From Amitabh Bachchan to Salman Khan, how Navratna leverages star power to drive brand objectives

Social Samosa speaks to Kaushik Vedula, AVP-Marketing at Emami Ltd. and dissects how the brand builds connections with their consumer cohorts via memorable advertisements, Bollywood and celebrity endorsements.

Sweltering summer heat requires a cooling and fragrant therapy and Emami Limited, with its roster of hair oils and cooling talc with Navratna Oil and Navratna Talc, makes sure to keep Indians ‘thanda thanda cool cool.’

Over the years, Navratna has seen an eclectic mix of brand ambassadors under its wing and has recently released its summer marketing campaigns with Salman Khan and Varun Dhawan, reprising their Bollywood avatars. 

Bollywood and Navratna’s special connection has managed to grab eyeballs from consumers. Social Samosa speaks to Kaushik Vedula, AVP-Marketing at Emami Ltd and dissects how the brand builds connections with the consumer cohort via memorable advertisements, Bollywood and celebrity endorsements.

Also read: Brand Saga: Navratna Oil, keeping Indians Thanda Thanda, Cool Cool

Leveraging Star Power

Vedula believes that Navratna enjoys a clear mind space amongst Indian consumers. Keeping self-care in mind, he mentioned that the intent of the newest Navratna Oil campaign is to reiterate access to their Ayurvedic solution. 

To improve the effectiveness of this brand communication, they paved the way for creative execution in the form of ‘2-minute ki jadoo ki champi’ with star Salman Khan.

This ad gives a twist to the once-popular song ‘Sar Jo Tera Chakraye.’

The brand also has Varun Dhawan reprising his role from Judwaa 2 for Navratna Cooling Talc’s latest advertisement. While Vedula said that the choice of an ordinary talc may provide a fragrant experience, it would not be able to provide cooling which is extremely important for them during this extremely harsh weather. 

He continued, “The marketing objective was to generate awareness about the goodness of our talc and its special combination. The creative idea was to show the contrast in the experience for the consumer between these two choices.”

Varun Dhawan is acknowledged for his own style of humour and the creative idea was hinging on this theme, as the creative team came up with an execution of ‘Mele me bhichde bhaiyon ka milan,’ with an interesting twist.

The brand’s celebrity endorsements aren’t limited to Bollywood stars but each of them have played a significant role in grabbing eyeballs. Emami’s mix of brand ambassadors who have been endorsing their various brands over the years include Govinda, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal,  Birju Maharaj and more.

“The brand ambassadors provide an aspirational connect with our consumers from various demographies. We believe that brand ambassadors play a very significant role in creating awareness for one’s products. It is one of the fastest ways to grab consumer eyeballs for one’s brand.”

Media Mix

In Q2 of FY23, Emami reported a revenue of Rs 813.75 crore. The advertising expenses of the company stood at Rs 141.48 crore in Q2 of FY23, which is an increase of 34.33% from the Rs 105.32 crore reported in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

While their offerings under the Navratna brand enjoy the patronage of consumers all around the year, Vedula said that there is an up-swing during the summers. 

To stand out in the summer marketing blitz, the brand is making significant media investments across different mediums which include Linear TV, Print, Digital, Outdoor to ensure their campaign has an effective reach and frequency to stand out. 

They also execute on-ground consumer awareness programs in rural and semi-urban markets in a contextually relevant way and have massive wall painting drives to use outdoor medium effectively. 

"This is also aided by the presence of our celebrities and the unique storytelling style that creates memorable mental impressions for the brand. These are also adequately reiterated at the point of purchase in the form of displays and shelf designs. This 360-degree campaign would help us stand out with 1. Quality 2. Quantity and 3. Relevance."

They also use trucks and tempos to communicate with consumers in rural India. 

Navratna has also leveraged Influencer marketing as a means of targeted marketing. 

The choice of influencers is very critical, and Vedula believes that Navratna has been able to partner with some highly-regarded influencers in the wellness and self-care space. 

"This approach has helped us generate trials amongst the right audience. The repeat purchases amongst these users gives us a strong belief that this is an effective approach to building a franchise."

Their efforts get reflected in the revenue the company generates yearly. As shared in a press release, the company's Q3 reports for FY 23 showed that the demand patterns for the FMCG sector remained sluggish, with rural markets experiencing continued demand pressure. 

Further, it was noted that warmer winter season across the country impacted sales even more. In the given macroeconomic context, Net sales at ₹975 crore grew by 2% and Revenues at ₹983 crore grew by 1% during the quarter translating into a healthy 3 year CAGR of 7% compared to the pre-pandemic period.

Constantly working on identifying newer emerging trends, they are crafting marketing propositions that are in line with them and are relevant to the lives of the consumers. 

Vedula signed off saying that the brand is currently working on adopting Artificial Intelligence to craft programs and are crafting campaigns that consumers would enjoy.