Assignments for Creative Brand Management Track
Adcenter:“You have been put in charge of your agency’s new business. Name three brands you would like to represent, and tell why. For each brand, describe what your agency would do differently that would cause the client to hire you.”
Why Whisper?
Can one help market a product that one will never feel a need for? Can one understand those who need it? Working on Whisper, a brand of feminine hygiene product from P&G, will answer these questions. It’s a very successful and respected brand in India as has been worldwide. The challenge is big!
About Whisper
Introduced in India in 1989, Whisper dominates the feminine hygiene products market in India with an estimated 40% market share [R3]. Competition comes in the name of Stayfree and Carefree from Johnson & Johnson and Kotex and Secure from KimberleyClark-HLL [R4].
Through several line extensions—namely Whisper Maxi Regular, Whisper Maxi XL Wings, Whisper Ultra with Wings, Whisper Ultra XL Wings, and Whisper Choice, the brand provides feminine hygiene products for different comfort levels at different price points ranging from INR 29 to INR 65 for a pack of ten pads.
The feminine hygiene market is still a young market—only 20-25% women are estimated to use branded sanitary napkins in the urban sectors; the figure is much lower in rural India [R3].
Most Indian women fashion up pads out of cotton cloth as a home made and inexpensive solution to their hygiene and comfort needs during periods. These home made cloth pads are washed and reused. They lack the absorbing and liquid retention capacity of branded sanitary napkins and hence may lack in hygiene and comfort. The prohibitive price is one of the reasons why most Indian women still prefer using home made cloth pads.
Advertising Trends in the Feminine Hygiene category
Advertising in the category has traditionally promoted the absorption and moisture retention standards of the products. Brands have also directly confronted the use of home made cloth pads by promoting the benefits of sanitary brands over cloth. The visuals of two napkins with blue ink poured over them illustrating performance still lingers. The ads have always used either the mother and daughter relationship or the friendship between girl friends as a context to build stories. Brands have also graduated to promote the confidence to go outdoors and be active that comes with the comfort of using the products.
“Join the Revolution”—an ad campaign where women are seen joining forces on the streets and a research driven ad claiming “90% progressive girls use Whisper” are the recent ads promoting Whisper Ultra.
The Pitch
Convincing middle and lower income groups, both in urban and rural India, that the cost of sanitary napkins is a justified expense—with a new approach.Communication Strategy
In this segment price is one of the most prohibitive reasons. My communication strategy involves a third person who insists that the price is worthy of the comfort and hygienic benefits of Whisper and one the family can afford. The third person is the husband, a male character never before seen in the world of sanitary napkin advertising.
With the interest of managing the household budget, perhaps, the lady of the house self-sacrifices and opts against buying sanitary napkins. In most Indian households the major bread winner is the husband. The strategy means to encourage the husband to look into the health and hygiene needs of his wife and insist that the expense is justified (an estimated cost of INR 150 per cycle).
Script of Television Commercial
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Audio |
Visual |
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Chahte to hain banana aapke liye ek mahal. (My wish is to build you a palace.) |
The protagonist, the husband, is seen repairing a leaking roof of his humble house. |
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Aapki fikr hi to paar karti hai hamein saari kathinaiyon se. (It is my concern for you that journeys me past my own worries.) |
In a crowded train the husband is seen sitting on the “fourth seat”. (When three passengers are kind enough to squeeze themselves within the bench seat of a passenger train, the width of four or five inches left is the fourth seat—too much to be ignored, too little for comfort.) |
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Chuppi se, choti-badi, aapki saari chintaon par nazar rakhte hain. (Quietly, I notice all your concerns, big or small.) |
Late evening, probably, on his way back home, the husband is seen approaching a chemist shop. He waits for the customers to leave and slips the chemist a note. He leaves the shop with a shake of his head and a smile on his face. |
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Hansi mein udadenge apni sharmindagi jab baat ho aapke svaasth ki. (When it is the question of your health and hygiene, I will laugh off my embarrassment.) |
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Kyunki jaantehain ki aapki khushi mein hi hamara sammaan hai. (Because I know my pride lies in your happiness) |
He returns home to his wife. He asks his wife to hand him a change of clothes. His wife opens the wardrobe to find a pack of Whisper Choice tucked in a corner. She picks it up with surprise and turns to him as if to question such expenditure. With a smile, he shrugs off the question, as if to suggest it is not a big price. |
In Print
Keeping in mind the strategy, the print initiative would make use of male centric publications. A full page magazine ad or an A4 size newspaper ad runs the risk of being ignored by the male reader on two accounts,
- it might seem irrelevant
- a male reader might be embarrassed to be found face-to-face with a big ad for sanitary napkins.
Hence, an advertorial, placed in topical pages in newspapers like the sports page and magazines that have predominantly male readership. Here is an example:
Making a case through ambient media
The passenger train is a key medium while addressing the men of middle and lower income groups.
The Idea:
- In Local Trains
A band 4 inches wide in Violet colour (the predominant colour of the Whisper brand) stuck to the alley end of the passenger train bench seat. It marks the “fourth seat”. Besides extending a context from the Television commercial, the medium invokes feeling of discomfort which perhaps would aid message retention. A short message on the band, in fine type-size, reads:“Her discomfort is of a higher degree. Ask her. Cloth or Whisper Choice?”
In addition to the main strategy also suggested are two simple but innovative ways to reach potential customers - In Buses
Public transport buses in most Indian towns and cities reserve a few seats for women. While advertising boards within buses are common, the opportunity to use the reserved seats for targeted advertising has not yet been used. The backrest of the seats that face the seats reserved for women can be used to target women with messages like:
a.“Wishing you a comfortable commute — Whisper”
b. A calendar of the 28 days of the menstrual cycle with byte sized information on each day (as is available on the current website of Whisper India) would be of great educational value to young women. - In Maternity Hospitals
Perhaps, a maternity hospital is the last place to put up an ad for sanitary napkins; but not if the brand wants to convey their good wishes to new mothers.“We can’t tell you how happy we are for you. Congratulations to you and your partner! Take care — Whisper”
