MxMIndia

Tag: Wagh Bakri

  • The accounts will be handled by the agency’s Mumbai office

    Scarecrow M&C Saatchi bags creative duties of 7 FMCG brands

    By A Correspondent

     

    Scarecrow M&C Saatchi has bagged the creative duties of seven FMCG brands, two of which are global. Of the seven, four belong to the Emami Group.
    The complete range of Boroplus (Face Wash, Fairness Cream, Body Lotion, Prickly Heat Powder and  Antiseptic Cream), Emami Kesh King Hair Oil & Shampoo, Emami 7 oils in one hair oil and Emami Diamond Shine Hair Colour are part of the Emami bouquet. Then there’s the Lactalis group’s Anik range (Ghee, Milk, Flavoured Milk, Buttermilk, Curd and Milk powder), the entire portfolio of German brand Baby Sebamed that is marketed in India by USV Pharma and Wagh Bakri’s Mili Tea brand.
    The accounts will be handled by Scarecrow M&C Saatchi’s Mumbai office.

    Said Vikas Srivastava, Sr. GM (Marketing), Emami Limited, confirmed the development by adding, “Scarecrow has been evolving over the years and now, with their tie-up with M&C Saatchi we expect our communication will become sharper with new ideas that will help break clutter.”DPS Advertising & Marketing, Kolkata, has been associated with Emami on the above brands for years, and the association will continue.

    Commenting on the decision to choose Scarecrow M&C Saatchi, Executive Director of Wagh Bakri Tea Group Parag Desai said: “Wagh Bakri Tea is the leader in Gujarat and very popular brand in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh wherein in Mili Tea is second choice for masses. We are now targeting newer territories such as North India, South India, Maharashtra and Goa. Scarecrow M&C Saatchi presented us a compelling creative strategy to gain significant market share in these regions.”

    On Sebamed, Farida Hussain, Director for Splendore Business, said: “We are very upbeat about taking Baby Sebamed to the next level. Its unique formulation with pH 5.5 makes it effective and extremely safe for the little ones, right from day one. We are sure the association with Scarecrow M&C Saatchi will support Sebamed to meet its aspirations.”

    And this is what Manish Bhatt, Founder-Director, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi said:

    On the Emami win: “Some of the brands like Boroplus are truly iconic brands that every Indian has grown up with. Creating memorable work for such a memorable brand is indeed a matter of great pride for us at Scarecrow M&C Saatchi. Raghu and me have already worked on beauty, skin care and hair care brands like Parachute, L’Oreal, Lakme Elle 18, Vaseline, Dabur Vatika and more in our earlier days, and would love to provide the necessary expertise to create some ground-breaking work for these brands as well.”

    On Wagh Bakri’s Mili Tea: “It’s a special feeling. Scarecrow M&C Saatchi has been handling Wagh Bakri for over three years now. The group has ambitious plans for Mili Tea and has always evolved with times and focused on expanding reach. We are thrilled to partner with them in this exciting journey.

    And on Sebamed: “It’s always a pleasure to work on a brand where you are one of its target audiences. The Group has shown faith in Scarecrow M&C Saatchi by giving us the mandates of its Baby skincare range. Baby skin care is a tough category and USV private limited has a very ambitious plan for it. Team Scarecrow is really excited to contribute to Sebamed’s growth.”

     

     

  • Was it right for Wagh Bakri to associate ‘Hi’ with coldness in relationships, asks Sanjeev Kotnala

    Wagh Bakri… a bit Lukewarm?

     

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    The latest Wagh Bakri DVC takes the theme ‘Rishton Ki Garmahat’  to next level with ‘Rishton Ka HI FEVER’. It introduces a granny who uses tea to settle an argument. She makes a point.

    Is The Insight Laboured To Justify Brand Continuity?

    The insight has been simplified to technology leading to shorter conversations. ‘Pranam’ and  ‘Namaskar’ leading to ‘Hello’ to ‘hey’ and now to ‘Hi’.  Further, the brand magically infers that that shortening to ‘Hi’ results in coldness in relationships.

    I must take objection in the agency unnecessarily burdening technology enhancement and shortening of conversation with the blame of accentuating coldness in relationships. A stage we fail to appreciate the pure love of our near and dear ones  in our selfish, independent cocooned world.

