Building & Sustaining Iconic Brands

The Custommerce National ConventionAt The Marriot – Jaipur,On January 23rd, 2014

ICONIC

A representative symbol of a culture or movement or affording great admiration and respect

ICONIC BRANDS

• Instantly recognizable.

• Balances the authentic with contemporary –

futuristic.

• Delivers a powerful brand experience.

MY CAREER

• Ongoing creation of an Icon

• Rejuvenating an aging Icon

• Competing against an Icon

• Protecting an Icon

ONGOING CREATION OF AN ICON – LAKME’

• Strong brand but shallow market

• Need for sustaining it through many seemingly small

initiatives

• Umbrella branding

• Being with the times “looking good and feeling great” –

EYES, SKIN and HAIR.

• Breaking cultural paradigms.

MY EXPERIMENTS IN LAKME’

• Maximum moisturizing lotion• Kajal Pencil• Face Masks• Perfumes (Ivana & Shie)• Winter Care Lotion• Hair Dye• Lip Gloss• Hair Removing Lotion

CASE STUDY

• KAJAL

• LAKME’ COLORS

TIMES HAVE CHANGED…

1980s• Bad to look good• Thrift is good• Hard work over smart work• Blaming the system

(Apathy)• Bharat vs India• “Dehati” / Rural• Sarkari Naukri • Small Town vs Big Town

NOW• Good to be bad• Greed is good• Smart work over hard work• Being the change (Nirbhaya)

• Dhonisation• Cool to be the regional guy• Khud ka kuch karna hai• Small Town = Big Town

1990s – The Decade of Liberalization• Expansion of middle class in numbers but not in

depth of income (Tropicana)• Non affordability of new categories• Focus on launching new products but same

categories through new available categories• Industry playing catch up on supply side (FERA /

Technology) breaking shackles.• Marketing function leap-frogs post advent of private

TV Channels.• However growth slowed in the late 90s.

REJUVENATING AN AGING ICON

• Cadbury Dairy Milk case study.

COMPETING AGAINST AN ICON

• PERK case study

PROTECTING AN ICON

• PEPSI case study

Thank You!