Clinic's campaign capers  ( August '2,2001, HBL)

She swings her hair back with all the panache of a model endorsing a shampoo. Mission over, she descends with a spry step and a winning smile. She throws her hair back again and preens while everyone assembled there goggles at the spectacle.

This is no lissome, dark-maned beauty but a nondescript, completely grey-haired matriarch well into her 50s. The setting: a residential colony right next to the railway line in Chennai's West Mambalam. The occasion: A promo for Clinic Plus' family bubble pack, which promises to offer six washes.

The promotion takes place on a blue float (blue for the shampoo's colour) meant to look like a chariot and transport you back to the days of the Mahabharata, considering that the television commercial for the bubble pack is designed on these lines. The float promises you a free hair wash from none less than a hair specialist all the way from Mumbai and handouts from the Clinic Plus stable. And there are VJs who conduct games to be played and distribute the prizes to be won.

The big blue chariot has done the rounds of Tiruchi, Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem, Vellore and Chennai. The objective is to convince consumers that six washes from a single bubble pack is no exaggeration, and it is there on the float for all to see, and believe.

Activity around Clinic Plus has been quite visible in Tamil Nadu. Apart from this promo, the brand was associated with sponsoring Koteeswaran on Sun TV. Says Rajnikant Sabnavis, Marketing Manager (Haircare), Hindustan Lever Ltd, ``Tamil Nadu is a big market for this brand, where it is the market leader, and consumers are very loyal.'' Clinic Plus, which has a 41 per cent market share on an all-India basis and 58-59 per cent share in Tamil Nadu, was relaunched early this year. The usage pattern is skewed heavily in favour of sachets, with only 25 per cent using shampoo from bottles.

The bubble pack has been around for a while but consumers refused to believe it could give six washes, says Nagesh Pannaswami, Senior Brand Services Director, Lowe Lintas & Partners, the ad agency which is behind Clinic Plus. ``It seemed to be an incredulous proposition to them.'' Ergo, the ad based on the Mahabharata which ``every Indian has been fed from birth'', and which also tied in with the family-centric positioning of the brand. The script was researched before shooting and it did ``phenomenally well'' amongst consumers, with both users and non-users buying the pack. The ad has Kunti calling the young Pandavas for a bath and finding some shampoo still remaining, calling Karna too.

The roadshows were an extension of the communication to encapsulate the idea in an entertaining way, giving the consumers a touch-and-feel experience. CARMA, a promotions company headquartered in Mumbai, also collaborated in this endeavour. ``We also demonstrated how this pack actually gave six washes by giving consumers a hairwash. As marketing experts would say, this is integrated marketing communications/solutions for a brand,'' says Nagesh, adding that the pack is selling ``like the blazes''.

Market research revealed that the single most important factor that would make a consumer buy would be the number of washes offered; a bubble pack would offer more value to sachet users - no spillage, dosage control, easy to store, and at Rs 10 for a 28 ml pack, the price per ml worked out a little cheaper, compared to an 8 ml sachet which costs Rs 2.50. While Sabnavis does not want to reveal exactly by how much this promo helped Clinic Plus grow, he says volumes for the bubble pack have doubled. The bubble pack now contributes to around 15 per cent of the brand volumes. In fact, reliable sources say HLL is considering rolling back the price of the bubble pack to the original Rs 8 in the light of its success. The per capita consumption of shampoo as ``share of wash'' is very low and pricing is a key element driving usage.

Other activities for the brand have included wall paintings and demonstrations in rural schools. Plans are afoot to extend this campaign to Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Right now, HLL spends about 35 per cent of its advertising budget on below-the-line advertising, but this could well see an increase in the future, says Sabnavis. Expect more hair-raising tales from this brand.