Paper Boat logs on to the festival circuit

When Hector Beverages launched Paper Boat in 2013, it did so with mixed expectations. An energy drink that it had launched a couple of years ago had run afoul of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and more people were talking about its high profile investor (Narayan Murthy's Catamaran) than the brand or the new category it was venturing into. Today, public memory being what it is, few remember the failed drink (Tzinga) and Catamaran, is one of five big funds along with two individual investors to have helped the company raise Rs 250 crore.

TRACKING THE BRAND

Company founded in 2009-10 by Neeraj Kakkar, Suhas Misra, James Nuttall and Neeraj Biyani. Misra and Nuttall quit in 2013 Started with two drinks, grown to 20 today Special occasion flavours Rose Tamarind and Serbet-e-khaas for Ramzan, Thandai during Holi To be launched soon Kanji (a popular drink in north India) and packaged coconut water

Paper Boat's success at carving out a niche for itself and building a unique identity comes with its own set of challenges however: attention from the big brands on the block and raised customer expectations. To manage this, the company has, over the past year and more, launched a range of new drinks around a festival or an event. Occasion marketing, as it is called, is how the company is hoping to keep the young brand agile, nifty and constantly buzzing.

  "Our brand message is all about authenticity," says Neeraj Kakkar, co-founder at Hector Beverages. The company that started out with two flavours has about 20 products in its portfolio today. Kakkar is a strong votary of occasion marketing, which he says is a burst of activity that lasts around 45 days. In a country such as India, where there is no dearth of festivals, the brand has ample opportunities to plan several such initiatives during a year.

Around Ramzan, Paper Boat introduced Serbet-e-Khaas and Rose Tamarind, the drinks were promoted as traditional ways to break the day-long fast that people undertake at this time. Kakkar is now focused on bringing packaged pure coconut water, which he says has as huge opportunity in India and kanji, a typically north Indian winter drink.

Occasion marketing takes time and energy. Kakkar says it takes anywhere between 12-18 months to perfect a drink. Is it then worth the effort? He says it helps create a special relationship with the customer and keeps the brand continuously evolving even though the sales volumes may be low to begin with and slow to pick up. "In the case of Thandai, when it was launched in its first year during Holi, people were not aware. You don't sell volumes. But it will bring you closer to the consumer," says Kakkar.

By launching a new drink around a festival, the company draws attention to the rest of the products during and after the brief burst of promotional activity apart from building awareness about a new one. "My strength is agility. I can do things which rivals think are crazy. It won't make any commercial sense on the first few occasions but we are building a product others will find impossible to catch up with," says Kakkar, who worked in Coca Cola before he set up Hector Beverages.

He says that Paper Boat was a brand meant to evoke and thrive on nostalgia. It is targeted at the premium category consumer who values quality and good packaging and is keen to relive his or her childhood through forgotten tastes and memories. Playing with nostalgia does not come cheap however. Kakkar explains how the mangoes used for making aamras had to be ripened the natural way by putting them in large pits, turning them around constantly and covering them with grass and coconut leaves. Such operations add to the cost of the brand, but are imperative if the brand has to maintain its edge over rival brands such as Dabur that have launched similar flavours.

Kakkar says Dabur's presence is welcome. "It will expand the category," he says. Hector Beverages is also focusing on developing more traditional recipes while working on clearing the bottlenecks on the supply chain.

"We are the protector of these recipes. If we are not there, these recipes would disappear," Kakkar says. He believes that the brand has been successful because it has helped convey a sense of tradition amidst modernity to its customers. Many friends and their families had never tasted some of the drinks that his brand has managed to popularise, he says.

It has helped that consumers today are keen to switch to healthier options; across countries; there is a conscious move away from colas and sugar-heavy concoctions. Kakkar says the increasing focus on health and a global shift towards people wanting to embrace their own culture across regions, whether it is UK, Japan, China and Southeast Asia is giving them the conviction to bring new recipes to the market. The only challenge is to expand the distribution network. "If I can reach five million outlets, then the brand can grow much faster," he says.

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