#Alive is Offline - Cinthol just doesn't give up

Attempting desperate transformation over the past 3 years & still at it.

Finally a brand with patience, and thus I should say to my liking. Marketers’ write-off their hard work very soon, especially over the last decade, but Cinthol's approach I feel will pay off in the medium run. 

Cinthol made a bold modernization/new launch combination a few years ago, primarily when their back was against the wall. But since then the marketing team at GCPL has pulled off some stunning concepts & campaigns. (Cinthol, Protekt, Aer..to name a few).

After their original ‘Alive is Awesome’ campaign, sales stagnated & even deteriorated in a few southern markets, but the team kept at it, maybe because they had no choice, or maybe because they were in it for the long haul.

It’s a matter of time before New category entrants, or tweens/teens exercising their with new found purchasing power start enjoying a little Cinthol (without even hopefully knowing its 60 year old legacy) in their lives.

While the original Alive is Awesome campaign broke the clutter on television & at retail with it bold colours, variants, excellent retail visibility solutions etc. – the marketer’s surreal dream didn't pay-off. Sales was slow & the trend was no wear close to being reversed.

Nevertheless coming now phase-2 as I call it of the brand story - #Aliveisoffline.

This is making quite a bit of noise in Social media, as it has struck the perfect cord with every busy corporate jailed 25-30 year old. The irony of the AV trending on Social media, a mild poke at every tweet or post on our timelines. GCPL looks like it has also learnt from its earlier errors of blind ATL bombardment and has still restricted this to Social media only.

Whether Cinthol can shed its harsh erstwhile Red packaging into its more vibrant green, yellow, black, cyan is yet to be seen, but looks like they’ll be at it till they succeed.

Now to the critique: there could be a better integration of the brand 'Cinthol' into the overall theme. Looks like P&G's global fever on the 'cause' has gotten to every marketer. A powerful integration or closure with Cinthol would have maybe scored a few more points.

But nevertheless, a brand soon to be noticed (yet again)...

Brand Update : Virat says Alive is Awsome

Move over Hrithik Roshan, welcome Virat Kohli. In its struggle to stay relevant to youth, Cinthol has now a new celebrity endorser in Virat Kohli. The tvc featuring Virat is now on air

Watch the new ad here : Cinthol Virat Kohli

The ad is different and very well executed. I liked the twist in the ad and to the credit of the agency, the ad does justice to the new positioning of Alive is Awesome. But like the previous campaign, the character should avoid saying the tagline because it looks very artificial when someone says Alive is Awesome. Rather, a powerful visual with the voice-over of the tagline would have been perfect.

What Cinthol needs is not a heavy dose of celebrity but some serious execution of its positioning. Celebrities ofcourse add a little attraction to the campaign but its not the celebrity that matters.

Cinthol seems to have stumbled upon a sustainable positioning platform of " Alive with Cinthol". The new campaign although singularly focuses on the celebrity rather than the brand ,will help in keeping Cinthol alive for now

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Cinthol - Alive is Awesome

Brand Update : Cinthol says Alive is Awesome

It is very easy to kill a brand or weaken its positioning. Ignore it, reduce investment and within no time, the brand will fade away from consumer's mind. But to bring a brand from obscurity to stardom is a Herculean task. 

Cinthol is one such iconic brand which now has the daunting task of bringing the old glory back. The neglected 60 year old brand from Godrej's stable saw some activity in 2008 when the brand was re-packaged and Hrithik Roshan was introduced to endorse the brand.  The brand also saw a new tagline " Don't Stop" . Some hope was restored about the brand's future. But alas, the enthusiasm was temporary and the campaign died down. For the last couple of years, the brand went again into slumber except for some sporadic campaigns.

Now with much hope, the brand owners have decided  ONCE AGAIN to reposition Cinthol. The brand will be launching the new campaign soon .

Watch the new ad here : Cinthol campaign

The brand has hit upon a new idea " Being Alive is Awesome ". The ad is targeted at the younger consumers who wants to live their life to the fullest and the brand has tried to squeeze itself in the entire scheme of things. In a sense, the tagline represents the brand essence of  a very active lifestyle. But the question is did the brand used the earlier positioning of  " Don't Stop" to the maximum ? These frequent changes in the tagline and the positioning has affected this brand by confusing the consumers with different messages and brand promises. 

I feel that in the new campaign , the brand is trying little too hard to relate to the new generation. For a brand like Cinthol, it need to resist from trying hard to convince. The lyrics and the singing ( rather screaming) gives me a feeling that the brand is desperate to connect to the new generation consumers. That desperation is sadly visible in the campaign. For example the term awesome is a very visible  and obvious attempt to show that the brand is young. But why try hard ? 

To be fair to the brand, it is a smart idea for the brand to go back to the classic form factor and  packaging.  The classic Cinthol comes in the rectangular bathing bar form while the variants came in the usual  soap form with rounded edges. The brand had earlier retained the traditional paper wrapper to the Classic Cinthol and used the common plastic pack for the variants. Here in the new avatar, the brand uses the  rectangular bar form in all the variants and the packaging is also same as that of Classic Cinthol soap. The form factor can give the brand a unique identity.

Alive is Awesome as a positioning platform makes sense. I hope that in subsequent campaigns, the brand will take this concept to a higher level. Sadly the experience so far suggest that after the initial spurt, the brand has a tendency to go to hibernation. And when it rises again, then there will be a new agency and a new positioning. 

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