3 Idiots wins the 2009 Brand Derby, the research for which was done by Ipsos. Heavily-advertised categories do well; clutter-breaking work gets rewarded
A film that released at the fag end of the year and spoke out against blinkered education raced ahead of rivals in highly-promoted categories like automobile, telecommunication and food to win the 2009 Brand Derby. 3 Idiots — produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, directed by Raju Hirani and with Aamir Khan in the lead — was the most power-packed launch of last year. As many as 78 per cent of the respondents, all top marketers of the country, called it very successful (see The Complete Story). They also ranked it first amongst the very successful launches of 2009 (Ranking Among Very Successful Brands). The Derby ranks brands that were born in 2009.
The film, which had stellar performances by Khan, Boman Irani and others, good music, smart dialogues and slick visuals, was produced for Rs 35 crore, and has done business of over Rs 400 crore. This makes it the biggest grosser of all times in India. More than four months after it was released in threatres, there is still no sign of 3 Idiots on DVD or pay-per-view television.
What was the reason for its success? 3 Idiots struck a chord with the young as well as the old — anybody who has had to learn, more often than not under duress, unintelligible stuff by rote. Experts say it was also the involvement of Hirani and Khan, men with the Midas touch, which tilted the scales in favour of the film. Hirani has directed iconic films like Munnabhai MBBS and its sequel, Lage Raho Munnabhai (it had won the 2006 Derby), and Khan has acted in super-hits like Ghajini (eighth in the 2008 Derby), Rang De Basanti and Tare Zameen Par. “If you take these two men away, the film falls flat,” says Dentsu India Executive Vice-chairman & Chief Creative Officer Gullu Sen. “They picked up a sensitive subject and cleverly wove a story around it. Formulas have been well taken care of.”
3 Idiots, mind you, does not lend itself to either serialisation or extension into product categories like gaming and merchandise. Film pundits say the story has a conventional end which cannot be reopened, and Khan is unlikely to repeat a character — such is his fear of failure. And you don’t find 3 Idiots merchandise because the main characters were ordinary boys, not superheroes. That’s perhaps also the reason why gamers have not developed applications around these characters. Yet, 3 Idiots beat brands like Tata DoCoMo, Samsung Corby, PepsiCo’s Aliva and Chevrolet Cruze in the Derby.
Like 3 Idiots, Tata DoCoMo has benefitted from the freshness of its idea. Fifty-three per cent of the respondents thought it was very successful. The telecom space had become overcrowded by 2009, to say the least. To break the clutter, it came out with a whole new plan — why pay for a 60-second pulse when you can pay by the second? The idea appealed to customers. Those who switched to its plan began to report up to 20 per cent drop in their monthly bill. The message spread through word of mouth. Indians live their lives outside their homes, and anything good or bad about a product gets discussed threadbare online as well as offline. A bad product will find it difficult to hide, just like a good product can perhaps make do with fewer advertising rupees.
Amongst the very successful brands, Tata DoCoMo shares the second slot with General Motors’ Chevrolet Cruze. Last year was one of unprecedented crisis for the car maker — its parent in the US filed for bankruptcy, and potential customers in India panicked whether Chevrolet cars will get serviced and resold. General Motors, at that time, had announced that it will launch two new cars within the year, the Cruze and the Beat, and stuck to the promise. That gave a boost to the confidence amongst customers. Result? Though there was a blip in sales after the crisis broke out, numbers in the last one year have more than doubled. Buyers of the Cruze, in fact, have to wait for well over a month for delivery. “We knew at that time any price cut would be hara-kiri; our brand equity would get diluted. So, we decided to go steady with our new product offers,” says General Motors India Vice-president (sale, after-sale and marketing) Ankush Arora.
For the Derby, Ipsos, the market research specialist, surveyed 102 marketing professionals in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore in February and March 2010. Of the 32 entries in the Derby, there are eight telecom brands, seven food brands, six auto brands, five media & entertainment brands, three FMCG brands, two IT brands and one footwear brand — sectors with heavy ad spends.
The top five brands — 3 Idiots, Tata DoCoMo, Bajaj Pulsar 135LS, Nokia E72 and Samsung Corby — were launched in categories that saw hectic activity in 2009. This shows that adversity often brings out the best in brand managers. It also helped that budgets in 2009 were tight and agencies were under pressure to deliver more bang for the buck. The message in the Derby for the marketer is that it is possible to break the clutter with a good product and some kickass marketing. “Differentiated differentiation is the key now,” says Ipsos President (loyalty, media and public affairs) B Narayanswamy. In the 2008 Derby, the Nano and the Indian Premier League had come on top, which raised the bar for brand builders and marketers. Innovation was valued highly in this Derby too.
There are no entries from consumer electronics and apparel this year. As in the past, real estate and financial services are absent in the Derby. While real estate has the handicap of building very localised brands, financial services build formless brands. Still, it’s time the sector woke up to the advantage of strong brand equity. In the financial crisis induced by the fall of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, state-owned banks and insurance companies got a lot of business. People thought their money was safe with them. Clearly, brand power is important in the sector.
