Johnson's Baby unleashes the'Power of Gentle'

Leading baby care brand Johnson & Johnson launched a shopper marketing blitz with the'power of gentle' (POG) proposition to connect with new parents. The brand rolled out a slew of in-store branding initiatives, cutting across general trade and modern trade stores, to reinforce the brand's value proposition. Brandmark Solutions executed the branding initiative in both the Metros and key Tier I & II cities, overcoming several challenges along the way.

At the outset, Brandmark Solutions was called upon to roll out the brand campaign in nine different languages, connecting different regional markets. Meeting the timelines while adhering to the POS requirements within different stores added to the challenge.

Speaking about the execution of the branding initiative, Yogesh Chawan, Co-Founder and Creative Head, Brandmark Solutions, says, "Johnson's Baby had come up with a new brand positioning for their entire baby care portfolio. Similar briefs were given by J&J for the GTs and MTs. The concept of gentleness was explained by way of videos, reference images, etc. Gentleness is a feeling and to give it a form and create an experience was a big creative task. We took up the challenge and pursued various design inspirations using various objects that symbolised softness and gentleness, like satin cloth, cushion baby seat, wind chimes, and shapes like mobile toys, etc.”


The brand associated POG with a certain transformation in the lives of new parents. This element had to come through in the POS branding. To achieve this, Brandmark Solutions worked with different colours, materials and designs. Novel items had to be created and elements like the window kit, permanent wall hanging units such as photo frames were used. The agency used premium looking fixtures and materials in sync with the brand values.

The designing went through numerous iterations and finally eight elements were selected by the brand for the POS branding in GT stores.
Apart from the basic GT elements, the Brandmark Design Team designed innovative visibility solutions for Johnson's Baby. These included wind chimes, 3D posters, 3D clock posters, 3D window display kits, tent cards, envelopes, grocer placards and boards and baby seats for trolleys, pillar branding and endcaps with satin cloth, all of which portrayed a gentle look and feel.

Reflecting on the challenges that Brandmark Solutions were up with in the execution of the branding initiative, Chawan says, "First-cut designs had to be innovative, clutter breaking and out-of-the-box, while keeping intact the brand values. Production planning and fabrication were equally challenging given the large quantities required. We deployed a full strength team to deliver the goods by working 24x7. Among other challenges, matching the colour palettes for printing was a key task as the brand is extremely particular about colours; different substrates were to be used for different elements. We opted for the CTP Process for printing on various substrates. For some elements 3D thermoforming was done along with sublimation for cloth printing.”

Saad Memon, Co-Founder & Head - Production & Innovation, Brandmark Solutions, says, "The basic challenge for the production team was to convert the designs into substance and bring them into being. Planning of resources started from the proto-typing phase and continued until the stage of the final product. Detailed research was done on each element. Managing the deliverables within crunched timelines was an achievement by itself.”

Chawan adds, "Meeting stiff timelines was a big test as the POS elements were complex and on varied substrate bases, so production planning was of utmost importance. Even logistics and implementation across major cities had to be planned accordingly given the short delivery timelines and this was a challenge for our team as the campaign was already on air.”

Nabeel Khan, Co-Founder & Head- Retail Communication, Brandmark Solutions, says, "POG was possibly one of the best projects that we have executed. The campaign was live on air and we were running with the wind. The entire team was playing to its strengths and cherishing the feeling of getting some stuff done.”


"At Brandmark Solutions we have done similar kinds of shopper connective programmes for various consumer brands, but executing the same for a Baby brand was quite a challenge. For Modern Trade, we adapted the POS Designs with few extensions of the POG activity in terms of other retail fixtures like endcaps, sidecaps, pillar branding, etc. We are awaiting the feedback as per the ROI of this campaign. We will then be in a better position to take this thought ahead and adapt it to other collaterals. It was sheer pleasure working on this entire turnkey campaign and living up to the challenge and delivering as per expectations,” says Chawan on a concluding note.