The Hindu Business Line : All about love

EXTRA MILEAGE: Lycra has tied up with MTV to host the Lycra MTV Style Awards show. Seen in this photo from last year are film director Karan Johar and show co-hosts MTV VJs Sophie and Anusha.

In the face of immense challenges from generic offerings, Invista's stretch fibre brand Lycra is once again ready to unleash a trademark protection communication campaign in the country in about a fortnight. A somewhat naughty advertisement with a couple engaged in an invigorating smooch, with the catch line `Real Love — only Lycra has it', emphasises that three out of five consumers prefer Lycra fabrics to generics and that everything that stretches is not Lycra. Targeted largely at trade and consumer audiences including textile mills and apparel brand manufacturers, it hopes to touch an emotional chord among Lycra users.

`Real Love' follows its last campaign `Has It' in 2003-2004 and, of course, incorporates the earlier catch line to make the connection. Besides the campaign, Invista on a continuous basis has been leveraging large-scale branding opportunities with events such as the Lycra Images Fashion Awards and Lycra Rendezvous events. While the fashion awards are targeted at top management professionals of all premier apparel brands and textile mills, Rendezvous' focus is buyers and merchandisers and export houses that house international and domestic brands.

Besides, Invista awards' tie-up with MTV has given it that extra mileage, with awareness of the brand increasing among fashion-conscious youth through the popular entertainment channel. The awards honour celebrities and individuals from different walks of life such as fashion, sport, music and entertainment for their outstanding sense of style.

Lycra is betting big on India and Satish Khurana, Regional Director, South Asia, Invista, says it is among the top three markets for Lycra, with the country increasingly becoming an important exporter of garments and textiles. The introduction of Lycra into denim in the Seventies, in which the company was instrumental, too gave the brand a new scope and dimension.

The earlier `Has It' campaign in India was extended to shopping malls and retail outlets for a direct connection with retail shoppers. It remains to be seen if `Real Love' will go the same way, though for now the bull's eye is the print media. However, this time round, an online strategy has been put in place. `Real Love' has also been worked into an online game that allows the Net-savvy to learn the specifics of the trademark in an engaging manner.

Lycra as a brand faces an identical challenge as Intel. It is an essential, differentiating ingredient in products, but not an in-your-face product by itself. While the `Intel Inside' communication has been successful in helping Intel define its own space, Lycra has found that time and again even the trade gets confused about generic versus the real thing. Often, inferior quality materials and garments are passed off for the real thing.

According to analysts, the `Has It' campaign was successful in giving the Lycra brand a certain differentiating equity and once again the trademark awareness drive could reinforce in the minds of industrial users the real versus the generic.

The campaign also emphasises the strict set of benchmarks for those using Lycra, which, incidentally, is used in a broad variety of articles and services, including premium stretch fibres and fabrics, garments, and cosmetics.

Besides, Lycra has unique scanning technology, similar to one used in the financial and securities sectors. Called the Lycra BrandScan and installed in its certified laboratories and customer service facilities around the world, it can detect if the ingredient in the product is Lycra or a generic.

And now a small, hand-held Lycra BrandScan unit has been introduced that does the same thing as its big brother and can be easily used at any point in the sourcing cycle. Users can check a hundred swatches an hour with this device - in their office, in the factory, in the store ... anywhere, informs Khurana. He explains that the brand scan is increasingly becoming a valuable resource to its business partners who use genuine Lycra.

The company has also introduced hand tags to be used in all products with an input of Lycra. According to its last brand tracking study, worldwide awareness of the brand was at a high of 93 per cent, with two out of three consumers willing to pay a premium for it and three out of five preferring the brand over generic alternatives. According to Khurana, a new brand tracking study is under way, and will be out soon.

Though the company is not ready to divulge its investment in the ` Real Love' campaign citing company policy, reportedly the `Has It' global brand building initiative was worth $200 million.

This one too seems to be on a mega scale and the company certainly expects it to make the difference.

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All about love