Hampstead

Hampstead : Nothing but the Best Brand : J Hampstead Company

: Agency

Siyaram :

Brand Analysis Count : 358

J Ha Ham mps pste tead ad is a br bran and d fr from om th thee ho hous usee of Si Siya yara ram. m. J Ha Hamp mpst stea ead d is an international brand of worsted textile which was acquired by Siyaram in 1995.  When the brand was launched, it was positioned as a premium suit brand with a price ranging from Rs 1000- 1500 p.m. The high price was because the fabric was impo im port rted ed fr from om It Ital aly. y. La Late terr th thee br bran and d we went nt in fo forr lo loca call fa fabr bric ic an and d a pr pric icee restructuring happened which saw the brand retailing at the range of Rs 5001000 per meter. J Hampstead is an interesting brand. I think this is one of the very few brands in the consumer space which have an " Initial " along with the brand name. Besides this th is tr triv ivia ia,, th thee br bran and d is in inte tere rest stin ing g fo forr it itss ex expe peri rime ment ntss wi with th ce cele lebr brit ity  y  endorsements.   Accor Accordin ding g to Fin Financ ancial ial Exp Expre ress ss (26 Jul July y 20 2008) 08) the ma marke rkett siz sizee for wor worste sted d suiting is around Rs 1600 crores. J Hampstead from the start itself has relied heavily on celebrity endorsements. It is also a brand that was unlucky because in most of the occasions their celebrities got into trouble and the brand had to discontinue the campaign. The famous endorsers for J Hamptead was the tennis duo Mahesh Bhupati and Leander Paes. These tennis stars were roped in when they were in the peak of  their the ir car career eers. s. But the per person sonal al rel relati ations onship hip bet betwee ween n Ma Mahes hesh h Bhu Bhupat patii an and d Leander Paes became sour and led to lot of negative press coverage around their fight. This prompted the brand to take off the campaign featuring featuring these players.

Percept

Then came the big gamble. J Hampstead was endorsed by the entire South   African cricket team. Instead of choosing a single player, the brand took the entire team as the endorsers. The South African team was considered to be very  professional and clean. There were campaign featuring the entire team wearing J Hampstead suitings. But then came the unpredictable misfortune. Hanse Cronje , the celebrated SA captain was accused of match fixing. This forced the brand to shelve At

one

the point

of

time

entire Geoff

Boycott

also

campaign. endorsed

the

brand.

Then for a long period, the brand kept off the celebrity bandwagon. In 2008, the brand came back with the celebrity endorsement strategy but with a difference. J Hampstead is now endorsed by Ms Priyanka Chopra. I think that its the first time that a male textile brand being endorsed by a female celebrity. ( I am not sure whether any other brand targeting males are endorsed by female celebrity)  According to media reports, the agency feels that such an endorsement will be a communication innovation. The campaign featuring Priyanka has been shot in Paris and is currently on air in most of the channels  Watch the campaign here: J Hampstead So the question arises whether the strategy of a female celebrity endorsing a suiting brand make sense ?  According to reports, Priyanka Chopra is now the hottest star in bollywood with a huge 'male' fan following. The purpose of this campaign is to create brand recall rather than build a long term brand equity . Hence the logic using Priyanka works in advantage to the brand by tapping the 'huge' fan following. (This is the version of the agency)

