20180125008 | Akshit Dhar

In 1985 India, in order to drink fruit juice, you had to sit in one of the many cafes and stores serving
fruit juices and drink out of a glass bottle. The problem: Portability. That’s when Prakash Chauhan,
chairman of Parle Agro had the genius idea to fill this need gap with Frooti. The beverage was
introduced in India in an easy to grab and go carton, the first time a drink was served in a tetra pack
in India. Frooti has also explored various packaging techniques like the cut TCA tetra pack triangles.
Frooti was not unchallenged though, over time its major competitors in the mango drink category
were Maaza and Slice. Even then, Frooti has gone on to become one of the most popular and best-
selling mango flavoured drink in India. Over time, Frooti built a very strong distribution network that
allowed them to have sales in the lakhs and still function smoothly.

Aimed at children initially, Frooti quickly realised the value of the youth. Frooti has been creative in
their communications and have always tried to catch the attention of their target consumers. Their
ads would feature mango trees but instead of mangoes, they would have Frootis hanging from
them. And of course, no one can get the most catch jingle out of their minds:

Frooti initially did not even hire a brand ambassador, they relied on the great quality of their product
and the cleverness and wit in their communications to sail them through. Once that strategy
stopped working, the then had to start shelling out for the big names. However, even with that, they
chose ambassadors that the youth connect with and look upto: Shah Rukh Khan and Aalia Bhatt.

Frooti’s major positioning was to align itself with the youth as is clear from the brand’s
communication. The brand always light and upbeat, fun and entertaining is always establishing and
reinforcing the connect it has set with its audience.

While Frooti has no variants available in the market, it does have a multitude of SKUs. I mention this
because Frooti has positioned itself as an economic people’s brand that will always be there for
them. The pricing strategy of the brand was aimed to comfort the value buyer and the various SKUs
helped people from different economic strata to still be able to consume it.

I picked the brand Frooti because I think Frooti has stood the test of time, and has always found a
way to connect with its target customers: the youth and children. Frooti has managed to keep a fun
and enjoyable vibe, first, with its communications and then later on with its brand ambassadors. In
fact even while Frooti was struggling for a while and Parle was losing out to PepsiCo, it persevered
and almost a decade later, overtook it in market size and share. So basically I picked Frooti because I
connected with the brand and identify with its values.