In marketing language an ad is a non personal form of communication. In simple terms an ad is just a virtual salesman with some limitation. Recently Indian media space has seen some hard action. Yes I am talking about Rin advertisement from HUL stable. The new Rin commerical directly depcits a competitor product (Tide) in bad light. Earlier we use to see Cola Wars(coke v/s pepsi) but direct depiction was limited.
Now, the two products in question come from two of the biggest FMCG giants- Proctor & Gamble(P&G) and Hindustan Unilever (HUL) . These brands have a lot on stake and they gaurd their brand fiercely.
New Rin ad seems to be well calculated and deliberate move by HUL and it is working for them.HUL would have probably taken a bold move like this,
Rin’s market share at 4.8 per cent was almost half in size to that of Tide, which stood at 8.8 per cent. Many of the regional players are also challenging the Rin. Under such competitive situation a lot of money has to be pumped into market to guard the market share of Rin if ordinary type of ad is done. But HUL did a rare act of creating a controlled disaster and using the disaster to get attention and sales.
By this controversial Rin ad, HUL is getting free publicity in almost all media channels and it has become buzz among ladies especially house wives. Under such a short time Rin has achieved awareness and its sales are also on roll. No doubt HUL will have to make few trips to court but laws can be bent. Or if laws cant be bent then also the money it pays will be smaller than what it got from the campaign. So a clever move by HUL
