The Hindu Business Line : One grand sweep ...

CORPORATE advertising campaigns are the flavour of the season for advertisers this year. Kotak Mahindra and the Aditya Birla Group are already in the fray with lavish corporate campaigns; the surprise entrant is FMCG major Marico Industries, with its `Uncommonsense' campaign.

While Kotak has tried to position itself as a one-stop destination for all kinds of financial services, with its `Think Investments Think Kotak' tagline, the Marico campaign talks about empowerment, about its organisation's culture and how its employees are encouraged to come out with innovative, out-of-the-box ideas.

Why this sudden spate of corporate campaigns? According to most industry experts, these are usually done either to convey a change of philosophy that guides the company or to correct a certain perception that exists among some of its stakeholders. It could be done to boost the companies' image before an IPO or as an exercise in damage control in case its image takes a beating.

However, Subhash Kamath, CEO, Bates India, doesn't agree with this view. "It is not necessary that a company goes for corporate branding only before an IPO or an image mishap. Britannia's Industries' `Britannia khao tan man jagao' tagline, for instance, was an effort to connect with consumers. The company did so when it was moving from being just a biscuits company to a `healthy food' company. The idea here was to refocus the company's vision and not an IPO."

Saugata Gupta, Marketing Head, Marico, says the present campaign is focused only on attracting talent from the business schools and the marketing fraternity. "It is an invitation to join Marico's exciting journey into the future." He says that the company has an aggressive growth plan and aims to double its turnover to Rs 2,000 crore in the next four years, for which the company requires good talent.

"We wanted to externalise the work culture at Marico which encourages its employees to be innovative, so that people look at them as prospective employers. Therefore, the campaign talks about empowerment, about how Marico looks at grey cells and not grey hair. Hence the tagline `Uncommonsense'," adds Kamath of Bates India (Marico's agency). On the idea behind Kotak Mahindra's corporate campaign, Prakash Dalal, Vice-President (Products and Marketing), Kotak Mahindra Bank, says that with over 20 years of expertise in managing people's money across all investment categories such as mutual funds, equities and insurance, the key proposition that Kotak hit upon is to help its customers manage their wealth and help them meet their financial goals.

"In the minds of the consumer, the mother brand, Kotak, stands for investments, encapsulated in our tagline `Think Investments. Think Kotak.' The individual businesses come under this umbrella of investments. Therefore, there is a synergy in what we as a group and what each of the individual companies bring to the customer. Consequently, for us a corporate campaign makes sense as it reinforces what we as a group stand for and at the same time benefits individual businesses," says Dalal.

While Abhijit Avasthi, Group Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather (the agency responsible for the Kotak campaign), feels that every product campaign is also a corporate campaign for the company, he says the Kotak campaign focuses on driving home the company's philosophy of increasing the wealth of its customers rather than merely preserving it. "Therefore, all products and services offered by Kotak are designed in a way that they go beyond saving money to actually making it grow. What we mean here is that Kotak's emphasis is always on investments and it also helps to firmly entrench "Think Investments Think Kotak" in the public consciousness."

U. Jayraj Rau, Vice-President and General Manager, JWT, says that the obvious reason why these corporates are investing in campaigns is to build a solid base. "The group name and image are being leveraged and it is not being done through the products. In the South, the Murugappa Group is steadily building a base with a specific purpose of creating awareness for the group among the corporate and business segments in the metros. In this case, the products/brands are the route as the group can leverage itself quickly through companies and brands that are already well known."

Is corporate branding really required?

Giving an analyst's perspective, Pradeep Hejmadi, Vice-President, TAM Media Research, says that as most of these companies are listed, a corporate campaign would help them boost consumer and investor confidence. "The stock markets work on sentiment and an investor doesn't invest in an individual product but in the overall earnings and the attractiveness of the group."

"Corporate branding has some clear benefits. While a product campaign could give a company results in three months, a corporate campaign leaves behind an image," adds Hejmadi.

A senior advertising professional says that a corporate campaign for a company such as Kotak, which is in the financial space, is definitely a great idea. "An umbrella campaign for a financial services brand is required, as it is necessary to build credibility. Since investing on a financial product involves huge sums of money, most investors are particular about the credibility of the company."

"To my mind, Kotak is more a consumer campaign than a corporate campaign as it is trying to speak to people as one identity offering a lot of services," says Kamath of Bates India. However, the senior advertising professional who, earlier in this article, commented on the Kotak campaign, feels that Marico's investment in such a lavish corporate campaign just to attract talent is a hugely wasteful exercise. "There are cheaper and more effective ways to attract talent. Even an Infosys won't do a corporate campaign to hire people," he says.

Who should invest in corporate branding?

On companies which should invest in corporate branding, Hejmadi of TAM says, "Corporate branding comes in extremely handy for a consumer durable company, financial products company or even an auto company. These are categories in which the consumer goes by the company's credibility. When it comes to investing in a Hyundai or a Honda car, people buy it because of the corporate identity of the company."

Agreeing with Hejmadi, this senior advertising professional says a corporate campaign for big-ticket categories such as cars or durables makes sense not only because the products are expensive and the company's credibility will help, but also because they target a limited section of consumers.

He also points out that in the case of an auto company, for instance, the brand names are similar to the company name, and therefore, the rub-off of a corporate campaign is immediate. "All the brands of Honda are called Honda, so the consumer recall is immediate, but it would be disastrous if a Lever invests in a similar campaign. Its brands not only cater to large masses, they also don't have the Lever tag attached to their brand names. A Lever has brands such as Lux and Lakme, while a Godrej may have a Godrej Hair Dye, but it also has a Cinthol."

Though a number of advertisers have come up with corporate campaigns in the recent past, spends on corporate advertising actually slumped last year. According to an AdEx India (a division of TAM Media Research) study, spends on corporate branding were close to Rs 377 crore in 2005 as against Rs 390 crore in 2004. However, industry experts feel corporate campaigns are definitely here to stay, along with product campaigns. "The Tatas, Birlas, Bharti, Reliance and Wipro are fantastic examples of how to leverage a company brand. They can be made to seem larger than life. They are safe foundations to build new ventures, new brands and new teams," says Rau of JWT.