Nadia Chauhan, Joint Managing Director & CMO, Parle Agro, talks about the new Appy Fizz campaign, re-branding of Frooti and Appy Fizz and the group’s future goals to make it a Rs 5,000 crore enterprise by 2018
By SAMARPITA BANERJEE
Q] Tell us about the USP of brand Parle Agro.
The USP of Parle Agro is quite simple. We are a brand that is extremely quality-conscious and we focus on introducing products and categories to India that have not been experienced before. Every product or brand that we have launched is a first of its kind and we really work hard towards building categories versus just creating second products in existing categories.
Q] What are the insights behind the latest campaign around Appy Fizz?
Appy Fizz is India’s only sparkling fruitbased beverage. The brand has been seeing a double digit growth rate year on year. While it continues to grow at 60-70% every year, we felt it was time to take it to the next level. We started off with a little tweaking in the package design to make it look a little bolder and stronger. Packaging for Appy Fizz is very important. Even when we launched, the package design created a lot of curiosity around the drink and the brand. We have also signed on Priyanka Chopra as the brand ambassador, who right now is a big sensation, both in India and globally. We felt that being bold, ambitious, aggressive, and having that little sexy quotient, like Chopra, was important for the brand. Developed by Sagmeister & Walsh, the whole campaign is about establishing this strong attitude for the brand.
Q] What do you hope to achieve with the new campaign?
Appy Fizz is one of our fastest growing brands in the portfolio but it’s important to look at how we can further scale it up. We feel that the new campaign and the repositioning will allow us to do that. Very soon you are going to see the television campaign, the digital activation, a lot of outdoor and also print. We have made substantial investments with some key associations for the brand. This year, Appy Fizz is the primary sponsor for Bigg Boss. The unique thing about Appy Fizz is that unlike most beverages in the industry, it doesn’t face much seasonality. It’s a beverage that’s consumed through the year, whereas the beverage category in India sees around 60% of its business just during summer. It’s a huge opportunity for us to build the brand through the year and look at scaling it up. We hope to have a 60-70% growth rate this year with the campaign and the various other inputs behind the brand.
Q] How has associating with stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra helped increase the brand’s visibility?
You can really push your creativity when you have a well-established brand ambassador on board. For Appy Fizz, I think this year Priyanka Chopra is a very apt fit. You have to plan your advertising in a manner to ensure that the brand does not lose its identity. The kind of advertising we came up with for Frooti and Appy Fizz with Khan and Chopra is unique and stands out. It’s not just another Shah Rukh or Priyanka ad.
Q] How has Frooti’s re-branding worked for the brand?
Frooti is a 30-year-old brand which was launched in tetra packs in 1985. At that time, the industry had either glass bottles or plastic pouches. Tetra pack was convenient for kids as glass is not so handy and plastic pouch is not hygienic. So, Frooti ended up becoming child-friendly and child-oriented. Over the years, we saw the mango drink category expand across age groups and there was a need to cater to other audiences as well. The entire re-packaging was from the point of view of having a package design that was more contemporary to cut across age groups. The re-branding worked very well. Last year, while the category grew at only about 1%, Frooti grew at 12% and went from Number 3 to Number 2 in the market.
Q] Media reports says the group intends to spend around Rs 150 crore on advertising and marketing this year, out of which rural will see substantial investments. In terms of marketing strategy, are you doing something different for rural markets?
As far as rural is concerned, our focus is more from a distribution point of view. We are looking at enhancing our entire reach and presence in rural.
Q] Do you think people are moving away from aerated drinks due to health consciousness?
Health consciousness is making people move to Appy Fizz, which is the only aerated drink in the country with fruit content in it. In comparison to having a synthetic drink that is just sugar and water, people are opting for a product like Appy Fizz. This is one of the fundamental reasons why Appy Fizz sees such high growth and demand.
Q] Apart from Frooti and Appy Fizz, which are the other products in the group that are doing really well for you?
Appy Fizz, Frooti and Bailley (bottled water) are the brands that are doing very well. We also have a product called ‘Dhishoom’ which is a masala soda. It is a regional product catering more to our upcountry markets. It has seen a lot of traction over the last couple of years. We have got a very well-consolidated portfolio and each of our brands is doing quite well.
Q] Are any new products being planned in the near future?
Yes, over the next two to three years, we will look at a lot of expansion in other subcategories within beverages.
Q] Since digital is the way forward, are you doing something different on the platform?
We are very active on digital, both with Frooti and Appy Fizz. Our other brands are also slowly going to build a lot more digital presence. Besides advertising, we are also working on creating a lot of digital-specific content to have better interaction with consumers. If you look at our Instagram handle currently, it’s a case study. Facebook spoke about our Frooti Instagram handle when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at the Facebook headquarters. It was showcased there an example of great work being done out of India.
Q] Do you employ different marketing strategies for Tier II and Tier III markets?
The difference is more from a sales and distribution point of view as well as from a local marketing point of view. A lot of our mainstream marketing already flows into each of those markets, but from our local activation and events, local retail marketing is a little different.
Q] What does Parle Agro’s media mix look like?
For us, television still gets the largest share. Outdoor is also a big medium for us, followed by digital and print. And this year, we have also added radio for Frooti.
Q] Tell us about your overall marketing strategy for the next few years.
The food and beverage industry at large is opening up. Today, consumers are increasingly looking for variety and newer experiences and that’s really our core because we have always focused on creating new experiences for consumers with our innovative product offerings. Our focus over the next few years is not just to build our existing brands through cutting edge advertising and marketing campaigns, but also to enter into newer segments and provide consumers with the variety that they are really looking for, but in a unique way.
Q] What are the challenges you see in the market?
The only challenge I see is the level of commitment and push that we need to give to achieve our goals. We need to be very courageous about it because it’s a large goal. We have a very solid team that believes in what we are doing and is passionate about it. So it’s really about just going out there and making it happen.
Q] What is the market-share you have in different categories and where do you want to see Parle Agro in the next few years?
We have a 100% market-share for Appy Fizz as there is nobody else in the category. For Frooti, we have a 25% market-share. We are hoping to cross the Rs 5,000 crore mark by 2018.
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