A little too late - Ramesh Chauhan!

The Indian Press is agog with the news that Ramesh Chauhan the creator of soft drink brands like Thums Up, Limca and Gold spot will is back in action. And Ramesh Chauhan is banking on doing what he knows best – creating powerful long lasting brands that cock a snook at the global market leaders.

But is Ramesh Chauchan too late?  It is like shutting the stable after the horse has bolted. The biggest mistake that Ramesh Chauchan did in 1993 was to hive off Thums Up to Coke and that at a ridiculously low price of 40 crores.

The following are the reasons why I think Café Cuba (the new caffeinated cola from Parle) will not cut the ice with the customers.

The name is not very attractive. Café Cuba. It makes no sense at all. Why Café and why Cuba. And to think that Parle created iconic brand names like Thums Up, Gold Spot, and Limca ( still very ever green).

The American Cola giants are well entrenched and have strong brands. They do not have any unguarded flanks.

Let’s remember that Pepsi’s Atom and Pepsi AM a caffeinated cola drink did not do well.

Cola is a product category that is popular among the young people and I think that Coffee flavor or caffeinated cola will appeal to this demographic.

Things have changed and the present customers have no emotional connect with either Ramesh Chauhan or with the Brand Parle. It is just another company for them.

And the worst Café Cuba will have to compete with Thums Up and the loyal Thums Up customers may not easily move to a new brand.

Summers always bring the best out of the Cola giants and this summer will not be any different. Watch out for the sizzling hot action in the 30,000 to 35,000 crore chilled Indian cola market. Cafe Cuba expects to garner Rs 1,000 crore sale. May the best brand/s win!

New advertisement from Frooti, Parle’s Agro featuring Shah Rukh Khan

The latest Frooti campaign christened " the magic of Frooti" is different from the earlier campaigns. Frooti is the home grown challenger for the Coca-Cola’s Maaza in the mango juice category. Incidentally both Maaza and Frooti belonged to Parle’s Ramesh Chauhan.

 

Chauhan made the biggest marketing mistake in the corporate Indian history when he sold Limca, Thums up and Maaza brands to Coca-Cola. That too at a very low price. Well that how life pans out.

Even when Maaza and Frooti were with the Parle group the positioning was very clear. Frooti was seen as a children drink with its funky tetra pack. Maaza was more an adult drink for drinkers in the 20 plus category.

Frooti has come a long way. It did the very innovative Digen Verma campaign. It experimented with the ultra-small tetra pack of 65 ml costing Rs 2.50/-.  But lately Frooti realized that it needs to move away from its predominantly tetra pack, child targeted positioning.

So in comes the funky new bottle of Frooti. To get the eyes balls and for increased visibility Frooti brought in the darling of the masses – Shah Rukh Khan. So far so good. But the latest advertisement campaign "the magic of Frooti" of Frooti leaves the viewers bemused and confused.

 

 

The advertisement opens with Shah Rukh Khan hungrily gulping down a Frooti. He is watched by many footballers including some very young children. The young children are salivating but Shah Rukh Khan keeps on gulping down the Frooti. He drains the bottle and the crowds of footballers come out of their stupor. They break out into huge grins (what for?). The final shot of the advertisement is that of the football toppling a full Frooti bottle.

This is a classic case of a creative running wild. There is no story line. No emotional connect or a nice jingle to remember and hum. Shah Rukh is totally wasted and Frooti is alienating its core customers – the young children. If the ideas was to attract new customers (making Maaza drinkers to shift to Frooti) the ideas is still born. Maaza drinkers are not given solid enough reasons to shift from Maaza to Frooti. Frooti Definitely need to rethink its creative strategy.

Advertisements that could have been better - Limca, Spirite, Olyx, Fast Track Bags and Havells Geyser

Five not so good advertisements that have been aired recently

Limca: Marketing pundits have told us that instant gratification is the best thing. That is consume the product the minute the urge hits you. Instant need/want and instant gratification is the buzz word. Thus it is surprisingly to hear a husky Kareena Kapoor say “Tum na Thodi Pyaas Badhoo – You there – why don’t you increase your thirst”and she takes the Limca bottle away from the cricket player in the latest Limca advertisement. So is Limca only for the very thirsty people?

But isn’t Limca missing a trick. I would rather have a product that I would consume many times a day rather than have a product that is only consumed when the urge becomes desperate. The point here is about the postponement of the gratification.

Watch the Limca advertisement at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbjFqxso2pg

Olyx on line web site:The site is about online buying and selling of products. The advertisement opens with two teenagers talking about the old things that they have become obsolete, which they want to dispose of. They talk about the old PC at their home.They remark ‘it has become old’. The father who overhears the conversation pipes in “when I become old tomorrow will you dispose me off too?” One of his sons shrugs his shoulder and says “Okay but the offer is Rs 6,500/-”   The father says “Sell it” Of course we all know that they are talking about the computer.  But I have a sneaky feeling that it looks very much like as if they want to dispose off their father! Not very clever I would say!

Watch the Olyx advertisement at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F-bfavddq8&feature=relmfu

Fast track bags:an advertisements that is so bad that it becomes very good. It gets talked about. May be it was a deliberate attempt to shock people to talk about the product. If it was a deliberate attempt it surely succeeded. It was yanked off the air! The advertisement is about a girl who had made it out with her boyfriend in the night in the boys’ hostel. The next day morning she wakes up. She is shocked. She is naked. She struggles to get into her clothes. She is shown wearing her clothes one by one. The last piece of assessory as she escapes is her bag and presto is a Fast track bag.

This advertisement left me confused. Does Fastness mean boldness nee brazenness? Does fastness means throwing morals to the wind? All in all an advertisement that leaves a bad taste in the mouth and is definitely not for family viewing.

Watch the Fast Track bags advertisement at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQcofWKpEEA

Spirite: Spirite prides itself as a no nonsense brand. Sprite advertisements are laced with the right amount of cynicism and smart alerkiness that the present youth simply love. The advertisement in contention is the one about the pretty girl and a lift being offered to her. A smart man (obviously) a Spirite drinker offers her a lift. Before she can accept his offer a swanky car stops by and a voice hails “Hey baby want a lift?” The Sprite drinker does a quick retake and offers a lift to an old lady at the bus stand. The pretty lass says to the old lady “You go in the car; I will go with in the motorcycle”. 

The advertisement ends with the pretty girl on the motor bike and the old lady in the car. My contention is the car would have accommodated both the old lady and the pretty girl. The Old lady could have got into the back of the car and the pretty girl could have sat in the front. That way the car owner could have the cake and eat it too!

Watch the Spirite advertisement at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCmdR-C2ewI

HAVELLS GEYCER: The latest advertisement of HAVELLS geyser too is a harbinger. It shows a man who is brushing his teeth in the bathroom. He looks at the geyser and gets annoyed. He chases his son who just came out of the bathroom. The boy runs towards his mother. The annoyed man pulls both his wife and his son to the bathroom. He points out to the geyser. His wife shrugs her shoulder and says “well it is off” Her husband says “that is the point - why is it not on”. The voice over booms “HAVELLS geyser - When it consumes only half a unit of electricity per day – why should it be off”

This is the catch. We shout from the rooftops to save energy and here is an advertisement that is telling us to keep the geyser on for 24 hours. I don’t know what our electricity conservation societies and action groups have to say about this type of promotion. It makes the point but ½ a unit of electricity is still 15 units of power per month only for water heating. Real food for thought.

Watch the HAVELLS Geyser advertisement at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0d_yKqY75Y