Re-positioning ‘Gems’ Brand
Cadbury which has many successful re-positioning stories like that of Cadbury Dairy
Milk’s to its credit recently decided to re-position one of its brand, Gems. Cadbury with
its new series of ads complimented with the tagline “Raho Umarless” (which can be
roughly translated to “Be ageless”) seemingly targets adults for its gems brand which
was once positioned mainly for kids only. But the inside market story tells that Cadbury
this time has failed in their re-positioning exercise with Gems brand.
Why re-positioning failed with Gems Brand
Cadbury after their successful up gradation of chocolate brands to adults, tried to do
the same with their Gems brand. Whatever be the reason, increasing sales or market
expansion, the move is indeed brave. However, the campaign “Raho Umarless” which
features the adults being kiddish has failed to recreate the magic they have done for
other chocolate brands.
One of the reasons for the failure of the re-positioning can be attributed to the concept
of the campaign itself. The “Raho Umarless” ads unlike the other Cadbury ads failed to
connect with the target consumers. This is because the ads for Cadbury chocolates
showed adults behaving like adults which earned their empathy, while, Gems ads had
shown adults behaving like kids which apparently did not register well with target
consumers. It might probably have made only the children laugh. However, it failed to
win over the hearts of its target consumers.
Another reason to the failure is that the campaign could not provide any convincing
reason as to why adults should buy Gems. Elements like why should and when to buy
as in Cadbury chocolate campaigns is missing in Gems campaign.
Going back to fundamentals
It looks like Cadbury’s has to go back to the basics and work out a re-positioning
strategy for Gems from scratch. However, it would be really good for the company to
ask themselves this fundamental question ‘do we need to re-position Gems brand?’.
With kids as their prime target, Cadbury Gems took the fantasy route to pave its way into the hearts of its consumers. The
first few spots featured fictional characters like Aladdin and the Djinn along with mesmerised kids. While still focusing on
children, the brand took into account the growing popularity of animated programming in its first ads for the next decade. It
hopped aboard the sci fi and adventure platform using a mnemonic named Gems Bond.
By 1995, the brand had launched a pop pack (now referred to as Gems Tube). To spread the word about the new packaging,
Gems rolled out 'Mutthi Mein Zamana'. Again the focus was on lighthearted fun as kids faced off against bullies and won.
With Cadbury Dairy Milk successfully negotiating a transition from being a chocolate for kids to a sweet for everybody around
the time, the brand thought of migrating Gems to appeal to an older audience too. The 'Smart. Very Smart' campaign was an
attempt to w ..
The fun quotient was retained for years that followed, in different avatars — 'Masti ke Rang' in 2004 and then 'Masti Ke
Partner' in 2007. Two years on, when the association with fun and revelry was established, Gems wanted kids to remember
the brand in a quirky yet memorable manner. Thus came the thought of how Gems would make black & white pandas
colourful and cheerful. Called 'Rangeen panda ki rangeen pasand,' the campaign ran till 2011. By the time, kids had come to
associate the brand w ..
With a reboot long overdue, the brand veered from its positioning of yesteryears. It has come up with 'Raho Umarless'
propagating the thought that one is never too old for Gems. "While the brand was beating all its past records on growth in
2010-11, we realised that as kids reached the pre-teen stage (12-13 years) they start lapsing out of Gems," Mukherjee
explains. So the brief was to portray that Gems evokes playfulness regardless of age. The ads star two fairly elderly proper
looking gentlem ..
Given the newfound sweet tooth people tend to develop in their old age, one would assume this is yet another strategy to
target the elderly and expand the target base. Sounds rational. Only it's not the case if you ask the brand. "The intent was not
to target adults but increase appeal especially among pre-teens through this change," Mukherjee asserts. Adds Manoj Shetty,
group creative director at Ogilvy & Mather, and who has been working on Gems since 1999, "There's a myth about Gems
that i ..
It is an intelligent move, backs brand consultant Harish Bijoor. There's always an older guy in a kid and a kid in an old man,
he feels. And this positioning enables a kid to, in a way, have access to an adult treat as well. The proposition has been
received well by kids, pre-teens and teens, the brand claims. In fact, Gems has witnessed a positive change in preference
and consumption levels of not only pre-teens but teens and adults as well, they state. Explains why they plan to evolve the
bran ..
