ONN Inners : Keep It On

Brand : ONN
Company : Lux Hosiery

Brand Analysis Count : #514

ONN is the new brand of premium innerwears from the house of Lux Hosiery. The brand is targeting its share in the high growth premium men's innerwear segment. Indian innerwear market is worth around Rs 13000-14000 crores. The market is equally split among organized and unorganized players. The men's inner-wear segment is worth around Rs 5800 crore. According to reports, the premium segment in this market is growing at a scorching pace of around 40%.

It is in this context that the launch of ONN gains significance. Lux Hosiery has been a dominant player in the innerwear market with its Lux brand of inners. Lux gained prominence in the affordable segment with its celebrity endorsements and the famous slogan " Ye ander ki baat hain ". Lux had the brands Lux Cozi and GenX with endorsers like Sunny Deol and Neil Nithin Mukesh.

ONN has gained lot of eyeballs by roping in Shahrukh Khan as its brand ambassador. The brand is running its campaigns across the media

Watch the TVC : ONN with Shahrukh

Just like most of the innerwear brands except Jockey, ONN also is following the celebrity centered brand building route. The saddest part is that there is nothing more to the branding strategy other than the celebrity. 

Here also there is Shahrukh Khan and the brand ONN. The brand owners failed to convey any meaningful message for this brand. For a low priced inner-wear brand, creating brand awareness is the key to success. But for a premium brand, it needs to justify the premium and a mere celebrity endorsement may not work. The task becomes more important when there are international brands like Jockey upping its noise and most of the readymade brands like Vanheusen , Louis Philleppe etc have their own innerwears. 

The quality of the TVC is  much below standards interms of theme and execution.The ad doesn't suit the premium segment but will be ideal for a low priced segment. By choosing a hyperbole around the movie Don and with a stereotyped characters has virtually downgraded the positioning to a lower level brand. The brand's site says that ONN wants to fight Jockey but with this kind of creatives, the dream will be a distant one.

ONN needs to focus more on creating a credible differentiator or atleast position itself on the basis of some important attributes like Fit, Design, Range, Comfort etc. Just having an expensive brand ambassador will not work well in the segment it is in.

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Crusoe : Who Are You Inside ?

Brand : Crusoe

Company : Jagannath Textiles Company

Ad Agency : Black Swan Life

Brand Analysis Count # 465

It feels good when an Indian brand attempts something ambitious with careful thought and matches it with smart execution. One brand that caught my attention recently was Crusoe.

Crusoe is a premium inner wear brand from Coimbatore based Jagannath Textiles Company. The brand was soft-launched in South India on January 2010 and is slated for a national launch.

Jagannath Textiles Company is a Rs 300 crore company specializing in manufacture of quality yarn. The company later moved over to value added products like home-textiles and apparels.

Crusoe is the company's offering in the mid-premium segment of the highly competitive Rs 1600 crore Indian organized innerwear market. The brand will be fighting for its pie with a host of brands like VIP, Rupa, Amul Macho, Jockey etc.

Crusoe is positioned differently from the rest of the crowd. The brand chose to appeal to a higher level attribute from the launch phase itself ( Laddering ). The brand is calling itself an " Innerwear for Inner-Self ". Crusoe has adopted the tagline " Who are you Inside ? " which is a question that the brand asks its TG.

The brand website - crusoeworld gives the following insights into the tagline :-

Clothes don't just cover you up,

Clothes are a cover up.

Most of the times, it's how

you want the world to see you.

At other times , it's how the world sees you.

But underneath all those layers,

When you are in your bare essentials,

When all you have to impress is you ,

Ask yourself one question.

Who are you inside ?

The concept of ' Innerself ' ' True Self ' & ' Breaking Free ' etc is not a new idea. Many brands have dabbled with the theme before. Crusoe has executed the concept very well and related that to the product - innerwear. The brand is running a series ( 8 nos) of print ads featuring the theme. The brand has also invested in OOH media . The theme also distantly resembles one of campaigns of Kamasutra condoms ( What do you want to be tonight ! ). But the brand scores in the execution and the ads are striking.

Crusoe has three product line extensions - Base, Nxt, and Xtreme each catering to different price points. Xtreme is the premium line in the range of Rs 350 +.

Crusoe directly competes with premium brands like Jockey , Hanes etc . While Jockey talks about fun, Crusoe takes the opposite pole of serious contemplation. That was a smart marketing move on the part of Crusoe to think differently from the rest of the crowd. The mass market segment of the innerwear market is still stuck with humor and sex. Crusoe is a welcome relief.

As a customer, I am impressed with the thoughtful process that the brand has undertaken for their campaigns. The brand has to tread the thin line between aggression and profitability. To make a serious dent in the market, these start-up brands have to invest heavily in brand promotion as well as channel penetration. Experts tell that channels ( distribution) decide the fate of the brand in the innerwear segment.

Crusoe is an interesting brand to watch out for. If the brand is able to consistently invest in distribution and continue its current promotions, we will see the emergence of a powerful Indian innerwear brand.

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Brand Update : Amul Macho Repositions with Saif Ali Khan

In a significant move, Amul Macho brand has repositioned itself. This season, the brand shed its raunchy image and moved into the ordinary . The brand also roped in Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan as the brand ambassador. Amul Macho is currently running the campaign with the new brand ambassador.

