Local brands chase celebrity endorsers

The name carries enough heft among consumers, traders

It is a big name in the floor, bathroom and kitchen tiles space in India. For 55 years, HR Johnson, which markets the popular Johnson Tiles, saw no need for a brand ambassador to fire up its portfolio. The name carried enough heft, it believed, among consumers and traders.

Until now. The Mumbai-based company, a subsidiary of the Rs 5,212-crore Prism Cements, has rushed to sign a contract with Bollywood celebrity Katrina Kaif to raise its brand quotient.

Sushil Matey, chief operating officer, says, "Over the past 10 to 15 years, brand awareness in the home- lifestyle category has grown. Consumers demand big brands when shopping for products. If there is a big name endorsing our range, it will help."

HR Johnson has paid a lot to get Kaif. Persons in the know say the tile maker, which has expanded into areas such as bathroom fittings, modular kitchens, marble and quartz in recent years, will pay her Rs 3-4 crore for a two-year endorsement.

HR Johnson joins a growing band of local firms, aspiring to reach more consumers. Kaif herself endorses Flite slippers from Delhi-based Relaxo Footwear, even as she lends her star-power to products from multinationals such as the Sony Xperia Z, Panasonic air conditioners, Procter & Gamble's Pantene shampoos and conditioners and Hindustan Unilever's Lux soaps. She is also seen munching on a little-known chocolate brand called ChocOn from another Delhi-based company, SK Industries.

A face to launch 'em all
"Our visibility has suddenly gone up with Katrina endorsing our chocolate. Retailers and distributors who were hesitant to stock our products are now calling us, wanting to carry our products," says S K Jain, managing director of SK Industries.

Another Bollywood star, Kareena Kapoor Khan, has been endorsing the iBall Andi range of smartphones for a year. Farhan Akhtar is endorsing Intex Technologies’ latest smartphone, the Intex Quad Core I-5 on TV. Shah Rukh Khan has lent his star-power to men's shaving cream major VI-John a few years earlier, making it a household name in the process. In an earlier conversation with Business Standard, Harpreet Sachdeva, a director at VI-John, had said Khan's endorsement helped a lot: "Not only rural consumers but even urban consumers took note of VI-John".

On an equal footing
"Small companies are ambitious and harbour a desire to compete with the big boys. When they tie up with big names, it makes a huge difference," says Bunty Sajdeh, chief executive officer, Cornerstone Sports & Entertainment. It manages the brand endorsements of batting sensation Virat Kolhi and was responsible for his endorsement of a little-known handset brand, Celkon.

VI-John's hair remover is endorsed by actor Bipasha Basu, who has raised the product's profile, to compete with Anne French and Veet.

Mumbai-based Hygiene Research Institute brought its hair colour, Streax, into the reckoning by getting actor Malaika Arora Khan to endorse it a few years earlier. "We came in when consumers preferred multinational brands rather than Indian products, since the foreign brands had an equity and legacy attached to them. By getting Khan to endorse our brand, it got us noticed," says Manish Chhabra, managing director.