The brand’s Sr. VP goes behind the scenes with afaqs! on the revamp and the brand’s future.

Battery and lighting products manufacturer, Eveready has unveiled a new logo and a tagline, aiming to woo the new generation of consumers. The new tagline for the brand now reads ‘Give me Power. Give me Red.’.

For the logo, the brand has adopted a design where its signature ‘Cat O-9’ unit, a depiction of a cat's nine lives, sits adjacent to what the brand calls an ‘infinity loop’. The previous logo saw the ‘Cat O-9’ take the centre of a red and yellow ellipse.

As per the brand, the revamped Eveready logo marks a strategic shift in the company’s timeline as well. Eveready’s Sr. VP & SBU head (Batteries & Flashlights), Anirban Banerjee explains that the brand is foraying into other categories of products, and the expansion of the brand’s portfolio made it imperative for the brand to develop a relevant and contemporary identity.

He says, “We are in the process of transformation, in terms of people, innovation, growth and the foraying into new categories. While the revamp was important from the marketing side of things, it was also to establish that the brand is relevant.”

The century-old brand has been at the helm of the batteries business in India, since 1905. As per Banerjee, the brand currently boasts an estimate of more than 50 percent market share in the battery segment of the Indian market.

"We needed to assess if the identity is still relevant. Somewhere in the journey, we figured that we need to rejuvenate the identity without letting go of some elements of the past."

The brand’s iconic logo, the Cat O-9, has been around since 1930. In the course of Eveready’s journey, for the last four decades, the identity of the brand has had a unified look, with the red ellipse becoming synonymous with the brand. But, does this revamp risk diminishing the brand's legacy?

Banerjee answers, “Eveready is a household brand, that has stood for more than batteries. In the 90s, the brand had become a cult culture. But two decades later, we needed to assess if the identity is still relevant. Somewhere in the journey, we figured that we need to rejuvenate the identity without letting go of some elements of the past.”

"Within the battery segment, we are looking to take a huge thrust towards alkaline batteries. We are also aggressively pushing innovation in the flashlight sector, lighting, and others."

The focus on ‘infinity loop’, which is the slightly drawn- out version of the mathematical symbol for infinity, implies the brand’s intent to take on other categories of products, as per Banerjee. He elaborates, “Within the battery segment, we are looking to take a huge thrust towards alkaline batteries. We are also aggressively pushing innovation in the flashlight sector, lighting, and others.”

With these expansion moves, the brand is also putting its promotional money behind these products to build awareness. “We are putting media behind flashlights, lighting products, to make people aware about our presence in these categories and differentiate ourselves from the competition.”

The revamped identity might be the trigger to a larger shift in the way the brand approaches its marketing. With Eveready going all out with its expansion strategy, we asked Banerjee if the brand had any particular product launches up its sleeve.

He answers, “After the identity revamp, we are going to reveal our entire alkaline batteries launch in the next one month. They are the new batteries called ‘Ultima’. We are also going to focus on rechargeable flashlights. In fact, if you look at our campaigning in the past three months, our proposition on the product is that it is India’s fastest charging flashlights.”

The brand is also currently running a campaign on a bulb called ‘InstaCharge’.

“When you have no electricity at home, the bulb turns out automatically, with only 3-4 hours of charging time. All of these products have been profiled in a way where they pivot on the idea of more power, which is where the connection with the new tagline is.”

Speaking on the target group for the brand, Banerjee reveals, “Batteries are used across demographics. The interesting thing is, more remote controls in the house mean more batteries. The segmentation remains more centred around device ownerships. Some of the younger consumers consume batteries for their high-drain devices, parents buy batteries for toys, and people who are older in age consume batteries for their health- oriented devices.”

However, the primary core target group for the brand remains consumers who are 20-40 years of age. The media mix for the brand is heavily focused on TV, with supplementary support from digital channels.

“We do a lot of awareness- building activities on digital. But television still dominates our marketing and advertising channels. There is also some amount of print depending on particular vernaculars.”

Regarding sales and distribution, Eveready predominantly operates through traditional channels. As per Banerjee, the traditional channels of general trade account for more than 95 percent of the business while digital channels are relegated to a mere five percent.