The healthy 'oil-ternative'

CAMPAIGN LOGIC/ Will fresh advertising and a new variant take Saffola to more kitchens?

An alarm clock beeps a man awake. Groggily, he slips on jogging shoes, only to flop back onto the bed. His wife's efforts to wake him meet with a sleepy promise to start from "tomorrow".

Then comes the tryst with a new indoor cycle. The woman walks in to find her son pedalling away and her husband sprawled on a couch "" munching chips, watching TV. The next morning, our man finally makes it for a jog. But when his wife drives by the park, he's digging into bhelpuri.

A sheepish offer to share the bhelpuri doesn't help, and she speeds off. The voiceover intones: "Aapke woh, aur unki koshishen. Hamesha kal se. Aap toh dugni samajhdari dikhaiye. Aaj se. Saffola Gold "" dil ki hifazat, aaj se." (Your husband's efforts will always start from tomorrow. You should be smart enough for two and switch to Saffola Gold "" heart care from today).

Like the product it advertises "" a new ricebran and kardi blended oil from Marico Industries "" the television commercial (TVC) is a blend, too: of old and new thinking. On the one hand, it softens Marico's sombre communications tone, building on learnings from a previous attempt in 2000.

On the other, it reiterates the heart and health connection, based on research by the World Health Organisation and other agencies that Indian men are more prone to heart disease than women.

Conceptualised by McCann Erickson (Saffola's new ad agency) and directed by film-maker Rajiv Menon, the 40-second film shows a modern, urban family and is currently airing on the major cable channels.

"The insight was that men are aware of what they need to do to avoid heart disease. But procrastination stops them from making that effort," says Ramanuj Shastri, creative director, McCann Erickson.

The healthy heart theme is an oldie, but Marico's approach has changed. In the 1980s, ads for the parent brand Saffola (safflower oil) were purely technical, and spoke of high polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) content.

One of the earliest TVCs in 1992 (by Marico's erstwhile agency Ambience) played up the fear element and established the "heart specialist" image. But although Saffola intended to target non-sufferers, the tone of the communication appered to focus on high-risk sufferers (people over 40, who in the 1990s were believed to be more prone to heart disease).

"In the long term, the initial advertising did position Saffola on the specialist platform "" but as a therapeutic product to be used only if you suffered from heart disease," says Ashish Bhargava, marketing manager, Marico.

But the heart health positioning was dropped when Marico extended into blended oils in 1998 with the launch of Tasty Blend, following a safflower crop shortage the previous year.

At the time, blended oils accounted for just 1 per cent of the total market. To grow the segment, Marico had to seek a new audience. Saffola Tasty Blend's advertising, therefore, targeted homemakers who wanted both nutrition and taste in cooking oil. By 2000, claim company officials, Tasty Blend had notched up 2 to 3 per cent of the market.

This enthused the company to refresh communication for Saffola. Then, Saffola also needed to appeal to a growing segment of potential sufferers in the 30 to 40 age group, and not just the older high-risk sufferers.

So in 2000, Marico unveiled a snazzy 40-second TVC for Saffola, devoid of heart attacks and anxious housewives. It just showed snippets of healthy and fit people with the jingle: "I want to live healthy".

"In hindsight, that campaign may have been a mistake," says Prathap Suthan, creative director, Grey, the agency behind the campaign. That's because health as a concept was blurring in the consumer mindspace "" even unrelated products such as consumer durables (LG) and shampoos (Clinic) had jumped on to the health bandwagon.

Also, the wider positioning increased competition for Saffola from brands like Sundrop and Goldwinner, which also claimed health benefits but were cheaper by Rs 20 to Rs 40. From a market share of roughly 9 per cent in the mid-1990s, Saffola slid to 6 to 7 per cent in 2000. At present, Saffola accounts for 5.5 per cent of the branded oils market.

Soon enough, Saffola went back to the heart care platform. In January 2004, a new campaign was launched, positioning Saffola as a supplementary measure against heart disease, along with exercise, diet and stress control "" avoiding the "grave consequences" tenor.

The theme for the new, Saffola Gold ad was equally carefully chosen. The alternative campaign designed by McCann showed a man making lame excuses for skipping exercise.

"But that would have talked directly to men, without addressing women," explains Shastri. And communicating with women is crucial since this is a category where women make the purchase decisions. So, the new campaign targets housewives and the underlying concerns of a housewife, with a light-hearted dig at lazy men.

"It portrays Saffola as an empowering choice for women concerned for their husband's health," says Shastri.

Significantly, the campaign for Saffola Gold also throws light on a sharper brand strategy. The parent brand Saffola will continue to address high-risk sufferers; the variants will target new consumers.

Saffola's first variant Tasty Blend was aimed at taste- and price-conscious consumers. Saffola Gold will address a growing category of younger potential sufferers (below 40 years).

But Saffola Gold is also being touted as Saffola's "best ever" version, rather than a blended variant, like Tasty Blend. Won't a "new and improved" version eat into Saffola's shares? No, believes Bhargava.

Agrees a market analyst, "The communication focuses on potential sufferers, avoiding an overlap with Saffola's high-risk target group."

And since potential sufferers may not be happy shelling out a premium unlike high-risk consumers, Marico has even priced Gold at Rs 89 per litre "" roughly Rs 15 more than mid-priced brands and Rs 10 lower than Saffola.

"We aim to make Gold the popular version of Saffola," affirms Bhargava. That explains the name "Gold", suggesting a duel with mid-priced regional brands like Goldwinner. All this, expects the company, will help Saffola slide into newer households.