Brand Association Map of B Natural Juice

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A STUDY ON

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Executive Summary:

It is evident that consumer preferences are changing in favour of healthier alternatives. With increasing awareness about health, rising disposable income in India and well-established distribution channels, ITC is well positioned to take advantage of this trend.

Strategy for revitalizing B Naturals:

• Re-positioning & advertising B Naturals as a healthy fruit juice brand
• Introduction of organic fruit and vegetable juices and antioxidants variants
• Hyperlocal strategy to develop juices catering to the tastes of regional India
• Redesigning the packaging to incorporate Tetra prisma aseptic packaging (facilitating easier pouring with added benefits of renewable and biodegradable substrate)
• Subscription based model and strategic tie-ups with fitness centres
• Opening the segment to cater to old age group- a seemingly untapped potential market
• Tie-ups with social media influencers and cricketers as they are the most valued today
• Promotional advertisements showcasing farmers getting direct benefits and conveying the message of inclusive growth.
• Exclusive tie-ups with airline companies to serve juices to the customers
• Improving the presence in school & University canteens.

Strategy to launch a new still drinks brand:

• Launching a new still drinks brand “Khwayishen”
• Regional fruits and long-lost fruit delicacies to be given boost.

Sharbat-e-bel (Wood apple juice)

Luft-e-nariyal (The iconic beach coconuts juice)

Azeem-o-Nimboo  (Fresh lime juice - sweet & salt)

• State-specialty juices like bel, coconut etc. To be introduced
• Social Media campaigns such as #Dil_Ki_Khwayishen_Puri_Karo to enhance customer engagement with the brand.
• Leveraging the distribution networks of ITC to boost the sales of Khwayishen as a complementary to smoking.

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                                    Brand Association Map of B Natural

1. What are your comments on B Natural’s journey from a marketing standpoint? What would you have done differently if you were the brand custodian?

B Naturals, as a pure juice has played on various aspects of customer insights to create a rupture in the segment. Below, we present the different aspects of marketing of B Natural’s journey & their analysis of the same.

Product: 

• Initial focus on taste - An attempt to differentiate B Natural from competitor products based primarily on taste - We understood from the case that B Natural had difficulties with its positioning. At first, B Natural’s positioning was based on its taste, which was not very successful as taste had a low differentiating factor. Then, B Natural tried to position itself as an energy drink that gave a zest of energy to anyone who drank it. The advertisement which was given in the link showed a mother drinking B Natural and subsequently getting rejuvenated. From taste we moved towards the energy quotient of the product. B Natural’s next positioning was that of a pure, NFC juice, reiterating the importance of the manufacturing process of juice and loss of useful vitamins during the process. We feel that the three different positionings/messages of B Natural and the technicality of the NFC explanation made it confuse for the customer as to what B Natural was positioned as, and thus couldn’t make a dent in the household penetration levels.
• Dairy ventures – There is an opportunity for ITC to foray into the dairy segment, as it is not prone to the problems of seasonality unlike juices or CSD segment. Milk based beverages have the second highest margin ranging from 25% to 45% amongst the value-added segments. There hasn’t been much innovation in this segment and thus, we believe the segment can be experimented a bit to unearth unique customer insights in this. But differentiation on the basis of taste is also difficult in the dairy segment and there is a very high intra-industry rivalry with the presence of incumbents such as Cavins, Amul, Hershey's, and Danone.
• Catering to old age segment - From the journey, we understood that the primary target customer for the juices category was an affluent female, 20-35 years of age. When healthy drinks are advertised, one important segment that we can pitch to is the old age segment. With the value-based advertising of the health drinks, we can advertise the benefits of the juice and how healthy living and diet can be complemented with the health juice. But, we understand that the females make product choices for the entire family and could be targeted to cater to the older segment as a healthy option for old and diabetic people. This also sets perfectly with the notion of leveraging the shift in healthy drinks as an option.
• Endorsements by cricketers- We understood that Ms. Shilpa Shetty was roped in as the brand ambassador for B Natural. We, however, felt that a cricketer such as Virat Kohli or Shikhar Dhawan would have had a higher reach to the Indian youngster audience. India is the land of Cricket and as a fitness drink, more than an actress a cricketer could have created impacted. In the past we have seen Sachin endorsing  This is primarily because of the greater penetration of cricket as compared to yoga.

Price:

• Although B Natural has tried to position itself as a juice that is healthy to consume, but the price doesn’t reinforce that ideology. As B Natural is at par infact lower in terms of price as compared to other juice brands like Real and Tropicana, it is difficult for the customers to comprehend that it is superior vis-à-vis other brands. Most customers still rely on price as a proxy or an indicator of the relative quality or health benefits.

Place:

• Tie-ups with school/college canteens - B Natural is positioned as a healthy drink and we feel that stocking it in school/college canteens is a feasible option and would generate more sales. As B Natural targets young mothers, we feel that mothers would encourage their children to purchase B Natural.
• Flights – Availability of B Natural juices in the flights through exclusive tie up with airlines can be explored to reach out to a larger customer base.

Promotion:

• Focus on procurement from Indian farmers and giving back to the society - We propose promotional advertisements showing the process of plucking fruits by farmers to the manufacture of the B Natural juice. The farmer would be shown plucking fruits and then the fruits would be transported to the factory where they would be blended into juices without the formation of concentrates.

We also propose to launch a campaign similar to the primary education program by ITC. We propose to give one rupee to from the profits of every five B Natural tetra pack that is sold to our supplier farmers.

• Advertisements to show energy/health equivalence for children - Promotional advertisements showing how one glass of B Natural fruit juice is equivalent to a bowl of fruits or a glass of B Natural vegetable juice is equivalent to a bowl of vegetables. We believe that a display of equivalence would increase the clarity of the value that is provided by B Natural.
• Better communication of the differences between still drinks and nectars- The difference between juices and still drinks is still blurry in the eyes of the Indian consumer. Hence, better communication maybe via emphasising the differences through advertisements that stress on the technical differences and easy ways for a customer to recognise juices in the market can prove to be useful.

We wanted to understand what was associated with the word ‘B Natural’ for our respondents. Thus, we asked our respondents to create word associations with B Natural. The most common words that our 30 respondents gave are given below in the form of a brand association map. From the association map, we can see that respondents mentioned that B Natural has high sugar content and that it is detoxing for the human body. Other positive associations that emerged are that B Natural is environment friends and is pulpy.

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