Brand Curry to cook for Fena

Fena Limited, a company in the fabric and home care segment, has brought Brand Curry on board as its creative agency for four of its flagship brands - Fena, Nip, Para and Impact. The account size is estimated to be in the region of Rs 8-10 crore. Earlier, Percept/H was handling the business.

Subrata Chakraborty, managing director, Brand Curry, says, "The agency has won the business following a multi-agency pitch. A contract for two years has been signed."

Fena is a detergent brand available in both powder and cake varieties; Nip is a dishwashing liquid and cake brand; Para is a low-priced detergent powder and Impact is a detergent meant for machine and bucket wash in the semi-premium segment.

The competition for Fena is Ghadi and Wheel Active. In Haryana, Ghadi has about 7.4 per cent of the market, as compared to Wheel, which has 1.6 per cent. In Delhi, Ghadi is close behind Fena, with 16 per cent share; Wheel is far behind with 0.3 per cent.

In Punjab, Ghadi holds 4.9 per cent, and Wheel has 1.5 per cent share of the detergent powder category. In Assam, although Ghadi has no presence, Wheel has about 1 per cent market share.

In the detergent cake market, which stands at about Rs 28.3 crore, the strongest markets for Fena are Delhi (37 per cent), Haryana (28 per cent) and Punjab (17 per cent).

In Delhi, Ghadi has about 18-19 per cent of the market; Wheel Active has about 0.5 per cent. In Punjab, Wheel has about 2.5 per cent, and Ghadi has about 1.1 per cent. In Haryana, Ghadi holds about 8.3 per cent of the market; while Wheel holds 2.1 per cent.

In terms of trends in the detergent category, there has been a considerable conversion from detergent cake to detergent powder.

The detergent powder category has been divided into a few sub-categories according to the price points. Ariel and Surf Excel fall in the super premium segment, with Henko slightly lower and part of the premium segment. The mid segment comprises of players such as Tide. The economy sub-category has players such as Fena, Ghadi, Wheel Active and Nirma. There is also a huge market which is unorganised and local.

The detergent cake category, too, has a similar differentiation in terms of prices. Rin Advanced is in the super-premium/premium category. The players in the economy range are Fena, Nirma, Ghadi and Wheel Active.

In many regions in India, detergent powders have multiple uses, and are used beyond the intended and obvious purpose of washing clothes. Powders are also used to wash utensils and clean floors. In these cases, consumers do turn to low-priced products.

In terms of the dishwashing category, which includes powder, soap and liquid detergents, Vim has an overall share of 58 per cent, considerably higher than Nip, which holds a share of 9-10 per cent.

Fena has taken up limited marketing for Impact, its machine and bucket wash powder brand.

Considering the kind of advertising taken up by competitive brands, Fena has also taken up mass media advertising through television and print media. It plans to retain the multimedia mix in the near future.

"When it comes to the comparison of India vs Bharat, Bharat has a stronger hold. That in itself, I believe, poses a bigger challenge of connecting with the consumer for brands such as Fena, which is looking to find a way between the two worlds. We offered a framework of consumer connect for brands operating in this space. That I guess worked in our favour," says Chakraborty.

Amit Gupta, head, marketing, Fena is of the view that the agency was able to make very effective use of insights gained out of extensive research, and created communication with a very strong connect to the consumer.

The media duties will be shared between Brand Curry and Alliance Advertising, the incumbent media agency of Fena Limited.