The Functionality Brought Out The Difference

Clorets has succeeded on both counts. Within a year, the brand is already the size of the Chiclets franchise. It is now set to reach its ambitious target of becoming a Rs 40 crore brand at the end of three years and emerge as an important brand in the Warner Lambert portfolio (which includes apart from the confectionery business, exports of bulk chemicals and the manufacture and marketing of epileptic drugs like Neurontin)

How did Warner Lambert pull off the coup? Girish Rangan,

the managing director spoke to Indrajit Gupta and Shishir Prasad on how the Clorets launch was masterminded.

 

Q. What was the trigger for the launch?

A. After Halls and Chiclets we felt the need to have another brand. While we were keen to expand beyond Halls and Chiclets where we have been for the last two to three years we were not in a hurry to merely make this finger-in-the-wind sort of a decision.

We did a comprehensive U&A in 1994. And what threw up was that there was tremendously large market for breath freshner in India because people like you and me were consuming so many surrogate breath freshners that this need seem to cry for direct addressing. For example, there was paan, there was saunf, there was Halls itself, Chiclets Polo... and you go on and on with cloves, cardamom and what have you.

And people were fulfilling their need for breath freshners in a host of different ways. Therefore it was very clear to us that this was an opportunity that we could tackle and when we looked at our stable of brands there was one that directly and specifically handled this business.

The second thing we did was that we looked closely at Clorets to see if there was degree of functionality in it which we could exploit. Because we said to ourselves,

that the next brand that we add on to our portfolio of Halls and Chiclets is going to be one which is going to take the confectionery category into a slightly different league. Our agency talks about confectionery as a JLT

brands (just like that brands). We said we do not want a JLT brand because if you have a JLT brand you are standing on sifting sands.

For us, Chiclets is a JLT brand, Halls is not a JLT brand. And the success of Halls has itself demonstrated that it is time a brought another brand which is not a JLT brand. We were looking very hard at Warner Lamberts portfolio to see what offers a degree of functionality and Clorets stood out head and shoulders above the rest and best addressed the need for a portable breath freshner.

Of course, a smart thing we did was in choosing the right advertising agency: Contract. I think we did the right thing by tying-in a perfectly good brand with a perfectly good advertising agency.

Q. Given the fact that Halls itself is used as a surrogate breath freshner, how would you prevent cannibalisation?

A. That was one of our largest concerns. Because inherent in the surrogate breath freshner was also the brand usage of Halls and Chiclets. So what we said was a good marketer is one who can ensure minimal cannibalisation. And cannibalisation really happens when the consumer sees a difference rather than a commonality. And if this difference we were able to bring about through the functionality of the brand. For example, Clorets has a unique patented ingredient called Actizol a trade name which is actually a mix of three different including Chlorophyll. We had in it a very strong reason as to why this the real McCoy.

So functionality which brought about the difference, and the pricing strategy which helped tremendously as well. And thirdly, we did a smart thing of applying the classic think-feel-do equation to the brand rather than just say Here is my product, here is my price go buy it.

What we figured that very few people in India are really conscious about their breath and the way they see it is: Ok so I have had a kabab, so my breath will smell of kabab or Ok, so I have had a beer so my breath will smell of beer. So there was almost a situation where we had to create a category and at the same time create a brand proposition. So we said that in order to avoid cannibalisation we had to let the consumer try it out and see the difference. Sampling is important.

Sample to him in his relevant environments. Then, make him or her see the functionality in other words what is Clorets and what is doing for me? Is it really making me feel the better for it. Also make him think about the price because he has tried it. We have got him thinking about the product, now we have got to make him feel about the price. So he is going to think why is this twice as expensive? And he is going to think okay this is because it has got this thing Actizol and this is not just another light-weighted brand. And come to think of it my breath does seem to be smelling a whole lot better. This is what gets reinforces the buy cycle. So he goes into the do part of buying it once again. It is this combination of functionality and pricing and some very conscious marketing effort ensures the process of think-feel-do. This is why believe that cannibalisation has been very largely avoided.

We expected a high double digit cannibalisation, but what we have today is low single digit cannibalisation. And it is happening at such a peripheral nature that the brand has added volumes to the confectionery business.

Q. How would it address frequency of consumption?

A. Clorets world-wide has been positioned as breath freshner to be used after you eat, drink or smoke. So in other words, Clorets is not about changing your life but changing your breath.This is easier for us to do this rather than bring about an attitudinal change in people by saying it is time you really thought about your breath. The world-wide positioning line on Clorets has been After anything.