No umar for super heroes
https://youtu.be/9LFBshyi414
The campaign showcases various childish attributes of adults, the reasons for their attraction to
Gems and further stresses on the idea of living an age-less life through the tagline, 'Raho
Umarless'.SimplicityThe ad is running only for about 50 seconds with only one scene and showed
only one character for more than 30 seconds. No complicated logics, concepts, no more number of
characters etc.RelevanceThe campaign is about favourite colour. Everyone knows that gems are
more famous for its various coloured candies. Emotional connectThey touch the target audience’s
emotional psychologically by focusing the favourite colour. There are lot of people who buy dress,
accessories, house hold items, etc for the colour. The colour of the product makes them to buy it
despite of its other features. Theyused this emotion here.Experts ViewChandramouli Venkatesan,
director, snacking and strategy, Cadbury India, says, "Insightsreveal that Cadbury Gems has a
strong connect with both kids and adults. The brand deeply resonates with child-like freedom. Our
new campaign 'Raho Umarless' appeals toour consumers and encourages adults to be child-like
and enjoy being ageless."The television campaign draws mixed feelings from advertising
professionals - while one side of the table feels that the brand is confused in its message, the
other side is of the opinion that once again, it's magic from Cadbury.Gautam Pandit, partner and
senior creative director, R K Swamy BBDO, says, "The idea has well captured the core brand value
- 'brings out the child in you' - in an entertaining manner.Vikram Dhaliwal, planning head,
Rediffusion-Y&R, remarks, "On the face of it, it seems that Cadbury is trying to broaden its
consumption base and make Gems relevant to a slightly older population than it currently
addresses. However, this advertising does not reach the heights that Dairy Milk does, simply
because it doesn't find a way to speak to the reality of adult life.
Cadbury Gems ‘s 'Raho Umarless'.The only challenge that Gems can face is that for years it has been linked to
kids as asegment and now that they are thinking of expanding their age category, it might pose apotential
problem. They know that if a product is tied to one target category then it isdifficult for them to grow and
expand. A common view is there in society that a chocolate or confectionary is only for Children. But
actually everyone is fond of them.Cadbury Gems team used it in the right time.They planned and go for the
'Raho Umarless' campaign. Visual CuesWhen the Ad started, we can easily guess that the ad is about Cadbury
Gems. Since they focused the big toy made of gems in a museum. Target Market AlignmentChocolate has not
only been there for kids but for everyone, be it in any form or shape orsize. One thing about that the commercial
does well is to grab attention of the consumer.
Case Study:Brand – Fevicol
BRAND POSITIONING & ADVERTISING STRATEGY
Brand:
Pidilite is a family-owned professionally-run organisation with a strong legacy of
governance, delivering consistent returns and formidable market share. Pidilite traces
its origins to a strong entrepreneurial start by its late founder Balvant Parekh half a
century ago. The subsequent two generations from the Parekh family have successfully
led and directed the journey of the company to where it stands today.
Brand Communication Strategy:
India is one of the markets that demand extreme localization and yet can not be
ignored due to the sheer size and opportunity it offers. In a survey conducted
during the 90’s, Business Today arrived at certain characteristics that are
expected from advertisements in India. Basically they are expected to provoke
either humor or surprise by creativity and by drawing unexpected associations.
But one should be careful that while people like to be astonished, that should
come through the story in ad and not through the product itself. Moreover, they
should give birth to aspirations within consumers (Granstrom & Henriksson,
2000). In fact, local brands like Fevicol have picked these trends earlier and shown
the right way by their innovative advertisements. Some of these advertisements
will be analyzed in detail in the following section.
Tone of the Advertisements
It basically depicts what certain characteristic of human psyche is being targeted
to elicit certain reactions. For example, using adorable kids to appeal the softer
side of the consumer works very well at times especially for household items. On
the other hand, hard selling with a lot of relevant information can also work for
certain products like technical equipments. Humor inducing ads also work very
well for almost all type of products (Burning & Kintz, 1968). In similar ways, the
tone can be religious, traditional, fashionable, glamorous, health conscious,
somber, laid back, mysterious, rugged etc depending on product type and target
audience. No matter what the tone is, good information content with value or
price information is always appreciated.
