Frooti: The fight for the original mango

Frooti, one of India’s oldest mango drink brands, has finally done what it should have years ago – made the brand synonymous with mangoes. A new ad for Frooti establishes that Frooti is the ‘original’ name for mangoes in India, having been launched in 1985. The ad comes at a time when several other mango drink brands have already attempted to latch on to the same thought.

Says Nadia Chauhan, director, marketing, Parle Agro, “I don’t think we’re late at all.” But surely, with the competition trying hard to take a bite of the mango, Frooti will face a disadvantage? Chauhan will hear none of that. “While other brands are attempting it, we own it,” she says, referring to the premise of mango drinks being as good as real mangoes. “We’re the market leaders, and it is time for us to spell that out.”

As the children turn into grown ups, they continue drinking Frooti, while the voiceover explains that Indians have known mangoes only by one name since childhood, and that is Frooti. In a sense, the ad attempts to romanticise the relationship that Frooti and mangoes share. (Submit your opinion on this ad.)

According to Raj Kurup, founder and chief creative officer, Creativeland Asia, in 2007, Frooti had already taken a plunge towards equating mangoes with the brand. In its thematic brand ad then, the thought, ‘Jab bhi mango khaane ka jee kiya, India ne ek ghoonth Frooti zaroor piya’, was leveraged. This made way for the more blatant positioning adopted in the new advert. “We started this last year, so it’s not too late to take it forward,” Kurup says, who thinks the argument on the original mango drink “stands finished” after this ad.

Anu Joseph, creative director, and Saurabh Garg, creative strategy partner, Creativeland Asia, say that the timing couldn’t have been better. “In a market where every mango drink brand and their cousins are trying to own the mango, we had to reinforce the heritage of the brand, its leadership and its long lasting relationship with Indians,” Joseph asserts. Garg adds that once decided, the positioning just had to be delivered in an endearing way through a charming story.

Frooti’s larger attempt is, quite clearly, to step away from the song and dance routine into which it had fallen. Earlier ads such as Bindass rode on a story narrated through songs. “But one tends to lose the words and their meaning in a song,” Chauhan says, “so we are treating our new films differently, with a voiceover that allows viewers to feel the film more closely.”

Children were chosen to be the protagonists in this TVC as “they make the maximum mango mistakes”, according to Kurup. “A mango is a passionate fruit; there’s a sense of indulgence around eating it, which we had to highlight.”

The TVC has been produced by Crocodile Films. It will be supported by digital PoP activities in retail outlets, apart from outdoor and radio ads.