Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink produced by The Coca-Cola Company, an American multinational beverage corporation, and is often referred to simply as Coke. It was first produced in 1890's and is now sold in more than 200 countries.
Coca-Cola was the leading soft drink brand in India until 1977 when it left rather than reveal its formula to the government and reduce its equity stake as required under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) which governed the operations of foreign companies in India. Post liberalization, after a 16-year absence, Coca-Cola returned to India in 1993, cementing its presence with a deal that gave Coca-Cola ownership of the nation's top soft-drink brands and bottling network.
The post-liberalization period in India saw the comeback of Coke but Pepsi had already beaten Coca-Cola to the punch. Pepsi’s head-start gave Coke a disadvantage in the mind of the consumer. Pepsi’s appeal focused on youth and when Coke entered India in 1993 and approached the market selling an American way of life, it failed to resonate as expected.
Coke’s acquisition of local popular Indian brands including Thums Up, Limca, Maaza, Citra and Gold Spot provided not only physical manufacturing, bottling, and distribution assets but also strong consumer preference. Recognizing that a single global strategy or single global campaign wouldn’t work, locally relevant executions became an increasingly important element of supporting Coke’s global brand strategy.
This led to numerous advertising campaigns targeted to broaden the brand positioning and development. In 1999, they launched the Jo chaho ho Jaye, CocaCola Enjoy campaign. Aamir Khan and Aishwarya Rai were the new brand ambassadors for Coke. In 2000, CocaCola cashed in on Hrithik Roshan's overnight stardom by signing him as one of the company's brand ambassador. All 3 had a huge fan following and were successful in creating a recall.
In 2001, after almost a decade of lagging rival Pepsi in the region, Coke India re-examined its approach in an attempt to gain leadership in the Indian market and capitalize on significant growth potential, particularly in rural markets. The foundation of the new strategy grounded brand positioning and marketing communications in consumer insights, acknowledging that urban versus rural India were two distinct markets on a variety of important dimensions. This launched the 2 India campaign -
Life ho to aisi (life as it should be) campaign targeted at the urban market
and Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola campaign targeted at the rural market.
In an effort to make the price point of Coke within reach of this high-potential market, Coca-Cola launched the Accessibility Campaign, introducing a new 200ml bottle, smaller than the traditional 300ml bottle found in urban markets, and concurrently cutting the price in half, to Rs. 5. This pricing strategy closed the gap between Coke and basic refreshments like lemonade and tea, making soft drinks truly accessible for the first time. Literally translated to "Coke means refreshment", the phrase directly addressed both the primary need of this segment for cold refreshment while at the same time positioning Coke as a "Thanda" or generic cold beverage just like tea, lassi, or lemonade. As a result of the Thanda campaign, Coca-Cola won Advertiser of the Year and Campaign of the Year in 2003.
The allegations of higher pesticides content in Coke than the specified limits had hit the company hard after it had managed to successfully establish the brand in the country. With sales continuing to experience a precipitous drop, Coca-Cola tried hard to restore the positive image. The following advertisement was one of them under the Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola campaign.
In 2010, a new advertising campaign Open Happiness was launched following the Jashan Manale campaign with Hrithik. The brand was linked to happiness and there were a series of advertisements under it with Coke Khule to baat chale and Brrrrrr campaign. Imran Khan was the new face of CocaCola replacing Hrithik Roshan.
During the Diwali celebrations in India, CocaCola launched the Celebrate Diwali @ home with friends and family! campaign in 2010 and Do Diye campaign in 2011. The catchy jingle was an instant hit on both the occasions.
The current campaign Umeedon wali dhoop, sunshine wali aasha is a part of CocaCola's worldwide initiative to spread the message - There are reasons to believe in a better world. This continues to project Coke as a reason to spread happiness. Hope to see more such initiatives from them in the coming years.
The Times of India (TOI) is an Indian English-language daily newspaper which is owned and published by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. According to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2011, the Times of India is the most widely read English newspaper in India.
The Times Of India was founded in Nov 1838, during the British Raj as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce in Mumbai. Later in 1861, it was renamed to The Times of India. For almost 2 centuries, TOI has stood strong as one of the top brands in print media.
