Friday 20 June 2014

Bournvita: Managing brands by managing positioning

Bournvita is one of the major players in the Rs 4000 crore (2011) Indian Health Drink market. This market is expected to be Rs 8000 crores by 2016. The brand has a market share of around 16% according to Business Standard whereas Horlicks enjoys 51% share. The brand was favoured by kids who liked the chocolate flavoured drinks. It owns almost 40% share in brown malt health drinks. Cadbury has been nurturing the brand, focusing on kids and their affinity towards good taste. The brand got initial traction in the market by focusing on the chocolate taste. It further reinforced the taste factor. It was launched in 1948 and is one of the oldest brands in malted drink segment.

When the brand was launched, it focused on mother’s problem of providing the healthy and the tasty food. Its initial launch proposition was based on health and taste. In 1970s, the brand focused on upbringing and repositioned on functional benefit of ‘goodness’ with a tagline - “Goodness that grows with you”. In 1980s, the brand changed the focus from upbringing to intelligence and had the tagline “Brought up Right, Bournvita Bright”. 90s saw the brand talking about overall health and development with tagline “Tan ki shakti, Man ki shakti”.

In 1998, Bournvita changed the positioning on nutrition and focused on RDA formulae with proposition of 2 cups of Bournvita for balanced nutrition.  It also set up brand property titled Bournvita Nutritional Center where nutrition experts recommended the right RDA percentage to kids.

Later the brand went for a laddering exercise and brought in the concept of confidence. This was backed the laddering up with the creation of Bournvita Confidence Academy. The brand professed the concept of "Prepare to Win" proposition. The brand adopted the tagline "Tayari Jeet Ki " or Preparing to Win. The proposition focused on physical energy and endurance. Besides the change in positioning, the brand's primary target audience also changed. Rather than focusing on kids, the brand directly began addressing the Mother. Kids began to play the supporting role in the advertisement.

Bournvita is one of the major players in the Rs 4000 crore (2011) Indian Health Drink market. This market is expected to be Rs 8000 crores by 2016. The brand has a market share of around 16% according to Business Standard whereas Horlicks enjoys 51% share. The brand was favoured by kids who liked the chocolate flavoured drinks. It owns almost 40% share in brown malt health drinks. Cadbury has been nurturing the brand, focusing on kids and their affinity towards good taste. The brand got initial traction in the market by focusing on the chocolate taste. It further reinforced the taste factor. It was launched in 1948 and is one of the oldest brands in malted drink segment.

When the brand was launched, it focused on mother’s problem of providing the healthy and the tasty food. Its initial launch proposition was based on health and taste. In 1970s, the brand focused on upbringing and repositioned on functional benefit of ‘goodness’ with a tagline - “Goodness that grows with you”. In 1980s, the brand changed the focus from upbringing to intelligence and had the tagline “Brought up Right, Bournvita Bright”. 90s saw the brand talking about overall health and development with tagline “Tan ki shakti, Man ki shakti”.

In 1998, Bournvita changed the positioning on nutrition and focused on RDA formulae with proposition of 2 cups of Bournvita for balanced nutrition.  It also set up brand property titled Bournvita Nutritional Center where nutrition experts recommended the right RDA percentage to kids.

Later the brand went for a laddering exercise and brought in the concept of confidence. This was backed the laddering up with the creation of Bournvita Confidence Academy. The brand professed the concept of "Prepare to Win" proposition. The brand adopted the tagline "Tayari Jeet Ki " or Preparing to Win. The proposition focused on physical energy and endurance. Besides the change in positioning, the brand's primary target audience also changed. Rather than focusing on kids, the brand directly began addressing the Mother. Kids began to play the supporting role in the advertisement.

2011 saw a marked difference in the positioning of Bournvita. The brand began drifting away from confidence based positioning and laddered down again. The brand discarded everything it did in the past and began talking like Horlicks. In the campaign, the brand began talking about calcium with the tagline "Badhaye Doodh Ki Shakthi" which was strikingly the same as the latest Horlicks campaign. This platform did not find resonance with audience as the brand was totally out of synch with this platform. Bournvita suffered because it ditched its earlier positioning in favor of the Milk based positioning. For the first time, the communication did not have kids, the prime users of the brand. The absence of kids in the ads and focus on ingredients marked a major shift in the marketing strategy of Bournvita.


Again in March 2013 brand went back to the positioning of “Tayyari Jeet ki”, however there was a paradigm shift in the tonality of the advertisement. The communication showed a mother and son racing through the woods with the mom winning this race. This makes the child more determined to win and the mother challenges him by not giving him any leniency. The mother tells the story through the voice over. She says, “Mere bete ko jeet ki aadat tab lagegi jab woh mujhe harayega” The final scene shows the son winning the race against the mother while she looks satisfied. One sees the actual product only in the end which indicates they are selling the idea of the drink as much as the drink itself. The whole concept of progress rather than win was appealing. The distinctiveness of this communication lies with the manner in which the mother has been portrayed in the communication. She is modern and believes in leading by example. She is a woman who is involved in the upbringing of her child in every possible way. The current positioning has found greater acceptance among consumers and brand is yet again on the growth path. 

6Es framework of brand building Strong brands are assets to the business as they earn premium and create consumer preference. People t...