Strategy

Masterpiece of a campaign

ITC-Welcomgroup's brand campaign created a powerful impact on its audience in terms of brand awareness and image building. Vyas Sivanand examines the campaign and the strategies adopted by the company and its success

A successful brand building calls for logistical precision. Among other inherent strategical formats, it takes a lot of understanding of the product and its potential keeping the target audience in mind.

ITC-Welcomgroup, with its successful brand campaign 'Experience the world with an Indian soul' has been able to do just that.

The group ventured into re-categorisation and branding exercises in 2000-01. This resulted into four categories of branded hotels, namely ITC Hotels - premium deluxe hotels for business travellers, WelcomHotels - business and leisure hotels, Fortune Hotels - first-class full services hotels and WelcomHeritage - heritage hotels, palaces, forts, havelis, resorts and homes.

The strategy

With the completion of the chain in important locations like ITC Hotel Grand Maratha Sheraton & Towers in Mumbai in 2001-02 and ITC Hotel SONAR Bangla Sheraton & Towers in Kolkata in 2003, it was considered to be an opportune time to externalise the brand positioning to its audience. It was therefore decided to go ahead and put together an advertising campaign to meet its objectives.

Between the year 2003 and 2004, ITC carried a press campaign in newspapers and magazines, which was later followed by a television campaign between February 2005 to March 2005.

The strategy was to announce and enhance ITC Hotels as the premium hotels in the Indian market from ITC-Welcomgroup. "To bring alive and showcase world class hospitality with an Indian touch, the creative rationale was to depict ITC Sheraton Hotels as a reflection of the great Indian culture and heritage offering international standards of service and hospitality. Each of these properties spread across the country are a perfect blend of that city's culture and tradition that can be experienced in a style that's truly world class. Every hotel is therefore unique and is a masterpiece," says Sunil Sarin, marketing sservices manager, ITC-Welcomegroup.

The task of bringing alive the marriage of the rich Indian culture and heritage and world class standards in the context of hospitality was challenging as it implied a hunt for visual representations that stood for these two dimensions and make their fusion seem natural and seamless. "It was challenging as it was not a mere coming together of two distinct cultures but the emergence of a third culture that is distinct from the two of them individually. Keeping in mind the target audience, who is discerning, well-travelled and sensorial in the way they absorb the world, the imagery that was used were experiential rather than instructive. 'Experience the world with an Indian Soul' captured this essence," says Sarin.

The campaign

ITC then came up with the Mona Lisa advertisement. "The painting of Mona Lisa needs no introduction or explanation. It is synonymous with universal beauty and intrigue and this universal symbol of feminity doing the classical Indian namaste sent the message across.

It stayed for a long time in the minds of the viewers and the television commercial ultimately got to be known as the Mona Lisa ad. This symbol of international standards of service and perfection meeting Indian warmth and hospitality brought alive the baseline 'Experience the world with an Indian Soul'," says Sarin.

To take this idea further, contrasting images from two cultures were taken and brought together in such a way that it seemed natural. The advertisement also featured a ballet dancer dancing with ghungroos, Indian figurines on chopsticks, a christian bride with mehendi on her hands finally culminating with the Mona Lisa doing the namaste. While each of these visuals reinforced the message and brought alive the proposition, the music further enhanced the drama.

It was a fusion of Indian alaap and western classical. "The result was enhanced image and awareness across the board of ITC Hotels as the premium brand of hotels in India from ITC-Welcomgroup," says Sarin.