Brand Update : Bournvita Drifts in its Positioning

Bournvita is one of the major players in the Rs 4000 crore Indian Health Drink market. The brand has a market share of around 15% according to Business Standard. The brand has been a darling for kids who liked the chocolate flavored drinks.

Cadbury has been nurturing the brand well focusing on kids and their affinity towards good taste. The brand got initial traction in the market by focusing on the chocolate taste. It further reinforced the taste factor by associating with its fellow brand  5 Star.
Later the brand went for a laddering exercise and brought in the concept of confidence. The positioning worked really well for the brand since confidence was a very important attribute as far as kids ( and parents) are concerned. The brand backed the laddering up with the creation of Bournvita Confidence Academy and followed it up with a media blitzkrieg.

2011 saw a marked difference in the positioning of Bournvita. The brand began drifting away from confidence based positioning. Early 2011 saw the brand professing the concept of " Prepare to Win " proposition. The brand adopted the tagline " Tayari Jeet Ki " meaning - Preparing to Win.

The ads were beautifully made and explained the concept beautifully. 

Watch the ad here : Bournvita Judo Ad.

Besides the change in positioning, the brand's primary audience ( protagonist) also changed. Rather than focusing on Kids, the brand directly began addressing the Mother. Kids began to play the supporting role in the advertisement. The brand began to move into the way of Horlicks and Complan where the principal character in the campaigns are mothers and not kids.

Now in late 2011, the brand made another significant change in the positioning . The brand discarded every thing it did in the past and began talking like Horlicks. In the recent campaign, the brand began talking about calcium and the script of the ad is almost the copy of Horlicks' ad. More over the brand has now the tagline " Badhaye Doodh Ki Shakthi " which is strikingly the same as the latest Horlicks campaign.

Watch the ad here : Bournvita Calcium

And compare it with Horlicks ad here

I have never seen anybody asking questions like " Calcium ke liye kya karthe ho ? " , Vitamin C ke liye kya karthe ho ??? It looks totally out of synch with the characters in the TVC.

Am not sure whether it is sheer coincidence or a competitive move. What ever it is both the brands will suffer because of the same talk. More importantly Bournvita will suffer the most because it ditched its earlier positioning in favor of the Milk based positioning.

Another interesting factor is that in the ad , there is no character representing the user ie kids. It is one of those rare occasions where Bournvita ads are without kids. 

The absence of kids in the ads and focus on ingredients mark a major shift in the marketing strategy of Bournvita. By talking in the same language of the market leader Horlicks, the brand is trying to directly attack Horlicks which commands more than 50% of the market hoping to expand its base. But this move is at the expense of the positioning of Bournvita. 

Related Brand

Bournvita : Confidence