    It is a laboured point, and I will let it go.

    Trust me, neither is the consumer privy to the very pleasuring BSM (Boardroom Strategic Masturbation) or PORAC ‘Post-Rationalisation of Creative’, nor interested in it.

    Coming back to this Hi. It is acceptable and almost an undeniable truth that relationships are losing a bit of warmth.  The ever-increasing pressure of achievements, time and success is pushing people to redefine life that is independent, almost selfish with restricted socialisation.

    Yes, I made that inference.

    Lukewarm Garamahat

    This first led Wagh Bakri to the well-accepted multiple-times-clicked ‘Rishton Ki Garamahat’ DVC in 2013.  It has a beautifully sung lyrical background song that accentuated the whole impression. I believe it worked for the brand. Otherwise, the client would not have commissioned a sequel in 2018.

    As per the Scarecrow M&C Saatchi PR release, the research in 2017 pointed to similar inputs including shortening of conversations even in rural India. I understand that agency was quick to take cognisance of it and immediately branded the idea. We now know it as ‘Hi Fever’.

    As a storyline, the DVC has strongly established characters and coordinates that play along with the expected lines. Foreign-return Punjabi Munda. Small bylanes. An unnamed associate who is stuck in a small shop in an already crowded lane has a large heart. Munda ignores and the parents are apologetic of their grown-up son’s behaviour.  They will always be blamed for it. The son meets Daadi (Grandmother), who now ignores him and his ‘Hi’.  She is busy creating the single dose of magic potion that will convert her foreign-return-Hi-Shi-grandson with alienating behaviour to a sanskari munda. That magic potion is delivered with the category-brand connecting magic spell  “Hamare yahan rishte ‘hi’ se nahi chai se bante hain”. (Everlasting relations are created over a cup of tea, not hi). And abracadabra behavioural metamorphosis takes place within seconds.

    Not forgetting that we live in the same social cocoon where there is a severe shortage of characters to express our emotions, the brand suggests you use a simple hashtag #HiNahiChaiPilao.

    Oh, by the way, the format is similar. There is a song with beautiful wordings that you have to pay attention to. “Rishton se na muh mod bande, rishte hain anmol. Nape-tule iss bol se bande rishton ko na tol”. Do not shy away from relations, Relations are precious; Don’t destroy relationships with trivial behaviour.

    The same Wagh-Bakri Chai that got the husband-wife relationship rejuvenated in 2013 works across generation in 2018.

    Having tried my best to poke fun at the creative and saying what I want to, I must confess I liked the DVC. It is a good example of storytelling and keeping the audience engaged with it. But as continuity comparison is unavoidable. Hi is a bit lukewarm.

     

    Tea category is not so simple.

    ‘Jago Rey’ a category benefit amplified as a social service belongs to Tata Tea.  The musically uplifting melody established with Taj Tea. The kadak stationwaali chai with song and dance with Pathaka Chai and Society Tea trying ‘The tea Society called India’ a very generic expression.

    So, this Wagh Bakri treatment and willingness to stick to the proposition definitely comes as freshness. Trust me the audience uncorrupted with all such ideas and discussion will mostly see it as entertaining, emotive and engaging. The brand is strongly associated with such execution and promise.

    ………………………………………..

    Here are some more DVC’s where you may have your own opinion about what it does to the brand. I personally find them good if not excellent. I know for sure that a large section of audience love them and the client buys into the theme and expression.

    The message, category and the brand are woven beautifully in the story that holds attention. Where the audience associates and recalls it clearly with the brand.

     

     

    We must stop creating these highly logical and rational boundaries around development and evaluation of the creative expression.

    We want everything disruptive and out of the box.

    Sometimes, it helps in working and maximising the returns within the box.

     

     

  • The TVC is produced by Anand Karir, Director, White Script

    Wagh Bakri’s Mili Tea bets on the consumer-retailer relationship in its latest campaign

    By A Correspondent

     

    For their latest campaign ‘Peeoge toh Janoge’, Wagh Bakri and DDB Mudra have shown brand ambassador Sakshi Tanwar in a new avatar. The agency has crafted the ad film with Sakshi playing a local shop owner – one of the biggest influencers in the lives of grocery buyers in India.

