Sprite have been spiriting and spoofing its competitors for using star power. In fact it was being used by its parent to defend its flagship and beat its competition.
They shot themselves on their own foot, when they used Sanya Mirza for their बस प्यास बुझाये यार advertisement. It had built its anti brand image painstakingly, but in a single stoke Sanya killed its image.
The moral of the story is : आधी छोड़ पूरी ध्यावे। आधी रहे ना पूरी पावे ॥
Compare this to 7Up's Fido! Fido started its life as a doodle for an advertisement campaign for 7UP and now it has a life of its own. And, not to mention his (err..its) celebrity status. 7UP has now even blended itself with other item number celebrities in a beautifully humorous way. Thats the way to go!!
Talking about anti brand, Tantra is the best Anti Brand I like. But then its another story. I am sure I will tell it one day soon.
(c) 2007, Ashish Banerjee, www.Ashish.Banerjee.name
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Star Power is a Double Edged Sword
Using stars as brand ambassadors is a double edged sword.
If the star does well, the brand grows. But, if the star falls from grace, then the brands gets to run for its life.
Recently, I went to the petrol pump of an oil company, which uses the cricket star Dhoni, to sell its Speed brand of high speed petrol. whenever, I used to visit them, the attendants used to proudly narrate the advertisement's tang line, that implies that Speed is as fast as Dhoni!! But after the Indian team's disappointing defeat, I asked the attendant, should I be still filling Speed? He went blushing and requested me to bear with him and he told me that orders are already out to pull down Dhoni's poster. I am sure, all the brands that used Sachin or Blue Billion bombed and they cost the Brands dearly.
Guess the fate of Pepsi's Blue world Cup cola !!! A big flop show, for no fault of their's. The campaign went down with the Indian Cricket Team. Hey, now Pepsi knows why Blue is a sad color!
Having said that, Lux has been using Star power to its fullest, and its been that way for more that past two decades! Their mantra, is that whoever is at the top slot gets to be the Lux woman. They did mess it up a bit when they brought in Shahrukh Khan! However, they made it good by quickly and gracefully pulling the advert down by bringing in all the ex-Lux of heroines yesteryear's to tease the beautiful Khan. All the ex-Lux women bid her (oops! him) good bye.
But the most hilarious misfits was a recent advertisement in Corporate Dossier of Economic Times, where Sachin the ex-cricketer donned a business suit to tell us how to calculate Technology Cost of Ownership for Cannon business solutions. They probably are blissfully unaware of his academic achievements (or lack thereof).
Star power is OK for lifestyle goods but a strict NO-NO for high tech products.
(c) 2007, Ashish Banerjee, www.Ashish.Banerjee.name
If the star does well, the brand grows. But, if the star falls from grace, then the brands gets to run for its life.
Recently, I went to the petrol pump of an oil company, which uses the cricket star Dhoni, to sell its Speed brand of high speed petrol. whenever, I used to visit them, the attendants used to proudly narrate the advertisement's tang line, that implies that Speed is as fast as Dhoni!! But after the Indian team's disappointing defeat, I asked the attendant, should I be still filling Speed? He went blushing and requested me to bear with him and he told me that orders are already out to pull down Dhoni's poster. I am sure, all the brands that used Sachin or Blue Billion bombed and they cost the Brands dearly.
Guess the fate of Pepsi's Blue world Cup cola !!! A big flop show, for no fault of their's. The campaign went down with the Indian Cricket Team. Hey, now Pepsi knows why Blue is a sad color!
Having said that, Lux has been using Star power to its fullest, and its been that way for more that past two decades! Their mantra, is that whoever is at the top slot gets to be the Lux woman. They did mess it up a bit when they brought in Shahrukh Khan! However, they made it good by quickly and gracefully pulling the advert down by bringing in all the ex-Lux of heroines yesteryear's to tease the beautiful Khan. All the ex-Lux women bid her (oops! him) good bye.
