The Hindu Business Line : Rasna hits vending with five flavours

SOFT drink concentrate major Rasna Pvt Ltd, which has announced its entry into institutional beverages/vending with the new variant called Juc-Up, has launched a new advertising campaign and a roadshow to popularise the brand.

The TV commercials use fruit characters to endear the drink in its various flavours to children. The drink comes in five flavours - mango, pineapple, orange, lime and mosambi (sweet lime).

There are two TVCs, one a `theme commercial' to introduce the brand, and the other in which the range of flavours is introduced. Specially designed Juc-Up vans will make the rounds of cities on a `free sampling' exercise.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Sudarshan Mazumdar, Vice-President (Sales & Marketing), said that the theme commercial was a departure from tradition in that Rasna has chosen to lead with mango against the industry practice of highlighting the orange flavour.

In the second TVC, Mangoman, one of the fruit characters, introduces his fellow icons, including Miss Nimbupani (who represents the lime flavour) in a roll-call session in a classroom.

According to Mr Mazumdar, not only is Juc-Up the first brand to introduce the pineapple and sweet lime variants in the powder soft drink (PSD) category, this is the first time any brand has launched the sweet lime flavour in any soft drink category, including the PSD and ready-to-drink categories.

Juc-Up comes in a single serving sachet for Rs 2, in an eight-glass sachet for Rs 15 and in a 20-glass zipper pack for Rs 36. At the vending machine, which will mix pre-determined quantities of Juc-Up with packaged water, it will cost Rs 3, a price point hitherto untouched by any other player in the market, according to him.

The closest competition is Rs 5 for an aerated drink which offers no health gain, he added. Juc-Up is positioned as a pre-sweetened energy drink described as "fortified with value-added ingredients such as fruit powder, vitamins and glucose".

The branded vending machines will be placed at various places such as bus stands, railway stations, airports, schools, colleges, offices, cinemas, petrol bunks and shopping malls through franchisees. Rasna has already tied up with the Indian Railways' catering service.

The target is to have 10,000 machines in place in the next one year and sell about 36 crore glasses per year.

The machines will be able to dispense 200 glasses of drink per hour.

They will serve two of three Juc-Up flavours (lime, mango and orange) and can also be equipped to serve tea and coffee. The company also plans to tie up with a beverages chain to control quality.

Rasna hopes that the vending initiative will expand the market for soft drinks. Currently, penetration of soft drinks in all categories is only 14 per cent.

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Rasna hits vending with five flavours