Hindustan Lever Brews Up Blueprint To Reposition Tea Brands

FMCG major Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) is carrying out a substantial exercise to reposition some of its tea brands even as the latest ORG figures reveal that the market share of the company has registered an increase in an industry bogged down by poor growth.

According to the latest ORG figures, the total value share of HLL's tea brands for July was 35.8 per cent compared with 33.6 per cent in January 2001. The industry itself declined by around 7 per cent last year.

"We want to position our brands from being a matter of habit to being a matter of choice," marketing controller for HLL V S Sitaram.

The reposition is being carried out through a series of repositioning. For example, A1 and Brooke Bond Red Label have been relaunched.

"We expect to relaunch more tea brands with newer campaigns," Sitaram said.

This exercise is being carried out because the tea major sees an increasing competition from the soft drink industry. "The competition is real. The packet tea market is declining," Sitaram said.

While earlier campaigns of Brooke Bond Red Label targeted the older generation, the focus is now on younger families. "We would like to position it as a matter of choice for the younger generation," Sitaram said.

It also recently launched Lipton ice tea in 250 ml bottles priced at Rs 10 to take the competition head on. Though the launch has been extremely selective, it is expected to go national soon.

It has relaunched A1 Power which is being positioned as a vitaminised drink. The category it addresses is the discount segment. "The exercise is to push the tea market size itself," Sitaram said.

HLL is already working on prioritising its tea brands. Sitaram said that certain brands in HLL's portfolio look similar and even the benefits were similar.

"Hence it makes sense to prioritise," Sitaram said. Hence a prioritisation exercise will be carried out among HLL's tea brands and around six brands to eight brands out of 12 will be prioritised and more thrust will be given to them.

The tea market in India is around Rs 6,000 crore and HLL's brands hold a leadership position in the industry. Out of the Rs 6,000 crore, 50 per cent constitutes loose tea. In the packed tea segment, the premium tea segments constitutes around 7 per cent, medium segment constitutes around 19 per cent and 25 per cent, the discount segment.

Sitaram said per capita consumption of tea per year in India is a mere 600 gm compared with its neighbour, Pakistan where tea consumption is around a kg per year.