The Story Behind the Brand
‘Since 1925’ reads the logo - bold and clear – of the now-popular milkshake brand – Keventers. Established by Edward Keventer, a Swedish dairy technologist, as a diary company in India which slowly started emerging as a prominent Dairy Industry. The brand was trusted by Indians especially after it started serving milk powder and condensed milk to the Indian Army. After the Keventers passed away, the brand was bought by Ram Krishan Dalmia. In 1970, the government acquired the land where the main factory was located in Chanakyapuri, Delhi. This led to the dissolution of the brand. In 2015, Agastya Dalmia, grandson of Ram Dalmia, resurrect Keventers in a new avatar. The brand image had a complete overhaul to cater a wider and younger customer base keeping the essence of the brand intact. Today, Keventers has over 200 outlets in India and abroad with a business of over 100 years.
Revamping the 100-year-old Brand
The main thing that worked for the brand was that they retained the old-world charm of Keventers while appealing to the new generation. Thus, they decided to maintain the legacy of glass bottles and the original formula for the milkshake. In order to stay relevant, they kept introducing newer flavours of milkshake and added cold coffee variants as well. To connect with the youth, they redesigned the product packaging and the design of the outlets' design.
Riding the Digital Wave in Marketing
Keventers tapped on cultural trends along with consumer insights. Since they wanted to connect with the millennials, most of their communication was digital, with an occasional OOH or print. They were extremely creative with their digital media campaigns. Example - ‘Keventers in a Bottle’ campaign was launched when the Brand was opening outlets in various parts of the country, they took iconic structures from that state and depicted it in a bottle to emphasis on local association with the brand. The second major positive was User Generated Content (UGC), they designed the bottles ‘Instagram-Worthy’ which lead to people liking and sharing the photographs online.
Also, a contest was launched to showcase the best ‘re-use of Keventers Bottle’ which generated traction and tapped in the Indian mindset of value based on reusability. They used Influencers and Bloggers to reach a wider audience. The main reason for the success of the brand was that their association with a 100-yr legacy, which is a rarity today, along with the tapping into current trends to revamp the image.
I picked Keventers because I have seen the brand grow from one outlet in a corner in Select City Walk to an outlet in almost every popular hang-out spot in the nation. When the brand re-opened in New Delhi, I remember having conversations with my father about how it has evolved from an ‘aspirational’ milk brand to a milkshake brand. The brand seemed ‘un-Indian’ in appearance while had this legacy of trust and association of the pre-independence days with it.