Distilling the brand in a tea cup
Tata Tea, Brooke Bond launch new campaigns around popular causes, but are brands mixing up the message?
Tata Tea Gold’s new campaign is all about how the young must know when to follow their heart, the tagline “Dil ko na kahoge toh pachtaoge” (Listen to your heart) captures the message the brand seeks to convey. The campaign about a girl’s conflicted emotions as juggles her desires with her father’s aspirations “addresses the perennial dilemma between the head and the heart that transcends boundaries of age and time” says Puneet Das, marketing head, Tata Global Beverages.
Another tea brand, Brooke Bond Red Label looks to promote diversity and inclusiveness in its “Swad apnepan ka” (The taste of togetherness) campaign. The TVC shows a vegetarian turning down a cup of tea at his meat-eating friend's house, only to come around later. The ad ends with the message of togetherness and inclusion.
But what has all this got to do with a cup of tea, ask brand experts. Such message driven campaigns have cluttered the marketplace, feels Harish Bijoor, founder of Bijoor Consults. The packaged tea industry, he says, has been around since the time tea was not even a brand. The USP of the advertisements have evolved from functional to emotional, then to verve and vigour before coming to social causes. “What the category needs now is a strong cup of tea itself,” says Bijoor. And, by that he means, brands have to move beyond the clichés and focus on the category as a whole and look at it as a lifestyle brand.
India is the world’s second largest producer of tea after China. The organised branded tea segment was about ~ 12,970 crore in 2017, up from ~ 12,240 crore in 2016, according to Euromonitor International. Ideally, tea companies should be taking their brand into new and innovative extensions, stepping into spaces that a bunch of startups such as Chai Point, Chaayos, Teabox etc have done.
“Most de-facto meeting places are coffee shops. I don't think the tea industry saw this coming and adapted too little, too late,” says N Chandramouli, founder, Trust Research Advisory (TRA) adding while there are brands such as Wagh Bakri and Girnar that are coming up with their own tea lounges, there is more scope in this space.
Bijoor however, feels tea lounges are nothing more than clones of coffee shops. “They would have been a gamechanger had they done something different. They are giving the same thing in the same setting but just offering tea instead of coffee,” he adds.
But for an old brand, it can be challenging to keep up with changing times. And message driven advertising is a way of finding a new voice in an old market. According to Das, Tata Tea has always tried to be in line with the changing aspirations of people in everyday life. Hinting at their old campaigns such as “Jaago re”, he says, the brand has kept consumer understanding at the forefront. Whether that has converted into numbers, he does not elaborate upon, but insists that Tata Tea Gold has been on top.
Chandramouli believes that brands need a new perspective to get close to the young. Millennial consumers adapt far more easily he says to new brands and new approaches. “Brands using 'tried-and-tested' methods are the ones most likely to disconnect with their audiences. It becomes important for brands to constantly reassess their audiences and understand them through scientific consumer-behaviour studies and adapt themselves accordingly,” he says.
Das insists that Tata Tea is closely aligned with consumer wants and desires. And their campaigns are designed with such insight and hence connect with the audience. Perhaps, but there is no way to gauge whether the messages are reflected in greater affinity with the brand. Also Chandramouli feels that the current metric used by brands, which is sales, to measure progress may be erroneous. “Brand loyalty is no longer about consumers being loyal to the brand, but rather the brand being loyal to its consumers,” says he.
In the current age where all arbitrages (of price, information, access) are diluted, the brand needs to do more than just ‘sell’. Bijoor feels in a scenario like this, the tea industry should cash in on providing something like a “ready to drink” variety of tea that will perhaps drive the consumers away from colas and other aerated beverages and instead help them have something that is more adherent to their lifestyle.
“Brand loyalty is no longer about consumers being loyal to the brand, but rather the brand being loyal to its consumers” N CHANDRAMOULI Founder, TRA