In the digital age, traditional marketing campaigns do not appeal to customers anymore as they are exposed to news from brands through their social media platforms, digital news media as well as direct mails, SMS and WhatsApp messages and calls from companies. Thus, it becomes more difficult for established brands and startups to create compelling marketing campaigns that appeal to readers and align with their values and beliefs along with creating heightened consumer engagement.
When customers can relate to the mission and vision of a brand, they tend to build a deep-rooted connection with it and are much more likely to purchase its products. Over a period of time, this results in brand loyalty. With this in mind, HP has assisted several brands in creating campaigns that appeal to the values and beliefs of end users with its range of HP Indigo presses. Some of these brand stories were highlighted by Ashish Vasudeva, business development manager at HP, at the HP Industrial road show to drupa 2024, held at Delhi’s Crowne Plaza Mayur Vihar. The event, with a focus on labels and folding cartons, was organized jointly by HP and Technova.
As per Vasudeva’s presentation, Gen Z-ers purchased 80% more new products in the last 12 months while a staggering 83% want brands they purchase to align with their beliefs and values (True Gen: Gen Z and its implications for companies by McKinsey 2020). Gen Y and Z are changing the market for consumer products as they are digital-oriented innovation-seekers with a penchant for uniqueness, unlimited variety, fast delivery and ethical products and production processes. As market trends are shifting from the analog era to the digital era, there is a marked decrease in the lifecycle, repeat orders and batch sizes while customization and personalization are the trends driving the market.
Some of the compelling brand stories:
Cazulo Premium Feni
The word Cazulo means ‘firefly’ in Konkani and Goan heritage brand Cazulo Premium Feni’s stylized sleek bottle with a raised glass firely radiating its warmth was launched in 2013 to take the traditional Goan cashew-based alcoholic beverage to the foreign shores. Remaining true to the Konkani ethic of the Western coastal state of Goa, patterns and colors from the Portuguese heritage were incorporated to create the labels of the brand.
However, Hansel Vaz, the second-generation promoter of the family-owned bottling unit, which began in the Vaz’ outhouse in Cuncolim, South Goa, was not receiving the aesthetic quality of labels that he was seeking. The delivery time of labels was 1 – 2 months and the brand was forced to carry higher inventory. After opting for digitally printed labels on an HP Indigo press by Janus International, Vaz was amazed at the response from customers. “One out of 10 souvenirs picked in the category is a bottle of Cazulo; the product got acceptance in high-end bars and premium retail outlets,” he said in a video shared at the event.
Dettol
As reported by Packaging South Asia earlier, India’s trusted healthcare brand Dettol introduced a nationwide campaign, #DettolSalutes, after the peak of the second Coronavirus wave in June 2021 as a tribute to Covid-19 warriors. In the campaign, Dettol replaced its logo with the image of a Covid warrior, along with his or her inspiring story of battling the pandemic, on its liquid handwash packs by Skanem India.
Dettol’s parent company Reckitt launched a website, www.DettolSalutes.com, for people to share stories related to Covid protectors and create virtual Dettol liquid handwash packs, which could then be shared on their social media channels. The campaign aimed to strike an emotional chord with the customers and convey the message of human solidarity in the wake of the global crisis.
Reckitt sacrificed its brand logo space on 4 million packs to deliver the message through digital labels printed on HP Indigo presses. This premium example of brand packaging illustrates how consumer engagement, hyper-localization, and personalization can be amalgamated into a brand story to provide a unique offering to end users.
Nestlé Kitkat
As reported by Packaging South Asia’s Shardul Sharma earlier, to celebrate the month of February as the ‘Season of Love’, Nestlé KitKat rolled out limited-edition packs called #LoveBreak in 2022, building on the insight that every relationship is unique. The designs were printed on a state-of-the-art HP Indigo digital press machine at Huhtamaki’s Silvassa plant using a complex cold seal operation. The company delivered 12 million special packs of the collection using a variable data printing technique.
