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Bru instant coffee was entering into rural market to create a new segment in beverage
industry. They were somewhat successful. As a student of marketing identify what
communication challenges did Bru faced. They have used innovative media vehicle for
reaching the target group. Why they have chosen those vehicles and what else could be
used making or improving the campaigning.
Bru is a HUls coffee brand and it is the only brand which is available in all the segments of
coffee like instant, roast and ground, premixes. There are three different consumer segment based
on preferences of drinker in South India: tea drinkers, filter coffee drinkers, other coffee drinkers.
It identifies the huge untapped market for instant coffee.
Challenges faced by BRU instant coffee

People were thinking that it is a drink to be had on special occasions, so here challenge

was covert those special occasions into Bru instant coffee occasions.
They had to reach 1.3 million customer who were divided into three segments (tea
drinkers, filter coffee drinkers and other coffee drinkers) for product trials and passing the

correct message amongst three segment was the challenge.

Changing of taste and preference were another challenge because it was not easy thing
for the company to swift them from a beverage of their choice and sample instant coffee
to Bru instant coffee. So they leave some samples to the consumer as a trial and it helped

them in changing the preferences of consumer and improving the trial campaign.
There were different communicators with different capabilities and they had passing
standardized message regarding to Bru instant coffee yet customization message was still

challenge for Bru.

Most of the consumers hadnt liked to welcome door-to-door salesman.
Apart from it there were some other challenged that Bru faced:
1. Less availability of media ( like most of the family had only radio and TV)
2. Multi languages ( Different state had different language)
3. Lack of proper physical communication facilities (Poor road connectivity and most of
the villages were inaccessible in monsoon)
4. Underdeveloped people and underdeveloped markets ( They had no knowledge about
the brand and most of the markets were untapped)

Promotional strategy used by HUL for Bru instant coffee

HUL used two types of promotional strategies:

1. Informal promotion strategy

2. Formal promotion strategy
Informal promotion strategy
It was formulated and it included different steps to promote the product in rural market:

First step was audio-visual publicity vans. It was covered by banners on which they drew
product photos, taglines of the product and colorful picture to attract the rural consumers.
The audible material used were a tunes of current filmy songs, which were composed
with new lyrics, this lyrics gave the special features about the Bru coffee. This step was

used as an introduction of the product coffee in rural markets.

Second step was door-to-door marketing. For that they recruited young local youths so
that they can communicate with the villagers in local language. They were carrying

flipcharts as a substitute medium to TV.

Third step was also a door-to-door marketing they used games to pull the villagers into
the Mohalla so as to do mass marketing. This games were designed in a way so as to
position the product and the price of the product in the minds of consumer. The games

used were:
1. Spotting the right price.
2. Match the pair
3. Turn the wheel
Fourth step was retail contacts. In this step the marketers gave scratch coupons to the
consumers who came to purchased Bru with incentive packages (i.e. packages one for

two). It was applicable to retailers as well as wholesalers

Last step was that all the villagers were invited to the central location. It was the place
where villagers assembled in a day so that becomes easy for them to communicate at
large to the masses.

Formal promotion strategy

In this promotional strategy they used TV, radio, cinema, painting on wall depending upon their
reach and their influence on rural masses.
They gave some samples to the consumer as a trial and it helped them in changing the
preferences of consumer and improving the trial campaign.

 Show a short film on the basis of beverage preference of the household and after
completion of film consumers were posed a questions and presented with a free sachet of
Bru instant coffee.

Other promotional initiatives that could be used for improving campaigning

1. Roadshows to educate the villagers.
2. Company can promote product in Haats and Melas because many rural people likes to
purchase the products from Hatts and Melas.
3. Give incentives like GOLD that includes Scratching of card which contain 8 digits of
number and when anyone win give them gold.
4. Use of puppet shows to increase the awareness about the product amongst the villagers.
5. Use of folk theater formats.

HULS RURAL MARKETING STRATEGIES

INDIRECT COVERAGE APPROACH

Under this approach company vans were replaced by vans belonging to Redistribution Stockists,
which liked to went in nearby villages

OPERATION HARVEST

It was quit costly to went in villages every time by vans and not always feasible for the
redistribution stockiest to cover all the rural markets, but it was important because majority of
the population lived in those villages. Operation Harvest endeavored to supplement the role of
conventional media in rural India and, in the process, forge relationships and loyalty with rural
consumers. Operation Harvest also involved conducting of product awareness programs on vans.

PROJECT STREAMLINE

Through project streamline, HUL crated hub and spoke system to expand the distribution
network in villages. It covered villages with population 2000 and included 15-20 rural substockists. They were using unconventional mean of transportation like tractor, bullock cart, cycle
etc. The sub stockist is known as the Star seller for that area. The star seller reaches the product
to retailers in villages in his area and collects the money from them as stocks are purchased by
him on credit from the distributor.