Why Marico roped in Alia Bhatt for Nihar Naturals after 13-year-long association with Vidya Balan

Marico has announced Alia Bhatt as the new brand ambassador of Nihar Naturals and Nihar Shanti Amla with the launch of two new TVCs which highlight the significance of healthy hair and how beauty shines from the hair as well as within.

Bhatt has become the new brand ambassador after the brand’s 13-year-long association with Vidya Balan.

Speaking to BestMediaInfo.com, Somasree Bose Awasthi, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), Marico, stated that it was Balan who not just wore the brand but played a key role in bringing the Nihar where it is today.

“For taking the baton on from there, we needed somebody who was equally strong and can take it to the next level of growth. When we met consumers as part of our regular exercise, we realised that consumers today tend to support the brands which in turn support a cause, something that Nihar does in terms of education. That’s when we realised that the youth icon that we wanted to associate with was Alia Bhatt because she not only idolises but is a staunch supporter of education, herself, and that too on a personal level,” she added.

With this, Awasthi also went on to add that because the brand wants to increasingly get new people on board, it was only time that Marico onboarded Bhatt as the brand ambassador of Nihar Naturals to take the baton of driving education for the brand and help the brand in driving penetration.

“Given Alia Bhatt’s appeal, which cuts across demographies- both Hindi Speaking Markets and Eastern markets, we believe that she will be helping us in bringing more and more newer users and drive penetration,” she said.

As per Awasthi, Nihar is not just a brand which stands for beauty but also supports a progressive cause which is where Bhatt fitted in the picture and that’s when the brand’s concept of taking itself to the next level of growth and the ideation of the campaign came in.

Conceptualised by WPP, the new TVCs, one for Nihar Shanti Amla and the other for Nihar Naturals Coconut Hair Oil, featuring Bhatt, highlight the goodness of Nihar and the importance of leaving a positive impact.

The first TVC begins in a classroom of students commenting on Bhatt’s long and lustrous hair with a lyrical ode, asking how she maintains her black, beautiful, thick hair. She then highlights Nihar Shanti Amla as the reason for her beautiful hair while highlighting how the brand contributes 5% of its profits to promote the education of the girl child and empower children to move one step closer to their dreams.

The second TVC begins with Bhatt being serenaded by a group of Bauls, ethnic wandering minstrels from Bengal, who ask her the secret to her long, lustrous hair. The Bauls then take the serenade– a riff on the popular song, “Boro loker biti, lo lamba lamba chul”, created by singer-songwriter Ratan Kahar– to another girl stepping out of a bus with equally gorgeous hair while Alia looks on, thoroughly enjoying the scene.

The former then debunks the notion that beautiful hair is the result of “magic” and reaffirms the brand proposition that it is the right of every woman and not just a few. The ad ends with Bhatt highlighting how Nihar Naturals, with coconut and methi (fenugreek), is perfect for thick, beautiful hair.

Commenting as to how different it is to come up with the marketing initiatives of a purpose-led brand as compared to that of a product-led brand, Awasthi stated that in the case of Marico, both Parachute and Nihar are purpose-led brands that respectively support consumers to drive up their productivity and standing up for children’s education.

“We are a company which supports brands with purpose, because purpose is the one thing that drives the long-term equity of the brand,” she said.

She also pointed out that back when Marico had onboarded Balan as the brand ambassador, the major objective was that the brand needed its ambassador to really stand for the cause and genuinely believe it, and that remains true even today when Marico roped in Bhatt as its new brand-face.

“The biggest part of it is that consumers should believe in the cause themselves and get influenced when they see the celebrities themselves supporting the brand and that’s when the brand also enables consumers to give back to the society when they buy the particular brand’s products,” she said.

Commenting on the rationale behind the onboarding of a new celeb face, Awasthi stated that because the brand’s consumer age band is between 22 years and 45 years, the consumers have also moved on from the times when Balan was the face of the brand and more and more younger consumers have come into the picture which is why their youth icon has changed.

“If we have to be relevant to our consumers, the brand also needs to evolve with the changing times,” she added.

Commenting on the planned media mix for Nihar’s new campaign, she emphasised that traditional media will still be at the forefront of the campaign because the brand straddles across SECs and pop strata, both, in the HSM and Eastern markets, where television still offers the largest reach.

“As a result, more than 70% of the ad budgets will be allocated to television, for both reach and frequency build-up, with the help of the brand’s media agency- Madison World, in addition to the digital initiatives and influencer campaigns to drive the cause of the brand, the purpose it stands for and incremental reach, depending on the ROI or the cost per consumer reach,” she added.

Moreover, she also highlighted that Marico has been increasing its ad spends YoY on its various portfolio of brands, and even more so behind its core brands, because the company believes that what is invested in the brand building today is for the long-term goodness of the brand in terms of its equity and growth.

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