MIT SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Subject: Brand Management Faculty: Prof.N.J.Chavan Batch: 29th Case No. 1

WHICH DIRECTION SHOULD THE BRAND TAKE? Liril made a big splash in the toilet soaps category in the late seventies. The market then was not very competitive. The mixed economy model did not yet fulfil the dream of prosperity and affluence. The licence raj tightly controlled industrial activity. Like most of the industry sectors, the toilet soap industry was dominated by only a handful of players like Hindustan Lever. Calcutta Chemicals and Tomoco. These three players marketed a complete portfolio with brands aimed at different segments and offering different benefits. The other players catered to small niches, as did Johnson & Johnson, which limited its range to infant and kids, with appropriate product offerings including mild soaps and shampoos. Other local players included the likes of Chandrika, Swastik, Keshnikhar, Mysore Scandal and Medimix, besides a host of small player that operated locally. This was during the seventies, when marketing as we know it today had not come into its own; it had yet to a harden into a serious discipline. Firms still followed traditional practices in conducting business and marketing personnel could not be said to command high esteem; their job was to hunt out fresh avenues for enhancing sales opportunities .Very few companies differentiated between sales and marketing function, preferring to club them under a single department, and few indeed were the ones who adopted a seriously technical approach to the activity. Demand still chased supply and, it being a suppliers market, things were easier to sell, whatever their quality. Advertising did not use sophisticated tools both to explore consumer motivation and create execution. Like many other categories, brands used rational appeals to woo consumers. The problems solution themes dominated the marketing arena. Soap fragrance, size, colour, name, etc., were seen to be major bait for hooking customers. The brand communication focused on product and ingredients as means to influence buying. The markets were still clubbed into large masses of customers with little express differentiation. The whole economy seemed to have been stuck in time wrap, with a little clamour when it came to grappling with the competition-what there was of it. Liril arrived on the soap space with the promise to transform bathing from problem coping to providing experience. With its freshness platform, the brand sought to add a psychological dimension of feeling good. The brand uniquely communicated and connected with its prospects through a bold advertisement by then prevalent values. IN 1975, the brand communication showed a beautiful model in bikini under a natural waterfall. The excitement and freshness so conveyed by the advertisement struck an emotional connect with the people. The sound track of the TV (then, alas, only black and white) commercial used a Lala...La.. . tune that concretised the delivery promised by the brand. In no time the brand became hugely

successful. The brand headlines invited the potential uses as come alive with Liril freshness. The brand advertising showed floating juicy sliced lemon to back up its freshness claim. It was the first brand that sought to play on inherent freshness associated with lime.

Brand Communication Potential customer: young women Background: Natural high energy waterfall Theme: young, vivacious, attractive girl having bath Promised benefit-freshness experience Promise support: floating juicy slices of lemon Voice over: Come alive with Liril freshness

Liril cornered 14% market share, good enough to dive it a slot in first three positions. It established the premium segment in soaps category. The brand was a top performer in the toilet soaps category until 1995, when it began to lose market share. During this period, the brand lost big volume over 30% and its market share slid to below 5%. The excitement and innovation created by the brand could not be sustained. The later brand communication deviated from the original brand positioning. Further the brand benefits of lime and freshness responsible for its success lost novelty. Many other brands began to focus on lime as ingredient and claimed benefits of freshness. What was once unique, pioneering benefit was becoming generic. Further, the brands original customers who grew up with it were aging. Over time, the need structure of this group was shifting from experience and emotional delivery to functionality. This way, the brand began to lose its grip over the market. The net result of loyal customers migrating to functionality and the brands unique positioning getting cluttered were typical challenges associated with the life cycle. Lack of differentiation and resonance with potential customers began to take its role on the brand. The brand persona that centred on lime and freshness no longer offered the uniqueness that brand now required to revitalize itself. The issue facing Liril was how to resurrect the once very strong brand and regain its former glory. Many thought of launching variation and re-doing the brands communication in order to make it more attuned with the times, so that young customers could be included in the brands fold. Challenged as the brand was, Lever did make a heroic attempt to inject fresh blood into the brand. The period of change the experimentations began in1995. The brand first rode on the extension mode. First, the brand saw the launch of shower gel in 1999; another variation saw the

