Cinthol, an Indian deodorant and soap brand, has reinvented itself three times since its launch in 1952 to stay relevant to changing consumer tastes and market trends. Its latest reinvention in 2011 saw it reposition as a premium youth brand through a "Life is Awesome" campaign featuring cricketer Virat Kohli. By connecting digitally with young consumers and introducing bold fragrances, the reinvented brand achieved 3x growth. The document emphasizes that brands must reinvent every 5-7 years through compelling brand stories and connecting to consumers' real lives rather than just celebrities to ensure long-term success.

1. Cinthol to Re-position itself as a
premium youth brand
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3. In Pitch CMO Summit 2014,
“If you make sure that your brand story is fresh and compelling without
losing your core customers, then that is brand reinvention for me” shared
Sunil Kataria, the Chief Operating Officer, Sales, Marketing and SAARC,
Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL)
The following factors are leading to the need of quicker reinvention of
brands in India, probably every 5-7 years for a brand:-
1) Cultural shifts in the society
2) Frequent up gradation of Technology

4. Phase I (1952-1982) – In this era, advertisements were primarily through the print media.
Cinthol was introduced as the first deodorant and complexion soap in India. It was
launched as a premium product which targeted youth and was priced higher than its
competitors.

5. Phase II (1985-1995) – In this era, India just started taking off. Thus, Cinthol commercial
came to the TV screens and targeted its primary consumers, i.e. active, young and
premium segments. In this phase, the reinvention was dominantly in terms of product
packaging and the product communication.
During the same period, Alpha male personalities like Vinod Khanna and Imran Khan were
signed up by Cinthol for its TV commercials. The ads were shot in English during the late
1980’s and early 1990’s era in order to emphasize the premier image of the brand.
Phase 3 (1995-2007) – In this era, the Cinthol brand was well established as a premium
brand in the Indian market. However the size of the premium market was still small while
the brand continuously gaining popularity. During this phase, Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri
Khan were endorsed by Cinthol as their brand ambassadors. In order to take the brand
beyond the premium segment to the masses, Cinthol reinvented the brand again and
extended it to another popular variant. The idea was to take the brand to the big mass
popular segment – The Family. So, there were two variants of the advertisement running
parallel – One for the premium segment and the other for the popular segment.

6. Thus, since the inception of Cinthol brand till 2011, there had been a total of 3 reinventions
and the brand was doing wonderfully well when the company noticed the following key
developments taking place in the Indian market ecosystem:-
1) Major society value shift
2) Emergence of I-Generation
3) Rise of Digital and Social Media
4) Inter brand valuation – All the Godrej brands were internally valued in 2011 and Cinthol
was found to be the most massive brand among the different Godrej brands.
The above mentioned trends were clearly indicating a big change in the ecosystem. In 2011,
it led the Cinthol management team to wonder if it was time for a reinvention again. The
more important question was not that “where the brand is” but it was “where the brand
wants to be”. Hence, Cinthol geared up again for reinventing the product.
Cinthol’s Reinvention post 2011
According to Cinthol’s research, they came up with the following 3 insights:-
1) The youth of today wishes to experience all the shades of life. He wants to learn about
the different dimensions of life.
2) The youths of today don’t connect to the celebrities like the youth of 20 years back. They
relate to the real side of the celebrities than their on screen side. They are not curious
about how the celebrity behaves on screen, but the real life vulnerability of the celebrity.
3) Digital media will not be just a part of the reinventing strategy, but it will be the core of
their reinventing strategy.

7. Cinthol launched their “Life is Awesome” campaign in 2012
It associated “Alive” with the confidence of today’s youth and “Awesome” with the
emerging i-Generation. Bold colors and intense fragrances were introduced into the
product. “Being Alive” was associated with the way of life and used to differentiate the
brand.
Cinthol joined hands with Virat Kohli to appear for their new reinvented avatar in 2013.
As a result of the reinventing efforts, Cinthol got itself digitally connected with the youth.
It trended on Twitter for 7 days grabbing the attention of over 7 lakh people and 100 lakh
impressions. In a year with 0 average growth rate, Cinthol register a 3 time growth over
the previous year.
This journey of reinventing is an everlasting phenomenon for long term brands. “Brands
need to be proactive. The reinventing curves have become shorter with an average
period of 5-7 years”, added Mr. Kataria. In response to whether celebrity brand
ambassadors are the way ahead for a brand, Mr Kataria replied that if the idea to connect
with the consumers is strong enough, there is no particular need of celebrities to
promote your brand.

12. Repackaging
New product-line