Pidilite

Sticky Point

Fri, 4 Mar 2011

The new campaign by Ogilvy & Mather India for Fevicol adhesive shows a truck driver with his bride. They seem to be enjoying the drive till a cyclist starts trailing them. They try and shake him off, but fail. The reason becomes clear much later: The back of the truck is stacked with Fevicol canisters

With around 16 years experience in the advertising industry, Santosh Padhi, chief creative officer and co-founder of Taproot India, has worked on campaigns for brands such as McDonald’s, Tide, The Times of India, Bajaj Auto, ICICI Bank and Perfetti Van Melle.

Campaign

What did you think of the campaign?

True to expectation, the casting, the music and the production values are very good. To be honest, it has been consistent in all their past films as well. There’s always been a fine flavour of the heartland in all Fevicol films, as is the case with this one.

Benchmarking: This ad may not be in the same league as earlier ones.

What are the qualities of iconic advertisements?

You’ve got to keep bettering your past work. Isn’t it true for all iconic brands? Once you’ve cracked it, the world expects more and more out of you. Be it Altoids, Stella, Adidas and many more. Be it Tendulkar, O&M or Fevicol, the expectations will always be sky high. Like it or not, you have got to keep pushing your limits to meet those expectations for the sake of your audience, your market.

What did you think of the new Fevicol commercial?

It is a great commercial compared with most of the work on TV. But again, this brand is no more in the same space as other brands when it comes to quality advertising. Because it is in a league of its own, having produced inspiring work year after year, I would compare it with their past work.

Over the years, this brand has delivered some very simple and entertaining work, which has not only won the common man’s heart, but is also a common benchmark in the marketing world. From that point of view, I’m not sure if this particular spot falls in the same league. It remains to be seen if this will be long remembered in both the consumer’s mind as well as ours. I have my doubts.

What is your favourite Fevicol advertisement?

One thing they’ve got right from Day 1 is sticking to the sticking territory. Everything around a singular, simple message: It sticks! Some of the ideas were really outstanding and are stuck in my mind. To name a few, the “village bus” and the Virendra Saxena/Katrina Kaif dream TV commercial. I loved the bus one because it’s a simple demo film with great cinematography and great music and also because it looks so real. On the other hand, I drool on the dream one simply because of the sheer storytelling.

O&M creates stickiness for Fevicol again

Mon, 28 Feb 2011

Fevicol is back with its new campaign, which retains the norm of simplicity accompanied with cuteness and humour of the earlier ads.

The Brief:

Fevicol ads have always been worth remembering in a cute way. Right from Bollywood ‘bad man’ Bob Christo wrestling with a chair made of Fevicol, to a politician who is glued to his chair, to the hen that laid unbreakable eggs, to the overflowing bus, and the joint family that refuses to fall apart. The new campaign continues along the same lines.

The Execution:

The campaign has been conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather, as in the case of the previous campaigns for Fevicol. Anil Jayaraj, Chief Marketing Officer, Pidilite Industries, explained, “Fevicol, which is synonymous with adhesives, has always had very memorable and entertaining communication. Be it a politician glued to his chair, the hen that laid unbreakable eggs, to the overflowing bus, or the ‘Moochwali’ advertisement – all the commercials have been loved and appreciated by consumers. They often wait for the next Fevicol commercial with great expectations, and with this new ad, we are taking this legacy forward. This one is again a clutter breaking and very enjoyable commercial that will bring a smile to viewers’ face. The background score is catchy and the film will make people connect with the brand. O&M has come out trumps again and has delivered yet another entertaining commercial.”

The Final Product:

The film opens on hilly road with a newly-wed couple travelling in the jeep, when a cyclist following the jeep starts ringing the cycle bell. This irritates the husband, who tries his best to shake off the cyclist. But to no avail, as the cyclist doggedly follows the jeep, ringing the bell. The ad ends with the shot of the back of the jeep loaded with cans of Fevicol, thus revealing the reason how the cyclist could keep up with following the jeep.

