It’s a couple in the devil’s boots

This is one changeover the entire nation was waiting for with bated breath.

Post devil, what would be the next Onida mascot? Will it be another fictitious character, or a real-life brand ambassador, or maybe a cartoon character? But, MIRC, promoters of Onida, chose to tread the proven path by roping in a new-age couple.

But why did Onida choose a generic icon such as a couple, which could belong to any other brand? At least the Devil was unique to Onida.

According to Sriram Krishnamurthy, vice-president, marketing sales and services, uniqueness of a protagonist (be it an ambassador or an icon) does not guarantee success to an advertising. “Advertising has to capture the audience’s attention, communicate the story enjoyably and persuasively and be unforgettably branded. Protagonists are just the means to an end, not an end in themselves,” he explains.

Onida’s new brand campaign will showcase ‘thoughtfulness’ behind the products through the eyes of the couple. “At the end of the day, people would buy the product, not the protagonists of the ad,” asserts Sriram.

‘Thoughtfully innovative brand’ is how Onida wants to be seen in the future, and that’s why the product features are actually the heroes. The couple stories are just enjoyable demonstrations of how thoughtful the product features are. These product features — for example the SD card reader as part of the DVD player — are Onida’s properties that are being played up.

“The brief was to create relevance and differentiation for Onida given the clutter in the category,” says Nagessh Pannaswami, business director, Mccann-Erickson, the agency behind the campaign.

Onida is restructuring its core organisational processes to strengthen the link between consumer insights and product design. Exemplifying the above ethos is the new-age tagline ‘Tumko Dekha to Yeh Design Aaya.’

“The thought of tumko dekha ... fits best with Onida. Unlike international companies that bring in plain vanilla products for Indian consumers, Onida knows its Indian consumers inside out — about their pains, their needs and desires,” Pannaswami says.

Sriram adds that the slogan is not just an advertising tagline, it is a statement of how Onida’s various business processes will be led — including mining of customer insights, new product development, innovations in product designs, manufacturing processes, pricing and even product placement & displays.”

Onida is planning launch various below- the-line activities. The company will focus strongly on point-of-purchase visibility and in-store product demonstrations, apart from festive seasonal promotions. Onida’s distribution footprint is also set to expand significantly in the coming weeks.