Elephant Strategy + Design revamps Britannia Bourbon & Lacto Calamine brands

Lacto Calamine and Britannia Bourbon, two popular brands that have been in the market for quite some time, have got a fresh lease of life. Elephant Strategy + Design recently undertook a revamp and reposition exercise for these two brands to transform them into dynamic, profitable and meaningful entities.

Bourbon is one of the prominent and original products in the Britannia basket. As a brand, Britannia Bourbon has always been loved and has had a very high recall of taste and look among consumers.

Lacto Calamine, owned by Piramal Healthcare, has been in the market for over 20 years. Over the years it has built solid equity as a trusted skincare solution provider. However, the introduction of newer skincare products ate into its market share, and somewhere along the way, the brand lost its freshness appeal for the younger generation.

Speaking to exchange4media about the challenges Elephant Strategy + Design faced in transforming the two brands, the agency’s Director Ashwini Deshpande said, “To begin with, the naming and positioning of Bourbon had to be aligned with its audience and also to what it deserves to be. At some point in time, Bourbon was placed under the Treat portfolio in Britannia. Treat is essentially a kids’ indulgence brand, whereas Bourbon goes in the adolescent/ adult indulgence”. She added, “The Britannia Bourbon brand needed to be given due place of pride, rejuvenation and a facelift to match the quality of the product experience. It needed to reflect the attitude of the target consumer and to be launched as a category in its own right.”

Similarly, the challenges for Lacto Calamine were multiple. Deshpande talked about transforming the personality of the brand to appeal to the target audience of 18-35 years, who is conscious of her looks, but doesn’t have the time for an elaborate beauty regime, to contemporise the look and feel that would lead to a vibrant shelf presence and yet maintain its classic appeal. Also, to build a packaging architecture for future brand extensions in variants, products and formats.

On their strategy, she said, “Team Elephant hung out with the target consumer and studied their psyche, buying patterns and lifestyle. ‘Youth’ seek independence, believe in self-centered satiation, want brands that enhance their lifestyle and also get some flaunt value from the brand. Bourbon consumer is someone who is growing out of chocolates and yet loves the taste of chocolate.”

A continuous flow of chocolate with graphics of wild chocolate rhapsody was created to show the sensorial delight that went beyond the taste – like the smell of chocolate, visual memory of chocolate cream oozing out, and sprinkled sugar on the tongue. A stylish and indulgent metallic brick colour was chosen to differentiate and make it stand out both on and off the shelf.

“In branding, the first step was to call it out loudly as ‘Bourbon’. A new brand identity was created to express Britannia Bourbon as ‘The Original One’. The exercise also included aligning pack shapes and sizes with situational aspirations of the target audience. So, we created pocket packs and party packs and so on,” Deshpande added, claiming that after its relaunch, the new Britannia Bourbon received an overwhelming response.

She further said, “A study of consumers and potential consumers led us to understand that new age Lacto Calamine had a lot of aspirations to fulfill as a beauty brand. After an in-depth analysis of the equities of Lacto Calamine (LC), we realised the limitation of the brand name that makes it difficult to launch products that do not contain the specific ingredients. We decided to build an iconic beauty statement by playing up LC. In future, LC would be the umbrella under which multiple products would get launched. In the first phase, the products will come with LC and the name Lacto Calamine. Eventually, they will carry their own category specific name under the LC umbrella.”

She explained that Team Elephant designed the key equity elements for a strong shelf throw. The brand name ‘Lacto Calamine’ was made bigger, sleeker, sophisticated and glamorous. As part of the packaging architecture, a modern visual imagery was created. This included a semi-circular shape, which would carry the colour meant for variant differentiation. The rest of the body would have the colour associated with the product range. A new word “Skinsurance” was coined to highlight the benefit of the brand and at the same time retaining the efficacy factor that is strongly associated with Lacto Calamine. The first phase would see the re-launch of Classic and Aloe variants, followed by other relevant skincare products under each of the pillars for different skin-types.