CCD

CCD- Cafe Coffee Day, thats how the youth market knows this brand. Popularly known as the desi Starbucks, is not just a successful coffee retailing venture but it is a brand that has revolutionised coffee drinking among the young in India. The brand message, the visual identity and the brand itself seems to have contributed to the success. Its message of 'anything can happen over a cup of coffee' has not just been depicted in its promotionla messages but also well captured in movies that have used the brand outlets. The red color gives a very distinct brand image which is uniformly maintained in its brand name and in the decor of the outlets. This supports the resaerch that the colors red and blue have launched several brands ahead of the rest. Pepsi, Coco-Cola for instance. The product, that is the coffee, adhers to the overall image of the brand by keeping up the promise. It has a wide range from Mocha to Espresso to Cold Coffee and others. Cafe Coffee Day is no doubt a youth brand. Well-positioned and well-marketed.

By the way, I have kicked caffeine out of my life. But its worth a visit to CCD to revel in the brand. Coffee anyone?

Always Low Prices

'Always Low Prices' - does it ring a bell? I am sure most of them would get it right, Wal-Mart's iconic tagline. Volumes have been written on Wal-Mart. More or less Wal-Mart seems to have been successful with this positioning in the market. Would it be possible for Wal-Mart to trade up? I mean introduce a new line of merchandise, may be luxury line of clothes or accessories. Is it suicidal for a succesful brand to change its frame of reference in the minds of the customers?

To answer this, one needs to undersatnd brand positioning. Brand positioning is the place a brand occupies in the minds of the customers. Usually on two criteria, say, technology-price, availabilty-quality, etc. Brand managers need to be cautious at the nascent stages of branding to position the brand right. Choose a position which is unexplored. Moov is a classic example of getting its positioning right in the very beginning of its launch. A position which remains unshaken till today. Amrutanjan -for headaches, Zandu Balm for pains and cold and Iodex for ooh, aah, ouch. Nobody thought of the consumer's back. And then came Moov. It targeted women -the category that complains the most of back aches. the positioning worked. Moov continues its piggy ride on the consumer's back and the mind too.

What if positioning fails? Simple, reposition. Now this is the nightmare for brand managers. to make customers think differently about the brand. However there have been successful brand repositioning too. Remmeber Nestle's Milkmaid. It entered the market by claiming to be an alternative for milk, specially for tea and coffee consumption. Very soon Nestle realised that its Milkmaid is used more as an ingredient to make desserts. Nestle repositioned the brand. And Milkmaid, till date does not have a strong rival.

So coming back to where we began, can Wal-Mart reposition itself as a premium brand?

Innocence Lost

A lot has been written about the tremendous influential power of children in today's purchasing decisions. Children today, have their say in everything from toys to washing machines to cooking oil to bikes and now what pain balm(Moov) and filing tax returns?

Marketers have responsibility towards the society and they should know when to draw the line. Increased use of children in ads results in overspending and blatant commercialisation. Somewhere advertsiers should pull the plug and let children enjoy childhood.

The Male Factor in Advertising

I grew up watching ads with the impression that the bathtub was the domain of women, till I saw King Khan in the recent Lux ad. What is HLL up to? Tired of marketing to women? Well its a known fact the beauty secret of film stars has been shared by Indian men too. But an ad directly addressing men....

The Indian man in advertising has transformed from being a macho to metrosexual over the past 50 years. If you go back to the ads of post-independence era, you will see the Indian man either wielding a gun or the plough.....Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan. Then came the 'Thandurusthi ki Raksha kartha hai Lifebuoy' ad with men in other places, like the stadium. Man started to scale the power bastions and were shown as the successful one in Digjam Suitings, Godrej Shaving Cream,etc. Then came 'the Complete man' of the Raymonds who showed the caring side of the Indian man. Today men are taking decisions about washing powder and after wash hair conditioners for their women. They are not just stopping at that, they are asking for their share of fairness creams and ........bathtub too. Wonder, what next?

I Luv Marlboro

Marlboro, one of the most popular brands in the world was first marketed as a mild cigarette for women in the 1920s. It had a market share of less than 1%. When reports were published linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer, Philip Morris added a filter tip, gave a macho image to the brand and created marketing history. The ad agency, Leo Burnett is credited for making the most remarkable and memorable ad campaign by associating Marlboro to the cowboy. Overnight, from nothing to a 5000% increase in sales was reported. It was certainly a rags-to-riches story for the brand. The ad campaign is so popular, that the color red and the inverted V sign on the Marlboro pack is recognised even without the brand name being mentioned.

But then, in the 1970s, ban on cigarette advertising on TV and radio was enforced. Marlboro took to the roads.....literally....it started to adorn the billboards across the US freeways. With more stringent rules in place, and the emergence of the Internet as a worldwide point-of-sale, Marlboro adopted various methods of camoflagued advertising(subliminal). It entered pubs and bars, encouraged internet chat among Marlboro smokers, conducted contests, pampered customers with visits to Marlboro Country (ranch in Montana), redecorated pubs with red furniture and a host of other things. It went back to its retailers and charged lesser for their stock than the competitors and commanded nearly 60% of the retailer's shelf space.

In Nov 2005, Marlboro celebrated its 50th B'day bash by inviting its select customers to entertainment shows across U.S. cities. The brand continues to be the market leader and holds 40% of the US market share, way ahead of its competitors.

On the flip side, there has been many spoof ads on Marlboro and two of the models who endorsed the brand died of lung cancer. But ........I luv Marlboro!