Brandwagon: Mountain Dew - Dabanggify-ing The Ads

Tracked By VARUN VASUDEVAN

What happens to a campaign when it is rebooted by a larger than life personality of contemporary India? Brandwagon follows the journey of Mountain Dew India and plays soothsayer for the new Mountain Dew campaign – by reading ‘between the lines’

Mountain Dew came to India with a fearsome reputation. It was the third largest selling soft drink brand in the U.S.A*. It was from that ‘master marketer’ Pepsi India’s stable. And they came out with a cocky promotion. See TVC –

The initial success

Within 3 months, it claimed a 5% share in the Indian soft drink market** and with good reason. Mountain Dew had got its marketing basics right. It was aimed at the 18 to 30 year old middle class urban Indian male (demographic targeting) who was full of spunk, energy (psychographic targeting) and adventurous with his tastes (lifestyle targeting). Kotler would have framed its positioning statement as – ‘To the above target consumer, Mountain Dew is a soft drink which satisfies the thirst – of your parched throat, of your longing for adventure and energises you to live a life of spunk. What’s more, every target consumer was talking about the ‘Cheetah Bhi Peeta Hai campaign’. And boys hung around with the macho looking bottles (notice the distinctive ‘beer’ shape of the 330 ml bottle). So the stage was set.

The 2007 muddle

But somewhere along the way, the launch brouhaha was not being sustained. Or so thought someone in Pepsi India and the most cited reason (atleast on online forums) was that ‘the adventure sport’ attitude did not get transferred to the Indian youth. Despite strong growth, PepsiCo decided to restage the brand in 2007 with a new positioning aimed at the same target population. And the “Darr Ke Aage Jeeth Hai” TVCs were born –

So what was the new positioning? – To our target population, Mountain Dew is a soft drink which will quench your thirst for taking that audacious and daring step forward in life by helping you overcome those starting fears. The ground research by PepsiCo seemed sound - India was on the cusp of breaking into the big league and young India was a reflection of that march. And common logic suggested that there were those initial butterflies in the stomach.

But PepsiCo in my opinion got it horribly wrong when it came to the TVCs. For me, the advertisement failed on a major front – Planting the brand’s image into the head and heart of the target audience. The advertisements were not ‘gripping’ enough and its influence on consumers, atleast in my opinion was poor. I don’t remember anyone from my age group (was in my middle teens that time) purchasing Mountain Dew with the reason of wanting to associate himself with it. So Mountain Dew clearly could not do a ‘Nike’. What’s more, the advertisements relayed their messaging through a similar ‘adventure sport’ medium – one of the very reasons why the earlier commercials were replaced.

Also, the brand's association with a flop movie like Mission Istanbul did not help its cause.

The 2007-2010 paradox

But strangely Mountain Dew sales, according to newspaper reports had been increasing steadily***, despite poor above the line promotional activity. So what worked for Dew?

A strong product (functional benefit of extreme citrus taste and fizz) which appealed to the target consumer who likes to see himself as bold and manly (hence would like a strong drink)This would also include most of the target consumers who would mix it with hard drinks
Packaging (continues to reflect that macho image which boys would like to be associated with)
Well entrenched distribution network
Competitive pricing and SKUs

Also, Mountain Dew started to focus on tier 2 cities through well planned below the line promotions like the ‘Get Grip on Your Fear campaign’****, a road-show which encouraged youth to try out various adventure sports set up by the travelling Dew team – on the spot. The logic for the success of such a promotion is simple – Watching someone else do a bungee jump on TV and firsthand experience of the same are two entirely different things and I am more likely to remember the latter. And I was drinking Dew when I did something bold. Some other Johnny who sees my daring act would think about himself on similar lines, want to be associated with me and being in my group would mean drinking Mountain Dew. Don’t we all do that? We try to conform our habits to that of the group we wish to be seen in or to that of the personality we aspire to be.

However, BTLs are no substitute for the mass reach of TVCs and in an industry where even the most popular shout incessantly for attention, Mountain Dew could have drowned in the noise.

2011: Old drink in a better bottle

So finally on December 23^rd 2010, Mountain Dew named Salman Khan as its brand ambassador while retaining the Darr Ke Aage Jeeth Hai branding. And came out with the following advertisement -

Does this 2011 TVC work? –

In my opinion, it should. Besides being well executed and so typically ‘Salman’, the TVC has three major advantages –

The basic positioning was never at fault and required the charisma of Salman to make it come alive on screen. Salman, through his Dabangg and Wanted movies has re-branded himself as someone who suppresses his inhibitions, dares himself to go achieve ‘whatever’ he wants. So the communication has the potential to be very effective
Moreover, Salman is riding high on the success of Dabangg and his popularity is at an all-time high among the target audience – middle class boys of metros and tier two cities and towns. So the ‘reach’ factor is assured
Last but not the least, the TVC has been well executed vis-a-vis its predecessors with appealing visuals and pertinent-fast paced music, both of which play such an important role as sensory branding elements

The is best exemplified by the flood of 'likes' for this TVC on Facebook.