What are the different ways of experimenting with a brand and taking it from place to place and market to market…? Ask O&M, or just sit and watch the ads they make time and again for Cadburys Diary Milk, which once was good in connecting to its right TG but has slowly lost both, the idea of who is their TG and how to connect to them….
The new ad is about celebration again (that has been the platform for years now and it is extended here again) with a song 'Khush hai zamana aaj pehli tarikh hai, Meetha hai khana aaj pehli tarikh hai” which just means sing and rejoice, it's salary day today… this ad is getting a lot of recall for the money being spend… the media agency is doing its job(!) .. a hell lot of road blocking and the ad is there everywhere....... the idea stares from the newspaper and blares its horn from the TV of course….from FM radio’s and as SMS’s every first day it pooh-pooh’s ( they have tied up with BSNL, MTV, Star channels, with HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank to send out text messages to account holders on pay day etc etc)….. But the big question is: - what is the big Idea?
Cadbury’s is the undisputed leader in the Rs 2,000-crore per annum chocolate market and Cadbury Dairy Milk is its warhorse with some 34-35 % market share….. Though it is strong in bars (Five Star) and tablets (Cadbury Dairy Milk), Nestle has made inroads with its light offerings like KitKat and Munch. Worse now is an increasing health awareness, among the larger public which is attracting consumers towards lighter chocolates — a trend that will only get stronger in the days to come.
In this given scenario is this a strategy?
The conception of this new ad relates more to the old India which was socialist, stupid and loved the license Raj and famed protectionism….. Come on guys….. Take a long walk….…. The India of today doesn't wait for salary day to do a bit of indulge and that too on a piece of chocolate…. I have nothing against any brand going down the socio economic ladder as DM is doing with every new ad trying to sell to more masses, but the question is- are you retaining the original buyers..?
Is this an endeavor to move this product which is of variety seeking nature to a habitual category… Can it happen?
Is it just an effort to break the clutter? Then yes they have broken it.. but what next… is it making more people buy more than they bought before?
Is it an attempt to get synonymous with the Mithai category after being generic with the name chcolates…? If yes ALAS.. God save you guys….
Pay day is surely an occasion to celebrate but that is all? You want people to stop buying on other days… ? like I do.. every week end.. every time I walk in to a friends home, every time I visit a super market with my Kids… From every day buying to one day (JUST ONE DAY) buying? I sure don’t belong to the SEC to which you now talk to, but does that mean that I cannot be your buyer…..?
Diary milk and its ads by O&M have enchanted an entire generation and that provokes this outburst when I see the world’s most creative agency parading the wonderful brand as Radha and Miss Palampur ( in a gross under utilisation of the great Big B) and now this one.. This one for sure is better than the Radha and the Big B ads which was probably the biggest disservice to the brand….here at least (as compared to Radha) there seems to be an idea (no Big Idea still) which is let out half baked and it will lead to indigestion…..The celebration platform was and is kept intact all this years but….. See these ads from the past and then let us continue….
Now….can one compare these ads made in 1993 (or 94?) with the Radha ads? With the Big B ads where Pappu passes his 12’th grade, the Kenya ads? With the new Pehli tarikh ones?… The celebration platform is intact but isn’t the big idea missing….?
Pehli taarikh (the first day of the month= salary day) is important, I admit......I am a salaried guy and live life on the first week of ever month.. But I would rather plan, prepare and purchase a pair of jeans or a shoe on the Pehli taarikh and sing a song when I buy it…… a bar of chocolate is intuitive for me… and it has to be that way for the seller.. Or is it not..?
When you feel like eating chocolate you will have it & you wouldn't for sure wait for the pay to come to buy the chocolate......it is not such a big deal to buy a chocolate and no decision or planning is required for it….
It is surely a big deal to market chocolates.. the big players have bigger headaches... Next time when I have a celebration -Will I buy a diary milk? is the question.
2 comments:
Wow! You should have been a lawyer. You have made up the case so well.
Let's move from an account planners ppt slides to the streets and town of dusty India.
Tier 2 towns. Where people put off purchases for the first of every month. People for whom the ad is made.
Payday is a big day. And the entire family waits for this day. only Cadbury's has made inroads into this. Today millions of such families have a CDM in their mind. Now if this good for sales and bad for theory, I dont know.
Kit Kat is a snack, comparing it with CDM is unimaginable.
This 'Mooh Meetha Karo
or ' Have a sweet', is the age old line for celebration. I dont understand how it goes away from it.
We advertising people love to make theories out of successes. Then we compare a new success with an old theory. Only to tear the old theory down and create a new one. Particulary if the new idea is form one of our fellow Indian agencies.
About health, the entire category of chocolates is facing that threat. And am sure folks at CDM will be worrying more about that.
You cant understand a big idea, with presentations, case studies, and appropriateness. Because common sense doesnt fit into this very well.
Well sir...i respect your effort to articulate the school of thought that you come from. But in this case,i beg to differ on the grounds of the income of the people shown dancing around in that ad. As you so rightfully said that you would rather prefer buying a pair of jeans instead of chocolate when you receive your paycheck. However, you are probably one of those financial well-off ones who can afford to do so. The ones shown in the ad seem to belong to the lower-middle class whose purchases are very limited and modest. For them, buying sweets is the only luxury at times, which can be afforded only on the first day of the month.
It was a good post sir..take care..
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