The Hindu Business Line : Flavour of the month

UNLIKE ice-cream major Walls which is trying to woo its consumers with a dose of suggestiveness in its advertising, Chennai-based Hatsun Agro, which owns the Arun Ice-creams brand, has decided to focus on the tried and tested fun platform this summer.

With the use of animation, the campaign has assigned a character to each flavour, which speak for themselves as they pose for a photograph. The baseline says, `Each is one type ya!' The idea behind this, says Shantanu Roy, Head (Creative), Ogilvy & Mather, the brand's advertising agency, is to bring the brand's flavours alive, as he finds that most consumers talk about flavours and not brands. "Our research showed us that most consumers talk about their favourite vanilla or strawberry flavour and not their favourite brand of ice-cream. We therefore wanted to familiarise the consumers with the various flavours the brand has on offer."

Also, Arun Ice-Creams, with its portfolio of 70 flavours, has tried to position itself as a family brand. Therefore, the campaign signs off by saying, `Arun Ice-cream Family.' "Our research showed us that most of the Arun ice-creams parlours are frequented by families, unlike other ice-cream parlours which are usually youth hangouts," says Roy.

B. Nanda Kumar, Chief Marketing Officer, Hatsun Agro, says Arun as a brand has always had strong family values and that it therefore makes sense to project its flavours as a family of sorts.

"There are different flavours trying to grab attention, but they are part of one family," adds Roy.

Apart from television, print and outdoor media, the Arun family members have also been brought alive at the brand's parlours, where their cut-outs have been put up. These characters also feature on the ice-cream packs. The company also plans to give away free tattoos and labels with images of the various ice-cream characters on them. The future would also see the launch of computer games revolving around these characters. "We are going to enable our customers to interact with the Arun Ice-cream Family through various ways," says Prasanna Venkatesh, Marketing Manager, Arun Ice-creams.

Though the company and the agency are excited about popularising the flavours through animated characters, industry observers feel that use of real-life images would have made better sense. Says Suresh Kumar of Mindspark Consulting (a Chennai-based marketing consultancy), "What works better in communication terms for a sensory brand such as ice-cream is imagery and strong visual appeal of the product. Real life images would have been better."

"The campaign doesn't make one salivate and drool. Food brands should always make the product a hero and appeal to the physical sense so that the consumers have an urge to relish the product," says an industry observer. He also says that the family positioning doesn't make much sense. "By projecting it as a family brand and trying to using animation instead of real-life images, the brand is cutting off the basic ingredient, which is appealing to emotions."

This observer also finds the use of sexual overtones in the Walls campaign quite unnecessary. "This kind of strategy will work only for a short period. It might appeal in the beginning, but it will soon pale in the memory of the consumer."

Kumar of Mindspark says that unlike Arun, which is a mass brand, Walls appeals more to the upmarket urban youth and therefore has sexual innuendos. "But that has been done to death. We saw it with their Feast and Magnum brands of ice-creams too."

Ice-cream market

The ice-cream market, according to Venkatesh of Arun Ice-creams, has witnessed a slow growth over the last three or four years. He attributes it to economic slowdown as well as rainfall during the months of March, April and May, which are the peak months of sale. "The market grew by just 6-7 per cent last year, but this year we expect a 10-12 per cent growth, with the economy picking up," he says.

Kumar expects the Arun brand to grow by at least 20 per cent this year, vis-à-vis the six per cent growth it registered last year.

In sync with its positioning as a family brand, the company has also revived its home delivery service in Chennai. "All that the consumers have to do is dial our centralised number, and all orders above Rs 90 would be home delivered," says Venkatesh.

On the retail front, the company plans to set up between 100 and 120 parlours in the Southern markets. It already has a network of 1,100 parlours, and the company plans to stick to its strategy of not retailing at multibrand outlets. "We want to maintain our exclusivity," says Kumar. Obviously, it feels it's the only one of its one type, ya!

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