Revamping Rasna – A Marketing Overhaul Saga

FACING CHALLENGES – THE SECOND INNING Contd...

According to its renewed distribution strategy, Rasna planned to reach an estimated 7,00,000 retailers annually. With its plans to reach the rural areas, the company began strengthening its distribution channels in order to cover villages with a population of up to 5,000. Following this, the company appointed 47 additional sales personnel, 350 cycle salesmen, and 145 pilot salesmen in addition to new stockists for the relevant areas. It also engaged 500 vans for the coverage of rural areas. However, Rasna was careful not to neglect the urban markets. According to company sources, “There are pockets with rural consumers even in the metros and they are large in number.” Hence, the company's advertisements also targeted the urban and semi-urban families.

As a part of its new strategy, the company focused on multi-media advertising and promotion, wherein an effective marketing strategy was adopted to communicate the brand message, using the different media such as TV, radio and print. Mudra Communications (Mudra), a leading advertising agency, undertook the advertising and promotional activities. Mudra developed an advertisement campaign constituting five television commercials, radio advertising and outdoor media campaigns. Special emphasis was laid on ‘outdoor visibility'and over 45,000 bus shelters, 5,000 pole kiosks, 300 bus panels and over 200 billboards were used to display the brand message across the country.

With a new, catchy brand tagline, ‘Relish a gain,'the campaign highlighted the affordability and easy availability of Rasna products. Speaking about the changed corporate identity and its reflection in advertising campaigns, Khambatta said, “Our aim is to reach out to the masses and we wanted a direct link between the brand and our advertising.” Commenting on the advertisement campaigns Sachin Kamath, Accounts Director, Mudra Communications said, “We changed the advertising strategy to include every age group and every section of the society. ‘Relish a Gain'concept has been created in Hindi as a song, which covers the total range of products to focus on Rasna's values in different moments of life.” According to company sources, the message expected to be conveyed through the advertisements was, “Whenever you feel like celebrating, drink Rasna”. Special emphasis was laid on its affordability and value-for-money.

Moreover, its product lines were categorized into two brands (Rasna Utsav and Rasna Rozana) so as to effectively target different consumer segments in India. While Utsav, an improvement over Rasna SDC, targeted the lower income group in rural markets, Rozana, a mix and serve powdered drink (no need to add sugar) targeted the convenience seeking semi-urban and urban consumers. Rasna relaunched Rasna International as well under the sub-brand, Rozana Fruit Booster. Fruit Booster was aimed at competing with Sunfill and Tang (both pre-sweetened powdered soft drinks), serving the upper end of the market (See Table I for Rasna's new brand profile).

TABLE I
RASNA'S NEW BRAND PROFILE

BRAND	CAPACITY	PRICE (in Rs)	FLAVOURS
UTSAV (Improved Rasna SDC containing Nature Gain (powder) and Fruit Gain (liquid) that are to be mixed to prepare the drink	1 litre	5	10
	6 litres	28.5
	18 litres	65.5
ROZANA (Pre-sweetened powdered soft drink)
Rozana Amrit	1 glass	2	3 (Orange, Mango and Nimbu Pani)
	10 glasses	15
	25 glasses	35
Rozana Ras	100 ml	15	3 (Orange, Mango, and Pineapple)
Rozana Ras	200 ml	28	3 (Orange, Mango, and Pineapple)
Rozana Fruit Boosters (International)	200 mg	45	3 (Orange, Mango and Pineapple)
Rozana Fruit Boosters (International)	500 mg	107	3 (Orange, Mango and Pineapple)