Hakuhodo Percept wins Fem

Hakuhodo Percept's new branch in Mumbai will start operations with the advertising account of personal care brand Fem. The agency won the Fem business outperforming six other agencies including Fortune Communications, Triton Communications, Madison Creative, Quadrant, Headstart and Flagship, the defending agency. The account is estimated at Rs 2 crore to Rs 3 crore and includes Fem fairness bleach cream, Fem liquid soap and a slew of new products slated for launch in the next two months.

Hakuhodo Percept will handle the creative part of the business only. It seems the company is in the process of finalising the AOR (agency of record) on the business. The agencies vying for the Rs 2-crore AOR account include Maximize, Carat, Millennium Media and Media Vision. "We are yet to take a call on this," says Manoj Sadhwani Senor, marketing manager, Fem.

What really swung the decision in Hakuhodo's favour was the "creative output and strategic insights of consumer behaviour of the agency," says Debashis Bose, COO, Hakuhodo Percept. The agency's task now is to "increase the market presence of the existing Fem products, and decide on the branding strategy of the new ones".

For Fem fairness bleach cream, the agency will retain the popular tag line 'Gori Gori'. The 'Gori Gori' jingle was originally conceived by a freelance copywriter and the TVC was produced under the aegis of Flagship. "Gori Gori has almost become generic to Fem fairness bleach cream. It has caught the imagination of Indian women because fairness is most desirable among women. So we plan to retain that brand property," explains Bose.

The company believes increasing the market presence of Fem is not going to be difficult as Fem already enjoys tremendous brand equity. Second, the agency is confident that the enhancements it will bring to the Fem brand will make the entry-level barriers for competition so high that the possibility of new competition will diminish. But it would be interesting to see how Hakuhodo Percept charts out the creative strategy, given the fact that fairness cream advertising has evolved in a big way - in the process cutting out the issue of male appreciation, on which it used to be planked only about a few years ago.

One of the big changes that Hakuhodo plans to bring to the product is in its packaging. The product will be given a modern look. The prime focus of the brand communication will be on the electronic media. Supplementing the on-air communication will be promotions and ground-levels activities. The agency plans to organise special communication programmes targeting beauty parlours to promote institutional sales.

With regard to Fem liquid soap, the challenge before the agency is to increase usage opportunity by supplanting bar soaps with liquid soaps in homes and in offices. "Fem liquid soap comes in six variants. Coconut oil is an important ingredient in the soap. What makes it different from the other brands is the fact that even after a wash the hands remain soft because of the oil," says Bose.

"The products in the pipeline will espouse the Fem brand values, to make women look more attractive," adds Bose. © 2002 agencyfaqs!