The branding of Sprite has been exceptional in the sense that it was contrastingly different from its competitors. Where the likes of Pepsi, Thums up were all focussed on linking the consumption of their beverage with youth (Pepsi), adventure(Thums up) and likes, Sprite took a rather simple but bang on tag line
"Sprite bujhaye only pyass, baki sab bakwas"
(Sprite helps you quench your thirst, rest all is gibberish)
or on similar lines
“Seedhi Baat, No Bakwaas”
The tag line clicked since it was too simple and realistic. A carbonated beverage is supposed to quench thirst and that’s all, period. This is exactly what Sprite marketed itself as and I presume it did reasonably well.
They took digs at Pepsi by spoofing their ads is another matter though.
The idea here is that the tagline became Sprite’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition).
And the fact that they were able to maintain the same USP with their new and refreshing advertisements made it all the more a very effective branding exercise. All the advertisement of Sprite carried the tag line very well coupled with some very witty and cool adverts.
But, the recent ‘Fridge Pack’ advertisement has me thinking if the ad has done damage to its very USP. The ad has been doing the rounds for sometime now promoting the new innovating packing by Sprite.
The ad highlights the fact that the new Sprite Fridge pack is suitable for storage in all kinds of Fridge and it does it in symbolic "Sprite" witty style.
Here is the Sprite Fridge Pack Advertisement:
The advertisement does carry forward the legacy of bearing the Sprite’s tongue-in-cheek attitude, wit and irreverence, but is it in line with the tagline that very well became its USP.
My answer is a clear ‘NO’. Why? It is evident in the new tag line associated with the ad itself
Fridge me jayega, badaa kam kayega
(Sprite in Fridge will be very handy)
But, was I not supposed to drink ‘Sprite’ for the sole reason that it was a thirst quencher. This is where the ad lost its appeal to me. If Sprite also is going to take the "Our Drink will be useful in something other then quenching the thirst" , then what on earth is different in Sprite than the other competitors.
In that case, I would rather “taste the thunder” and be adventurous :). With their new tagline, I felt that Sprite also fell in the same category as the other players in the market. I am not sure if my thoughts on this are right on that or not, but next time when someone asks me about Sprite, I will have to say "Clear nahi hai" (It’s not clear enough).
All said and done, I am not saying that the new Sprite ad is bad, infact it is pretty good in terms of execution and creativity. But, i feel that the uniqueness of Sprite element got lost somewhere.
What do you think?
[This post is written by Ankit Agarwal, an ERP Consultant by profession, a wannabe entrepreneur and stock market stalker by passion]