GAS

GAS is a leading Italian premium apparel brand owned by Grotto S.p.A and promoted by the Grotto family. The founder, Mr Claudio Grotto, started his business in fashion in the early '70s. In 1986 the Company was incorporated as Grotto S.p.A. and beginning in 1990 commenced a new phase: which was the launch the very first internally produced GAS collection. The brand has strengthened its reputation by setting fashion trends across 56 countries and 3000 points of sale. Foreign sales are steadily growing thanks to a targeted sales strategy that receives the support of six European branches (Italy, Germany, France, Spain, United Kingdom and Hungary), the Japanese branch in Tokyo, the Hong Kong branch for the Far East area and the newly born GAS India. The Company has a strong Vertical Retail strategy that is being implemented on a global scale.

The GAS brand in India was launched in August 2007 by Raymond Limited in New Delhi. GAS' retails a lifestyle collection that includes its core heritage in premium denim clothing. The brand seeked to offers Indian fashion patrons an incredible fusion of contemporary international fashion and quality clothing that represents GAS values of passion, positive thinking, sensuality and essentiality.

With a total investment of approximately Rs. 500 million, this joint venture was supposed bring together Grotto S.p.A's proven expertise in design and managing a successful brand and Raymond Ltd.'s expertise in apparel brand building and retailing along with its vast distribution network. Besides exclusive stores, GAS is retailed through several multi-brand outlets across the country.

Targeted at high purchasing power, fashion-intelligent consumers, men and women who look for great quality and style with which they can express their own personality. The apparel is priced between Rs.1500 and 8000.

The brand however has run into troubles 2 years after launch and there have also been news in the media about Grotto evaluating the option of quitting the JV.

Analysing Positioning

Since this is a little complex analysis lets take the identity-image route to analysis. Apart from other things this will also present the problem and solution in a more structured manner.

IDENTITY: The core identity of GAS revolves around two constructs namely “essential’ and “sensual”. The brand tries to position itself in the market place around these two constructs. The brand has been very successful in the west because of its positioning on these dimensions so the company deemed it fit that the brand should be brought to India as well. However it seems the company or its JV partners in India (Raymond) did a wrong assessment as to how much important these constructs are to the Indian customers. There are some major problems in the brand logo too. The double  rainbow logo is good as a metaphor for synergy or convergence but not sensuality…ateast not in the Indian context. Moreover the logo colour hardly has any connotations of sensuality in it. Also the name GAS doesn’t seem to have an element of sensuality in it …atleast not to me. The stores do not exhibit the exclusive feel that should have been typical for a brand priced at Rs.1500-8000. It is important to note here that the identity may have been perfectly fine in some other culture, but here in this culture the image it will eventually form is likely to be different from that intended. (This is because each culture’s perceptual process is conditioned according to the fundamental BVC of that culture.) *BVC stands for beliefs,values,customs.

IMAGE: The brand is most likely to form a very confusing image in the minds of the consumer this is because of the confusing identity. For eg the products are priced high but the store ambience doesn’t reflect that. Confusions in the mind of the customer as to what the brand stands for - is it for sports wear, formal wear, day wear, night wear, casual wear etc etc. The brand is available in exclusive showrooms as well as multi brand outlets this adds to the existing confusion. But the major problem leading to a confusing image is the fact that the brand’s positioning is very unclear, customers simply “can’t see” what the brand is, what it stands for and for whom it is. Unless a major revamp is done the brand is unlikely to become effective in near future.

Someone needs to convey this to Mr.Grotto that changing JVs isnt going to change the problem....repositioning the brand will.

I-PILL

I-pill is a female emergency contraceptive from Cipla, launched in 2007; the product has already become a runaway success. Apart from marketing consequences, the pill is interesting from the social angle too because it is expected to have great social consequences. It is not that oral contraceptive pills were not available in the Indian market before i-pill, Hindustan latex limited has been marketing Mala-d and Saheli for a long time now. But the introduction and success of I-pill assumes importance because it is for the first time a contraceptive is directly targeted to the upper end of the market. Traditionally, female emergency contraceptive or the “morning pill’ have been sold targeting only the lower end of the market spectrum. The consequence was that there was always a huge market in the urban areas waiting to be tapped. Cipla made a good move when it decided to launch such a product targeting urban women. The product received heavy reviews from the media despite the fact that the category has already been there for a long time.

