Paper Boat, a beverage brand owned by Hector Beverages, has recently expanded its portfolio by adding a Pomegranate (Anar in Hindi) based drink. With this, the Paperboat drink is now present in 10 different flavors which include Anar, Chilled Rasam, Ginger Lemon Tea, Tulsi Tea, Aamras, Jaljeera, Kokum, Jamun, Aam Panna, and Golgappe.
The brand has recently released a TVC to promote the new variant. Designed and conceptualized by Lowe Lintas, the film showcases how people remember their childhood when they consume the drink.
The brand has recently released a TVC to promote the new variant. Designed and conceptualized by Lowe Lintas, the film showcases how people remember their childhood when they consume the drink.
In less than three years of operations, Paper Boat has become extremely
popular owing to its ethnic flavors that remind people of their
childhood. According to reports, Paper Boat constitutes 75% of the sales
of Hector Beverages which also makes the energy drink Tzinga. Hector
also sells Paper Boat in the US, Malaysia, Dubai and the UK, mainly
catering to people of Indian origin.
We spoke to Neeraj Kakkar, CEO, Hector Beverages to understand more about their plans and strategies.
Q. What is the objective of the new campaign that Paper Boat has released?
The new campaign had a two-fold objective. Firstly, it wanted to take the story forward from where we left in our last campaign. And secondly, to present the brand's contemporary image.
Our last campaign (A Paper Boat Ride Down the River of Memories) spoke about the brand personality and what it stands for. And to make our point clear, we used the Malgudi Days tune to make it look more classical. The idea was to make people aware of what innocent emotion means to them while keeping the brand contemporary.
Q. So, what was the consumer insight behind launching this Anar variant?
At Paper Boat, whenever we launch a new product, we always discuss how it was consumed 100 years back. We study the format and the recipes that were used for it. We found that Pomegranate (Anar) has a rich history of consumption since the Mughal era. We aimed to keep it simple and the way it was consumed in those days. We believe that launching this Anar drink is a logical extension to our portfolio.
Q. Paper Boat was launched in 2013. What has been the brand's advertising strategy since then?
For the first one-and-a-half years, we were very silent in terms of advertising as we focused more on learning from the consumers. We wanted to get our product right and according to the consumer's tastes we changed our products.
Later, in 2014, we began our advertising journey with Print campaigns and then shifted to Television and Outdoor. Our choice of medium solely depends on the objective of the task.
Earlier in the year, we rolled out our debut multi-media campaign. It gave us good results. During this year, we also experimented with Outdoor in Bengaluru and achieved desired results.
Starting 2015, we have increased our focus on digital as plan to use it as our key medium to connect with the audiences. We are running 12 month digital programs and are active on social media platforms. We have also, recently, executed some campaigns on Instagram. However, in terms of spends, TV still leads.
Q. Talking about your advertising strategy, Paper Boat's TV campaigns have always focused on memories and nostalgia? What is the idea behind using these propositions?
Our campaigns showcase innocence, which is what the brand stands for. It is not nostalgia.
Consider this example, a 28-year-old looking at the sky would think of career, pollution, high rise and multiple other things. However, when the same guy was an eight-year-old and was looking at the sky, he saw the marvel of stars, sun, moon, vastness of sky. So, this is the difference, of simplicity and innocence. We try to remind people the innocence, which they had at the age of eight.
We aim to bring that child alive in everyone, which has innocence and a high level of curiosity. So, the way we are doing it for the last campaign is taking the memories. Our endeavor is not to talk about nostalgia but the child in you.
Q. Paper Boat is a unique product. So, how do you define your TG?
Paper Boat has two sets of consumers. Our first consumer is experimental who likes to try new things. So, when he sees a new flavor in the market, he opts for it and finds it soothing and hence adapts it.
However, our second consumer is someone, who for some reason, is disconnected from consuming traditional drinks such as Aam Panna, Rasam, Kokum or others. So, when he sees those drinks from Paper Boat in the shops, he connects to his old memories and immediately consumes them.
We believe our consumer is between the age of 25 years and 40 years (both male and female) staying in metros. We get a lot of traction from metro markets including Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. We are not very strong in Tier II & III markets but are working on our distributions there.
Read More About Paper Boat
Q. Moving on, what are the marketing challenges that Paper Boat is facing now?
At present, our biggest marketing challenge is to get heard. We find that the advertising mediums are extremely cluttered especially with the new age technology playing a part in media and marketing.
