A new makeup
Businessworld — March 7, 2005

The timing was perfect. As Sania Mirza sweated it out to win the WTA Title at Hyderabad, Tata Tea couldn't have asked for a better person to endorse it. The 18 year old tennis star had been recently signed on as the brand ambassador of the packaged tea company.

Mirza is part of the Rs 783 crore Tata Tea's effort to contemporarise its largest selling brand, Tata Tea Premium. The brand was re launched in January this year with the Taste Kamyaabi Ka (Taste of Success) baseline. The ad has Mirza struggling to concentrate. Disappointed, she chucks her racquet on the court, until her coach brings her that refreshing cup of tea, after which she goes onto win the match. This is the first time that sports has been used to advertise a tea brand. Says Tata Tea executive director Sangeeta Talwar: "We needed to represent ourselves in the youthful and contemporary platform. This is to reinforce the idea that it gives you the energy to succeed." So far, the company has been placing its Tetley brand as the young face of tea.

According to the company, there was no immediate trigger to do a relaunch except the need to evolve the brand and make it more appealing to young consumers. Although market shares were steadily increasing, consumer surveys indicated the brand was perceived to be too mature and fuddy duddy for current times. The reasons are not hard to find.

Since it's inception in 1985, Tata Tea Premium has been all about garden freshness, based on the claim that Tata owned its tea estates. In the nineties, the brand evolved to include the rejuvenation and the health benefit platform, but it still largely spoke about Asli Taazgi, and Perfect Taste. Other brands, meanwhile, had evolved to appeal to a wider spectrum of consumers, though retaining , the 'for the woman of the house to decide' feel.

Tata Tea Premium, on the other hand, has remained what Talwar calls "a housewife brand". However, it competes with Red Label and Taaza, both seen as 'young' brands. These Hindustan Lever brands, along with some others are its greatest competitors. They have a combined volume share of 16 per cent against Tata Tea Premium's about 10 percent. Over the past six months since it introduced the Rs 10 pack, Brooke Bond Red Label, has been gaining ground. Therefore the need to rejig Tata Tea Premium.

The company decided to look beyond propositions like 'perfect taste' and 'freshness' to include vitality and energy. In the new packaging, the usual cup of tea has been replaced by a mug of tea to appeal to the youthful and contemporary platform .Youth icons Sania Mirza and singer Sunidhi Chauhan have been roped in to endorse the product in different media. Will this alienate the core 'housewife' audience? According to Talwar, Tata Tea Premium remains a housewife's brand. But within that spectrum, the Mirza campaign is still an effort to make it seem more contemporary and address more to the housewife of today. The focus is on the ability to succeed. Hence the line: Taste of Success.