Park Avenue I.Q: New Name In The World Of Deodorants
Park Avenue now PARK AVENUE, one of the biggest brands in the world of Apparels, Cosmetics & Toiletries is one of the ventures of the J.K. Helene Curtis Limited. Till date it has been generally successful with all the products and ranges offered. All this is the contribution of its strong brand equity & a strong PR it has built over a period of time about its products and has been leveraging that time and again. But the recently launched I.Q. in the Deodorant segment is not that successful, all this is the contribution of neglect of the product by J.K. Empire.
PARK AVENUE has a wide distinction in the deodorants segment in the ‘FRESHNESS DEODORANT’ section. It offers-
- Storm (Tagline: energetic, suave, cool, the star’s fragrance)
- Horizon (Tagline: airy, oceanic, profound, the traveler’s fragrance)
- Alpha (Tagline: precise, strong, ahead, the director’s fragrance)
- Cool Blue (Tagline: calm, smooth, breezy, the temperate fragrance)
- Tranquil (Tagline: serene, august, relaxed, the sailor’s fragrance)
- Cruise (Tagline: fresh, wavy, soothing, the explorer’s fragrance)
- Good Morning (Tagline: rejuvenating, prim, composed, the enigmatic fragrance)
- 8. I.Q. (Tagline: vibrant, winsome, fast, the torchbearer’s fragrance)
Marketing Mix
- Product: Hail to Freshness Deodorant section of PARK AVENUE (PA) range. Although new but has the potential to get to the top of mind and heart of the consumers.
- Price: 172.00 INR for 93ml/100g bottle
- Place: Available at all ‘The Raymond Shop’ across India. Except I.Q. all other deodorants of PARK AVENUE brand could be purchased from established retailers viz. BIG BAZAAR (PANTALOONS RETAIL INDIA LIMITED).
- Promotion: Till date no promotion has been done from the side of manufacturer (J.K. Helene Curtis Limited) for its new product. This time no PR activity has been done while launching the product (I.Q.) which is resulting into this product losing out to others.
Competitive Analysis
The product I.Q. is not competing with the products of other companies but also from the products of PARK AVENUE also. This could be very easily justified by going through the entire range of deodorants offered by PARK AVENUE as well as other companies. Besides this the other major competitors include:
- Fuel (Elder Pharma; price point 150.00 INR for 93ml/100g)
- 2. Axe (HUL; price point 135.00 INR for 96ml/150g)
- Adiction (Mankind)
- Set Wet Zatak (Paras Pharma)
However among all these brands AXE has a dominating share in the market because of the brand equity and brand loyalty that it has built and is leveraging the same. AXE has a wide acceptance among the youth which forms the major chunk of perfume & deodorant users while majorly users of the PARK AVENUE range are from the age group of 28-40. Vis-à-vis all these the AXE deodorant never forget to promote any of its new product. AXE time and again, on launch of the new product goes for PR as well as wide advertising campaign.
Other problem with PARK AVENUE range includes the image it has built over a period of time attracts only affluent and thus others remain unaware that the PARK AVENUE deodorants are within their reach and could be of their taste depending on the fragrance of their choice.
Lack of promotion could be easy held responsible for unawareness of the target audience about the brand and the product (PARK AVENUE I.Q.). Even there are no point-of-purchase displays, no testers are available to lure the target audience so that they could try and convert the experience into a sale. Already the promoters have made a mistake by not carrying out any PR activity & advertisement campaign but now by not going for other promotional tactics they are rushing for double fault and leady the product towards an end.
Even at established and renowned retailers (BIG BAZAAR), the retailers are seen promoting their own private labels (DJ&C) and other companies’ products for greater margins. So if the organization itself is not going to promote its products through PR/advertising campaign its product would have to bear its consequences.
What Next
Lack of awareness about I.Q. among the masses needs immediate attention by the promoter (J.K. Helene Curtis Limited). They need to promote the product using the core value they are offering in terms of these products so that the target audience could easily relate that to their respective needs & wants. The brand thus needs to extend its target population and create a different positioning in their minds so that it could leverage out their attachment and association with the brand.
For achieving its objective thus there is the immediate need of the aggressive advertising campaign to make a mark in the mind and heart of the target audience. PR in its new form popularly known as PR 2.0 (the use of social media) i.e. facebook, google+, etc. could be used for its promotion as it is widely used by other competitors viz. AXE, Sure, etc.
Conclusion
PARK AVENUE-I.Q. has the potential to lure more target customers than others but for achieving this objective it just needs support in form of strong market recognisation which can be built only through strong brand and product promotion. With the chances of entry of new competitors in the industry the brand has to be prepared for the safety which could be possible only when the product is given due importance otherwise it could become a victim of bad management resulting in total vanishing from the market.
Enhance distribution channels, increase advertisements, try to leverage its fragrance which is different from the earlier series of ‘Freshness deodorant’. All this could contribute to the increase in visibility and demand of PARK AVENUE-I.Q.
This article has been authored by Prafulla Tekriwal from MNNIT.
