Showing posts with label celebrity endorsements. Show all posts
Showing posts with label celebrity endorsements. Show all posts

Saturday, April 19, 2008

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.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

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:-)

 
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