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Relaunching brand means thinking beyond a new design or a new name. Itmeans, "going deeper."
 
Written by: PRASHANT SUMEET
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In today’s competitive scenario when the firms are fighting for their market share, differentmarketers looks for different strategy for capturing the same, but at the same time only fewsucceeded in their goal. In this regard different marketers starts raising questions on possible business strategies and one of them is
“ relaunching of product”,
it is define as the process,when an existing brand changes or modifies the key elements of the marketing mix withoutmaterially changing its target consumer group.
Relaunch
, typically, would mean that the product, perfume and packaging have been modified or even changed substantially and thechange is communicated through media advertising and at the point of sale.Generally a relaunch is made when it is apparent to the marketer that the brand in question islosing share because its physical qualities need a change. It is also possible that, in comparison tocompetition, the brand is looking tired and old-fashioned, so that this could be a reason tostrengthen the brand communication. In addition to making changes to the product,there are many instances of brands of products being re-launched in the market. However thereare many issues involved that are unique.The key factors that marketers review in order to decide whether a brand needs a relaunch are adecline in its market share and the brand's strength (when measured through a suitable researchmethodology) showing a decline. The idea of relaunching a brand when it is still flourishing is avery good one and should be a practice of good business and marketing strategy. Unfortunately,relaunches when a brand is successful are rare. It is more common to push a growing brand upthe growth curve by a re-stage rather than a relaunch; particularly if the growth of the brand isthreatened or likely to be threatened by major competitors. Very often, an expensive relaunchfails to be successful because it was done in a hurry or the management actually did not take intoaccount market research evidence that the marketing mix was not fully satisfactory.There are not any magic formulae but are guidelines for decisions relating to re-launch of brands.A brand name would definitely be reflective of the position that the brand occupies, it could also be an extension of an existing brand. At the same time catering to different product categoriesthat could be defined as emotional, rational, and so on. Then again, it could be the re-launch of an existing brand in order to make the consumer look at the product in a different light.However, we also question whether the only motive of re-launching of a brand would be toreposition or would it imply more? The motives for different firms are seemed to be entirelydifferent; but some times the positioning of the product has not changed.
 
The questions that ariseout of the discussions so far are;
 
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He is a final year student in IIM Calcutta ( 2001-2003)
 
1.
 
Why does a company decide to revive an old brand name?2.
 
What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing the same?3.
 
If a company decides to do so, how can it make it successful?
We shall try and address these questions sequentially, in this paper with references of situationsfrom the Indian scenario. Re-launching of a brand cannot be defined in an objective manner  because of the fact that it can mean so many things at one time, in general, it can be said to beany one or a combination of some or even all of the following:
1.
 
Bringing back a brand name for the same product, a different product,2.
 
Positioning the brand in the same way as before, in a different way than that wasbefore.
Other than these, there have also been situations where a brand had been taken over by acompetitor for a period of time and then bought back by the original company. In this case,depending upon how long the brand name had been in possession of the competitor, the strategyfor re-launch would be different. There might be numerous reasons for a company to re-launch a brand. Nestle is planning to re-launch Maggi in its original taste. The new ad campaign's refrainis `
 Ab sub kuch pehle jaisa'.
Nestle's campaign has been necessitated, they claim, as in the recent past, Maggi has lost some market share to competition in noodles. Now, Maggi is a formidable brand; this has been proved time and again, even after the launch of Top Ramen. What Nestle isdoing is leveraging the brand name and all associations of the brand name to lure customers of Maggi, who left it for Top Ramen.Unlike Maggi, Binaca is a brand that existed only inyesteryears. The most remembered thing about Binaca is its conversion to Cibaca. So, why is thecompany re-launching Binaca and not Cibaca? Cibaca changed the brand name Binaca to Cibacawhen it was sold to another company.While Dabur bought Binaca, Colgate Palmolive bought Cibaca. Dabur has launched Binaca andnow we have both Binaca and Cibaca in the market. (Though Binaca was toothpaste and Cibacais currently being sold only as a toothbrush.) This example illustrates the reason for re-launch as being done for competitive reasons. In general, it can be said that a brand is re-launched toleverage on past brand equity. This is, however, a very general explanation. Each situationwarrants a different reason. We have identified some causes for brand re-launch. Most of the brand re-launches fall in one of the following categories.
 
Repositioning of the brand.
 
Changed market conditions.
 
Saving on costs of a new brand launch.
 
Entering a new market.
 
Most products follow a sort of life cycle, brands behave likewise. From the launch they growrapidly, then level off as they reach maturity; after a time, they begin a slow decline which becomes more rapid as they reach obsolescence. Profits follow the same pattern, after a suitablelag. In general, sales growth is easier in the growth stages of the market. However, these stages
 
are characterized by intensive competitive entry and profits may be hard to earn. In maturemarkets, brand positions become established and there is normally a shakeout of weaker competitors. Those that survive can earn good profits. Decline can lead to over-capacity anddownward pressure on prices and profitless competition. However, the product life cycle canonly be used as a rough guide as it is often possible to re-launch a product. A Company find the previous positioning faulty or ineffective, as a result might want to reposition the brand. Thecondition here will be, of course, the fact that the brand will not have that much of an equity to boast of. In case of a strong brand repositioning itself, the new positioning will make less sense.Chandamama, the yesteryear's children's magazine is coming out with a new look and old feel positioning strategy. The children's magazine that disappeared from newsstands in October 1998is being re-launched in a new avatar to keep step in a globalize entertainment world. Themagazine's trademark has been an illustrated color cover, folk tales from India & abroad ,quizzes, profiles and science tit-bits in a variety of languages. The new version promises acontemporary look but the same feel of the orient and the vernacular editions of the magazine. Asubtle repositioning in combination with the strength of the brand is what will make the salesmove.
 
Launching a new brand involves enormous costs. Cashing in on an old brand will save a good,if not substantial, amount of the initial costs. Marico is extending its SIL brand to soup. SIL hasalready achieved cult status through the jams sold under the same name. Thus Marico aims tokill two birds with one stone, launch a new product namely soups under the aegis of the samename SIL and to launch an improved version of jams fortified with vitamins and an new packaging. The negative side of this is that the company will have to fight established brand perceptions or will have to be restrained by it. In this example, we find that people associate thename SIL with jams. What actually works in favour of Marico is that Sil has wide recall among people. This will work in two ways; one, it will induce customers to pick the product off theshelves and try it. Secondly, it results in cost savings for the company in terms of not having totake up any "new brand" building efforts. Launching a new brand involves more cross-functionalco-ordination than any other stage in product development and accounts for more than 90 percentof the total cost of getting a product to market.Kelvinator India refrigerators has led a yo-yo type life till now. There have been frequentchanges of ownership, which also included an 18-month stint with the enemy, Whirlpool.Worldwide, the Electrolux brand owns Kelvinator. During the period 1997-98, when Electroluxwas just entering India, it did not have the capacity to hold on to the sales of Kelvinator. It had tosell it to Whirlpool to sustain sales. Whirlpool took advantage of the situation and milked the brand in that time. After the stipulated period of 18 months, Electrolux took it back. Since then,it has been contributing to a steady 65-70% of the company's revenues, a successful re-launches.Electrolux saved on a lot of costs it would have probably incurred had it launched a new brand.
 
Changed market conditions
This should not be confused with repositioning the brand. Changed market conditions imply re-launching of a brand on the same positioning plank. A brand might have failed in previous years because the market would not have been suitable for it at that point of time. The current marketsituation, having become suitable for the product, could warrant a re-launch of the brand. Thissituation is exemplified in the case of Wipro mentioned earlier. When Wipro launched the brand
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