BRAND: THE X-FACTOR
Executives at Godrej Consumer Products were struggling to find ways to make the company’s premium hair colour brand Godrej Expert Rich Creme relevant to buyers, when a sudden tweet by filmmaker Karan Johar came to their rescue. Johar had posted a picture of his grey look, with a caption on how the lockdown had made him ready for ‘father’ roles. Godrej’s hair colour team reached out to Johar and requested him to shoot a video of himself colouring his hair and post it with the #ColorLikeKaran hashtag. Godrej Consumer Products, which contributes a large part of the group’s total revenues, was grappling with Covid-19 and its impact on the balance sheet. Johar’s video got seven million views on Twitter.
Godrej Consumer Products Chief Executive Officer, India and Saarc, Sunil Kataria, did not disclose if Johar’s video increased sales of hair colour, but it managed to make DIY (do it yourself) hair colouring fashionable, and a host of similar videos popped up on social media platforms.
It was the ‘moment of truth marketing’ straight out of books that Kataria had studied decades ago. It also showed the power of digital media. “We engaged with consumers with a product like hair colour, which is of least importance to them during the lockdown. Our effort was to make hair colouring part of the consumer’s new habit by encouraging him/her to DIY (do it yourself) at home. We did all of this on social media. If a brand can become a habit, it will be the ultimate prize for marketers,” says Kataria.
The Digital Native
From binge watching originals on Netflix and Hotstar to short videos on Instagram and Facebook, and from consuming news on Twitter to taking lessons in cooking and Zumba dancing from YouTube, the lockdown has
