In a 2010 TVC featuring Shaan Shahid, Royal Fans changed the perception that ‘Saath zindagi bhar ka’ was merely a promise between you and your significant other by adding itself as a third in the duo! Launched in May this year after a gap of four years, a new Royal Fan TVC continues the storyline of the trio and taps into the aspirational aspect of all young, thriving relationships.

Established in 1957, Royal Fans has a market share of about 20% and the company’s product line boasts over a dozen different types of fans including, ceiling, pedestal, louvre, bracket and mist fans, as well as room coolers and washing machines.

Pakistan’s fan industry is considered to be the world’s largest, populated by over 450 SMEs with a total annual production of eight million fans and exports worth $38.046 million. Major players include GFC, Pak Fans, Parwaz Fans, Super Asia and Yunus Fans. There are also a few manufacturers which produce low-priced Chinese products with very advanced features and present a strong challenge to Pakistan’s fan industry. Royal has mitigated this and other challenges in three important ways.

The first is the product line, which while paying attention to product features, does not ignore diversity and aesthetics. In terms of consumer demand, ceiling fans rank highest at 63% (followed by pedestals at 30%) and Royal offers 120 different models of ceiling fans in different colours and designs. Another important reason for the company’s success is the fact that it was the first fan manufacturer in Pakistan to offer a lifetime guarantee for its products, a major breakthrough in this industry and thirdly, unlike other manufacturers, Royal has advertised consistently.

Fahd Rafiq, Director, Royal Fans, explains that the company started advertising in the 1970s and was one of the first in the fan industry to hire a professional ad agency. One of Royal’s most catchy TVCs from that period came with the tagline, ‘Maine kaha mujhe Royal Fan hi chahiye’ and some years later another popular TVC introduced the tagline ‘Naam bhi acha kaam bhi acha’ which soon became an adage.

However, in the 2000s, Royal’s focus shifted from catchy taglines to big name brand ambassadors such as Amrita Arora and Shaan Shahid. The thinking behind this shift was that the company’s marketing campaigns needed celebrity endorsement to enhance the brand’s credibility. The company also moved to a more aspirational form of advertising with the ‘Sath zindagi bhar ka’ positioning in order to create a connection between the product and the customer.

Although Royal has dropped the celebrity endorsement in the new campaign (cost may have been a factor but there is no official comment on this), the commitment to aspirational advertising has remained intact. The lack of functional TVCs focusing on product features is surprising given that there is a great deal of competition from Chinese imports, although the shift to aspirational advertising also signals an evolution in how the brand views the functions of various advertising mediums.

Hameed Shahbaz, GM, Walter Pakistan (Royal’s creative agency), explains that the purpose of the TVC is brand recognition. “We cannot include all the features of a product in a TVC and there are a lot of other mediums where we can highlight the features in detail.”

Supporting Shahbaz’s stance, Rafiq says the brand is using Facebook, OOH and point of sale flyers to educate customers about the product and wants to refrain from “giving lectures on TV”.

The TVC has been criticised on marketing forums for using a tried, tested and overdone formula. But Rafiq says the brand saw a 20% spike in sales a month after the TVC was launched. So although the approach may be formulaic, Royal seems to have breezed through the real test of all advertising: customer uptake.

Additional information provided by Syed Wajeeh ul Hasan Naqvi.