Advertising Strategy of AMbuja Cement

1. ADVERTISING LIVE PROJECT ON
AMBUJA CEMENT CAMPAIGN
Under the Guidance of
Prof. Sharmistha Ray
Submitted By-
Group No-F467
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2. CASE STUDY
Ambuja Cement: Wall-to-wall
Advertising
Ambuja Cements formerly Gujarat
Ambuja is one of India's largest
cement brands. The company came
into existence in 1984. Ambuja
Cements is a classic example of a
successful commodity branding. In the last decade the company
has grown tenfold. Indian cement market is different from the rest
of the world because the largest segment of buyers of cement in
India is the individual home owners rather than the institutions.
Although this scenario is witnessing a change due to the boom in
the organized realty sector, individual home owners form a
significant segment that no cement marketers can ignore. Although
these individuals shell out the money to purchase cement, they are
not the decision makers in the buying process. The demographic
profile includes 25- 45 yrs young males The intermediaries like the
contractors, masons etc take up the role of the influencer/decision
makers in the purchase of this product. Since the consumers view
this product as a commodity, the involvement of ordinary home
owners in the purchase is low.
Ambuja Cements also focused on influencing the other players in
the business like the contractors/masons and engineers through
camps and meets.
Ambuja Cements is one of the companies that realized the potential
of brand as a differentiator. Even in the eighties, Ambuja cement
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3. started its activities for building the brand. It adopted various other
strategies depending on the trend. Emphasis was on Quality. High
Advertisement for branding atleast 3 times more than the
competitor ACC at one time. Improvement in Packaging by
information provided by suppliers acted in favour of the company.
Extensive & primarily exclusive distribution network-Over 6,000
dealers and 20,000 retailers helped them to reach remote areas
also. Promotional activities like seminars, workshops for masons,
architects, contractors etc by providing information on use of
Ambuja Cement. Advertising and Publicity campaign. Infact
according to Superbrands report, Ambuja cements is the first
cement brand to start advertising in television. The Selection of
Agency by the Ambuja Cement was well researched and fulfilled
their expectation.
Grey Worldwide ranks amongst the largest global advertising
companies. They have long standing reputation for launching and
building many of the company‟s leading brands like P&G, Gsk,
Bharti Axa, Kinderjoy, Fortis etc. Ambuja Cement‟s association with
the Grey Agency helped them to capture the market share and build
Brand Image. For Ambuja Cement‟s Ad, Grey has ensured that the
strength of the cement rides on the strength of emotion.
While branding the cement commodity, the agency concentrated on
its core brand promise of “Strength". Strength is a very highly
relevant attribute as far as customer is concerned. Commodities are
boring products, but for smart marketers, this was an opportunity
to make difference.
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4. Television Commercial (TVC) for Ambuja
Cement, revolves around the story of two
estranged brothers (Bhai Bhai, featuring
Boman Irani, which was released six years
ago) trying to break down the wall that runs
between their houses, the wall which they
put up to separate their houses when they were fighting with each
other seasoned with an emotional (almost humanitarian) twist. Priti
Nair, national creative director, Grey Worldwide, says that the
strength of the wall was juxtaposed with the strength of character of
the two brothers. “Cement is a low involving category,” says Nair.
So, the brotherly love element and the often used Bollywood type
plot were added to make the ad more entertaining.
Nair and her team wanted to stay away from the stereotypical
„milavat (adulteration)‟ type ads for cement, or even those involving
big buildings and pride of ownership. “We wanted to show the
victory of the underdogs,” she explains.
After that humorous attempt, came some
ads which presented the brand in a
sentimental vein (the Dadi ad), a move that
Vivek Deshpande, Ambuja Cement‟s vice-
president for brand and promotions, agrees was rather disastrous,
so much so that the Bhai Bhai ad was recalled. Perhaps it was the
most memorable ad .The campaign is still successfully running. The
ad still ables to generate freshness with the humor and the script.
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5. The Advertisers bought in lot of humor to this (otherwise) boring
product. Most of its campaigns are humorous which makes the
consumers stick to the advertisements.
For the longest time ever, Ambuja has been
harping on its „giant compressive strength‟
proposition; the brand even created the visual
of a „giant‟ and then a broken hammer adding
that the brand will now strike a balance
'Ambuja Cement Yeh
Deewaar nahin tootegi nahi‟ between emotion and humor.
The primary objectives of the advertisement
were Creating awareness, Build Saliency, Have a top of mind recall
which is very well achieved with the campaign. This advertisement
reinforces the core positioning of Ambuja as strong cement. Ambuja
Cements also used the outdoors extensively to reinforce the brand
image and enhance brand recall. All through its campaigns, the
brand was very consistent on reinforcing its positioning as the
“Strongest cement” or symbol of compressive strength. The brand
was also very clever in selecting a unique logo.
These initiatives helped Ambuja to charge a premium over other
brands. With the competition hotting up from Grasim, Ultratech,
Ambuja Cements could hold on to its share because of the brand
equity it had created over these years.
While branding a commodity, the critical question is whether these
ads can influence the consumers to change their commodity
mindset towards this category. The answer is definitely affirmative.
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6. We have noticed many home owners directly procuring these
products for their home construction because they don't trust the
contractors. In these scenarios, high brand recall will give the edge
for the brands like Ambuja Cement and exploring a market of new
customers and thus making the home owners decision makers.
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