comfort fabric conditioner

Fabric conditioner is one which makes the clothes softer and can be an after wash or pre-wash one. This market is currently a niche market in India as most of the people buy only detergents and assume that the clothes can withstand the onslaught of the effects of the chemicals. those who feel it cannot prefer to go for dry-washing rather than do it by themselves.

This product is more of a luxury offering for a commoner and only a person who is adventurous in trying or doesnt mind taking the pains personally will go for this product. i personally tried this only for the flower smell which it promised. little consumer insight which i gained out of using this product is that it isnt effective for all the clothes but is pretty good for bed-spreads and pillow cases( clothes which does not require day to day washing). the smell is retained for quite some time on the bed spreads which is pretty pleasant. if it is advertised for drapes and such infrequently washed components, it will have a wider reach. watch the ad here

The brand is positioned as a soft fabric conditioner which makes the clothes soft and doesnt let them fade or become old. hence, people have more involvement with getting dressed ( i seriously dont know how this becomes a selling point). good thing is that they have associated the softness and other features of the product with kids in the ad and they have also created awareness about how to use the product by mentioning it. the setting of the ad depicts that this product is probably for the sec A and the sec B customers.
The main threat which this product faces is from the core detergent products which also offer similar features like fragrance and keeping the clothes soft. the market for an entirely new product to perform these functions has not yet emerged. HUL's decision to bring this product to India starts a new war for an emerging market and if it does, it will give the giant the first mover advantage as it has experienced as always in India.

dove real beauty campaign

dove from the unilever stable has been available in India since 1995. with the entry of dove, the premium segment in soaps in India started developing. after nearly 15 years, the premium segment hasnt really taken off and still remains a untapped. this is mainly due to the dynamics of the Indian market and its constituents who look for "value for money" in every purchase. the POD of dove is shown as having moisturising milk ( 1/4) and it being called a cream bar than a soap. though this dint really set the sales figure rolling for the simple fact that it was highly priced and for those who did make the purchase, the wear off rate was way higher than any other good soap in the market. what i really liked about the advertisements were the white background which somehow conjures purity and easy on skin image on the viewers.recently dove came up with another break through campaign " campaign for real beauty". it portrays that beauty is all about the feel good factor and that it is not concentrated in the youth segment who are models or are in the beauty enhanced businesses. this concept is new to the indian toilet soap industry and i feel the market hasnt yet matured to accept that beauty is beyond the looks. indian consumers still look in for beauty enhancing products to look and hence feel good about themselves. only a fraction of the crowd would be really interested in accepting how they are and so embracing this product which is in alignment with their opinion.i feel the campaign is actually flawed to some extent because even this fraction holds a deep desire of one day becoming what the society calls as the beauty. hence, they will also go in for beauty products. if you have noticed, some models in the advertisement belong to the mid 40s age group. true, they might still look good and hence may feel good about themselves. if this is true, then why are there so many anti-ageing creams and age miracle therapies which claims to give youthful appearances. nowadays, they have even lowered the price of the product and are having promotions as buy one, get one free. this might cause brand erosion in the long run and may prove disastrous for the premium segment product.

great beginning

finally made the first step towards fulfilling my new year resolution of starting a blog for penning down my views on marketing and the grey areas around it....though my interest lies in advertising, i will also be writing about the broader picture...