SUHAS KINI.

B PGP BM(2013-15) BRU, a flagship coffee brand of the Hindustan Unilever Company has witnessed Ground breaking changes in its advertising in the last 5-6years.It has moved on from being a predominantly South Indian coffee brand to a national brand and hence the same could be seen reflected in its ads. From being the competitor for Nescafe Sunrise which focuses on the middle class BRU has evolved certain new variants of its coffee and its recent ads focusing on these variants which show that BRU is poised to compete with Nescafe globally .Let us see how BRU has evolved through the ages. 2007

This is one of those ads which was turning out to be Bilingual. It had the tagline Ananadam BRUvudan aarambham and BRU se hoti hain Khushiyaan Shuru in Hindi. At this juncture in 2007 BRU did not have a Pan India Presence and wasmostly perceived as a South Indian Brand. BRU was using lesser known actors and hence could not have had a higher impact in the Northern parts of India as the connect was missing. 2009

This was followed in 2009 by BRU playing a guessing game by introducing new BRU and asking its viewers to guess the new change in BRU. So clearly BRU was trying to renovate its image amongst its customers. 2011

This was BRUs answer to the Nescafe Gold. It promises 100% pure coffee experience with seeds of the Robusta and Arabica type being used. But explicitly using the same Product line name Gold as used by Nescafe is like throwing an open challenge to Nescafe. A notable point was here was getting Bollywood Stars like Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra to widen their reach. 2012

BRU had introduced its EXOTICA line in 2012 wherein it promised that the best beans from Guatemala were imported and crushed in making the coffee. Here BRU tries to offer a premium Brand for those having an aspirational value attached to their coffee and enters the high price band. 2013

The ad says it all. BRU wants to focus on the youth with its cold coffee. Here the former brand ambassadors Priyanka Chopra and Shahid Kapoor are replaced by Anushka Sharma and Imran Khan who tend click better these days with the younger generation than the former pair. Here BRU ventures into the unexplored territory of Cold coffee which was previously its competitor Nescafe s forte. Hence BRU leaves no stone unturned in showing its supremacy in the Indian Coffee market catering to the uber cool Generation of today. Segment , Target and Positioning: BRU has been catering to the segment that requires coffee instantly but it has been now playing with its Target and Positioning across its new variants. With BRU Gold it was targeting the upper middle class customers but with EXOTICA it was purely looking for upper class customers and the cold coffee was specifically targeted towards the youth. BRU had wanted to position itself as a coffee that provides moments of genuine warmth and happiness but with EXOTICA it went a step ahead and positioned itself as a Luxury Coffee Brand with its pricing too being exorbitant. Thus BRU is progressing in a direction where it wishes to break the Geographic and Demographic Barrier by venturing into the North and catering to the youth and would thus try to emulate its competitor Nescafes Success on a Global Level. Competitor Benchmarking: BRU has tried to widen its line of products but its Achilles heel would be that unlike Nescafe it has not come in a big way to provide readymade coffee via vending machines and this would be a deterrent on BRUs Global ambitions. Thus BRU has rightly embarked on expanding its markets in India and has been doling out new variants every year but how long it would last and give Nescafe a run for its money is something for which only time can provide an answer.