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P Mark Mustard Oil began its journey more than eighty years ago. Today, one looks back over the decades gone by with not just fond nostalgia but also a sense of justifiable pride. Think about it – how many brands from the early thirties are still around today? Not very many; in fact, way back in 1933 when we started our journey, there were very few home-grown, innately Indian brands around. The P Mark story is a lot more than just a tale of a commodity transforming into a brand. This is a story about constantly raising the bar, leveraging cutting-edge in-house R&D to create innovative and value-added products… and consistently aiming at taking the brand to the next level.
Our beginnings were small and humble. Starting out as a typical SME product, P Mark Mustard Oil emerged as the first mover in its segment, breaking away from a “commodity” identity and redefining its image as a branded FMCG product. Through a series of carefully planned initiatives, the brand expanded its portfolio, enhanced its packaging and maintained its leadership status across key North Indian markets.
As a part of this endeavour, the brand also pioneered the advent of mustard oil in mainstream advertising, appearing prominently in print, OOH and Below-The Line media vehicles, later breaking new ground by releasing a series of Pan-India television campaigns to take the brand – and mustard oil – to a new level.
Traditionally, on account of various historical reasons, mustard oil had been perceived as a “poor man’s oil”, mainly because of its availability through the Public Distribution System (PDS). The marketing and advertising initiatives of P Mark went a long way in transforming this image of mustard oil.
The new, refurbished image was further reinforced by mass media campaigns that advertised key innovations and value additions in mustard oil – through the launch of variants like India’s First Light Mustard Oil and India’s First Agmark and SGS Certified Organic Mustard Oil. In a dramatic development, leading cardiologists began advising their patients to switch to these variants as their primary cooking medium.
Puri Oil Mills Limited, the custodians of Brand P Mark, has always been proactive in responding to changing market scenarios and customer needs. As India’s population progressively became younger (by 2020, more than 50 percent of the country’s population will comprise youth and young adults), the brand decided that it needed to undergo a Rejuvenation Initiative to ensure that mustard oil remained relevant to a new, youthful audience.
To carry this out, a leading Design Architecture Consulting firm – Lopez Design – was appointed. The new architecture for Brand P Mark was decided on the basis of intensive research. To test the acceptance of the new brand identity, in-depth customer research and focus group discussions were carried out by a leading brand research organisation amongst consumers across the brand’s core markets.
The new face of Brand P Mark was unveiled using a celebrity brand ambassador. In a radical departure from conventional communication strategies, Brand P Mark decided against using a stereotypical female brand ambassador. Instead it chose the veteran character actor, BomanIrani, as its ambassador.
Leveraging its eight-decade long core competence in the domain of manufacturing mustard oil, P Mark has now unveiled a new communication platform positioning itself as ‘The Mustard Specialist’.
The brand has recently extended its association with Boman Irani, and has produced and released a quirky new television commercial featuring Boman in a delightful avatar – a tabla maestro. The video uploaded on YouTube has already garnered more than 2.4 million views.
What is it that makes P Mark Mustard Oil “The Mustard Specialist”? Well, since 1933, Puri Oil Mills Limited has always been a single-product focussed manufacturer with a proven track record for consistent purity and quality – quality that has been recognized through the conferment of prestigious National and International Quality Awards. All these have enabled the brand to earn the unwavering trust of millions of consumers across generations.
The trust and loyalty of these valued consumers continues to spur P Mark onward and upward to new heights. The journey that began in 1933 continues even today. The Mustard Specialist surges on, taking Brand P Mark to the Next Level!
