The Launch Story
Brooke Bond, a brand name associated with every household and owned by Hindustan Unilever Limited is one of the oldest brands with the finest tea quality in the country. In 1903, when Brooke Bond launched Red Label in British India, there was no tradition of drinking or growing tea - today we are the world's largest producers and consumers of black tea.
Building New Categories - The HUL Way
In India, tea, a quintessential British beverage, was viewed with distrust. Tea was regarded as an addiction and a source of weakness. It was once consumed for the purpose of refreshment or simply as a habit. This dilemma led Brooke Bond Red Label to create the Indian ‘chai’, which was high in milk and sugar content and was offered to customers as a healthful drink. It transformed the way people consume tea and continues to be one of India’s most well-known tea brands. This exemplifies HUL’s primary management approach of establishing new categories.
Today, after water, tea is now India's most popular beverage. Tea production in India accounts for over 30% of global production. Tea is also the only industry in which India has had a global presence in the last 150 years.
The Red Label Portfolio
Brooke Bond is India's largest and oldest tea producer, as well as a number of other countries. It stands out from other tea brands due to its unique qualities and features. It is also known as the 'Teacup of the Nation' because of its widespread appeal.
With Red Label to bring people together over a delicious cup of tea, Red Label Natural Care to boost immunity, and Red Label Dust to increase equality through strength and rich colour - Brooke Bond Red Label has only increased in popularity, as HUL surpassed its competitors with a retail value share of little over 28% in 2020.
Cutting Through A Competitive Market
Being the oldest brand in a mature and universally penetrated category like tea, the brand’s biggest marketing challenge was to break the clutter in an increasingly connected world of media.The answer to breaking clutter in an increasingly flirtatious and competitive market was, surprisingly, purposeful advertising.
Brooke Bond Red Label argued that, like its customers, a brand should have a "purpose" that goes beyond simply increasing sales to making a genuine difference in people's lives.
Brewing Togetherness
When a brand represents something more than itself, it becomes more salient, remembered, and actionable. Thus, with the beginning of the "#SwadApnepanKa" campaign 7 years ago, the journey of meaningful advertising began. It is founded on the fundamental idea that tea may help to dispel tensions and bring ‘opposite' individuals together.
The goal of the brand is to bring people together from various walks of life via tea, making India more inclusive. The brand's inclusivity mission was well received by customers. Following the huge success of its first campaign in 2014, the brand has remained on this path, addressing a variety of social concerns that are usually discussed in whispers.
The brand has demonstrated time and time again that purposeful promotions are also beneficial to the business. Aside from the multiple awards, the "#SwadApnepanKa" campaign provided excellent outcomes in terms of brand users, salience, and equity.
Leveraging Market Penetration Through Distribution
Brooke Bond Red Label is available in a variety of retail outlets, including corner stores, convenience stores, and supermarkets. It has a well-developed distribution network that aids in timely and efficient delivery to the retail sector.
It uses both direct and indirect channels of distribution to reach its customers, which includes services from the producer, wholesaler, and retailer. Brooke Bond has effectively penetrated both the urban and rural markets, and as a result, its products are freely accessible throughout India.
Understanding Consumer Needs
While penetration is usually driven by awareness and distribution, consumption is driven by price and product quality. Customers enjoy the tea because of its distinct flavour and taste. Customers enjoy the tea because of its distinct flavour and taste. Because of this unique combination, customer loyalty has increased. This has aided the brand in establishing strong brand recognition and equity in the marketplace. The tea has a distinct scent that contributes to brand differentiation.
Today, Brooke Bond is one of India's oldest tea brands, with a 115-year history and a monthly reach of over 50 million people.
This exemplifies how creating brands, businesses and people with purpose remains at the very heart of Unilever.
