Have a sparkling Diwali

Some brands are sparkling this Diwali. Others are fighting fire. A look at the action in the brand space.

Our last year’s pick Patanjali makes the cut again this year. But this year’s it’s for reasons that are partly different that the previous year. Patanjali’s Dant Kanti toothpaste has been growing from strength to strength and giving nightmares to others in the market. The proof that even the giants were rattled came when Colgate-Palmolive, the dental care major, launched Vedshakti under its Cibaca brand. Baba Ramdev, the yoga guru behind the Patanjali brand, was in no mood to blink. Dant Kanti launched an offensive saying that the same multinational company that criticised ancient Indian oral care techniques like using coal and salt a couple of decades back was now doing the same thing, thus acknowledging the power of traditional oral care methods.

Colgate has in the recent past launched products like Active Salt and Charcoal toothpaste. Its own Vedshakti is priced a huge 30 per cent less than Dant Kanti. In the past Colgate has used its marketing muscle to stifle local competitors like Promise, Anchor and Amar toothpastes.

But with changing times and increasing consumer awareness, it remains to be seen if Colgate can celebrate again.

The telecom sector is also abuzz with action ever since Reliance Jio fired the first rocket announcing free voice calls and lowest data prices than India has ever seen. Competitors including Vodafone, Airtel and Idea came under the regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI’s) lens for not providing Jio with enough Point of Interconnections (required to connect calls made from one network to another).

Meanwhile, Airtel is rolling out its 4G aggressively across the country with a 10 GB data pack for an attractive ₹247. This is one sector where the fireworks are going to continue well beyond Diwali.

The e-commerce sector with Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon among others continues to sizzle, though the heavy discounting in the previous years seems to have been tempered down because of mounting losses and pressure from investors. These battles are likely to last into the new year and come 2017, we will be able to separate the men from the boys. As of now, consumers seem to be having a blast.

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