Its easier to sell a high-involvement product where the prospective customer spends enough time learning about it in general, than a low-involvement product like newspapers. The news are pretty much the same in any of them. So the question that arises is how has The Times of India been able to successfully get the prospective customer to pick up their brand of newspaper over the others? This requires a very good understanding of marketing and especially consumer behaviour and TOI has mastered the same.
Research has shown us that 85% of purchases are made at the point of sale. With such a significant statistic to support and this number will probably be higher for low-involvement products, creating a recall is the best proven solution to direct consumer to the product or brand.
This is what Times of India has done all these years through the advertising campaigns. In the past couple of years they have been able to initiate some wonderful campaigns to connect with the society and create a positive brand for themselves. The oldest ad from TOI that I could remember was a parody of Sachin Tendulkar in the 90's.
In 2006, TOI initiated A Day in the Life of India campaign to try and showcase the pieces of a vast multi-cultural mosaic called India. The purpose was to connect on a common platform with the people of the county and spread the brand awareness. How can one forget the famous "Rs. 100 note ad"?
In Dec 2007, TOI launched the famous Lead India campaign. This was a sequel to the newspaper's earlier India Poised initiative launched in January 2007. While India Poised celebrated India's recent successes and its growing importance on the global radar, it also conducted a critical assessment of sectors where India failed to deliver. Public governance was on top of this list.
Lead India, therefore, addressed that concern by offering the most deserving a shot at active politics while cutting short the regular long-winded, and often extremely frustrating, path up the political ladder. To spread the message to a wider audience, the campaign showcased some wonderful ads and roped in a couple of celebrities too like Shahrukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor etc. and Abhishek Bachchan as the brand ambassador.
Lead India was a hunt to identify new leaders for a new India, men and women with the vision and ability to empower India with the kind of political leadership that is so conspicuous by its absence.
In 2008, TOI launched the Teach India campaign to to teach spoken English to the youth belonging to the underprivileged sections of the urban society. The aim was to empower the youth for a better livelihood. As with the Lead India campaign, the message was to be spread to the entire nation and hence needed a brand ambassador to campaign for them. Aamir Khan was choosen for the same.
In 2010, The Times of India in collaboration with the Jang Group had initiated a campaign Aman ki Asha - A desire for peace. They have come together to energize the process of peace between the two countries - India and Pakistan and feel that the media which speaks directly to the hearts and minds of the people can help in writing a final chapter, adding a happy twist to a story that seemed headed for tragedy.
Last year, TOI re-initiated A Day in the Life of India - Celebrating a circus called India campaign but with a different motive as compared to earlier. The campaign sought to invite every Indian to capture A Day in the Life of India in their inimitable style - Shoot a photo or video, draw a cartoon or just tell a joke, on anything which they feel makes India, India. The best entries won attractive prizes. It went on to become one of the country’s largest ever programme in collective story-telling. The following website developed for the same contains all the contents. http://adayinlife.timesofindia.com/index.html
Even after almost 2 centuries of being in the business, Times of India is doing every bit to maintain the already established positive brand through its social campaigns. These campaigns are interesting, fun to watch and spread an important message to the nation and in its own way helps to awaken the society and bring the people together for a noble cause. I hope to see more such initiatives from them in the coming years.
Vodafone India, formerly Vodafone Essar (2007-2011) and Hutchison Essar (1992-2007), is one of the largest mobile network operator in India. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India.
In 1995, Hutchison Whampoa and its Indian business partner – Max Group, launched the mobile telecommunications services as Hutchison Max in Mumbai. By 2004, Hutchison Whampoa had acquired interests in 7 mobile telecommunications operators including BPL Mobile providing service in 16 of India's 23 licence areas and by 2006, it established itself in all the 23 licence areas. With this it was also able to establish a robust network, well known brand and large distribution network – all vital to long-term success in India.
In February 2007, Hutchison Telecom announced that it had agreed to sell its 67% stake in Hutchison Essar Limited for a total cash consideration of approximately $11.1 billion to a subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc. The company was renamed Vodafone Essar.
