Hindustan Unilever has launched the new Pure it named Marvella(interestingly TMSBee’s last post on Pure it was called HUL Pure it-a Marketing Marvel.Inspired ? ).The purifier is claimed to be the first fully automatic waster purifier.This is a big claim as we all assumed that they were already there.And interestingly the USP still remains the same-No Electricity.Fully Automatic and no Electricity ? Interesting.

It is completely automatic and doesn’t require electricity to automate its operation.It removes the problem of refilling the purifier daily.It automatically refills itself from the tap.It has some mechanism through which it turns off the water inlet once its full and takes the water when it needs it.Everything is automatic.

Its a big innovation.A fully automatic purifier without any electricity expense.If it doesn’t have any electrical component so it would not want repair too often.Also its spares would be much cheaper(assumption ? Yes).So a good deal.But whats the deal worth ?

HUL has priced Marvella at Rs 6,990, a tad below Aquaguard.Now a customer who was sure of buying a fully automatic Aquaguard(leaving the ordinary Pure It) has an option.An option so good that it can turn the decision on its head.I have seen the normal Pure It take off in last few years.Almost all bachelors have them at their shared homes.It brand image is-A purifier that is  Safe and inexpensive.So what if the person has to refill it daily.But now even that is not a problem.

A normal Pure it costs exact 2000 rupees.Marvella costs 7000.Is automatic mechanism worth 5000 ? Or does it have extra features ? HUL claims it has.It has better purifying capabilities.The user manual is attached below the post.

Now lets talk about the TV commercial they are running.TMSBee doesn’t like  a post which doesn’t have  any Ad.

Pure it created the buzz with direct marketing and very less advertising expenses.It was later that they brought out ads on 1 crore challenge.But Marvella being targeted to a different TG demanded an Ad first up and HUL started it with an ad.

Just have a look at the Ad.

The ad is average(just average).The idea of showing Refilling as a problem  has actually messed up the ad,add to it the lingo they have used.So So Bo Bo ,Bo Bo Po Po.TMSBee is not sick but this is what you hear in half of the ad.The other half goes in explaining what it means.Pathetic ?

HUL are great marketeers and Marvella is an awesome product.It deserved a better ad.

One more issue is that in the ad they are actually highlighting the problems of refilling.Wouldn’t it cause problems for their super successful Pure It(manual).They could have told the positives points and could have attacked Aquaguard on use of electricity.

Their competitors are Aquaguard and Kent who use electricity so why are they targeting the manual purifiers who are not even fighting for the same TG.

The product rocks and should give the competitors a run for their money.The ad could have been better.

TMSBee found out that Aquaguard considers themselves as Honda Accord and Marvella as Maruti 800.So are not afraid of this new offering from HUL.(Source :Economic Times).

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So whats this Pepsi Max ? First impression was that its a sugar free diet Pepsi in a new bottle but when did a little bit research,TMSBee found out that itdiffers from both its previous avatars.It differs from Pepsi in that it contains phosphoric acid, acesulfame potassium, calcium disodium EDTA, Panax ginseng extract and twice the amount of caffeine.

The word Ginseng rings some bells.TATA TiON also boasted of having ginseng and its claimed to be a natural stress reliever.But will double the amount of Caffeine do good ?

According to PepsiCo India,Pepsi Max offers consumers a great tasting Cola, with more strength, fizz, punch and an added advantage of no sugar designed for those seeking the ‘Maximum Kick, No Sugar’ experience!

Pepsi Max has an interesting tagline-Maximum Kick,No Sugar.The tagline sets the positioning straight.Its a sugar free drink with something to give you some kick(and obviously has a great taste).Is Redbull listening ?

I found this recent webrelease of Pepsi Max http://pepsimax.webrelease.in/. It talks about Pepsi Max’s launch in India.

The target group is well defined.25 – 35 yr urban males, who want to live in a world where nothing is held back – where everything is bigger, better and brighter!!

