What Olfrute did wrong

Nestle has been having a hard time in Pakistan for the past few years. Will Engro's new juice beat them out of another category as well?

Nestle has been having a hard time in Pakistan for the past few years. First, Aquafina by Pepsi snatched its market share of mineral water then Olpers by Engro foods sidelined Nestle’s Milkpak to become the market leader of that category. Now Engro Foods is set to give Nestle a tough time again. Olfrute is a juice brand recently launched by Engro foods. The question is can Olfrute take the market share of Nestle Fruitavitals or will it share the fate of Shezan and Freshers?

Freshers failed largely because of poor distribution even though the taste and packaging were different and nice. Shezan has an image of being a low quality juice and this is the reason for its failure. Olfrute is no doubt cut throat competition for Nestle Fruitavitals But so far Olfrute hasn’t been a big hit. Engro foods relied on the brand equity of Olpers by naming the juice ‘Olpers Olfrute’ but this confused positioning. Olpers is a diary product and fruit juice is totally different category thus Olfrute should not have been leveraged on Olpers brand equity.

Moreover the taste is similar to Nestle Fruitavitals. It offers nothing unique to offer to consumers. I don’t think anyone would be able to distinguish between the two on the basis of taste alone. However, Olfrute does have a characteristically unpleasant smell. The price level of the new juice has been kept high. I feel that the introductory price should have been lowered to create a niche in the market.

Besides this, the television commercial is absurd and fails to make any impact on consumers.The brand is endorsed by Nadia Jamil, a lady in 30s romping in fruit orchards like a teenage lass. Are they trying to show that Olfrute revitalizes you so much that you feel younger? If so then there are better ways to execute this idea. For brand activation, they should have come up with something out of the box. I doubt that this ad has any recall at all.

The packaging also fails to attract attention. It has white background just like Olpers but honestly Olpers packing had that vibrant red in it to attract the attention of the buyers. Its seen that decisions are now made in stores by the consumers thus Engro foods should have come up with packaging that would have pushed the consumers for its impulse purchasing. In a nutshell, Olfrute doesn't offer much to consumers, in terms of taste, packaging or promotion.

But it has managed to get Nestle Fruitavitals active. They are not taking this attack lightly. Maybe they have learnt from past mistakes and are not taking their position of being the leader in the juice category for granted. Recently they have commenced extensive merchandising in shops and frequent airing of television commercials. Billboards have also been put up everywhere.

Let’s see who wins the battle this time. Will Nestle be left to be a follower or will it carry on being the leader?