Brand Update : -

Bournvita Drifts in its Positioning

Bournvita is one of the major players in the Rs 4000 crore Indian Health Drink market. The brand has a market share of around 15% according to Business Standard. The brand has been a darling for kids who liked the chocolate flavored drinks.

Cadbury has been nurturing the brand well focusing on kids and their affinity towards good taste. The brand got initial traction in the market by focusing on the chocolate taste. It further reinforced the taste factor by associating with its fellow brand  5 Star.
Later the brand went for a laddering exercise and brought in the concept of confidence. The positioning worked really well for the brand since confidence was a very important attribute as far as kids ( and parents) are concerned. The brand backed the laddering up with the creation of Bournvita Confidence Academy and followed it up with a media blitzkrieg.

2011 saw a marked difference in the positioning of Bournvita. The brand began drifting away from confidence based positioning. Early 2011 saw the brand professing the concept of " Prepare to Win " proposition. The brand adopted the tagline " Tayari Jeet Ki " meaning - Preparing to Win.

The ads were beautifully made and explained the concept beautifully. 

Watch the ad here : Bournvita Judo Ad

Besides the change in positioning, the brand's primary audience ( protagonist) also changed. Rather than focusing on Kids, the brand directly began addressing the Mother. Kids began to play the supporting role in the advertisement. The brand began to move into the way of Horlicks and Complan where the principal character in the campaigns are mothers and not kids.

Now in late 2011, the brand made another significant change in the positioning . The brand discarded every thing it did in the past and began talking like Horlicks. In the recent campaign, the brand began talking about calcium and the script of the ad is almost the copy of Horlicks' ad. More over the brand has now the tagline " Badhaye Doodh Ki Shakthi " which is strikingly the same as the latest Horlicks campaign.

Watch the ad here : Bournvita Calcium

And compare it with Horlicks ad  

I have never seen anybody asking questions like " Calcium ke liye kya karthe ho ? " , Vitamin C ke liye kya karthe ho ??? It looks totally out of synch with the characters in the TVC.

Am not sure whether it is sheer coincidence or a competitive move. What ever it is both the brands will suffer because of the same talk. More importantly Bournvita will suffer the most because it ditched its earlier positioning in favor of the Milk based positioning.

Another interesting factor is that in the ad , there is no character representing the user ie kids. It is one of those rare occasions where Bournvita ads are without kids. 

The absence of kids in the ads and focus on ingredients mark a major shift in the marketing strategy of Bournvita. By talking in the same language of the market leader Horlicks, the brand is trying to directly attack Horlicks which commands more than 50% of the market hoping to expand its base. But this move is at the expense of the positioning of Bournvita. 

Brand Update : --

7 Up : Bheja Fry, 7 Up Try

Brand : 7 Up
Company : Pepsico

This brand despite being a Pepsico brand had failed miserably in the Indian market. Sadly it is not because of the product that the brand failed but because of the marketing mismanagement. 7 Up was launched in India in 1992. According to reports, it had a wonderful start becoming the largest selling brand in the category by 2002 . 7 Up is a lemon drink similar to Limca.

Seven Up globally is closely associated with its mascot Fido Dido. When launched in India, 7Up also bought in the famed mascot. Fido came to India in 1992 along with the brand but had a very erratic relationship with 7 Up.Despite being in the Indian market close to 19 years, 7 Up was not a successful brand. The fault lies in the confused marketing strategy adopted by Pepsico with this brand. Pepsico is one of the world's best marketers. But when we look at individual brands like Mirinda and 7 Up, we see a confused product mix strategy from the company.

Pepsico never had a long term plan for 7 Up. When the brand was launched, the lemon flavored drink segment was perceived to be a small market with the market leader Limca ruling the market. But both Coca Cola and Pepsi was not interested in developing the category or the brand for a long time. Limca was killed by Coca Cola while Pepsi after the initial enthusiasm dropped investing in 7 Up.

The problem with 7 Up was two fold. First was the company's lack of interest in the brand and the category and second was the positioning confusion.