The Pepsi Max drinker is the guy who works hard and plays harder – who believes in getting more out of every moment. He is confident, intense, gutsy, street smart, a full-on kinda guy who revels in his laugh-out-loud experiences with his mates.(Source : http://pepsimax.webrelease.in/)

After closely understanding the TG of Max,it can be safely said the closest competitor of Max is Thums Up.No Doubt !

Thums Up as a brand has a similar positioning,similar TG.What differs in the two brands is the health funda.Sugar Free is something what MAX can boast of and not to forget the Kick element.

So What are they charging ? Is it premium priced product ?

Pepsi Max will be available in an iconic, cool and edgy black packaging comprising of Can and PET Packs. The 250ml Can is priced at an introductory price of Rs 15/-, the 330ml Can is priced at Rs 25/- and the 500ml PET is also priced at Rs 25/-.

So it cant be called premium at all.

Recently during the FIFA world cup,This Pepsi ad was doing rounds which actually was of Pepsi Max.

So will Pepsi Max deliver the Kick  or will it be lost in the end like Messi ?

Time will tell.

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Something similar seems to be happening with Horlicks offlate.Their last two products have been Horlicks Nutribar and Horlicks Foodles.Both the products have been positioned as Health products.So is Horlicks moving from being a milk powder(malt based milk additive phew !) based company to being a health products company ? Donno.

Lets talk about Horlicks Foodles.TMSBee heard about this brand last year in December,but then this product was not readily available.Few days back,Horlicks has come up with an ad for Foodles.

The ad is below average.It makes you think,could not have they made something better ? The ad shows as if noodles are something really disgusting .And irony is that they themselves are selling noodles so what if they are calling them Foodles.

Foodles claims to be  first health noodles but haven’t we heard it before ? Yes.Maggi has now been using the tagline ‘Taste Bhi Health Bhi’ from long.So whats new in Foodles ?Is it just a ‘me-too’ product ?

Foodles stresses on something called ‘Healthmaker’ in the ad.Again Tastemaker has been Maggi’s well recognized spice sachet name.Foodles again gives Customers(prospective ones) a chance to instantly compare it to Maggi. What if the customer actually end up buying a Maggi because he/she is unsure about these Foodles ?

Horlicks’ core competency had always been with products related to Milk additives,Biscuits with milk power etc.Nutribar still fits the bill and was a succesful product but Foodles !

Coming back to the ad,it shows children doing a tug of war with their moms.Just imagine the rope used is a noodle strand.How creative can sometimes the admakers be ?

The best thing about the ad is its tagline,’Noodles without the No’.

The name Foodles also seems remind you of Tom Ramen Smoodles.

The product seems to be launched in a hurry than thought.What about the Ad ?

An online survey conducted via Suvey Gizmo (an online surveyor) between January 15, 2010 and February 13, 2010 titled ‘Ad Report 2009′ on the Indian television commercials brought out an interesting fact about Foodles as a brand.There were 363 responses in total.(Source theindianads.blogspot.com)

Have a look.

The worst brand 2009 :

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Their latest Cake commercial is real solid literally.While surfing through the TV channels,TMSBee came across this interesting commercial.In the start it didn’t seem to be a toothpaste commercial at all.It seems to be some consumer durable aiming at having a young brand personality,then suddenly comes the twist.The cake shoots off the plate and hits the fridge and leaves a big dent in it and then falls on the floor to break the tiles.

Then the door bell rings and the husband of the protagonist enters and sees the cake.Without second thoughts,he picks the cake up and bites into it.Now What ?

Nothing,he eats it easily as he brushes his teeth with the new Anchor White toothpaste.

Lets have a look.

This commercial has the capability of making people stop and take notice of the brand which is trying to get your walletshare( and the mouth share) from long.When your competitors are Colgate and Pepsodent,its always tough but Anchor has always been an established brand and not just a ‘me-too’.But still their real competitors always turned out to be the likes of Dabur Red,Amar etc.

Kajol endorsed this product for some time but then went missing.This new commercial doesnt feature any ambassador.The ordinary looking guy with super teeth makes the ad look even better.

