Rupa is one of India's biggest innerwear brands. This presentation was designed as a conversation starter for a meeting without any brief. Here are some ideas on one of Rupa's brands that attempts to create an independent movement around the consumer and the product.

1. Some Conversation Starters
for RUPA
Tannistho Ghosh
tannistho@rediffmail.com
+919830165161

2. The reason for this presentation
• This is a short study of some trends
and case studies coupled with a few
ideas on what Rupa can do to one of
the products.
• This is merely meant to be a
conversation starter however, if you
can use any of the ideas, please do so.
- Tannistho

3. For the sake of this presentation…
• I have taken one of the brands at
random to analyse strategies and
present some ideas.
•
the following reasons:
Rupa
• It is a comparatively new brand and has
room for maneouver
• It is targeted at a consumer segment that
Rupa has not targeted for a while very
aggressively.
• It needs a completely different approach
going by its consumer segment.

4. From the Basic brand communication…
• I have been able to figure out the following
tone and voice of the brand.
Is being posed as a brand that can help the
kids be smarter.
RUPA KIDLINE
Is being targeted at the typical parent-kid
combination that feeds on ‘sa re ga ma
kids’ and ‘Jhalak Dikhla Ja’ shows
As an innerwear brand, RUPA KIDLINE is
probably competing with brands like
Mothercare, Lux, RHAM, etc.

5. And the distribution channels that you
have include
E-retail in terms of
having the products sold
through Myntra/Jabong
etc.
Sold through physical
stores that harbour Rupa
products.

6. The Target for the brand will be:
Which can be translated into:
Stage: 1. Leading in terms of marketshare among the
Stage 2
other categories as well.
(So we shift our perspective from being just an
i.e you
compete not just with Lux but with Disney at a longer
run)

7. Therefore the brand mission can
be:
the better!

8. Changing the world of kids’ would mean
Gearing them
up to face the
world better.
Helping them
feel good about
themselves
Helping them
adapt to the
changing
episodes of
their lives.
Gearing them
up to do things
in life.

9. Which means…
You end up competing with both Disney and Sony
Playstation for mindshare and emotional connect.
Probably you end up competing with both in terms of
some of the new expansion plans you create.

10. The critical success factors to make it
happen will therefore be:
Consumer Penetration in a multifaceted way
Acquiring consumer loyalty by taking
the brand mission to life.
Target for Stage 1
Increase and leadership position in
market share
Product Portfolio Expansion in existing
category
Target for Stage 2
Penetration into new Category and
new business lines for kids’

11. Therefore to go for Stage 1
Success
Task 1
Building brand image through advertising, activations,
distribution point contacts, and change agents.
Task 2
Creating a scope for a quantum leap in the way you
connect to your consumer through disruption
Task 3
Sealing the bond by living upto the promise that you have
created through the disruption.

12. 1.
2.
Brand recognition across target
segment across th entire geography
of distribution.
1.
The ROI
calculations will
be based on
Increase in product sales across e
retail and physical retail channels
Demand mapping of new products
and initiatives expected out of the
brand coming straight from the
consumers. to be mapped through
research, social media behaviour,
consumer connect programs.

13. Let’s look at some kids’ brands and
how they did things differently.

14. Disney
Ok, two questions before we start:
What does Disney Create? – Content
What does Disney sell? – Alternate Realities

15. The Disney Game
• Disney is at present at $4,807 billion
in terms of net income per year with
total assets of $72,124 billion.
• When you look closely into what
makes it so big and look beyond their
multi-faceted product portfolio you
find:
• That every single Disney story plays on a
animals as human creatures, (Sleeping
Beauty, Snow White, Bambi) be it in
treating ghosts in pirate ships (Pirates of
the Caribbean) or replacing
confused Lion (The Lion King)

16. Therefore,
• Disney plays on the basic theme of alternate
realities and extends it to their complete product
portfolio to drive the returns in terms of Disney
parks, movies, tv channels, news, etc.
The entire Disney Universe in a nutshell

17. Now, the argument can go like
this…
Disney is a company whereas Kidline is just a
brand then why do we compare?
The argument is we are trying to compare
based on the difference between what is it that
we create and what is it that we sell.

18. Oreo
Ok, two questions before we start:
What does Oreo produce? – Cream cookies
What does Oreo Sell? – Happy Indulgence

19. Oreo is
• It is about 100 years old
•
in the indulgence)
• It has survived through world wars, depression and is still
celebrated.
• It is the number one cookie in US, China and even
Venezuela.
• It brings in over $ 2 billion dollars per year.

20. The Oreo Experience
•
• There is always a happy
moment within the
existing difficult one.
• Some choices that you
make are happy choices
not to dunk is the

21. Therefore, let’s look at what can
Rupa Kidline sell?
It produces fashionable inners but
what is it that it sells?

22. To answer that question let’s
look at what it should sell.
And where in lies the consumer need?

23. Today’s children have a lot in
their hands…
They are open to the entire world thanks to the cyber space
and television
They are still stuck in the Indian value system which defines
them.
There is the constant tussle between the head and the heart,
between expectations and performance, between parents and
friends, between what is right and what is attractive.
They also have an intrinsic value system that they create
which is very different from what their parents had. For
depicted by media was always a selfish soul. For the child
who watches Chhota Bheem, business and deals are an
intrinsic part of life.

