The Hindu Business Line : Ready for change?

I found this slogan on a T-shirt recently. Making me wonder whether it is perhaps easier to learn from slogans like these than from management gurus! Change is all around us. And change is necessary. Perhaps more so for brands. Particularly those that have been around for years on end!

Many of the brands that were around when I was a kid are still dominant. As a child I used to brush my teeth with Colgate toothpaste. Not to worry, I still brush my teeth with Colgate. My son uses Colgate Gel. So even if our generation did not pass on the Vedas and the Upanishads to our successors, at least we passed on the tube of toothpaste.

How have these brands withstood the changing of fashion and lifestyles? What changes have they made to their various elements - like product, packaging, pricing and promotion? How different is their positioning? And perhaps it is worthwhile to consider this today even as The Hindu Business Line changes its looks and design. Like The Hindu had done on April 14, 2005 leading me to think of this headline: "126 years later the look changes, but not the outlook". The Business Line, although much younger, has still gone ahead with change, which I am sure, will be for the better.

You are what you smoke

One of the greatest examples of brand positioning that has often been quoted is Marlboro cigarettes. Originally a ladies' cigarette, it was described as a "Sissy Smoke ... a tea room smoke." It was decided to reposition the cigarette as a more manly offering. The question was asked in the campaign meeting as to "what is the most masculine figure in America?" Answers ranged from "cab driver, sailor, marine, pilot, race car driver" before someone said "cowboy." The rest, as they say, is advertising history.

The Marlboro cowboy is arguably one of the most visible advertising campaigns ever conceptualised. It taught the world the power of repositioning. It taught consumers the power of aspiration, as the smoker believed he was his own sheriff. It taught the tobacco industry how to beat the tobacco ban by creating "Gear without limits" and how to sell millions of t-shirts, caps, jackets and other items bearing the Marlboro logo. It taught the Philip Morris company the value of the brand as even today Marlboro is one of the top 10 global brands.

In India, we do have the example of what was initially a macho brand - Lifebuoy - being repositioned with great success. All of us are familiar with Lifebuoy, its advertising featuring men playing outdoor games such as football and volleyball.

The brand was an effective anti-bacterial soap. The recent campaign featuring a `little Gandhi' is a dramatic shift from its macho image. The brand now addresses children and the family as well. The advertising differential was to give a twist to the `germ-free' by saying "you can live without fear."

The lesson for us again is that positioning statements, however potent, can remain mere words. It needs creativity to lift them to a different plane that will help beat the clutter. Lifebuoy demonstrates that - aided as it has been by a new formulation and packaging.

Liril, another Hindustan Lever brand, has over the years contemporarised its positioning, and its advertising executions. In a dramatic shift, the `girl' in the waterfall moved to the desert. Freshness, which was the original position, is now demonstrated in the execution and not overtly stated. The brand has come out with a slew of variants.

On to the corporate brand

Positioning, repositioning, new look, new packaging, improved formulations are fairly common in the case of consumer brands, as Procter & Gamble and Hindustan Lever will tell you. And yet corporate brands too require a clear positioning, as GE discovered. GE, a company that was formed by the merger of two large electrical giants in 1892, had a fairly clearly position that was "generally everything electrical." This generic position continued for several decades. Then in the Sixties, as the company became decentralised, the multi-product, multi-unit, multi-location giant struggled with disaggregation and fragmentation. Till Jack Welch entered in 1979 and had the vision to put in place a consolidated advertising programme as GE had earlier. This led to a "We bring good things to life" that has stayed over the years. GE's generic position as encapsulated in its tag line addresses the diverse nature of its product line, activities and interests. The learning - it helps to have a champion for your advertising programme. And who better than the CEO?

A corporation applies thought

One of the most visible corporate makeovers seen in India features Wipro. The sunflower logo, the tagline "applying thought" and a corporate campaign with the headline "we've been thinking of you" made a major splash in India. Wipro might not have had the diversity in product lines or activities that GE had. And yet it was in PCs, software, soaps and lighting. The customers were different, their aspirations different, and yet all were dealing with the Wipro brand. Crucial to any repositioning exercise is understanding what customers think about you. What perceptions do they have about you? Do you have reason to worry? Do you have reason to change? Wipro has changed, stayed with the change and benefited in the long run.

The courage to change

And yet change can be scary. Who knows what the future will hold? Why fix it when it ain't broke? Who know what your loyal customers will say? The challenge is even more daunting when the brand that is contemplating change is a newspaper.

The Hindu did this in April 2005. The Business Line, one is certain, has undertaken the change for the better bearing in mind the words of Alan Cohen, "It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."

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