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.