Reports say that Parle Agro is all set to re-enter the Indian fizzy drinks market with Café Cuba, a coffee-flavoured carbonated drink. What I found interesting was the fact that the launch is slated for early next year – a good 3-4 months from now. A bit Applesque , that. Reminded me of the iPhone launch in 2007 when the product was announced in January but launched in June that year. The difference is that consumers can experience Café Cuba now as it is in the testing phase. Since a TV-led media campaign clearly helps in creating awareness, the brand has to rely on other means for the next few months to create and sustain the buzz. In fact, a brand video has been out on YouTube since June this year.
Creating buzz and anticipation seems logical as the product is a new experience for the Indian market – consumers need to be educated, teased and made to try the product. The beverage is a combination of roasted coffee beans with carbonated fizz – a new taste experience for the Indian fizzy drinks consumer hitherto used to cola, lemon & orange in the category. In that context, the YouTube video explains what the taste is all about. The communication cannot simply be in the ‘lifestyle’ space (common to the category) and needs to have a double-barrelled role of educating and enticing. I thought, ‘Start a revolution‘ fitted well in that context.
I particularly liked the approach on Twitter. For one, they have taken trouble to create and maintain a brand personality with tweets written in a particular style of er…Cuban speaking English. So it isn’t just a bot or a templated tweet happening over there.
Amigo @ek_cuttingchai, I am so much delighted you share this #RevolutionaryFact with me. Where you live? I tell you where you get #CafeCuba.
— Café Cuba (@TheCubaGuy) September 25, 2013
The hashtag #TastedCuba kinda cues that ‘so-and-so has tasted Cuba’, why aren’t you? The funny take on famous characters having #TastedCuba makes for posters on Twitter and Facebook.
Agency: CreativeLand Asia
On Facebook, the #RevolutionaryFacts is an interesting link to starting the revolution, Cuba etc., and a welcome break from the usual inane brand posts.
The Twitter campaign and other communication elements work well together to create buzz and a unique, likeable brand personality. Me gusta. ¿Y usted?
2 Comments
@bhatnaturally Thanks for sharing your post , loved the copy of the site, actual website and also twitter engagement. Overall a good execution 🙂 Hopefully this drove the sales ..As they say , ROI in Social media is telling a story that’s good enough to get people buying the stuff.
The product was yet to be launched when the post was written (as is mentioned there). It hasn’t been launched yet I think.