Types of Brands

The functional dimension is the product’s attributes and benefits or the tangible properties while the symbolic dimensions are the intangible aspects of the brand. A marketer can combine these two elements to create the ‘right’ appeal for customers. In consumer behavior the rational and emotional perspectives are two models that explain how consumers make purchase decisions. Successful branding, therefore, depends on combining the rational and emotional components of a brand in a manner that it becomes consistent with the consumer’s frame of mind.

FUNCTIONAL BRANDS

Here, the functional dimension of the brand is far more visible and appealing than the emotional or symbolic dimension.

Nivea’s range of body products focuses on the functional benefit of smooth skin.

Also, buying of a painkiller would be by and large a rational, left brain driven activity. What implications does one have for marketers of Aspirin, Aspro, Anacin? Here the brand should be functions driven. That is, the brand essence should revolve around ‘reasons’ demonstrating product superiority in terms of its ingredients and efficiency of its pain relieving process (e.g., the product “dissolves faster in water” and therefore, “relieves pain faster.”

SYMBOLIC BRANDS

Here, the symbolic or emotional dimension is more prevalent than the functional dimension. The decisions would be based on more of the emotional aspect than that of rational aspect.

In the circumstances where consumer buying is emotions driven, the brand must accordingly focus on symbolic or emotional aspects.E.g. ICICI Prudential has various schemes concerning children’s futures; this also stresses on the emotional aspect, caring for the child and securing his future.

Email Marketing - Push Strategy

Email marketing which acts as a push marketing strategy in today’s world is rapidly growing, whereas on the other hand Social Media marketing is the current buzz in the market and plays a vital role in helping organizations grow virally.
The integration of Email marketing and social Media is one of the deadliest combo’s for any organization if used appropriately and that is the trend which is been followed in the market. Almost 70% of companies are using email as a medium to promote their Facebook, twitter and other social media platforms.
Email marketing – 2011 has left behind the Spam issues and is moving towards a phase of user engagement and getting beyond Inbox, which is possible only when social media and email marketing; two different platforms work in sync with each other.
Market study says integration of Emails and social media has shown an increase of 32% in the Click through Rates and an increase by 18% in the loyal customer base, which itself proves the fact that it has majorly helped marketers to increase the Email engagement level of the end user.
Improved engagement levels by going social with email marketing has immensely helped in enhancing the Inbox delivery, as these days engagement level of the end user is one of the major parameters considered by ISP’s like Gmail, Yahoo etc. before delivering a mail in the inbox. Thus Social media is also indirectly contributing in improving the open rates.
Some ways in which we can integrate Social Media and Email Marketing:

1.     Inclusion of links of Social Platforms in the Emails being communicated to the customers.

2.     Including a form on your Social media page thus helping you build your email database.

3.     Regularly posting each and every Email activity on the Social media platform, so that we do not miss out on any opportunity.

Organizing competitions on Facebook, twitter or any social platform and promoting the same through Email marketing. Customer Support through social media is one of the strategies opted by the service industry.
Conducting competitions on the Email platform and clearly stating that the winner would be announced on one of your Social platform, thus compelling the reader to join or follow your community.

These are some of the ways in which we can use both these powerful mediums together, there are surely many more ways and ideas we can use Email marketing and social media.

What is your take on this marriage between Social media and Email marketing? Do you think both these fields are supporting each other or cannibalizing?

Story of "MOTI SOAP"-

Moti Soap

Brand : Moti

Company : HUL

Moti was India's premium brand of soaps during the seventies. Now there is no trace of this brand. Moti originally was a brand of Tata Oil Mills Company ( TOMCO). In 1993, TOMCO merged with HLL.Moti was a special soap which had certain differentiation. The first differentiation point was the Shape. Unlike other soaps which came in cake form, Moti was round soap. Moti is the vernacular term for Pearl . So the soap was also in the shape of pearl.

Another uniqueness was the size of the soap. Moti was a big soap. Often one gets bored of the soap and it never quite finish fast.Moti came in popular fragrances like Gulab ( Rose) and Sandal.Moti was promoted as a premium soap . The soap was expensive and during the eighties, the soap was priced around Rs 25.

Tomco also promoted this brand heavily. Most of the campaign had a signature brand imagery the soap surrounded by pearls. Those ads were in most of the magazines during the peak stage of this brand. Pearls formed an important role in the entire brand communication and pearl was an anchor which created an association with the brand in the consumer's mind.

I was searching for an ad of Moti and thanks to Saumyadip's blog, I got a vintage ad of moti.

Moti then moved to HLL following the merger. That marked the end of this brand.
I am not sure why HLL decided to sideline Moti soap. The brand was never promoted and slowly the brand faded into oblivion.The reason for this brand's death may be because it did not fit into the brand portfolio of HLL. While Hamam ( another Tomco brand ) thrived, Moti was never in the picture.
Then with the Power Brand strategy, brands like Moti never had a chance to survive.

The brand had prospects if HLL had done some serious product development. In the branding perspective Moti had certain assets. The name and the imagery were wonderful assets for a marketer. Moti had both these assets.

The problem was with the product. There was something missing in the soap which ultimately lead to the death of this brand. Another factor was at the segmentation side. Now also the market for a premium soap is abysmally low in India. Now also there is no successful premium brand of soaps in India ( Essenza de wills is trying hard ).

So it was also a tough choice for HLL. The company may have felt that Moti did not have a future as a premium soap. And it may cannibalize some existing brands if the prices are rationalized. Moti may had to be repositioned if it had to survive . But HLL was not prepared to invest in a brand which had a minuscule 2% of the market. So the decision was to slowly kill the brand.

