Radhika Sachdev

WHEN LIQUOR baron Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines was tottering on its feet, his attention got briefly diverted, as he got busy setting up a United Breweries (ub) lychee processing plant at Patahi in Bihar. Nearly 70 percent of the country’s lychee production comes from the badlands of Muzaffarpur and its neighbouring districts.

In Jalgaon in Maharashtra, mp Haribhau Jawale has opened a banana winery in Piprud, while powerful farmer co-operatives in Katol in Nagpur are dabbling with oranges and in Goa Cashew apple and passion fruit are being used to process exotic tropical non-grape flavoured spirits.

With India counted among the world’s biggest producers of mango, home to nearly 1,000 varieties of the fruit, scientists at the Central Institute of Subtropical Horticultural Research in Lucknow is claiming good results with wines extracted from Dussehri, Langra, and Chausa while in Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh, Galla Foods, an exporter of fruit concentrates and pulp has added mango wine to its stock-in-trade beverages.

Meanwhile, Agricultural University Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth and Dapoli in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra have successfully processed wine from cashew apples, mangoes, blueberries and blackberries, while in fruit bowl Nashik, entrepreneurs are experimenting with pomegranate, papaya, strawberry and sapota wines.

In terms of marketing, last year, Waitrose, UK became the first international supermarket assigned a separate shelf space to Indian red and white fruit wines under the banner ‘unusual wines from across the world.’

All this turns a new leaf in the

flavoured spirit market for the Indian consumer who has historically had a very uneasy relationship with alcoholic beverages. We are perhaps the only country where the age bar for alcohol consumption is 25 years; where it’s illegal to directly or indirectly advertise alcoholic beverages; where a candidate contesting for a seat in the parliament had to pledge absolute abstinence; and where, until recently, smoking and drinking were completely prohibited in Bollywood films and only six years ago, the Delhi High Court overturned a law that barred women from employment as barmaids!

However with rising exposure to smuggled Ready-to-drink (rtd) imported spirits flavoured with cranberry, raspberry, lime, blueberry, apple, orange, ice, tropical and cherry extracts, fruit wines have become a rage, especially with the young, free-spirited women consumers. Pegged at ̀ 120 for a 275 ml pack and with 7 percent alcohol content, tropical fruit is the urban jet-set.

Small wonder, wines and champagne consumption grew by 502.38 percent between 2004 and 2008, and is expected to expand to 84.12 percent between 2009 and 2013. In value and volume terms, India is the 10th largest wine consumer in the world and the fifth-largest in Asia, according to a Vinexpo/iwsr 2010 study. The consumption spiked phenomenally (327 percent) between 2004 and 2008, before plateauing out (97 percent) between 2009 and 2013.

At present, tropical flavors (mango,

pine) are a big rage, along with all-season citrus (orange, lemon), and coffee and unusual (lychee and banana) flavours. The reasons for this new-found ‘love affair’ with flavored spirits are not difficult to guess.

Fruit-nutty flavours successfully ‘mask’ spirits — so it doesn’t appear women are defying ‘Indian’ con-vention, while at the same time, it announces their entry to the pubbing club. Vodka may have alcohol base of 38 percent, but when its delicately sipped delicately from long-stemmed glasses — as green apple, cranberry or orange-flavored Smirnoff — it gets easily passed off as a ‘ladies drink’!

Health benefits of fruit-laced spirits are another driver for this sector. With better region-wise (Nagpur, Pune, Himachal etc.) distribution, marketing and display at modern retail formats, consumer awareness about this category is only bound to grow over the coming years.

Marketers are upbeat that the

drinking population has increased from 2 to 14 percent in 15 years and that the ‘average age of initiation’ had dropped from 19 years to 13 years in this period.

On the supply side, there is a huge variety of tropical fruits available in the subcontinent. Around 95 percent of the 600,000 tons cashew apples, 700,000 tons blueberry and several tones of mangoes spoil due to the lack of proper transport, warehousing and processing facilities.

Government agencies, agricultural scientists and horticulturists believe that with growth in demand for home-grown spirits, the industry will not just fetch better prices for fruit growers; it would also cut out this criminal wastage of fruit.

Quality, flavour, and marketing may still have its sceptics — “Barring Hi-machal Pradesh’s apple wines, others are barely drinkable,” says Subhash Arora, the president of the Delhi Wine Club — but over time this per-ception may also get washed down.

THE FINANCIAL WORLD—DELHI SATURDAY • 22 SEPTEMBER 2012 11

Breaking the

BOX

TOUCH US NOTOn Sunday, The Times of India carried an illustration by cartoonist Neelabh that high-lighted the travails of RK Lax-man’s common man at a time of galloping food prices. Titled ‘The Lost Supper,’ the piece bore a strong likeness to Leon-

ardo da Vinci‘s Last Supper. The next day, the newspaper had to issue the following apology: “We sincerely apologise for the anguish it has inadvertently caused. This paper is truly respectful of all faiths. It is one of the cornerstones of our editorial philosophy.” Touché.