When launched, 7 Up was positioned as a cool drink. The brand used Fido Dido and certain imported commercial to position the brand as a cool drink for the youngsters. But the mascot and its international style failed to impress the audience. Every one liked Fido Dido but there was no connect with the mascot and the Indian audience. The company was in a dilemma because 7 Up had a strong association with Fido Dido but Fido Dido had a disconnect with the Indian audience.
This is a typical problem faced by those brands that import their foreign mascots to India . Pillsbury had a mascot Doughboy which is very famous in US but less popular in India . Fido Dido was a foreigner and hence the lack of connect was evident.The brand was really confused on how to use Fido Dido in the Indian market.

Fido Dido has an interesting background. The character was born in 1985 in a cafeteria napkin T he founders Susan Rose and Joanna Ferrone was in a discussion during which Susan Rose scribbled a figure in the napkin which later became Fido Dido. Fido became the brand ambassador for 7 Up in 1989. Another interesting fact is that Fido Dido trademark does not belong to Pepsi but belong to the founder Joanna. Hence the mascot is highly controlled by the owner and not the brand.

This lack of control has prevented Pepsi from Adapting Fido to Indian audience. It does not have the freedom to change the mascot's personality. This is an absolutely awkward situation for the brand where it had a wonderful mascot but could not change anything about the mascot.

Another factor that aided for the failure of 7 Up was the thinking among Pepsi marketers that taglines and positioning statements should not remain constant. So they keep on changing taglines and statements. One of the highly popular taglines for 7 Up was " Keep it Cool ". But the marketers at Pepsi wanted to change it for the sake of changing it. " Keep it Cool' was perhaps one of the apt and best tagline which could have lifted the brand to new hieghts had Pepsi invested in developing it.

Seven Up and Fido Dido had a short affair. In 1995 Pepsico globally stopped using Fido Dido and in India too the company stopped using the mascot. Later in 2003, the brand began using Fido Dido but again it was a half- hearted approach.

The investment of Pepsico in 7 Up was no where consistent. The brand tried some marketing gimmicks like launching a curvey bottle named 7 Up Curvey in 2006. The brand took the hot bollywood Diva Mallika Sherawat as the brand ambassador since she had those curvey look. There was an initial hype behind this launch but later it died a slow death. Beyond such stunts, there was no marketing thinking for this brand.

The brand also faced competition internally from Mountain Dew. Pepsico launched its iconic brand Mountain Dew and put lot of investment behind the brand. As a consumer I do not see any difference between Mountain Dew, Sprite and 7 Up. Limca was perceived a little different because it was cloudy. Pepsico was also confused on how to clearly differentiate Dew and 7 Up when consumers perceived both as similar.

The easiest way to end the confusion is to sideline the brand. 7 Up was thus sidelined for almost 8 years. In 2007-08, the company began to look into this brand. A new theme was prepared to take the brand away from Fido Dido and focus on another theme. The brand took the tagline " Bheja Fry, 7 Up try " which talked about the refreshing feeling of Seven Up . The campaign featured many Bheja Fry situations and how 7 Up can lift your spirits in those occasions.

This summer saw the extension of this theme. Pepsico realized that Lime Juice was the largest selling drink and most favorite flavor among Indians. So it started to pitch 7 Up as " The Lemon Drink " . The brand had the new tagline " Mood ko do Lemon ka Lift ".

In 2009, Pepsico launched another brand Nimbooz which is a drink having the original lemon juice taste. Nimbooz is launched as a brand endorsed by 7 Up.Nimbooz has been launched with the tagline " Ek Dum Asli Indian ". The brand is trying to compete with the ordinary lemon juice which is one of the favorite thirst quencher of Indian consumers. The question remains as to why a unsuccessful brand is used to endorse a new brand ?

The new launch is going to be further problematic for 7 Up. 7 Up has recently pitted for associating itself with Lemon Flavor. Now Nimbooz is saying that it is the original lemon drink. One is artifical and other is original .