So the frequency of consumption is directly proportional to the frequency of the influencers, that is eating, drinking and smoking. So we believe that a part of the reason that the brand has still not cannibalised Halls is because Clorets is linked to consumption usage. It makes the consumer think about his brand at almost a subliminal level, rather than a conscious overt thinking of I must have a Clorets.

This I believe gives Clorets a tremendous edge over other confectioneries because the moment you take the brand away from direct impulse, you drive it towards conscious consumption. Which means that the consumption is only limited by the occasion of usage which in this case is limitless.

Q. How did you go about localising the international communication?

A. The international advertising for Clorets is about it being the most effective breath freshner after eating, drinking and smoking. The commercials there are very direct. The communication there assumes or subsumes that people in those markets know about breath freshners, they already have an appreciation for a need for a breath freshner and for them it was a more a question of brand switch rather than market creation. In the Indian context specifically, we knew that if we tried to talk to people and if we tried to get away from the market building task we would land up with very low volumes for ourselves.

So the communication that we developed would have to target itself to a very apex audience. And let the percolation effect happen. It had to let people think about their breath without making it stigmatised. We did not want it happen that people went into a shop and when they asked for Clorets they were seen as guys with horrible breath Here comes dragon breath! So it was important that the communication follows the international strategy but builds it with Indian sensitivities in mind.

Now we are in situation where we can give the brand a slightly more common man feel. And it will not lose its credibility, nor its image connotations. So we would not lose the premium end of the market and at the same time we can widen our nets to more people.

Q. What were the issues while selecting the product form?

A. We said we must first give people a familiarity of product form to start with because an alien format is not necessarily the best way to kick off a new category. Let us bring in the pellet gum and candy which the customer is used to. Then when we brought in the third variant we said let us be unique.

Q. How do you tie that in with the communication and the extensions that were being planned?

A. For any variant launch, our strategy is very simple: we look for bridges of communication. One, we know that the consumer links the brand with a certain music which is very unique to Clorets. Two, There is a simplicity in Clorets commercials which we said must continue. Three, the Actizol story must be the same irrespective of variants. And fourth comes, this is the new way in which you can have Clorets. So if we had launched the mini-mints first people would have seen the format more than the promise. And I am not at a liberty to tell you this, but the amount that we spent on the brand is minuscule as compared to other brand launches in the country.

Q. What would then be a good benchmark?

A. If you were to take a detergent launch, they would spend upwards of Rs 25-30 crore. We have launched this brand with only a tenth of that budget. We have found that the brand is capable of sustaining volumes, without depending too much on media weight. In fact we have gone ahead and done very prudent channel choices. Let the brand be presented to the target audience in the same relevance across the various points of interaction that the consumer has. What are the various points? Where he eats, drinks or smokes so pubs, restaurants or airlines. Where does he see it in the marketplace? So we said we will tailor our PoP material to the different kind of outlet that the consumer sees it in. We also did not take the national Network route as far as media was concerned. We will go the Channel V route. So if there is a US open we will be there. Right now we have got a tie-up with MTV which is talking to a very select audience who afre the opinion leaders.

We were the first people to get on to Sunday movies on

Star channel at that time nobody was touching it with a barge pole and we got a first mover advantage in that.

Q. The selection of target market geographically, was that an issue?

A. The constraints that you face in India do not allow to limit yourself. When you are on satellite the footprint is all over the place. The selection cannot be exercised at a geographical level as much as on the SEC level. So it helped us stay in the A1, A2 category. We did not even go down to B1/B2 etc.

Our focus will be the quality of distribution and merchandising rather than sheer distribution width. We wanted more bang for the buck on this brand. And we know that the biggest risk in launching a brand where you launch a category is that before you know it you have spread yourself so thin that you have no money to create the category and therefore no money to build the brand.

Q.How did you sell to the trade?

A. We invited every retailer to try the product and some of the sales people actually carried garlic with them. They would then pop this in the retailers mouth, had him chew it wait for a minute give him a Clorets, have him chew it and then ask his friend to smell his breath.

That was incredible because this like a torture test because no retailer believed this would work and when he found it working he simply bought it. We also did a direct mailer which showed a garlic pod in it was a toothpick stuck with a Clorets. It was packed in an Origami kit which when you opened it gave a care-to-try it kind of a thing.