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The summer heat refuses to simmer down as does the noise in the market, with respect to brands and their summer promotions. Jumping on the summer bandwagon are entertainment channels, fast food joints, bookstores, sunglasses, about every product category worth its balance sheets. Read on…
Sunglass brands face the heat!
In the Rs 330 crore eyewear market (of which the organised market is only one third) summer is a time of high sales and higher decibel advertising and promotions. Harsh Chopra, MD, Ray-Ban, comments on the seasonality of the product, “Sunglass sales are seasonal. They peak in summers and drop sharply during the monsoons. Advertising in the optical business is focused on point of purchase displays and the images change every season. Print media advertising is restricted to the two seasons of the year: namely April to May and then October to December.” Chopra is tightlipped on the exact figures related to their media spends.
In contrast, Ajoy Chawla, Business Head, Accessories and Licensing business unit, Titan, pegs their media spend for the summer at approximately Rs 2 crore. “Typically, 45 to 50 per cent of our media spend should occur during the summer. This is our first summer, actually given that we have recently entered the eyewear segment, ” he adds.
Titan has, in fact, signed on actor and former model John Abraham as a brand ambassador for their eyewear range. Chawla comments on the association, “Our core TG is in the range of 15 to 25, and we found out that they relate to a ‘cool’ youth icon like John. Also, we have a new lineup of sunglasses under the ‘Revv’ range, which is targeted at bikers and given John’s strong association with biking, we thought it was a perfect fit.”
Are you dressed up for the summer?
Seasons dictate fashion trends and various brands are cashing in on this mantra by launching their spring summer collections. Come summer and fashion marketers unveil their seasonal collections, making every effort to impress in the battle for grabbing the consumer’s attention.
Leading sports and fitness major, Reebok India, has tied up with globally acknowledged fashion brand, Lycra, to unveil their Spring Summer Collection ’05. The collection includes a wide range of apparel under different lines like: Compression Collection, Zanchi, the Fitness Department, The Tennis Collection and the Swimwear Collection. Speaking about the new collection, Subhinder Singh Prem, Managing Director, Reebok India, claims, “The garments combine unique designs, high performance fabrics such as Lycra and our aimed to appeal to the youngsters across the globe, through our products.” On the partnership with Lycra, Singh expresses, “We are glad to be partnering with Lycra, as it is known for enhancing the performance benefits in various garments. Hopefully, the tie up will continue for a long time to come.” The collection is being advertised through an ongoing print campaign. The garments are priced from Rs 999 onwards.
Of Pharaohs, Biographies and Rock Legends
This summer, infotainment channels, National Geographic Channel (NGC) and History Channel have planned a wide array of programming initiatives for Indian viewers.
NGC is offering summer specials like ‘Ancient Egypt, New Revelations’ and ‘Nat Geo Photographers’, a two-month series featuring the work of some of the world’s best photographers.
Talking about the summer promotions, Dilshad Master, Senior VP, Content & Communications, NGC, Asia, says, “The channel is running online contests on the NGC website. We have an SMS contest, which will be promoted through air promos in which, the winner will win a free trip to Egypt.”
Starting this May, History Channel’s signature series ‘Biography’ will be hosted by actress Diana Hayden. The interactive-chat show series will cover world leaders, sports stars and Hollywood stars. Says Master, “Going forward, we will look at many more innovative formats to make the channel relevant to Indian viewers.”
Summer: Bringing out the bookworms!
Summer time may not traditionally conjure up images of people sitting in hammocks and indulging in the reading habit. But if the activity around bookshops were to be observed during the summer, you would be inclined to believe otherwise. Sriram R., CEO & MD, Crosswords, says, “We have an increase in book sales during the summer as children are on vacation and their visits increase. People are traveling for their holidays and want travel books, popular fiction, etc.”
Pester power rules in bookshops, too. Crossword launched a summer festival for children in association with Max New York Life across Crossword outlets in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. This follows the latest wisdom in corporate India’s rulebook, to rope in parents by targeting their children. After the success of this strategy with ICICI (which started the trend), being associated with children’s events has become a must do for most companies — finance companies taking the lead in this direction.
Crossword (promoted by K. Raheja Corp and ICICI Venture) is involved in expanding it’s chain of outlets during the summer and plans to open five more stores, three in Mumbai, one in Pune and one in Delhi in the next one month.
To read the entire story, grab your copy of Impact Advertising and Weekly magazine issue dated May 16-22, 2005