What ever be the argument of the marketers, consumers seldom see the difference between a cloudy drink, a clear drink, artifical, flavored etc etc. These micro segmentation actually confuses consumers and force them to go for the simplest solution. Sprite became the largest selling beverage brand because it was simple for consumer to understand what that brand did.

Watch Ad-7 up

Brand Update : Katrina is the new face of Titan Raaga

Titan Raga has got a new face in Katrina Kaif. In continuation with its celebrity endorsement centered brand strategy, Titan signed the reigning Bollywood Diva Katrina Kaif as the brand ambassador for its sub-brand Raaga. The brand is currently running the campaign featuring the brand ambassador.

Titan Raaga which was born in 1992 was able to carve out a space for itself in the Indian watch industry. The brand is targeting the Sec A/B segment with a value proposition combining elegance and quality. 

Regarding the brand communication, there is nothing great about the new advertisement. The ad follows the standard theme and except for a small glimpse of the brand, celebrity rules the entire campaign. The ads featuring Katrina also sports a tagline  " Stay New " . 

 The brand has fallen into the celebrity trap where celebrity gains more importance than the brand. Remember that in most of the Titan ads featuring Aamir Khan , the brand was carefully placed with equal importance as the celebrity. 

Another interesting factor I noticed in the new ad was the absence of any mention of the sub-brand Raaga except for the half-a-second glimpse of the watch. Infact I mistook the campaign for the parent brand. This is another classic case where the agency underplayed the brand in favor of the celebrity. Further there is not much connect between the sub-brand and the theme of the ad. May be the brand is trying to economize by promoting the umbrella brand Titan rather than Titan Raaga. 

Even in the print ads, there is no mention about the sub-brand. This may be a part of the strategy where the Above-The- Line campaigns will be for the parent brand Titan and the Raaga will be relegated to a sub-brand visible only in the product. More clarity will come only after the rolling out of further campaigns.

Watch Ad-titan raaga n Katrina

Important Institutions and its Headquarters In India

Education

● Commission of Scientific and Technical Words Terminology—New Delhi 

● Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages—Hyderabad 

● Institute of National Sanskrit—New Delhi 

● National Sanskrit Vidyapeeth—Tirupati 

● Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri National Sanskrit Vidyapeeth—New Delhi 

● Rashtriya Bal Bhavan—New Delhi 

● Institute of Central Indian Language—Mysore 

● Indian Council of Higher Research—Shimla 

● Indian Institute of Social Sciences and Research—New Delhi 

● Council of Indian Philosophy Research—New Delhi and Lucknow 

● Indian Institute of Science—Bengaluru 

● Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management—Gwalior 

● Central Hindi Institute—Agra 

Environmental Institutes

● Arid Zone Research Institute—Jodhpur 

● Central Pollution Control Board—Delhi 

● Central Museum Authority—New Delhi 

● Rehabilitation Institute of Social Forestry and Ecology—Allahabad 

● G. B. Pant Himdoya Environment and Development Institute—Almora 

● Himalayan Forest Research Centre—Shimla 

● Indian Forest Research and Education Council—Dehradun 

● Institute of Indian Forest Management—Bhopal 

● Institute of Indian Plywood Industry and Research—Bengaluru 

● Institute of Forest Genetic Tree Breeding—Coimbatore 

● Forest Productive Centre—Ranchi 

● Institute of Forest Research and Human Resource Development—Chindwara 

● Institute of Rainforest—Jorhat 

● Institute of Lumbering Science and Technology—Bengaluru 

● Institute of National Science & Technology—Faridabad 

● Indian Botanical Survey—Kolkata 

● Indian Anthropology Survey—Kolkata 

● Indian Forest Survey—Jorhat 

● Tropical Institute—Jabalpur 

Defence Institutes

● Air Force Academy—Hyderabad 

● Air Force Technical College—Bengaluru 

● College of Military Engineering—Pune 

● Defence Management Institute—Sikandrabad 

● Defence Services Staff College—Wellington 

● Directorate General N.C.C.—New Delhi 

● Electrical and Mechanical Engineering School—Baroda 

● Hindustan Aeronatic Limited—Bengaluru 

● Indian Air Force Training Centre—Chennai 

● Indian Military Academy—Dehradun 

● Institute of Armament Technology—Pune 

● Military College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering—Sikandrabad 

