Social Media Uncovers Need for "BALLm" - Rebranding of Vagisil for Men's Itchy Balls!

Infegy is a company that claims to have cloud-based technologies that can transform "huge volumes of [social media] commentary into valuable consumer insights."

To prove how valuable these insights can be, the company is published a report that offers several "quick snapshots of various use cases that can be leveraged for the pharmaceutical and personal care industries."

One case study involves Vagisil, which gives women relief from vaginal discomfort and itching due mainly to yeast infections.

While performing a brand reputation audit of Vagisil, an Infegy analyst found that more men were talking about the product online than women. According to the report, "the majority of these male commentators were referencing Vagisil when doling out insults."

OK. Obviously, that's not very helpful if you are looking to social media for ideas about line extensions. However, the analysis also found "subsections" of social media conversations about a topic that Infegy believes uncovers an opportunity to rebrand Vagisil for men: Itchy balls!

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Brand Update : This summer, Frooti gets a major makeover

This summer, the 30 year old Frooti has got a bold makeover. Frooti has re-branded itself with a new logo, new packaging and ofcourse new brand communication. Frooti has a commanding 80% + share in the tetra-pack segment of the Rs 3500 crore Indian mango drink market. But the overall market share of the brand is only 11% in the total market. This is because the market is dominated by PET packs

The brands like Maaza and Slice dominate the market with their PET bottle variants. More over, the company feels that Frooti is perceived to be a kid's brand thus alienating the young/teen consumers who now form the majority of the consuming class of these products.

So along with the re-branding, Frooti has also changed the product formula with more juice pulp added to it. The re-branding also saw a change in the advertising agency . The company has roped in Sagmeister  & Walsh for this exercise.

The result is a bold logo, new color for the packaging and a new campaign.

Watch the tvc here : Frooti life

The brand has retained SRK as the endorser.

The ad uses the stop-motion animation and frankly I didn't get the plot until I read the detailed story line in an article. 

The theme revolves around the tiny people in a tiny world living a Frooti Life.

The brand which brought back the classic " Fresh'N'Juicy " tagline has dropped it in the new scheme of things. The new tagline it seems is " The Frooti Life".

The packaging is bold and refreshing. The ad is amusing because of the stop-motion animation but I am not sure whether it has the wow-factor enough to cause the youngsters to flock to it. The brand has attempted a laddering up from the highly functional FreshNJuicy proposition. But I feel that the plot is not that clear. 

While the brand has made a refreshing change, I am wondering what next for the brand ? How is the brand going to take the " Frooti Life " forward ? Just being amusing is a dangerous goal in a re-branding and re-segmenting exercise. 

The 2013 campaign was so good and bought back the freshness to the brand with SRK boosting the presence. A drastic change in the whole branding and segment is something which is quite intriguing.

Some how I feel a disconnect between the tiny people and SRK and Frooti Life ! May be  because I am out of the TG. 

Brand Update : Orient Electricals rebrands to Orient Electric for a bigger market play

In a significant move, Orient Electricals has rebranded itself to Orient Electric. In the new avatar, the brand aims to be a significant player in the Rs 5200 crore Indian home appliances market. Orient - a brand from CK Birla group is a major player in the electric fan category. The Rs 642 crore brand now is spreading its wings to a much broader market play.

Orient is a well known brand in the fan category. But that itself can be a limitation for a brand which is aiming to be relevant to other categories as well. Hence Orient decided to rebrand itself so that it could endorse a wider array of products.
Thus the company rebranded itself to Orient Electric with a new logo and new tagline " Switch to Smart".
The rebranding is backed by a series of campaigns featuring the brand ambassador MS Dhoni. The ads are well crafted and unlike many celebrity oriented campaigns, Orient has made a difference by putting the brand in the limelight.

The ad has the theme " The next generation is smarter " and the message is conveyed through a smart kid that outwits Dhoni. The ad effectively conveys the brand's pitch of its new generation avatar.
Watch the campaign here : Orient TVC 1
                                          Orient TVC 2
The new foray of Orient is into a market which is cluttered and highly competitive. The brand's equity in the fan cateogory together with the new high profile campaign will do a lot of good for the brand aiming to be a major player in the home appliances market. 

Brand Update : Choclairs says " Fruit of patience is Chocolate"

After the rebranding of Echlairs to Choclairs, Cadburys has launched another tvc for the brand. This time, within a short span, the brand changed its focus to the chocolate part. In the rebranding campaign, Choclairs was giving the message that Choclairs will not stick in the mouth. This time the brand is focusing on the chocolaty core of the product.

Watch the ad here : Choclairs Ummm

The ad is just ordinary and the theme is nothing new. The theme of sudden burst of activity after consuming chocolate has been used plenty of times ( for example Tic Tac) . Even in the execution also, there is no novelty. I would pass it as an ordinary ad with no wow factor. The brand now adopts the tagline " Sabar ka Phal Choclate Hota Hain " roughly translated to " Fruit of patience is chocolate " which is the parody of " Fruit of patience is sweet". The idea is good but when it got executed, the freshness was lost.

