Cinthol Website

Interactive ? I don't think so

There are a total of 3 links. One is a link for the TVC, already available on youtube. The other two are static pages - one of which gives banal advice on being physically fresh. The second page has a dumb flash game, I didn't care to play it through.

Loading Screen

Every click is followed by a annoying loading screen, which a visitor with just passing interest (rather than an inquisitive disposition) would have avoided and quit the 'experience'.

According to Sameer Penkar, general manager, marketing, Godrej Consumer Products, “The site will be modified in phases. Currently, what you see on it is part of Phase 1. In the second phase, we will be tying up with portals such as Yahoo!, Rediff, Google and Zapak in order to direct traffic to our site.". Though I don't agree with the phased approach. There won't be a revisit by an online user unless it is enjoyable the first time.

Is there is any piece missing in their campaign ? It would be naive to applaud the strategy and impute execution quality for any poor results. Even if you get all the steps right, follow the tenets of good marketing, how can you hope you've done good work ?

Sources
The Cinthol Ad (indianbrands)
Cinthol on Marketing Practice
Cinthol on agencfaqs (here and here)

Happy to Yelp!

Did you read this news about the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) issuing a legal notice to Vodafone for indulging in cruelty to animals ?

http://www.headlinesindia.com/more/index.jsp?news_code=74993

AWBI claims - "The pet dog was made to run, gallop and chase the school van for a long time on a public road. Thereby, the dog was made to undergo severe pain and suffering due to the exhaustion caused by chasing (the bus)."

Dear AWBI,

It's a dog.
Its name is Rocky.
Dogs are happy chasing objects.
It was the dog chasing the bus and not the bus chasing the dog, which could have been interpreted as bullying behaviour (in which case you could have also filed a complaint against automobiles).
Had the Ad been made for say a Sumit Mixie or Ambuja Cement, then you might have had a point - since a heavy bag or carton isn't a dog's favourite play object.

But the pug is carrying a tie.
A tie!
Get a life you losers.
And find some other way to gain attention.

regards
A Vodafone Fan



In line with Vodafone's positioning of VAS (Value Added Services), the Customer Care TVC is one of the best ads aired in year 2008 (close competition being the 'Kabhi Kabhi' ad again made for Vodafone).

Nirvana Films, aware of such inanities, had also got a 'post-shoot fitness certificate duly signed by the veterinary doctor'. But apparently thats not enough for AWBI.

Maybe we viewers should file a petition against AWBI, for making us undergo severe pain and suffering due to the exhaustion caused by their stupidity.

On a completely different note, IPL is turning out be an awesome entertainment avenue. Here are two interesting articles providing more insight about its marketing and success.

Shoppers Stop - Analysis

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

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