The perils of brand extensions - lessons from Kingfisher


In the saga of Kingfisher Airlines that is being played out, there is a live lesson for Brand Owners on straying from the classic brand extension rules.


While many of us in the branding industry were initially sceptical about the Kingfisher brand extension onto an airline, the murmurs were quickly muted with the enormous success the airline seemed to be enjoying. 


The King of Good Times, indeed seemed to have morphed quite easily from the brown bottle to a gleaming Airbus A 300. Literally, since the short red skirts and the bold aircraft livery quickly overshadowed the imagery of the 30 year old beer bottle.


In hindsight, most of us brand sceptics weren't off base. And for the owners of the Kingfisher brand, this should lead to a great deal of soul searching.


First, who are the owners of the Kingfisher brand?


While the media constantly touts Vijay Mallya as the owner of Kingfisher, it is in reality the shareholders of the UB Group. Which leads us to number of interesting questions:


1. On what basis was a brand valued at 4500 crores 'permanently assigned' to the new airline, which in turn  assigned it to its bankers for raising debt? Not only have the share holders of the UB Group been denied a royalty / license fee for a valuable brand that they have invested in over 30 years, they do not even have the powers to determine the usage of the brand or even terminate the brand usage if it is detrimental to the interest of the Kingfisher brand.


Looks like the UB Group shareholders have not just sunk in their money, but have hocked one of their most valuable brand assets into this misadventure.


2. Should there be a takeover of the airline as rumours abound, the brand ownership will obviously also then pass onto the new owners. How will the brand valuation get divided between two completely different owners and businesses? More importantly, if the new owners decide to leverage the brand into further business adventures, what are its implications for the beer brand?


Unravelling some of these scenarios is quite a nightmare and would in itself jeopardize any chances of a quick bail out from a likely suitor.


3. The ills of the airline will no doubt have a negative ruboff on the beer brand. A King in Troubled Times is unlikely to be the most welcome guest around cheery tables.


Besides providing a wonderful opportunity for well focussed rival beer brands to penetrate a hitherto impregnable market.


For the Kingfisher owners, this is likely to be one long hic-cup.


(Ramesh Rao is Managing Director at SCION)

Airtel’s bubbles, curves and waves.

In my early days in advertising, it was de rigueur to conduct a written test for those aspiring to join the agency. A classified ad would draw in 100s of applicants and a written test helped evaluate IQ, GK and creativity towards shortlisting aspirants for an interview. (Today, I have a good idea of the IQ of the rare odd ball that ignores a cushy IT job and wants to join advertising 'because money is not the most important thing in life!')

One of my favourites was an Ink blot test. For the young blokes unfamiliar with the word Ink, I must explain, things like fountain pens, rotring instruments and Indian ink were standard issues in the art department. Working the wrist every morning to get a splatter of ink to flow out was the ritual start to a new day (or afternoon depending on how late you finished that bottle of rum the evening before.) Usually you tried to get this on the expensive office carpet but sometimes you got lucky on someone’s crisp white shirt.

To be considered for a job in advertising, you were required to ruminate over this squirt of black and produce an essay that would impress hardcore creative types like us. If you saw the blot for what it was – a splash of ink, the usual end of a pesky mosquito or plain pigeon shit - you were obviously not good for the creative business. (Go become a ‘clerk in a bank’.) But, if you had a wee bit of a deviant, psychotic mind, and could pen some eloquent poem or prose on say a nymph under a water fall, congratulations, you would get to meet me face-to-face.

Now what suddenly brings these nostalgic memories of the ‘good ol’ days’ you might wonder. It is a sense of déjà vu at the never ending saga of this splat of ink. Except this time it is a blob of white on a piece of red!

Unveiled last November after 6 months of research, design and thought, this Rs. 300 Crore re-branding exercise as described on the airtel website is “…an interpretation of the ‘a’ in airtel. The curved shape & the gentle highlights on the red color make it warm & inviting, almost as if it were a living object. It represents a dynamic force of unparalleled energy that brings us and our customers closer. Our specially designed logo type is modern, vibrant & friendly. It signals our resolve to be accessible, while the use of all lowercase is our recognition for the need for humanity.”

(Ah, now that you tell me I can see an ‘a’, yes of course. But… recognition for the need for humanity(sic), dynamic force of unparalleled energy? You got me there.)

Read this one from the design team - “We got huge inspiration from the name Airtel. We played a lot with the thought of air and bubbles, openness, though in the end we got to something that we call the air-curve — it is abstract…”

(Air? Bubbles? Air curve? Abstract? Not an a? Holy $@#*)

Wait, here’s one from the agency “Above all, there’s a change in positioning, from a voice company to one that provides data. It enriches lives in other words. This shift had to be conveyed, which is why a recast of the identity was felt necessary.”

(You are kidding me. It’s not an a? Not air, bubbles, air curves? It’s a shift from voice to data. Duh uh..)

BREAKING NEWS. The logo now has a name!

Airtel apparently invited its subscribers - ‘crowd sourcing’ as it is termed to help it resolve the issue. (I don’t know what I’ve done, so can anyone, anybody, someone please help!)

