Greenstar: The *SUNO ZARA* Campaign

Going through the blog I found out that the writers are more concentrated towards the BLING-BLING brands as they say. In Pakistan, there is a brand which has been working for the past 13 years yet no one wants to discuss about it openly. The brand has had its fair share of criticism when it was introduced but it slowly gained access to the markets and most importantly to the minds of the consumer. The company under discussion here is Greenstar Social Marketing Pakistan and the brand is Touch Condoms. I will be focusing more on Touch condoms since its ruling the airwaves so to speak. I am not promoting the brand in any way but trying to explain the marketing aspect that the brand holds.

This campaign has dwindled over the years due to our conservative society and it has taken a considerable amount of time to develop its appeal, impact the consumer, cement its place in the market (second largest condom brand) and the consumer’s mind (safety and prevention). Since the campaign had to face the social taboos, it had to a keep a slow and steady approach towards their goals. Spending huge sums of money and covering all forms of media could not have been possible with such a sensitive product.

Before moving on with the topic I would like to share something with you guys which will show how effective the aggressive advertising strategy was. On my way back from Lahore in early March 2009, I was humming the “Suno Zara” song – the song of the latest touch campaign – (In a low voice of course) and there was a kid who must be around 12 to 13 years of age was looking at me with a cheeky grin which gave me an impression that he knows and likes the song. This instance shows the strong penetration of the recent Touch campaign where markets to whom Touch is not even catering to is also in the groove of the campaign song. The song has been such a hit that you see it on every channel, the ring tones are also available and you won’t mind singing it let along humming.

Sorry for not adding any pictures because I couldn’t find any on the web and my ego/self-respect didn’t let me ask the chemist for it. Greenstar team is also giving away a generator if you send them an empty wrapper of the condom. I don’t know how many of the readers will try sending the wrapper now just to have a generator. No offence to the generator campaign if you look at it through the financial perspective it’s not a bad investment at all.

In the beginning, the consumer needed to be aware about the features and benefits that the product offers which made the Greenstar team go for the Informational Strategy. They persisted with the strategy for more than six years where they launched campaigns concerning healthy lifestyles and positive living associating these beliefs with the Touch. As the sales started to mount, the Greenstar team knew that the acceptance of the product is there with the society so they played the MASTER STROKE with the ‘Suno Zara’ song and linking their product to upscale consumers. There target market has been very well identified with the campaign as they have shown young, fun-loving and energetic students in the beginning of the advertisement. Later on the students get married and prefer a lifestyle that the brand enforces. This is where they’ve taken a step forward to the Transformational Strategy.

Tags: ad, advertising strategy, appeal, brand, campaign, campaign song, cheeky grin, condom brand, condoms, conservative, conservative society, consumer, criticism, generator, Greenstar, Lahore, market, Marketing, pakistan, prevention, product, ruling the airwaves, safety, sales, sensitive product, social, social marketing, social taboos, Song, strategy, suno, suno zara, taboo, team, touch, touch campaign, Video, Zara

Category: Brands