Xpert Comment:

Rahul Jauhari, who is taking over as NCD of Everest Brand Solutions next month, put forth his views on the campaign and said, “I quite liked it. Infact, enjoyed watching it a lot. One little moment between the recently married couple. The story is so simple. And the storytelling so apt. Thumbs up to the Fevicol team.”

Our Take:

The campaign looks appealing just like earlier Fevicol campaigns. It is lighthearted and fun to watch and doesn’t deviate from the brand salience.

Client: Pidilite

Brand: Fevicol

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather

Medium: Television

Creative: Piyush Pandey, Abhijit Avasthi

Director: Prasoon Pandey (Corcoise Films)

Servicing: Vivek Verma, Ramanathan Sridhar

Films: Porus Khareghat

Music Composer: Ehsaan Noorani

Singer: Divya Kumar

Lyrics: Piyush Pandey

Glued to Success

Tue, 26 Oct 2010

Madhukar Parekh , managing director of Pidilite Industries, the company known for its top-of-the-line adhesive brands such as Fevicol and M-seal, is 'simplicity' personified. Mr Parekh has worked for close to four decades in various departments of the company, right from the shop floor to meeting clients for testing and approvals. Mr Parekh spoke to ET Intelligence Group on a range of issues, including building a formidable adhesive brand in 'Fevicol' and changing the face of the company run by a family to a 'family of professionals.' Excerpts:

Pidilite Industries has been around for more than 50 years. How has the company evolved over the years to a stage where it has a strong hold on the adhesives segment?

My father BK Parekh distributed specialty chemicals manufactured by a German company. This gave him few years of exposure in terms of products and industry. The German company, however, soon decided to go alone and my father had to think what next.

So, he, along with a couple of colleagues, decided to set up Pidilite. They virtually worked on the shop floor. The critical thing they did was a departure from what was prevailing then. The key was to do something different and add value. Not to go for something easy, but for things that were difficult. He, therefore, decided to get into adhesives and dyeing products.

Your firm now offers a wide range of products in various segments. What did the company start off with?

When we started out, we knew we would need a lot of application of mind and strategy. In course of time, we conceptualized two products. One was Fevicol. At that time, white glue was not used. Our second product was pigment dispersion used for printing on textiles. As these products came by, we realised that manufacturing was not an obstacle for us. However, marketing was a challenge. We knew customers were not exposed to it and changing habits also was very difficult. So, there were two challenges - technological and marketing.

Thanks to the spirit of innovation, we progressed in five to seven years. White glue for us was a small product for years. Sales volumes from it were tiny. We, however, persisted doggedly for 10 years and it has a lot to do with our vision. In the initial years, pigment dispersion did do good business, considering those were the hey days for the textile industry. This laid the foundation for the company. As everything was developed in-house, we sort of realised we had struck the right note.

How did the brand names 'Pidilite' and 'Fevicol' come about?

The company was initially called Parekh Dichem and was not a limited concern. The dyeing business was very important, considering that textile business was booming. Hence, 'Pidi' in Pidilite came from Parekh Dichem. Fevicol, I think, came from Federal Dyes. 'Col' in German is used generally for adhesives. Hence, it became Fevicol.

When did you decide to brand these adhesives?

Around 1970-71, the decision to brand the adhesive products was taken. Ranjan Kapur of Ogilvy & Mather started working on our account. The agency started thinking about the brand graphics and they came up with the elephant logo. They felt that it needed to be friendlier, and that just letter and words would not be sufficient. We wanted a brand that would have a vibrant and accessible element in it. Being a brand for carpenters, we wanted to avoid anything sophisticated. This worked very well, almost for 10 to 15 years.

The company's heritage was from industrial and not a traditional consumer or branded stuff. Then in 1988, Piyush Pandey got our account. He had made the Dum laga ke haisha advertisement for our small product, Fevitight. After seeing the advertisement, we realised it was too big for a product like Fevitight. Hence, Fevicol was naturally used in the advertisements for its sturdiness among the adhesives in our portfolio. The advertisements and our efforts paid off well. There was one funny incident that happened during that time. One of the employees of our rival company, who later joined us, narrated this.

