Summer Sensation.. "P Lo!"

This one took a little longer to compile, than I anticipated. An Overview of the players in another exciting market – The Packaged fruit juice market in India
Let me start with the specifics:
Total Size: 182 Million Liters Juice Market, 19mn packaged.
Annual Growth Rate: 40-50%
Major Players: Dabur, Pepsi, Leh Berry, Mother Dairy
Driving Forces: product innovation, expanding market and increased consumer preference for healthy foods
Current Market: Rs 110-crore
Future Projections: Expected to reach Rs. 170 Cr by next year.
"Even when the fruit juice/nectar market is projected to grow at a scorching pace of 40 per cent, a Tetra Pak study has found that a whopping 86 per cent of the fruit juice market is still lying untapped."
This market essentially covers products which contain 100 per cent fruit juice. Let me cover this article in 3 parts – This one would cover the products of the market leader. In the next article, I would cover the other players in the market. Finally, I would cover the Achilles heel of this industry – the bottlenecks that Juice Market is constrained with.

Speaking of Juice Market, and not speaking of Dabur …”Real-ly?”
Ask Dabur Foods CEO Amit Burman where he thinks his company will be in the next few years and pat comes the reply: "We will be a Rs 200-crore company by 2006-07. And a large chunk of this growth will come from the Real brand of fruit juices, since Real contributes as much as 85 per cent to the company's topline. It will continue to be an area of focus."

Real has effected the overall image of the company over the years, though the marketing campaigns have been specific to Real products. In fact, Mr. Burman avers that overall strategy of Dabur Foods is “to offer consumers a healthier juice and the widest choice possible”

Well, “real”-istically speaking, er.. yes!

A nice case-study on Dabur has been published by ICFAI
Being the leader in this segment, Dabur has the following products in this segment
Real
Real Activ
Coolers
Lemoneez

RealThe CEO of Dabur, Amit Burman had the following specifics on “Real”, when asked in an interview

Target Segment: The Real fruit juice is targeted towards the housewife and kids, and the Real Active juice is targeted towards the young adults between the age of 24 to 35. We are very clearly focused on the in-home segment and soft drink is more out- of- home impulse purchase.
P-Speaks: Incidentally, the Real Juice home page does not reflect anything pertinent to housewives, and there is no marketing being done, based on my limited knowledge, on this particular segment.
In fact, the segments for Real as well as Activ are the same. What one needs to do is to capture the target consumers and lure them to Real, make them “Real” loyal. Subsequently, the sub-brands can be marketed, and consumers scaled from Real (65/-) to the appropriate price-points: Health-conscious users up-graded with Activ (78/-), while casual drinkers down-graded with Coolers (50/-)!
Market Research : When we launched 'Real', we didn't do much of market research, as we clearly saw there was a gap in the market. And looking at the Indian consumers, and there are so many juicewalahas in the market, so juice was not something Indian consumers had not seen before. So, we felt if we give them juices in a packaged form, which is more hygienic, it should do well.
According to the Marketing officers, Real Marketing has been the leader and the driving force for Dabur. Much of Dabur Foods’ youthfulness comes from Real. The money that has been put behind its advertising has created a perception that has boosted the company’s overall image, say observers. (Currently, more than two-thirds of Dabur Foods’ Rs 12-crore ad budget is spent on Real; the rest goes into Coolers.)

According to the Brand Reporter
Real now has nine flavors straddling nectars and juices (cranberry, grape, guava, litchi, mango, mixed fruits, orange, pineapple and tomato, and two brand extensions - Real Activ (launched in 2002) and Real Junior (launched this May).

'Real' was recognized as the 'Fastest growing brand' for 2001-02 in the first ever beverage industry seminar in India. Real Fruit Juice is a market leader in packaged fruit juice category commanding more than 55% market share.
Real Activ
Market Research: Real was in the markets, but was catered to a niche market, wherein the kids and the housewives were targeted primarily. A new market had emerged – the new Health-conscious consumer. Consequently, Dabur enhanced its portfolio by launching `Activ' as a 100 per cent juice variant of the Real fruit juice that contains no sugar.
It started as the sugar-free version, but after receiving consumer feedback that it was perceived as another flavour of Real, not a sugar-free juice option, Dabur repositioned ‘Activ’ as health-savvy drink and subsequently, investments and promotions were scaled up to cater to the new campaigns. Even the packaging was new - called prisma packs - Activ has attached healthy living on it's website, to promote its association with Health benefits.
In 2003, as is published in one of the press releases made by Dabur that year, Dabur created a new category – vegetable-fruit juice combination, with the launch of Real Activ Orange Carrot Juice.
Priced at 70/- initially, “the nutritional powerhouse” as the release calls it, was again an after-effect of a concerted Market Research
This strategy is an outcome of an innovative product development plan that combines product ideation and extensive consumer feedback. On Real Activ Orange Carrot, the company's research showed that consumers were looking at an orange+ option i.e. a way of making the all-time favourite orange juice more nutritious and healthy.
Coolers
4 variants – Aampanna, Watermelon, Pomegranate and Jamoon
To ensure that the company does not lost out on any segment interested in the juice market, and to focus the brand communication for its flagship brand, Dabur has catered to the pulp concentrates market by launching fruit drinks - drinks where the fruit pulp concentration is only about 20 per cent - in typically Indian flavours of aam panna, watermelon and pomegranate. And having realised that price is still an entry barrier for a vast majority of the consumers, Dabur has priced Coolers about 15 per cent lower than Real.

Lemoneez
Not much information on this, except that I bought this yesterday, courtesy this research. The message on the cover says “Natural Lemon Juice”, and I admit, it tastes yuk! Need to study the Market Research behind this product…definitely there is something amiss in the brand communication specific to this product.

This is about Dr Burman's acronym - Dabur Products. For the rest of the markets, follow up.

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