Fevicol The Ultimate Bond - 20 years and still going strong WARC2 PDF

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02/11/2019

Fevicol: The Ultimate Bond - 20 years and still going strong | WARC

Fevicol: The Ultimate Bond - 20 years and still going strong 10 min read

Nirav Parekh

The WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Entrant, 2013 SUMMARY

This case study describes the history of a 20 year campaign (1992-2012) by Fevicol, a glue brand, to justify its premium price and become India's leading adhesive. In 1992 Fevicol was struggling to defend a small market share against unbranded, cheaper and lower quality rivals. To compete, Fevicol created ads with the tagline 'The Unbreakable Bond' that showed the brand not just sticking together wood, but binding everyday scenes from Indian life, such as passengers hanging onto the side of a crowded bus. Fevicol's ads were so popular its reputation entered into common language - 'stuck with Fevicol'. By 2003 Fevicol had gained a market share of 75%, and enjoyed 9% growth every year from 2003 to 2012.

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Fevicol: The Ultimate Bond - 20 years and still going strong | WARC

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Campaign Video: Fevicol - The Ultimate Bond - 20 years and still going strong

Nirav Parekh Campaign details Brand owner: Pidilite Industries Agency: Ogilvy & Mather Brand: Fevicol Country: India Channels used: Branded content, Cinema, Magazines – business, trade, Magazines – consumer, Newspapers, Other and ambient media, Outdoor, out-ofhome, Packaging and design, Point-of-purchase, in-store media, Public relations, Radio, Sponsorship – event or property, Sponsorship – media, Television Media budget: Over 20 million Executive summary

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Fevicol: The Ultimate Bond - 20 years and still going strong | WARC

This is the story of how, over 20 years, Fevicol, a brand of glue used for making wooden furniture, became part of the vocabulary of over a billion people and, along the way, also went on to become the undisputed market leader, despite being twice as expensive as other glues in the market. For over a decade (since 2002 to be precise), Fevicol has held on to a 75% share of the Indian adhesive market, in spite of operating in a price-sensitive, commoditised category. So how did it do it? It went beyond obvious utility, and invaded culture. It transformed from a mere glue that sticks wood to something much bigger and stickier – something that joins people and hearts as well; creating unbreakable bonds. So now when people want to describe something that is tightly stuck together and cannot be broken, they use a simple shorthand that everyone in India instantly understands (and in all languages – 22 of them according to the last census in 2011): 'Stuck with Fevicol'. Market background and business objectives In India today, Fevicol is an iconic brand – loved, respected and celebrated for its advertising, which communicates 'bonding' through a humorous take on Indian culture. But it was not always this great. Let us take you back 20 years, when Fevicol was struggling to make its mark in the adhesives category. It was 1992, and Fevicol, a glue for joining wood and making furniture, had been on the market for 33 years already after being launched as the first synthetic white adhesive in 1959. At that time, it was consigned to the status of a small regional player that depended on product quality and the ensuing word of mouth. https://www.warc.com/content/article/warc-prize-asia/fevicol_the_ultimate_bond_20_years_and_still_going_strong/100042

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However, this approach hadn't been working. Even after being around for such a long time, Fevicol was struggling to grab a larger share of the market. This was evident from the fact that Fevicol's growth rate was way lower than the category growth rate up until 1992. While the market grew at 12%, Fevicol grew at a just 8% (source: Pidilite Industries data, 1992). Dominant factors in the market at that time were: Low-cost, unbranded products made mainly from animal fat Disorganised local and regional players Low-involvement category from the end-user's perspective. In comparison, Fevicol was: A branded synthetic adhesive Of a much better and consistent quality Available in a packaged form Selling at about double the price of the unbranded products. Clearly, Fevicol was way superior to its competition. However, its price had proved to be a great hurdle that it wasn't able to cross. Lack of end-user involvement made matters worse. While these were the ones who could authorise the additional expense when negotiating with the carpenters and contractors, they were both unaware of and indifferent to the options available with the choice of adhesives. Obviously, the carpenters (who were the actual users of the product) were keen on keeping their overheads low, so to them cheaper was better. The business task https://www.warc.com/content/article/warc-prize-asia/fevicol_the_ultimate_bond_20_years_and_still_going_strong/100042

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Grow faster than category despite the price premium barrier. The marketing task Induce upgrade from cheap unbranded or local adhesives to Fevicol. The communication task Position Fevicol as a superior adhesive to justify price. Insight and strategic thinking The challenge was quite peculiar: Carpenters and contractors who might use the product would have loved to adopt it, but didn't want to pay for it End-users, who would have been willing to pay for it, were neither interested nor involved in the decision-making and purchasing process. We knew it was easier to convert carpenters and contractors by somehow convincing the end-users to accept our product. But the approach involved a lot of hurdles: Tackling the price premium wouldn't be easy. The closed economy of post-independence India had created huge class divides, and talking about price premium would confine us to the niche end of the market – definitely not the way to go for growing faster than category. Talking about product superiority would be tough, too. Trying to make uninterested consumers understand why and how Fevicol was superior wouldn't have led us anywhere. So how then should we sell a superior product that came at a price premium, without talking about either product or price? https://www.warc.com/content/article/warc-prize-asia/fevicol_the_ultimate_bond_20_years_and_still_going_strong/100042