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Tea performs a variety of roles in India. It's a humble companion on uphill adventures, train rides, highway rest stops, chit-chat sessions, and heated political debates. However, the country's most popular beverage has another purpose: it aids in dissolving tension between individuals and forming relationships. Brooke Bond Red Label is part of Hindustan Unilever's tea portfolio, along with other brands. Taj Mahal and Taaza, two of the company's most prominent tea brands, symbolize the 'elite' and 'fresh' concepts, with taglines like 'Wah Taj' and 'Taaza Ho Le,' respectively. Red Label, on the other hand, brews togetherness by bringing people together over a tasty cup of tea made with love and warmth.
Brooke Bond Red Label’s advertising journey can broadly be divided down in two phases, the first traversing on the more product-driven route and the second on the emotional, redefining inclusivity and defying preconceptions and cultural standards.
First Phase: Product Driven Advertising
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Brook Bond Red Label began its road to being a trendsetter back in the 90s by incorporating aspects of affordable price, animated cartoons, and music into their ads to capture customer attention.
Red Label's advertising has been distinguished for its clear and powerful content. HUL positioned Red Label as a stress diffuser to bring people closer with taglines as ‘Piyo Toh Jaano to Jiyo Mere Lal’ to ‘Pyaar Ka Pyaala’.
Even though we enjoy our morning cup of tea, many individuals still viewed the category as an indulgence category. Brooke Bond Red Label debunked these tea misconceptions using their extensive scientific knowledge. To acquire market share and boost brand value in the category, Red Label opted to rebrand itself as a ‘Tasty and Healthy brand’.
In 2010, the brand used a Bollywood celebrity for the first time as a part of its campaign. The brand released an ad commercial featuring Anupam Kher to educate the consumers and bust the age-old myth of tea being unhealthy, by focusing on how tea rich in flavonoids improves blood circulation, which is beneficial for health.
In 2012, Brooke Bond Red Label roped in Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha to promote the brand message ‘Swast rahein, mast rahein' to the public and launched the Red Label Health Challenge.
Second Phase: Powerful Purpose-driven Advertising
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The biggest marketing challenge for the brand was to cut through the clutter in an increasingly connected world as the oldest brand in a mature and globally penetrated industry like tea.
Each brand has a unique functional and emotional proposition, and as a result, they communicate their benefits to their target customers in a unique way. The brand Red Label tea represents a greater social aim, that of challenging stereotypes and bringing people together, beyond the functional benefits of tea.
This led to the launch of ‘Swad Apnepan Ka’, or Taste Of Togetherness in 2014, one of the longest-running series by the brand. Over the last 7 years, the campaign has touched upon various social tensions and has helped people question the prejudices that birth these tensions.
The one-minute short clip plays on a common yet sensitive topic in India: the Hindu-Muslim divide. In this campaign, the brand talked about overcoming inhibitions based on religious prejudices over a cup of Red Label tea.
Taking the thought forward, this light and heartwarming commercial shows the beverage helping a sensitive cultural issue find place in the evolving, but traditional, Indian family. It is admirable
how the brand keeps the idea fresh and consistent. This execution contains a sense of surprise, compassion, and hope.
Then followed the formation of India's first transgender band, Six Pack Band, with the goal of encouraging people to be more open and welcoming of others, regardless of culture, gender, or other distinctions. The campaign delivered great results on brand users, salience, and equity besides the numerous accolades it won (including Cannes Grand Prix)
This heart-warming ad illustrates the discrimination that transgender people endure, as well as how a great cup of Brooke Bond Red Label helps overcome it.
Set in today’s time, this campaign attempts to tackle the stigma that COVID-19 patients tend to suffer from with this message: Being told to 'stay alone' is not the same as being 'left alone'.
Social distancing is not equal to emotional distancing - is the message that the ad attempts to deliver.
Brooke Bond Red Label advertisements have always been a slice-of-life portrayal of bringing families or communities together over a garma-garam cup of chai.
As a result, Brooke Bond Red Label has been more visible and grown in popularity, with record-breaking Brand Equity.
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