The Kajol Commercial

Anchor never had the Wow factor or an eye grabbing commercial with them to get the attention.They were a known brand but not a great brand.Anchor was assumed to be the toothpaste of the older generation.The younger generation preferred Colgate or Pepsodent.Is it or not ?

TMSBiz is not claiming that this commercial will make Anchor a known brand overnight but yes this commercial would be a hit.

Keep the fundas away for now, just enjoy the commercial.

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Micra is Nissan’s first major Indian offering.As a brand,Nissan is not unknown in india.People have seen Nissan cars around.With this latest offering,Nissan is set to become a household name(if micra becomes successful).

After the Figos and the Polos,India is all set to check out the new Nissan Micra.

In India,people tend to ask first up, how much will it cost ?

Micra is aggressively priced between Rs.3.98 lakh and Rs.5.29-lakh which is very competitive.Ford Figo,Volkswagen Polo,Maruti Swift would all feel the heat with this product.

Lets see what the product has to offer.

Equipped with multiple first-of-its-kind features including intelligent key with immobilizer, a push-button engine start-stop system and electric foldable mirror besides other safety and luxury features, Micra will come with 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder petrol engine and available in three variants — entry model XE (Rs.3.98 lakh), mid-level XL (Rs.4.69-lakh) and top-end XV (Rs.5.29-lakh). Nissan Micra also promises fuel efficiency of 18.06 km a litre. The carmaker also announced a host of customer care and service schemes.

Both Petrol and Diesel versions would be launched(Diesel till end of the year).

Service is one area where they need to understand India very well.Fiat is still suffering due to that.

Ranbir Kapoor is the brand ambassador of the car.This came as a surprise as all the recent cars in the segment didnt go for any brand ambassador.Figo and Polo chose common people and their concerns as the base for their ads.In the past, Brand ambassadors like Shahrukh Khan(Santro),Abhishek Bachchan(Fiesta) have helped the brands become popular initially.

So can Ranbir Kapoor prove to be their best bet ?

Check out the ads

The other thing that Nissan is stressing on in their ads is the ‘Touch’ concept.The’ Touch’ concept seems to have got into everything these days.Touch phones,ipods,TV,PC and now a Car which can be started by a ‘Touch’.The concept seems cool though.

Outside Asia,the car is known as Nissan March.It has been a highly successful car for Nissan.I also went through its website http://nissanmicra.co.in/ .The website seems a bit primitive.It just lets you download a brochure and lets you apply for the car online.Nissan could have come up with a more comprehensive site in the initial days itself.

Overall,the product seems to be a winner.But let time decide its fate.

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5 Star has always been a well advertised brand.Cadbury’s always treated 5 star at par with dairy milk when it came to advertising.Many brands came and went but could not topple 5 Star from its position.The closest any brand came was Nestle BarOne which was liked by many.Now a days Mars is also being preferred.

Lets talk about 5 star’s latest campaign which has been in existence.

The ‘Lost in Taste’ campaign which features two or three guys who have temporary loss of memory due to the awesome taste of 5 star.The campaign is quite successful and they have come up with 3 ads in the series till now and  the latest is just awesome.

Suresh-Ramesh Ad

The first ad in the series was also a great one.Everyone really enjoyed it.

Even the following ad was quite popular.

The ads are popular because they are unique and creative.The whole idea is integrated well with the product.The concept that the taste of the chocolate is so good that you will lose yourself for some time goes well with a product like 5 Star and appeals to the youth as well as kids.

A product like 5 Star doesn’t need super ads to keep it going.5 Star is one of the most preferred in its category (caramel based chocolates) but still it has to compete with all the other chocolates(mostly from its own house Cadbury’s) and also generic confectionery on a bigger scale.So such ad campaigns keep the brand alive and keep it in talking terms with the customer.

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But today I saw this new ad of Fem bleach.

Fem is the same company which actually was at the forefront of this white revolution.When i was a kid their campaign had a jingle ‘Gori Gori Fem Fem Se’(Fair with Fem).