The theme of the ads also reflects this thinking. Priyanka getting impressed /fascinated by a hunk wearing J Hampstead. Another ad showing Priyanka ' playing' with the material getting impressed by the stuff. The brand is being positioned as one for the modern independent stylish gentleman who can easily make an impact on the beautiful ladies. J Hampstead earlier had the tagline of " The world's Finest Fabric ". For the new campaign there is a new tagline " Nothing But the Best ". The brand is currently using both the taglines in the campaign. The brand is facing competition from the likes of Raymonds and Reid & Taylor. Both these brands have created a clear cut differentiation. So will Priyanka Chopra measure up against Amithabh is the key question. The brand is also looking at that perspective. Textile brands have roped in who is  who of the bollywood. Shah Rukh ( Belmonte) Salman ( Mayur) Big B , all have  been booked. Hence why not create a difference by choosing a lady. Frankly , I am not able to predict whether this strategy will work for the target audience? Honestly I am not impressed by the ads because there is nothing new  in what is being said. There are advantages in using Priyanka Chopra because those who like her will  watch the campaign. And if the news reports that she has a huge male fan following is true, then that will be positive although it has to be seen how much of  those fans belong to the brand's TG.  What I detest is the desperation of the brand about celebrities. Why should a  brand go after a female celebrity when they feel that all male celebrities have been  booked by the competitors. Does the brand have an identity on its own ? Suppose all celebrities die, what will J Hampstead do ? Will it kill itself ?

Dinesh Suitings : Take the World in Your Stride Brand : Dinesh Company : Shri Dinesh Mills Dinesh Suitings is a heritage brand which commanded much share of mind in the late 1980's. This 7 decade old brand may be a forgotten brand for the new  liberalized generation. The brand is a sad story of how a premium textile brand lost its way amidst a rush of competition. Dinesh is a brand famous for its Worsted Suitings. The brand shot to limelight  with its association with the Cricketing Icon Sunil Gavaskar. Sunil Gavaskar endorsed this brand for more than 11 years which I think is a record in the world of celebrity endorsements. Sunil Gavaskar was in his prime when he endorsed this brand. Luckily for Dinesh, Gavaskar fitted perfectly into the brand's persona. Gavaskar was a unlikely celebrity to endorse a suitings because of his frame : Short and Stout. How ever Gavaskar had a charmed which worked well for this brand I still remember two TVC of Dinesh featuring Sunil Gavaskar : One featuring him playing baseball which hits the icecream of a fellow and another one with an Egyptian Mummy ( my favorite) . The brand had the famous tagline " Take the  World in Your Stride.... Dinesh " . The brand was positioned as a premium stylish  brand. But along came the competition from brands like Raymonds and Vimal. These  brands had more financial muscle and more importantly had the production capacity and product range. Dinesh Mills could not match the product range and the capacity of these heavyweights. So slowly Dinesh Mills began to concentrate on being a supplier rather than a marketer. Dinesh also faced the issue of its brand ambassador losing the cricketing form and getting into issues. This had a rub off with the brand since Dinesh was highly  associated with Sunil Gavaskar.Also Gavaskar was becoming too old . The brand tried to change track by roping in Bollywood Macho Jackie Shroff as the brand ambassador. But Jackie and the brand did not match. Then slowly the brand went into silence so did its market share.

Now suddenly out of blue, Dinesh is making some interesting noise in the media . The brand now have found a new Saviour in Bollywood Actor Akshaye Khanna. The TVC featuring Akshaye is already on air. The brand retains the original tagline and expects that Akshaye can rejuvenate this failing brand.  Why Dinesh has chosen Akshaye as its brand ambassador is an intriguing question to me . Akshaye has never been a successful brand ambassador. He had a roller coaster ride in bollywood and I have always seen him in funky outfits. However the brand may be looking to break away from its past. But as always Celebrity endorsements alone can never lift up a brand. That too with a celebrity  like Akshaye, one can never be sure how he is going to deliver in his field. I think that Dinesh's rejuvenation effort is halfhearted. The brand feels unsure  whether it could fight against the large number of brands aiming for a share of  market. The company feels that it should stay in the comfort zone of being a supplier rather than a hardcore marketer.

Grasim Suitings : For The Self Made Brand : Grasim Company : Aditya Birla Group  Agency : O& M Brand count : 267 Grasim is a major brand in the Rs 2500 crore Ready to Stitch market. The brand  which had its existence since 1957 .Grasim is a major player in the Rs 2500 crore Ready to Stitch textile segment. The brand lags behind the market leader Raymond's

which

holds

a

market

share

of

about

25-

30

%.

Grasim comes from a company that is one of India's largest manufacturers of  cement

and

VSF.