     

    Said Parag Desai, Executive Director, Wagh Bakri Tea Group: “Mili is one of the most well-distributed tea brands from our group. Its quality is liked and preferred by North Indian consumers as compared to our national competitors. We are confident that through the new Mili TVC we will be able to reach out to a larger audience”.

     

    Added Rajiv Sabnis, Executive Director, DDB Mudra Group: “We got down to the core benefits of the product and delivered it in the simplest manner possible. The convincing power of the retailer was proven in our market visits, so all we had to do was create an interesting conversation between the retailer and consumer. The product insight – that if you try Mili once, you’ll be convinced of its quality – was effortlessly integrated.”

     

     

  • Almost half a dozen such smaller regional firms are entering newer states, some advertising for the first time, while others planning to raise funds to survive a fresh salvo by large consumer goods companies

    Swad of Success: Regional FMCG firms like Panjon, Bisk Farm, Mapro, raising funds to expand operations

    By Sagar Malviya

     

    After a gap of almost four years, TV commercial of the once popular Swad digestive candy hit the screens early this month. Swad, which is making a come back, is one of the brands owned by 48-year old Panjon, an Indore-based firm that sells candies to balm and toothpaste endorsed by Shammi Kapoor and Sonali Bendre in its glory days. The plan is to reach out to more states, expand product portfolio and grow sales ten-fold in two years.

     

    Panjon isn’t alone. Almost half a dozen smaller regional firms such as Bisk Farm, Mapro, Wagh Bakri and V-John, among others, are entering newer states, some advertising for the first time, while others planning to raise funds to survive a fresh salvo by large consumer goods companies that expanded into the turf of smaller rivals last year.

     

    “While our products are doing well in MP and UP, competition is also getting intense in these home markets,” admitted Atul Kothari, managing director at Panjon, which is in talks with a clutch of private investors to raise funds for expansion. “We are looking to enter Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and Bihar this year,” he said. The company plans to add more than 1,400 distributors to its existing network of 600.

     

    So what exactly was the trigger? Well, for one, large FMCG firms have been aggressively reaching out to rural consumers through expanded distribution, which led to smaller regional players losing market share across segments in their core markets.

     

    Over the past couple of years, P&G has almost doubled its distribution reach and now has a direct reach of 1.3 million outlets, against HUL’s direct reach of 1.60 million outlets. Emami expanded reach by as much as 30 per cent primarily in rural areas, while HUL added more than 50,000 villages to its network just last year. Ditto, in the case of Dabur, which rolled out special rural focused sales initiatives across eight key states and widened reach in 71 high potential districts.

     

    However, the regional players are now plotting a counter attack, not just in their existing markets but also in newer states. The Rs 500-crore SAJ Food Products that dominatesEastern Indiawith its biscuit Bisk Farm is a case in point.

     

    “Last year, we entered Karnataka and are planning to reach Andhra Pradesh next month. We aim to have a national footprint by 2013,” saidVijay Singh,MDof Kolkata-based SAJ Food Products. He added that the firm has even discussed internally about coming with a public issue in the next two years.

     

    But it won’t be easy. And smaller rivals are aware of the fact that price competitiveness with national players would rather be futile with the latter having economies of scale. Hence, they are looking to cash on through their quality proposition rather than being price warriors.

     

    Maharashtra-based processed food firm Mapro Foods andGujarat’s tea company Wagh Bakri feel that they are better in terms of quality compared with rivals such as Hindustan Unilever. “Large players are very aggressive in terms of schemes and offers. But we believe that consumers want quality and not price-offs,” said Parag Desai, executive director of Wagh Bakri, that is looking to enterPunjaband Haryana.

     

    Some firms that already have an indirect reach nationally are also keen to distribute products directly and cut costs on intermediaries. Delhi-based Vi-John is reworking its distribution strategy by eliminating super-stockist and instead having selling agents in each state.

     

    “We are planning to add over 1,500 distributors and 70 stockists to have direct reach in western and southern markets,” said Vimal Pande, CEO of Vi-John Group, which has 30 stockists and 2,500 distributors.

     

    Modern trade is doing its bit too. “Regional brands need to build stronger consumer connect to keep their consumer franchise or they could expand distribution to add new consumers and grow base,” said Devendra Chawla, president – food and FMCG at Future Group.

     

    Source: The Economic Times

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