Luxor looks to pen 'Nano Clean' brand extension script

Watch the TVC created by Lowe Lintas for Luxor Nano Clean, a new line of products from the writing instruments major. Amitabh Bachchan, brand ambassador for writing instruments, has been retained as brand ambassador to leverage Luxor's brand equity.

Credits

Agency: Lowe Lintas

Creative team: Amer Jaleel, Mohit Arora, Shayondeep Pal, Manzoor Alam, Prachi Sharma,Anshul Nagpal

Servicing team: Tanul Bhartiya, Chandrika Kohli, Vivek Mishra

Q&A with DK Jain, chairman and president, Luxor Group

Campaign India: Taking Luxor beyond pens into cleansing: did you consider creating a new brand given that the category is unrelated?

DK Jain: We thought over this. But finally, our branding team thought that since Luxor has mass distribution in India and internationally, we would retain the name. Our brand has been recognised as a 'Super brand' in India and registered as a Trademark (covering all 32 clauses). We are also registered as a Trademark in 126 countries. So we thought keeping the Luxor name would give it a feeling of coming from a renowned brand house and they will believe in our technology and invention. Giving it a new brand name and then reaching the country would make us spend a lot more money on advertising. We picked Amitabh Bachchan as brand ambassador for the same reason (to leverage the equity of the Luxor brand).

CI: Would there be more sub-brands under Luxor Nano Clean?

DK Jain: Yes. In October, we are looking to launch a cleaner and protector for mobiles, smart phones, laptops and computers. No one has entered this market so far. Following this, we are looking to launch an automobile cleaner for cars and bikes. We also have plans to get into the jewellery (cleaner) market.

CI: How long has Luxor been working on the R&D (nanotechnology) behind the product?

DK Jain: Our scientists from Austria and Germany have been working on this product for more than 30 years. Luxor has now commercialised this and has worked on this in India for the last two years before finally launching the product on 1 April 2012.

CI: Will we see multiple films featuring the brand ambassador?

DK Jain: We have made three films. One is currently on air. The next two films will release as and when our new products hit the market.

CI: The budget you have outlined is Rs 15 crore (in media reports), as the media spend for the launch...

DK Jain:  I think we are exceeding this budget. We could be hitting upto 25 crores depending on the launches and the market.

CI: How will this budget be spread across media?

DK Jain: We'll have BTL activities at the time of purchase in stores. Our ATL activities include print media and our television commercials. Being a start up (on the product line), we've not decided our percentages.

CI: Who is the TG for the Luxor Nano Clean range?

DK Jain: At the moment, we are only present in the urban markets. 'Urban' itself is pretty big in India, so for now that should be sufficient. We might look to expand in the rural market next year. We're targetting the middle class and above categories as our product is a pretty expensive one. We don't consider ourselves to have any competition in the market currently, so we can't compare prices compared to any cleaners. The price will be high enough to match our marketing expenditures.

CI: The Luxor Nano website also mentions 'Happy Hands', a sanitiser. Is that part of the new range?

DK Jain: We thought of launching this in the past. But since many players are in this market already, we have kept the product in the pipeline. We may launch it later this year or may keep it for next year.