Ozone Ayurvedics has recently launched an extension to its No Marks skin care range – the No Marks Teens Facewash. As is obvious from the name, it is targeted at the growing teenager population in the country.
In terms of the underlying concept, I think this is a great idea. There are two important points to note:
- It can help No Marks carve out a niche for themselves by directly targeting a specific population segment (and honestly, who doesn’t like a product targeted at them and tailor-made for their requirements?)
- It will attract the customer at the POME (Point of Market Entry). The product is focussing on teenagers, and teenagers is the age-group when women first start using cosmetics. If they are convinced on the product quality/value, they would stick to other extensions of the same brand when they trade-up in the category (If you go to the website of Ozone Ayurvedics, they have shown how they have classified their cosmetic range by age: Teens/ Youth etc. Visit their site here) Capitalizing on the POME is amongst the most surefire ways to gain and hold Customer Loyalty – something which is available at a high premium these days.
So, the idea has a lot of merit. But ideas are available a dime a dozen! It is the execution of the idea that matters and that is where the No Marks team has failed.
Watch the ad below:
The product is clearly mentioned in the ad as a Teens product, connecting to a new term which the team has brought in – ‘Teenocracy‘. But, given that this is an advertisement which is supposed to create the aforementioned niche segment, I expected a lot more content in it. I expected the ad to differentiate between the regular and teens cosmetics in terms of product features, and to highlight why a teen should use the teens-specific products instead of her mom’s products (could talk about differences like – mom’s products focus more on skin nourishment and anti-ageing, while teens’ cosmetics focus more on acne-control and skin whitening etc.).
The ad, on the other hand, seems to say that just because this is a teens product, all teens should use it! There seems to be no effort made to highlight the existence of a need-gap in the market before filling in that gap. No plausible reason is given as to why a girl should use this product and not any other.
Also, when they bring in a concept like Teenocracy, it is a powerful key-word around which an entire campaign can be structured. But in this ad, it just seems as if somebody in the marketing team liked the word and insisted on it being thrown into the script, irrespective of whether there was any context/ relevance to it in the ad or not !!
The pioneer of an idea is the one who can reap the maximum benefits out of it. And if a pioneer does not maximize a good idea, then someone else is sure to capitalize. No Marks had the opportunity to enter the market and create a stronghold in it. They failed to do it.
Now I am waiting to see who else enters this market segment, and who goes about this the right way.