Examples:
One of the early advertisements contained a group of muscular men and
elephants trying to tear apart a wooden plank which was joined by Fevicol. Of
course they fail despite shouting the slogan “jor lagake haisha”, which a rustic
catchphrase used by people while playing tug of war and other similar activities.
This became a very popular phrase with tremendous recall value as the
commercial gained popularity. Another one contained a person trying to break an
egg and failing repeatedly, only to realize that the hen laid the eggs on a fevicol
jar.
Remember Fevicol’s iconic ad with a fisherman catches fish by dropping the adhesive on a
fishing stick.
They consciously avoid songs, dances or celebrity endorsements which are
prevalent in Indian advertisements.
Overall, it gives an impression that fevicol is the universal adhesive that can join
just anything in the world.
Fevicol evidently targets the working class population but at the same time don’t
make it appear too alien or targeted to others. The undercurrent of humor makes
it strike a cord with other consumers too. That is why Fevicol becomes an
excellent example in brand positioning. It knows very well who its targets are, but
still makes an effort to drive a message that is universally appealing and
recognizable. Here exaggerated visuals are used to ignite the creativity of viewers.
RESULTS:
The Rs6,000- crore company is India’s leading maker of adhesive and construction
chemicals. Its flagship adhesive brand, Fevicol, has a strong brand equity and recall.
The company has a history of nurturing brands across various categories of consumer
adhesives, craftsmen adhesives, waterproofing chemicals and hobby and craft colours
with brands like Dr Fixit, M-Seal, Fevikwik and Fevicryl.
Its market dominance in case of Fevicol and M-seal brands is near-monopolistic with
over 70% market share. The secret behind the success is the focus on the unorganised
market by identifying the role of carpenters as major influencers. The company invests
in bin building extensive grassroots contact with the end-users to promote usage of its
products.
This has helped it gain a sizeable and sticky share in what was traditionally an
unbranded space. It has also enabled the company to pass on the price increases to
the consumers. Its products (from consumer and bazaar to industrial products) have a
diversified demand coming from various segments such as furniture and finishing,
plumbing,automobiles, schools, office and housing.
The company’s consolidated revenue grew at a five-year compound annual growth
rate of 9.3% to Rs6,078 crore in FY18 — even as its net profit doubled during this
period to Rs966 crore.The company has been able to maintain a high operating margin
of 22% since the past three fiscal years. The company has, on an average, paid out
one-third of its profit as dividend in the last three fiscals.
Happydent: An Elephantine effort for sparkling
teeth
After the ‘photo studio’ film, and the globally acclaimed ‘Palace’ commercial,
the brand has just unveiled a commercial for one of its new variants – Happydent
Wave. In the wake of the brand promise of Muskurale, jagmagale... for Happydent
White in 2007, Happydent Wave comes with the somewhat poetic promise of
Daaton tale, diya jale.
The film, conceived by McCann Erickson, opens on a shepherd looking for his lost
sheep. He comes across a herd of elephants that has found a toppled lorry full of
Happydent Wave. As the elephants step on the gum, there are splashes of water,
which gradually turn into a river in which the elephants swim and play. At
nightfall, the elephants’ tusks suddenly start shining bright, lighting up the jungle.
The film ends with a few old men sitting in the darkness and quipping
sarcastically, “Jangal mein mangal ho raha hai, par gaon mein toh bijli aayi hi
nahin bhaiya!” (There is no light in the village, while the jungle is shining bright.)
The film has been penned by Prasoon Joshi, executive chairman, McCann Erickson
India, and regional executive creative director, Asia Pacific, McCann Erickson. It
has been directed by Abhijit Chaudhuri aka Dadu – who had also directed the
2004 ‘Photo studio’ film -- and produced by Black Magic Films. The post
production and CG (computer graphics) related work has been executed by the
team of Reynold and Nikhil of Pixion.
