Brand Success

What is it in a brand that catches the attention of millions? Makes the same variety seeking customer identify himself with the brand and become a brand evangelist for life? The name? Product? Image? History is filled with stories of how successful brands have performed and many that have declined over the ages. Take the Liril 2000 for example. Liril as a soap has always been associated with “Freshness”. Suddenly the tagline is no more freshness but ‘rejenuvate”. The new Liril without the girl in the waterfall is indicative of the troubled times the brand is facing. Of course

liril 2000

HUL has been trying to rejenuvate the brand itself for years now. Liril had a shower gel in 1994, a cologne variant in 1996, Liril Rainfresh in 1999, and even an Orange and Icy Blue variant followed by an Aloe Vera and Lemon introduction. Now it resembles Lever 2000 even if the sources at HUL deny the association. In comparison Lux has always had the filmstars – the sitaron ka soundarya soap. Lifebuoy even today maintains its germicide image with the koi dar nahi family. Then why does Liril not have this loyalty especially when the market for lime freshness soap is pretty empty? When the brand’s market share that was once at 14% of the overall soap segment, to a lowly 1.3% market share the freshness of the soap has not impressed the market. Another classic example is Thumbs up that refused to die even after the giant, Coke trying. Having been ousted from the country earlier, Coke this time was on a acquisition spree. On November 12,1993, the Parle group assigned their trade marks in the beverages bearing the names “Gold Spot”, “Thums Up”, “Limca”, “Maaza”, “Rim Zim” and “Citra” to Coca Cola. The graves of “Gold Spot”, “Rim Zim” and “Citra” can be found in the neglected marketing rooms of Coke but Thumbs up and now Limca refused to die. Coca-Cola apparently did try to kill Thumbs Up, but soon realized that Pepsi would benefit more than Coke with the change and hence relaunced Thumbs up against Pepsi. Even after neglect, Limca is still a very popular brand today. So Coke did not have a choice but promote it. So what made Goldspot fade away when Thumbs up fought on? In the words of Robert Blanchard, former P&G executive, from “Parting Essay,” July 1999 “A brand is the ‘personification of a product, service, or even entire company.’ Like any person, a brand has a physical ‘body’. Also, like a person, a brand has a name, a personality, character and a reputation. Like a person, you can respect, like and even love a brand. You can think of it as a deep personal friend, or merely an acquaintance. You can view it as dependable or undependable; principled or opportunistic; caring or capricious. Just as you like to be around certain people and not others, so also do you like to be with certain brands and not others. Also, like a person, a brand must mature and change its product over time. But its character, and core beliefs shouldn’t change. Neither should its fundamental personality and outlook on life. People have character…so do brands. A person’s character flows from his/her integrity: the ability to deliver under pressure, the willingness to do what is right rather than what is expedient. You judge a person’s character by his/her past performance and the way he/she thinks and acts in both good times, and especially bad. The same are true of brands.”