Paper Boat - A Brand with Strong Positioning

BRAND MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY SOLUTION:

Savouring mangoes, lazing in the afternoons and galli cricket – these are some of the happy memories from every Indian’s childhood summer vacations. Here’s a brand which hopes to refresh those cherished memories through its range of traditional Indian summer drinks like ‘Aam Panna’ (sweet & sour raw mango juice) and ‘Jaljeera’ (a tangy, spicy made of cumin and other ingredients).

Paper Boat is a division of Delhi-based Hector Beverages which also makes the energy drink, Tzinga. It was started by Neeraj Kakkar, Suhas Misra, James Nuttal and Neeraj Biyani in the year 2009. It currently exports its products to countries like Australia, United States of America (U.S.A), United Kingdom, Nepal, United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) and Canada.

The brand has a distinct visual and brand identity surrounding typical Indian childhood memories. “Everything which is unbranded but consumed today, presents an opportunity to start something. At some stage it will become branded”, said by Neeraj.

Should paper boat stick to its core positioning or should it reposition itself?

It is well known fact that we carry a limbic imprint of certain preferences in our brain. Paper boat is a result of an amazing insight that urban youth crave for something that is simple, delightful & non-transactional. The success of this brand lies in the combination of catchy naming, very differentiated packaging & the superb recipes.

Differences from other companies:

1. Independent of competition
2. Purely based on human insights and had no references in the market.
3. Clearly a Blue Ocean Strategy

Paper Boat’s promotional efforts have been relatively very subdued until now because of the unexpected sales that the brand has had since inception. The company’s current marketing efforts are focused largely on advertising in newspapers, digital marketing through their website, social media and most importantly by positive word of mouth communication. Its promotional efforts, which include posting images about childhood memories on their Facebook page and website, are in sync with the tagline of the product. Because of the smaller market size, this is not suitable for a company that is small and intends to grow in the current market. The smaller market makes it difficult to enjoy a larger profit margin in the market.

Paper Boat has been constantly innovating its products which are evident from the fact that within two years they have launched more than 10 flavours. Started with ‘Aam Panna’ and ‘Jaljeera’ back in 2013, they are currently offering 12 flavours to their customers including ‘Ginger Lemon Tea’, ‘Aamras’, ‘Kokum’, ‘Jamun’ etc. Paper Boat has been able to build an emotional connect with its customers. Therefore, Paper Boat drinks are not just another beverage product for the customers but a medium to express and revive their childhood memories. The company has been smart enough to convert a utilitarian good to a hedonic good through its marketing and advertising.

Paper boat has positioned itself as a brand of traditional Indian juices and drinks. All its variants have ‘Indianness’ and innocence pouring out of them which they have beautifully portrayed through their marketing campaigns. These people can relate to the drinks and hence give them a sense of reliving their childhood.

Paper Boat's packaging is really attractive and serves as a good customer puller.

Recommendations:

Quality is of prime importance when it comes to beverage products. Paper Boat should ensure that it maintains the utmost level of cleanliness and quality check standards in its manufacturing units. In a beverage industry, which is considered to be fragile, a small error here or there can destroy the brand image of the entire company. Paper Boat products are well known for their quality and there should be no trade-off between increasing sales and quality whatsoever the reason may be.

It is of prime importance that a business evolves with time. Paper Boat should ensure that they are able to capture the changing customer needs (which can happen only after conducting market research surveys) and hence evolve their business accordingly.

Henceforth, I would recommend a few new positioning strategies with the growth of the society and the technological era.

STRIFYING YET AT PEACE!!!!

Peace does not mean an absence of conflicts; differences will always be there. Peace means solving these differences through peaceful means, through knowledge and through humane ways!! Like our close living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, humans are hardwired come into conflict with one another, often violently. Even so, like our ancestors, we also have the capacity to resolve fights; something that one anthropologist says has evolved along with our societies over the millennia.

Am delineating in a place,

where my heart taboo to be!!

Arising every morning,

wishing, it was only a dream.

I still go to the place,

where am supposed to be,

My heart elicits for more,

A wait ,it has to be.

I meet the people who make me heaven-sent,

I walk along wishing something would be disparate,

The cram is all around me,

Yet, it feels so lonesome,

Meet the veracious people, they say,

how do I figure out, they forgot to tell,

Don’t credent  just anyone, they say,

Whom to credent, they forgot to say,

I sit watching calmly everyone pass by,

some wait and say a hello,

I have forgotten what it feels like,

to be comfortable and adjust,

it’s a long gone feeling,

treasuring a few cherished moments,

a smile that was swept off,

the tears that kept rolling down,

the heart that kept yearning,

I knew, I believed,

I looked and I could see,

the dreams that I wanted to be,

something beyond surreal,

something that only reflections can be,

hold me, take me off,

speak to me and let me know,

you are and will be,

right here where you are meant to be,

I then opened my eyes,

woke up from my snored sleep,

smiling to myself knowingly,

a dream that soon will be a reality!!!

Mutual trust and bilateral negotiations, preparedness to discuss the problem collectively with open mindedness, tendency to examine and change our own belief i.e. flexibility is required to escape conflict. Total disarmament is the need of the hour but it cannot take place unless and until the hearts and minds of persons who manufacture, sell and purchase weapons are changed.

     “ Peace is not absence of conflict. It is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.”

                                                                     -Ronald Reagan