This may be the start of a trend. You can't have helped but notice how some brands have been piggybacking on social causes. If HLL brands like Surf Excel and Ponds are doing it, so are ITC's Sunfeast and Aashirwad. Is it a one-off tactical thing or does it make strategic sense? Also is it about the product or the corporate brand?

Some kids in Mumbai's Bainganwadi slums are grateful to Surf Excel. The Rs 485 crore brand in turn has them to thank, for a feel-good marketing campign - the Surf Excel 10/10 drive. This saw Excel buyers in the four cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata SMSing an amount to HLL. The company in turn donated that amount to an NGO that was imvolved in educating underpriviledged children.

Keeping Surf company is HLL's Rs 355 crore Ponds, that's tied up with the United Nations Development Fund for Women. For every flap of Ponds cold cream mailed by the consumer, the company would contribute Rs 2 to the fund to fight domestic violence. Even though, the proportion of adspends from its Rs 1,000 crore advertising and promotion budget have been minimal, HLL says most of its brands will look for long term strategic linkages with social causes.

Vice President, Skincare, HLL, Ashok Venkatramani told CNBC-TV18, "If the activity is not housed in brand promise, then it looks like a charitable activity and in my view, those activities are difficult to sustain in the long run. In our case, specific to Fair and Lovely, or even Ponds, these are strongly housed in what the brand stands for and what brand promise is all about, hence they are easy to sustain and will reap huge benfits."

Industry watchers say that HLL has moved gingerly towards backing this creative tack. Four years ago, it did an on-ground activation on Lifebuoy under the 'Swasth Chetana' campaign, and saw sales go up by 20% in 17,000 villages. With such proof of better sales, the company is set to extend that initiative to urban areas. Further, the soap has extended the idea of social focus to their mainline TV advertising, featuring little Gandhi. Creative gurus think brands walking the social talk are welcome.

Executive Creative Director, Lowe, R Balakrishnan explains, "There are so many causes which are so fresh and which have not been tapped, so, they are all potentially great ideas lying there. Only look at it that way, I won't look at this as a tack that'll be the focus of corporates in the future."

Here's another difference to note. Corporate social responsibility, CSR, is being used to build individual brands rather than the corporate brand. A case in point is the Rs 16,000 crore ITC, that ran their CSR campaign, about putting India first for its e-choupal initiative two years back. Cut to the present. The company has linked the Sunfeast brand to its social forestry campaign, where  the company chips in with 25 paise for every pack of Sunfeast biscuit and pasta sold, and consumers who buy the atta brand, Aashirvaad, contribute towards ITC's rain harvesting campaign.  

Divisional Chief Executive, ITC, Ravi Naware says, "Consumers like to connect with the brand, if the brand is seen as a responsible brand, then consumers get an emotional connect thats far beyond just usage of the brand and consuming it. It's this higher level of connect that we are attempting to create through this campaign. So, in an attempt to connect with consumers at several levels, we will run this campaign, parallel to other campaigns, that talk about differentiated innovative products under the Sunfeast brand."

Back home too, experts say that brand loyalty is passe. For the shopper, both Rin and Tide offer  stain-remvoing benefits at a similar price and soon the retailer's in-store brands will add to that list of me-too brands.

Marketing consultant & Founder of Nobby, Nabankur Gupta adds, "Product differentiation is compeltely drying up, service aspects are narrowed out, so the brand value question will come up in the durables sector as well. It will come up in the auto sector in my view. This will be a very live issue as we move forward in time."

But if from detergent to TV sets, all brands chase consumers for a cause, there will be clutter. At the same time, experts say its important to find the right fit between brand and cause that lasts longer than a passing fad.

Molshree Vaid