Hutch was often praised for its award winning advertisements which all follow a clean, minimalist look. The same was continued by Vodafone after the rebranding and is known for the memorable communication.
In the year 2003, when several telecommunications companies were competing for a share of the rapidly growing mobile phone market, Hutch wanted to convey the message that its service was robust enough to provide coverage in every part of the country. It hired Ogilvy & Mather to create an advertisement campaign focusing on this theme which led to the launch of the highly acclaimed and successful campaign Wherever you go, our network follows.
There were a number of advertisements launched under Wherever you go, our network follows campaign until 2007, when Vodafone India took over and launched the Hutch is now Vodafone and Change is Good campaign. 'Hutch' was now rebranded to 'Vodafone'.
To try and establish Vodafone as a brand in India, the Happy to Help campaign was launched in 2008. The initial ad was promising but later ones failed to create a buzz.
A company’s new brand campaign should be extremely powerful particularly when a new brand’s identity has to be established on top of an existing and already quite established brand. Vodafone’s Zoozoo campaign was launched in 2009 along with IPL 2 with a lot of expectations and a motto of promoting its Value Added Services (VAS) and another subtle motto of replacing brand Hutch with that of the Vodafone. As expected Zoozoos or Zoozooperstars had become overnight brand ambassadors of Vodafone and saved the company from the negative impacts of Happy to Help You campaign.
The Zoozoos are small-bodied thin women and occasionally children covered in layers of white fabric. Each facial expression is made of rubber and pasted on the actors to cut down on the time and cost for shoot. The thin limbs contrasted with big bellies and a bulbous head and along with the huge sets added to the illusion that these creatures were cartoons and 'smaller' than humans.
In efforts to keep connecting with more than a billion hearts in the country, in 2010, Vodafone launched the Little Things You do campaign followed by the launch of the much awaited 3G services in India in 2011, for which the Zoozoos were retained as their brand ambassadors.
With the current campaign Instant Connection, the pug is again the focus. With the variety of campaigns that Vodafone India has launched recently, it has rightly balanced the use of its brand ambassadors. People would lose interest if they are exposed to too much of Zoozoos or the pug.
Vodafone India continues to surprise us with its innovative and fresh campaigns and has successfully managed to replace Hutch and establish itself as a separate identity and a brand in the mind and heart of the people.
Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as Airtel, is an Indian telecommunications company that operates in 20 countries across South Asia and Africa. It operates a GSM network in all countries, providing 2G or 3G services depending upon the country of operation.
Sunil Bharti Mittal founded the Bharti Group in 1983. 90's saw the incorporating of its cellular operations in India and post 2000 after rebranding the cellular phone operations under the single Airtel brand, there was no stopping and today, Airtel is the largest cellular service provider in India and fifth largest in the world.
In 2002, Airtel signed on music composer A R Rahman and launched the Live Every Moment campaign. Rahman's signature tune for Airtel spread like a fire and was perhaps one of the most downloaded ring tone in the history of telecommunications. This remains as one of the high points in Airtel's marketing campaign till date.
In 2004, Airtel launched the campaign Express yourself, to connect at a deeper level with the Indian audience and help create a long-term platform for the brand. This won 2 Silvers at the prestigious Advertising Agencies Association Of India (AAAI) awards for Brand Campaign of the Year and Best Advertising Film.
Then came a series of advertisements with its 2 brand ambassadors - Shahrukh Khan and Sachin Tendulkar, the most popular and inspirational icons in the country. Sachin was dropped as a brand ambassador in 2006. Later a number of celebrities were signed on including Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, R Madhavan, Vidya Balan etc and they did generate a few sparks with their advertisements but none of them proved to be a 'Value for Money' as compared to SRK.
In 2007/08, Airtel launched a new campaign Barriers Break When People Talk. With this the company had shifted away from its usual Express Yourself brand premise, which had been a part of it for a couple of years. Instead, the brand had dug a bit deeper and questioned the whole process and the need for communication itself.
Later in 2008, Airtel launched an inspirational advertisement followed by SRK's Together good things happen campaign in 2009.
