Relaunch of Frooti-The 'Digen Verma' Campaign

CAMPAIGN TALE

The youth segment, which ‘Frooti'targeted, was extremely difficult to break into partly because of the perception that ‘Frooti'was a kids drink and partly because of the hold that competitors had already established over the market. By targeting the youth, ‘Frooti'would be in direct competition with the Cola MNCs (Pepsi and Coca-Cola) which were immensely popular, not to mention other tetrapak fruit drinks and all the other beverages targeted at the youth.

The relaunch strategy for ‘Frooti'therefore focussed on the one hand on breaking the image which the youth associated ‘Frooti'with and on the other on convincing the youth that it was a better alternative than the colas. Said, Prakash Chauhan, MD, Parle, “For some reason, a soft drink in tetrapak is perceived as one meant for children. The relaunch is about stressing on the teenage segment and making our product fun, trendy and modern, just like today's teenager, who is an out-and-out nonconformist.”

The creative team of Parle Agro's advertisement agency, decided that they had to think of something that appealed to the college-going crowd. To do this, they have to figure out where the typical college goers hung out, what their reference points were, and what would grab their attention. The typical college student hung out at the canteen, fed on small talk, and, invariably, his conversation revolved around celebrities and the handful of star students of his college; and it didn't matter that few had actually met the celebrities.

Said Dhaimande: ''So we realised that a lot of socialising and talk always revolved around this one person who someone would know and the rest have only heard about.'' Thus it was decided that the promotion campaign for repositioning Frooti would revolve around a brand ambassador who would be someone the youth could relate to.

This person had to have the following characteristics if he was to have a mass appeal: one, his name had to be ubiquitous enough; two, he had to lead a life that normal consumers could relate to and three, the storyline had to be powerful enough to sustain interest.

The name ‘Digen Verma'was chosen because though it was somewhat unusual, it had a familiar ring to it. The name was well received in southern markets like Kerala, according to a test market research. Said Bhonsle, “We were looking for a national identity, and Verma, as a surname, features in almost all Indian communities. On the other hand, Digen as such doesn't mean anything. One could probably interpret it is as Dig-In.”

Once the name Digen Verma was chosen, a personality had to be built around it. He had to some sort of a role model whom the others would want to imitate. Over the years the filmstars and cricketers had served as role models to the youth. But Parle Agro, interestingly chose an unknown entity like Digen Verma and not a celebrity like Hrithik Roshan or Sachin Tendulkar to endorse its products. Said Dhaimade,

“We want college kids to drink Frooti without any image hassles. A celebrity's life is always short-lived. Today, he is there, and tomorrow he is not. This idea came from my own experiences in college. The rule is simple. A popular guy can do what the hell he wants, people follow. A freshman has to be very careful of how he behaves. But, most importantly, there are always ‘those guys'- legends you've never seen but have heard so much about. The very fact that you haven't seen them makes them larger than life. That's how the idea of Digen Verma came into my head.”

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