Rasna Fights to Keep the Love a Airgoing
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15-01-2015, PAGE 16 40 YEARS AGO...AND NOW Rasna ghts to keep the love aair going From aggressive competition to a slowing category, it is still battling on SAYANTANI KAR & SOHINI DAS Mumbai / Ahmedabad, 14 January asna is poised to leap from its ready-to-mix antecedents to being R an energy-drink maker, with the likes of PepsiCo and Red Bull for compa- ny, not an easy path even for a resource- ful FMCG company. It was one of the few brands kids in the eighties could relate to. In the days of a single TV channel The ‘I love you, (Doordarshan) and a handful of adver- Rasna’ ad tisers, kids were hardly the audience. But spoke to the with Rasna, the line of glasses with the child and orange drink not only appeared on TV highlighted but also at their or a friend’s birthday par- how 32 glasses ty. Rasna was the ubiquitous soft drink could be made served at home and large gatherings from from one pack; the late-70s to the early-90s. below: One of Experts point out that kids and Rasna’s later the row of glasses with the drink were campaigns key to the runaway success of its parent company then, beaten Roohafza and Kissan. Ahmedabad’s Pioma. But with By the late-80s, it had time, none of them could be launched premium avours on its calling card anymore. such as mango and cornered Rasna was the rst to over 50 per cent value share regard the child as an inu- (and 75 per cent volume encer for a household product. share) in non-aerated It also tactfully avoided the drinks. By the turn of the ‘cheapest drink’ tag but under- century,s SDC got eparately lined the economy in its pur- categorised with Rasna chase, over competition, by lording over 86 per cent vol- how much could be prepared at one go. ume share. Mostly popular in southern Oranjolt in 1.5 litre plastic bottles, in 2000 Of course, it helped that there was no and western states, the volume share but that did not take o. product like the soft drink concentrate was over 90 per cent (value share over 80 In 2002, came two new products, (SDC) that Pioma introduced 1976. per cent) in 2004, and over 97 per cent Rasna Utsav and Rasna Rozana (ready- (volume) in 2010, before settling at 93 to-drink). By then, its ~1.2-a-glass ploy Attractive alternative per cent currently. had scrubbed it of its standing among Rasna was an alternative to carbonated But the market for concentrates has urban consumers. Rasna, then, went to soft drinks like Coca-Cola and later not increased at an enviable pace. While tap the bottom end of the price spectrum, Limca, Gold Spot and Thums Up, which the soft drinks market has grown from ~13 at the same time, entering the top-end of were usually passed up by parents when crore in 1982 to ~14,000 crore in 2014, the market with new formats. It increased they wanted a drink for their kids. SDC comprises only 4.2 per cent. From its rural distribution for Utsav. It wanted Homemade sherbets, squashes and ~250 crore in 2003, it grew to ~400 crore to target more price segments with a syrups were cumbersome to stir up in a in 2008 and is now at ~600 crore (8 per range from 90-paise-a-glass to ~4-a-glass. jiy. Coca-Cola was also on the verge of cent growth), while the overall market Of all the many products over the years, exiting, owing to policy changes appli- grew in double digits. currently it has ready-to-drink Ju-C and cable to multinationals. The proprietors, Fruit Plus concentrate, and underlines the Khambattas, launched Jae and dis- Trouble brews the nutrients such a vitamins in these. tributed it regionally, relaunchin g it as By mid-90s, SDCs were in trouble. Rasna in 1979, with Voltas distributing it, Carbonated drinks and fruit juices ood- Missing amboyance before taking on its marketing and dis- ed the market and came in aordable, One of the biggest advertisers for tribution in 1983. take-home plastic bottles and pouches. Doordarshan once, Rasna has since lost Its rst ad agency, Mudra, when The deep pockets of Coca-Cola and its amboyance. Repositioning over the researching for its campaign in 1984, PepsiCo were enough to drown out years meant that it lost its sharp adver- found out that the other soft drinks were other campaigns. SDCs looked tired tising of the 80s-90s – kids enamoured by also considered to be costly and some as infront of rival categories. By 2002, its colours and taste. The summer of 2015 having patchy avour. The campaign, ‘I Rasna faced competition from Coca- will see it unveil its latest energy drink love you Rasna,’ spoke to the child and Cola’s Sunll (withdrawn in 2004) and and sources say, a big-bang campaign highlighted how 32 glasses could be Cadbury-Kraft’s Tang. with Akshay Kumar. “You have to capture made from one pack. By letting the user the new trends, and the product needs to add sugar to the powder concentrate, Re-inventions evolve. The brand was slotted as a kids' Pioma saved 60 per cent of the cost that Late to the ready-to-drink party, Rasna drink but it is also important to rejuve- other avoured drinks had to foot. has since tried to stay relevant. By 1996, it nate the brand,” says Piruz Khambatta, launched a quicker pre-sweetened pow- the CMD, explaining last year’s campaign Two-decade growth der version. In the early 2000s, with the of 'Life mein Rasna milaofy ’ for the youth. By 1984, Rasna secured 17 per cent share parent being renamed as Rasna Limited, For the creator of a market, breaking of the soft drink market and by 1988, had it launched an aerated fruit drink, into another has proved to be a tall order..