Grasim is now on its path of repositioning. The brand was earlier positioned as a Modern Fashion Brand. The positioning was reinforced by a series of new fibre launches . The collections like Aqua Soft, Ice Touch etc kept the brand in the limelight. The brand used the tagline " Power of Fashion" to convey the

positioning. Now the brand has changed its positioning. Grasim has roped in the Bollywood Super hero Akshay Kumar as the brand ambassador. The tagline has been changed to " For the Self Made". The TVC featuring the actor is now on air. The repositioning is very significant for the brand because of the nature of  competition that it faces. The competition is not only from the textile brands but also from the Readymades. Every day we have new brands cropping up. In the   brand competition , brands like Mayur , Reid and Taylor, Raymond's have stepped up their campaigns. Grasim wanted itself to be relevant and hence this attempt. The brand now has changed its personality from a Fashionable brand to an  Ambitious Brand. According to a report in Agencyfaqs, the brand has broadened its TG to include the rural and small town markets where the Ready To Stitch  wears are still popular. The new TG is 35 + male from smaller towns who are informed,

fashion

conscious

and

ambitious.

In that way the choice of the brand ambassador is apt. Akshay is known for his humble beginnings and his struggle in life as a cook, a martial arts trainer and then to stardom. Hence the brand ambassador and the new positioning has many  things to share. The new TVC also tries to relate the life of the actor and the brand.

Impressive

thought.

The brand has now adopted the mainstay marketing philosophy of most of the readymade brands now existing in the market. Get a star to endorse it. In that  way Grasim has forced itself to move to the popular road ( easy one ) . The brand is expected to spend around 7- 8 crore on this exercise. Remember that Grasim has become popular on the strength of the innovations in fabric rather than emphasis

on

promotions.

Grasim was perceived to be an upmarket elite brand. The brand was also sold at a premium. Infact this is a brand that has used EVENTS to promote itself as an upmarket fashionable brand. Grasim was the brand that came out with the first Mr India contest which is running in its 12th Year. When it was launched, the contest evoked lot of PR and media attention which inturn benefited the brand.

But the managers at Grasim wanted the brand to look at the masses. From the elite premium club, the brand wanted itself to be more affordable. The logic  behind the current repositioning is to make the brand a Masstige brand. Hence the brand chose to go in for a undifferentiated celebrity approach. By doing so, Grasim is putting its entire brand equity at stake and that too on a celebrity. Grasim could have done so with out a celebrity. Now look at the plight of Mayur suitings which took Salman as its brand ambassador. Now Salman is in Jail and can

the

brand

bank

upon

Salman?

I am not jumping into conclusion that the new positioning of Grasim is not good. I feel that it lacks the depth and is too much depending on the endorsers rather than the brand itself. After the contract with Akshay ends, what will the brand do next

?

Can

it

survive

with

a

model?

NO

!

It will have to find another celebrity who was self made . The brand has put itself  into a vicious circle and it may have to depend on one celebrity or another. Personally I feel that a brand should stand for itself not on any real person (

celebrity)

.

I think that the brand had made an error in believing that the guys in semi urban and rural markets are only influenced by celebrities . I am sure that they are pretty confused by the plethora of celebrity endorsements and may be looking for a change. Those fashion conscious customers of Grasim will be wondering what happened to this fashionable brand suddenly changing its personality.   Akshay is definitely a right celebrity to endorse the brand with the new  positioning. But whether the celebrity endorsement strategy is right for the  brand, only time will tell.

Mayur Suitings : Stars Ki Pasand Brand : Mayur Suitings Company: RSWM ( LNJBhilwara group)  Agency: Foresight Mkg & Communication Brand Count : 201

Mayur Suitings is a brand from the Rs 600 crore Rajasthan Spinning &Weaving Mills( RSWM) and is one of the famous Indian textile brand. This 30 year old brand

is

famous

Mayur

for

its

penchant

for

celebrity

endorsements.

is having a market share of about 7 % in the 10,000

crore Indian suitings market. Mayur shot into limelight during 1995 when the brand roped in Shah Rukh Khan to endorse the brand. Shahrukh has not reached the stardom during those days  but everyone knew that he will one day become the King. ShahRukh endorsed Mayur for 4 years from 1995 to 1999. The ads which proclaimed ShahRukh

"Mayur" Khan was a hit w

hich propelled Mayur to

the

big

league.

