FMCG firms in novel ad move to link brands

Moving ahead from the conventional advertising focus on brands, FMCG companies are now trying to establish a connection among the company and its various brands.

Lately, companies like Hindustan Lever Ltd and Marico have been flashing their corporate logos at the end of television commercials for individual brands such as Saffola and Fair and Lovely respectively.

An HLL spokesperson said this was being done as the company has a whole range of brands across categories, but many consumers were unaware that these were HLL brands. "By showing the logo, we are strengthening the equity among the brands and the company," said the spokesperson.

Anand Halve, co-founder, chlorophyll, a brand consultancy, said that this was a change from how FMCG companies have traditionally advertised, preferring to keep the brand and the company distinct.

"This was done to avoid the spillover effect of any negative perception of one of the company's brands to the others in its portfolio," he explained.

However, with differentiating factors among brands fast blurring, companies are opting to identify the brand with the parent.

This move makes sense for brands where the brand name bears no connect to the company's name. But in the case of a Godrej or Dabur brand, there is no need to opt for a move like this as almost all their brands bear the company name.

This practice was first started by Procter & Gamble in Japan in the 1950s.

The other reason, according to Halve, is the ongoing acquisition spree by many companies such as Marico. It makes sense to establish a link among the corporate identity and the brands, he adds.

"Once the company starts promoting the new brands it has acquired, the existing goodwill immediately gets transferred to the new product," he said.

Halve pointed out that it was important to first establish some kind of connect among the corporate identity and the consumers before looking to link the identity to the company brands.

Once again using the Marico example, Halve said since the company had run a recruitment campaign a few months ago, consumers were familiar with what the brand stood for, hence the idea of using the logo to reinforce its brands worked well.