Thoughts behind the film
The Happydent Wave film comes almost two years after the Palace film was
released. Sameer Suneja, chief executive officer, Perfetti Van Melle, reasons that
the previous film had generated enough top-of-mind recall and there wasn’t need
for another film. “However, for launching a variant like Wave, we required a
commercial that amplifies the launch and generates further recall,” he says.
The film is expected to serve the purpose of creating trials for the variant as well
as reinforcing the mother brand. The Wave, according to Suneja, is among the
first-of-its-kind – coated gum with a liquid centre.
For Joshi, the biggest challenge was the weight of the previous film. Added to this
was the task of cracking a film for a variant which dealt with twin propositions:
sparkling teeth and a liquid-filled centre.
Joshi attributes the story of the film to references of Jal Krida (an act of playing in
or with water) in ancient Sanskrit tales and folklore about elephants and their love
for water.
Exaggeration to the nth power? Joshi explains, “Since the category isn’t that
involving, one needs to suspend logic and make the ad as memorable and
entertaining as possible. Exaggerations and elements of fantasy work as good
tools in this respect.” The satire towards the end rounds the story up. To make it
entertaining and catchy, the agency opted for Chhattisgarhi folk music as the
background score – one may recall that the Palace film had a touch of Sufi music.
The advertising for Wave presently comprises a single TVC and might branch out
to OOH also.
Behind the scenes
The film has been shot entirely in Palakkad, Kerala, over a period of three days.
afaqs! caught up with Dadu, who has been working on Perfetti films – including
the ‘crocodile and Kajol’ film for Alpenliebe – since 2001.
The team originally wanted to shoot in Bangkok or Sri Lanka, the latter for its
elephant farms. However, in Kerala, they had to rely on elephants from different
owners; as a result, the animals didn’t know each other, nor did they share a
comfort level. Various challenges came up in managing the herd of 12-13
elephants and their mahouts (the elephant trainers). Dadu grins, “In shooting the
sequence of the elephants stepping on the cartons of gum and water splashing,
we had to use hose pipes, which made the elephants run away.”
Again, there was a persistent language problem with the mahouts, coupled with
the problem of working with timber elephants instead of performing elephants.
However, Dadu is glad to have found a dream location, which had all the elements
for the film -- the jungle and the lake. All the team had to do was construct a
village for the final shot.
The film has a lot of CG (computer graphics) work too. For instance, the shot with
the elephants swimming in the lake or their tusks glowing in the dark have been
modified on the edit table. For the tusks, Chaudhuri maintains that “There was a
need for a tube-light like flickering glow.” For this shot, the team had to make
special replicas of the tusk and replace them with the shot of real tusks on the
computer.
Similarly, the number of elephants was multiplied on the computer in the final
shot to give the feel of scale. In certain shots, the elephants would just not
cooperate, and as a result, the mahouts had to be physically present in these
shots. These were also later modified with the mahouts removed.
Anybody smiling?
afaqs! spoke to adland to find out what they make of this attempt. Apart from the
fact that most are still under the hangover of the Palace film, this is what they had
to say.
Ashish Khazanchi, national creative director, Publicis Ambience, remarks, “Most
creative people, if told to work on the new Happydent ad, would probably rub
their hands in glee. Not me though. I’d wear dark clothes to office and stand
motionlessly in a dark corner till someone else cracked it. How do you better an
ad that’s the best that this country has ever seen?”
He finds the copy for the new ad a work of pure genius: ‘Roshni ka matka hai, ek
nadi ka tukda isme latka hai’. Apart from that, he finds it visually arresting, and
feels it improves with each viewing, especially, “when you catch the villagers’
wisecracks. But then, the Palace still remains the one to beat.”
Pinaki Bhattacharya, senior vice-president, strategic planning, Saatchi & Saatchi,
thinks there really is no insight here and never was – it’s just a superbly
exaggerated visualisation of the product truth. Coining it as yet another
memorable film for the brand, he says, “To McCann’s credit, I think they have
pulled off another good one. This time, though, there was the added burden of the
‘liquid inside’, which has been nicely integrated into the whitening truth – ‘roshni
ka matka hai’.”
