Adgully Exclusive | Blending the 'Be Pure' mantra: ABD's Deepak Roy

ABD today has four major brands ' Officer's Choice, Wodka Gorbatschow, Jolly Roger and Class Vodka. The company to day has sales offices in 14 cities across the country and is known for offering Indian made and international feel liquor.

The company launched Wodka Gorbatschow in July 2008 thorugh a joint venture between ABD Pct Ltd. and Henkell & Company, Germany under the name of Henkell & Company India Pvt. Ltd.

A slightly premium barnd, Wodka Gorbatschow goes through a special triple-chilled filtration process - a technical innovation brought by Henkell to India. Moreover it sold around 47,475 cases in FY 2009-10 recording a staggering growth of 252% and achieving a market share of 10% in its segment.

Recently the brand repositioned itself to reinforce the brand identity of ' Purity. The brand campaign was based on a consumer research which revealed that a lot of people play many roles in life. So the brand's communication conveyed that whatever role you play in life, play it with honesty, integrity and with purity. The campaign line read- "Whoever you are, BE PURE".

Early this month, Wodka Gorbatschow announced the launch of "Gorbatschow Pure Shots ' A short film contest" in association with 1takemedia.com. Pure Shots is a contest where film students and amateur film makers stand a chance to win a once in a lifetime opportunity to be a part of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

Based on the brand's ad campaign "Whoever You Are, Be Pure,' Gorbatschow Pure Shots opened doors for first time directors to showcase their creativity to a large audience. The contest opened on 1st December for entries. Participants were asked to send in their interpretations of purity through their videos which will then be judged by a panel of celebrity judges comprising of veterans from the industry including Shyam Benegal, Mahesh Bhatt, Sudhir Mishra, Prahlad Kakkar, Nagesh Kukunoor and Gul Panang.

Adgully caught up with Deepak Roy, Executive Vice Chairman & CEO, Allied Blenders and Distillers, to find out more about the initiative and the company's marketing and promotional plans.

Talking about the initiative, Roy says, "We thought that this concept was literally waiting to pop out and support the positioning of Wodka Gorbatschow. We came out with the bold brand campaign and it was a marketer's mind but we wanted to explore how a young filmmaker perceives our thought of "Purity'. This initiative will strengthen the brand's positioning, this will give the young filmmakers to showcase their work on digital media and get them recognition and it will also further show the different expressions of purity. It is a win-win situation for the brand, the film industry and the young talents. The initiative is trying to get the young minds to express their thinking about life in a creative mind."

Talking about the company, he says, "ABD is the third largest liquor company in the country. We have the world's second largest selling whisky which is Officer's Choice, we sell around 16 million cases. Then we launched a slew of new products like Wodka Gorbatschow and Jolly Roger. Our Officer's Choice brand addresses the SEC B and C category and so as to strengthen our position in premium segments we are launching brands in that segment."

The company's market share is close to 13% and sells around 16 and a half million cases out of the total market of 230 million cases. Acknowledging some of the challenges for the industry, Roy adds, "It is a highly regulated industry, there is no one national policy. Each state in the country has its own policy because it is a state subject. Hence in each state we need to have different pricing, different production strategy, and different way of selling our products. We are not allowed to advertise so there are a lot many barriers to a brand's growth."

Talking about the marketing initiatives, he says, "We as a company pride ourselves in doing things differently. For example, for our brand Officer's Choice we came up with campaign line which read- "Bring out the Officer within you', so we tried to build on the value of "righteousness'. We want our communication process to be different and innovative."

Elaborating on the importance of digital medium in the marketing mix, Roy says, "Digital media features in a big way in terms of promoting our premium brands. We have a digital site for Gorbatschow Pure Shots, where people can go participate and where we will be publishing the movies and once the entries are shortlisted they will be open for voting. Based on the people's votes a winner will be announced." | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]