Photo Huhtamaki
The limited-edition packs had three design categories based on relationship archetypes named ‘BAE’ (romantic partners), ‘BFF’ (best friends) and ‘BUDDY’ (casual friends). Each of these design categories has a representational outline shape with quirky mosaic patterns inside that change shape on each pack, thus making each a unique expression of love.
With HP Indigo digital presses and unique creative tools, one can print unlimited designs targeting select markets, and stay relevant with timely campaigns like Valentine’s day, pride events and sports championships, the presentation demonstrated.
Coca Cola
Global beverages major Coca Cola brought its #ShareACoke campaign to India in 2018. The campaign was cleverly reinvented to appeal to Coke’s Indian customers by bringing relationships to center stage. The theme ‘Har Rishta Bola, Mere Naam ki Coca-Cola’ drew on the significance of relationships and the brand printed 12 crore digitally printed wraparounds in 85 days. The campaign spread to 12 languages, with 238 total relationships and 9,200 unique artworks.
The campaign helped the brand identify the relationships that carry the most significance in Indian society today. The 12 languages incorporated in the campaign were Assamese, Marathi, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, English, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Gujarati and Punjabi. Each of the relationships was accompanied by a descriptive phrase such as Daddy (My teacher. My friend), Sis (Supermodel. Super role model), Boss (Pushes me. Promotes Me), Bae (Bugs Me. Hugs Me), Bro (Troublemaker. Merrymaker), etc.
The campaign included digital as well as social media engagements along with consumer touch points and marketing activities and was based on the fact that customization, personalization and regionalism are the biggest trends that rule the Indian FMCG space.
English Oven
Mrs. Bector’s English Oven did an ‘An Ode to Super Moms’ campaign, inviting stories from customers about their mothers. The selected stories were featured on English Oven Mother’s Day Special Packs or shared on its Wall of Fame page. The 2023 campaign featured 23 unique and inspiring stories of Super Moms digitally printed with the HP Indigo 25K digital press on English Oven breads pack at Art Next in Delhi-NCR. One of the Super Moms stories was of Kathak dancer and cancer survivor Alaknanda Dasgupta, who indulged in her passion for Kathak dance even while battling cancer.
Quirky Beverages
Chandigarh-based Quirky Beverages was founded by Vivek Sonar in 2016 after he noticed a gap in the non-alcoholic beverages segment. Sonar made an appearance at the event and said that he saw space in the market where a premium non-alcoholic beverage brand could come in as there were no options other than Coke and Pepsi.
The company switched to digitally printed labels and shrink sleeves in 2020 printed by Leap Digiprint for its range of non-alcoholic beverages after its meeting with HP at the Aahar exhibition in New Delhi. The brand wanted to experiment with its packaging in short runs through innovative designs and formats.
Quirky Beverages has since differentiated into new product categories such as energy drinks and bar syrups, Sonar informed the audience. He said color matching with Pantone colors and MOQs were the major challenges the brand faced with flexo printing and this prompted him to explore digital printing options due to its added advantages of smaller runs, multiple products printed together and lower costs. The cost, thus saved, could then be utilized for marketing and promotions. He said that packaging testing using HP digital presses and bringing to product to market takes him around three days. “Convenience is more important than price,” he added.
Sonar shared that in the non-alcoholic beverages category, there is very tough competition nowadays as there’s a new product in the market every few days with its own USP.
Umesh Kagade, segment manager – Labels, at HP, shared the features of HP Indigo 6K, HP Indigo 8K, HP Indigo V12, HP Indigo 25K and HP Indigo 35K digital presses at the event. He touched upon the features of HP Indigo Electroink and the company’s ink portfolio. A virtual demonstration of the HP Indigo 6K digital press from the Technova Touch Centre in Mumbai concluded the event.
Brand owners can visit the Technova Touch Centre in Mumbai for live demonstrations of HP Indigo digital presses and view the hundreds of real brand samples printed with HP printing technology.
