Lipton case study
Key brands dominate the market as follows: Tap -premium Lipton Supreme Vital 27 % Milliner markets A-I Kara- another brand In its tea portfolio- to attract the lower tier of the market.
It makes the company the second largest In the tea category. However. Increasing growth of Tap and incessant fall of Lipton is being a matter of grave concern for the conglomerate. Despite repositioning several times – from Chaw chaw hi hay sauna see Joanna to “Clear the mind” and “Regular Medium and strong”, they have yet to hit the right strings so far. The brand has the highest TOM and recall.
Yet it’s no. In the list.
Lipton is a premium priced brand with over 20% high retail price than Tap and 8 % more than Supreme. It is the best quality tea in the market. In 2007, Lipton experienced the first growth in 14 years after running a CAP for full year offering a pack of sugar, Everyday tea whitener sachet, mug and Gerry 10 free hours of internet on a quarterly basis. The same however couldn’t Invoke a salary response next year.
Globally Its postulates as a align, sophisticated tea Tort ten young Ana upper segment of SEC A and 8+ (LSI 7+). Milliner Intel insists on marketing it as a light tea while throng tea liking is dominant in this part of the world.
They argue that Supreme and A-I Kara are already catering to this segment and does not make any sense in following the same positioning for Lipton. While it has an edge in the tea bag market, mainly in the corporate segment, real problem comes from the normal tea sector (400-gum SW) where Tap has made deep inroads.
The brand seems to be a victim of “brand fatigue” as known in the branding Jargon’s. It’s now focusing on tea-bags. To create a strong tea impact, showed several dips of the tea bag with a red Jab. These associations seemingly did to resonate with a premium tea brand with highest prices.
It reminded of Liar where boxing is a popular game. The current target market-teenagers with a hip hop lifestyle-also seemingly requires a reload.
While Milliner, P&G and Recruit Benefices have all been heavily using strong testimonials for Lug, Pentane and Vet respectively, Lipton so far has distanced itself from any mega-celebrity appeal for a long time. With inspirations from the success in the Tea bag market, brand managers also thought off focusing tea bags toward the normal Housewife segment. As it requires a sieve effort to change attitudes, company has launched the Dip & Win Sweepstake campaign to make a push in this market.
Not long ago, Just before this Consumer Promotion scheme, Bums tried to follow the Addenda approach taken by Tap right from the onset, launching the Mega Addenda Lipton. Branding experts believe a stimulating positioning can do the trick and brand can make a comeback. It should take inspirations from Outlet and Tag Mall from India to get repositioned as both adhere to emotional branding rather than focusing on the product per SE.
It’s interesting to see the portfolio of Tap with Addenda, Family Mixture, Means & Tested making a combined share of 37%.
Tap is way behind Lipton in the Tea bag market. However, Lipton being the most expensive brand in the segment, is predominantly a corporate brand. People prefer it because it’s not their pocket that is affected. The only change Tap did was to re- shape its bags -round. This hardly made any difference.
Bums at Tap kept the prices nearly 20-25% lower and touched the emotional chord of the target market with exceptional effective Slice of the Life campaigns. Packaging of both the brands are gorgeous with Tap captivating with a bright red while Lipton sensation with Yellow & Red.
None of the brand lacks any “designing” weakness. Supreme-the one time market leader with RSI. 10 b sales-is currently being in a state of confused positions.
From Yeah hi to ha pan pun, the brand today is focusing on the healthy part of tea drinking. The strong transformation of the brand at the highest level in the Brand Value Pyramid (BP) zoomed it to Supreme Shish. Sophia Mansion executed t I Vs. Witt Nils creatively knelling ten Drank touched I TTS zenith Today with the Sashes Kumar ad, the brand is trying to get a revival-health & taste together.
The new variant in the market was Vital launched 3 years back. With a consistent approach but low marketing budget, Vital has made its room with a 9% share.
Packaging is not that strong and copies Lipton -yellow green combination. Based on the Brand key module, suggest a new Positioning for Lipton keeping its target market, USPS, Price, Logo and Packaging into perspective. For TV’s and print ads, go to Google search. Youth may be accessed through Ultra Surf or Titillation.
Com. For SKU and current prices, go to any retail outlet. Case compiled at Brand Image by Stark Muhammad