The new ad is first if its kind.The first few seconds of the ad makes one feel ‘one more fairness product ad’ but then you will find that it is different.They don’t show the dark girl as the loser in fact they tell that there is a separate bleach for different complexion.At the end of ad,the dark girl is shown with a  wheatish complexion and not super fair as is the case with all other products.She is confident and looks good.Check the ad which features Priety Zinta as the brand ambassador.

We feel that the ad would be liked by all.The ad points out that like any color clothes are not suited to all complexions, similarly a bleach should also be different for different complexions.The ad doesn’t degrade the dark girl or doesn’t show the fairer girl better or superior.The ad just shows that Pink color dress goes better with fairer skin and blue color dress suits the wheatish skin.
It’s time that such products should advertise with certain sensitivity as Fem has done.Is there a real need to show a dark girl facing issues in the country to reinforce the poor mentality we already have ?
India is changing so its outlook also has to change.Who has ever become fair by applying  fair and lovely ?
Even men fairness creams have now come in the market.Who knows when its their turn to face the music ? LOLZ
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Now from past few months,Intel inside has changed to Intel-sponsors of tomorrow.I still miss Intel Inside as such but the new campaign is just awesome.

Intel has been aggressive on this new campaign and even ads have been quite visible on Indian channels and even during IPL.

The first ad that really came to people’s notice in India was the Ajay Bhatt Ad(Co-Founder of USB)

After this ad a series of ads were launched one after the other.

Then Intel launched the new family of Intel Core processors(i3,i5,i7) and then they came up with new ads for the same under the ‘Sponsors of tomorrow’ campaign.One of the best ads i have ever seen is the one below.The ad not only shows the technological power of the company as such but also shows the kind of work culture they endorse.This ad was not only one of the favourites for the IPL in India but also for the Superbowl in US(the same ad).

The latest ad on core processors is coming up these days,now this ad is different for different countries.I found the australian version for the same ad.You will instantly remember the indian counterpart.

There are many high technology companies in the world doing work equivalent to Intel but none is as good when it comes to marketing.

Intel still is my favourtie marketeer.

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The ads are customer oriented.Whenever a new car(or product) is launched a potential customer has a lot of unanswered questions in his mind.

What is the mileage ? What are the safety measures ? What are the specs ? What are the extra features in this car ?

Rather than just building a story around the car or concenterating on the name of the car or having a brand ambassador,Volkswagen have kept it straight.The ads just talk about features of the car and nothing else.The model used in the ad looks ordinary,simple and can represent the kind of target audience for Polo.The ads are funny and hit the right chord.

Volkswagen seems to have understood the indian market quite well and Polo seems to be their best bet.Volkswagen seems to be justifying its name well in india too.i.e. People’s Car.

Das Auto.

What Say ?

Many a times when these giants launch cars in India they go for so called safe methods like hiring popular Brand Ambassadors(Ford did it with Fiesta when they brought Abhishek Bachchan) or they go with flashy zooming ads like what Chevrolet Beat did.But sometimes they miss the point that they need to CONNECT with the customer(read potential customer).They need to tell what the car is all about,what all features it has, etc etc.Figo seems to have hit the bull’s eye.

The ads are fresh,different and informative.Lets have a look

The ads are simple,uses a a boy and a girl(brother sister or a couple i cant say but it doesn’t even matter).The car is being shown as the part of the family with the help of its features whether it is its interior design,its AC or its big Boot Space.The background song is also very nice and has a soft feel to it.Ads have really started to feature good melodious songs off late.Coca Cola’s new ad also features a peppy hummable song in the background.

Ford Figo is not just marketing itself with these ads but they are associating themselves with a lot of TV programs,contests and  movies.

The car is being positioned as a smart car(a bit similar to Wagon R positioning but effective).The website is well made and showcases the car very well.They are also using the social media to market the product.

How effective would this excellent campaign prove to be ! Lets Wait !

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