<ul><li>Swiggy has given a new twist to the standard format of bonus letters. </li><li>Its new emailer gives you an opportunity to grab, “Chief Executive Bonus.”</li></ul>COVID has not left our country yet. Many employees continue working doubly hard from inside their rooms, with half their salaries. With Diwali around the corner, they are also heartbroken because getting a Diwali Bonus this year seems like a pipe dream. Bengaluru-based food delivery platform Swiggy has used this opportunity in its favour as it knows what is on everyone’s mind today and how to get consumers to click on an ad. It has sent out an email with a subject line that reads, “Your Diwali Bonus for the year 2020/2021” and it had us hooked. Inside Swiggy’s emailer is a Bonus Letter that appreciates its consumers' performance throughout the year. It reads, “We are happy to announce that our numbers for the current ‘dish’cal year look very promising! Of course, this is all thanks to your outstanding performance and hard work as a foodie.” Swiggy hasn’t just given away coupon codes in its emailer. It is cleverly making its consumer scroll through the entire emailer by providing three tier-discounts on cracking three different puzzles. The first ‘Chief Executive Bonus’ puzzles the users with a food question and provides a coupon code with a discount of 70%. The Senior Executive Bonus and Junior Executive Bonus offer a 60% and 50% discount. Its closing caption reminds the consumers how much the platform cherishes their presence in their life. It reads, “Your undying dedication to good food makes us proud to have a foodie like you in our team! We wish you all the success and look forward to seeing you rise to newer heights (and try new dishes).” <div type="image" title="Swiggy - Bonus emailer" msid="79192147" hostid="261"></div> A closer look at Swiggy’s Email Marketing Swiggy’s Email campaign is predominantly built around creating a sense of curiosity among its users. Its emails are always embedded with a personalised Call to Action (CTA) button and always have a crisp subject line. This time, the action button read, “Get that bonus.” It then directs the users to its app and social media pages to engage with them further. It also provides a unique hashtag for each emailer and asks users to engage with them by sharing their small wins on social media pages, further keeping their pages buzzing and increasing their presence. While Email Marketing seems like a dying phenomenon today, Swiggy’s emailers continue to prove that when done the right way, it fetches a marketer the desired results. It is that one brand whose emails you don’t want to unsubscribe to because it humours you, talks about your favourite food and gives easy discounts. Its bold orange colour and quirky font style is a cherry on the top. <div type="image" title="Swiggy - gift emailer" msid="79192198" hostid="261"></div> Swiggy has even made a personalised food clock for Indians that gave them a crash course on how foodies tell time. <div type="image" title="Swiggy - Food clock" msid="79192168" hostid="261"></div> Another example of how Swiggy has the best clickbait subject lines, during Navratri, it sent an email titled, “CONTROVERSIAL: India has ditched pedha this Navratri.” The emailer unearthed the most-loved sweets from all corners of India and gave a list of desserts. <div type="image" title="Swiggy - mithai box" msid="79192214" hostid="261"></div> In March 2019, Swiggy set a new record in email marketing with a CTR (Click Through Rate) of 7% and Mail Open Rate of 25%, revealed Netcore. According to IANS, Swiggy has seen a 30% jump in orders for food delivery during IPL season. <meta content="cms.next" name="cmsei" />

Swiggy has read every consumers’ mind and sent out fun Diwali Bonus emailers to lift their spirits

<ul><li>Jaquar Group, an atmanirbhar home-grown brand, has made its mark across 45 countries. </li><li>Rajesh Mehra, Director and Promoter, Jaquar Group speaks to us about the brand’s journey in the country and vision to strengthen its presence across the world. </li></ul>Many global companies have set a strong foothold in our country, over <a href="https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/company/multinational-corporations-of-india-characteristics-growth-and-criticisms/23462#:~:text=There%20are%20over%2040%2C000%20MNCs%20with%20over%202%2C%2050%2C000%20overseas%20affiliates.">40,000 Foreign </a>Companies to be precise. Jaquar Group, a home-grown bath and sanitaryware brand that holds 60% market share in India, has helped put our country on the global chart in the bathroom market. It is an Indian brand that has expanded its presence in 45 countries across Europe, Middle East, Asia- Pacific, Africa and the SAARC region. Launched in 1960, the family-owned group today has an annual turnover of ₹3,000 crore and has maintained an annual CAGR of 22% in the last five years. Due to the nationwide lockdown, Jaquar’s manufacturing facilities were completely unoperational. Once the restrictions began easing off, it took gradual and cautious steps to resume operations across five plants in India. Today, it is working at almost 50-75% capacity and is hoping to make that 100% soon. On how the brand pivoted its business during the lockdown, Rajesh Mehra, Director and Promoter, Jaquar Group, said, “The practice of social distancing and safer hygiene is the way we live and operate now. Hence, ramping up advanced contactless technology products in places of serious footfall and transmission in commercial buildings – airports, hospitals, hotels/restaurants, and shopping malls – is imperative. In this context and consistent with our tradition of setting new industry trends, our latest initiative to address consumer need is themed ‘Sensor and Sensibility’ which centres around the smart usage and functionality of the bath-ware, sanitaryware and lighting solutions in a contactless manner both at homes and public places. The sensor &amp; pressmatic technology products are touch-free or require minimum touch.” It also launched a TVC to promote its sensor and sensibility range for touchfree bathrooms as with the pandemic, consumers have started focusing on their health and wellness. <div type="Youtube" id="Xu-ogh5gWAo" title="Let's make Safety the New Normal!" