Sulekha.com gets a new brand identity

To reflect its new e-commerce avatar and promote the change, the website is spending close to US$2 million.

Sulekha.com has launched a new logo for its corporate brand to highlight its new avatar as an e-commerce company focused on local needs.

The new logo of the company sports a metallic sheen and uses simpler fonts. It has been designed by Interface Communications, its advertising agency, and retains the Yin-Yang from the old logo, but sports a modern and contemporary look.

The portal also sports a new tagline, 'Delightful discoveries. Everyday.' as opposed to the earlier one, 'Find. Buy. Sell. Share', emphasising on the new positioning of Sulekha, which is a digital marketplace for all the needs of a customer.

To promote the new brand identity and reinforce the portal as an e-commerce site, Sulekha.com has launched a multi-city, multi-media campaign. For the above the line and below-the-line (BTL) marketing activities, the portal will spend US$1.5-2 million during the first month of the launch. For the record, in 2008, Sulekha.com had spent Rs 12 crore in brand building exercises when it expanded its presence to 20 Tier II and Tier III cities.

Satya Prabhakar, CEO, Sulekha.com, says, "We wanted to give it a modern feel without changing the core identity. The new brand identity of Sulekha is based on the integration of classifieds, local search and deals anchored around the specific needs of the customer."

Talking about the need for re-positioning, he says, "When Sulekha started in 2007, it was a classifieds site. In 2011, we introduced local deals and e-commerce. Sulekha always had a social media component to it. Last year, we spent months thinking if it was confusing for the users to position Sulekha in their minds. To avoid any confusion, we decided to metamorphose into a digital marketplace where all the needs of a customer can be taken care of."

The website Sulekha.com has also been revamped to project a more contemporary feel.

It may be recalled that in 2008, the company came up with a TVC titled 'Arjuna the Archer', inspired by the traditional folk art form of 'Patta Chitra Katha'. The film, created by JWT and Famous House of Animation, scored accolades at various events including the Holland Animation Film Festival in the Commercial category, a bronze Lion at Cannes 2009, a silver and a bronze at Adfest 2009, the Audience Award at Anifest, the Best Ad award at FICCI BAF 2009 and the Best Animated Television Commercial award at the Golden Cursor Animated Awards. The ad was also published in the Archive Magazine.

However, instead of television, the focus of its new campaign will be on radio and local media, apart from online, BTL and OOH (out of home) campaigns across the country. The new campaign uses fingertips as a motif and has a baseline, 'Everything you need in your city. At your fingertips'.

In an official communiqué, Param Parameswaran, chairman, Sulekha.com, says, "Sulekha.com is at an inflection point, having just metamorphosed into an e-commerce company. We have aggressive growth targets for FY 2013 and are investing heavily to enrich our database and expand our offerings across multiple platforms. The new brand identity is designed to highlight our customer-centric approach. We want to become synonymous with local information needs in every city."

For the record, Sulekha.com is an interactive internet and mobile platform for local search. The company is headquartered in Chennai and also has presence in Austin in North America. Sulekha.com has offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata and New York. The portal has won the award for the Best Multi Utility Website at IAMAI's (the Internet and Mobile Association of India) Second India Digital Awards for integrating multiple mechanisms such as business listings, classifieds, deals, reviews, ratings and social media properties.