Limca moves from 'Taazgi' to 'Pyaas'

A move from its erstwhile proposition of providing consumers with some much-needed freshness, in this latest ad film, Limca has been positioned as a beverage that quenches youngsters' thirst for achievement.

In its latest ad campaign, Coca-Cola India's lemon flavoured drink brand Limca has undergone a positioning change. The brand, which earlier stood for the proposition of freshness, has taken on a fresh stance (no pun intended) that has nothing to do with its previous one.

Limca is now a beverage that quenches consumers' literal thirst (for a cool drink) as well as metaphorical thirst (for achievement). The television commercial features actor Kareena Kapoor, who is seen urging a youngster to aim higher in life. The new tagline is 'Pyaas Badhao'.

A quick walk down memory lane reveals that in 2005, the brand moved from its then long-standing 'Lime 'n' Lemoni' positioning and adopted 'Freshness' as its main offering. In the years that followed, Limca's communication comprised different renditions of this core proposition of freshness, be it

'Mazaa Taazgi Ka'

'Fresh Ho Jao'

'Doobo Taazgi Mein'

or most recently,

'Do Pal Taazgi'

. All these ads typically featured people getting drenched and gallons of water being splashed around. The current film is miles away from such visual imagery.

When quizzed on this flight from freshness, K V Sridhar (aka Pops), national creative director, Leo Burnett (the brand's new creative agency), tells afaqs!, "Limca's equity is its thirst-quenching ability and through this ad, we've taken the brand back to its original purpose." Yes, but why the sudden departure from 'Taazgi'? Pops answers, "'Freshness' as a proposition is not unique to Limca as any soft drink can serve this purpose."

He adds that the figurative and inspirational thirst-quenching bit was added in an effort to make Limca more relevant for today's generation of young consumers. "In English, we say 'hunger' when we talk about ambition and achievement; the Hindi equivalent of the same is 'Pyaas'," explains Pops.

Does the change work?

afaqs! finds out whether Limca's departure from the words 'Taazgi', 'Boonde', and all things fresh is a wise move.

Overall, the question that industry folk appear to be raising is: Was there a possibility of retaining the 'Taazgi' proposition and yet coming up with a brand philosophy to fortify it?

Divyapratap Mehta, vice-president, planning, Grey India says that with this campaign, Limca is leaving behind a very powerful advertising territory that it had managed to create for itself over the years. "Limca had managed to position itself as the 'real refresher' or the original 'lime-and-lemoni' drink. This brand space belonged to Limca."

According to him, leaving this territory behind may not be for the better because in his opinion, 'Taazgi' trumps 'Pyaas' as far as Limca is concerned. "Now, with the new 'Pyaas' angle, Limca appears to have swapped places with Sprite that originally stood for pure thirst and later moved to freshness (University of Freshology)," he says.

Mehta elaborates that this new layer of thirst and ambition that the brand has now added to its nature has little to do with the real reason for consuming the product. "What it probably adds to the brand is a sense of purpose," he reasons.

Some kind of continuity with the erstwhile freshness space would've been better, he feels. "They could have, in some way, connected freshness to the new insight of young India vying for new experiences," Mehta states.

For Porus Jose, head of the creative function at Curry-Nation, Limca is a synonym for the 'cloudy' lemon-based cold drink, the earliest images of which include those of fire hydrant bursts, splashes, fountains and sprays.

Jose opines that the recent trend for brands to go beyond the emotional appeal and stand for a philosophy (for instance 'Darr Ke Aage Jeet Hai' and 'Darr Ko Maro Dew' by Mountain Dew or 'Aaj Kuchh Toofani Kartey Hain' by Thums Up) is what prompted Limca to shift from mere 'Taazgi' to the 'Pyaas Badhao' space.

"I'm not saying that standing for a philosophy doesn't work, but there was something simple, easy and 'innocent' about Limca that is starkly missing now. The feel is a little too 'mature' for comfort now," Jose explains, adding that the reasons for this could range from an over-exposed Kareena Kapoor, to a script that is trying too hard to prove the point, or the sheer loss of the Limca 'water spray magic'.

Interestingly, both Mehta and Jose cite the recent 'Aaj Kuchh Toofani Kartey Hain' ad by Thums Up as an example of a brand that has changed its stance while maintaining continuity with its previous long-standing statement.

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