Great Marketing Stories

Axe : The Axe Effect

Brand : Axe
Company : HUL   
Agency: Lowe Lintas

I am writing  about this brand for the reason that I doubted whether I will be able to do justice to my favorite brand. An Icon for sure Axe is a success story that is so difficult to emulate. One can only marvel and enjoy.
Axe has got every thing perfect for its success, It got its segments correct, the targeting was exemplary and Positioning : something to drool for, And more over Luck was on its side.

Axe was born in France in the Year 1983. 24 years later, this brand is Unilever's Best selling brand worldwide. It has an iconic status in whichever market it has entered. It is also one of the rare brands which can boast of replicating its entire marketing mix across geographical boundaries. The campaigns that you see in India is what the entire world is watching. For those who propound Glocalisation , AXE is an exception.
Axe deo was launched in India during 1999. The brand launch was very quiet and theoretically the brand was having the strategy of Slow Skimming i.e High Price Low Promotion. Axe at that time was the leading men's deo brand in Europe and was popular in India in the Grey market ( available in duty paid shops) .HLL may have launched this brand inspired by the volume of Axe sold in the Grey market. At that time, the deo market was a nascent one with an estimated market size of Rs 72 crore. HLL had the brands Denim and Rexona and was ruling the market. Axe was priced at a premium above the Denim brand which was positioned as a male deo brand.
Axe initially was launched in the fragrance Java, Alaska and Atlantic. HLL did not bother to fine tune its Promotional mix to Indian market but just imported the promotions .... meaning, the company just ran the ads which was popular in the Europe and other markets. At that time , the product was also imported from Europe. And IT CLICKED.... rest as they say is History...
Axe in 2002 was having a market share of over 35% and soon HLL phased out Denim brand to concentrate on this Star.

Axe is the naughtiest brand in the Indian market. The brand is targeted at male aged 16-25 . Internationally this brand targets male aged 15-25. I personally feel that it targets all 'Young at heart" naughty guys. The brand has its brand values of Cool, Fashionable and Stylish. And world over, the brand sticks to its core values. The biggest strength of this brand is the underlying message or the DNA which is that the brand users are High on Confidence and always for the Axe users, Girls Makes The First Move. I think the biggest competitive advantage of this brand is its complete monopoly over this brand proposition. All its campaigns revolve round this central theme of Seduction where Girl makes the first move.
I think it has lot of subliminal implications. The brand assumes that Men wants( Likes) to be Seduced . That feeling ( of being seduced) gives a big boost of self confidence to a man. Although many brands take this proposition, Axe just made it perfect.

I have seen lot of ads where girls are seen drooling over Hunks in Motorcycle or in Readymades, or even in Innerwears, but in most of the Axe ads, there are no Hunks, only very ordinary or even skinny kind of people getting assaulted by beautiful girls. That makes the brand more approachable. Had Axe used a Hunk, the promotions couldn't have been so effective. The brand managers were so wise that when they used a celebrity like Ben Affleck, They ensured that the brand is made approachable
See the TVC here : My Favorite Axe ad
Having said that, The males seen in Axe commercials are not Losers: the ads are careful to show them as confident ( in one way or other) or a better term will be self assured. That is ultimate execution.
The power of this Big Idea has ensured that Indian consumers lap up the foreign commercials without any hitch. I don't remember any India centric ad for Axe especially in Television. And Indian consumers are not complaining either.

Along with these , the brand also ensured that customers are constantly engaged with new fragrances and campaigns. In 2005, Axe had a high profile launch of its new fragrance CLICK and before that there was Axe Land campaign and followed by Axe-Academy then Axe Voodoo and the latest one Phenomenon. I have tried most of the fragrances and not all of them are good, but I try it because I like the brand. That is the power of brand.
Axe is one of the rare brands that has embraced new media to the maximum extent. The brand has started its Internet based marketing initiative in India with Axe Land which involved a virtual trip to the Axe world. Globally also this brand has lot of online initiatives which are almost always naughty.In UK the Axe is marketed as LYNX.Checkout the cool web initiatives of this brand :
Axe- feather
Axe Effect
Axe Phenomenon
and also a blog called Evan and Gareth

Not only the brand uses TVC's to its advantage, the print ads of Axe won several accolades in various ad events. The creatives run amok with the kind of flexibility that they get from the positioning.Besides Print, the brand also uses outdoors to its maximum impact. Axe is a classic example of 360 degree branding effort. Now Axe has a common message in over 70 countries where Unilever sells this brand. Iconic in a real sense.

One of the reports term the marketing strategy of Axe as " Adventurous Marketing" .That is true because its risky because the brand deals with Girls & Seduction. Not always every one may like the theme or the campaigns. In India especially there are self styled Cultural Policemen/Women who cries foul for anything and everything. It is really surprising that so far, Axe has escaped their AXE. That also shows that the ad agency is also careful about the concepts put across the Indian media.
While in a more liberal markets, Axe tests new levels of " Adventures" , here the brand plays really safe. It also ensures the campaigns run in Indian media is accepted because most often its the entire family who watches the TV.
I know I just have touched the tip of Marketing Iceberg called Axe.

For the axe fans, check out a blog dedicated to Axe at Axeads

Kingfisher submits time-bound plans to DGCA

After a rap from the aviation regulator for neglecting safety issues, Kingfisher Airlines on Monday submitted a detailed response to the DGCA giving time-bound plans to resolve the lapses and discrepancies identified.

As civil aviation minister Ajit Singh asserted that there would be no compromise on aviation safety, Kingfisher officials submitted the airline's response at the headquarters of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) here, but no details were available. A long list of discrepancies and violations by various airlines, including Kingfisher, had come to light in a financial audit carried out by DGCA which directed them to resolve all issues in a time-bound manner.