● Directorate of National Cadet Core—New Delhi 

● National Defence Academy—Kharagwasala 

● Naval College of Engineering—Lonavala 

● Officers Training Academy—Chennai 

Art and Culture

● Institute of National Museum History for Art Conservation and Science Museum—New Delhi 

● Allahabad Museum—Allahabad 

● Asiatic Society—Kolkata 

● Indian Anthropology Survey—Kolkata 

● Indian National Archives—New Delhi 

● Central Buddh Education Institute—Leh 

● Central High Tibetean Educational Institute—Varanasi 

● Central Secretariat Library (1981)—New Delhi 

● Cultural Institute and Training Centre (1979)—New Delhi 

● Delhi Public Library—New Delhi 

● Gandhian Recollection and Philosophy Recollection—New Delhi 

● Institute of Indian Diamond—Surat 

● Indian Museum—Kolkata 

● Indira Gandhi National Art Centre—New Delhi 

● Indira Gandhi National Human Museum—Bhopal 

● Jawahar Lal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy (1954)—Imphal 

● Kala Chitra Foundation—Chennai 

● Khudabaksh Oriental Public Library—Patna 

● Lalit Kala Academy (1954)—New Delhi 

● Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad Asian Studies Institute—Kolkata 

● National Drama Vidyalaya (1959)—New Delhi 

● National Science Museum Parishad—Kolkata 

● National Modern Art Technique (1954)—Kolkata 

● National Library (1948)—Kolkata 

● National Museum—New Delhi 

● National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Heritage—Lucknow 

● National School of Drama—New Delhi 

● Nav-Nalanda Mahabihar—Bihar 

● Nehru Memorial Museum and Library—New Delhi 

● Raja Rammohan Rai Library Foundation—Kolkata 

● Ram Krishan Mission Sanskrit Institute (1938)—Kolkata 

● Rampur Raja Library—Rampur 

● Sahitya Academy (1954)—New Delhi 

● Salarjanj Museum—Hyderabad 

● Sangeet Natak Academy—New Delhi 

● Victoria Memorial Hall—Kolkata 

Food and Civil Supply

● Indian Standard Bureau—Delhi 

● Indian Examination House—Kolkata 

Health and Family Welfare

● Central Health Education Bureau—New Delhi 

● National Medical Science Academy—New Delhi 

● National Ayurvedic Institute—Jaipur 

● National Siddh Institute—Chennai 

● National Yunani Institute—Bengaluru 

● Morarji Desai National Yog Institute—New Delhi 

● National Natural Medical Institute—Pune 

● National Homeopathic Institute—Kolkata 

● National Ayurvedic Vidyapeeth—New Delhi 

● Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd.—Rasoyni (Maharashtra) 

Industries

● South India Textile Research Association—Coimbatore 

● North India Cloth Research Institute—Ghaziabad 

● Silk and Art Silk Mills Research Association—Mumbai 

● Indian Jute Industry Research Association—Kolkata 

● Wool Research Institute—Thane 

● National Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd.—Trombay 

● Pesticide Technology Institute—Gurgaon 

● Hindustan Antibiotic Ltd.—Pimpri, Pune 

● Plastic Engineering and Technology Institute—(Sepate) Chennai 

● Indian Bureau of Mines—Nagpur 

● National Aluminium Co. Ltd.—Orissa 

● Hindustan Zinc Ltd.—Udaipur 

Law and Justice

● National Justice Academy—Bhopal 

● Sardar Ballabh Bhai Patel National Police Academy—Hyderabad 

● Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narain National Crime and Justice Institute—New Delhi

Labour

● Labour Bureau Institute—Chandigarh and Shimla 

● V. V. Giri National Labour Institute—Noida (U. P.) 