It’s now called 'Wave.' “It refers to the sweeping changes that Airtel strives to bring towards enriching the lives of its 200 million plus customers in 19 countries across Asia and Africa. It is also symbolic of ‘wave’ of progress and prosperity that brand Airtel continues to bring in the lives of its customers everyday, through its exciting products and services.”

Cool. This reminded me of a game that I played as a child. Ever stare up at the clouds? If you look hard enough you can find a shape or some sort of image in almost any cloud. And if you stared hard enough, you could manipulate it into another form. I was brilliant at this. Give me any cloud and I could spot an elephant, bear, cars, trains and I swear I even spotted some real aliens dancing in the sky.

First Airtel got a new logo. Now the new logo got a name. Maybe the name needs a new logo? So I stepped out and looked at the sky for inspiration. I was hoping to see some air, bubbles, curves, maybe even a wave. With the years of hard knocks in the business of advertising and brands, my creative senses are a bit tardy I guess. All I could see was an ‘a’.

(Ramesh Rao is Managing Director of Scion Brand Incubation)

The kleptomanic guide
to packaging design


The fast changing Indian retail scenario, has meant a sea change in the way Indian consumers choose, buy and use brands. From the ‘hidden-behind-the-counter’ packs at the kirana stores to the dazzling array of Indian and imported brands on the shelfs of the Modern Retail formats, he is swiftly moving from the word and trust of the community grocer to being self informed, an experimentalist and an adventurer.

The consumer is faced with a bewildering array of between 3000 to 20,000 SKU’s that he can reach out and touch at the super market and large format Hypermarts mushrooming in the country. Getting a new brand into the retail shelf is itself a challenge, and quite often dictated by the merchandisers ‘feel’ of whether the pack is attractive for his clientele.

Amidst this sea of colours, sizes, prices and offers, how does the consumer reach out and pick that one brand to the check out counter?

Never before has packaging design been more relevant and important than in this last decade. As the product themselves lie hidden behind the multi-coloured paper, cartons, poly lams, bottles and labels,  the consumer’s mind makes rapid decisions based on a number of factors –

Reflects my lifestyle/personality

Seems like a great deal

Just the solution to my problem

Seems interesting, must try

…. And so on.

Good packaging should communicate the core brand values clearly. The packaging itself needs to stand on its own merit and ‘sell itself’ to the consumer. At Scion we call it “Packaging Magnetism”. It’s a force that pulls you to see, believe and experience the product. Like any other force of attraction, it is subtle and powerful and affects your subconscious mind.  It seduces you. This is fundamental to effective packaging designing.  “Packaging Magnetism” is one of the most important aspects in today’s marketing success.

The first interaction with consumers is the packaging. When brands present their personalities through their pack (akin to the clothes that we wear)  - appearing cool or sophisticated, exciting or simple or old fashioned  or hi-tech, attracting a consumer to pick it up impulsively, the law of magnetism is at play.

A good packaging design should be something that should seduce a window shopper  to reach out and touch, a shopper to take home and try,  a kleptomaniac to steal. Advertising may nudge and provide credibility to a brand, but in a world of me-too products, it is the packaging presentation, that can make the final difference.

How does one get it right?

The crucial aspect, to achieve Packaging Magnetism is to clearly chalk out the “The DNA of the brand”.  The core values and the core promise. It has to be clearly defined and cast on stone.  It is also very important to ensure that integrity and the true reflection of the promise must exude through every aspect of the product and experience of the customer as well. It starts with the pack form, material used, the visuals, text and the typography. The combination of all these make up the real art and science of packaging design.

If marketers get this right, they wouldn’t need to spend millions on advertising and media budgets to entice a customer to pick it up.

Kapil Kansal

Executive Creative Director

www.scion.co.in

Minefieds in the market place

There are those of us who spend months, perhaps years, labouring over the creation of a new brand - it's name, identity, packaging... the culmination of a lot of research in understanding consumer insights, competition SWOT analysis, brand values, positioning, brand DNA and all the knowledge of modern day practices in brand strategy that we bring to our desks.

Every member of the brand creation team is convinced that they have the best packaging, that their brand has the best value proposition and that there is a latent unmet demand from a large number of consumers who have been denied this fabulous new product.

But the reality of the brand market place is the one truth that is hardly ever understand -

1. The consumer is not desperate and dying for one more new product or brand!

2. The distribution and retail channel is eternally suspicious of every new brand that is launched and rightly so, having seen the many failures and heartaches of brand launches.

The involved and passionate labour of creating a new brand is perhaps a walk in the park compared to the brutal battle field that every new brand has to face in the market place. From the complacent consumer unwilling to even glance at a new offering, to the retailer bent on the opportunity to exploit better margins and profits, and a distributor's unpredictable cash flows - there is a veritable minefield, ready to ensnare the marketer.

The success and failures of every new brand is linked to an awareness and readiness in engaging these realities. Brand survival is based not just on detailed market inputs but the distributor mindset, retailer insights, and salesforce attitudes as well. Perhaps, as much time needs to be spent in understanding and creating brand engagement and communication plans for these important constituents of a brand's success, as we do to the consumer.

Ramesh Rao
Managing Director
www.scion.co.in