light of the day by the Rainfresh. Then came icy blue Liril. The brand was hooked into a number of variants all of them trying to play around with the theme of freshness in different contexts. The brand communication that once created history of sorts-with sexy, bikini clad Karen lunel splashing about gleefully under a natural waterfall changed radically. The original Karen lunel ads ran for 12 years, firmly establishing the brands association with lime freshness. The girl in the waterfall theme was finally abandoned in favour of something called an unusual water experience instead of the girl under the waterfall theme. The girl came out the bath in the open, whether in the car wash or a boy dancing in front of a fire tanker hose. In a bid to lure youth, a set of commercial were launched on MTV. Then came the pissing boy, the girl in the desert, the Liril Icy commercial. The brand communication began to take many routes, as if the idea was to shoot off arrows in all direction in the hope that one would hit the target. But that did not seem to happen. The advertising initiatives and line extensions failed to infuse any energy into brands performance. Like the brand communication, even the product looks and forms deviated from its unique green, streaked appearance. Icy blue gave way to a blue variant that contained menthol. With line extensions, the brand sought to deliver a different bathing experience. The brands bold commercial of the green bikini clad model, made way for a model in green swimsuit. Later, the swimsuit of Liril model moved on to become a pair of hot pants. The brand faced intense competitive pressures in nineties, from other lime soaps aiming to copy the freshness platform. Experts feel differently about the fall of Liril from its prima donna status. One expert ascribes the fall of the brand to confusion between the brand idea and its execution. Many believe that the central brand idea was never really clear. It appeared that the girl in the waterfall was the central brand idea and it should not have been touched. But is it this creative expression of the central idea of freshness or the ideas itself-that was sacrosanct? Others believe that Liril drew its drew its success from the brand personally created by the first model, Karen Lunel. She epitomised not only youth but also others trail like exuberance, vivacity, innocence and fun. The models that replaced Karen were only young pretty things. They were lacking across all other personality aspects of the first model that launched the brand. Lever was never able to find another Karen Lunel to so uniquely capture and reflect the brand essence. The managers at the company believed that the brands creative expression of the girl in the waterfall had become outdated. It had lived its life. But actually the hangover persists to this very day. To give them credit, they have not altogether deviated from it. Be it in Liril calendar or advertisements, the symbols of waterfall and the girl would always be visible. Beyond communication, the brands have also seemed to have suffered on account of Levers inability to come up with the right product line in case of Liril, as they did for Lux and Lifebuoy. It is

suggested that the brand has to discover new horizons. It must transcend its current expression, only then there is there some hope for revival. Many believe that the brand failed to progress with time. The rapid changes executed in the communications amount influencing the superficial. The fundamental problems plaguing the brand were unearthed. The tactics to correct immediate problems began to drive the strategy. New variations and communications made the picture rosy for some time, but once the excitement period passes, the sales tumble to their previous levels. Alyoue Padamsee, who initially created the brand, believes that Lirils problem lie in fact that its original bathing experience has been replaced with unusual water experience. The later ads like pissing boy and the desert ad use the theme of water, but he questions, where is the bathing experience in these? Is it central to idea of freshness? The brand seems to have withered too far beyond its core idea. The entire commercials are good to view, but they fail to touch the heart. Many industry people believe that bringing back those original commercials may be a good idea. But how would that help? A majority of the brands current customers do not have any idea or recollections of those magical advertisements from the seventies. Over 50 years have passed and few are nostalgic feelings that have survived. The customers to today are fundamentally different from those of the past; they have a more active participation in everything. They dont expect a brand to passively deliver a benefit. Rather, they want to create an experience by active participation. Presently Liril has three variants: Liril Aloe Vera, Icy Cool and Liril Orange.

Questions: 1. Analyze the situation faced by brand Liril in todays environment. 2. Discuss the factors responsible for the situation. 3. What changes / modifications would you suggest?

MIT SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Subject: Brand Management Faculty: Prof.N.J.Chavan BRAND IN SEARCH OF UPWARD STRETCHS The wristwatch market in India remained dormant till the late eighties. It was a sellers market. The watch industry in India was it its infancy, and there was a flourishing grey market. The only credible Indian brand that one could then buy was the public sector HMT. The other players operated at very small levels and focused on the local unorganized market. However, at the top end people who had the money could buy costly important watches that sneaked into India through illegal channels. Thus the watch market at the top end was provided for by illegal channels and at very bottom, there were small players. Sandwiched in the middle was this lone player that had a dominant share of the market. In terms of branding game. They competed on availability and price. The top end brands were all big brands from Japan, Switzerland and the U.S. The branding strategy of the public sector HMT (Hindustan Machine Tools) did not focus as much on customer aspirations and desires as on technical side of watch making. HMT came in a limited variety of models that left customer pining for designs and styles of their preference. HMT brands core strength was durability and reliability. The watch was tough and could easily expect to be passed from one generation to other without having go in for any major repairs. HMT excelled in the hand-wound technology. Another player that shared the wristwatch space was Allwyn. This company had technical collaborations with Seiko of Japan. But unlike HMT, Allwyn remained a very distant second player. In 1987, the wristwatch industry was to experience a major change. In that year Titan was launched. The Titan (named after largest of Saturns moon) brand brought it with the trust of the Tata name along with a verity designs and superior service. The brand sought to fill the gap left open by HMT in terms of designs. HMT watches came in very limited, unexciting designs. The grey market did not provide service and warranty assurance. Titan brands key selling proposition was the trust its background invoked, and the designs. The initial campaign introduced the brand to the market something like 200 designs. The advertisements showed the range of models in full newspaper spreads. The brand strategy worked, and it became an instant success. The Indian watch market is estimated to be around 25 million pieces a year. The total market is divided equally between the organized sectors. Titan leads the industry with domestic sells of around 6 million pieces. Currently there are 190 million watch-owning Indians. Between them, they own 210 million watches Urban India accounts for 120 million, while rural India has Batch: 29th Case No. 2