I think that to bring in humor, the brand somehow has messed up the whole plot. The exaggeration also spoils the entire ad. Since its Cadburys one expects a certain level of class in ads which was surely missing in the current tvc.

Nivea Men : It starts with you

Brand : Nivea Men
Company : Beiersdorf

Brand Analysis : 535

Nivea is on a high these days. One of the world's largest skincare brand has decided to up the ante in the highly cluttered Indian market. In the process, the company has rebranded and repositioned its offering for men. 

Nivea had its presence in the men's grooming market with the brand 'Nivea for men' in 2007. The men's range was promoted with the tagline " What men want ". The brand started its serious foray into men's category with an Advanced Whitening range.

This year, the brand has gone for a makeover. Nivea had rebranded its men's range with the new brand name " Nivea Men". Along with the new name is the new positioning. The Nivea Men is positioned on the user .The typical brand user is  profiled as the one who tackles things on their own. The brand has the new tagline " It starts with you ".

Besides the new name and the positioning, Nivea Men has roped in the Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal as the brand ambassador. The brand is on a high decibel campaign featuring the brand ambassador. 

Watch the ad here : Nivea Men deo , Nivea Men Skin care

I like this campaign for two reasons. First is that the brand has resisted itself from taking the " Attraction " route taken my most men's grooming brand. Second is the fit that the brand established between the brand and its celebrity endorser. I feel that Arjun Rampal was used very smartly by the brand . There is a personal touch and authenticity to the message delivered by the celebrity. 

Nivea has been able to convey its message very smartly in the new campaigns. This has been backed by research done by the brand before venturing into the men's category. According to various newsreports, research revealed that 

a. Men are not satisfied with the efficacy of the existing skincare products which are targeting women.

b. Men are also not interested in visiting products displayed in the women's isles in the stores.

c. While grooming is the end result for women, men view grooming as a tool to get what they want in life.

d.84% of men use products borrowed from the women of their life. 

e. Most of the men's grooming issues arise out of excessive oily skin and hyper-pigmentation.

Based on these insights, the brand carefully crafted  the brand's strategy. It adopted a narrative where the brand talked to the men like men do. This is evident from the way the celebrity endorser has conveyed the message through the ads . 

Another good thing the brand did was it clearly and rationally identified the brand's USPs. For example, in the skincare range, the brand talked about darkspots, for deodorant the brand talked about freshness etc.

Nivea has clearly got its communication right this time. It has a convincing message and a right brand ambassador. Nivea is also the only brand in the men's category to have a range of products ranging from skincare to deos which also adds more punch to the brand's visibility in the retail outlets aswellas the scope. 

Good going.

Brand Update : Cadbury rebrands Eclairs to Choclairs

Brand : Cholairs

Company : Cadbury India 

Brand Analysis : # 534

In an interesting move, Cadbury's has rebranded its eclair brand to Choclairs. The brand is now running a TVC communicating this rebranding. Cadbury have two brands in the Eclairs segment - Cadbury Dairy Milk Eclairs and Cadbury Eclairs Rich. 

According to Business Standard, echlair market in India is worth around Rs 1000 crore( 2011statistics) and is witnessing intense competition for share between the players like Nestle, Parle, Cadbury and Perfetti. It is estimated that Cadbury is leading the market with its CDM Eclairs.

What can be the possible logic behind the rebranding of a very well known brand ?

One reason can be to handle the issue of generic nature of the term Eclairs. As I understand, eclairs stands for the special type of candy and is used by all the players in  the market. So when a consumer ask for an eclairs, it is retailer that decides which brand to be given. So by changing the name of CDM Eclairs to Choclairs, Cadbury's expect that problem to subside and with the new TVC the brand is trying to teach the consumer to tell the new name Choclairs.

Watch the TVC here : Candbury Choclairs

Second reason can be to remove the endorsement of Dairy Milk from this category. In my earlier posts on this brand, it may be recalled that Cadbury's had earlier renamed its eclair to Cadbury's Dairy Milk Eclairs .In effect, the eclair was a Product line extension of Dairy Milk brand. Now the brand owners may want to restrict the use of Dairy Milk to the chocolate bar category. So since the endorsement is removed, the eclairs would need an identity and Choclairs has become a new independent brand. 

Third reason can be that Choclairs is the brand which is owned by Cadbury's and is a leading brand in UK and China. Choclairs was created in 1996. So this move can be seen as a global alignment of the brands by Cadbury.

The positioning of Choclairs in India is funny. The new brand's main message is that it will not stick on the teeth. The brand has  the tagline " jo dimag mein chipke, daaton mein nahi "  which translates to " It will stick to your mind and not on teeth ". I wonder why the brand has taken such an attribute in a rebranding exercise. 

It is true that eclairs have a tendency to stick to gum and teeth and may be the brand feels that it may be prompting many consumers away from the category. But as a tagline, I feel that the brand deserves a better treatment.