Happydent Perfetti launched the brand `Happydent‘ in 1970 alongwith Alpenlibe, Big Babol and the
brand has been growing ever since. Perfetti Van Melle India introduced the ayurvedic functional gum in
the healthcare category to India by way of Happydent White, a chewing gum containing ingredients
(baking soda) that provides the benefit of keeping teeth naturally white. In this category, Happydent
competed with strongly entrenched brands with high awareness and big spends. The brand was sailing
along but could not really shake the competitors. This ayurvedic proprietary product contains active
ayurvedic ingredients mentioned in authoritative text books for their therapeutic uses, have a
synergistic affect in treatment means to helps promote oral hygiene (Halitosis)/gum & teeth diseases.
The main ingredient which was most highlighted is the Meetha (Baking) Soda which helps in
maintaining natural whiteness & thus it is positioned as "Chewing gum for a Sparkling Smile".
Positioning Happydent ads positions itself as - Whiteness Teeth Strength Sugar free chewing
gums The ads are targeted towards all sort of audience as it focuses on the healthcare aspect. And being
cheap and affordable, it is used by a huge population. Starting with a market share of 6% now has a
share of more than 25%. Researches stated that the Happydent ads have a 90% recall rate because of its
concepts.
The Happydent ads are mainly focused on the Humor Emotional Appeal. This causes consumer to –
Watch Laugh Remember It has built all its commercials around ―Sparkling Teeth‖ and
―Sugarfree Gum‖.
1. Happydent White This ad has mainly been made keeping in mind the Indian audience. The
RajaMaharaja type milieu portraying the unaccountably large palace servants‘ Term III – Integrated
Marketing Communication PGDM-Exec 2012 5 population, people dancing in barats, the clothing
customs and an old not-so-impressive King, makes the ad relatable for the Indians. The background
music score ―Tera dil roshan, tera mann roshan‖ befits the visual part of the ad well and thereby
further appeals to the senses. The ad depicts that, in the palace to deal with this no-electricity crisis,
they make use of Happydent. The workers and servants are shown to chew Happydent as a result of
which they have literally luminously white teeth. So when night falls, all they have to do is give their
dazzling smiles and in the process light up the entire kingdom.
This ad shows that happydent can make your teeth so sparkling that it can work as a camera flash.
Happydent White's brand positioning is different from its peer group. The ad goes like - a cameraman
with handle-bar moustache and a red bow asks a village belle to pose before his camera in his studio. It
is one of those cameras of yesteryears where the photographer's head disappears under the black cloth
and the flash had an existence independent of the camera.
Brand Analysis
Happydent has been positioned as a functional gum which means it imparts some practical function
along with usual enjoyment provided by traditional chewing gum, thus enticing the consumers. In this
section we are going to analyze some of the properties of Happydent as a brand.
Brand Promise
The ingredient – Baking Soda in Happydent helps in maintaining natural whiteness of the teeth but it
doesn‘t really provide teeth which can be used to lighten up a palace. Also, it has been scientifically
proven that chewing gum helps in getting healthy and strong gum.
Brand Personality
The brand personality of Happydent is old, humorous, low-class. It has never sponsored any event for
promotion or used any celebrity for endorsement of the brand. There is no personality cult around
whom the campaign revolves in these ad‘s. Happydent is recognized for its humorous ads and the
concept of achieving sparkling teeth.
Brand Identity
High recall value of Happydent brand variants is due to the cult identity of the brand. The brand
identity of Happydent is sparkling and strong teeth, humorous commercials, ayurvedic gum.
Results:
The category of chewing gums is an impulse purchase and so ads play a very important role in market
share. Based on the fact that ―whitening‖ is perceived as a desired consumer benefit Happydent took
the liberty of dramatizing whiteness to a degree of unbelievable, a fantastical exaggeration- Thus was
borne the bizarre idea of a human bulb—a man who is a professional bulb since his teeth are so white.
Spontaneous recall more than doubled to 16 percent, from the previous 8 percent in 2005. Market share
simply doubled and trebled. Total brand awareness scores of Happydent doubled and grew dramatically
to reach the 90 percent level. Gross national volume grew by 102 percent over 2005 figures.
