Brand Update : Peter England wants you to Be Everything You Love

Peter England that came to India with the promise of an Honest Shirt, has undergone yet another change. This time, the brand has seen a significant change in its personality. From a stiff collar personality, Peter England has become a very youth, adventurous brand. The change in the brand personality is now reflected in the new TVC. Along with the new personality, the brand has also adopted a new tagline " Be Everything You Love ".

Watch the new TVC here: Peter England - Be everything you love

The brand that was launched in 1997 had made a significant positioning change in 2010 when it adopted the tagline " Beginning of Good Things ". The brand had a celebrity endorser at that time. Even then, the brand's personality was that of an affable, honest, serious brand.
In the new avatar, Peter England has become a new person. The new personality reflected by the main actor in the advertisement is young, adventurous and probably irreverent. This is a serious shift from the original brand's persona.
Along these years, the brand has also added more products to its portfolio, including belts, bags and the like. The brand is trying to woo the new young generation and this effort is reflected in the new commercial.
But sadly the theme that the brand has used in the new avatar is used many times by other brands. The interview setting, the older interviewers, and the  smart young hero all looks so cliched and stereotyped. While the move towards new personality is justified, the execution of the new positioning seems to be below average.
It is also to be noted that the young man depicting the brand's personality has not done everything he loves and wishes to do so in the next five years. That prompts me to ask why is he not doing it now ?? 

Brand Update : Is Titan's re-positioning worth it ?

The recent campaign of Titan featuring the "farewell to the professor" was very well received by the audience. Across the media, there are columns talking about the brand rediscovering the joy of gifting. As we know that the brand exploded into the market as the perfect gift that you can give to others. 

Watch the ad here : Titan Prof 

Although the theme of students spontaneously singing in the class is a not a new idea ( remember Airtel's HFZ campaign), the execution of the ad was perfect.The re-introduction of the signature tune was also well appreciated and brought in some nostalgic memories about the brand.

The interesting question is- if reports to be believed that Titan has truly rediscovered the Joy of Gifting, then what happened to 'Be More' positioning ?

In the TVC, the tagline of Titan is shown as " The Joy of Gifting" . So one can safely assume that the brand has re-positioned to its old platform based on gifting. 

I initially thought that the campaign which began during Christmas was just for the occasion but news report suggest otherwise.

Was it a right move to discard the Be More campaign ??

Be More campaign which was heavily promoted using Aamir Khan was a good proposition and matched the premium positioning of Titan. Aamir also fitted perfectly in the entire positioning campaign. After building up so much over the positioning, I think it was unwise for the brand to ditch a positioning for which it has invested so much. 

Regarding the gifting proposition, although it had helped Titan to gain a prominent position in the Indian watch market in the past, has lost its novelty.

Be More was a powerful platform which offered the brand lot of scope for creatives and also had helped to connect the brand to a higher order attribute . From that higher order attribute, the brand had slide down to a object that can be gifted. 

While 'Be More' campaign clearly talked about the user - that the user of Titan is one who wanted to grow, suddenly one finds that the brand stopped talking about the user and started talking about the object. Brands investing so much in building a positioning and then ignoring it for no reason has now become a common feature which will hurt the brand in the long-term.

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 : 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. 

Related Brand

Cinthol