BOTTLED WATER INDUSTRY

BISLERY500
Taking the diktat, "it's water at the end of the day, you don't take it seriously"
Bisleri has made humour the lifeline of the new marketing campaign that
has many firsts to its credit.

In the deserts of Rajasthan, water is so scarce that the villagers hire private
guards to secure their wells from water thieves. Scientists fret that World
War III will be fought over water.

In the new Bisleri ad though, we get a bite-sized view of this impending
apocalypse.

The films created by WPP's agency Soho Square (formerly Meridian) are a part
of a larger marketing campaign that aggressively pushes the 500 ml bottle.

Interestingly, this is the first time ever that Bisleri is doing SKU led advertising.
The campaign accounts for 30% of its annual marketing spends.
The campaign takes us through three
situations of water rage: a newly married
bride slapping her groom, a young college
girl whacking a boy and an old aunt
beating up a Supermanesque character.

In each of these, the point is that one should
buy their own bottle of water and not share
or 'kiss' somebody else's drink.
The brand is betting big on this SKU as a key growth driver taking a
leaf from global trends across the world.

Elaborates Ramesh Chauhan chairman and managing director; Bisleri
International, 'Most marketing guys get carried away by what the
retailer wants and the retailer often is not fully aware of what the
consumer wants.

The idea is to push a bottle that's economical, handy and great for
people on the go. Chauhan is confident that the market will open up
once habits start changing. Currently the 500 ml range contributes
10% towards the Bisleri portfolio and plans are to move the share to
20% or as the company is calling it internally, 'double the half', by
end of the year with sustained marketing efforts.
Elaborating on the creative treatment, Anuraag
Khandelwal, ECD and creative head, Soho Square says,
'It's the two-faced contradiction that on one hand we
shun 'jhootha' and reprimand it and at the same time if
unnoticed, most of us would put our lips to the bottle.'

This is the core insight of the positioning platform, albeit
articulated via a more youthful terminology 'Kiss to
drink', he adds.

There is a conscious effort to have a humorous and over
the top feel to the communication.
Brands in this space have been on the airwaves
following the safety, purity, and hygiene stories,
so much so that even water purifiers have
hammered that message home.

Shares Satish deSa, ECD and creative head,
Soho Square, 'When we had a relatively fresher
message to give out, we wanted to make the
most of it in terms of engagement, likeability and
repeatability of viewing and decided to use
effective and relevant humour.'
Along with the first ever SKU-led communication
this campaign also marks the maiden foray of
the brand in the digital space.

Shares Shraddha Waikar Nathani, marketing
head, Bisleri International, 'We started on digital
with a teaser campaign followed by a pre-launch
of the films on YouTube and Facebook.' This
was done to give the younger audience a
chance to preview the ads.
Taking the message of 'don't share' and acknowledging people who get
their own bottle, twitter handles #Shabaash and #dontshare were
planted.

A single day, 18th April 2013, was celebrated as #WorldShabaashDay
on twitter, encouraging tweeples to acknowledge anybody and
anything.

The digital campaign has been conceptualised and executed by Flying
Cursor.

The campaign along with TV and digital is also finding a leg on radio
and Out-of-Home media. The packaging of the bottles has been
slapped with the 500 message boldly in yellow.
The campaign idea is edgy, and so is the articulation of the
idea feels Emmanuel Upputuru, founder and chief
innovation officer, ITSA, and it has direct links to sales
since the campaign is asking everyone to have their own
bottle.

In his view there are leaders who play safe and lose the
ground eventually to new comers like Sony and Nokia
lost the plot to Apple and Samsung.

And there are leaders who continue to extend their lead
and he puts Bisleri in the latter category.
After all the competition for Bisleri in the bottled
water category valued at 25,000 crore could
very well be from not just other water brands, it
could even be from water-purifier brands like
Eureka Forbes and Kent in their quest to make
mineral water a household item.

The other big players in the market include Coca-
Cola's Kinley and PepsiCo's Aquafina along with
Parle Agro's Bailley and Kingfisher.