Appy, Frooti shake off the past

With Priyanka Chopra, Shah Rukh Khan as ambassadors and an ad budget of Rs 150 crore, Parle Agro gives its brands a complete makeover

"Last year, we took a call that we really needed to shed the old skin of Frooti," says Nadia Chauhan, joint managing director and chief marketing officer of Parle Agro. Chauhan is in the midst of reimagining her company's flagship brands, Frooti and Appy. She believes that there lies a consumer group far larger and wider, in terms of the age bands that the brands currently serve, that needs to be addressed. The company spent close to Rs 100 crore last year on rebranding Frooti for a larger audience while this year, Rs 150 crore will be shared between the two brands.

"Frooti had an inherent value of being a kid brand. Even years of trying to contemporise it, it didn't really break the barrier for us," says Chauhan. She appointed Pentagram, a global design agency, to create a new image for Frooti and in 2015, the brand grew at 12 per cent while the mango-based beverages category grew by barely one per cent. The company said that its consumers in the 13-35 age group have risen significantly. Currently Frooti is number two after Coca Cola's Maaza and ahead of Pepsico's Slice in terms of market shares.

Lose the past
The company wanted to dismantle Frooti's image as a kids' drink and position Appy as a strong category leader. Chauhan believes the big breakthrough for Frooti was getting Pentagram on board as they were not burdened by the brand's past.

Harry Pearce, partner at Pentagram Design says, "The new identity was inspired by the journey of the Totapuri mango - from tree, to harvest, and transportation." Pearce's team spent time touring the country to understand the brand's position in the consumer's psyche. "The new logotype is taken directly from the style of stencil lettering used in the crates, which we first spotted in Crawford Market in Mumbai. Frooti is often stocked in large quantities, with packs and cartons stacked on top of each other so the logo is designed to be striking when viewed in multiples," says Pearce.

Packaging is the first form of advertising says Chauhan and uses Appy to illustrate her point. When it was launched in a white pack with a red apple on it, consumer response was lukewarm. But they changed the packaging to black and without even spending a penny on advertising, the brand grew by about 100-200 per cent year after year, Chauhan says.

Appy is changing once again and Jessica Walsh, partner at the global agency Sagmeister & Walsh in charge of the rebranding exercise says, "The goal was to look edgier and feel premium through simplifying the design. We optimised the 'fizz' typography by turning it to read vertically so it will be easier to spot on the shelf."

Create an impact
Both Appy and Frooti presented different challenges for the rebranding team. For Frooti, Chauhan says, "(We) wanted to use the heritage positively and not limit future opportunities because of its history," The curvy, kid like logo was replaced with a sharp, dark green, stencil design that is particularly visible on wooden crates.

Pearce says, "My partner Daniel Weil based the geometry of the bottles on the curved shape at the top of the mango which connected the fruit with bulbous glass bottles and the iconic domes of Indian Stupa architecture." The yellow colour synonymous with Frooti, however, was retained as the company found that the shade of yellow unique to the brand has some shelf throw even in the darkest of retail outlets. Frooti's new brand identity has refreshed the brand, the company believes.

For Appy, almost as old as Frooti, the big task was to make a bold and powerful statement. Jessica Walsh says, "We wanted to create a strong graphic language that stands apart from traditional advertising. We wanted to move away from the sweeter, dorkier tone of the Appy Fizz bottle character to a bold, confident, sexy tone."

Appy chose Priyanka Chopra as the company believes she embodies the spirit of the brand. It also helps tell consumers that the company is serious about the brand.

Chauhan said that Appy Fizz (an extension of the Appy brand) has grown steadily without any effort at all since it was launched in 2005. "We launched it as a niche product but in the past decade, it has been the fastest growing product in the category," she says. It was time to push the category forward and therefore, the talking-walking bottle ads were replaced by the new look campaign. "It is not a safe, goody-goody drink but is more in the cola category," Chauhan says. The company wants to expand the category, under Rs 1,000 crore currently, to Rs 3,000-4,000 crore in next three to four years.

Chauhan expects advertising to drive the buzz around the brand on social media, just as the Frooti campaign had done last year. Sagmeister & Walsh had created a miniature world to drive home its dramatic new look. For Appy the aim is to create a strong visual language that connects the dots in the design to the fizz in the drink.

"Design is the silent ambassador of your brand," Paul Rand, an American graphic designer, famously known for his corporate logo identities including IBM had once said. Parle Agro must hope his words hold up to the test of the market.