brewing change . Jaago Re to Josh — Tata Tea re-ignites the fire

Tata Tea is going all out to put some josh into Agni, its value-led brand catering to price-sensitive consumers. The second largest brand in Tata Tea’s portfolio is being relaunched nationally through a new pack and a high decibel TV campaign featuring women hockey stars – Gurjeet Kaur, Vandana Kataria and Neha Goyal — with the catch line ‘Jinke Aandar Agni Hoti Hai, Vo Har Mushkil, Har Chunauti Ko Apnaate Hai Josh Se’

“This restage was to contemporarise the brand and also to evolve it from the value-for-money mindset, tapping into the aspirations of today’s consumer,” explains Puneet Das,President - Packaged Beverages, India & South Asia,TataConsumer Products.

For the restage, he says, they narrowed down on the stories of India’s women hockey players, as their journey epitomised what the brand was trying to convey.

“Their struggles to reach where they have is a great example of where fire in the belly can take you, helping you overcome odds,” says Das. He explains how Tata Tea cuts to the belly of the market where today aspirations are far higher. “It is an era of opportunities. If you have the passion and ambition, you can seize it.”

Azazul Haque - CCO, Mullen Lintas, the agency which created the campaign, says,“The client brief was to create a campaign that connects with India’s heartland and reposition the brand in a big way. Tata Agni was always value-led. We needed to change that and make masses connect with the brand at an emotional level.We thought inspiration is one value India’s heartland has always loved, and the name Agni stands for the fire within.”

The idea of choosing the stories of hockey players, says Haque, came from the client. “No one represents the brand positioning of josh everyday better than the Indian Women Hockey Team. We just need to tell their real life inspiring story of Josh to the world. And the campaign is doing just that,” he says.

But Agni is not the only brand that Tata Tea has been firing up.

The company that woke up India in 2008 with its powerful Jaago Re narrative that gained in strength over a decade, went hyperlocal in 2019,displaying the regional diversity of India with its Tata Tea Premium brand.Das explains how the consumer insight was that when it comes to tea, which is an everyday habit, tastes change with literally every district. Tea is a highly fragmented category with strong preferences, he explains. It was important for a tea blend to understand the preferences, and cater to it, which it did through customising packaging for different States.

Apart from contemporarising Agni, and going the hyperlocal route with Tata Tea Premium, the company also took note of the D2C trend sweeping through India and launched 1868, specially curated tea blends.

The genesis of the name, explains Das, is this was the year that the Tata group was born and during the 150thanniversary, a special gourmet pack called 1868 was unveiled at the Tata kiosk at Davos.

The name was retained for the D2C offering launched last April.

Both ends of the market are sources of growth, says Das— at the bottom end of the funnel, the effort is to get consumers to shift from loose unbranded tea to branded. In India, 40 per cent of tea consumed is loose and unbranded, he says.

At the top end, it is to go in for premiumisation both through gourmet and health experiences.

He points how green tea, for all the hype over its antioxidant properties, has barely 2 per cent penetration. So there is headroom for growth at both ends.

The pandemic, says Das, has opened up opportunities for healthy blends which is what Chakra Gold is all about.“Recently there has been a surge in health consciousness, and experimentation is going up in tea blends with native ingredients,” he says. To cater to this market, the company launched Tata Tea Gold Care, Chakra Gold Care, and Tata Tea Tulsi.

It also restaged Tetley green tea, adding Vitamin C for enhanced immunity. Tea consumers, says Das, are finicky about taste change — while they may take to blends with native ingredients like Tulsi added, which is a familiar taste, care has been taken not to allow the addition of Vitamin C to change the taste in Tetley Green Immune.

Tata Tea certainly has been busy brewing ideas to rejuvenate the market.