● Central Labour Board—Nagpur 

● Director General of Mines Security—Dhanbad 

● Central Education Media Institute—Chennai 

● Institute of Central government Training and Research—Kolkata 

Mass Communication

● Publication Deptt.—New Delhi 

● Film Department—Mumbai 

● National Film Archieves—Pune 

● Indian Committee of Children Film—Mumbai 

● Directorate of Publications and Visual Publicity—Delhi 

● Directorate of Regional Publicity—New Delhi 

● Testimony Board of Central Movie—Mumbai 

● Institute of Indian Film and Television—Pune 

● Satyajeet Ray Film and Television Institute— Kolkata 

Institute of Science and Technology

● Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science—Kolkata 

● Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology—Pune 

● Indian Astro-physics Institute—Bengaluru 

● Jawahar Lal Nehru Developed Scientific Research Centre—Bengaluru 

● Indian Institute of Geomagnetism—Mumbai 

● Indian Science Academy—Bengaluru 

● Indian National Science Academy—New Delhi 

● Indian Science Congress Association—Kolkata 

● Indian National Engineering Academy—New Delhi 

● Indian National Oceanic Information Service Centre—Hyderabad 

● Indian Oceanic Technical Institute—Chennai 

● National Antarctic and Ocean Research Centre—Goa 

● National Biological Science Centre—Bengaluru 

● National Institute of Reservation—New Delhi 

● Centre of National Cell Science—Pune 

● Centre of National Mental Research—Manesar 

● National Plant-Genome Research Centre—New Delhi 

● National Earthquake Science Data Centre—New Delhi 

● Indian Science Academy—Allahabad 

● Survey Training Institute—Hyderabad (with the help of U.N.D.P.) 

● Bose Institute—Kolkata 

● Agarkar Research Institute—Pune 

● Sri Chitra Triunal Medical Science and Technical Institute—Tiruvananthapuram

● Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology—Dehradun 

● N. N. Bose National Fundamental Science Centre—Kolkata 

● Birbal Sahani Institute of Paleo-botany—Lucknow 

● Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council—New Delhi 

● Science Expansion (Vigyan Prasar)—New Delhi 

● Liquid Crystal Research Institute—Bengaluru 

● Aryabhatta Research Observatory—Nainital 

● Director of Atomic Mineral Investigation and Research—Hyderabad 

● Indian Uranium Corporation Ltd.—Jaduguda 

● Heavy Water Board—Mumbai 

● Nuclear Fuel Campus—Hyderabad 

● Bhabha Atomic Research Centre—Mumbai 

● Shri Ram Institute of Chemical Research—New Delhi 

● Institute for Plasma Research (I. P. R.)—Ahmedabad 

● Harish Chand Research Institute—Chennai 

● Physics Institute—Bhubaneshwar 

● Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre—Kolkata 

● Deptt. of Atomic Energy—Mumbai 

● Project Directorate, Integrated Coastal and Sea Coast Management—Chennai 

● Sea-biotic Resources and Ecology Centre—Cochin 

● Hindustan Zinc Limited—Udaipur 

● D. N. A. Finger Print and Centre—Hyderabad 

● Biotic Resources and Continuous Development Centre—Imphal 

● Life Science Institute—Bhubaneshwar 

● Physical Research Laboratory—Ahmedabad (Gujarat) 

● S. V. National Technical Institute—Surat 

● Saha Nuclear Physics Institute—Kolkata (W. Bengal) 

● Cosmic Rays Research Institute—Gauribidanow 

● Shri Ram Chennai Research Institute—New Delhi 

● Tata Institute of Fundamental Research—Mumbai 

● Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology—Kocchi 

● Institute of Mathematical Science—Chennai 

● Institute of Physics—Bhubaneshwar 

● National Biology Centre—Bengaluru 

● Uranium Corporation of India Ltd.—Jaduguda (Jharkhand) 

