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Executive Interviews: Interview with P Gopalakrishnan on Brands and Branding
August 2006
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By Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary
What have been the major lessons in
building CavinKare as a popular brand?
CavinKare as a corporate identity has
been built over the years. Strong and
relevant brands, motivated human
capital and value systems are critical
to building and sustaining the
corporate identity.
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Isn't it an irony that in the case of
CavinKare the individual brands (Meera,
Chik, Spinz, etc.,) aremore popular than the
parent brand? Was it a strategic choice or
was it accidental?
As category needs are different and
expectations from consumers are
dynamic, it is advisable to have
individual brands. There is a clear
strategic base for growing individual
brands.
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Is it better to build individual products as
brands or is it better to build an umbrella
brand around the sponsoring company?
Umbrella brands make marketing
processes unified and focused, but
will have issues when it comes to
keeping relevance in the face of
changing consumer tastes and
category evolution. This is especially
true for personal care categories like
shampoos and fairness creams. Our
brands like Chik and Fairever have
been evolving value propositions and
brand promises in line with the shifts
in consumer mindscape. -
In case of FMCG industry what are the
critical success factors that can catapult
brand to new heights?
Consumer insights, value proposition
and retailing are critical to the brand
growths. -
In the case of FMCG industry, what's the
best way to build brands?What's the role of
advertising and other modern marketing
techniques like Internet marketing, mobile
marketing, etc.?
Brands have to be continuously
relevant to the consumer. In this
direction, interweaving the benefits
and emotional payoffs in all brand
activities are critical whether it is
using media, events and other
consumer interface opportunities.
Chik shampoo which is number two
in shampoos has been grown through
a series of measures including mass
media, direct consumer product
interface sessions, channel
partnerships, regular consumer
researches. These efforts make the
brand constantly relevant to the final
consumers and the channel partners. Internetmarketingwill be relevant
to categories where consumers are
willing to forego the touch/feel/
product experiences. Purchase of
books and transactional processes like
air tickets have been quickly lapped
by consumers. Mobile marketing can be a useful
tool as a reminder/add on medium
for brand awareness especially
when it is relevant to the mobile
phone audience like the youngsters.
Information on rock concerts,
special promotions at Coffee Day
outlets, special fares from Air
Deccan are few examples of possible
usages. -
Is it better to build more brands in the
same product line, which might end up in
cannibalizing? Or is there any proven and
successful way of sprucing up brands in a
specific product line?
Categories are analyzed for need gaps
and a brand is launched to meet the
unmet demand. If there are multiple
need gaps (product benefits and
emotional payoffs), then an analysis
needs to be done whether the same
brand can be stretched to cater to
these gaps. We have two examples
within CavinKare where we have
used different approaches. We have Nyle shampoo and Chik
Shampoo addressing different gaps in
the shampoo category. We have also
successfully used Chinnis as an
umbrella brand in the food category for pickles and masala powders. It is
possibly easier to analyze in this
category where emotional payoffs are
not high and a single brand benefit
can be stretched. This allows a single
brand to straddle different points in
the same category or even multiple
categories.
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