2/11/15 Bringing down brand Borolin - Economic Times articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2003-07-15/news/27515818_1_harsh-agarwal-brand-emami-industries 1/3 Bringing down brand Borolin Jul 15, 2003, 02.41am IST "I shall retell some stories," he tells her, "the ones your mother told me, even those that she told not in words, but in gestures and glances. Like that of the black-and-yellow Boroline Cream banners catching the wind on Durga Puja day....." — From 'The Blue Bedspread', Raj Kamal Jha. It came to be a part of a generation's collective nostalgia so much so that we hardly noticed when it slipped into modern Indian English literature. But today if you ask a twenty something about Boroline, don't be surprised if all you get is a shrug. Generic Pharma Industry genericpharmaindustry.com News from the industry Get the Free Weekly News Digest Play & Win Cash Online ace2three.com/Play-Rummy Rummy is a Traditional Indian Game. Play & Earn Cash Upto 1Lakh Daily! Pharma Company astronialife.com Fastest Growing PCD Multinational Offers Marketing Support Product packaging openthefuture.info/ Influence shopper behaviour with powerful Shelf Ready Packaging For Brand Boroline, 'stickiness' has an element of irony. It was its stickiness that a clever competitor used to dissuade customers away from the brand. That was 20 years ago, when BoroPlus, from house of Emami, stormed the market and changed the rules of the games, forever. BoroPlus used the white and lavender colour packs as a first step in differentiation. The second and more fundamental difference was "lightness" of the cream. "Gudiya rani badi sayani.." the commercial highlighted the word plus to value — those were early days of consumer promotion. Last but not the least, was Emami's decision to question the plank of "antiseptic cream" that Boroline adhered to so strongly. Aspersions over the 'antiseptic' attribute of the brand stuck. So much so that Boroline lost out being categorised as a medicinal product and instead got bracketed as a cosmetic one. Concessional levies and taxes built into the pricing of the product too were lost once Boroline started to be treated as any other cosmetic product. "Yet Boroline's owners GD Pharmaceuticals did not respond to any competition seriously in the mid '80s. There also was a shortage of stock. This almost amounts to an arrogance on part of an FMCG company," Harsh Agarwal, director, Emami Industries, points out. Call it arrogance, complacency, conservativeness or whatever, repeated attempts to get in touch with anyone from the Dutta family that controls GD Pharmaceuticals elicited the same reply: "the management does not give interviews, information or meets anyone. This is for security reasons." In days when TRPs were unheard off and radio waves ruled supreme, Boroliner Sansar on Vividh Bharati on Sundays used to vie with such hit programmes as Bornvita Quiz Contest and Musical Band Box. If you ever need an example of residual equity, chances are you won't come across a better one than Boroline. There hasn't been a fresh ad in more than five years now. Neither have there been any reminder ads to retain the emotional equity of the brand. Yet it lingers on... "A look into its user base could explain part of this," said Ranjan Das, professor of strategic management, IIM (C). Its users were either hardcore brand loyalists or just borderline ones. "It is this second category which deserted the brand in droves when a supposedly better alternative came RELATED ARTICLES Cash & Burn: It's four weeks to Durga Puja now September 19, 2007 Emami to revive Rs 80-cr Boroplus brand November 28, 2002 FOLLOW ET: Log In / Join LATEST NEWS > 04:38 PM: Patna High Court stays recognition of Nitish Kumar as... 04:34 PM: Risk of contagion from Greece is low: S&P's Moritz Kr... 04:24 PM: Biennal polls toAndhra Pradesh, Telangana Legislative... Mark Zuckerberg India key market for Facebook’s internet plans < > SENSEX 28,533.97 178.35 NIFTY 8,627.40 61.85 GOLD (MCX) (Rs/10g.) 26,815.00 -41.00 USD/INR 62.23 0.03 LOGIN to Track your Investments 04:04 PM | 11 Feb MARKET STATS EOD ET Portfolio ET Speed News Industry Politics Markets Wealth MF Tech Jobs Opinion Blogs NRI Slideshows Magazines ET NOW Indiatimes The Times of India The Economic Times More You are here: Home > Collections > Durga Puja