● Vishveshraiya National Technical Institute—Nagpur 

Transport

● Diesel Locomotive Works—Varanasi 

● Chitranjan Locomotive Works—Chitranjan 

● Rail Coach Factory—Kapurthala 

● Integral Coach Factory—Perambur, Kapurthala 

● Rail Wheel Factory—Bengaluru 

● Marine Engineering and Research Institute—Kolkata 

● Marine Engineering and Research Institute—Mumbai 

● Lal Bahadur Shastri Coastal Research and Higher Study Institute—Mumbai 

● Indian Inland Waterways Authority—Noida 

● Maritime Training Institute Powai—Mumbai 

● Hindustan Shipyard Limited—Visakhapatnam 

● Central Inland Water Transport Corporation—Kolkata 

● Civil Aviation Security Bureau—Delhi 

● National Aviation Management and Research Institute—Delhi 

● Fire Training Centre—New Delhi 

● Fire Service Training School—Narainpur (Kolkata) 

● Indira Gandhi National Flying Academy—Furshatganj (U. P.) 

● Indian Tourism and Travel Management Institute—Gwalior 

● National Water Sporting Institute—Goa 

Water Resources

● Central Soil and Material Research Centre—New Delhi 

● Central Water and Electric Research Centre—Kharagwasala (Pune) 

● National Project Construction Corporation Ltd.—New Delhi 

● National Hydrology Institute—Roorkee (Uttarakhand) 

Welfare

● National Blind Institute—Dehradun 

● National Orthopedic Disabled Institute—Kolkata 

● Aliyawarjung National Hard of Hearing Institute—Mumbai 

● National Mental Disabled Institute—Sikandrabad 

● National Rehabilitation Training and Research Institute—Cuttack 

● Physically Disabled Institute—New Delhi 

● Multi-disabled Strengthen Institute—Chennai 

● National Public Cooperation and Child Development Institute—New Delhi 

Youth Work and Play

● Rajeev Gandhi National Youth Development Institute—Perambur 

● Laxmibai National Physical Education Institute (1957)—Gwalior 

Energy

● National Thermal Power Corporation—New Delhi 

● Electric Finance Corporation Ltd.—New Delhi 

Communication

● Telecommunication Engineering Centre—New Delhi 

● National Telecommunication Finance and Management Academy—Hyderabad

● High Level Telecommunication Training Centre—Ghaziabad 

● Advance Level Telecommunication Training Centre—Ghaziabad 

● Bharat Ratna Bhim Rao Ambedkar Telecommunication Training Institute—Jabalpur

Vice Admiral M.P. Muralidharan is appointed the next Director-General of the Indian Coast Guard

government on 5 January 2012 cleared two key military appointments. Vice Admiral M.P. Muralidharan took charge as the 19th Director-General of the Indian Coast Guard. The position of Coast Guard Chief lay vacant since Vice-Admiral Anil Chopra was promoted as the Eastern Naval Command chief in October 2011.

Lt-General Sanjeev Chachra was appointed the next Army military secretary.

M.P. Muralidharan

Prior to taking over as the Director-General, Vice Admiral Muralidharan was the Chief of Personnel at the Integrated Headquarters (IHQ), Ministry of Defence. Earlier he had served as the first Commandant of the Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, he was commissioned into the Navy in 1975. During the last three and half decades, he held several significant operational and staff appointments.

His Operational appointments include command of Indian Naval Ships Chatak, Sharda and Ranvijay, Fleet Operations Officer of Western Fleet and Principal Director of Naval Operations at Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence (Navy).

His staff appointments include Director of Indian Naval Tactical Evaluation Group, Naval Assistant to FOC-in-C (West) and to the Chief of the Naval Staff, Naval Attache at Moscow, Flag Officer Sea Training, Chief of Staff of Western Naval Command, Flag Officer Commanding Maharashtra and Gujarat Area. He was also the first Commandant of the Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala.

The Admiral is an alumnus of National Defence Academy and was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 1 Jan 1975. A Navigation and Direction Specialist, he is also a graduate of Defence Services Staff College, Willington.

Lt-General Sanjeev Chachra

Lt-Gen Chachra is to take over as the new military secretary when Lt-Gen G M Nair retires on 31 January 2012. The military secretary's post gained some prominence after a previous incumbent Avadhesh Prakash faced a court martial in the infamous Sukna land scam case as also due to the ongoing controversy over Army chief General V K Singh's actual date of birth.