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The answer was unearthed by turning this constraint into an advantage. 'If only our (end) consumers knew better…' we had been thinking. We then realised that the fact that they weren't informed or involved also meant that this category offered a clean slate in terms of mind space. If we could somehow create relevance for this category, Fevicol would own that space without contest. Fevicol could be not an adhesive, but the adhesive! This shifted the focus from selling the product to selling the category. To sell the category, we decided to sell a benefit story to them. In fact, over the entire campaign we had never spoken about what makes Fevicol's bonding superior to other adhesives. From the consumer's perspective, the test of quality of the adhesive was its strength of bonding. And ironically, we measure the strength of a bond by pushing it to its limits, and finding where it breaks. This led us to a strong consumer insight that we could tap: 'I think any bond can be broken with the application of the right amount of force'. This insight provided a great opportunity for Fevicol. To establish the strength of bonding, we called Fevicol 'the ultimate adhesive', whose bond was so strong that it couldn't be broken at all. This led to our big idea: 'Unbreakable Bond'. While the creative expressions of this idea have changed over the last 20 years, the big idea has remained the same throughout the campaign. Perhaps the only barrier was that Fevicol would always be shown as an inclusive brand, and hence we shouldn't show Fevicol in a premium/elite context. Implementation, including creative and media development https://www.warc.com/content/article/warc-prize-asia/fevicol_the_ultimate_bond_20_years_and_still_going_strong/100042

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Since TV was used as the primary medium in the campaigns, TVCs were used as indicators of change in the manifestation of the big idea over time. Launch – Haisha TVC (1992) The launch campaign expressed the idea as 'Fevicol ka majboot jod' ('The strong bond of Fevicol'), and the creative execution showed a luckless elephant and a group of visibly strong people engaged in a futile tug-of-war to break apart a Fevicol-bonded piece of wood. Phase 1 (1992-1999): Fragility We knew we couldn't show Fevicol solely sticking wood for long. Hence, we gradually expanded to demonstrate its strength of bonding across all torture tests for fragile items. Executions showed: A power-hungry politician stuck to his chair because of Fevicol A string of pots on a girl's head are unbreakable because of Fevicol A hen eats food from a can of Fevicol and lays unbreakable eggs A girl hanging over a cliff is left forever clutching onto a boy's hand and not falling off. Phase 2 (2000-2005): Metaphorical bonding During this phase, many more players entered the category and peddled their own synthetic adhesive. To fight this threat, Fevicol decided to take a higher ground for its bonding strength. Campaigns metaphorically demonstrated unbreakable bonds. Executions showed:

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A man's shadow gets stuck to a Fevicol logo Nobody falls of an overloaded bus going over rough terrain A man's fake suicide attempt fails because of a badly manufactured chair, and it is suggested that his willpower and the chair were not made from Fevicol A group of buffaloes stop giving milk on seeing Fevicol packs A mother keeps her baby from walking away, by making her sit on a Fevicol can Phase 3 (2006- 2012): Bonding beyond physical contact By now, the competition had shifted to incentivising distribution channels and trying to swing decisions at the retail level. To retain its market share, and ensure that consumers did not switch, Fevicol took bonding to a much higher level – beyond physical contact. Executions explored a variety of bonds: Fevicol's bonding comes to Earth's rescue when aliens try to suck away its gravitational force Fevicol sings an ode to the great Indian 'joint family' Fevicol's bond transcends death and is reincarnated A cyclist continues to follow a pickup truck stocking Fevicol packs, despite the efforts of the driver to escape it. Intermittent product-focused communication

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In 2010 and 2012, Fevicol launched communication for its variants and talked strictly about product benefits, consciously staying away from exploring any new dimensions of bonding. Print executions

Outdoor executions

Innovations to own 'bonding' https://www.warc.com/content/article/warc-prize-asia/fevicol_the_ultimate_bond_20_years_and_still_going_strong/100042

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Fevicol also used 'new media' opportunities to seed 'unbreakable bonding' deeper into the culture. For example: In 2003, during the Cricket World Cup, photos of the 'huddle' of the Indian team carried the caption: 'Seems this bond is unbreakable, just like a Fevicol bond' In 2012, Fevicol got placed within a movie song with the lyrics: 'My love, stick my photo to your heart with Fevicol' In 2013, Fevicol had participants of a marathon jogging on the spot because they were 'stuck' to the ground because of their Fevicol T-shirts In 2013, in a Mumbai mall, Fevicol opened a 'free store' one weekend. Shoppers could take away any item for free – the trick being that the items were stuck to the shelves using Fevicol. Performance against objectives Impact on business 1. Fevicol has grown faster than category consistently for 20 years!1 The campaign had an immediate impact on the growth rate of Fevicol. From 1992 to 1996, Fevicol's growth was a phenomenal 55%2 , compared to category growth of 10%. The growth came primarily from replacing the lowcost, animal fat-based products. From 1998 to 2003, many local and regional players entered the synthetic white adhesives market, offering their products at a lower price than Fevicol's. But Fevicol continued to own the high ground of superior bonding and grew at 16%, while the market grew at 8%.

