Paper Boat's appointment drinking: genius or madness?
In a nation that thrives on festivals, and keeps guzzling fizzy drinks by the gallon, a non-aerated beverage brand has decided to do something disruptive. Deep-dive into entire year's celebration occasions, converting them into key dates on its marketing calendar, complete with relevant product launches. The twist in the tale: these drinks launched around the festival are likely to be yanked off within two-weeks if all goes as per the Indian ethnic drink Paper Boat's plan.
The over three year old brand, a part of the Hector Beverages portfolio, has kick-started its innovative appointment-drinking plans, with the launch of the Thandai (an almond-flavoured beverage) for North India timed around Holi. Launched on 10th of March, it will be off the shelves by the 25th, following which Panakam (jaggery-based drink) will be launched to coincide with Rama Navami festival for the Southern market. It will be on shelves only for a fortnight, starting 1st of April. Post which there would be Kacchi Lassi that would make an entry around Baisakhi and Rose Sherbet during Ramzan.
"The plan is to build a 12 month calendar by launching 10-12 drinks for different parts of the country and timed around some of the big festive occasions," shares Neeraj Kakkar, CEO and co-founder, Hector Beverages. These drinks have enjoyed high emotional value with consumers, and if we can bring these alive at the right occasion, they will come closer to the brand, he adds. He shares his own story, of growing up in the North having 'Poori Chole and Halwa' on every Ashtami (the eighth day of Hindu lunar calendar and an auspicious day). That taste is still a big deal, stacked somewhere in the memories department. These drinks play the same role in evoking the memory and happiness, in his view. But it's not all sentimental stuff. There is a hard business logic as well–"a lot of trade happens in India around the festival time and there is no organised player in that space," he shares.
Brands like Mondelez, Pepsi-Co and Del Monte have tried to do specific festival-led promotions but they have been mostly around existing product offerings that these companies have, rather than launching specially crafted products. Shares VT Bharadwaj, managing director at Sequoia Capital, one of the main investors in Hector Beverages, "The idea behind bringing the appointment drink concept to beverages is to leverage the extraordinary cultural history of this country where we have special drinks for almost all our religious festivals." Over-time this should help us in building the right product portfolio at Paper Boat, he adds.
India has had a rich traditions of mithais and drinks specific to each festival, so a lot of these happy memories often involve near and dear ones, around the specific occasions. And that has a potentially huge nostalgia value. Says Govind Pandey, CEO, TBWA India, "I think it's a smart move to come up with such special edition ideas tactically. It deepens the idea of the brand in the minds of the consumers, energises the brand and keeps building anticipation." While at an emotional level this seems to be a great strategy, most marketers reckon it could be a nightmare in terms of the logistics, demand forecasting, production and even marketing planning. The main challenge (and opportunity), according to Pandey, will always be to deliver an authentic product experience. If it does not live up, the appointment strategy could lead to a dramatic disappointment.
For starters, a big and obvious challenge would be to know how much quantity to produce, in absence of any precedence. Points out Sourabh Mishra, group chief strategy officer, Bates CHI & Partners, "the brand would need to re-engineer its processes to reconfigure its logistics, production etc. to holistically deliver its brand story in everything it does."
Kakkar agrees that listing, distribution and timelines would be the top bottlenecks for such products. Also there is no parallel since nobody has ever done anything in the space. "I do not know the right number to be produced for a particular variant at this moment," he says. It is almost like a test market but with the ammunition of a full-fledged launch, in a specific geography and for a specific timeframe. According to Ashwini Deshpande, founder, Elephant, the design agency, "If there ever was an 'Indian' marketing strategy, this is the one for sure." Bharadwaj views that appointment launches are not just clever marketing strategy, but core to how the brand views itself and plans to grow.
While these appointment drinks would continue to get launched through the year, in parallel the national roll-out proceeds on schedule summer approaches. The new variants include Chilli Guava, Neer More, Badaam Milk and as a part of the portfolio-consolidation, some of the flavours Tulsi Tea and Golgappe Ka Pani would be phased out, as well. The soon to be launched summer campaign would continue with the same platform of 'drinks and memories' with the trademark Gulzar voice-over, informs Arun Iyer, chief creative officer, Lowe Lintas. For now the brand is hoping to have some successful appointments with its bunch of loyalists and hoping to convert the fence sitters.
What is the business logic behind Paper Boat's appointment drinking concept, and how does it differentiate from the marketing efforts of other brands in the space?
This prompt doesn't seem malicious.