Rasna pumps in Rs 30 cr to expand TG beyond children and mothers

The new brand film on digital media, conceptualised by Scarecrow Communications, is a different take on 'I love you, Rasna'

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | February 27, 2017

Click on the Image to watch the TVC.

With summers approaching, Rasna has hit the advertising mode again with a fresh communication strategy. This time, for the launch of its new ad campaign, the brand took to digital first, celebrating its journey of spreading love for decades across generations. Rasna also announced its entry in the baked sweet snack category with the launch of Rasna Vitos.

Piruz Khambatta

Children have always been an integral part of the brand's communication strategy. This time, the brand took two old people as the protagonists of the film. Piruz Khambatta, Chairman and MD, Rasna, said, “The story here is that Rasna is the only brand that can claim to be from generations. The story is not about the old man. The story is about Rasna growing with the man and all the generations. We want to reach to everyone. We don't want to reach only the child and mother now.”

Does this also mean a change in target audience?

Khambatta said, “After a research by us, we have realised that only 30 per cent of the total demand comes from children, rest all is from the adults. Therefore, our target audience is not just children, but everyone.”

The brand has brought on board Scarecrow Communications to take care of its creative duties. Prior to the launch of the main ad film on February 14 (Valentine's Day), the brand launched a teaser film 'Kaun hai Pyarelal ke bachpan ka pyar?” (Who's the childhood love of Pyarelal).

Mangesh Mulajkar

Resonating what Khambatta said, Mangesh Mulajkar, Senior Vice-President at Scarecrow Communications, explained, “The emotion of love does not look for age. Rasna is all about spreading love and it talks to every age group. The ad film essays the life history of the brand. The film embodies the style of how you tell the story of 'I love you Rasna'.”

The brand intends to spend around Rs 30 crore on advertising this year. The film will be promoted heavily on the digital and television medium.

After intriguing more than 1.3 million viewers, the complete film was launched on the digital medium and is planned to be subsequently aired nationally on TV throughout the summer.

Manish Bhatt

Commenting on the insight, Manish Bhatt, Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications, said, “Rasna is a historical iconic brand. Therefore, we decided to summarise the journey of Rasna in totality. We wanted people to recollect the emotional space it has occupied since the brand was launched.”

He further said, “While we were doing our research for Rasna, we also put this particular film in our research work. To our surprise, this film scored the highest among all the rationales that we put in research. Hence, we made this film the hero of this year.”

Elaborating on the media planning, Khambatta said, “I don't think any company in India today can replace television with internet except a few niche companies. I also think a lot of advertisement on radio goes waste because the medium has a lot of clutter.”

Talking about the importance of the digital space for Rasna, Khambatta said, “Last year we didn't do much on digital. This year we are doing well on digital. We started off with a teaser on the digital front. There are two big advantages on the digital front. I can focus my ads on certain targets, which I can never do on TV. In a video view, you can know who has seen it.”

But when pointed out that views can also be bought, Khambatta responded, “If you have a rigorous follow up and working with an ethical agency then there is no problem. We are looking at per view, impressions can be bought. Buying views is not so easy. We have partnered with Google directly. Our whole campaign is being seen by Google. If there is any tampering with the film, Google is seeing to it.”

Unlike most of the carbonated drinks, Rasna receives stronger demand from smaller towns and villages. “We have products priced at two and five rupees and in villages, a marriage has to start with Rasna,” added Khambatta.

Is there a different strategy for rural areas?

Khambatta said, “Many years ago we used to have three to four sets of ads. But now if you see media clearly, the same Star TV programme is watched in village and in city also. There are free-to-air channels like Anmol, Rishtey and DD and we generally advertise in these channels more in rural areas.”

The readily available BARC rural data helps Rasna gauge the rural consumer behaviour as well. Khambatta said, “BARC helps us focus. I was surprised to know that a lot of hits on the ad teaser were coming from the rural areas also and they are watching it on their mobiles. 90 per cent of people who went to Facebook and saw the teaser in last three to four days saw it on mobile; many of them were from rural areas. So to say today that rural doesn't have internet reach is wrong.”

Talking about how it took on competition in the space, Khambatta said, “We own the powder category. Coca Cola once launched the product Sunfill in our category twice. They also launched Fanta in powder category. Tropicana came in powder category. But I think with our good marketing, we have ensured that we are number one. In fact, in one last year, we have seen that carbonated soft drinks have de-grown.”

From children to adults, everyone knows and relates to Rasna. What is the importance of advertising for the brand and how rigorous are they on that front? “To ensure that the brand stays alive, you will have to go to the newer generation. We cannot depend on the previous generation alone. Rasna is a young world's drink. The whole new generation is coming. They need to be told about Rasna. If I am spending more on digital, it is also for this reason. The young generation needs to know more about it,” explained Khambatta.

“How to put money and where to put money on any particular medium is another issue because television today is also seeing a high level of fragmentation. The highest TRP programme is 1.5 to 2,” he added.

Rasna has not increased the MRP of its product since its launch 20 years ago and is still available at Rs 2 per glass. In a recent research done by Majestic Market Research Support Services (MRSS India), Rasna has stood out with the highest recall orange drink – aided and unaided recall, which is another great achievement.

Explaining the constant pricing over the years, Khambatta said, “I hardly take any premium from the consumer. I do a lot of cost cutting. I don't have to pay any heavy interest. All capital is from my house. Most of the company's margins are going into financing and paying debt. Our whole objective is not just profit, we want to sell cost effective products.”

The film is the love story of a man named Pyarelal (Ram Sethi) and his undeterred love that he tries to express multiple times throughout his life. But each time he thought his love would finally bloom, the cruel world (zaalim duniya) broke his heart. Finally, after decades, the old Pyarelal musters courage to go to her house. His childhood sweetheart (Daisy Irani), who's now an old lady, welcomes him with the iconic glass (the goblet) of Rasna. After taking a sip of Rasna, just as he's about to say 'I love you', he fumbles and says, 'I love you…Rasna' instead. A voice over says, 'Bachpan se jisse love kiya aakhir ussi ka naam toh zuban pe ayega na!' (You'll always utter the name of the one you've loved since childhood.) A text appears, 'Rasna – Spreading love for generations'.

Considered as one of the most trusted original Made in India brand, Rasna is a market leader with 85 per cent share in the powdered drink segment. Now, Rasna has strong plans to chart its next phase of double digit growth and expansion of overall product portfolio. A family-owned company, Rasna is the world's largest instant drink manufacturer. Rasna has its presence across 53 countries. Instant concentrated fruit drink category was created by Rasna.

The TVC:

https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/filters:format(webp)/bmi/media/post_attachments/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Rasna.jpg

Credits:

Creative agency: Scarecrow Communications

Client: Rasna International

Client team: Piruz Khambatta, Binaisha Khambatta, Shobhan Dhruva

Agency Creative team: Manish Bhatt, Raghu Bhat, Shrenik Chedda, Yogesh Rijhwani, Nikhil Kerkar, Modhurenu Datta and Yuvraj Gorule, Sakhi Shah, Joybrato Dutta, Vaishakh Jhunjhunwala, Gaurav Vaswani

Account Management: Mangesh Mulajkar, Prerana Suvarna, Sajesh Soman

Production House: Chrome Pictures

Director: Vijay Veermal

Producers: Poonam Wahi, Napolean Daniel Amanna

Special thanks: Amit Sharma

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