Siyaram’s- Casting Coup

Brand ambassadors, they say, should fit the brand in terms of its character and personality. When a brand needs to take that leap into the luxury and aspirational segment, the lineage & heritage is highlighted. But when you are Siyaram’s who has always been a mass-market brand with strengths in the semi-urban and rural areas and quite less aspirational value, trying to position one of its products as a luxurious is difficult. Siyaram’s has always been playing catch up with Raymond’s and Reid & Taylor

Siyaram’s though has come up with the ultimate casting coup. They have signed on Bollywood’s original stylist and fashion designer Manish Malhotra as the face of their luxury product Royale Linen. Considered by them as “the most luxurious linen to be introduced in the market” which is “100% pure”, Siyaram’s plan to ride on the fashion quotient of Manish Malhotra to make its presence felt in the luxury space.

Of its various brand ambassadors over the years, from sports stars and Bollywood actors Hrithik Roshan & Priyanka Chopra, this seems to be the perfect brand-fit which will add weightage to Siyaram’s as a luxury brand. It could also help in its distribution if Manish Malhotra lets them showcase their range of fabrics in his exclusive boutiques. They could use his influence in the world of fashion through his fashion shows.

The company plans to spend about Rs. 30 crore on promotional activities. The above print ad in the Bombay Times of Times of India (1st May 2012) could have been placed better. Probably the first page would have been a better option. The ad creative though, nothing out of the ordinary, is elegant. 

'Raymond- Made-to-Measure'- bold initiative

Raymond's print ad in one of the leading newspapers in India for the launch and awareness of their Exclusive stores of Made-to-Measure. The campaign was done in a teaser sort of way where just the topmost creative was shown with the headline. No brand name, no mention of the product or what is it all about. As the pages were turned, the new creative was present with all the requisite details necessary for the launch of the store. A very bold attempt by Raymond to be in the stitched-segment which is fast waning in favour of the ready-to-wear (off the shelf type apparels). Considering that Raymond is the leader in its category and a distribution that is unparalleled in India for a textile brand, they are the ones who should be taking the lead and experimenting. Thumbs up to them. The creative shows the art form made famous by Michalengelo. Only the educated who read about history and art forms would have heard about him. The target audience seem to be the affluent and educated class who want proper fitting rather than style which the young prefer. Probably the 35-50 and above age group segment would be the buyers.

However, a word for the creative depiction. Very good. But i hope it hasn't been inspired by the below shown ad created by a German ad agency Scholz & Friends, Humburg for the German Olympic Federation .

Usage of children in endorsements:

The rule of advertising is to use celebrity or people in ads who relate to the target audience. E.g. A sportsman would endorse a sports shoes not a filmstar. The rule doesn’t hold in the continuously changing market in India. Especially if it involves children. There was a time when children were used in ads only for children’s products such as nutrition category (Bournvita, Chyawanprash) or ice creams (Amul or Kwality) or chocolates (Cadbury).

As time progressed children were used more and more in ads for products not bought for them but were for household consumption such as consumer durables (Airconditoners, refrigerators, television, Audio systems) or food (Maggi, type of masala). Pester power was considered to be the weapon then. Things have not changed. Pester power still remains but the thought process behind using children for an array or products/ services has changed. Nowadays children are used for all types of product/ service categories. Aviation, banks (Axis bank, IDBI bank, Kotak bank), Cars (Volkswagen, Maruti), insurance (ICICI Pru, HDFC Standard Life, Metlife, Max newyork), detergent (Rin, Ariel, Tide, Wheel), oral care (Colgate, Pepsodent), tourism (Mahindra resorts), real estate (almost all ads in print media such as Lodha, DLF, HDIL), mutual funds, retail (big bazaar), Textile (Raymonds), telecommunications (Vodafone), oil and gas(Jaypee), cement, steel to name a few companies. You name a category and children are used. The rationale being that research has shown ads with children having more recall value than its ads of competitors without children. Children are endearing to all of us. This could be the reason for the high recall.

Communication is all about the message rather than the characters involved. The effectiveness of an ad is in understanding the way to reach the target audience and knowing the idea to make the target audience relate to the message and thus the product/ service. This has been understood by the Indian advertising industry.

Thus we see the latest offering from Metlife fixed income plan where we see the grand son blackmailing his grandmother for buying stuff and relating it to fixed income from financial products. A child in an ad who does not know what insurance means.