Omung me Tarang Olper's Lite k Sang

Note: This article discusses only milk related brands of Engro Foods Limited

Introduction

The branding and marketing of milk are at their best since Engro Foods Limited (EFL) have come into being in 2005. The company had given stiff competition to the existing players in the market and established itself as the fastest developing FMCG concern in Pakistan. The milk brands that Engro Foods owns are Olpers, Olwell (Olpers Lite), Tarang, Omung and Owsome.

The milk has been branded such that the cow and buffalos in Pakistan may be wondering what the hell is coming out of our veins. But the source of milk of Olphers is different, notes one of the executives at Engro Foods in 2007. And certainly I am not going to discuss any of those sources here. I will only discuss those areas that actually provoked me write about them.

Positioning the Positioned One

Recently EFL did some re-branding of Olwell to Olpers Lite. Sometimes it makes me wonder why Olwell failed. I mean it was the only sexy brand in Pakistan. And every time I hear the name Olpers Lite, honestly speaking it pokes me.

Click here to watch TVC

To the heavens of knowledge, the brand must be Consistent, Focused and Differentiated (by any means). And that's what creates Image Perceptions and Positioning.. Bla Bla.. Olpers had been following that till they launched Olpers Lite. To me the purpose of having Olpers brand ended that day.

The name Olpers brought two things into my mind 1. Heavy 2. Lite I think heavy is not good for health or is it? I don't know. May be I am wrong? But that is my right after all I am a "Consumer". I strongly believe they could have learned a lot from Nestle before naming Olwell as Olpers Lite. They could have preferred to call their lite milk as "Milk Pak Lite" than to "Nesvita".

Click here to watch TVC

Some of my IBA friends did a brand audit on Olpers Lite and they also had a chance to meet its Brand Manager. They told us according to the brand manager the major reason of Olwell failure is its "Color". Globally the packaging of Lite Milk products are "Light Blue" in color and Olwell was actually Red hot. Plus their target market prefers imported lite milk and some other points which are not of my interest here.

Keeping things short, the name seems to damage the cash cow brand i.e. Olpers. They could have named it differently like "Olite" or "Omung" or anything that starts with a big fat "O"

Omung ki Tarang

Click here to watch TVC

Tarang is one of the best managed brands in Pakistan. But it is also the victim of over expansion ahead of time in terms of introducing Tarang powder milk. Tarang powder milk may not be performing well that is they had the handicap of Supreme Tea and vice versa. Some people call it Co-Branding

Click here to watch TVC

To expand the market size of branded milk EFL recently launched Omung (Rs. 65/Liter). The target market for this is probably SEC “C”. Omung is fine in terms of branding. They need to efficient and effective in their Distribution and Advertising. Advertising should be less in term of TVCs and more in terms of OOH (Out of Home) advertising at the locations where target market resides and off course they can do things more creatively at the retail end. Similar with Distribution they need to do the same thing. Optimum utilization of resources would make EFL more productive and effective to achieve its marketing goals

I don’t know when a company has a propensity to make billions of dollars why they are happy with millions of dollars….

THINK BIG, ACT SMART!!!

Is it Apple or Steve Jobs?

Apple is one of the leading players in Global "Electronics Industry" with the brand value of $21,413 million and ranking 17th among top 100 global brands. Sometimes it makes me wonder whether it’s really Apple brand or someone else represents this brand value. Without an iota of doubt, Apple has always been personified with Apple Inc.’s CEO "Steve Jobs". Let’s ask ourselves a simple question: If we eliminate Steve from Apple, what would Apple worth today? Well "Peanuts" I guess

One can never forget what happened to Apple when Steve was thrown out during 90's, the company had a miserable time and it posted lackluster performance. The company couldn't produce any champ for the revival of Apple and therefore he had to comeback for that very reason. Now, again another question that comes to mind is "Would Apple be at the same position today without Steve Jobs? I guess "No" as there is simply no one who shares the same technological and business acumen as he does.

