What appeals to us when we speak about brands? Product features like taste, colour or smell, the logo, the celebrities endorsing it, it’s advertisement; well to say it might be one of these, few of these or all of these. It’s interesting to know the number of brands getting lunched in a calendar year. 100, 200 maybe 500 and those are just in India. Coming to the point, with increasing number of brands, it is very difficult for a low profile or a low funded brand to survive in the market. They are either shown the door out or are eaten up by the big brands. But it’s not just these small brands that have to struggle for a secure place in the market. Big brands have to equally work hard to maintain their position. As said, it’s easy to reach the top, but difficult to maintain that   position.

Today, it is not just product features or celebrity endorsements that win you your customers. The key to stay on the top is one simple mantra that many brands have failed to adopt, and hence have struggled to maintain their leading position. The golden mantra to persuade your customer is none other than – ‘an emotional appeal’. Now-a-days, thanks to rural marketing, the stretch of brands have widened. People have started recognizing & following specific brands. Number of loyalists of a brand has increased. The ‘switching era’ is slowly vanishing. In such times, it is very important for a brand to imprint its name on people’s mind. And how do they do that? Well, let me answer this question by a giving you a small example.

When it comes to men’s grooming products, no doubt, Garnier is the market leader. Also, whenever I think about facewash for men the one brand that comes immediately to my mind is none other than Garnier. I am pretty sure that must be the case with millions of men like me. Garnier being an international brand has been endorsed well & has also kept its brand promise of giving world class products. No doubt Garnier has set high benchmarks for itself in terms of quality & has always managed to meet those benchmarks. The next brand which comes to my mind in men’s grooming category is  Fair and Handsome. . Well it’s certainly not because of SRK’s ‘mardo wali cream’ ad, but because of the brand’s experience of tons of years in grooming category. Agreed it was initially present in women’s cosmetic category and have just entered into men’s category, around 4-5 years ago .  To sum it up, brands such as Garnier, Fair and Handsome, Nivea, Vicco are few established brands in this category.

My example doesn’t end here; in fact it starts from here. Off late there is this one brand, which has wiped all the other brands & has imprinted its name in my mind. Now when I think of men’s grooming category or men’s facewash the only brand that comes to my mind is Nivea. Here’s why. Garnier which is endorsed by John Abraham emphasizes on the facewash that will protect your skin from the sun, you won’t get a tan, and you’ll be fairer by 2 shades after using this facewash. So basically what it says is you can be fair by using this cream. Recently, Nivea launched a mind boggling counter attack advertisement as against Garnier. Nivea signed up Arjun Rampal as their brand ambassador. Coming to the ad, the ad said that ‘shades to deewaro pe suit karte hain’ shades are more suited for walls. Great point made here by Mr. Rampal. But here is the killer one. The next line says,’ gorepan ke piche mat bhago, asli problem darkspots mein hain’ & ‘Jaise ho waise dikho’. Now that’s a direct appeal made to the audience. This is a very well thought repositioning strategy as it emphasizes more on ‘you being yourself’. The Nivea marketing team has done a brilliant job on its repositioning strategy. Through this advertisement Nivea is planning to reposition its male grooming range with the launch of a new brand mission ‘It starts with you’. The new tagline is designed to be a call of action that aims to help men fulfil their everyday potential, with Nivea Men brand championing the role played by daily grooming in building confidence in men. The brand currently enjoys a 28 per cent market share globally and hopes to increase its existing 6 – 7 per cent market share in Men’s care in India within the moisturiser and facewash category through this repositioning initiative.

It’s really important to understand from the audience’s point of view & understand what they want. And it is really not that difficult to do so. In this world, we all are consumers/customers of various brands. So, while creating any strategies for your product/brand, put yourself in the customer’s shoes, think ‘if I were a customer, what would I want in this product/brand? What is it that will win my heart out of this product/brand? Am I getting something more than other products/brands? When you find an answer to all these questions that is the time you’ll be able to get the sweet taste of success. The important MANTRA to remember is make your customers feel special, give them what they want & not what you want.

It’ll be interesting to know whether if the brand Nivea will be able to capitalize on its strategy and increase their market share in  the men’s grooming category in a fast growing market with competition from Garnier, Emami Fair and Handsome, etc.