Toilet, floor cleaner brands piggyback on the Swacch Bharat Mission

MUMBAI: Ever since the government launched its ‘Swacch Bharat Mission’, brands have left no stone unturned to make hay while the sun shines.

As per a recent TAM Adex report, the toilet and floor cleaners’ brands have made an incredible spike of 244 per cent in their ad volumes on TV from 2014 to 2018.

Commenting on the trend, TRA Research CEO N Chandramouli says, “This increase in TAM Adex is a direct reflection of the toilet and floor cleaning brands' smart piggybacking on Swachh Bharat campaign. Incidentally, it has also been used significantly by disinfectant liquid soap brands.”

However, he cautions such brands to tread carefully with their campaigns, “Brands wait eagerly for such initiatives which will give them a wave to ride on. However, if a brand uses such waves too blatantly, it can also backfire on them as it can seem pushy thereby reducing the buying propensity, the important mix of brand trust and brand desire, of the brand.”

Bijoor Consults Inc founder and brand guru Harish Bijoor notes, “Swacch Bharat has actually upped the sensitivity to toilets, hygiene, toilet cleaning and more. If you look at the government sector buying more products in this segment as well, you will see a blip!”

Brand-nomics managing director Viren Razdan believes that the huge multi-level activation campaign of Swacch Bharat Mission has got the new-age Indian and his civic sense and national pride a never-before significance. He says, “It has also sparked off the renewed idea of hygiene which has been used fairly well by these categories. So, while in the past these brands did make their presence felt - it’s just that the new environment has created a fairly receptive mindset and brands are muscling their way  for this new-found attention.”

He continues, “While earlier brands created their own space to a narrow focussed TG - suddenly the idea has been magnified in scale and width reaching a social issue, the category would obviously respond to the heat.”

Not just that, toilet soaps, toothpaste, shampoos, and washing powder/liquids also saw a huge spike in their ad volumes on TV, all of them increasing by more than 100 per cent. In fact, the report also showed that in the top 10 sectors to advertise on TV, personal healthcare improved its position by two spots; it was ranked sixth in 2014 and fourth in 2018.