HLL is repositioning its Kwality brand of ice cream from a family-oriented product to one targeted towards adults as an indulgent treat. It has launched new advertising showing adults enjoying ice cream suggestively. An HLL spokesperson says this reflects the "sensorial awakening" in society, as seen by spending at malls and multiplexes catering to youth. However, rivals like Amul are keeping their campaigns family-focused. It remains to be seen if the new positioning will boost HLL's Rs. 89 crore ice cream business, as availability also plays a key role.
HLL is repositioning its Kwality brand of ice cream from a family-oriented product to one targeted towards adults as an indulgent treat. It has launched new advertising showing adults enjoying ice cream suggestively. An HLL spokesperson says this reflects the "sensorial awakening" in society, as seen by spending at malls and multiplexes catering to youth. However, rivals like Amul are keeping their campaigns family-focused. It remains to be seen if the new positioning will boost HLL's Rs. 89 crore ice cream business, as availability also plays a key role.
HLL is repositioning its Kwality brand of ice cream from a family-oriented product to one targeted towards adults as an indulgent treat. It has launched new advertising showing adults enjoying ice cream suggestively. An HLL spokesperson says this reflects the "sensorial awakening" in society, as seen by spending at malls and multiplexes catering to youth. However, rivals like Amul are keeping their campaigns family-focused. It remains to be seen if the new positioning will boost HLL's Rs. 89 crore ice cream business, as availability also plays a key role.
HLL is repositioning its Kwality brand of ice cream from a family-oriented product to one targeted towards adults as an indulgent treat. It has launched new advertising showing adults enjoying ice cream suggestively. An HLL spokesperson says this reflects the "sensorial awakening" in society, as seen by spending at malls and multiplexes catering to youth. However, rivals like Amul are keeping their campaigns family-focused. It remains to be seen if the new positioning will boost HLL's Rs. 89 crore ice cream business, as availability also plays a key role.
weatherman talking, but the ice cream marketer, who seems to have abandoned an age-old positioning of the product (as a fun, family treat) in favour of a new one: as an adult indulgence. Leading the new strategy is HLL, which has reworked the marketing communication of its Kwality brand to something more risqué. Its TV and billboard ads show adults "pleasuring it up" quite suggestively. What's up? According to an HLL spokesperson, the repositioning is "a bid to reflect the sensorial awakening in society". "Evidence of which", the son continues, "is to be found in the spending one sees at spokesperson malls and multiplexes". At any rate, says the spokesperson, given that half of the country's population is between 18 and 34, its new communication better reflects its image as a youthful and indulgent brand, Rivals haven't yet followed suit. On the contrary, ones like the Anand-based milk marketing cooperative Amul, whose officials were not available for comment, are sticking to their family-centric campaigns, Will HLL's new positioning put its Rs.89 crore (2004 revenue) ice cream business on the boil? Hard to say. For, this is one category where availability plays a bigger role than just branding.
Question: What are the market
segmentation, targeting and positioning insights that you draw from this case? Why is HLL repositioning its Kwality brand of ice creams?
Case Study Marketing Beyond the Veil
Many marketers think that marketing to
Saudi Arabian women is a very difficult task. Women in Saudi remain behind the purdah and it is difficult to talk to them.
Saudi Arabia is one of the largest
markets in west Asia and is a homogenous society. There exists a wrong notion among some marketers that Saudi women are passive consumers. Many Saudi women are often highly educated. About 3,80,000 women work in Saudi Arabia and the number of female students in the colleges is set to rise about 1,75,000 in the next two years. Most women work in the traditional fields of health and education. Some are even employed in retailing, designing, publishing and manufacturing.
They are exploring ways to sell products
to Saudi women since Saudi Arabia is considered young market. Shopping malls are an utter flop as women find these out-of- town malls inconvenient. MNCs have realized that Saudi women are brand conscious and make the buying decision for household items. MNCs have been searching intensively for women who can act as intermediaries between the company and the clients and those who have links with colleges, women groups, etc.
Marketers should now stop
underestimating the sophistication of Saudi women as consumers. It is time they recognized that they are the emerging economic force. A women emerging out of a car fully covered by the purdah, may hold a degree finance or law or medicine and so on, and she may be a potential consumer given her educational background and culture.
Questions: List out the differences
between Consumer Behaviour of Women in a closed culture (as described by this case) in Saudi Arabia and in a open culture (say, in Western Eupore). Highlight the cultural implications for a Woman consumer and also for a marketer in the given context. Think of creative applications of 'reference groups' to market to the Saudi Arabian Women, say for a personal care product ( toiletries or beautification products).
