2/18/2015

MarketingPractice:Ceasefire:RIP19892002

Ceasefire was India's first domestic fire extinguisher. It was one of India's best and worst marketing stories. A
brandthatvirtuallycreatedandruledacategoryfadedoutafter12years.
Fireextinguisherscomesinthecategoryofunsoughtgoodsanditisdifficultandexpensivetocreateandsurvivein
such a product category . Real Value Appliances owned by Mr. Pheroze
Engineerstartedoperationsin1989bringingtothecountryanewconcept
adomesticfireextinguisher.Thefireextinguisherswerenotuncommon
to Indian consumers. We see it in large malls and theaters. But a
domesticonewasunique.Indianconsumersneverthoughtofhavingone
intheirhomes.
The product made perfect sense in Indian market ( infact every market).
Ourhouseholdsdealwithfireallthetimeandtheriskoffirebeinggetting
out of control is very much there. Hence a marketing mind would easily
seetheprospectofcashinginthatneed:theneedforprotectionfromfire.
ThuscameintomarketCeasefire.Theproductwascompact,uniquehad
a catchy name, looked good and boasted of extinguishing all sorts of
fires.
Ceasefire was halon 1211 based fire extinguisher that was very compact and was handy and easy to use ( with
minimum effort). Much more than the efficacy of the use, it gave a certain peace of mind to the Indian consumer
againstthepossiblefiremishap.
The product was well received in the market. The ads were focusing on building in the consumer a fear about a
possible fire mishap . The ads were backed by a sales campaign. The company focused on direct marketing for
promoting the product . Since the " Fear of Fire" is so basic to human psyche, the success was imminent. The
productwaspricedatapremiumandthecustomersnevercomplained.
Fire extinguishers , like Insurance is one kind of product where customers are not unhappy if it is not being used.
Hence the success is in keeping the " Fear " alive in the customer's mind. The success of Ceasefire was much
discussedinManagementclassesthosedays.
Thenbuoyedbythesuccess,thecompanydiversifiedtoVaccumizerand"restbecamehistory".Fromabrandthat
wasamongthetoptenfastestgrowingbrandinthecountrytoacompanyreferredtoBIFR,thingsmovedveryfast
from1997onwards.
It happened not because the brand failed the company but it was because the company failed the brand. The
unsuccessful new product like vaccumizer and the alleged mismanagement failed the brand once gloried as a
marketingsuccessstory.In2002,RealValueAppliancescloseddown
its operations. May be the brand / company tried to grow very fast without consolidating, may be because of
mismanagement.
Itwasabrandthatlostitslifebecauseoffaultsnotofitsown.Butsurprisingly,nootherbrandshavecomeforward
totakethatposition.TheproductcategorythatwascreatedbyCeasefireisstillvoid.Maybethecategorymaynot
beappealingtotheothermarketers.Butthepotentialisthereandthefearisalsothere.

data:text/htmlcharset=utf8,%3Cdiv%20align%3D%22justify%22%20style%3D%22color%3A%20rgb(34%2C%2034%2C%2034)%3B%20fontfamily%3A%20

1/1