Not just plain vanilla

CAMPAIGN LOGIC

In an ultra-modern world, Vivek Oberoi plays the epitome of retro-chic. He's young, urban and he lives to be different.

Instead of sending lovey-dovey SMSes, he gets doves to carry his love notes. Where others zip around on motorcycles, he zooms in on a red scooter, complete with tasselled handlebars. He plays badminton in old-Bollywood style when others pump iron in air-conditioned gyms. And the girls are all over him.

Wakaw!

That's a distorted abbreviation of "vanilla Coke" but, thanks to the new television commercial, it's also fast catching on as slang for "cool and different" "" everything Vanilla Coke stands for, in fact.

The 60-second ad is playing on youth-centric channels like MTV, Channel [V], HBO and AXN and even regional channels like Sun TV. With a retro-Bollywood theme, the ad urges consumers to "try something new and different", in classic 1970s style.

The product being promoted is Vanilla Coke, the first flavoured variant of Coke to be launched by Coca-Cola India in the country. Globally, it is Coca Cola's fourth extension (introduced in the US in 2002) after Diet Coke or Coke Light (launched in 1982), Cherry Coke (1985) and Diet Coke with lemon (2001).

Why vanilla? "The concept of ice-cream floats in cola is quite common in urban restaurants. So, vanilla with coke was found to be an accepted flavour," explains Vishal Mehta, business director, McCann Erickson, the creative agency for Coca Cola India.

Also, the response to Vanilla Coke in south-east Asian markets like Bangkok and Hong Kong was encouraging enough for the company to think vanilla would kick off in India, too. For instance, Vanilla Coke's sales in Hong Kong exceeded expectations by 60 per cent in just one month, according to a report on Coca-Cola's global website.

Even the communication for Vanilla Coke in India takes a cue from the "hip-hop" commercial used in Hong Kong. That ad shows teenaged boys rapping on the street, when Vanilla Coke characters Agent V and Agent C "" on a mission to "smooth" the world "" appear suddenly and offer Vanilla Coke to the rappers. A few sips down, the rappers break into a "smooth" pop song.

While the communication in India does not play up the "smooth" taste, it does talk to the hip and happening "" Coca Cola expects Vanilla Coke to be lapped up by urban teenyboppers and young adults in the 12 to 29 age group from socio-economic categories A and B.

"The creative challenge with Vanilla Coke was to grab the young adult's short-spanned attention," says Prasoon Joshi, national creative director, McCann Erickson.

Hence the choice of retro (the current consumer trend) as the creative theme. Also, the retro-Bollywood theme keeps the flavour closer to home, rather than accentuating a premium image, points out an agency executive.

The choice of retro was risky, though, considering the slew of ads on the same theme already on television "" Aaj Tak, Playwin, Close-Up and Kit Kat, to name just a few. Vanilla Coke, though, is retro with a difference. Although the trend in advertising veers towards retro, "it is largely skewed to the black-and-white era of the 1950s-60s," says Joshi.

Vanilla Coke sticks to the disco decade of the 1970s. Even the jingle "" Ab parampara nahin, paramparampara... "" has been sung by one of the ambassadors of the disco era, Bappi Lahiri. And a relatively fresh celebrity was chosen as the protagonist in the ad "" brand ambassador Vivek Oberoi hasn't appeared in Coke ads as frequently as other such as Aishwarya Rai and Aamir Khan. "Celebrities can carry new products on their shoulders," explains Joshi.

Still, Coca Cola isn't depending on Oberoi's star status to ensure Vanilla Coke's success. "The learning from international markets like US and Hong Kong was to cover all elements of consumer contact, whether above- or below-the-line," says the company spokesperson.

Accordingly, Vanilla Coke's launch was accompanied by roadshows in the four metros, lifesize cutouts of Oberoi at cinema halls and a contest to collect six Coke labels, with winners getting to attend a retro party with Oberoi. Below-the-line promotions will continue for several months to come, says the company.