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By 2003, Fevicol had practically become the category itself and had come to command a market share of 75%. Post 2003, it was Fevicol's growth that led to the adhesive market's growth. From 2003 to 2012, the brand continued to grow at a healthy rate of 9% per year. 2. Fevicol has held a market share of 75%3 consistently for 10 years, despite selling at a 25% to 30% price premium! From 1998 onwards, the adhesives market has seen the entry of many local and regional players. To gain ground, they offered products at a much lower price than Fevicol and also gave higher margins to dealers. In comparison, Fevicol sold at a price premium of 25% to 30%, and also offered a lower margin to dealers. Despite this, Fevicol came to own 75% of the market by 2003 and has maintained it until today. 3. Communication for a Fevicol variant created a new sub-category altogether! One of the variants we had advertised was Fevicol Marine; to be used for wood that comes into constant contact with water. While Fevicol Marine was present in the market from 2001, its sales saw a huge increase after we launched the separate communication.

https://www.warc.com/content/article/warc-prize-asia/fevicol_the_ultimate_bond_20_years_and_still_going_strong/100042

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Fevicol: The Ultimate Bond - 20 years and still going strong | WARC

(Source: Internal sales data; sales volume indexed to 100 for Jan 2010 for both brands; the grey area shows the campaign period) Not just that, the communication led to the birth of a new sub-category altogether, with dealers recommending Fevicol Marine for sale with marine plywood, and competition having to launch Marine variants for their brands, too. Meanwhile, the mother brand continued to grow unaffected. Impact on company 1. Great revenues and profits, and a debt-free company4 Thanks to Fevicol's consistent growth, Pidilite today has grown to more than four times its original size just 10 years ago; with market capitalisation of about US$2.1bn, revenues clocking up more than US$560m a year, and the adhesives and sealants segment contributing 51% to these revenues. Moreover, Fevicol's healthy price premium has also helped Pidilite's profits grow at more than 18% CAGR for the last 10 years.

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2. Consistent growth as a company, with share prices beating the benchmark index over the years5 Over the last 12 years, Pidilite's stock has grown faster than the CNX Midcap index (the benchmark index for medium-sized companies on the stock exchange), and also the overall benchmark index of the stock exchange (the Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex), where it is listed.

Impact on brand popularity and imagery 1. More than 1,000 user uploads of Fevicol ads on YouTube 6 This was a big achievement for an industrial brand that isn't used by end consumers. It included ads put on air by Pidilite years before YouTube was even founded, suggesting that consumers had collected Fevicol ads themselves, which later made their way onto the website. 2. Fevicol has come to represent 'unbreakable bonding' in entertainment, politics and everywhere else, too!

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Fevicol's impact on culture has spanned politics, relationships, social issues and entertainment. Numerous news articles, columnists and cartoon strips have compared long-standing friendships and political alliances with Fevicol.

Between 1995 and 2012, 10 Bollywood movies have mentioned Fevicol in the context of 'unbreakable bonding'. https://www.warc.com/content/article/warc-prize-asia/fevicol_the_ultimate_bond_20_years_and_still_going_strong/100042

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An article on Rakshabandhan (a festival celebrating the relationship between brothers and sisters) compared the bond between a brother and sister to that of Fevicol. A cartoon strip on social issues suggested Fevicol as a solution to wardrobe malfunctions at fashion shows! What's more, a Facebook page suggesting 'over-friendly' people should be nicknamed Fevicol has already amassed more than 33,000 fans! Section D awards and recognitions received Fevicol has won over 100 awards including EFFIEs, CLIOs, LIAA, YOUNG GUNS, ABBYs, INDYs and Cannes awards in creative, media, effectiveness and branding disciplines. Among others, they include: A Special Gold by The Advertising Club Bombay for 'Best Long-running Campaign' in 2005 A place in the top three most trusted household brands in a survey-based ranking carried out by The Economic Times Brand Equity in 2012 A Gold award for 'Best Long Term Campaign' at the 2012 EFFIE awards in India.

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Could anything else have contributed to this success? Fevicol's product and 25% to 30% price premium over its competition has remained the same throughout the entire period. Moreover, factors like premium pricing and strong competition from regional players limit the impact distribution alone could have had on sales growth. Lessons learned Over the last 20 years, the economic and socio-cultural factors in India have changed a lot. However, the consistent success of this strategy over such a long period has questioned many of our presumptions about marketing and communication, and taught us a few vital lessons: Increasingly consumer involvement isn't always necessary to achieve success Even today, except for knowing the brand name Fevicol and asking for it while buying materials for making furniture, the end consumers aren't...