Nutrine to target youth with Naturo fruit bars

After wooing kids for decades with its largest selling Maha Lacto brand, Nutrine Confectionery Company is gunning for a new consumer segment. The Rs 180-crore company is working at a gameplan to entice the young adults with Naturo fruit bars, which was launched in October last year. It has set aside Rs 3 crore to promote this brand, which, it hopes, will help it garner Rs 13 crore in terms of brand turnover this year, which would be its first full year of existence.

According to S Radhakrishnan, vice-president, Mudra, Bangalore - the agency that has devised the new brand strategy for Naturo, "In strategic terms, Naturo focuses on the youth because they constitute a huge consumer segment. More importantly, they would lead the market for product/brand acceptance. Some of the consumption occasions could well come at the expense of other conventional youth consumption products, particularly snack foods. To that extent, the brand communication needs to be aspirational and capture the uniqueness of the product as well as its outstanding taste. We hope to own the fruitbar category."

Thus the latest TVC for Naturo, shot by Classic Films, shows a clutch of young boys watching a girl step through the college gates. One of them opens a pack of Naturo bar and invites the girl to have a bite. "This," says Radhakrishnan, "while communicating the joy of sharing, gives the story a mischievous bent." In a strategic move, the agency has decided to air the ad - which hit mass media early this month - during cricket matches, especially those played by India.

Points out P Subramaniam, vice-president, Optimum Media Solutions (media division of Mudra), "It is not as if we are wedding ourselves to cricket, but we need to connect with the youth and maximise impact. Cricket is one medium that cuts across all geographical, language and age barriers in our country. Later we will move on to other platforms."

The agency plans to eventually spread the campaign to the outdoors and also use ‘tactical press placements'. On television, the ad will move from India-related matches to include other interesting fixtures, to be followed by placements on prime-time TV as the rollout extends. On the distribution front, the company went for a phased launch and placed Naturo in shop shelves of all metros and 1 lakh-plus towns across India.

Speaking to agencyfaqs!, Sivamohan Reddy, executive director of Nutrine, says the company is doing things differently for this brand as the category itself is new and the attempt is to include new sets of consumers into its fold. "We are sweeping across SEC A and B class towns with slick pack sizes. We have introduced new hanger-type product displays to attract attention. The bar, which is priced at Rs 4 each, will be available in different pack sizes containing six, eight and 12 pieces. We will do extensive sampling -going to schools and encouraging other consumers at prominent stores to sample our product," he says.

This aggressiveness on the part of Nutrine was long overdue, given the fragmented nature of the market and the price-sensitiveness of the category. Bulk of the action in the Rs 1,500-crore sugar-boiled confectionery market is at the lower price points. In fact, for the organised segment, estimated at Rs 750 crore, Re 1 is the highest price point comprising less than 10 per cent of its market.

Nutrine, on its part, is trying to raise the price bar. To begin with, the company hopes to phase out the 25 paise category over the next two to three years. While around 35 per cent of its products fall in the 25-paise category, the company incurs maximum losses here, as there is no scope to share the excise burden with the consumer. Side by side, Nutrine is trying to increase the revenue-share of its products in the Re 1-category to 15 per cent from the present 7 per cent.

Now, with an offbeat campaign and aggressive marketing push, the company hopes that Naturo would leads its foray in the minds of the young adults. © 2002 agencyfaqs!