Recently, there has been a lot of hue of cry over Steve Jobs’ medical leave for 6 month. Apple shareholders wanted to know about the successor of Steve Jobs, if God forbid he never comes back. Every new rumor kept their emotions boiling on the subject. The important thing is whether the new successor would be like "iJobs" or not. Would the company go through same situation as it went through during 90's without Jobs? Hmm.. Need to give a second thought to this.. as Jobs was better prepared this time for his 6-months medical leave, he put products in the pipeline so that the company continues to introduce new products (like iPad2) during his absence. His appearance at iPad2 launch also helped Apple stock price to improve. But Steve, is this gonna make you and your baby (Apple) larger than life? I guess "No"

In my opinion; Steve has to become a "Master Strategist" to become larger than life. The first job he needs to do as soon as he comes back to Apple is to find his "Idealogical Successor", be it "Tim Cook" or someone else, that doesn't matter. By this I mean that person has to be the one who is like "Steve Jobs" and has the same values, commitment, connection with customers, leadership quality and craze to change the world. In other words he/she should be the one who can "Stay HUNGRY" "Stay FOOLISH". If Steve is successful in translating himself into someone more effective and influential, he will surely be with Apple even if he is not Alive!!!

And this is coming from the dearest fan of Apple Inc...

Karachi Unlimited for Limited

Zong came up with a package of "Karachi Unlimited" offering a unique set of benefits for the customers. Karachi is the biggest city of Pakistan. It has the population of 20 million approximately The advertising and promotion of the package matched with the majority of the Karachites featuring W11 in their print ad. The campaign turned out to be great success as it was able to cannibalize consumers from Mobilink and Ufone.

Mobilink and Ufone realizing the importance of this package introduced Karachi Unlimited Package as well so as to retain the customers and stop losing customers to Zong. They both spend a significant chunk of their resources on promoting this package.

While driving through Karsaz yesterday evening, I heard the radio commercial of Zong featuring Karachi Unlimited Package. I was surprised to see such an aggressive response from a brand like Zong. They targeted the USPs of both Mobilink and Ufone and made fun of it on their Karachi Unlimited Package. It was like "Hey! Man that's my idea how in the blue hell you can copy it?"

Zong must understand that a single idea can never last for a long. If the idea has the potential others will copy it too which will drive down your profitability and growth. Therefore the only way to win customers is to offer continuous innovation highly accustomed to the whims and wishes of its customers. Leave aside Karachi Unlimited Offer, bring in something new and innovative that can take its competitors by surprise and attract its competitors' customers. That way Zong will be leading others and others will keep following its offerings. And one day or the other they will take the lead, wouldn't it?

Djuice ka Boycott

Djuice New Campaign

The population of Pakistan is estimated to be 170.6 million with majority of the population (45%-50%) comprising of young and energetic individuals. Marketers in Pakistan fully understand the importance of milking this market segment to pop up their "Market share" and "Profitability". Therefore majority of the marketing activities are aimed at engaging youth with the brand / product and differentiating their market offerings as some sort of cool stuff.

If we have look at the Mobile Services Industry we will get to know that "Mobile Services Providers" are in it very much. Brands like Mobilink, Telenor and Warid have created a separate brands under their brand umbrella such as "Jazz Jazba", "Djuice" and "Glow" respectively to target "Youth Segment" in particular. Now a days, you will see loads of advertisement in terms of TVCs and Print Media by these brands.

Djuice Pakistan is the market leader in "youth segment" as they were the first movers. This offering was presented when the parent brand "Telenor" was facing problems due to the blasphemy issues that triggered in early 2006. Djuice's positioned its offering on lifestyles that calls for Fun, Excitement, and Entertainment. They focused on customer value in terms of "Late Night Calls" & "SmS Bundle Packages" and added value to their parent brand "Telenor". Keeping in view the success story of Djuice, other market player also entered into this segment. Both Mobilink and Warid followed the same route as their Marketing Campaign of "Jazz Jazba" and "Glow" are somewhat similar to Djuice.

To maintain the leading position in "Youth Segment", Djuice was to introduce something innovative in their marketing campaign that has the capability of retaining customers and adding new customers to sustain their legacy. Djuice introduced new marketing campaign "Khamoshi ka Boycott". It is somewhat similar to the marketing campaign of TATA Tea - Jagoo Re (India) for social awakening and revolution. The existing situation in Pakistan really calls for the same thing and Djuice did it for us.

The brand ambassador for the campaign was an untapped celebrity "Shehzad Roy" who is in fact the most relevant person for this sort of campaign. It is expected to connect young individual with Djuice and may trigger revolution against the evils of society and we (Pakistani) may gel as a nation. As per my observations, the fan following on Facebook fan page of Djuice has increased. All young guns are sharing TVC for this campaign on social media and other forums which reflect the success of this initiative upfront. 

So what's coming up next "Jaaz Jazba" and "Glow". Let's see how they respond to it..