Fevicol: Bonding with the consumer

Another brilliant bit of lateral thinking from Fevicol

N. Shatrujeet

agencyfaqs!

NEW DELHI, December 11

Predictably wacky. Yet so unpredictable in its wackiness. That's the essence of Fevicol's advertising.

Take the latest commercial for the brand. There's this man walking down a deserted street. His ear is pressed to a transistor radio that is belting out some crummy Hindi ‘dance number'. As the man sways to the tune and walks, he notices his shadow slanting across the shop shutters that line the street.

The man smiles to himself, starts dancing to the tune and proceeds on his way, all the time admiring his shadow. Enjoying himself thoroughly, he eventually reaches a shutter with a Fevicol ad painted on it. He stands in front of this shutter, does a jig, and starts walking again. However, he quickly notices something is amiss. He turns to find his shadow stuck to the shutter, convulsing grotesquely…

Point taken. Effortlessly.

The communication looks quite over-the-top, yet makes perfect sense to the viewer. "None of Fevicol's communication has been over-the-top or bizarre," clarifies an O&M spokesperson. "In fact, Fevicol's communication proves that involving communication based on understanding the consumer as a person - and not just as a professional, a housewife etc - always strikes a chord."

He also quite rightly points out that Fevicol advertising has "evolved over a period of time, each communication building on the preceding one". In the early years of Fevicol advertising, the effort was to demonstrate physical bonding. Gradually the communication moved to establishing Fevicol as a bonding simile - "Fevicol jaise chipak gaya". And what we see today is a reinforcement of the bonding message at a lateral plane. All this certainly didn't happen overnight.

For the Rs 192-crore brand (figures for 1998-99), becoming the market leader in the branded synthetic adhesives market didn't happen overnight either. And despite the best efforts, Fevicol still has a long way to go before it can come anywhere close to market domination. Only because saresh - a traditional, unbranded adhesive made from animal fat - is still the most widely used adhesive in India, constituting a whopping 70 per cent of the market!

The target consumer of Fevicol is the carpenter "who has basic education and speaks only his mother tongue". However, the spokesperson is quick to point out that Fevicol's communication has a more broad-based appeal, which has helped increase salience in a low-involvement category. "Our learnings indicate that Fevicol advertising brings a smile to the face of the individual; be the individual a carpenter, or the end-user of the furniture." True. Even the non-target viewer has come to associate Fevicol with bonding. The good thing is O&M has consciously eschewed talking to the carpenter as a professional. For that would have alienated the non-target. And could have proved restricting in the long-term.

The creative strategy that O&M has been pursuing is to build brand associations with bonding - "to make bonding a metaphor and invoke diverse associations and meanings in the consumer's mind." The objective is to appropriate bonding as a Fevicol attribute. So the egg that just won't crack because the hen that laid the egg fed from a Fevicol tub. So the shadow that sticks to a shutter…

Interestingly, the ‘shadow' commercial is "an inspired piece of work", as Piyush Pandey puts it. Its author - Amit Karia. Amit, an editor for the last 11 years, apparently came up with the idea, shot it on a video camera and brought it to Piyush, who thought it was brilliant. The film was never shot again - it was just upgraded to betacam, presented to the client, who agreed it was "a masterpiece" and decided to run it.

"We hope that this ad gives him the kick-start that he needs in the world of ad film makers," Piyush is effusive.

The Team:

Creative : Amit Karia

Filmmaker : Amit Karia

Model : Tapan Bhatt

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