Sunsilk Pakistan unveils ‘Fashion Edition’ bottles

In a market full of personal care products, it is increasingly hard for the brands to maintain relevance and to be in the ‘top of mind’ consideration set of the consumer. Sunsilk Pakistan in its latest effort to promote ‘the brand’ and to reassert their association with Fashion, has come up with 4 Fashion Edition bottles with renowned fashion designers.

As a branding exercise, collaborations with designers and artists have historically bode well for the both parties. The guiding principle is to find the right partner within the sphere of consumer interest and to engage with these partners in a way that is mutually beneficial. I say ‘mutually beneficial’ because as a result of this the premium brand of the two(the designers in Sunsilk’s case) get a wider audience whereas the inferior brand (Sunsilk itself) gets to enhance its desirability because of the association.

Secondly, If you find the right partner there is huge potential for designer collaborations to enhance the existing brand essence. Having said that it doesn’t mean brands should restrict themselves to the obvious partnerships, as there are often instances when the most unobvious choice yields greatest PR. Internationally Coca Cola, Evian Water, Absolut Vodka and many others have collaborated with designers to produce limited edition product packaging and have received great response.

Unilever Pakistan being one of the biggest FMCG companies has had a very long association with the indigenous fashion folks, they were the first to have events like Carnival de Couture with people like Maheen Khan and Rizwan Beyg back in the day and they continue to sponsor fashion events every year.

As for the bottles themselves kudos to brand team for selecting a range of different yet very commercial designers. I predict that Maria B and HSY especially will do really great from a marketing stand point. Although I am not too sure about Khaadi’s missoni-esque pattern(its my personal favourite) and Karma‘s banal pink bottle(it looks very generic).

To conclude I must say that I am really happy to see international brands taking note and collaborating with local artists and designers. I remember back in the day they used to say Sunsilk Hair expert Nabila blah blah, now they have some foreign experts to tout about which I am not really a big fan.I hope this trend continues and brands come up with such new ways to associate themselves with local artists beyond just sponsoring fashion shows.