In the history of Indian brands there have been many brands that have disappeared over a period of time. Some of them have disappeared for the right reasons but there are some that may need to be brought back.
Here in this piece I want to discuss three such brands.
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Gold Spot
The most iconic Indian soft drink brand in India after Thumbs Up, for long Gold Spot was the zing thing firing the imagination of the youth in the 70s and 80s. Gold Spot was considered a youth brand and had some of the craziest commercials in the 80’s came from Gold Spot. It was launched in 1977 by the Ramesh Chauhan led Parle foods.
GoldSpot was positioned as the “uncola“ and was the leading alternative to the Cola drinks, like Thumbs Up and Campa Cola.
But despite its popularity, it was withdrawn after the $ 40 Million dollar acquisition of the Parle soft drinks business by Coca Cola. This was probably done to make space for the Coca Cola brand “Fanta”. Fanta has not made much head room in its fight against Miranda and GoldSpot continues to hold about 2 % market share in India, especially in rural Maharashtra.
Postman Cooking Oil
Originally launched under the brand name “ Sipahi” Postman ground nut oil became the main stay of the Urban Indian household.
“Postman” entered the market in the 1950s. At one time at the peak of its popularity it had all most 50 % market share in the metros.
A family dispute in the 80’s led to the problems with the management and finally the brand stopped being seen on retail shelves. Postman is still an iconic brand and its commercial is still fresh in people’s minds” Postman….Naturally”
Gay Lords Ice cream
This one ice cream brand that I really loved having especially in the Delhi summers. My sister used to have her dance classes in Chanakyapuri and there used to this particular ice cream vendor who used to come by and I would invariably end up buying Gaylords ice cream.
Now the history of Gaylords is a very intriguing one founded in pre independence India, Gaylord started as a restaurant in the Cannaught Place in Delhi. Started by two friends IS Ghai and PS Lamba, they soon diversified into Ice creams and the first brand was called Kwality Ice creams.
A dispute among the founders led to one of the founders splitting to form Gay Lord. This was in the 1970’s and the new brand was launched with much fanfare and made some inroads into a market otherwise dominated by Kwality. The launch was collaboration between Gaylord and Yankee Doodle Ice Cream parlors.
Eventually the brand was sold to Baskin Robbins and withdrawn from the market.
Now why these brands should be brought back? I can think of three reasons
These brands have mind share of the Indian consumer long before we became an over communicated market. Mind share means there is greater acceptability of these brands if launched. I am sure Coca cola would gather more market share if they re-introduced GoldSpot than they would ever get with Fanta.
2. Captive Market
These brands invoke nostalgia for many of the house hold decision makers today. As a young teenager I was exposed to the advertisements for brands like GoldSpot and am inclined to buy the same if it is available in the market.
3. Cost of marketing
Leading from both the above points I think the cost of marketing is much lower than marketing new brands in an over communicated consumer market like India.
But I want to hear your views on the same. Do you feel it is a good idea to revive old brands or is it just an exercise in futility?
After all Coca Cola is planning to bring Citra back so maybe I am not the only one thinking on these lines….
Hi Prashant
I agree, its very subjective. And GoldSpot would always remain a memory of the 80’s amazing time to grow up.
T
Now the idea may work or may not. it all depends on how you position it in front of todays youth. so that would be the challenge :) ahh goldspot you reminded my childhood days :D
Hi Arch
Good points on both quality and consumer behavior. I would have to agree with you on both.
I am not sure if these brands making a comeback would help because of the change in the Food and beverage industry mindset as a whole. With focus on healthy eating (read low fat, low cholestrol, low everything – I wonder why people dont stop eating altogether. But that is for another discussion), soft drinks as a segment has been challenged by the juices segment (natural or sweetened). In the cooking oil segment, ground nut oil is considered on the same lines as a sunflower or mustard oil – Rich and high in varous fats. In contrast corn and rice bran oil is gaining popularity.
Also the generation today makes their own choices. They would avoid buying anything that their parents considerd cool or had an affinity to.
On hindsight, it was a good thing these brands got pulled out when they were market leaders. Otherwise, there wouldnt be that nostalgia associated with them.
“They would avoid buying anything that their parents considerd cool or had an affinity to. “— i don’t think that holds true :)
Hi Ankit
I agree racking up sales can be a challenge and after the initial launch will depend on the right strategy. But already Coca Cola is planning to relaunch Citra..
Classic examples, but I doubt many of them would rack up enough sales! Dukes Soda had its flavors discontinued in the 90's and re-introduced them a few months ago but they're barely going off the shelves. These brands will have to again fight for mindshare to occupy a market share!