Fusion tack

MARKETING

Marketers blend products into one another.

A chocolate flavoured soap. A coffee-kissed cola. What is it with companies these days? This with a touch of that, and that with a dash of this. It's the new hobby in product launchville.

The fun part, of course, is that the buzz keeps interest levels high, and strikes more than just a momentary flicker of curiosity. And getting attention, under the deafening din of modern life, is half the job done.

Take Pepsi's latest offering, Pepsi CafeChino, the coffee cola. If you're still gulping in disbelief, you're not alone.

This is not the first time Pepsi, or for that matter Coke, has come up with a different flavour offering. Vanilla Coke, famously, came a cropper despite some high-volume advertising. Sprite Zero and Sprite Ice were one-off limited production offerings. Pepsi has had Pepsi Blue, 7-Up Ice and Mirinda Berry, to name a few.

It's all about making people sit up and look, feels Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consultants. "Companies tend to feel that the customer has got boring options," he says, "so, by offering such products, they add zing to their product portfolio."

It's a sign, adds Anand Halve, partner, chloroPhyll, a brand consultancy firm: "It is nothing but desperation."

Citing an example of an old product called Afghan Snow, a cream for cuts and bruises, he explains, "There has to be a clear difference between different products and differentiated products." Krack cream for worne heels is an innovation, by this yardstick, but a chocolate soap is a gimmick.

Bijoor says that companies know that these products will not give them sales volumes, but so long as they boost the brand image, they're willing to go for them.

"For instance, Lux Rose will always sell more and would be the flagship brand. But it won't add zing to the brand. So that's why you have the chocolate flavoured soap."

These gimmicks are not very cheap either. Says Sreekant Khandekar, director, agencyfaqs.com, "Sometimes the amount spent on advertising might not even match the amount recovered from the sales of the product." As for chocolate Lux, the advertising campaign "might lead men to use it more than women"!

But don't expect the fusion fraternity to quit their crazy experiments. "That day is not far," says Bijoor, "when you will have a yellow or purple ketchup."