Q. Dabur had recently launched Hajmola Yoodley range in the market as a competition to Paper Boat. Does this worry you?
At this moment, we believe that the category is too nascent to talk about competition. Honestly, in last one year we have not spent any time discussing about competition as our agenda is to grow the category. There is competition from the traditional players and we do not have a choice to it but we have to agree that the opportunity within this category is endless for as many players to join in.
We agree that Dabur is expanding the category and if we go by the book, it is a competition for us. They have a very high reputation and a strong distribution system. But for a startup like us, it is difficult to grow this category alone and we need more players in it.
We spoke to Neeraj Kakkar, CEO, Hector Beverages to understand more about their plans and strategies.
Q. What is the objective of the new campaign that Paper Boat has released?
The new campaign had a two-fold objective. Firstly, it wanted to take the story forward from where we left in our last campaign. And secondly, to present the brand's contemporary image.
Our last campaign (A Paper Boat Ride Down the River of Memories) spoke about the brand personality and what it stands for. And to make our point clear, we used the Malgudi Days tune to make it look more classical. The idea was to make people aware of what innocent emotion means to them while keeping the brand contemporary.
Q. So, what was the consumer insight behind launching this Anar variant?
At Paper Boat, whenever we launch a new product, we always discuss how it was consumed 100 years back. We study the format and the recipes that were used for it. We found that Pomegranate (Anar) has a rich history of consumption since the Mughal era. We aimed to keep it simple and the way it was consumed in those days. We believe that launching this Anar drink is a logical extension to our portfolio.
Q. Paper Boat was launched in 2013. What has been the brand's advertising strategy since then?
For the first one-and-a-half years, we were very silent in terms of advertising as we focused more on learning from the consumers. We wanted to get our product right and according to the consumer's tastes we changed our products.
Later, in 2014, we began our advertising journey with Print campaigns and then shifted to Television and Outdoor. Our choice of medium solely depends on the objective of the task.
Earlier in the year, we rolled out our debut multi-media campaign. It gave us good results. During this year, we also experimented with Outdoor in Bengaluru and achieved desired results.
Starting 2015, we have increased our focus on digital as plan to use it as our key medium to connect with the audiences. We are running 12 month digital programs and are active on social media platforms. We have also, recently, executed some campaigns on Instagram. However, in terms of spends, TV still leads.
Q. Talking about your advertising strategy, Paper Boat's TV campaigns have always focused on memories and nostalgia? What is the idea behind using these propositions?
Our campaigns showcase innocence, which is what the brand stands for. It is not nostalgia.
Consider this example, a 28-year-old looking at the sky would think of career, pollution, high rise and multiple other things. However, when the same guy was an eight-year-old and was looking at the sky, he saw the marvel of stars, sun, moon, vastness of sky. So, this is the difference, of simplicity and innocence. We try to remind people the innocence, which they had at the age of eight.
We aim to bring that child alive in everyone, which has innocence and a high level of curiosity. So, the way we are doing it for the last campaign is taking the memories. Our endeavor is not to talk about nostalgia but the child in you.
Q. Paper Boat is a unique product. So, how do you define your TG?
Paper Boat has two sets of consumers. Our first consumer is experimental who likes to try new things. So, when he sees a new flavor in the market, he opts for it and finds it soothing and hence adapts it.
However, our second consumer is someone, who for some reason, is disconnected from consuming traditional drinks such as Aam Panna, Rasam, Kokum or others. So, when he sees those drinks from Paper Boat in the shops, he connects to his old memories and immediately consumes them.
We believe our consumer is between the age of 25 years and 40 years (both male and female) staying in metros. We get a lot of traction from metro markets including Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. We are not very strong in Tier II & III markets but are working on our distributions there.
Read More About Paper Boat
Q. Moving on, what are the marketing challenges that Paper Boat is facing now?
At present, our biggest marketing challenge is to get heard. We find that the advertising mediums are extremely cluttered especially with the new age technology playing a part in media and marketing.
Q. Dabur had recently launched Hajmola Yoodley range in the market as a competition to Paper Boat. Does this worry you?
At this moment, we believe that the category is too nascent to talk about competition. Honestly, in last one year we have not spent any time discussing about competition as our agenda is to grow the category. There is competition from the traditional players and we do not have a choice to it but we have to agree that the opportunity within this category is endless for as many players to join in.
We agree that Dabur is expanding the category and if we go by the book, it is a competition for us. They have a very high reputation and a strong distribution system. But for a startup like us, it is difficult to grow this category alone and we need more players in it.
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