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Xu-ogh5gWAo/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Jaquar Group’s facilities are spread over 3,29,000 Sq. m delivering over 2.4 million bathrooms and producing over 28 million bath fittings annually across 5 plants in India and 1 plant in South Korea. From being a faucet manufacturer, Jaquar also transformed itself into a complete bathroom solutions provider for homes and commercial buildings during the lockdown. Sharing the idea behind venturing into light business, Mehra said, “With the foray into the lighting business, which now contributes close to 10% of total revenue, we plan to become a complete lighting solutions provider with our expanded range of products which will be on offer from the new manufacturing plant. Apart from the commissioning of light fittings plant in Bhiwadi, we plan to open a water heater manufacturing unit at Kundli by October, taking our current number of manufacturing units from 5 to 7. We will continue to invest and go ahead with our capex plans in spite of this Covid-19 pandemic.” Many crises have come and gone since 1960. Telling us about the brand's strengths that helped it survive them all, Mehra said, “Built on strong ethos of offering the highest quality standards, building strong consumer-relations, integrity, providing world-class products and taking care of our people - this sums up our manner of doing business. Through the evolution of India and consumers across six decades, these core pillars have pivoted our growth trajectory and helped us build a formidable brand in India. Relationships matter in our business and we have invested in nurturing genuine partnerships with our dealers, partners and consumers over the years. We take pride in saying that we have never lost our customers. We are a relationship-based company. We believe in maintaining the best relations and dealings. It is simple- you take care of the customers and they will take care of you.” Marketing strategy Digital marketing is Jaquar’s strongest suit. More than 5 lakh monthly users come onto its website through its social media channels. “Social media helps us communicate the range, and breadth of offerings, and define the unique feature of each component to induct consumers to the Jaquar Group’s way of life. Geo-targeting has proved to be beneficial to us with much to-do and digital is undoubtedly supporting us to reach to the end customer in a faster manner. We generate more than 5 lakh monthly users coming on to the Jaquar website routed through our social media channels. On overall marketing strategy, Mehra shared, “Bathrooms can be one of best destressing zones of your home. Yet, when it comes to building one, it may well give you more stress than any other part of the house. Choosing the right products is extremely critical not just from an aesthetic point of view, but a longevity and durability point of view as well. That’s precisely why we endeavour to educate and create awareness among our end consumer through Jaquar orientation centers, currently we have 21 of these one-of-its-kind concept stores for the convenience of consumers, builders and architects which offers an immersive experience for everyone.” Environmental-friendly plans According to Mehra, Jaquar leads the industry in sustainable production with systems installed for energy efficiency, water use efficiency, rain water conservation, waste recycling and energy generation. Its global headquarters, spread over 48000 Sq. Mtr in Delhi NCR, is an eco-friendly building that has optimised day lighting, variable air volume system, thermal heating and cooling systems and an in-house solar plant that generates over 6.25 Megawatts of energy. Jaquar has made it as a LEED Platinum rated net-zero building registered with the US Green Building Council under its Ci category. Telling us what else the brand follows to reduce its carbon footprint, Mehra said, “We have a Zero Liquid Discharge manufacturing set up with various in-house water and waste treatment systems including Sewage Treatment Plants, Effluent Treatment Plants and Multi-effect Evaporator Systems. Our advanced wastewater treatment and purification systems ensure that our manufacturing units adhere to the highest environmental standards. There is also a special focus on recycling at Jaquar Group. All the brass cut-offs are recycled and reused. That’s 4221 metric tons of brass every year. 100% of the water we use in our buildings is recycled in our in-house sewage treatment plants. In fact, we recycle over 5,00,000 litres of water every day. And our chrome recovery plant recovers as much as 8 metric tons of chrome salt annually. All these have earned our manufacturing plant the LEED Platinum rating from the US Green Building Council, a feat which only a handful in the country can boast of.” Vision In the initial years of gaining a strong foothold in India and across 45 countries, Jaquar focused on providing value, premium and luxury offerings. The second and third generation of this family-run business is going to focus on innovation, marketing potency while keeping consumer needs at the core. On expanding its presence further and brand’s vision, Mehra said, “We have our plans firmly in place. Apart from expanding our capacity and production, we will be investing in growing our overseas footprint too. Our export business has done reasonably well despite the pandemic. Given the supply chain network and infrastructure we have created in more than 16 countries, and our aim to expand this segment, we expect to see exports contributing to about 25-30 per cent of the expanded business over the next five years.” <meta content="cms.next" name="cmsei" />

