'One fevicol please?'

Its not so uncommon to hear this across stores in India from customers looking for a adhesive. The name 'fevicol' has become synonymous to glue, many a times the product being referred to may even be something different from the real fevicol.

Pidilite industries, the manufacturer of Fevicol, has run many successful and wacky campaigns for the product. But the fact that hardly gets attention from those analyzing this phenomenon is that fevicol was well established as a brand a long time before all these campaigns.

Lets try to decode this.

Fevicol was launched way back in 1959, when the Indian market had very few organized brands. It had the first mover advantage.

The brand was initially used by carpenters. They found the product to be a very effective adhesive. Not that the other products available were not good enough, the simple advantage that led fevicol to the upward climb in terms of brand recognition was this:

The availability of the product and its distinct image made is very simple for anyone to recommend it to others. This was the key factor that caused the rapid word of mouth publicity which followed in the next 3 decades. Slowly the adhesive was a favorite with the class of professionals dealing with furniture, plastics and similar products. That was it, the Tipping Point.

Pidilite Industries judged the tides correctly and decided to capitalize on this rise in its brand, and created many campaigns. The specialty of the advertisements was that they dint sell anything. Nothing about 'only rs x' or so. They were basically entertaining funny stories showing how fevicol stands for a very strong adhesive. And that helped them capture markets like students and office use.

So the important things we infer from fevicol brand and its phenomenal story of branding are:

• First Mover Advantage: Being the first widespread and recognized product (then it was not a brand as it is now, just a product that was available everywhere), it got a base for reaching the tipping point.
• Availability: a quality product needs to be available everywhere, making it easier for people to refer it to others.
• Leverage: Once a brand was established, Pidilite made a very smart choice of moving into other allied markets where the brand could flourish without a radical change in its 'law of the word'.
  

• What is the first word that comes to your mind when you think of Wal-Mart? Isn’t it some deviation of the same term ‘discount stores’?

• What about Volvo? It will be certainly safety.

The reason these words are owned by their respective brands is the law of association. Let me explain. When you buy a pack of Milk, it’s just ‘milk’; whereas when you buy a razor, its not just razor, it’s a Gillette Mach 3, or whatever. So in some products, you choose a fixed brand. The process of you fixing a certain brand as your favorite is influenced by the word the brand owns.

When you first try a new product or service, there is a certain most important quality you associate it with. It may be positive or negative. So what happens next? Once you give any brand a ‘word’, you go to outside sources to re-assure that what you have opined is right. It may mean discussion with your friend or asking your business adviser. When the ‘word’ is similar to many people, the brand assumes the character of that word. Maybe some packet of chips becomes ‘yummy’ whereas some other becomes ‘cheap’. What happens in this case is that when you have less money to spend on chips, you go for the second one. Even if those have become costlier by then. We do find out later but excluding the price category, most other words once owned are forever.

This is the secret to the success of Mercedes Benz. Do you think it is logical to manufacture cars and price them heavy from the business point of view? Isn’t it that the cheaper your product, better it performs? So why do so many people go and buy a Merc over Toyota which is lot cheaper? The reason is that Mercedes owns the word ‘rich’. Its deviations include ‘privileged’,’ luxury’…….. But the main word is an asset which sells the costly Mercedes.

Realizing the power of the word, most companies advertise to own a word. Just think which are your favorite ads and see if they click any specific word in your mind. Usually these words are different emotions. Hunger, pride, love….. Whatever it is, it is very VERY important. What else powers the multi-billion dollar advertising economy?

How you can own your word?

Winning any global word like ’status’ or ‘reliability’ is very difficult. But if you own it once, you yourself can’t imagine what your profits will be. Only one brand can own one word. That’s why it is difficult to get one for you.

• So the first step is identifying what exactly you want to own. The reason is simple, once your brand means ‘cheap’ or ‘affordable’, it can never become the owner of ‘privileged’. So the first thing is to identify what word will your customers be looking for. Is it timely service or cheapest rates?

• Once you have some word identified, you need to self proclaim it.

• What you do is tell the customers that your brand is cheaper or best quality. Our brains are so lazy that if they get some ready made word to associate your brand with, half the work is done. Whenever you read something is world-class, you think it is world-class even if it little off the mark.

• You can use cheap or free methods. Say adding a tag line on the packaging or website.

• Once you add a tag line or logo, just give the customers what you promise and soon, you get the most valuable asset that no one can steal from you!

So what are you waiting for, get lost and start building your word