The relevance and importance of conventional marketing, especially in the fast moving consumer goods category, has slid down to give way for more aggressive market savvy solutions that can revolutionise the way products sell these days. While dealer productivity and market penetration are still important in the overall marketing activity, the brand has to evolve and revolve in a different orbit "" it has to reposition itself if it really wants to make a difference in the highly competitive market. Positioning a product firmly in the consumer's mindset has been one of the major marketing challenges that has enamoured many a marketing guru. As organisations are re-engineering themselves to be more productive, products also need to reposition themselves if they want to stay ahead in the marketing war game. Consequent to the changing parameters, both tangible and intangible, if the products do not respond and reorient themselves to the new environment, they run the risk of becoming obscure. The point here is that however much financial wizardry an organisation might deploy, however much R&D they get into, however much technology they enjoy, unless brand building takes the front seat with clear-cut strategies that predispose the product behaviour, the chances of creating a winner is quite remote. The name of the marketing game is therefore repositioning your brand and thereby, the competition. When the stakes are high and when you are not able to take the competition head-on, the only way to survive and build on an equity is through repositioning. Let me cite a few cases where brands have repositioned their competition through clever advertising and marketing strategies and thereby found a slot and established their own domain. Britannia products have now taken on the corporate tag line "Eat healthy, think better!" This would definitely go on to increase the already-high equity the brand enjoys. This corporate tag is all the more relevant now as the company has launched newer products such as Cheeselings, the cheese variants, and a new range of biscuits. By adopting the health angle, which it claims results in functional improvement too, Britannia has repositioned itself in a very different orbit.The point to note here is that no matter how big the brand is, unless it keeps redefining its relevance to the consumer, it runs the risk of being put on the back burner of his memory grid. The success of Shaktiman from Parle-G again has tremendous scope in retailing, merchandising and event marketing. May be this was a deliberate strategy from Parle to reposition its biscuits with a shakti (power) aura against the much hyped biscuit brands. Parle-G eventually might use the Shaktiman umbrella strategy to replicate the success for its other brands in these markets. Small wonder then, that Parle-G, with its mass market appeal and distribution in over 4.25 lakh retail outlets, is today the number one biscuit brand in the world. While Viva, Maltova, Bournvita and rest of them talk about more vitamins, more Carbohydrates, more proteins and more energy, Horlicks has quickly repositioned itself as a stand-alone brand claiming vital nutrients for better performance. The brand's new campaign Apang, opang, japang has evoked the right chords and has clearly managed to give a fresh feel to Horlicks in terms of its relevance to children. Whether the consumer perception tilts towards this new thinking or not, one thing is certain "" the marketing team at Horlicks have succeeded in getting the brand as far away as they can from the imagery of the "drink for the convalescing". And that would certainly be the indicator of this successful repositioning of the brand. Nonchalant to the recent outbursts on pesticide presence, soft drink giants , Coke and Pepsi, are repositioning themselves constantly to outwit each other in the marketplace. You can today see the reds and the blues contrasting each other, competing with each other on every available kiosk or tea shop on the road, thereby perfecting the concept of near-permanent exposure of brand identity. All these insignificant structures on the road with its uninterrupted exposure have suddenly transformed as the company's identity points. The shift is clearly from the primacy of the "cola product" to the primacy of the "cola brand". While Pepsi was trying to reposition itself vis-à-vis its closest rival, Coke, on the other hand, has thwarted off the competition through its brilliant Thanda matlab campaign. Then there is the classic toothpaste war between Colgate and Pepsodent, where repositioning against each other is happening all the time. First it was Pepsodent's claim that they fight germs twice as long as Colgate. This was against Colgate's long-cherished positioning statement of a germ and cavity fighter culminating in the Colgate "ring of confidence". Colgate found that they were losing the strong brand loyalty that it traditionally enjoyed with nearly 50 per cent marketshare. Therefore, they hit out with a counter claim that Colgate fights germs two-and-a-half times longer to dilute the positive perception that Pepsodent was building so assiduously with the consumers. The Dhishum, dishum campaign of Pepsodent very effectively created a positive note and dug further into Colgate's "germ fighter" domain. Colgate's "Talk to me" campaign is by far the most effective counter salvo they have fired that tugs at the heart strings of its prime target audience "" teenagers and young adults. It is, however, yet to be seen who is winning and who is holding out. It would be unwise to dismiss that Pepsodent's strategy has put Colgate on the defensive and thereby, repositioning it. Now take Raymonds, for instance. While the brand has been using the positioning statement "The complete man" for quite a while, it has very cleverly portrayed different situations at different times, which gives a feeling that the brand is constantly evolving without changing its brand stance. About five years ago, we saw a boy in the Raymond TV commercial holding a placard "please don't go" when the school bade farewell to the much-loved headmaster, only to return in the new ad commercial as a young man with his bride, welcoming his beloved headmaster. This continuum of a concept even with a time gap can be very effective if the concept is powerful and flexible. However, even brands like Raymonds, with their time-tested brand positioning, may find the going tough with the advent of newer brands like Reid & Taylor, where the product is embellished with the iconic presence of the Big B in the wonderfully conceptualised, technically superior commercial. Then, who could have thought Hoodibaba as a concept would create a powerful brand position for Bajaj Caliber 115 from a marketer like Bajaj, which was primarily in the scooter market. While we have the Victors, Pulsars, Passions and Enticers slugging it out in the motorcycle market fairly successfully, we have this scooter king that came out and created a brand positioning that has put this product among the winners. Hoodibaba has become such a powerful concept that it stands out even in the midst of high-decibel two-wheeler advertising. To that extent, it has managed a position of its own and carved a niche for itself. Whether one thinks it sounds like a Red Indian call or a secret chant to open the caves for Alibaba, the fact is that it has woven magic in the minds of the discerning motorcycle buyer. Today, Hoodibaba has become such a powerful positioning platform for Bajaj that one would not be too surprised if the company comes out with another product by that name. Brand repositioning happens mostly not when the brand fails, but when it starts sagging with reduced sales and declining customer preferences. And positioning a brand is only relative to competition. While doing so, brands do not wander away from their core message as we have seen in many products like Liril and Lifebuoy, which have defied the marketing bell curve even after years of existence. Again, brand positioning seldom fails. When competition is reshaping consumer behaviour, it is imperative for brands to carry the core message with a contextual difference; as happened with Cadbury's when brands like Amul and Campco were launched. Consumers are evolving constantly. Today's young adults will disappear and soon the little ones will take over as the primary audience. As the preferences and the likes of this audience may vary, it would again be time to innovate, devise a different set of solutions apt for that audience.Whatever be the changing attitudes and preferences, there will be one constant factor. Positioning and repositioning, which would help the brands stay put. (The writer is chief communications officer, SPIC Ltd, Chennai)
