Sahara QShop Advertisement analysis

Sahara recently ventured into retail through Sahara QShop. One of its advertisements has been doing the rounds but was recently replaced by an abridged version of the same. It had most of the prominent Indian cricketers chipping in to pass on the message that using/consuming 'milawat' (adulterated) products in our daily life is leading us to an unhealthy life.

The advertisement drew lot of flak from people, media and most importantly BCCI!

At first instance I felt that Sahara has got it all wrong. The commercial was too rude in showing a Yuvraj singh digging up a grave, Sehwag replacing a child’s bed with a hospital bed and so on.

I felt that Sahara was treading a very dicey path and the obvious loopholes were:

• The advertisement does not fit in well with Sahara's image
•  It was a very high risk game of band building based on quality. Even if a single case of quality is detected/reported down the line it will bring down the whole foundation of the brand.

I spoke to few of my colleagues and strangely all of them had similar thoughts.

But looking back I feel that there's definitely a tactical strategy behind it and that is:

•       One, arriving in the already crowded retail scene with a bang  - ensuring its arrival is noticed and
•       Second, creating recall value on the consumers mind.

 Well if that's the case then 'Rediffusion Y&R', the creative agency behind the ad, has definitely succeeded in the initial stage of this race. Now let’s see how the brand takes itself forward!

Have a look at the video and do let me know what you think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azr11RR9x6o