The  positioning of I-pill revolves around the construct “Consequence” although the label never features in either the TVC or the print ads, the whole communication has been designed around this label. Firstly lets analyse the slogan i.e Get back to life. Unwanted pregnancy has serious social and psychological consequence which may lead to Anxiety, uneasiness, anger, fear, self pity, regret, loneliness, shame  etc. Furthermore an abortion can  aggravate the existing trauma and result in severe psychological problem. Thus normal “life” does gets affected because of unwanted pregnancy. Now if the pill promises that it can help the subject  get back to “life’ is it likely to find a favour with the subject who is facing/or likely to face the trauma in future….my personal stand is – highly likely.

The TVCs and the print ads have also been skillfully executed. The “tension’/’fear of pregnancy and the resulting trauma has been captured in each TVC depicting different situations and consumer profile. The ad activates tension in the minds of the subject by forcing them to think of the consequences of getting unwanted pregnancy and then offers a solution in the form of i-pill. The ads take a central route to persuasion and bring the consumer on the evaluation mode even prior to a purchase intention – This is the reason why the product enjoys high recall and recognition among urban women. Two major risks have been highlighted in the ads namely 1) social and 2) Psychological . What is commendable in the ads is the degree to which the ads have been able to subtly create the tensions rooted deep inside the cognitions of the subjects.

The packaging of the product is also appropriate because it does reflect feminity, modernity and safety. Pink is a colour of feminity and has there fore been incorporated in the packaging and print ads, White has connotations of safety and has therefore been used to connote that the “product can get you to safety from undesired consequences”  The women reflected in the TVC , print ads etc. all reflect the middle and upper middle class urban women. The fluid graphics on the packaging also adds to the modernity angle.  You must be wondering how such subtle stimuli can have an impact. Well , these factors are so designed to affect the unconscious part of the customers cognition….and unconsciousness accounts for 95% of total consciousness. Therefore it is highly likely that these stimuli, like others will also have an impact.

No wonder that the product is doing well.

BLACKBERRY

The BlackBerry is a wireless handheld device introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager. In 2002, the more commonly known smartphone, BlackBerry was released, which supports push e-mail, mobile telephone, text messaging, internet faxing, web browsing and other wireless information services. It is an example of a convergent device. Developed by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM), it delivers information over the wireless data networks of mobile phone service companies. BlackBerry first made headway in the marketplace by concentrating on e-mail.
On 25 Sep 2008, RIM announced the number of BlackBerry subscribers has reached approximately 19 million.
The success of the brand was because of one core factor and that is that the company was able to identify a genuine target customer need in the form of requirement for accessing emails while being on the move. Corporate executives generally have to travel a lot and therefore they value highly the idea of remaining “connected’ at all times. Blackberry capitalized on this very need and provided a platform to individuals and corporate to help the executives remain connected.
Blackberry’s positioning has always been as an business executive phone. The design of the product, the incorporated feature, marketing communications have also reflected this positioning. This positioning helped the company to carve out a niche for itself and avoid any direct conflict with any other mobile handset player.

The Changed Scenario

Blackberry first with the “Pearl” and now with the “Storm” is attempting a change in positioning and moving more towards the “Lifestyle segment” space. This can prove counterproductive for the company because it directly places it in competition with Nokia , LG, Samsung and Apple I phone. In fact the storm is being actively compared to models like N95, LG Viewty, and Apple iphone. This situation can only work against blackberry and in favour of Apple…. Apple stands for lifestyle blackberry does not.
One may put forward the argument that the offering of similar features (connectivity) along with a host of other value adding features by the other players may have prompted Blackberry to make such a move. But the mistake in such argument is it assumes that Parity in the physical level has nothing to do with parity in cognitive level . The physical always conditions the cognitive, physical cues act as ‘hints’ for the mind to form interpretations or in other words “positions”.
I personally believe Blackberry could have done without this strategy of looking slick and feature laden. There is plethora of other ways to expand market which the company should have tried before resorting to change in positioning.

AIRTEL DIGITAL TV

Airtel digital TV is a part of Bharti Telemedia Ltd a susidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited owned by Sunil Mittal the Indian telecom giant who brought mobile Services to India Through the largest mobile service provider of India -  Airtel . Airtel digital TV Started operation from 9th October 2008 with the slogan "Come Home To The Magic". It currently offers close to 150 channels and many interactive ones as well as WorldSpace Satellite Radio channels. The company plans to increase the Channels in near future.It shows many interactive channels and plans to bring internet on DTH by using Airtel Live,..It is the second pan India dth provider providing mpeg-4 technology.

The DTH market in India has seen some real fireworks in recent times with a number of players entering the segment . This has been primarily because of the recent growth rates acieved by the indian economy coupled with future optimism. Starting with the initiative of dish tv there are today 6 operational DTH operators in the country. Even while new entrents are pumping big money into the sector the incumbents are finding it hard to remain profitable because of changed market realities.