Later the brand was endorsed by Chandrachur Singh, Sharad Kapoor , Lisa Ray  and Virendra Sewag. Mayur is a classic case of Celebrity endorsement which shows both the positive and negative aspects of using a celebrity. Here is a brand that became successful  because of celebrity but in the same case, the brand could not make use of the celebrity to its advantage.After ShahRukh, the brand was not able to sustain the momentum. With ShahRukh, the company hit upon a novel idea of catching the stars with potential to make it big. That may be one of the reason why  Chandrachur Singh was roped in. But he could not make it to the big league. Later the brand moved from movies to cricket by roping in Virendra Sewag . Sewag was in the peak of the career when he started to endorse Mayur. In 2007, Sewag

was

dropped

and

Salman

Khan

became

the

endorser.

The brand is so addicted to the celebrity that the tagline is " Stars Ki Pasand". It sounds like the younger brother of Lux soap which is " Sitaron ka saundarya sabun". Like Lux, the brand also faces the issue of customers not believing that

the

celebrity

actually

use

the

brand

(

are

they

?).

The use of celebrity in the case of Mayur makes some sense because the brand is a mass market fashion brand that is aimed at SEC B,C and D category. Hence for these segment, celebrity endorsement gives instant popularity and credibility for the

brand.

On the

flip side, "Stars ki Pasand" offers no meaningful

differentiation for the brand since the believability of the positioning is minimal. The brand is in the "Value for Money " category which itself makes " Stars Ki Pasand" unbelievable. For Lux, Celebrity is in the brand's DNA. But unlike Lux, Mayur could not build that to its DNA even after 30 years of existence. The reason is that Lux is endorsed by all the leading ladies in the Bollywood while Mayur could not afford that luxury. Mayur tend to use only one celebrity at a time ( till the contract expires) . A five or six stars endorsing the brand at the same time could have done wonders to reinforce the positioning but seldom companies can afford that. The failure of the celebrity to perform and excel also has acted against the brand. Chandrachur , Sharad and oflate Sewag has been at the lowest ebb

of

their

career

graph

The lacklustre performance of these stars have a huge negative impact on the   brand equity of brands like Mayur who solely depend on the celebrity for the strength. While brands like Lux, Pepsi and the like uses celebrity, they do not derive the strength from the stars. The stars usually amplifies the already strong equity of these brands. But in the case of Mayur, the very existence of the brand is dependant on the celebrity. There is no innate differentiation for the brand. In other words , the brand fails to stand on its own. The question to ask is why do customers buy a brand ( Mayur) .People buy for its quality and value for money 

proposition which are the brand's innate strength. But all the ads of Mayur shows the celebrity and the brand and the celebrity will say " Mayur Celebrity Khan" .... thats

it.

On the positive side, the endorsements by celebrities gave this brand a Masstige image which many marketers consider a competitive advantage in the Indian market. The company has big plans for this brand. Currently Mayur is a Rs 100 crore  brand and company wants it to be Rs 300 crore brand in five years time. The  brand has been updating its product with the latest innovations in the category. Mayur already has a Nano tech collection and is slowly extending to ready-to wear segments. The brand also has plans to move into premium category and has launched

a

collection

branded

Glazano.

Mayur faces the crucial issue of discovering a meaningful differentiation based on the brand rather than on the celebrity. The brand faces competition from super   brands like Raymonds, Grasim and Reid and Taylor. The Ex-icon for Mayur, Shah Rukh is now endorsing another brand Belmonte from Skumars .Although Mayur is targeting a much lower end of the segment,the brand has to rediscover itself to reach its ambition.