ADVERTISING, MEDIA & MARKETING

ALSO READ | SP MAY FILL VACANT TMC CHAIR * P13 | THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING MULAYAM SINGH YADAV * P13GlobeSPOTTING

Smartphone coupon usage increases 100%

Connectivity influences global shopping

Few takers for Obama’s endorsement deal

Bruce Willis thirsts for vodka justice

Smart shoppers are consulting multiple platforms to aid with shopping and to save money, according to recent surveys. Not only are they cashing in print and online coupons, but consumers are increasingly using their smart phones to get deals while in the store. According to a July study by media and marketing services company Valassis, due to rising food and gas prices, 74 percent of US consumers planned to use more coupons this year. According to the Valassis study, use of mobile coupons or apps increased by over 100 percent in 2011, and 100 percent again in 2012. —eMarketer

Connected devices have become a way of life for many, but shoppers are digitally engaged to varying degrees depending on the products they buy. While e-commerce activity for some consumer packaged goods (cpg) products — especially perishable categories where freshness counts — may not be as transformative as other non-cpg industries — such as books, music and travel — online grocery purchasing power is growing. New findings from a Nielsen online survey of respondents from 56 countries around the world provides insight into the influence digital devices have on grocery-shopping behaviour. —Nielsenwire.com

‘The Most Interesting Man in the World’ doesn’t always host fundraisers, but when he does, they’re for Barack Obama. And that’s upsetting some Dos Equis drinkers. More than a few fans of the brand have taken to Facebook to protest a decision by Jonathan Goldsmith, the actor who plays the character, to host a fundraiser for the Democrat on Sept. 18 in Vermont. “Since you are supporting Obama you just lost a customer,” wrote one fan on the Dos Equis page. “Mexican beer for Obama............bye-bye Dos Equis,” said another. —Adage.com

Three years after lending his image to promote Sobieski vodka in the US, actor Bruce Willis is trying to get his paycheck. Representatives of Willis will meet in Paris on Tuesday with other creditors of French liquor company Belvédère sa, owner of the Sobieski brand, to decide how to restructure the firm’s debt of €744 million ($976.9 million). At issue for Willis is €20 million that he was promised in the event that the value of his original compensation—a 2.6 percent stake in Belvédère—fell beneath a certain threshold. —The Wall Street Journal

Anjali Kispotta New Delhi

StorylineFevicol is back with its promise of mazboot jod, and this time the idea is to prove its strong adhesion underwater. The film opens with a boatman ferrying wooden chairs in his boat. An old man sitting on the banks asks for a ride across but he refuses as his boat is fully loaded. Just then, from behind

the bushes, comes out a girl requesting a ferry across. He immediately makes space for her on the boat by throwing some of the chairs into the water. The girl then points at her pet kid requesting the boatman to make space for it too. With a little hesitation, but with immediate effect, he dumps all his chairs into the water to make space for the kid and its fodder. The

voiceover then drives home the tagline

Fevicol ka mazboot jod ab pani mein bhi,

while the boatman is seen rowing away with the pile of

chairs tied to the boat.

Idea [3/5]The idea is to show the boatman’s carefree attitude towards the chairs that are glued together with Fevicol. Oglivy and Mather takes the extremist route of throwing the pieces of furniture to show the adhesive strength of the product underwater. Fevicol commercials are often known to use such extremist tricks to add humour to the campaign, however, this one does not seem to be very impressive.

Execution [3/5]It is a decent execution of an otherwise average idea. The revered Rabindra sangeet flowing in the background as the Chaplinesque-moustached boatman rows the boat makes for a promising visual.

Technique [2.5/5]The technique is average with no smart humour (arguably the hallmark of all Fevicol campaigns) weaved into it. The ad seems wanting in its thought.

Positioning [2.5/5]To show Fevicol Marine’s cohesive power, the commercial takes a dive into the muddy backwaters of Kerala and hopes to come out clean with its mazbooti ka jod promise. However, what it comes out with is a little confused positioning of Fevicol Marine in household articles of furniture, which are rarely exposed to a heavy downpour. The film could have communicated the efficacy of Fevicol Marine better with the usage of an article that is often exposed to water rather than using chairs, which are either used in balcony or the dining or the living room.