account for some 90 million of total watches owned in India. In terms of gender more men own watches in India than women have higher watch ownership than housewives. During the HMT era, one of the brands of watches that shared the space was Purewal. Mr.G.S.Purewal, whose historical links with the industry went back several years when he began his career as a sales agent of watch spares, before turning to manufacturing and exporting spares. He set up, in early1990 P.A. Time industries to manufacture electronic watch components and quartz watches. The maxima brand of watches arrived on the scene in 1996.unlike the titan brand that sought to target the middle rung of the market, the purewal brand sought to cater to the lower tier of the pyramid. It aimed to serve the economically weaker sections of society. HMT and Titan the two dominant players of the organised segment operated in the price band of Rs 500 up to Rs 3000. These expensive brands deferred the poorer sections from buying a Branded watch, thereby pushing them into the arms of the local players. But these players provided neither service nor quality. The same phenomenon was also present in top end grey market. The maxima brand was born out of a vision to serve this less-privileged segmentof the population with a product concept that offered: accuracy, reliability, quality, after sales service and honest price (Rs. 350).The brand maxima combined all this with the esteem value of a nationality advertised brand. The brand created high awareness and recall with its launch advertisement showing a handsome man whose watch happens to drop in a swimming pool. Then the voice over introduced the watch and its unique guaranteed waterproofing and price. Later,brand communication focuses on the watchs strength. This was done by means of a commercial where an elephant stamped on the watch. The brand initially offered the watches in plastic bodies. The aqua collection targeted customers who saw affordability and reliability at affordable price. The success of Maximas strategy could be gauged from the fact that it went on to become number 2 player in terms of volume, in 2002. It left behind in the race, established and powerful brands like as Timex and HMT. The number of watches sold by this company is one and a half times that of these brands. The mid-piece brands did not seem perturbed over this growth as their brand does not compete with maxima, which concentrated on the low-price band. Liberalization of the economy had its own impact on the watch industry. The influx of foreign brands is unleashing challenges for the home grown players like Titan and Maxima. The lower end of the market is facing a severe challenge from the influx of cheap Chinese imports. Their influx through the illegal route is flooding the markets. Even brands like Titan are feeling the heat, with the more open policy of allowing foreign brands into India. Players like citizen, Valentine, Fossil, Pierre Cardin, Seiko and Casio are contestants in the mid-price segment. In the price band of Rs 1500 to Rs2500, the market is growing so is competition. Indian brands score over others in terms of volumes, but the price charged by foreign brands tends to be high.

This yellow metal has always been a big attraction for Indians. It this lure for gold watches that makes them such a big success in India. The yellow metal resonates with traditional Indian imagery and values. The amount of gold worn by a woman defines her social strata and status. It scores very high on aspirational value. It is for those reasons that gold plated watches account for over 80 percent market share in interior India. Faced with increased competition from the cheap imports, and squeezed margins in the economy category, the MAXIMA brand is in search of a new growth paradigm. It started out as an economy brand with core values of affordability and reliability targeted at the lower segment. In order to cope up with this challenge, a bundle of strategic option proposed is to take the brand to the higher segment. That is, to extend the line with watches designed to cater to the middle price point between Rs 1000 and Rs 1500. But serious doubts have been raised about the brands capability to move up the value spectrum with the same name. The brand has established itself as a firm player in the economy segment, with defined customer expectations of price, but its foray into a higher league would bring it in direct competition with another set of players like Titan, HMT and Timex. These formidable players have product lines starting at a price that would overlap with middle range oriented MAXIMA. The price demarcation would vanish. So the issue is: who would like to buy a MAXIMA watch when other brands like Titan and HMT also offer models in the same price band? Further, it would send confusing signals about the brand identity. The strategy to move the brand up can backfire and damage the brand equity. Product quality is not an issue for this brand to move up. It offers comparable quality. But brand image could be an issue. An idea of getting brand endorsers was tossed around. By getting the right kind of endorsers, the brand would be able to resonate with the mid price range prospects. Now, the brand needs to be projected as high end, and yet affordable. The solution was found in the choice of 2 celebrities: Yana Gupta and Saif Ali khan. The company has set aside a big budget running into crores to execute this campaign. Not everybody appreciates this move. Sceptics are concerned that instead of taking MAXIMA brand to high price point, a new brand should have been created. Chances are that this strategy to lure mid price customers would alienate the economy range customers for whom the brand came in the first place. Questions: 1. Analyze the situation. 2. What in your opinion are the positive & negative aspects of the brand? 3. Suggest your remedial measures.