The 'all new' or 'good old' ads

All of a sudden, everybody is after the humble nimbu paani. It started with PepsiCo and Parle Agro launching Nimbooz and LMN respectively in 2009. Recently, Coke jumped into the fray with the lemon version of Minute Maid, calling it Nimbu Fresh. While LMN and Nimbooz enjoyed a fair bit of advertising last year with their launch (and nearly equal success in the market), surprisingly, Parle Agro has not launched any advertisement for LMN this year. Nimbooz has come up with a couple of TVCs and Minute Maid Nimbu Fresh too has quite a gripping advertisement. Let’s analyse the ads for Nimbooz & Nimbu Fresh.

Last year, Pepsi had focused on the ‘real lemon, nothing artificial’ aspect of the drink, and mentioned ‘asli Indian (real Indian)’ at the end of the TVC without focusing on the ‘Indian’ positioning much. However, this year the positioning seems to be totally on it being the real Indian refreshing drink. Coke too has chosen a somewhat similar positioning; but there’s a difference in the way the two have projected the same.

Nimbooz ads are humorous, which even take a dig at some of the common not-so-pleasant Indian practices. On the other hand, Minute Maid Nimbu Fresh tries to build an emotional connect with the consumer. As with the theme, the ads too have invited different reactions from the viewers.

One of the Nimbooz ads shows a sweaty office-goer sitting beside an auto-rickshaw driver for the morning commute in extreme heat, with the VO “jab office hai jaana, to driver ki god se kya sharmaana (why be ashamed of sitting in the driver’s lap while going to office)”. Though I agree that this scene is very common in the morning hours, and many office-goers would have experienced it, I’m sure none of them is fond of it. Further, the VO makes it downright gross along with the visuals of sweat dripping everywhere.

Compare it with the Minute Maid Nimbu Fresh TVC. It shows some children playing cricket in the heat, and then running off to their respective homes at the end of the match, having a lemonade prepared by their mother. Does it not invoke nostalgia in all of us! And that’s exactly what they show next: a 20-something guy, probably heading for office, being reminded of his mother’s lemonade while enjoying Minute Maid Nimbu Fresh. And then, the VO “bilkul ghar jaisa(exactly like home-made)” drills in the same message.

The result of the two campaigns with different themes (Minute Maid & Nimbooz) is yet to be seen in terms of numbers. The numbers might not give a true picture of the campaigns’ success or failure given the fact that the two products are pure substitutes for each other (and it all may boil down to distribution in the end). I believe the difference would be seen in the consumer recall and preference for a brand.

So while the two products are the same, and are positioned similarly on being authentic Indian, the different themes in the TVCs create all the difference. While Minute Maid paints a more positive picture with nostalgia, Nimbooz mocks the Indian practices in the process.

(The author is a PGDM- 2011 student at IIM Calcutta)