Related post

Eclairs : Brand Update

Titan Company : Rebranding to a Lifestyle Brand

Corporate Brand : Titan Company

Brand Analysis # 531

Titan Industries was born in 1985 as a joint-venture between Tata Group and Tamilnadu Industrial Development Corporation. Titan Industries introduced Titan Quartz watches to the Indian market in 1986 and virtually transformed the Indian watch market dominated by the likes of HMT and Allwyn. 

With smart branding and some cool advertisements, Titan Watches quickly became the market leader and had created a strong premium image in the market. Titan Industries later build various brands targeting different segments in the Rs 4000-4200 crore Indian time-wear market ( source : Business Standard)

Titan Industries' brand portfolio consists of 

Fastrack : targeting youngsters

Tanishq : lightweight jewelry 

Sonata.: Low priced

Xylys : premium end

The Titan brand adopts a sub-branding strategy where various sub-brands target various segments in the market. The notable sub-brands are   Titan Raga, Titan Zoop,Titan Edge, Orion, Purple, Obaku, Tycoon, Bandhan, Octane, Automatic and HTSE series. ( source : Titan Website)

Titan Industries also diversified into jewelry with the brand Tanishq and then to eye-wear with Titan Eye+ brands.

This year, Titan Industries decided to rebrand itself as Titan Company Ltd. According to news-reports, the name change was to signify the corporate brand's movement from a watch company to a lifestyle company. The company leaders thought that the term " industries" now is not relevant in the firm's new directions.

The current corporate rebranding of Titan Industries to Titan Company has also given a new logo for the corporate brand. The new brand elements were designed by the famed agency Ray + Keshavan.

The current rebranding has also an interesting offshoot. Now there are two brands - Corporate brand Titan Company with its own logo and the watch brand - Titan with another logo. Newsreports suggest that the watch brand will retain the existing logo and the tagline - Be More. Since the Titan Watch brand is the most recognized and recalled brand, I am not sure how the name change of the corporate brand will help build a lifestyle image. 

Titan Industries started with a single brand- single product company. The initial portfolio strategy was to build a branded house where all the product ( watches ) had the same brand name ( Titan) which incidentally was the corporate brand. The brand architecture was to have sub-brands targeting various segments. This strategy was changed with the introduction of brands like Sonata , Tanishq etc. Fastrack which was launched as a sub-brand later became an individual brand.

Hence over the period of time, Titan Industries' brand portfolio became a mix of House of Brand and Branded House strategy. There were  many individual brands in the portfolio, at the same time bulk of the mid-range watches were endorsed by the corporate brand - Titan. Titan brand was also used to endorse categories like eye-wear .The company also plans to include categories like fragrances in the near future.

With the launch of a logo and name Titan Company, it is to be assumed that the company now wants to develop a corporate brand different from the watch-brand.  The issue here  is that both the brands are the same. 

Confusing isn't it !

Big Changes At Hotels.com

This week we interviewed Vic Walia, senior director for global brand advertising at hotels.com.  The mega brand is making some major branding changes to enhance their brand and expand their reach. Check out this marketing blog exclusive interview:

1. What's the primary motivation for the new Hotels.com logo? We wanted to unify the brand globally and show our customers whether booking from or traveling to the US, London or Tokyo, it’s the same travel experience with hotels.com. We also wanted to convey our expertise and longstanding leadership in the market. 

2. In conjunction with the logo update you're also changing your tagline. Can you provide some insight into the update? Finding travelers the perfect place is really the core of what we’ve done for 20 years so we wanted to remind customers that we’re about hotels, and only hotels. We sell over 30 million room nights every year with up to 100,000 deals so we know our customers count on us to find the perfect room, which is why our new tagline resonated so well with our loyal customers on Facebook.

3. How has the Hotels.com brand evolved in the last year and where do you see it going in the future? The brand continues to focus on its core business, hotels. The travel market and ecommerce market is a dynamic one and constantly changes and Hotels.com will adjust accordingly, as it always has.

4. In your release you mentioned additional changes in the next couple of quarters. Can give our readers some insight into additional brand related changes you'll be making? In addition to the logo change globally, we will be integrating a new look and feel among all of our sites globally to help unify the brands. We have also began using our new font style within all of our creative from TV advertising, sale messaging and emails. New sub-logos have also been released in the new style for the loyalty program, Welcome Rewards and for Deal of the Day to name just a few. We are updating our Photography our Site Copy and overall page designs in order to give users a better, more informed experience as they navigate the site.

5. How will you measure the reaction and feedback to your new branding (logo, tagline, etc.)?The feedback will be measured most clearly by business results. Plus, we have already tested the new logo, tagline and creative with research to ensure that it appeals to our current customer base as well as any new potential customers. 

Special thanks to Vic Walia for sharing his rebranding secrets with us.  He is a Brand Marketing Director with over 13+ years of experience managing several billion dollar consumer brands in the Food, FMCG, Travel/Leisure and E-commerce categories.