Widely read:
Picture this: You are finally renovating your house and now you can use that absolutely beautiful interior design you snagged off the internet. The ply is bought and now you need to buy an adhesive from the variety available in the market.
There is Sencol, Sakti Bond, Plywood Col, Quickcol, Falcofix, Super 94, Bulbond, Prime-Bond. And then there is Fevicol. Which one would you be comfortable buying?
That's the allure of Fevicol. Decades of advertising and product positioning has made Fevicol the king of the domestic adhesive market. It is estimated to have cornered 70 per cent of the market to itself (Kotak estimates) leaving other regional players far far behind. Fevicol has become such a big brand that it is now the largest selling adhesive brand in Asia.
If there is any testament to the strength of Fevicol's brand, it is this: operating profit for the company compounded at 25 per cent annually during the last five years, one of the toughest years for realty sector-the company's biggest client sector. Sales grew 16 per cent annually in the same period beating the record of even many real estate developers.
A large part of Fevicol's stickiness with the masses has been the connect it has managed to make through its advertising. Catch phrases like “Fevicol ka mazboot jodh hai, tootega nahi” and “Dum laga kar haisha, zor laga kar haisha” have helped the company create a top of the mind brand recall.
Short term hiccups. Pidilite's Brazil and Egypt subsidiaries are not doing well. A slowdown in Brazil and political turmoil in the MidEast are bogging things down there. Then there are raw material price concerns especially that of VAM (Vinyl Acetate monomer) which Pidilite imports which exposes it to currency movement.
Pidilite looks set to gain from any increase in economic activity. There is no other organised player that comes close to it. That's why it seems apt to say “Chipka Le Saiyan Fevicol Se”.
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