He was renovating his home. The carpenter brought Fevicol and the employee asked him about his company's product - globally a dominant adhesive. To this the carpenter replied: "If you want that product I can bring it for you, but I won't guarantee you whether it would last longer." This was the perception we had created in the market. Our relationship with Ogilvy & Mather has grown to such a level that we don't even interact much or give them a briefing. Yet, how memorable and excellent advertisements are created. They have sort of struck an ownership with our company's brands.

What were the strategies you adopted to attract customers?

We have maintained a norm of sending furniture design and books to carpenters every quarter. The idea is to add value to the carpenters' jobs. We knew this was a good way of connecting to carpenters, as they would have a wide variety of designs. This is one strategy the company adopted of identifying with the customer and providing wings to his creative imagination, thereby selling our products. For the carpenter community, we have formed the 'Fevicol Champion Club'.

This is an exercise to bring them together, and, more importantly, to add value to their life. We bring these carpenters to our office and demonstrate each product. We invite them by rotation. Club members from all over the country come here and are received at the railway station like people from the bridegroom's side. We also organise kite festivals for them. All these are a token of appreciation from our side towards this community, which has helped us grow.

Secondly, we developed in-house technical strengths. There was backward integration, which meant that a lot more adhesives starting coming in footwear, packaging and cigarette-making. So, our adhesive products penetrated from industries to consumer. This happened also in case of our second product - pigment dispersion. A lot of this growth can be attributed to our research and development efforts. Our research and development wing has always performed at its best to come up with newer and better things.

When you joined the company in the 70s, did you think of striking out differently instead of focusing just on a niche segment?

When I started out, I never thought going for businesses that were booming that time. We knew a niche segment was going to be our focus. And, we were confident that we could become a leader in the niche segment. Also, when you are in a niche segment, there is no competition to bother you. Hence, the only reason to grow is genuine interest in bringing in products that would add value to customers. We are happy with that. We didn't have a desire to do anything different. We started from two products to almost a thousand today. We did this because we felt that there is enough opportunity in the adhesive and dyeing segments.

You acquired Cyclo and Sargent Art whose products are used in the auto industry and the art industry. What spurred you to go in for those acquisitions? And are there plans to diversify further?

In India, we have acquired companies such as M-seal, Steel Grip and Ranipal. On the overseas front, we have acquired three construction companies in Brazil, Singapore and Bangkok. All of them had technology that we needed. These acquisitions also helped us establish a presence in these countries. We are present in a fair number of countries now and have manufacturing units in Bangladesh and Egypt.

We won't deviate from our core strength which is speciality chemicals. Before acquiring Cyclo, we had an automobile product called Motomax. We wanted to increase our presence in the auto-care industry. Cyclo had the technology that we needed. It also gave us a presence in the US market. In our art product category, besides Hobby Idea, we acquired Sargent Art. This will increase our presence in the US and European countries. Having said that, our focus is still on our core business.

At this moment, we want to grow in our core areas of business - adhesives and dyeing. There are enough opportunities in Africa, Brazil and the Middle-East. We are specifically interested in emerging economies. We are not interested in projects that are resource intensive. There is a capital-intensive project in the pipeline in the form of a poly-chlorophyll rubber plant. The project entailed an investment of about `550 crore. The funds came from internal accruals. The product from this project would be used in adhesive, automotive and conveyor belts in the mining industry.

Pidilite now has a new set of professionals. Is it a conscious decision to change the structure on the operational front?

Yes. We had a long discussion on this. We came to the conclusion that the role of professionals from the family should be at the strategic and directional side and on the operational side we would have set of professionals. Considering the size and complex nature of the business we are in, this was indispensable. All these years, we didn't have much of a talent pipeline and we were looking for professionals. Hence, a conscious decision was taken to change the structure on the operational side having division heads and CEOs.

These recruitments would be done in such a way that the core values and the functioning of the company are not compromised. We are very careful about hiring people. We look for our own values in prospective candidates. We ask for feedback on our company. Those candidates who look for flamboyance in our way of functioning don't conform to our work ethics and hence are not considered at all. These are not long-term employees for us.