24. And they live …
•
• Where competition is fierce
• Where street smartness can
only pay off when it goes
hand in hand with
education and intelligence.
• Where the intrinsic
challenge and dream is to

25. Also,
Kids are rebellious by nature, interested by instinct. But the
world needs them to conform.
So rebelliousness is not necessarily good in the family.
Interests, a lot of times, are also guided by parents (even
dance reality shows).

26. So what they need is…
A coping strategy! A mechanism that will help
them make sense of the things around it.
If Kidline as a brand provides it it can stay on
with this group just like Disney has done with
their set of children.

27. Therefore, possible ideas that
Kidline can sell is:
Idea 1:
By the kids, for the kids, of the kids
Idea 2:
Deal with your world.
Idea 3:
Be as you want to be.

28. Let’s look at one of these and how
it affects the brand.

29. Idea 1:
By the kids, for the kids, of the kids
•
creating a constitution of a parallel world for
children which gears them up to create their own
coping strategies for the everchanging and everdynamic world around them.

30. Now break up the consumer segment
Tier – II
premier
schools
Tier – I
premier
schools
Rupa
Kidline
consumers
Tier – I
Non
premier
scchools
Tier – II non
premier
schools

31. Going by the segmentation…
You are looking at varying degrees of exposure.
The desires, interests and aspirations remain the
same.

32. Now let’s look at the communication
channels that you use…
Mass Media
Employee
Engagement
Through the
Line
Trade
Engagement
Digital and
Social
CSR initiatives
Packaging

33. Some initiatives that you can take up
in each of these…
Create your
wonderkid icon!
Do a hunt for the face of
‘Kidline’ through mass media
and through the line
communications and then
design a web series for children
using thes icons of Kidline. Use
Pogo as your channel of choice
to conduct your hunt.
Creating your television show is
too expensive but creating your
exclusive Youtube web series
might be easier.

34. Design The Kidline Social
•
Create your own Kidline Social, a
social network (using Ning or a
social network creator platform)
exclusively for kids. Make sure that
no one above 18 can become a
member of the site.
•
Design this programme as a long
term initiative where they are
created and maintained by children
themselves.
•
Tie up with a media house to drive
this initiative in different cities
recruiting ambassadors who will
maintain the site. Tie up with
computer science departments in
schools to drive the campaign.

35. Use Kidline Social to
•
•
•
•
Drive conversations
Create branded content around your products
Engage your audience
Drive key messages such as
•
•
For a day you can have a live Q&A chat with Chhota Bheem
Drive videos and self defence classes.
•
Make it critical to figure out that parents can only enter if their children invite them
to, otherwise not.
•
Drive your web series of Wonderkids parallely in it.
•
Give classes and video lectures on Kidline social.
•
Make it an exclusive place for children.
•
Drive Kidline Social in Tier
II towns as well.

36. Employee Engagement
•
children the co-creators
of Kidline Social
thereby ensuring that you
get to:
– Have better engagement
of the employees in the
concept
– Better testing grounds for
all your prototypes.

37. Trade Engagement
• Try out Trade Engagement accordingly.
• Give your trade partners a chance to be kids and sell
their products better by understanding the kids.
• Create initiatives around it smartly
being kids for a day.
so that they enjoy
• Involve their children in the creation of Kidline Social
so that the brand becomes one tight family.

38. CSR
• Under Kidline Social you can now create a series of CSR
initiatives which drives positive word of mouth.
• For example, privileged children ambassadors from Kidline
Social can become key players in
– Imparting programming skills to underprivileged kids
– Teach them english language

39. • The potential for each of these ideas can be big, looking at expenses, it will
be wise to stick to mediums that are more engaging and less dependent on
mass media as a whole.
• The scope of this idea can be the following:
– You can engage Kidline Social to develop a new product line of Rupa Kidline with
designs done by Children themselves.
– You can have children coming on the web and talking about how they designed the next
Rupa Kidline products. This can have great PR value for you as well taking Rupa
Kidline into the heart of mass media for free.
– In fact, apart from just fashion it can be extended to anything as such.

40. In terms of project costs
• It costs about $100 to build a social network on Ning. com
• It will cost about 120,000 to hire a programming outfit to build it.
• If you start co-creating with your employees and your trade partners
will probably cost you 50,000 to organise 3-4 sessions with children
covering their food and other expenses.
it
• Once it is done, you have a full fledged product medium through which
you can market and build your engagement.
• Once you go into community management by children themselves
cost you zero to manage the communities on the site.
it will

41. Those were some ideas. Please do
ignore if you have similar plans in
the foray.
Thank you for sitting through
Tannistho
(tannistho@rediffmail.com/+919830165161)