But the most hilarious misfits was a recent advertisement in Corporate Dossier of Economic Times, where Sachin the ex-cricketer donned a business suit to tell us how to calculate Technology Cost of Ownership for Cannon business solutions. They probably are blissfully unaware of his academic achievements (or lack thereof).
Star power is OK for lifestyle goods but a strict NO-NO for high tech products.
(c) 2007, Ashish Banerjee, www.Ashish.Banerjee.name
Its Wise To Stay Away From Hi-Tech Brands That use Star Power To Sell
Looking at the Cannon advertisement in ET (Economic Times), 6th April 2007, page 3 of CD (Corporate Dossier), really blew up my fuse!
Guess what, Sachin Tendulkar was shown to be teaching us about returns on technology investment. Ha! what does a high school dropout and a ex-mega cricket star knows about high technology business solutions? You may argue that Bill Gate, Michel Dell and Steve Jobs are drop outs too! Yes true, but they are deep into technology and their education has been hands on in technology industry. And, yes Sachin too learned about the tricks of his trade in the cricket field. Sachin's brand equity clearly indicates how much he is admired by the Indians. But does that sports brand equity automatically makes him a high technology diva? I think not.
Recently Lenovo, Compaq and now Cannon are trying to use film and cricket stars to build their brands. But tell me what does Shahrukh or Saif ali Khan know about computers? One of the bloggers going by the nickname of ranger, suggested that this trend is due to computers becoming commodity. That may be so, but I personally don't think that people who buy high tech PC or laptop will buy because a film star poses in the advert. The consumer knows that, probably the star is as clueless about the computing configuration as a normal end user.
It makes sense if a film star poses for a jewellery or a suiting advertisement. But NOT computers.
If at all a brand needs to use star power, they should use a known personality who is also a power user of computers. For example, Vishvanathan Anand, the numero uno chess grandmaster, mostly practices on a powerful PC or a Laptop.
Also most of the people I know quietly stay away from high technology brands that use star power to sell their wares. Its because, the consumer ultimately pays for their fat fees.
So, the ET in general and CD in particular is read by corporate executive, who are not swayed by an ex-cricket star, trying to preach them about technology. Sachin wearing a business suite does not change the facts.
(c) 2007, Ashish Banerjee, www.Ashish.Banerjee.name
Guess what, Sachin Tendulkar was shown to be teaching us about returns on technology investment. Ha! what does a high school dropout and a ex-mega cricket star knows about high technology business solutions? You may argue that Bill Gate, Michel Dell and Steve Jobs are drop outs too! Yes true, but they are deep into technology and their education has been hands on in technology industry. And, yes Sachin too learned about the tricks of his trade in the cricket field. Sachin's brand equity clearly indicates how much he is admired by the Indians. But does that sports brand equity automatically makes him a high technology diva? I think not.
Recently Lenovo, Compaq and now Cannon are trying to use film and cricket stars to build their brands. But tell me what does Shahrukh or Saif ali Khan know about computers? One of the bloggers going by the nickname of ranger, suggested that this trend is due to computers becoming commodity. That may be so, but I personally don't think that people who buy high tech PC or laptop will buy because a film star poses in the advert. The consumer knows that, probably the star is as clueless about the computing configuration as a normal end user.
It makes sense if a film star poses for a jewellery or a suiting advertisement. But NOT computers.
If at all a brand needs to use star power, they should use a known personality who is also a power user of computers. For example, Vishvanathan Anand, the numero uno chess grandmaster, mostly practices on a powerful PC or a Laptop.
Also most of the people I know quietly stay away from high technology brands that use star power to sell their wares. Its because, the consumer ultimately pays for their fat fees.
So, the ET in general and CD in particular is read by corporate executive, who are not swayed by an ex-cricket star, trying to preach them about technology. Sachin wearing a business suite does not change the facts.
(c) 2007, Ashish Banerjee, www.Ashish.Banerjee.name
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