The building of the brand Kingfisher is as enigmatic and spectacular as the man behind the brand. Taking a peek at the Kingfisher
“You have to be passionate about your brand. Be innovative, think outside the box,” says liquor baron Vijay Mallya, chairman, UB Group, while closing his speech at the two-day CII summit, where he traced the fantastic journey of the brand Kingfisher. A journey as spectacular as the man himself, who lives the brand and its famous tagline, ‘King of Good Times’.
The brand’s resounding success story was brought alive from the archives of the UB Group by Mallya. He says, “Something buzzed when I saw the old label of Kingfisher, with a bird not at all exciting, which didn’t look if it was ready to fly.” But he took it from there, facing restrictions in communicating the brand at every step, which is why Kingfisher is the perfect example of a brand built by innovative thinking.
With all opportunities for communication like television, print, radio and outdoor campaigns banned for a liquor brand, Kingfisher’s biggest challenge was how to reach its target consumers. Mallya says, “This is when we decided that we would give Kingfisher a personality. Vibrant, colourful and free are a few of the attributes that I could think were associated with Kingfisher and then I decided that this small group of mine would be walking and talking Kingfishers. We lived the brand.”
To reinforce the brand, Kingfisher tied up with fashion designer Manu Viraj Khosla to produce fashion garments for Kingfisher. This is how Kingfisher associated itself with the fashion world and targeted its younger customers. It moved ahead by taking fashion designers Ritu Beri to Paris and Tarun Tahiliani to Milan. Mallya succeeded in putting Kingfisher’s stamp on Indian fashion with the annual Kingfisher Fashion Awards.
Kingfisher then decided to use music as a promotion vehicle. It got talented musicians and created Kingfisher bands, which would play at events or in pubs. This helped create a buzz around the product and also added entertainment value to it. Now, the UB group brings music from the likes of Elton John, Enrique Iglesias and the Rolling Stones.
Mallya adds, “First we put a personality to the brand and then we expressed this personality through various initiatives.”
Coming to Kingfisher Airlines, Mallya clarifies, “The airline is not a surrogate. I would not be able to afford a Rs 18,000 crore investment for a surrogate.”
He says, “Kingfisher delivers superior value at a great price. It doesn’t have an economy or a business class, but has created its very own Kingfisher class for all its guests. For the first time in India, it has in-flight entertainment. It is targeted at the same segment that Kingfisher targeted, upwardly mobile youngsters who have disposable incomes and are ready to spend.”
The CII marketing summit, titled ‘Marketing Crystal Gazing 2015: Are You Part of the Future?’ saw three sessions on Day 2. The summit started with a session on ‘Co-existing with Global Retail Conglomerates’ with faculty including Kishore Biyani, managing director, Pantaloon, and Pia Singh, managing director, DLF Retail Developers Ltd. The next session was on ‘Indian Arbitrage’, where Ramesh Vangal, chairman, Katra group, and founder, Scandent Group, was the faculty.
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