The urban youth segment is a niche one "" especially considering India is a mass market "" but Coca Cola has its reasons. The most important is that, according to research by the company, flavours like vanilla still find favour mainly in urban markets.

By restricting the product to metros and urban towns, then, Coca-Cola has been saved the effort (perhaps futile) of stretching the niche appeal.

Again, research has shown that the urban youth segment is the most willing to try new variations in beverages. That's where the timing of the launch and the price of Vanilla Coke comes into play. The drink was introduced in April 2003 "" the onset of summer, when carbonated soft drink consumption is higher and consumers are more open to new offerings.

And Vanilla Coke has been priced within reach of the regular cola: Rs 6 for 200 ml (Re 1 more than Coke) and Rs 15 for 500 ml (against Rs 15 for a 600 ml bottle of Coke).

Still, Vanilla Coke won't find it too easy to fizz up the market. Over 60 per cent of the CSD market is still dominated by regular, black colas. The rest is split among flavours like orange (dominated by Coke's Fanta and Pepsi's Mirinda), lemon (Coke's Limca) and clear, carbonated drinks like Coke's Sprite and Pepsi's 7-Up. But flavoured extensions of master brands constitute a negligible part of this segment, say market watchers.

Earlier forays into flavoured extensions by other players didn't exactly set the market on fire. In early 2002, for instance, Pepsi introduced a lemon-flavoured cola, A-ha, followed a year later by a "limited edition" Pepsi Blue, which leveraged associations with the cricket World Cup. "Pepsi's strategy for its variants has been to leverage events, platforms or properties that boost growth," says a Pepsi spokesperson.

While Pepsi restricts its variants to select occasions "" saving it the continuous marketing efforts that niche variants need "" Coca-Cola has been even more cautious in its launch of Vanilla Coke.

Understandable, as Vanilla Coke is not just a seasonal launch like Pepsi Blue or A-ha. "The late launch is understandable considering that the cola market itself is still extremely nascent in India," says an agency executive.

Look at the sharp contrast: the per capita consumption of colas in India is 8 (200 ml) bottles while that in the US market is between 600 and 700 bottles. "So far, Coke's energies were more focused on growing its penetration in smaller towns and cities," says the executive.

But for Vanilla Coke, Coca-Cola's reached the other end of the spectrum. With the new product the challenge has been to "leverage the current 'Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola' equity and yet create a distinct positioning for Vanilla Coke," says a Coca-Cola India spokesperson.

Hence, the jingle refers to Vanilla Coke as "ice-creamy thanda" (the ice-creamy cold beverage), to continue the association with the "Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola" baseline. This is a quintessentially pan-Indian tone that Coca-Cola advertising switched to only in 2002.

In the mid- and late-1990s, the advertising for flagship brand Coke centred on achieving one's dreams with Coke as a companion. With a baseline that said "Jo chaho ho jaaye, Coca-Cola enjoy" (Whatever you wish for will come true, Enjoy Coca-Cola), the campaigns had a distinct urban appeal.

After 2000, Coca-Cola's baseline changed to "Life ho to aisi" (Life should be like this), with film stars like Aishwarya Rai in slice-of-life situations. But the urban flavour remained.

Though there are no available market share figures to prove this, industry watchers say that Pepsi was surging ahead as a stronger player with its pan-Indian appeal, thanks to its association with cricket and films.

Which is why Coca-Cola had to shake off its restrictive urban stance to launch new campaigns in 2002. This time, it used film star Aamir Khan to assume various regional characters "" from a Hyderabadi to a farmer in Punjab to a Nepali gorkha "" to reinforce the Indian synonym for refreshments "" thanda (cold) "" to represent Coke.

As the campaigns became popular mainly for the creative execution, Coke's equity gathered an instant Indian appeal. Thanda may have Indianised Coke, but can Vanilla Coke win the wakaw factor?