WHY ONIDA AS A BRAND IS AILING?
Internal management Problems: One of the main reasons for this is the fight between the brothers : Gulu and Sonu Mirchandani and their brother -in- law Vijay Mansukhani over the control of the Onida group. The fight has severely eroded the share of the brand and even the marketing of Onida. Onida was staging a recovery after the successful re-launch of the brand and the return of the Devil. But the family feud has made things difficult for the brand.
Frequent change in Advertising: What is interesting about Onida is the branding. The creative duty of the brand has partly moved from one marketing agency to another i.e. from Rediffusion to McCann Erickson. But as usual, when the agency changes, the entire brand elements changes. For Onida, the change till now unfortunately is always for the worse. When O&M took the brand from Avenues, the famous tagline “Neighbor’s Envy, Owner's Pride” and the Devil was taken off. The brand suffered for almost 10 years and has never recovered since .The change of agency from O&M to Reinfusion again changed things and Devil returned in a new avatar and a new tagline “Nothing but the truth" has now come into existence. The new arrangement is not making things better. In 2007, Onida launched a new campaign for its A/C and with a new tagline “It can change your life”. Now the new campaign for the air conditioner features a new Devil and the tagline has again changed to "Experience the desire". Onida which already is in deep trouble is moving on to further confusion with an unnecessary change in the positioning strategy. The brand has not been able to consolidate the earlier theme based on 'truth'. Even before establishing it, the brand has repositioned again.
Aging customer base: The customers of Onida have grown older with times and the brand has failed to connect itself to the current generation. The “devil” in the advertisements in not helping it either.
Brand amnesia: For old brands, as for old people, memory becomes an increasing issue. When a brand forgets what it is supposed to stand for, it runs into trouble. The most obvious case of brand amnesia occurs when a venerable, long-standing brand tries to create a radical new identity, such as when Onida tried to replace its original tagline with new one. The results were disastrous.
Brand fatigue: Some companies get bored with their own brands. This can happen to products which have been on the shelves for many years, collecting dust. When brand fatigue sets in creativity suffers, and so do a sale which was and is the case with Onida.
Brand paranoia: This is the opposite of brand ego and is most likely to occur when a brand faces increased competition. Typical symptoms include: a tendency to file lawsuits against rival companies, a willingness to reinvent the brand every six months, and a longing to imitate competitors.
COMPARISON WITH COMPETITORS
Market characteristics The consumer goods market in India is of USD 4.87 Billion. Around 45 companies cater to this market. Onida is having a very small share of this market. In the Indian market space, Brand loyalty is giving way to “value-for-price” contest. There is an intense competition on price. The companies are Companies focusing on product differentiation, value added offerings and exchange offers. The MNCs like LG, Sony, Samsung, Phillips and Videocon command a high market share. These brands score high on following factors:
Product Line: These companies (LG, Sony, Samsung, Phillips and Videocon) have a wider product range compared to Onida to target customers from all segment.
Positioning: Their Image of a multinational company in the minds of consumer helped them to grab market share instantly. It gave a perception that these companies have better technology. Videocon on the other hand leveraged its MNC image by it tagline of “Indian MNC”. Advertisements: LG has Abhishek Bachhan, Samsung Has Aamir Khan, Videocon had Amithabh Bachhan and now Sharukh Khan, and All these players have used celebrity to a good effect to endorse their brands. On the other hand Onida is stuck with its old “Devil” which isn’t helping.
Visibility: The companies are associated with events and sponsorships. Like LG and Videocon are associated with cricket. This has resulted in better brand visibility.
STRATEGIES TO REVITALIZE BRAND ONIDA
In order to revamp its position and brand value in the market Onida should use the following strategies:
Better positioning: Onida should stick with a uniform positioning strategy rather than changing it with time as they did.
Celebrity Endorsement: The Company should go for a better adverting. The company can rope in a celebrity to endorse its brand. This way the brand can be benefited from celebrities brand equity. We suggest rope in Suresh Raina. Raina’s image of a fighter and a class player will help Onida’s brand image.
Association with events: The Company has lost its place in the minds of customers. Also, the loyal customers of Onida have grown older. To regain old customers and to regain visibility, Association with events can help. Onida’s problem of low visibility will be solved with its sponsorship of event like rock shows, games, marathons, IPL etc.
Line Extension: The Company should go for line extension in value segment so as to target more customers in the lower segment. They should introduce variants in LED in 14”, 20” and 21” segment. These products will target the young and first time buyers. These buyers will have an emotional attachment with the brand and as they graduate to the high end segment, Onida can target them with its high end products.
Comments