Today, the value of facial-care market in Thailand is 2,742 million baht, dominated by facial foam 95% and the rest is tonner 5%. The main segments in this market are whitening 27.1% and scrub 13.3%. The biggest share in this market belongs to Pond’s - the no.1 global facial-care brand of Unilever 39.8%. However, the second share is 18% belongs to “Smooth E” – the local brand, and followed by Nevea – the big global skincare brand, who gains 12% share and Garnier with 6% share.
The second position of Smooth E among global brands in facial-care market came from 2 outstanding campaigns; Facial Foam “Love Story” and Facial Foam Scrub “Teen Problems”, but before we discuss about these 2 campaigns, let review a strategy of Pond’s in Thai market.
Global Brand Global Strategy
“One of the most significant marketing challenges we now face is striking the right balance between the global idea and the extent to which it’s adapted to local markets,” said a Global Chief Marketing Executive (CMO) of Unilever. “We always knew that consumers were different, but we just choose to treat them the same,” said CMO.
According to Nielsen Media Research, Pond’s Facial-Skincare product was the No.1 brand in Ad spending, for the last year, Pond’s spent in both facial and skin care almost 877 million baht.
Pond’s advertising strategy always uses the superstar as its presenter and broadcasts with a heavy weight media budget.
Up to now, Pond’s always use a Global platform strategy that determining best combination of global and local activities for competitive advantage. In term of TV advertising, Pond’s also has a platform of 1-2-3 or Problem – Solution (Pond’s) – End result. And in most regional campaign, Pond’s used the same story but different talent which usually a superstar of each country.
Local Brand Strikes Back
After entered the market for 7 years and used the follower strategy with the same pattern of facial-skin care advertising which was 1-2-3 and superstar, Smooth E still followed 3-4 global brands in term of market share. Then in 2005 Smooth E decided to make a big change.
“Our brave client, Smooth E asked us to go after a younger target audience, yet still appeal to existing customers, but not using a celebrity,” Jureeporn Thaidumrong, the founder and executive creative director of Jeh United Thailand stated and then continued that she asked herself what do teenagers and young adults in Thailand have in common? and this subject should be more interesting and convincing than a superstar. And her answer was “Love” but it was not all, she added “Decades ago before DVDs, the classic Thai selling method was free outdoor cinema that sold a product during a show and we brought that back…”
As a result, they created “The Love Story” series of 4 episodes that not only sells but also pokes fun on conventional ‘Beauty’ commercials of most global brands. And the series were promoted as if they were a feature films; one week before launching date, they painted the town with the handbills and newspaper ads promoting the 4 episodes scheduled. And they also promoted the schedule of each episode with radio spots and newspaper ads. The episodes ran in prime time (8:30 pm) on the two most popular channels in Thailand every Friday, Saturday & Sunday from June 24 to August 14, 2005.
Smooth E Facial Foam “The Love Story Series” won Gold Cannes Lions in films and also won the heart of Thai female teenagers. The series composed with 4 episodes of 90 sec. TVC that not only sells but also pokes fun a conventional 'Beauty' commercials of global brands.
After its launch, “The Love Story” series hit the record of “No. 1 Top of mind advertising recall” within 2 weeks with only a 24 million baht media budget, or half of the budget of former No.1 ad recall. Moreover, Thai female teenagers and young adults asked for “The Love Story” series VCD from Smooth E and 250,000 gift sets of product + “The Love Story” VCD were produced. They sold out in 2 weeks.
In terms of brand awareness in the facial foam category, Pond’s had been the strongest player before Smooth E released “The Love Story” in July. The result showed that Smooth E became the winner while Pond’s moved down to the first runner-up and Biore came in third. (See the green line in figure)
After the launch, Smooth E’s sales rose dramatically by 153.33%, the highest sales in its history, and they continued to rise throughout the campaign.
“The Love Story” changed the face of cosmetic advertising in Thailand. Many global brands such as Unilever and P&G were conducting research on Smooth E "Love Story" as a case study.
The Strike Back Continues
Last year, while facial care especially whitening segment was saturated with so many products and consumer confidence was low from politic uncertainty, the scrub segment was encouraged by a big campaign from Smooth E Scrub “Teen problems” under the strategy as follows:
Challenge
During the downturn, Smooth E wants to create a good mood for Thai consumers and at the same time introduce a new facial-foam scrub into the market who leaded by Pond’s and other global brands.
Solutions
Enhance Brand positioning by being a solution of both consumers’ life and facial care problems.
Create an idol of Smooth E, “Big sister - Aoi”, as consumers’ sister. Deliver a key message through a sit-com of 7 episodes with trailer that speaks to the heart of teenagers, while at the same time keeps poking fun at the conventions of standard ‘Beauty’ commercials of global brands.
The Executions
The Smooth E Scrub “Teen Problems” Campaign 2007 composes with; 1 x30 sec. Trailer of 7 episodes and 7 x45 sec. TVCs; Foam, Brand X, Daddy, Materialism, Boring Face, Everyday Use, Again and Again.
Results
During the launch, all 7 episodes were voted by consumers to be Top 10 TVCs reported by Adintrend.com June 25, 2007
• After the campaign launched, Smooth E Sales boosted up over 200%, salesperson reported that at 7-11 convenient store which is the main channel of distribution, had the orders come in daily instead of weekly or monthly as before the campaign ran.
• Consumers love them and request for a new episode, and even create some new stories and posted in consumer webboards.
• Again, “Teen Problems” campaign created “Talk of the town” effect and challenged the pattern of cosmetic advertising in Thailand.
The Local Hero
After these 2 outstanding campaigns, among all global brands in facial-care category, Smooth E is the only local brand that now moves up to No.2 and continues gaining more and more share everyday. The results indicate that Smooth E benefits from its higher consumer awareness than global brands do. And Smooth E enjoys a strong image of rebellion and anti-conventional global brands. In addition, it benefits more not only from customer perceptions of quality but also from perceptions of better familiarity and relationship than do global brands. However, as the global brands with much bigger budget, Pond’s and Nevea may still use their superstar strategy with their huge media budget instead of reviewing the effectiveness of their campaigns. As a result, Smooth E, in Thai consumers’ eyes, will have more clear positioning as The Local Hero with smaller budget who does the opposite and fights against Global Giants, in this scenario most consumers will cheer Smooth E and love to see it become No.1.
