Havell’s Cables - A Simple Story: Lower class background: Emotional twist: Universality in communication “Wires that don’t catch fire”

Brand – Havells Cables

Agency – Lowe Lintas India

Havell’s India Ltd., one of India’s largest & fastest growing electrical and power distribution equipment manufacturers, have taken the product positioning approach rather than focusing on single brand positioning approach in its communication for Havell’s Cables and Wire. However, the communication approach differs for different portfolio of products like “Shock Laga” campaign captivating its audience more on humor front while cables communication grabbing attention more on emotional value. Caring nature is the innate quality of every Indian and this, coupled with emotional background score and essence of creativity, the Ad takes an approach of promoting a premium wire brand with a not-so-premium setting.

“Although the product is premium, we didn’t want the typical urban, affluent setting for the ad” says R Balakrishnan (Balki), chairman and chief creative officer, Lowe India (courtesy agencyfaqs.com).

The 2 TVCs i.e. Mother-Son Ad (2007) & Necklace Ad (2010) play around 3 main messages:

1) “Wires that don’t catch fire” – so prevents accidents occurring due to electrical nuisance

2) “Bend it like Havell’s” – are flexible and can be molded in any shape

3) Havell’s cares for you

The critically acclaimed ad featuring the duo of mother & son in a construction site, first introduced in December 2007, raised eyebrows in the advertising fraternity where the son bends the cable into a shape of pair of tongs so that her mother doesn’t hurt herself while cooking chapattis. The instinct-of-a-son-to-protect-his-mother concept was explored which can easily be related to in the Indian context. And it did work. It got listed among the top 10 NDTV ads. Also, it was a good effort for a B2B product to directly communicate to the consumers, especially in India where the influencers are people like electricians and electrical contractors. Small kids have a tendency to watch out for new and innovative things around them, which was well adapted in this commercial.

Continuing with the same messages, Havell’s Cables came out with their new communication in 2010 and this time there was an addition of one more character – presumably the land lady belonging to an upper middle or upper class section of the society for whom the mother-son duo work. Shifting to a more educated and urban scene of the society, the child again takes the center stage when he saves the necklace of the land lady from burning when he replaces the rope of the necklace with Havell’s wires – to which the lady smiles back. Again with the emotional back ground score, the brand has tried to increase it target base from roadside (awareness) to households (usability). However, compared to the previous Ad, the emotional touch has declined.

Now, what would be the next step for Havell’s cables and wires?

Will the mother-son duo become the face of Havell’s wires? If yes, is that going to be good for the brand considering that it’s a premium product?

Is there a conscious strategy of trying to increase end consumer’s involvement in the buying process for cables and wires for domestic use?

Has the Ad succeeded in getting the message “Havells cares for you” across to the end consumer? Has the target market been able to comprehend the hidden ‘trust’ factor in the story behind these commercials?