Here is the story of an Indian company gaining global fame for its home-grown products

<ul><li>HUL’s recent attempt at rebranding Fair &amp; Lovely into Glow &amp; Lovely was appreciated by some experts while others called it merely an eyewash for the audience. </li><li>HUL has launched its first advertisement to communicate its transition from Fair &amp; Lovely to Glow &amp; Lovely. It bolsters the fact that the value proposition and the brand narrative stays exactly the same. </li><li>We speak to experts to find out if its new communication stands true to what HUL had claimed when it rebranded or if the exercise was merely lip-service. </li></ul>After protests against racial discrimination took over in the US, Black Lives Matter, Hindustan Unilever Limited’s Fair &amp; Lovely faced a lot of backlash on social media for building unrealistic beauty standards and stereotyping skin tones in India. It announced that it will drop the word ‘Fair’ from its name and restrict using discriminatory ‘White/Whitening',’ ‘Light/Lightening’ from all its packs and communications. It soon renamed the brand to ‘Glow &amp; Lovely’ as a reactive measure to an uprising. A few experts rejoiced this move, while some expected HUL to drop the product completely that stands for colourism in India. To announce its new rebranding exercise to consumers, HUL has dropped a very in-your-face TVC that establishes how nothing has changed and it still offers something “More than brightness and now gives HD glow skin.” Its advertisement just feels like the giant is selling its old wine in a new bottle. The only thing that has changed this time is that they got rid of the shade card. <div type="Youtube" id="nwcNySYxZ6s" title="Fair &amp; Lovely is now Glow &amp; Lovely | English" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nwcNySYxZ6s/mqdefault.jpg"></div> This made us question if glow is just a synonym for selling white-skin to consumers and if consumers will be able to see through their charade? “Fair, glow - it is all the same - all about bright and white skin. The re-branding seemed (pardon the pun) more a cosmetic exercise, perhaps to mitigate some of the flak faced over the years. The name may have changed, but the positioning remains the same. The audience will buy the cream irrespective. Unfortunately, that's how ingrained the whole idea of fair skin is,” said Srishty Chawla, Founding Partner, One Source. To make sure consumers don’t forget Fair &amp; Lovely is now Glow &amp; Lovely, the advertisement illustrates the transition to the new name twice -- to really hammer it in the consumer's minds. Vani Gupta Dandia, Founder, CherryPeachPlum Growth Partners - a marketing-led business consultancy said the steps HUL took till here -- to establish its transformation -- were fine. Telling us further how she would have gone about establishing the identity change in the market, Dandia said, “If I were the business head, I'd first spend a lot of money on just ensuring that the name change be registered. I'd do that with small edits - 5 and 10 seconders. And use other media similarly. High frequency, high recency modeling. However, quickly justifying the name with a tacky reason to believe undermines the intelligence of consumers. It does sound like the same old in a new bottle - worse still justified with the same old science. So are you telling me you can provide just about any benefit with the same old science? What is the difference between Fairness and Glow? If we were to respect consumers' intelligence, would we not like to explain why glow or radiance is aspirational?” Fair &amp; Lovely advertisements from the late 90s and early 20s often portrayed women with darker skins as failures, these women would ace their presentations, crack interviews or be able to upload their profiles on matrimonial websites only after applying a cream. They started by selling ‘gori twacha’ (fair skin) and moved to using alternatives like ‘nikhaar’ (glowing skin), which hinted that confidence is a by-product of fairness creams. This was Fair &amp; Lovely’s chance to reclaim the narrative and shift the odds in their favour. So, Vani Gupta Dandia also expected to see a bolder advertisement this time, that truly empowers women. She said, “I understand it's a tough job for a brand that has for centuries advocated skin lightness must now transition to glow. But consumers want to know what is glow? Why did you change? Has fairness become dated? No one in India relates to 'black lives matter'. The brand could have taken a tall bold stance to say -- after promoting fairness for years, we'd like to continue empowering you, not with skin lightness but with natural radiance. Natural glow. Our cream now has (suggest a change in the formulation) that works to make skin healthier from inside so the best of you can shine. But this communication should have followed after a while. Not immediately. The super quick airing of this commercial suggests that the brand merely changed name and VO on the film and made a fool out of me. But consumers are smarter than that I believe. They'll see through the charade.” Fair &amp; Lovely has offered glowing skin in the past as well and its packaging style hasn’t changed