Thursday, April 9, 2009

Who's Worth It ???

Do you know what it takes to build great brands? Technically speaking, products can be branded using several functions which are Credibility, Attractiveness and Power

The usage of these forces are a function of nature of product. Suppose you have a food product, it needs credibilty as that is what distinguises it from competing brands. Now when it comes to cosmetics, attractiveness is the pre-requisite and as such, celebrities are best suited to be used to brand such products.

Well, most cosmetics companies have celebrities as endorsers. Taking the case of L'Oreal in India, it has had Aishwarya Rai Bachhan and Diana Hayden as its brand ambassdors, and for past few years, Aishwarya has been the only face of L'Oreal. Well, as a matter of fact, any brand requires a contemporary figure to endorse it and thereby protect it from getting enervated. As such, L'Oreal decided to rope in a fresh face for its brand, while retaining Aishwarya for some of its products. 

This new face is Sonam Kapoor. Well, no doubt she is attractive and can leverage her attractiveness to a cosmetics brand, but I don't think Sonam is the right choice for a brand like L'Oreal. L'Oreal is a brand that is truly international in its appeal. As such, it should have taken an endorsee with international appeal. I think any international beauty peagent winner would have been great, but we don't have any such figure in recent times. The  next best choice would have been Deepika Padukone, but then she has already been roped in by Maybelline and there L'Oreal looses the advantage. 

Let's see how Sonam fares for the brand. We can just speculate but times would confirm the success or failure of this move of L'Oreal. So, let us just wait and watch. 

Click here to see reviews on Sonam's selection as brand ambassador for L'Oreal. 

4 comments:

Spiritual Sherpa said...

Hmm an interesting take there. The problem with LO is in their positioning of the brand...since the audience is a niche one, they need someone who can help the brand connect with their TA..Sonam is def not the right choice. Also, no one knows her down south and as such her career is also in its infancy...they could should have waited for a few years before roping her in (after seeing how her career shapes up).

SUNIL KUMAR said...

hi.... this is sunil

i'm an infant blogger, offlate started the journey nd found so many gud things in this BLOGGING world........ i'm lucky to see ur blog nd listed myself as follower
as i'm an MBA nd passinate about marketering and learnt contemporary things in ur blog..

hope i continue the journy with lots of knowledge with people like you.....

regards

Lavika said...

@ Prayukth
I absolutely agree that L'Oreal isn't a brand for masses. It is a high-end brand, wherein the prospects want quality with exclusivity. As such, Sonam isn't a great choice.

Lavika said...

@ The Verb

Thanks.