Eveready cat gets another life

Jaidev Majumdar in Kolkata

The BM Khaitan flagship Eveready Industries India Ltd (EIL) has abandoned its plan to change its well-known battery brand of a cat jumping through number 9. Instead, the tea-to-batteries major is now introducing an umbrella concept for all its products — from dry cell batteries and flashlights to branded packet tea.

The Khaitans bought the Eveready brand and production facilities from Union Carbide in the mid-nineties, and later merged their tea flagship into Eveready. The management began to feel that the 95-year-old brand needed a revamp, and even a fresh logo, especially because most of its rural customers did not understand the Western concept of a “cat having nine lives”.

However, now the company has realised that dropping the cat will jeopardise the brand equity of its batteries in Eveready’s biggest market, rural India. For the rural folk, Eveready is “billi chhaap”, never mind the long-life implications.

“We thought of changing the logo but finally decided against it as it might jeopardise the brand equity enjoyed by Eveready across the country. Our strength lies in our rural reach where the logo is seen as a ‘billi chhaap’ (symbol of a cat),” says Mr Roshan L Joseph, director, Eveready Industries.

The company has about 5,000 distributors for its batteries and torches across the country, including many in far-flung areas. EIL uses its strength of 930-odd mobile vans to supply these products along with other products from its own stable including packet tea. During the current fiscal, Eveready plans to increase the number of vans to 1,000.

Eveready’s new “corporate strategic direction” will reinforce its presence in the consumer’s mind. Designed by Mr Shombit Sengupta — known for designing the Wipro corporate logo and Britannia brand redesign — Eveready’s new umbrella concept is called “Greendale” and will feature on all Eveready products.

The Greendale symbol highlights the company’s core competence of being a perfect companion to consumers. “Our objective is to provide value for money with a tangible differentiation in quality. Consumer proximity and companionship figure high on our agenda, objectives that are well depicted in Greendale,” says Mr Joseph.

The familiar Eveready batteries, too, have been re-packaged by the company. “We have broadened the logo a little and added the colour green wherever we have made an effort to make the products more environment-friendly. The re-packaged products are not the same. They have all undergone changes like rigorous upgradation at plant facilities,” adds Mr Joseph.