Ad wars: Make for great airtime, but market share a distant dream

Lipton, Tapal collision unlikely to affect market share, experts say people smarter than that

KARACHI:

Some like having their tea indoors, in a quiet and isolated environment as they cherish every sip. Some prefer the hustle and bustle while caffeine rushes through their veins, keeping them abuzz like their surroundings.

Kabeer Khattak, a resident of Grey Riverside Apartments, a crowded neighbourhood, is of the second category. He prefers having his tea in the foyer outside his second-floor apartment inside a gated society in the southern part of Karachi.



By having his tea outdoor, Khattak can supervise his children at the swings, ride the bicycle and play hide and seek in the foyer, while he discusses the state of the country community issues with his neighbours - like most people do.

The cloth merchant rarely ends his day without an evening get-together with his neighbours. But none of these gatherings go without a ‘strong’ cup of tea. This is not just a matter of habit, but of a culture.

However, this heavy tea drinker says he hardly noticed - let alone switching brand or be influenced by - the TV commercials for Lipton and Tapal, two of the country’s largest tea brands, that took each other head-on through direct comparative advertisement earlier this year.

A loyal subscriber to one of the aforesaid brands for the past seven years, Khattak didn’t bother noticing the larger than life billboards of the two brands that stood side by side for over a month at Akhtar Colony traffic light intersection, his daily route to work. And there are many like him who hardly noticed the on-going advertising war between these two brands fighting for a share in the country’s $1 billion plus tea market.

Earlier this year, Unilever ran a TVC for its tea brand Lipton, mocking its arch-rival Tapal - the latter responded within no time by releasing its own TVC. Later on, some smaller brands also jumped on to this yellow-versus-red bandwagon by marketing their own products: Continental Biscuits, Everyday (powdered milk) and Interwood became a part of the rivalry soon enough.



While the aforesaid campaign, which was termed by experts as ‘tea wars’, went viral on social media and got covered in mainstream publications, it may not have helped any of the two brands snatch the competition’s market share, according to industry experts.

Khattak said he has tried several brands, but has largely stuck to one. “These ads and promotions offering free items with a tea pack won’t change my taste,” the cloth merchant said of his current brand.

Though popular in the West, comparative advertising has produced very few positive results so far, a local publication said, adding this kind of advertising further drive consumers’ loyalty towards their respective brands.

“Comparative advertising is based on ‘old-school’ thinking,” said Ejaz Wasay, Head of Media Studies and Senior Fellow Marketing at Institute of Business Management.

“I think such campaigns come and go. They are tactical in nature,” the marketing veteran said, adding tactical campaigns add to one’s brand value only if they are aligned with the brand’s strategy.

Giving the background of comparative advertising, Wasay said Coke and Pepsi have gone past the phase when they would engage in Cola-wars. “They have both realised that tit-for-tat campaigns were detrimental for both parties.”

The expert further said detergent brands like Surf have shown comparative ads on TV against local brands like Jet and Burq for years in Pakistan. More recently, Lifebuoy and Safeguard have been slugging it out; he said, referring to the former’s “tunhara sabun slow hai kya” ads, which were run in India and Pakistan. He, however, was sceptical on whether these ads helped the brands succeed.

Our queries to both companies remained unanswered till the filing of this report. Hence, it was difficult to ascertain if any of them noticed any unusual jump in their sales - we could not get their actual market shares either.



However, industry sources suggest the competition between these two brands was neck to neck with Lipton holding 37% and Tapal holding 39% share as of 2012 - clearly explaining the reasons behind close rivalry between the two especially when a big chunk of the tea market remains undocumented that is captured by unbranded loose tea.

It is too early to conclude whether Lipton, which started this campaign, or Tapal got any share from their campaigns but experts doubt it happened.

True value of a brand depends on differentiation, says Wasay. “Branding today is largely about intangible value created by brand owners but accepted or rejected by consumers.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd,  2016.

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