An OLD product with the SAME feel in a NEW Package

Any marketing enthusiast would remember the Cinthol Ad featuring the 80's hero,Vinod Khanna Ad. The ad managed to position Cinthol as an exuberant youthful brand which showed the confidence of the young energetic male. The symbol of Vinod Khanna in a horse by the beach stayed on till the 90's and managed to help Cinthol ward of the onslaught of the MNC brands.

Cinthol heavily promoted the product using celebrities of the likes of Vinod Khanna and Imran Khan in 1986 . In 1989 Cinthol tried to catch the lime freshness trend using Cinthol Lime which was a big hit. During 1992 it came out with Cologne. The brand went for a major overhaul in 1993-1995 with a new pack. But there was a customer outcry for the old Cinthol. Eventually the company had to relaunch the original Cinthol and the new range was branded as Cinthol International. By 1993, the soap boasted of an 18 per cent share of the premium segment of toilet soaps.

Then, Cinthol’s fortunes took a turn for the worse. Between 1993 and 1996, it got in-and-out-of a joint venture with Procter & Gamble (P&G), the aftermath of which saw Godrej’s overall market share in soaps slip to a measly 5 per cent. Brand Cinthol today is a shadow of its former self.

Godrej Consumer Products is targeting an over 20 per cent topline growth in its Cinthol brand this year. And in line with this target they have increased their marketing spends for Cinthol by about 20 %. One such move in this direction is the new commercial featuring Hrithik Roshan on the TV screens performing DHOOM 2 Lik stunts bare chested in the new Cinthol ad. When Godrej Consumer decided to relaunch its flagship brand Cinthol last month, it decided to let Hindi film star Roshan do what he’s best at. Accompanying the new action-packed television commercial that’s currently on air, is an entirely repackaged offering from the Cinthol franchise.

On watching the ad you tend to get the feeling that Cinthol is trying to recreate the magic of the 80s and early nineties by making Cinthol contemporary with today's youth but keeping it's brand essence intact. The brand essentially is to offer freshness to the young confident male. Just like it used Macho stars of yester year, Vinod Khanna and Imran Khan for enhancing its sex appeal, it has gone on a similar path to rope in the definition of Macho in today's India - Hrithik.

Hrithik exemplifies energy, passion, and the attitude to achieve what he wants to precisely firring into the "Don't stop" campaign that Cinthol has launched. Whether Hrithik manages to pull consumers to the shelves as he does his fans to the theatres remains to be seen.

A Royal Challenge to the Surrogate ban

A TOI News Article read thus

"The information & broadcasting ministry’s ban on surrogate advertising of liquor and tobacco brands looks all set to blow up into a full-fledged dispute between the government and broadcasters/advertisers.

The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) is likely to meet the information & broadcasting minister next week to discuss issues regarding ban on surrogate advertisements by liquor and tobacco brands on television.

In the meantime, IBF has advised its members to continue running advertisements that have approval from the Censor Board. While big liquor companies refused to comment, media planners and advertising agencies have questioned the I&B’s ban saying that if these brands can be sold, why can’t they be advertised."

As is clear, the hue and cry over the ban on surrogate advertisements for liquor and tobacco has reached an all time high. With an impending ban on surrogate ads there is a lot of debate over whether the brand extensions of liquor and tobacco products fall under the surrogate bracket.

Definition: Surrogate advertising
The dictionary meaning of the word surrogate is substitute. But no one in the industry is clear about the definition of surrogate advertising. According to some, surrogate advertising means advertising the namesake of the main brand. I would say that surrogate advertising is when you advertise one brand in the guise of the another brand.

The Scenario
Some famous brands that employ surrogates are Seagram (which releases CDs), McDowells (soda), Bagpiper (soda, cassettes and CDs), Godfrey Phillips (bravery awards), and Bacardi (cassettes and CDs). This brings us to the question of the big two. Wills Lifestyle and Kingfisher airlines. What probably began as a surrogates went on to become a huge business at least in the case of Wills lifestyle. Keeping the intention of the establishment aside the retail brand has a reputation of its own today and contributes a significant amount to the coffers of the group.

In 2000 the government formed a committee headed by the then additional secretary of the I&B ministry and which included prominent broadcasters to look into this issue. The committee recommended that products with real production and distribution channels cannot be called a surrogate. In that case a Wills Lifestyle can surely be not termed surrogate and manages to move into the Brand extension zone.

Same is the case of Kingfisher airlines which as a business would be bigger than the beer business and can be clearly proved as a legitimate business (Considering so many government officials travel Kingfisher nowadays). The casualties in case of a ban would be the smaller brands.

There were questions raised over the UB group buying the Bangalore IPL team as whether that would amount to Surrogate advertising. As discussions started the bangalore team was unveiled by Vijay Mallya under the name of Royal Challengers. What a master stroke? With the Indian Premier League and the buzz of cricket at its peak the Royal Challengers are on their way to gain more eyeballs for the brand than any event has managed in the past few years.

Vijay Mallya has mentioned during the launch that he would use the team to promote his brands and the promotional video of the Bangalore team stands as a testimonial to the same. The video has several shots of youngsters enjoying a drink as they enjoy the match. Now how is our health crazy health minister going to respond. Knowing him he is capable of demanding a ban on all matches of the RC team telecast on TV. But sadly reality and common sense works otherwise.

As a marketer revels at the ingenuity of such an exercise any ban on the surrogate ads is not to be take easily by the advertisers and the firms. Why allow a product to be manufactured and then not allow the people to know of its existence. And if impressionable teens is the reason then how about banning the million hours of television footage displaying violence, sex and crime.

As such bans continue marketers would come up with innovative ways of reaching the customer with their brands creatively finding place in all sorts of branded content, TV advertorials and in-film advertising. If surrogate ads are banned events would take main stage. Don't be surprised if you end up watchig a reaslity show to find the best bar-tenders in the country.

Kareena pulls a Deepika

No...Kareena hasn't managed to pull Ranbir.... This is with reference to Kareena Kapoor endorsing for Vivel the latest of the soaps launched by ITC in its all out war against HUL. Not so long ago Kareena kapoor was luring customers towards her seductive advertisement for LUX Chocolate seduction limited edition. As a direct jump that is akin to Sourav Ganguly jumping from Coke to Pepsi Kareena has shown that loyalty is not necessarily a precondition for endorsement jumping from HUL's LUX to ITCs Vivel

If we do remember an upcoming, then soon to be famous Padukone in her lemon green bikini managed to win hearts in the Liril Advertisement. Now she is off showing how to have a "Beautiful you, today and Tomorrow" endorsing Fiamma Di wills the luxury soap range of ITC.


Maybe all these celebrities are finding ITC products better(to the pockets atleast:-)), or it is just a coincidence, but nevertheless ITC is making life real tough for HUL. The giant Levers which beat P & G fair and square, has met someone its own size. But the real interesting point to be seen here is the loyalty expected of customers is very rarely exhibited by the brand ambassadors who themselves are rarely loyal to a brand. Although celebrity endorsements do seem to be very effective(although not measurable), such jumps across brands does pose a big problem for the marketing organizations.

Marketers need to come up with loyalty programs that suit the brand ambassadors too nowadays:-)