GRADUATION PROJECT- SPARKING INNOVATIONS IN BRAND COMMUNICATION, NIFT CLASS OF 2020

the graduation project

INITIAL BRIEF

With several rebranding exercises done already in the past few years, Lacto Calamine had seen expansion into two skincare categories with solutions for different skin types from being just one moisturizer product brand.

While Lacto Calamine had established credence with the woman who equated beauty with simplicity, it is time to ladder up to a larger and aspirational space. It is time to connect with a ‘self-assured’ woman who makes informed decisions in a different space.

The brand needs alignment with a new image without losing its core of simplicity and positioning. From being present in basic categories like moisturizing, face wash and face scrub, the trade-up is also about introducing newer products in sun protection and skin renewal space that come with definitive promises and differentiation. The challenge is to create a new image, closer to confident women of the current generation, that carries simplicity from the past and also looks believable as an advanced skincare solution expert with a growing portfolio overlooking its image of medicinal usage to beneficial everyday use cosmetic product.

Duration: 16 weeks

why this project

Being a teenager, a few years back; I was indulged in using a lot of beauty products. Every day a new creme, souffle, mousse, lotions, balms, moisturisers, et al. would launch and I would want them all. Why? Maybe because of the smell, but by then to realise what it smelt like I hadn’t bought it. Then, what else.

Maybe the feeling of FOMO or having something new. Maybe, but being gen Z, I personally never had that feeling of FOMO back then. What else?

It was the advertising- their way of promoting these products that felt attractive, that felt compelling and forced me to force my parents to give me these products. Being good parents and I being the academia daughter got whatever I wished. Those TVCs were attractive but most attractive was the type of ads they did in newspapers and magazines. They played around the creative and even added samples so lucrative to attract customers- not only their potential audience but beyond them as well. There would be samples of creams and even scents that I remember. It was a fascination to open those sachets and unveil the fragrance which was so sweet to be ignored.

Little did I know, this would show up in the later years of life. When there came the day of premier for acne and pimples in the other half of my teenager life, I realised that there are different skin types and things on your face should be according to that skin type. This acne was hard to deal with and gave a moral breakdown.

This is when I realised that having oily skin is hard to maintain. You can’t just dab a moisturiser to moisturise it and supply it neither you can wash your face 10 times to remove excess oil as then essential oils from the skin are stripped too, making your skin dry and hence triggering the action of more oil production.

Then came the Lacto Calamine lotion in my life, which was suggested by a family doctor as I faced rashes and skin burns due to excessive washing of my face.

It did wonders on my skin and I was forever grateful to that. My skin started glowing and blooming like a younger 10 years old me but wait, I was a Gen Z; my mother kept on using the lotion forever after whenever someone got zits in the family or even the rashes but me being a forward generation got swayed by the Digital Media-Instagram and Facebook ads now. I started following beauty bloggers who came to know of different other brands manufacturing lotions and again started using and implementing all of them changing the cremes according to the changing season and soon my skin was the same again (with acne).

And this time, I went to a dermatologist, got myself checked and started having medicines and not stepping out in the sun but I completely forgot about Lacto Calamine.

When in office, this project came from Piramal Healthcare to revamp the image of Lacto Calamine, I could really relate to the problem because I was one of them. For years, they have been trying hard to reimage themselves in the public. So, it was quite a challenge to pick this up.

The reimaging of the brand was quite a task. It is difficult to switch people’ perceptions of a medicinal product to one of a cosmetic product. The corporate and marketing materials, from the simplicity of the stationery to the richness of the creatives to the playfulness of the interaction. The identity or the image change should work on different visual wavelengths but it should all feel consistent and coherent at the same time.

project timeline

Project Brief

DISCOVERDEFINE

JANUARY

FEBRUARY & MARCH

SHIVANGI BARWAR • GRADUATION PROJECT • B.DES 2016-2020

Advertising is a component of branding. A brand and help it to achieve its desired por trust in the marketplace. In advertising, inno idea is to create a customer-centric cam attention and help in the conversion of a brand.

Every time a message seems to grab us, and we think, ‘I just might try it,’ we are at the nexus of choice and persuasion that is advertising.“