By the end of 2010, Airtel decided to change its logo with a new one and the signature Airtel tune with a new one by music composer A R Rahman. Below are a series of ads launched under this new campaign which also marked the promotion of the newly acquired 3G services.
In the last couple of years, Airtel's marketing campaigns haven't been a success story. But the launch of the current campaign Har Ek friend Zaroori Hota Hai, has brought Airtel back to limelight epecially after a failed brand revamp strategy in 2010. Earlier people had limited friends, now all thanks to technology, it is possible to create an infinite variety. This was the concept behind this successful friendship campaign.
Airtel's current campaign Airtel Money - Baat sirf paiso ki nahi hai is the launch of its new mobile wallet service. It's the country’s first mobile wallet service by an operator.
Airtel as a brand continues to provide interesting marketing campaigns and is one of the famous ones in the country.
Dairy Milk is a brand of milk chocolate currently manufactured by Cadbury. It was first launched in 1905 with a higher proportion of milk than previous chocolate bars and instantly became the company's best selling product.
Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM) entered the Indian market in 1948, and since then for consumers across India, the word Cadbury has become synonymous with chocolate. CDM remains at the top of the Indian chocolate market not only because of its most delicious, best tasting chocolate but also because of its memorable communication.
In the early days, the brand had a huge fan following among kids. In order to build stronger appeal among older age groups, the brand re-positioned itself through the classic Real Taste of Life campaign in 1994. The campaign positioned Cadbury Dairy Milk as the chocolate that awakened the little child in every grown up and very soon, both teenagers and adults, were hooked on to this bar of pure magic.
With the launch of the Rs. 5 pack in 1998, CDM became more affordable and hence more accessible for the masses. The ensuing positioning of Khaane Waalon ko khaane ka Bahana Chhayie made consumption into a joyful, social occasion.
In 2003, the company aimed to position the brand as not just an occasion-based chocolate but as more of a casual consumption habit with the Khush hoon khamakha (Am happy just like that) commercial.
In 2004, the Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye campaign was launched, seeking to increase CDM consumption by making it synonymous with traditional sweets (Mithai). This was inline with the previous Khush hoon khamakha campaign. With Amitabh Bachchan as the face and voice of the brand, the campaign went on to become a huge success. People could relate to the commercials that were aired to promote Cadbury Dairy Milk. How many can forget the Pappu Pass Ho Gaya commercial?
In the year 2010, the Shubh Aarambh campaign was launched, drawing lines from the traditional Indian custom of having something sweet before embarking on something new. With Shubh Aarambh, Cadbury took the Dairy Milk journey a step further into the hearts of its million lovers.
With the current campaign Khaane Ke Baad Meethe Mein Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye, the aim of the makers is to introduce the thought of having a CDM as a post dinner meetha (dessert).
Cadbury Dairy Milk has captured the heart of Indian consumers for over six decades; but there was room for a more premium entrant in the category. And enter CDM Silk. Most CDM lovers thought that nothing could taste better, but CDM Silk came as a welcome surprise! It is creamier, smoother, and tastier. Its dome shaped cubes pack more chocolate and hence provide a superior eat experience.
Launched in January 2010, with a tantalizing taste that tempts the taste buds, CDM Silk delivered an exquisite chocolate eating experience in the Indian market.
The advertising highlights the joy of savoring CDM Silk and builds on its creamy and smooth experience that instantly melts in your mouth. This brand promise was beautifully captured by the tagline Have You Felt Silk Lately?
Even after 2 decades of active marketing through television, Cadbury Dairy Milk continues to bring smiles to millions of people through their campaign as well as the product.
Advertising is one of the most important factors behind the success of any product today. The quality of a product may be superb, but if it fails to create a buzz in the market in terms of visibility and desirability, it is more or less written off. However, there are times when the best of ad campaigns fall short of sending a clear and desired message to the target audience and end up being exercises in futility. These are either over ambitious, unrealistic or simply too intelligent for their own good.
But some of the products have managed to successfully create a brand of their own and have stayed connected to the people all these years through their memorable advertisements on television.
