Catch the Ketchup !

Ad By: Contract Advertising

Curious for Ketchup brand?

We know of several ketchup brands, few for their Javed Jaffery comic ads, few for their long old existence and few for their sophisticated and different appeal. Midst this, comes another international brand which tries to be more than local in their approach. Field Fresh Foods, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprise and Philippines based Del Monte launched two variants of its sauces (not ketchups)- tangy and fruity Twango and Sweet and spciy Zingo. Del Monte has been into producing packaged food items such as canned fruits, olive oil, pasta, olives and now when they come to add some new flavor thru their sauces they have been very cautious in reaching the consumers head or heart or stomach or just the taste buds.

The product like sauces is generally taken by the ladies or by the young people. So considering that, ad aptly shows a lady and few young guys. Moreover the lady taken is Shefali Shah who is a well known actor and is well recognized by Indian ladies and youth. As product is trying to target middle class and is avoiding to show themselves as some international brand, so the ad is shot in a train with a lady having a samosa (Indian snack shown may be to show connectivity). Lady is trying to put sauce on side of her plate and is irritated as sauce is not coming out of the sachet. It is to note that either she has not even opened the sachet or sachet is empty implying she must have already eaten another samosa as the one shown here looks untouched. So the problem is not her liking towards taste of sauce but towards the packaging. Other shot shows few guys who were comfortably sitting in standing train but suddenly thought that they should leave. One of the best looking guys amongst that group is for some reason carrying a bottle of sauce in side pocket of his bag where people generally keep water. He offers sauce to the lady and put it over her samosa so that she gets only one bite of it and while he is doing this, lady is so mesmerized looking at him that she ignores her samosa completely. Though generally ladies of Indian families teach that one should never take anything from the stranger but guess thats not applicable for young guys who travel in train. The lady got lost in taste and she wants to know what is it that has tempted her taste buds so much. She is now on spree to find out the brand of the sauce. Punjabi lady dressed in salwar kameez like Kareena Kapoor of Jab we Met jumps out of the train and starts her chase. She is shouting, screaming, running, jumping to catch the guy but no one around notices her to pass her message further. She is climbing stairs where no one is there but she certainly knows what direction guy has gone. Though it is a train journey so train must have stopped at any station but still it is confusing to understand what they are trying to show. Punjabi lady chasing metro city guy leaving a station that has Mumbai board outside it but having AP registered taxis running on road with Rajasthan kind of buildings around and chai wala with turban. May be thats an effort to show that they are reaching "entire" india. Once she finds from him which brand it is she is satisfied and returns. She just wanted to know it for her curiosity, not that she wanted to have more of it and the guy is also fine in throwing away his bottle of sauce to her. 

The ad is very predictable and obvious story line. Though the effort is nice by taking a good endorser but with this kind of product and brand endorser, there could have been much more to experiment. The video takes attention but losses it till the end.

Should have been desire for ketchup brand. 

Tanishq - An ishq for jewellery or wedding

Ad By: Lowe

Jewellery for wedding ceremonies !

It is a kind of trend of "our" generation that parents push children to marry and children deny it. Be it guys or girls, the youth is independent and unlike earlier days does not count marriage as priority in life. For them being settled in life is more about being settled with a steady and crazily paying job. Parents also are now very much understanding in terms of taking the point of young generation and giving them liberty to decide the path of their life. But still they are parents who know their responsibilities and thus know that they can't force children to get married but can surely try convincing them. So, it is a sweet battle between independent children and understanding experienced parents. 

The new tanishq jewellery ad shows a same kind of set up wherein there is a young daughter who is independent and carries an attitude towards life along with her sensibility towards parents. She is shown driving car with her parents and dressed in a very subtle way like a modern day learned girl. Also, she is shown to dressed in a saree and to speak politely with her parents which shows how much she knows her core traditional values. All in all, the character is shown like the best balance possible for todays young girl. Father, in the front seat is shown worried and is throwing all possible facts about a guy with which he thinks the daughter might get fascinated and agrees for marriage. The character of father is rightly shown to be a logical head of the family who wants to put everything in place in the family. Mother, who looks super confident knowing that whatever father is trying to do is useless and just sits silently in back seat observing his trials. She spots a tanishq showroom and leaves the car saying with complete sarcasm that father and daughter can continue with whatever they were trying to do. Mother takes attention of daughter with beautiful jewellery. Daughter casually picks a jewel and starts to try them. Tanishq staff eventually dresses her into a bride and asks her when is the wedding. Mother's sarcasm again gets active and says "Oh Wedding Jewellery ! Sorry we are not interested". While, every jewel is taken off from daughter, she realizes that she cannot have them unless she marries. She asks about guys name to initiate the wedding topic again. Father is like in heaven not able to understand how come suddenly she is interested. Thats when the sarcastic, confident, silent mother sends an sms to father that its been so long but still he doesnt know anything about ladies. Indeed ! only a lady would know about fascination with jewellery. Saying same is Tanishqs punchline in the end of ad- Jewellery that makes you want to marry. 

The ad is beautifully done capturing all the emotions that exist in family, all the bonds that exist in members of family, all hesitations and desire that exists in different generations, all gaps that exist between the ages and genders. Jewellery is always an emotional asset for ladies and understanding the mind set of the target audience is the best that has been taken care of here. Nobody can be left without a smile after viewing this ad, be it parents or be it daughters (sons are definitely not the target segment). 

Jewellery for ceremonies before wedding ceremonies !

Come Plan with Complan

Ad By: Leo Burnett

Plan height with Complan !

