Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation ?

The packaged fruit beverages category in India has been a duopoly with two big established players. Both are so deeply entrenched in Indian juice-consuming households that all challenger brands were inconsequential. B Natural, one of the many such challengers, had struggled for 4 years to win consumers and market share. Hence, the objective for the brand was to break the duopoly, enhance preference and consideration thereby strengthening B Natural’s position.

Background

In a fast-growing category but with a mere 7% penetration, the obvious strategy would have been new market creation. But B Natural was only in a nascent stage. Hence the job of category creation was left to competition giants, while B Natural focused on winning share from the competition. The fact that there was no clear differentiator to adopt B Natural as a daily ritual for fruit nutrition or switch from their most often used brand meant there was a need to build strong equity. With limited budgets, equity building is tough. We had to capture consumer's imagination by forcing them to look at us differently – a significant re-appraisal of how consumers viewed B Natural, and hence, the packaged juices and beverages category. The task was clear cut – make B Natural the most talked about brand.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

A category’s thought leader may not be the largest but the one that is most talked about and with the highest “sensed momentum” in consumer minds. B Natural did so by leading consumers to QUESTION THEIR JUICE CHOICES. Once reasonable doubt was created, consumers were offered a timely solution by leveraging B Natural’s secret weapon - a product and packaging innovation that would give India its first range of fruit beverages that was NOT FROM CONCENTRATE (NFC) - to inform consumers that B Natural is the right choice for them. The first and foremost part of the strategy was to identify the right time to strike - the juice category peaks in summer, and so B Natural used the summer of 2018 as its battlefield to launch an awareness initiative called the NOT FROM CONCENTRATE MOVEMENT. We took the category thought leadership BY CHANGING THE CATEGORY CODE.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

In the consumer’s mind, a perception had been created that all packaged juices are made directly from fruit pulp. However, the truth was that many of them were not made from fruit pulp, but from concentrate. The fruit pulp concentration process is typically cost effective, but the prolonged thermal treatment - in the process of creating concentrate from fruit pulp - may result in the loss of nutrition and essential antioxidants. Consumers didn’t know this. And that was the opportunity - the decision to not just influence WHAT consumers chose, but also HOW they chose their juice.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

An open invite through front page adverts in leading dailies asked consumers to join B Natural in its initiative of making juices and fruit beverages from pulp sourced from fruits grown by Indian Farmers, and not from imported concentrates. Tactfully selected billboards at prime locations across key markets urged participation from consumers in the launch event to unveil B Natural’s NFC range by the Indian farmers. PR was also used to create buzz about India’s first & only NFC juice range both online and offline, while messaging at retail stores drove conversions at the point of purchase. Active integrations were created with Star Plus in the top-rated TV show of the country where the protagonists stressed the importance of NFC & B Natural as the right choice, reinforced by RJs from across cities through links and testimonials from the ground on the day of the launch event.

List the results (30% of vote)

The launch event featured brand ambassador Shilpa Shetty at Bandra Bandstand in Mumbai, a public spot frequented by the lay person and celebrities alike. Even Milind Soman, the epitome of good health, encountered the event during his daily run and joined in to support in B Natural’s pledge to make juices and beverages not from concentrate. The campaign significantly improved disposition towards B Natural’s NFC juices and beverages - 94% of the audience in the Delhi-NCR region, the biggest market for the category and the market leader’s stronghold, said they would consider B Natural in the future, with 57% claiming that they would definitely choose B Natural. Following from the event, B Natural’s share reached a high of 8.2%, making it the clear 3rd player in the category, as the awareness-to-trial ratio increased from 19% to 23% and the retention ratio increased from 43% to 46%.