The major players in the category are 1)Dish TV  2)Tata Sky 3)DD Direct Plus  4)Big Tv   5)Airtel Digital TV (IPTV) 6)Sun direct , with videocon planning to enter the segment soon with D2H

Positioning Airtel Digital TV

Deciding the positioning strategy would have assumed much greater importance in the case of Airtel digital Tv because there were already 4 heavy weights in the industry. Moreover Airtel is a national brand which enjoys substantial loyalty, any misjudgement could have resulted in the brand falling on its face. The rivalry between Dish tv and Tata sky had already brought rates to a competitive level with tata sky having an edge over dish tv with respect to add ons and innovative offers.On the other hand DD direct plus was mainly a bundle of prasar bharti channels and other free to air channels with nothing big on platter. This is where Big tv capitalised by positioning itself as the "entertainment specialist." Now with major 'spaces" occupied by major players it didnt made sense for Bharti to introduce a new name , and the bharti name wasnt strong enough to lend the necessary credibility. Thus using the airtel name made sense because "Airtel" was already eastablished as a strong , sophisticated "upmarket" lifestyle brand. Moreover the extension of airtel from telecom to DTH could happen seamlessly because of the related nature of the two industries.  (telecom and DTH). The synergies arising from common distribution and sales would have also prompted the company to adopt the airtel brand name. The brand tries to make a departure from the features laden positioning that was typical with the industry to a more emotion driven one, and it becomes apparent in the metaphors used in the communication and product design. Also the base technology is positioned as superior to competition (it is based on  IPTV not DTV platform) The technology helps it to offer broadband and interactive channels in its basket of offerings , this is further in tune with the adopted positioning and helps the brand to differentiate itself from the other players.

KNORR

Knorr is Unilever’s largest brand worldwide and stands for chefmanship and recipe expertise . The core of the brand consists of innovation and partnering with the consumer in the creation of great dishes . The brand is present across soups , bouillons , cubitos , meal kits and pastas around the world. 

In India , the brand is so far present only in soups .The soup market in India is small but rapidly growing , and Knorr enjoys a 70% market share . Knorr soups comprises of a 4 serve pack and is available across the country. The range of soups comprises various types of cuisines – Chinese , continental , and even Thai . All the soups can be prepared in a few minutes and the consumer can enhance the taste by adding vegetables or garnishings as per her choice .

There are 14 exciting flavours - Thick Tomato, Tangy Tomato, Chinese Veg Tomato, Sweet Corn Veg, Hot and Sour Veg, Creamy Mushroom, Sweet and Sour Noodle, Thai Lemony Noodle, Mixed Veg, Sweet Corn Chicken, Hot and Sour chicken, Chicken Delite, Chicken noodle and Chinese Chicken & Mushroom.

In addition , the brand also has a two serve pack in the following flavours – Thick Tomato , Tangy Tomato , Sweet Corn Veg , Sweet and sour noodle , Thai lemony noodle , Hot and Sour Chicken and chicken noodle.

Positioning Knorr

Knorr as a product falls in the dried soup category along with other brands like chings secret and maggi. Though knorr presently leads the category the brand is expected to face stiff challenge from chings secret. However the brand has the distinct advantage of being first to own the category and therefore enjoys a very strong position in the customers minds. The overall positioning of the brand is based on two dimensions 1) taste and , 2)health

This goes well with the global positioning of the brand which is also about taste and health. This also supports well the core identity of the brand which is SOUP.

Chings secret on the otherhand is positioned as real chineese , this positioning is relevant for the brand because the brand is also present in instant food products like sauce, instant chineese mix, vinegar, sweet corn, hakka noodles etc. the positioning as real chineese therefore strengthens the core of the brand which is instant chineese food. It is unlikely that ching's secret can make much dent to knorr's share because of its positioning as "chineese" where knorr owns the category "soup" in the customers mind.

Maggi,  another player in the dried soup mix category is a marginal player and has extended into the category to capitalise on the brand image. Maggi however is too "noodleish" to pose serious challenge to Knorr. this however dosnt mean that maggi has made a mistake by extending to this category, the extension is serving the brand well because firstly it is bringing additional revenues and secondly it complements the core identity of the brand which is instant food.

Thus because of its relevant positioning the brand knorr is likely to remain market leader in the foreseeable future...unless of coures it deviates and enters into mindless extensions (there have been news of the brand extending into other categories in the past.

Dats all in my first post.