Limca plays on emotional rejuvenation.
Limca, the dominant market leader in what is known as the “cloudy lemon beverage segment”, is redefining freshness — from driving away physical fatigue to emotional rejuvenation. The first batch of its out-of-home(OOH)-media campaign, ‘Doobo Taazgi Mein’ (immerse yourself in freshness), attempts precisely this — a play on the emotional characteristics of freshness.
And Coca Cola is doing that in style. The OOH communication initiatives include the actual use of water as “mood-enhancers” in three-dimensional floating hoardings, using acrylic designs. For instance, at bus stops, there will be hoardings with water-filled acrylic sheets and 3D Limca Logos to give them a dimension of freshness. At shopping malls, there will be aquarium-shaped glass boxes to give an effect of waves. The vibrant interplay of light and colours with the soothing feel of water is the dominant theme.
Coca-Cola India marketing Director Srinivas Murthy says the campaign done by Ogilvy & Mather is a “360-degree approach to freshness. So the OOH advertising would be in places where one usually waits for long hours and is thus stressed out completely. The ads, he says, provide “a dose of inner and outer freshness thanks to the water effect that they carry.”
The television commercials show a young couple in a spectacular though pallid studio apartment, sitting totally jaded in a dreary afternoon. When the girl sips Limca, she experiences ‘water-like freshness’ and finds her surroundings gradually filling with water. This sparks off moments of playful romance between the couple. Together they swim around amidst a floating piano and music notations, playing a sensual game around the Limca bottle.
The commercials ask viewers to break away from the monotony of life and steal those blithe moments of bliss, fun and romance.
Experts say brand Limca is now mainly targeting the young, working population who long for freshness amid high pressure jobs and a fast-paced life.
This is not the first time that Limca is undergoing brand re-positioning. The brand’s journey began in 1971 when it was marketed and promoted as a thirst quencher. In 2004, it rode on a physical freshness wave with the tagline, ‘Mazaa Taazgi Ka’.
Some analysts, however, feel that Coca-Cola has gone on the defensive with other players entering this segment. Purnendu Kumar, analyst at Technopak India, says “Coca-Cola’s sudden aggressive advertising campaign for Limca could be because of the emergence of other players in the lemon beverage segment including non-carbonated drinks. So this is more of a reactive campaign than anything else.”
Limca has a market share of over 60-70 per cent in the ‘cloudy lemon segment’, its closest competitors being Mirinda Lemon flavour and 7UP Lemon of PepsiCo India. The lemon beverage market, which is over Rs 500 crore, also has other non–carbonated players like PepsiCo’s Nimbooz and Parle Agro’s Lmn.
“The last two years have seen a few lemon brands coming into the markets. But for Coca- Cola India and PepsiCo India, the clear lemon segment — represented by Sprite and 7UP — is what the companies seem to be focusing on,” Kumar adds.
