Tuesday, January 27, 2009

A quick peep into the fizzy saga...

Always known for its quick wit and gang of friends, now Appy Fizz wants to be known for its new style too. Surbhi Chawla explores

Wanna look cool with friends while partying, yet don’t want to touch alcohol cause dad’s going to be hopping mad when you get back home. Well, this apple drink with a fizz promises to fool your friends, make your dad happy, while allowing you to still seem the coolest guy in the party. A winner from the stable of Parle Agro (known for its mango drink – Frooti), Appy Fizz, not only looks a lot like bubbly alcohol, but also doesn’t pinch your pocket. Quite a deal! Recently, Appy Fizz underwent a change in its avatar. Nadia Chauhan, Director, Parle Agro told 4Ps B&M, “Appy Fizz got bored of its old gear and we thought it will be a great idea to change into something new. It has purely been a cosmetic change to keep things short.”

Boredom or the Obama effect of Change We Can, the most recent campaign of this drink, where a whacky Appy Fizz character hangs out with its cool friends has sure managed to generate adequate buzz around the brand.

For the uninitiated, Appy Fizz saw the dawn of the day in the sultry summer of 2005 and ever since it has focussed on being different from the others in its league. Interestingly, the year 2005 was also the year when the consumers were looking for alternatives in the drinks segment. They no longer wanted a product that would just quench their thirst or provide relief from the heat, but were also looking for something healthy. This breed of health conscious customers were partly also driven by the pesticide controversy that took place around the same time and ones that were looking for a change from fizzy colas. These developments in the market made marketers sit up and take note. Most donned their innovative hat in search of that magic drink that would tinkle the Indian taste buds yet maintain the nutritional factor. A rash of new drinks were launched – new iced teas to branded chais, and even flavoured milk. Besides, there were also new variants being launched for the fruit-based drinks including a guava flavoured Frooti by Parle Agro. To grab this opportunity Parle Agro decided to enter the carbonated Apple drink segment and introduced Appy Fizz in the Indian market.

Though there were many juice brands available in India at that time, but none of them were offering an apple juice as market research showed that apple juice or an apple based drink would not appease the entire country. And the idea to have a carbonated touch was another big risk that Parle Agro was taking with its Appy Fizz. It was a very niche segment that the company planned to capture and looking back it seems that the strategy worked for Parle Agro has a first mover’s advantage in this category. And to catch the fancy of the youth the product was given a sparkling tinge. Also, the bottle of the drink was given the shape of a champagne bottle and the drink a golden colour, so that it would be a huge hit in party circuit, especially amongst the tea-totallers, who feel left out. With its tagline ‘A cool drink to hang out with,’ and a smart advertising campaign, Appy Fizz was instantly able to create a brand new category and a captured sizeable market share.

From thereon, what has helped Appy Fizz achieve ever growing success is its constantly evolving market strategy. Nadia elaborates, “In the year 2006, the task on hand was to introduce Appy Fizz to the consumers in the most interesting manner possible. With that objective well achieved, the strategy from then on has always been to keep Appy Fizz current.” It is this new objective that allows honchos at Parle Agro to be flexible in their communication strategy that they adopt and it also becomes convenient to experiment.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
'This is one of Big B's best performances'
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

No comments: