Launching new brands is getting increasingly difficult

V Ravi, managing director, Indica Research Consumer Insights, presents an expert's view of the Business Standard Annual Brand Derby results

This year's findings are starkly contrasting to the findings from previous studies in that corporate rebrandings have stolen the show "� with three such rebrandings coming within the top 5 slots. This year's findings are a testimonial to the emergence of strong attention to corporate rebranding by major corporates and their meticulousness in ensuring 'great care' to communicate the rechristened brand with an emotional connect.

We also believe that the findings are also a reflection of the difficulties in creating successful new brand launches (other than Bingo and Maruti SX4) by companies across sectors. This is clearly illustrated by the fact that less than a third of the consumers rated the launch of any new brands other than Bingo and Maruti SX4 as being 'very successful launches.

The ranking of the various brands in terms of success might lead to an interpretation that the core success factor this year has been high decibel communication. However, quite a few brand launches with high decibel campaigns have not been seen a successful "� indicating that high decibel communication does not have a direct correlation with 'success' or 'lack of success'. It is perhaps the simplicity of the communication and the connect with the target audience that has been the differentiator between the winners and also rans.

The study has also thrown up several other additional findings: It seems to have become increasingly difficult for the FMCG sector to create successful new brands "� with all new FMCG launches (including brand extensions) excluding Bingo being rated as substantially successful by less than a third of this audience.

Interestingly, despite the strong passion that Indians have for cricket as a game, the Star Cricket channel has been seen as only moderately successful "� perhaps a reflection of the absence of major properties involving 'Indian cricket team' during the initial year of its launch (a reflection that the passion is largely restricted to India being a participant in the matches and not so much to the game per se).

The emergence of the online market is illustrated by the perceived relatively higher success of an online gaming portal like 'Zapak' as compared to brands like Minute Maid, Olay Total Effects or even a Mahindra Renault Logan.

The greater perceived success of i-pill compared to several high profile FMCG brands is testimonial to the a product addressing a strong need - much more than several other launches.

Reliance Fresh emerges as one of the more successful despite facing problems in terms of expansion of its presence across markets "� a testimonial to the future of Indian retail?

If this year's Brand Derby is a reflection of the trends for the future, there are several lessons to be learnt by marketers to create successful brands in an increasingly difficult market place.

(Indica Research, a part of the Ipsos Global Network, has been associated with the Business Standard Annual Brand Derby since its inception. The richness of the study comes from the fact that the evaluations are done by senior marketing professionals who have a clear pulse on the overall happenings in the market place)