Frooti's new campaign : "Why Grow Up"

Ask a 35 year old what brands of beverages were available in his days and he might come up with the name Frooti even before he mentions some others like Pepsi. Launched as long back as 1985, the brand Frooti has over the years, become synonymous with the mango fruit. Bringing the juice in an altogether new and convenient Tetra Pak format on the Indian shelf space, the brand developed a core religious following among children as a result of which it went on to become omnipresent in children's parties.

The drink meant indulgence to the kid, one that the he/she could relish at his/her own leisure. Frooti grew by leaps and bounds and the market was so lucrative that many players (Jumpin, Kissan etc) entered the market, however failing to dislodge Frooti from the numero uno position.

In the late 90s, though Frooti remained the undisputed leader in the category, its sales started stagnating. To counter this, Frooti launched pineapple and orange variants, which failed. Then came the experimentation with YO! Frooti in a new colour, aimed at teens.

The Cola wars of the late 90s and the early 2000s turned the heat on Frooti. The colas turned out to be more aspirational (cool) beverages as the teens abandoned sipping from tetrapacks and resorted to fountain colas. Also, these colas had popular celebrity endorsements (including the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan).

Frooti began an all popular teaser campaign revolving around "Digen Verma" to counter the colas. It consisted of a hypothetical character called Digen Verma, a wannabe personality in town. The campaign created by Everest, supported by heavy outdoor and print presence evoked a lot of buzz in the market. However, the teaser campaign was not given further support and the hype around the brand died.

The increasing health concerns and pesticide issues with colas resulted in the emergence of a 100% juice category. This category, with Dabur Real as a leader, gave stiff competition to Frooti, which was a nectar based drink. Moreover, Dabur juices were available in a number of flavours whereas Frooti was largely associated only with Mango. Understanding the emergence of this category, Parle (Frooti's mother company) launched a new brand NJoy in the 100% juice category, but the brand failed to pick up.

All this resulted in Frooti facing stagnation. Thus, a strong need was felt to increase occasions of brand consumption. This was possible by a) building branded engagement around mango consumption occasions or b) creating new consumption occasions for Frooti or c) by increasing the consumer base. Frooti launched the trihedral pack and the PET bottles in the mid 2000s and also a new green mango variant. Around the same time, Grey Worldwide (creative partners of the brand) came up with the "Piyo Bindaas" campaign, which built around the consumption of Frooti on different beverage consuming occasions.

This continued with their "Mango ka ek hi naam" campaign executed by Creativeland in 2008. This was more a mango-centric communication along the lines of what other brands were also focussing on. Slice had come out with a new Aamsutra campaign, positioning itself around youth sexual indulgence, whereas Maaza continued with its "Bina Gutli ka Aam" campaign targetted at kids.

Research pointed out that there was no specific reason why youth did not buy Frooti. The product likeability scores were high and yet, there was a strong reluctance to buy the product. The brand challenge revolved around giving the brand a contemporary look and feel. Thus, the need to connect with the youth as well as not isolate kids, who are the core consumers. Frooti could not take the route that Slice did. A sexual indulgence platform along the lines of Aamsutra would never connect with kids.

Around the same time, Creativeland identified that there was a strong reluctance to trying out the product, because youth believed that holding a tetrapack was uncool. Also, slurping and sipping from a tetrapack was believed to be childish and immature

The new Frooti "Why Grow Up' commercial focusses on these aspects. It tries to remove the barrier from the mind of the consumers that slurping and sipping from a tetrapack is uncool or shameless. The message that the new commercial brings out is that being a child and doing what you used to do in your childhood days viz. slurping, sipping, bursting empty packs etc. will not make you uncool and shameless.

It is a new and innovative line of thought wherein you are removing mental barriers to product usage and at the same time not alienating yourselves from kids, who are your core user base.

However, I reserve a sceptical view on the execution. The ad is likely to evoke a nostalgic feeling of childhood indulgence in juices and ice creams in some corner of the brain. This would appeal to males, who might want to revisit their childhood days. However, in my opinion, the nostalgia factor is unlikely to do well among females.

While it does make slurping a more "respectable" act, it is more likely to benefit the likes of Real and Tropicana than it does Frooti as the ad doesn't speak about mango.

However, the ad also comes with a new logo and packaging for Frooti. This is likely to build a more contemporary image of Frooti. Also, the three mangoticons, which have been introduced in this ad, reserve potential to be exploited heavily.

Also, while the central character remains the bearded young guy, we can also see grey haired men, grandmoms, mommies, aunties, a pot bellied security guard and a guy in a vest. This indicates that the target audience is all adults rather than just youth. And the look and feel of the ad and the characters involved gives the feeling that it might be targetted at individuals belonging to lower socio economic households. This is indeed a surprising element in the ad.

Unless this concept is supported by with a series of other commercials surrounding mango usage occasions, it is likely to benefit juices much more than it does to Frooti. Also, usage may be restricted to males in the absence of females as slurping / sipping is unlikely to appeal to females. Thus, there is a need for a supporting concept, which addresses the issues of a female not treating this act as shameful or disgusting.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?