To mark its silver jubilee, Tata Tea has unveiled a new television commercial (TVC), Soch Badlo, to salute women for being the agents of change in the society.
The TVC starts on a cynical note, with a husband, who has just finished reading the day’s newspaper, telling his wife that he is fed up of reading about scams every day. As he walks over to the kitchen and asks her to make him a cup of tea, she urges him to look at the water boiling in the vessel on the gas oven. She uses the turmoil in the vessel as a metaphor for the kerfuffle that precedes change in society. Just like you get a wonderful cup of tea when you pour tea leaves into boiling water, the mayhem in the country is just an indication that things can only turn for the better, she explains.
The company says “Soch Badlo” is an extension of the highly successful 2007 “Jaago Re” campaign. Vikram Grover, marketing head, Tata Global Beverages, says, “Our earlier campaign Jaago Re resonated with the youth; we touched sensitive issues like the right to vote and the teeming corruption in society, which succeeded in reaching out to the masses. This time, we want our campaign to be seen through the eyes of a woman. In this commercial, the woman lifts the shroud of negativity without being preachy.”
On its part, Lowe Lintas, the agency that created the ad, wanted to convey a very simple message: That there are people who see a glass as half empty while there are others who see the same glass as half full. “Balki (R Balakrishnan, chairman and chief creative officer of the advertising agency) urged us to look at two sides of the same problem: first, to look at the negative side and crib about it, and second, to bring out positivity even from gloom,” says Amer Jaleel, national creative director, Lowe Lintas.
Jaleel points out that before the launch of a Tata Tea campaign, Lowe Lintas, along with the company’s brand team, tries to anticipate the mood of the nation. This time they felt that the morale of the entire country was very low, verging on hopelessness, with so many scams being exposed in various aspects of everyday life.
Against this backdrop, Tata Tea wanted to strengthen the bond with its primary audience, the woman of the household.
Over the last four years or so, the company has tried to picked up issues close to the common man for its various campaigns with slogans such as “Ab se khilana bandh pilana shuru” and now “Chai Piyo Soch Badlo”. This is in contrast with its early campaigns when Tata Tea tried to establish the brand —one that is preferred by successful people with taglines such as “Taste kamyaabi ka”.
Analysts say the Jaago Re and the Soch Badlo campaigns take a stance that befits a leader. According to data provided by AC Nielsen, Tata Global Beverages leads the packaged tea industry with a volume share of 19.7 per cent and a value share of 21.5 per cent respectively of a total market of Rs 7,805 crore (as of September 2011). Its rival, Hindustan Unilever has a volume share of 16.9 per cent and a value share of 20.9 per cent. The next major contribution comes from the local players—at 39 per cent in volume and 33.7 per cent in value.
The company says it has come a long way since its launch in 1985, when it started the polypack revolution in tea. The only competition then was Brooke Bond tea from Brooke Bond India. (In the mid-80s Brooke Bond tea came into the HUL fold when it acquired Brooke Bond India.) “We came in to fill the gap between the only branded player with 70 per cent market share and the loose tea market with our poly packs. A polypack retained tea’s freshness longer and was cheaper,” points out Grover.
