Pan Vilas 'Shauq Badi Cheez Hai'

Pan Vilas

Company- Godfrey Phillips India

Category- Pan Masala

Campaign- “Shauq badi cheez hai"

“Shauq badi cheez hai “, no no, I am not trying to be poetic, it is the new campaign from Godfrey Phillips India for its premium pan masala, Pan Vilas.

Before going to the campaign we will try to analyse the Indian (tobacco) Chewing Industry.

You will be shocked to hear that the overall Indian Chewing Industry is estimated to be Rs. 11,660 crores. This industry is very fragmented with lots of small players.

It is categorised by two factors,

First, by product type,

1) Pan Masala

2) Zarda

3) Gutka

Second, by price,

1) Premium

2) Non-premium

The premium chewing industry is of Rs. 3075 crores out of which the premium pan masala market is estimated to be Rs. 1500 crores (about 13% of total chewing industry). The reason behind giving all these figures is to introduce you with one important insight. Considering the developing Indian market & the evolving lifestyle of an Indian consumer, there is lot of scope to increase the market share of premium pan masala category. In these types of products the intra-category shift is very difficult due to loyalty of consumers. Hence, either you have to attract consumers from non-premium segment (as consumers evolve in their lifestyle they tend to switch the brand) or you have to attract new consumers, to increase the share of premium pan masala category.

Now, we will focus on some product insights.

To differentiate your product in this category you have two options, either you position it on product attributes or try to connect emotionally with target group. If you choose to position your product (pan masala) on product attributes then you have options like taste, mouth freshener etc. And if you want to connect emotionally with your target then you can have pride, shauq etc. accompanying your product. It is difficult to position these kinds of products on the basis of product attributes, as finally these are supposed to be unhealthy products by their nature. Hence you are left with the option of emotional connect to position your product.

The competitor, Rajnigandha Pan Masala is playing on the ‘pride’ space with its campaign “Muh me Rajnigandha, kadmo me duniya”. ‘Shauq' is the differentiator that was waiting to be owned, and has a seamless fit with the product and the category; hence, the positioning.

Now, does the campaign justify the positioning?

The brand has rolled out the TVC part of the campaign featuring Manoj Bajpai (as nawab) and Jameel Khan (as muneem). The story revolves around an extremely particular nawab who likes things just so: like getting his newspaper ironed so there isn’t any crease on it, using German binoculars to spot beautiful women, getting Queen Victoria’s bicycle to ride around on, and choosing Pan Vilas for his pan masala.

What could be the better option to portray the concept of ‘shauq’ than nawab? I must say great choice of the concept for TVC. Also it is breakthrough from boring and repetitive pan masala ads. Also this concept can be extended to link the product with different other shauqs of nawab.

The TVC would help to pull the new consumers towards the brand. According to me it would beneficial if they concentrate more on the promotions at the point of purchase. It would be helpful to attract consumers from competitor brands. The reason behind this is the consumer behaviour wherein the consumer goes to pan-bidi shop and directly demands for his regular brand. Here you can remind him about new brand as he might be exposed to the TVC and he might think of trying your brand.

“Kya kare shauq badi cheez hai”.