MUMBAI: Fevicol has announced that it has entered yet another overseas market - Egypt. The adhesive brand is already being exported to over 15 countries like - UAE, South Africa, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Congo, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, Angola to name a few.

Additionally, plans are also underway to launch the brand in Pakistan, Indonesia and Myanmar.

Fevicol has announced its Egypt launch through an outdoor advertisement in Mumbai, the visual of which, carries the image of a sphinx with a broken nose that is sealed with Fevicol.

In the early 90s, the Fevicol brand emerged as a market leader in its category in India. Despite this, the sales figures remained stagnant. It is at this point in the life of Fevicol that the company decided to invest in marketing the brand.

The return on Pidilite’s investment in marketing this brand paid off well, demonstrating sales growth of over 55 per cent vs. average market growth rate of 10 per cent. At present Fevicol enjoys 70 per cent of the market share.

Through its marketing initiatives, the Fevicol brand succeeded in establishing a distinctive position for Fevicol vis a vis unbranded products. The big idea, ‘Fevicol is Bonding’, was an idea that has been communicated largely through advertising, which was created by O&M. The “Huddle” image of the Indian Cricket team and TV commercials like ‘Haisha” are examples of execution of this idea that clearly state, “Some bonds are as unbreakable as the Fevicol bond.”

Once ‘Fevicol is bonding’ was established as a brand association, the task at hand was to retain existing customers, generate repeat sales and grow the market share. While the first step in the advertising was to move towards making brand associations, the second phase of this evolution was to extend and own the underlying values of these associations. Creative executions like the ‘Egg’ and ‘Cliffhanger’ TVCs worked successfully to meet these objectives.