reverse - engineering

i was at bangkok last month.

i didnt bring shampoo cos it was easy to get one there and cheap.

at their seven-eleven..it's a store and more,
i bought this nice looking packaged shampoo.
the brand was say.. "sunshine" (*name has been changed to protect company)

not bad, quite good in fact. not drying to the hair.
works like the "follow me- green tea series"
i use it alternatively cos it felt a wee too mild for me.


**fast forward 3 weeks later, back in SIN**

i was checking out at the cold storage cashier.

hey, isnt this "sunshine" shampoo?? but it is not called sunshine
here. it is the island wide, household brand OOO.

recently they just launged the TV ads.

?? ok, maybe they name it differently. of course different market
segmentation they have to position the prodt different. this is
my blood, marketing.


** fast forward one more week **

i was at a friend's office. they do creative prints, u know-- packaging
and the regular print ads.

sitting at one corner were these bottles of "sunshine" shampoos.

"what's this doing here? did desmond design this?" i queried.

"ya he did" his wife (also his partner) replied.

"i didnt know it is by OOO, i bought it from BKK and it was "sunshine" there"

"no signs of OOO, did they want to create a new brand?"

"ya, they wanted it to be "sunshine" here, but they realised that it doesnt work
so they stuck to the big brother brand OOO"

so dear frens, u see?

it doesnt matter what they name it. they would just name it
anything we consumer would like to call it.

when sales is going north, they need to do a prodt life-cycle extension.
throw in a new formula, revamp the packaging, the colours, the name.
keep the big bro brand or have a sub-brand.

work backwards, find out what the ppe like,
name it what they like, make it look accepting.
have TV ads. it doesnt matter what they put on their scalp.

when u're at backstage, u'll know the sketch.