Showing posts with label Soft Drinks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Soft Drinks. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Brand Update : Thums Up in a Celebrity Trap


Thums Up which is one of the most resilient brands in the Indian market was in the news recently when the parent Coca-Cola decided to drop Salman Khan as the brand ambassador. ( source). The reports also suggest that the brand is in talks with actor Ranveer Singh
to replace the Khan. That points  to a celebrity trap which this brand has fallen into.
It is true that Thums Up has always been promoted using a celebrity, be it Akshay Kumar or Salman Khan, but the fact is that Thums Up has moved into a position where it cannot think of a promotional strategy sans a celebrity. That is why the news report announcing  Salman's exit also suggest the search for new celebrity.

Soft drink brands are always after celebrity as if there is no existence without a famous personality endorsing it. While there are a lot of advantages of using a celebrity, the fact remains that slowly but surely, the brand and the brand manager loses confidence to go without the support of celebrity. 
It is sad to see the same thing happening for Thums Up. The brand doesn't need a celebrity. In the brand's early years, the equity of the brand was built  from within. Now the brand is trying to find a celebrity so that it can depend on the celebrity for equity which, at least theoretically, is bad for the brand. Thums Up has the innate strength which made it overcome the existential crisis when the owners decided to kill it. That strength was not from any celebrity endorsement but the image of a rough resilient brand. Coca-Cola should at least try making the brand stand on its own rather than going the easy way out. 


Thursday, May 05, 2016

Brand Update : Appy Fizz repositions to lose its cool factor

This summer, Parle Agro has made a drastic repositioning of its unique  product - Appy Fizz. Launched in 2005, Appy Fizz had carved a unique place in the Indian market with its fizzy apple drink. The brand was built on a cool quotient exemplified by the strategy of anthropomorphism. The drink became  the cool character and the ads too supported the positioning. Appy Fizz had one of the good taglines  " A Cool Drink to Hang Out With"


Now Parle Agro decided to undo all those with the new campaign. A lot of things have changed in the new repositioning.

  • The package was changed. The logo was tweaked and the design is in line with the Frooti logo design.
  • The tagline was changed to " Feel the Fizz".
  • The Appy Fizz  character has been discarded.
  • New celebrity endorser in Priyanka Chopra.

watch the ad here : Appy Fizz Repositioning
The new repositioning came as a big dampener. The brand changed its personality completely. The tagline " Feel the Fizz" is also a poor replacement of " Cool drink to hang out with". This " Feel " thing is an overused tagline. For example, the scooter brand Hero Maestro has the tagline " Feel the Josh". Ford earlier had the tagline " Feel the difference ". So Appy Fizz really fizzled out in the tagline section. 

Secondly about the celebrity endorser part. Appy Fizz was personified as a male. Now suddenly when the brand is endorsed by a female celebrity, I really felt odd. Moreover, the new ad is too much Priyanka and very less Appy Fizz. In all the earlier campaigns, it was the brand which had the prominence.  In all sense, Appy Fizz lost its coolness.

My hypothesis is that Parle Agro wants the brand to come into the mainstream. Appy Fizz by nature is a niche product. Because it is apple drink, the salience will also be low. Trying to change that would be a risky affair. At the same time, the brand can work to strengthen salience and build preference. The current route taken by Appy Fizz is too risky and unnecessary.

Cool Quotient is something that is very difficult to attain. Appy Fizz was fortunate to successfully position itself as a Cool brand. In one stroke,  the company has undone all the investment it has made in the brand. My forecast is that at some point in time, the brand will be forced to be a " Cool drink to hang out with ".