Fogg Deodrant

Launched by the Vini group of companies around 3 years back, Fogg Deodrant is my marketing hero .
this liquid deodorant was a welcome entrant in a market filled with good products but with
uncreative marketing campaigns.
Before the entry of Fogg, AXE deodorant ruled the deodorant markets. Though as a product, AXE
deodorant was a fairly decent product, it lacked creativity in its marketing campaigns. It always
positioned its product as a means for attracting women towards men rather than actually talking
about the products features. Its as if they knew for a fact that this kind of product positioning and
segmentation just had to work. Shame on the consumers intellect. Another annoying thing about a
lot of the deodorants in the market prior to Foggs entry, was the less retention time of fragrance of
the deos. Also they used to get empty quite soon being gas based. Fogg Deodrant addressed the
relevant points of a deodrant- long lasting fragrance and long lasting sprays. The slogan of Bina gas
wala body spray was an instant hit for me. The fact that in todays world where we need gender
sensitisation of the highest levels, Fogg refrains from making any clichd sexist advertisements.
The connect that the people had with this slogan was evident by an amusing event I witnessed in a
small general store near my residence. A young boy of probably 12-13 asked the shopkeeper to give
him Fogg Deo and immediately the shopkeeper tried to convince him to buy AXE, either it was
because he was earning greater commission on the sale of AXE or he was genuinely unaware about
Fogg and its benefits. The young boy immediately replied saying that Fogg supposedly lasts long and
hence went with his original choice . It was heartening to see a young boy actually looking at the
utility aspect of a deo rather than the supposed coolness and desirability aspect of a deo. Vini
had played its cards right. It targeted the right demographic segment i.e. the age range of around 12
to 30-35 and knew that people in this range had a lot more purchasing power nowadays with more
and more disposable incomes. So they did not mind paying a premium for a better product.
The very fact that this trend of indicating how many sprays a particular deo will last for was set in
motion after Fogg initiated it and it indicated that Fogg had been a trailblazer and that Vini had
realised that the people of this country were tired of hollow advertisements showing women
drooling over men who had sprayed on a deo and were rather more bothered about the actual
functionality of the deo. At one time there was a pen known as Writeo Meter which could last for
the longest duration amongst all ball point pens. These could supposedly write upto 10000 m. As
children we used to quote this figure with pride to our friends who did not own this pen. Fogg deo
with its promise of giving 800 sprays brought back old memories. Youngsters in my society would
quote that number with pride.
Another incident that springs to mind is the time when I was overhearing a conversation in a
Mumbai local train. There was a person who was furiously supporting AXE claiming it to be great and
after all it was made by Unilever so there was no comparison. The second person seemed informed
and was able to quote quite a few points in favour of Fogg. Though the first person was reluctant to
appreciate Fogg with all the clichd arguments against Fogg like its being an Indian product and a
new product, he did appreciate the efforts made by Vini to actually take the pain of describing the
features of the deo in its marketing campaigns and advertisements. The very fact that there was an
even an argument on which was better was a welcome relief since a few years back it seemed you
only chose amnogst various varieties of AXE.
An impressive thing about Fogg is its sustained aggressive campaigning once it realised that it was
slowly but surely eating into AXEs market share. The audacity with which Vini went all guns blazing
and released various varieties of the Fogg deo line was indicative of the fact that Mr. Darshan Patel
meant business and was not happy playing second fiddle to AXE deo. A matter of great pride for
every Indian and any budding entrepreneur in general!
When David (read as Fogg deo) prevailed over Goliath (read as Axe deo) and garnered more market
share, it was one of those moments which would stay with you for the rest of your lives. I was elated
and mildly surprised when I read the news of Fogg having a larger market share than Axe. A giant
killer indeed.
When reality set in that in a fast growing market, a young player had dethroned the long ruling king,
I realised that even kings cannot remain complacent. It was a great overall package. Right from an
audacious entry into a market long ruled by one player, to taking a dig at the current products in that
market , portraying itself as THE product to buy and setting the trend for similar products like Envy
1000 deo, Fogg deos stay so far has been extremely enjoyable to watch. I believe that it needed
such a brash player to come in and throw Axe of its guard.
Fogg has been a revelation of sorts. It is the silver lining that indicated that yes, we can have decent
market research carried out, we can actually go ahead and have smart marketing campaigns and
sensible advertisements and that there is a mature consumer base in India somewhere veiled behind
all the chaos.
Going forward I believe that Fogg I hope Vini does not get complacent and make the same mistake
as Unilever and live in its own bubble. It should face tough competition from other similar products
which are sold at lower prices. It needs to continue being bold and brash, thoughtful and calculating
to maintain its position.