either. <div type="Youtube" id="NU4FnFkQTJQ" title="Fair &amp; Lovely Advanced Multivitamin: HD Glow | New Pack" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NU4FnFkQTJQ/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Shashwat Das, Founder, Almond Branding, also said that the audience is smart enough to understand that the rebranding move was just an eye-wash. Das said, “The Glow, which is meant to sound like “a more holistic and inclusive measure of healthy skin” is only a surrogate for fairness, brightness and radiance – call it by any name. So the consumer is left perplexed in the end as to what really has changed then. Brands should never under-estimate the consumers. They are smart enough to decode that this is an eye-wash. Same old cream and narrative being sold to them under a new name. Looks like this is deliberate and part of the plan so that it doesn’t alienate the current consumer base. The earlier announcement from HUL did claim that their ads are going to evolve to feature women of different skin tones as a representative of the diverse beauty across India. Where’s that diversity? I was expecting them to walk the talk.” This was an opportunity for HUL to include darker-skinned models in the ad and win millions of hearts. It wasn’t something new that a brand in India would have experimented with. Dove India has changed its narrative from selling milky skin to offering a bar that cleanses. However, there is still a void for an inclusive beauty brand in India that celebrates diversity, skin colours, body types and body hair in its truest form and HUL, a giant that holds a lot of influence in our country, could have led that narrative. “Dark skin can also be healthy and can have the glow, right?” asks Das. He added, “That would have actually demonstrated the real change in intent that the brand wants to be more inclusive and “celebrate a diverse portrayal of beauty. They already have a global campaign for Dove - ‘Real Women Real Beauty’ that became extremely popular. The diverse skin tone angle would have made more people talking about the new branding and would have earned them some good brand value (read karma) after all the harm they have done to young minds all these years." Fair/Glow &amp; Lovely's actual buyers are mainly dispersed in the small towns of India. Karthik Srinivasan, Social Media Expert and Independent Brand Consultant, said that Glow &amp; Lovely’s target audience perhaps doesn't really care for its name, they care more about making their skin whiter or fairer. Srinivasan said, “The product, no matter what it is called, has set the notion that being fair is the ticket to success in life. The change in name was mandated by global standards of 'saying the right thing' and is hardly indicative of the product's or the parent company's stand to offer meaningful change on the ground. The addition of that laughably silly assertion - that you will now get HD glow - further hammers the fact that there is no change, beyond a name. It also leads one to question, albeit pointlessly, if the earlier named cream offered only standard definition glow! Beyond very few marketing media, I really don't think anyone really cares for either the name change or the new ad. And HUL knows this all too well - the actual consumers of the product only see the product benefit that is imprinted in their mind.” Fair &amp; Lovely has been in India for over 45 years now and has been one of the best-selling creams. According to The Drum, Fair &amp; Lovely had entered the Rs 200 crore market back in 2017 and held a 60-70% share of the skin whitening industry. So to not lose a sense of familiarity with its consumers, the packaging, colour theme and celebrity haven’t been changed. Ronita Mitra, Business Consultant - Founder, Brand Eagle Consulting, said, “The new communication is a rational communication with its primary objective being an announcement of the change in brand name. The name change through the branding on the pack as well as the TVC is being communicated very emphatically. One can see that continuity has been maintained in all other aspects, understandably so, in order to seamlessly migrate existing consumers and equity to the new brand. In the foreseeable future, the identity in the consumers' minds will, in all probability, continue to be that of the erstwhile Fair &amp; Lovely identity.” Highlighting how consumers are evolving, Mitra added, “Any re-branding and brand building exercise is of a long-term nature. It remains to be seen whether, in the long term, the identity shifts significantly from the erstwhile identity of Fair &amp; Lovely and whether a new identity and positioning are appropriated by Glow &amp; Lovely which will truly be in consonance with the evolving belief system of the modern consumer whose sense of self worth is beyond superficial aspects such as skin colour.” Chawla thinks dark-skinned women of our country deserve an apology from fairness skin brands. Suggesting how HUL can undo the damage it has done, Chawla said, “The brand has a great opportunity to break the barriers of social conditioning pertinent to skin colour, and perhaps repair the damage done over the years to the psyche of dark skinned women. They can do so many things - from issuing a simple apology, to repositioning and overhauling the brand name, colours, key messaging. Conglomerates have the potential to change social perceptions. It is time they invested in the same. And on the social media front, the ad has a lot of potential to invite sufficient trolling and criticism, but honestly, the beauty of this change needs to go beyond skin deep.” <meta content="cms.next" name="cmsei" />

Karuna Sharma

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