Almost each one of us has grown with Complan or Horlicks. May be not consuming it but knowing about it. Neither our parents told us nor it was informed in schools, but still we have this thought registered in our heads, that these health drinks are very important in a child's growth. Thanks to our best informer, television that has been showing since ages how a child grow (Growth in terms of height). In so many years, so many kids who endorsed the brand in their tiny times have taken Complan or Horlicks and with resulting increased height moved ahead into world leaving endorsement space for a new kid. The yellow mug holder, huge size t-shirt wearing "I am a Complan boy" kid after taking Complan for years is now a hunk Shahid Kapoor along with pony-tail "I am a Complan girl" who is today known as cute Ayesha Takia. Those were the time, when customer just knew these health drinks play important role in growth of kids and it has been such an obvious fact that many times we hear these names in bollywood movies also. Complan made its space in consumers mind earlier with its punch line "I am a Complan boy/girl" and now they are still remembered discussing that those kids were Shahid and Ayesha. 

Today when we see the ads of these health drinks, there are 3 things that remain same in any of the brands. First, how low height is humiliating. Second, Boys for endorsement (Not girls). Third, Scientific proofs and claims. Kids who are most glued to television see that how low height children are teased and how much important it is to have good height. It is kind of divide and rule wherein you are smartly trying to target the children (who play important role in purchase decision making) but more than that you are ruining their thinking. Then, why only boys are shown as competitive to have good height. In India, there is a major population who still consider boys to be superior to girls and thats why it becomes even more important for such strong media to bridge that gap. May be, these companies should survey that how height is equally important for boys and girls. Also, showing a nutritionist wearing a white lab coat and saying "It has been proved" does not add to any authentication for todays learned consumer. 

In this Complan ad, a young lady mother of a small boy comes walking with a tray in her hand and saree draped around her. She shares an year ago story when nearby kids used to tease her child for his low height. Though those kids themselves were of almost same height, just that camera alignment made them look longer. The mother says she was not going to give up and thus asked her kid to do everything possible. The kid looks so dull and sad as if his height has been the only important thing for everyone around. Whenever kid is upset, mother pacifies him with an expression that can demoralize anyone happy. Suddenly, comes a nutritionist like an angel to save the family from all their problems. The kid is going to get a drink which would increase his height at double rate. In that case, nutritionist should also mention the duration of consumption. With double growth, it is awkward to look longer than normal size in an age. Mother is a proud lady now with her head reaching sky because now her kid has got good height. Wow ! what sense of achievement. The kid is now on other side as now he teases another kid with his height. So what if he is standing on a bench/ table (not covered by camera) and then comparing his height with other kid. This teasing story goes on and on. 

Advertising is surely important to remain in minds of consumers but it is more important to take the challenge of changing times and not getting changed with times. If Complan would have simply stuck with its old punchline of "I am Complan boy/ girl", it would have shown that how times change but not the brand. It is important to adapt yourself in competitive world but that never asks you to leave your grounds. 

For kids, its the growth that matters not just the growth of height !

S.P. Jain - Twin to win !

Ad By: ?


SPJain takes all pain !

From the days of taking SP Jain name casually assuming everyone knows about it to the days when every word is articulated to educate people how global we are, the journey for the brand "SPJain" is interesting for many known and unknown or rather for many said or unsaid reasons. The educated lot of India is certainly aware about SPJIMR, simply for the education standards it has maintained from ages. It was never so easy to get admission in post graduation program of SPJIMR and when one used to get in there, from the day 1 he has changed his life or rather from day 1 he has made his life big. The high standards have been so strong and firm that whatever comes from such brand would be seen with respect and appreciation. So it happened with the Global MBA program which started with Singapore, Dubai and now Sydney. There has never been any doubt about the concept as surely Management program expects the graduate to be up ready for international market and so this program gave quick (1 year) global experience. 

When MBA was a choice for few and not obvious for many, there was hardly any marketing seen around for these educational institutes. The maximum that they required space in a section of newspaper was to inform people about dates of admission. There was never a need to prove yourself though the count of leaders today and then is not much changed. In past also, there were introduction of new programs, but the applicants (read it consumers) carried the onus of finding about them. Institutes hardly had any need of reaching out. We blame it on time, on competition, on changed consumers view and it all directs that scarce is always better. Definitely, when scarcity (for anything) is just left in dictionaries, there is need to market yourself, there is need to take attention, there is need to make yourself needed. Today, the ads are not just for awareness but for recall. So when such legend institutes understand the need of going global and thus offering global programs for MBA and now BBA, they also clearly show how much understand the need of marketing it. 

For so many obvious reasons, we cannot argue about the need of marketing or need of these programs today. But certainly, taking all knowledge of marketing from one of such institutes, we definitely can argue about the way it is marketed. It is said that the campaign should be able to take Attention, creating Interest and then Desire of having the product/service thereby leading to Action. But does that hold true for any product/service. Looking at Twin city graduation program ad, certainly does all that as who would not get tempted with the good brand name who offers beautiful cities and the mentioned cuisines. We market to sell but we market the cities to sell education. The content of ad starts with negation- "program is not for everyone". There is a huge crowd in India who want good education from good institute but they have not aspired to be global citizens. For them, this is a huge discouragement when they don't feel welcomed. The 2nd para starts in a way that gives a feeling that they forgot that they were actually talking about academics and not some vacation package (Yes, academics are important). It is understandable that you need to highlight the global parameter of program but the things cited like culture and environment are obvious for anyone who reads such ads. The focus should be more on global education than on global culture, environment or cuisine. The ad ends with "no tall claim, simply a promise!", it is indeed dangerous to put anything like that on public forum. Anyone please share GMBA print ad for 2008 if available (pun intended !)

There is nothing wrong or unacceptable when its about reaching your customer but definitely you are reaching masses through this medium and a global perspective is expected in such case.