Watch the ad here : Amul Macho

In the current repositioning exercise, the brand dropped the earlier theme of " sexy " and moved into a theme that talks about brand personality. Along with the repositioning, Amul Macho also changed its tagline " Ye To Bada Toing hain " to " Bede Aaram se ".

According to news reports the brand wants to be perceived as cool and more sophisticated. The earlier campaign projected the brand as raw sexy one and now the brand logically wants to be more urban/upmarket while appealing to the mass market.

The new tagline implies that the brand user is one who get things done effortlessly. The ad tries desperately to convey the message of effortlessness rather unsuccessfully. The concept of effortlessness is highly attractive to men but in this case the brand failed to convey the promise effectively to the audience. The tagline " Bede Aaram Se " talks about comfort as well as effortlessness but how ever the poor execution of the positioning concept made the tagline look very old and familiar.

Amul Macho is one of the fastest growing innerwear brand in India. The brand currently has a turnover of over Rs 355 crore.

While the earlier campaigns ( although of poor taste and raunchy) helped Amul Macho to break the clutter. But the current one places the brand right inside the crowd of other innerwear brands . Brands like Lux, Rupa etc also uses celebrity endorsers and with the current repostioning, Amul Macho made itself undifferentiated with the rest of the crowd.

Very few brands were able to successfully integrate itself the concept of effortlessness . Although everyone likes the concept it is very difficult for a brand to project that as a brand promise in a convincing manner. It will take a real big idea to really drive that promise into the consumer's mind. Amul Macho may have to try little more harder to reach that place.

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GenX :Define Your Body, Inspire Your Mind

Brand : GenX
Company : Lux Hosiery Industries
Agency : Prachar


Brand Analysis Count : 408

If you are a regular reader of Economic Times Brand Equity, you will never miss this brand. GenX is a brand from Lux Hosiery which is famous for its Lux brand of innerwears.
GenX is a premium brand from Lux Hosiery. The brand was launched in the mid 2000 .

Although GenX is a premium brand, it is best known for the controversies generated because of their ads. The brand had a television commercial in 2006 which was later banned by the ASCI because it was of bad taste.

I think the brand learned some lessons from that controversies. From 2006 -2008, GenX was little silent. Now the brand is a regular advertiser in select media.

The brand had chosen a very different approach towards advertising ( my opinion). In most of their print ads, there is not much copy and sometimes just a model wearing the innerwear.As a customer, I felt intrigued by the ads and frankly I thought that it was an international brand.

The brand also seems to follow the United Colors of Benetton approach ( minus controversy). I remember the brand using a white and black models in their ads.
When we use less copy in advertisements, the product has to speak for itself. It is a risky strategy where the brand is expected to make the statement . In the case of GenX, the brand stands out and speaks for itself.

GenX is fighting with giants like Jockey and a whole set of extensions of Van Heusen , Color Plus etc. Hence the brand has to create an international appeal to fight with these brands.

I have not seen any ad of GenX in other magazines. I think the brand is limiting its exposure to Brand Equity and the likes. But I like the approach of the brand and the statement it is trying to make.

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Macroman : Excitingly Male

Brand : Macroman

Company : Rupa & Co

Brand Analysis Count : 389

Recently I was virtually stunned by a huge billboard featuring the bollywood hunk Hrithik Roshan endorsing an Innerwear brand. The brand was Macroman. Macroman is from the hosiery major Rupa &Co which is famous for the brands like Frontline and Euro and

also famous for the tagline " Ye Aaram Ki Mamla Hain ".

Although innerwear brands has been using celebrities like Salman,Sanjay Dutt, Sunny Deol etc, this Hrithik ad was different because Hrithik was an unlikely candidate for an Innerwear brand.

Reports say that Hrithik was initially not very keen on endorsing an innerwear brand . The company put an offer that was too good for him to refuse ( some say it was Rs 10 crore for two year contract).

Macroman was not a new brand. The brand was existing as a sub-brand of Rupa . Initially the brand was only one product ie briefs, till 2000.Later the brandline was extended to include vests also. In 2007, the brand was lifted from a sub-brand to a standalone primary brand.

Macroman shot into limelight in 2007 when the company decided to promote this brand as a premium innerwear brand. The brand had a phased relaunch across India and the use of Hrithik got the brand a huge mileage interms of media publicity.Hrithik endorses Macroman M series which was created as a line extension of Macroman brand.

Macroman has chose not to adopt the Rupa's positioning based on comfort. Infact the brand is conscious not to even mention that it is from the product line of Rupa because it wanted to create a premium image.

Macroman has adopted a tagline " Excitingly Male " and " Live like a Macroman " .Although the company had paid through the nose to get Hrithik, unlike Salman and Sanjay Dutt, Hrithik will give a touch of class to the brand because of his young age and the charisma.

The premium segment of the innerwear market is witnessing huge competition with all major readymade brands extending itself to innerwears. Brands like Color plus and VanHeusen have launched their innerwears and there is the presence of a strong market leader VIP. Hence the challenges for Macroman is huge.
Watch the TVC here : Macroman

It is reported that the contract with Hrithik is for two years from 2007 and the brand has not created a huge buzz across the market. In my state of Kerala, I havn't seen any promotional activity of this brand except the hoarding which I saw the last day.

Time will not wait for any brand. Macroman had a prize catch celebrity which could gel well with the brand's positioning as a premium innerwear. The only thing that Macroman has to do is to capitalize on the hype before it is too late.
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