Ever heard of these unsophisticated and rustic sounding names - Jhoom, Masti, Mast Mirchi, Son Pari, Lal Pari, Madhuri, Noori et al. Obviously, they ain’t the nams of people. Nither are they names of locally-made condoms or soft porn Hindi movies.
They are names synonymous to staggering legs, stammering and shaking lips and a fortune for the state exchequer. These names brew a success story to otherwise a dry state industrial scenario. They are a few popular brands of country made liquors (CML) manufactured in around -- distilleries spread across the state.
It’s no wonder that despite UP being the number one state in producing country-made liquor, ver few people (excepts the bacchanals) are aware of these brands. The reason is obvious. Unlike its Indian-made foreign liqour (IMFL) cousins, firms manufacturing CML hardly invest a penny on marketing heady fluid.
Though, direct advertisement of any kind of liquor is banned in India but IMFL companies spend fortunes in surrogate ads every year just to ensure that their brands were identified. Besides, they cough up a hefty sum in sponsoring events so that people notice the brands.
Contrast to this, CML manufacturing companies, apart from a few poster pasted in Thekas, are very tight-fisted when it comes to advertising or marketing exercise for their products. So you will never find a Jhoom album on party music or a Masti packaged drinking water. Neither you will see a star-nite being sponsored by Mast Mirchi.
’’it helps us save a lot of resource which is instead used in strengthening the distribution system, ’’ says Mahesh Gupta, Dy Zonal Manager, UP and Uttaranchal, Radico Khaitan, which is the third largest manufacturer of CML in the state followed by Unnao Distilleries and Saraya Distilleries.
But in an era when, five Ps of marketing has replaced the Ten Commandmends, it’s a real surprise how can a sector as huge as this can survive without the potent marketing mix. May be a detailed case study by students of top B-schools may find the lost blend ie the mystery behind the success of this segment without any marketing exercise.
However, one of the immediate fallout of shying away from marketing is localised brand awareness of the products.