Monojit Lahiri examines the reason for the demise of Onida’s Devil, the latest in a list of disappearing mascots

Exclusive In chat with Society Magazine - Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri

First things first. Why are mascots created? Be it the Energiser Bunny, the MGM Lion, the McDonald’s clown Ronald, the Merrill Lynch Bull, the Eveready Cat, Smokey the Bear, the Jolly Green Giant … don’t they still reverberate endearingly in public memory, projecting their own brand of charm? Smart, evolved and insightful marketers unleashed these characters with a clear focused agenda – create something memorable in tune with the architecture and value of the brand and project it in a warm, human way that will connect simply and easily with the prospective customer. Make the inanimate come alive in an entertaining and public-friendly way so that, soon, it acquires a life of its own. Leverage it creatively to fuel brand recall.

In recent times, however, this thinking has gone in for a re-think! Be it the adorable Murphy-baby, HMV dog, Asian Paints Gattu, they’ve all exited. Even the iconic Maharajah was handed his walking slick and hat (crown?) before the Air India biggies realised their blunder and brought him back. Thank God, the Amul mascot still cavorts around … As this goes into print, Onida’s ‘Devil’ has been put to sleep – the symbol that epitomised the brand and show-pieced several memorable ad campaigns. What’s behind these dramatic shifts? A hysterical anxiety to be perceived as modern, contemporary, tuned-in and global in today’s competitive and cluttered market? A pitch for relevance and the here n’ now, soft focusing mushy sentimentality and obsolescence? Global companies don’t seem to be in such a tearing hurry to bid their mascots goodbye … why us?

Sid Ray, Executive Director of Response (Kolkatta) fires the first salvo. While he completely goes along the way the KFC and McDonald’s mascots have been successfully retained (even when the look and feel of their focus has been Indianised) he reckons that the Devil is a different kettle of fish. “It is possible that the marketing team felt that with capital investment involved in an age of heavy-duty competition, techno-onslaught and product features playing a key role, the Devil and the slogan have been rendered obsolete. They don’t fit into the scheme of things”. Dipankar Mukherjee, VP – Marketing, Ideas (East) agrees. “Competition, technology but most importantly cost structures have, I guess, forced them to re-look and re-invent their focus. Mascots anyway are cute and stuff but at crunch-time, they are unlikely to influence the purchase intent. Other more compelling, market and consumer-driven aspects come into play”. However, both agree that often, new teams, have a tendency to sling out everything that the old team had brought to the table – just to signal their entry and prove a point!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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60 MINUTES WITH PAWAN MUNJAL

It took us months of constant badgering to catch up with Pawan Munjal. After all, his schedule is packed for weeks ahead with power lunches, conferences and dealer meets. In between he also sewed up multi-million deals for HH’s sponsorship of Champions Trophy and the 2010 Hockey World Cup. Phew! Quick, over to him...

ON TOPLINES & MARKET SHARE

4Ps B&M: Your topline success is because you got it right or Bajaj got it wrong?
PM: I won’t comment on competition but as far as HH is concerned, we got our strategy mostly right. We decided what we wanted to achieve and went about it systematically.

4Ps B&M: What about January when sales were flat? Did you fear that your topline strategy may backfire?
PM: Long before the economy saw the fiscal meltdown or the slowdown hit, the Indian two-wheeler industry was already facing a crisis because of retail finance. But even in a declining industry we were able to maintain growth. We were doing better than the industry. Yes, stagnant sales earlier this year were a cause of concern. (Pauses) Particularly because we were also spending a lot of money, investing in our new plant at Haridwar, building capacity etc. Obviously, as a company, we knew that this was a challenge. But we could see that we were doing better than the rest of the industry. So we said, let’s use this adversity as an opportunity, build on it and go all out on advertising and brand building.

4Ps B&M: So you plan to cross the 4 million mark by the end of this fiscal?
PM: (shrugs) I don’t know where the 4 million figure has come from. But despite all the gloom around the economy, we are sure to exceed that.

4Ps B&M: And will market share go beyond the 60% plus as on date?
PM: The target is the numbers and market share will follow.

THE NEW POSITIONING

4Ps B&M: HH is known as a 100cc bike company. Are you now aiming for a premium position?
PM: (shakes his head) I think what you are talking about is how outsiders perceive us. Inside Hero Honda, we’ve known for a long time that we don’t want to be a leader in just one segment. We want to be a leader in the complete sense of the word, not just in sales, market share and bottomlines. We want to be seen as a prized company to work for. In terms of HR we should have the best practices; in terms of fiscal prudence, we should have the best practices. Coming back to the premium segment, but people forget that we were the first to enter the segment with CBZ.

4Ps B&M: Yes, but that was in the 1990s. Somewhere, Bajaj won that race?
PM: (nods sadly) you are right. In that premium segment we did not manage leadership. But last couple of years we decided that we have to have leadership across segments. We should not be seen as a company for the rural masses only, selling fuel economy products. So we refreshed our portfolio in the segment and have been growing at almost 40% in the segment. We want to be a company that the youth would like to be associated with. And that is why we have been consciously associating with youth centric programs like MTV Roadies, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and others. Sports is also youth and we’re involved in cricket, golf and now even hockey.

4Ps B&M: And have you been successful in changing that perception?
PM: We’re not there yet. But the perception is slowly changing. We’re moving in the right direction. And it’ll happen soon!

4Ps B&M: So is there a plan to move into the 300-350cc bike segment?
PM: I personally think that the cc of an engine does not matter so much, unless you’re talking 1000 or 1500cc. For the rest, what matters is the image, the aura and the youthfulness of the company. And the last few years, we’ve invested heavily in advertising, marketing and branding. Big budget ads, any worthwhile show on TV, and all big sporting events, you would have seen Hero Honda everywhere. The idea has been to leverage the buzz created.

4Ps B&M: That’s why the shift from Desh Ki Dhadkan to Dhak Dhak Go?
PM: Yes! We launched Dhak Dhak Go in 2008 that is when we really sharpened our focus on the premium segment. Dhak Dhak Go was an evolution from Desh ki Dhadkan to make our brand more youthful and energetic.

4Ps B&M: Now you’ve brought back ‘fill it-shut it-forget it’. Is that not back to fuel efficiency positioning?
PM: Over the years we were doing so much else that the Fill it-Shut it-Forget it thought was forgotten. But fuel efficiency is still the most important buying criteria for consumers in India. Competition is forever touting mileage. The idea to get back the popular slogan was not to talk about numbers and tom tom that we give 90 or 80 kilometers. We wanted to remind consumers that we were the ones that started it all and tell them to start reliving their past.

ON PERSONAL STRENGTHS

4Ps: What makes Pawan Munjal tick?
PM: Relationships. One of the biggest pillars of HH is relationships across stakeholders – people within the organisation, the whole value chain, dealers – it’s actually a strong well-knit team. Take the Haridwar plant. Going from 0 to 4000 units per day, without the backing of suppliers, and with an entirely new team was not easy. But it happened because of relationships and a professional work environment.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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