Remembering a wonderful ad campaign - BPL (1996-97)
Dr. Anurag Dugar
Building Learning and Development Capabilities in People and Organizations. Has taught at 10 IIMs, 2 IITs and counting!
DISCLAIMER - So, this post is (copied) from my blog! Felt like I should share this with my linkedin connections as well! If you have read it earlier ... you can still enjoy the wonderful ads once more :)
Company: BPL
Year: 1996-97
Context:
An Indian consumer electronics (and later, a mobile service) brand fighting the ever increasing love of Indians with anything "foreign", specifically from the brand context, Korean and Japanese brands in its space (electronics) and Hutch in mobile services.
Indians generally tend to love foreign brands (except for a few Indian brands like Royal Enfield and now Patanjali etc) and when they started getting access to them post liberalisation, its anyone guess what would be the reaction!
This category, that is, consumer durables, also shook because a wave of Indians wanting foreign brands almost caused a disruption. These foreign brands were getting things right in terms of offering similar or better quality, more range and right price points etc. Needless to say, Indian brands saw trouble ahead and wanted to protect their turf. Indian manufacturers were using technology from foreign brands only and were not that strong there.
So how do you do it? What is it where you are different? How will you communicate to people that you are equally good? - Remember, it was still late 1990s!
Execution: BPL's action plan
Highlight superiority of Indian-ness (So, Patanjali is not the first one!!) which the foreign brands cannot claim. It actually looked like a sustainable competitive advantage in that period (and it is where they faltered)
Hire an extremely popular face who represents India and Indian-ness, who has a following across generations and genders and then let him give some food for thought to Indians. So, the obvious choice was - Amitabh Bachchan, THE Shahenshah in 1990s (and even now for ppl like us!)
Medium: Print and TV
BPL got some amazingly creative writing!
Here are the ads: try to read the copy carefully ... its where the meat is :) ... do whatever it takes ... zoom the image or open in a new tab but read the text and listen to the wordings in the video ... I am telling you, it is worth every bit!)
Trivia: It was Big Bs first ad - and - it was his first and last ad before that famous french cut beard came in! (People of this generation will never understand why whatever he did (including growing a beard or cutting it) became a national talking point!!
Interpretation & Analysis - Why it didnt work? - that story...some other time!
But, I would certainly love to know your thoughts!!
#marketing #advertising #branding #differentiation #mba #pgp #pgdm
Building High-Impact AI and Tech Businesses | Growth & Strategy | Ex-Cruise | Kellogg MBA
4 年Would love to learn how this campaign impacted the overall and category-wise revenues for BPL. Also something on their production and supply chain. I'm assuming that the products were on par with the Japanese competitors of those days :) P.S: We had a BPL TV from 1997 - 2004 and absolutely loved it :D
Digital & Online Business Lead - Kérastase, L'Oréal India
4 年Reading about old ads and strategies is amazing - we often talk about how consumer behaviour has changed and how digital has transformed how we buy, but certain consumer insights remain so relevant even today. While new channels of advertising and brand building will keep coming, most fundamentals of marketing are still intact
Product Manager, Planning, SCM, B&M, Digital Transformation
4 年I think, now is also the right time to promote the things made in India. With international trade not happening we should look at our own and focus there. With a population of 135 crore, we do not have dearth of consumers.