Tuesday, January 8, 2013

A victim of past benchmarks, this Fevicol ad falls short

Over the years Fevicol has given great ads to TV viewers. The most recent however, lacks a strong script, humour, air time and direction. In short, it’s blunt on impact

If a certain brand commands 70% of the market, it would be fair to say that it has become synonymous to the category it represents. Wishful thinking, many might claim. Not so when you’re referring to the brand being on top, going from strength to strength, year after year. Fevicol is today a synonym for adhesives. Along with sub-brands (like Fevikwik and Fevistik; owned by Pidilite Industries) it commands 90% of the Indian adhesives market. Bluntly put – let’s give the brand its due!

So what makes Fevicol so successful? The bond that it enjoys with its TG, which is the carpenter clan, is perhaps stronger than the way it keeps parts of a furniture together. From the very start, and especially over the past decade, Fevicol’s ATL and BTL marketing strategies have been to directly connect with its TG. Unlike its competitors who went the indirect channel way, the brand approached and educated the carpenters directly. And so, besides TVCs that have worked to peg the positioning of the brand as a ‘strong adhesive’, initiatives like Fevicol furniture books (showcasing furniture designs), Fevicol Champion’s club (bringing carpenters to join a social club) and various vocational training programmes have only helped strengthen the identity of the brand.

The latest from Fevicol is an answer to those who’ve questioned whether the brand can do more than what it already achieved. The TVC (titled ‘Phone Call’) is no more about how strong a binding agent it is. (Remember the ‘Majboot jodh hai, jo tootega nahi’ punchline? Or how about the TVCs that showed an egg that won’t crack because the hen that laid it fed from a Fevicol tube?). It’s about saving time. The ad no longer drags on the old concept of ‘how strong’, but having established that identity of the brand, it talks about ‘how fast’ is that how strong! The brand it serves on the table is the latest extension from Fevicol called Fevicol Speedx. When asked about the product, Vishal Malhan, CMO, Fevicol Division, Pidilite Industries, tells 4Ps B&M, “Fevicol Speedx promises to address the need for bringing speed in furniture-making. Its advanced formula uses Nano Magnet Technology as the handling strength of bond by Fevicol Speedx is achieved in just 2 hours vis-a-vis 6 to 8 hours with a regular white adhesive.”


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
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