It was
supposedly the most awaited FMCG launch to happen… a challenger that would
shake the No 1 brand and run tremors of fear through it… a market shaker who
prompted competitors to pre-empt with their own challenger launches….
As I watch the
ads over the past 3-4 days, my jaw dropped and it’s now touching the floor… I’m
amazed, zapped, stupefied all at once…. The first ad I saw was of an inane set
of people chewing, eating and Madhuri coming at the end of it and stating some
lines about a toothpaste that does everything… someone who wrote the
positioning, will certainly get an honourable mention when I teach my students
about the ‘E2=0’ principle… which simply means ‘when you emphasise
everything, you emphasise nothing’
As a proponent
of the use of correct language, it also appalled me to hear the repeated use of
the word ‘batteesi’. In Hindi, the word is most often used in the context of dentures.
A modified phrase ‘batteeson barkaraar’ was used for years in the advertising
of a popular brand while rendering its ’32 intact’ promise in Hindi. For a Hindi speaking person batteesi is a
negative word, most often used in reprimanding context like ‘ batteesi mat
dikhao’ (most often used to reprimand those who laugh or grin irreverently) or
worse ‘batteesi tod denge… or batteesi bahar nikal denge’ (used to
threaten to break someone’s teeth).
Wonder what the brand is trying to say in ‘India ki batteesi’, which as a sentence
anyway sounds so wrong .
Then I see
another ad of Oral-B toothbrush, with a jaded Madhuri Dixit mouthing out her ‘Smile
Officer’ role with a plasticky smile in tow… at the end I saw a ‘buy a Oral-B
brush and get a toothpaste free offer’… Wonder what the client and its agencies
were thinking as they set out to launch a superior, anticipated brand in a
cut-throat and high loyalty toothpaste market through an offer… If I try hard
and give P&G its due this may be the company’s way of promoting trials….
But again, does this reflect in how the Company has positioned itself in India…
Ask anyone who knows the company beyond being just a consumer and the
individual will talk about the Company’s products being premium and high market….
If that is how they have built their perception across their several brands,
why would they want to explore trials through a bundled offer?
All I can say with
my experience of 40 years of being a campaign planner, with this entry
strategy, P&G has sure shaken their competitors… just that the competitors
must be shaking with uncontrolled laughter, as they really need not do anything
to protect their interest… P&G has done them a great favour with their
launch communication, which passes by like a ship in the dark and tops it with
a ‘take it home free’ offer…. Just hope the market number 1 & 2 are
definitely smarter and do not think about returning the favour, and I continue
to wonder in Ghalib’s words ‘Ya ilaahi ye majara kya hai’…
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