X Factor [2.5/5]It is devoid of any celebrity quotient; has a poor comic punch and is also dry of a strong tag line. The only thing going for it is the mesmerising backwaters but pity, even that gets shrouded by the melodrama between the boatman and the girl. fwletters@gmail.comADScan COMPANY: Fevicol PidiliteCATEGORY: Household care

AT A GLANCE

NOT STICKY ENOUGH

CREATIVE AGENCY: Ogilvy India

TAG LINE: Fevicol ka mazboot jod ab pani mein bhi

FORCED IS HOW THE NEW FEVICOL MARINE AD COMES ACROSS AS THE CREATIVE TEAM FAILS IN ITS USUAL SMART COMMUNICATION

NEWSBYTES

TRAI RESTRICTS CABLE TV VIEWERS Cable tv consumers will be able to choose the 100 television channels as part of the basic service tier of free-to-air (fta) channels only from those available with their multi-system operators (msos). This was stated by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (trai) senior counsel Meet Malhotra while making arguments against petitions challenging the regulator’s Tariff Order, allaying fears of msos and local cables operators that they will have to make available any and every channel demanded by their consumers.

FESTIVE SEASONS TO PUSH UP E-SHOPPINGE-shopping during forth-coming seasons is likely to go up by 350 percent for products like con-sumer electronics, home appliances, home decor and ornaments the most, according to assocham. Reasons for e-shoppers number multiplying are because of factors such as home delivery which saves time, secondly ‘24x7’ hours shopping. According to a study undertaken by forrester and assocham, e-commerce revenues in India will increase by more than five times by 2016, up from $1.6 billion in 2012 to $8.8 billion in 2016.

INDIA BRINGS HOME 47 SPIKES AWARDThe winners of the Spikes Asia 2012 Awards were an-nounced in Singapore on 18 September. Ten juries chose 397 winners from an initial 4,860 entries. The Media Agency of the Year trophy was awarded to Mindshare Mumbai with Cheil Worldwide Seoul taking second place, while Whybin\tbwa Group Syd-ney was placed third.

DATE FOR COMMENTS ON AD RULES DEFERREDtrai has extended till 24 September the date for comments by stakehold-ers on its draft amended regulations with regard to advertisements on television channels. trai has reiterated in the draft amendments that the advertisement duration ceiling of 12 min/hour announced by it on 14 May this year was as mandated by the central government.

AEGIS LAUNCHES CCS FOR 1ST TIME IN INDIAAegis Media has launched its proprietary research-based tool Consumer Connections System (ccs) for the first time in India. ccs involves a study that gives the agency and its clients valuable insight into how today’s consum-ers choose and use media in the rapidly changing world. ccs analyses media consumption not just by genre but also by specific channels, programmes and titles. —Agencies

SweepStakesAccount name Incumbent New agency

Reported annual spends in `

Media Accounts

Akshaya [Real Estate Developer] Vizeum [Chennai] NA

Bharti Retail Madison Media ZenithOptimedia NA

DeOleo Vizeum [Mumbai] NA

Creative Accounts

Piaggio’s Commercial Vehicle Division

R K Swamy BBDO

Paradigm Plus Marketing Communications NA

Volvo-Eicher Commercial Vehicles [VECV] TBWA NA

Courtesy: Spatial Access Private Limited; www.spatialaccess.com

A WEEKLY REPORT THAT TRACKS CREATIVE AND MEDIA ACCOUNT MOVEMENTS MediaScape

GENDER BENDERWomen like ad characters they can identify with; men they can’t

Whether we call them Generation Y, Generation ‘C’ (for Connected) or Millennials, Americans ages 13-34 hold tremendous potential for marketers. New research from Nielsen reveals that males and females in this age demographic are drawn to very different types of tv ads. While both younger men and women connect with characters that they view as similar to themselves, guys identify with other ‘normal’ guys placed in extreme or exag-gerated situations. Women relate to a more aspirational ap-proach, connecting with happy situations that feature char-

A BOUTIQUE FLAVOURED SPIRITS INDUSTRY IS SLOWLY BLOSSOMING IN THE FRUIT GROWING REGIONS OF THE COUNTRY

acters who allow a woman to imagine herself in their shoes. Humor, is an element that requires a different approach based on the audience’s gender.

Heady on Fruity Wines

Fruity flavours not just add to wine experience but are also rich in antioxidants and vitamins

FACTS IN FIGURES

○ With growing health conscious-ness, fruity flavours are expected to do exceptionally well over the coming years

○ Fruit flavours successfully mask the alcoholic content of the drink

○ Fruit wines are becoming popular with women and first-time drinkers

○ Better marketing and regionwise display is making them hot picks at modern-day retail formats

○ The growth of this industry will prevent fruit spoilage caused by lack of transport, warehousing and processing facilities

11-A&M.indd 2 21/09/12 8:06 PM