Wake-up Call, Served with Tea!!

Social Branding of Tata Tea

There are many tea addicts in the city which I live in. My girlfriend is one of them. In fact she is the one, who taught me the difference between an Assam and Darjeeling tea and also between Darjeeling tea and Earl Grey! Not that I have learnt a lot, as my taste buds are almost dead as far as these fine things are concerned but at the same time, my girl is very picky about choosing the leaves from the supermarkets. So, one day as we were out at our favorite café, she asked me why I don’t write about the tea brands in India. I frankly replied, that the promotions made by these brands are so alike, that it is really hard to distinguish. While all of them show the lush green tea gardens of Darjeeling or Assam, and at the same time emphasizes on the fact that a cup really makes one’s day. There are brands which also suggest the fact that, even when one is in Paris, having a nice time, in front of the Eiffel Tower, a sip of the tea will remind them of the Taj Mahal of India. Now, would we really love that? To be honest, it didn’t excite me to write about them. But, then she told me about the brand and the campaign which was entirely different.

 

Tata Tea has launched a new campaign theme two years back and this campaign itself is entirely different when compared to any other brands in the market. Firstly, it was not green, as in the colors of the fresh tea leaves are, or golden as in the first rays of the morning. The color of the campaign itself was Grey, as in the colors of the troubles and problems of our daily metro lives. The campaign was also not pleasant like the other brands, as it aimed to shake the public so that an alarm triggers on their minds. The tagline of the campaign read “Har Subah Sirf Utho Mat: Jago Re!” This can be translated as “Every morning don’t just get up from your bed, but also wake up”. This was indeed a strong message considering the socio-economic condition of the country, but before coming to that, what is more interesting in regards to the campaign is the approach it adapted. Well, frankly I have seen very few brands actually having the nerve to insult the consumers by saying that we all are sleeping. Sleepy heads as we are, normally take tea in the morning to stimulate our nerves and to feel a bit fresher. But Tata as a brand has taken this to the next level as they claim that we ourselves should rise up to the occasion and raise our voices against the corruption which are happening all around us. We normally don’t do that. We are too busy in paying our bills and EMIs of our home loans and planning our lives according to some standard dreams which we have. The dreams are not our own but it is the dreams that the society wants us to have. The “Jago Re” campaign of Tata Tea actually threw stones at the castles of our dreams and showed us, how meaninglessly we are spending our lives. The television commercials of the campaign showed how a young man questioned a political leader about his qualification for the job he is taking. The job of running the country! Also in the latest of the ads it shows how a wife is comparing the process of making tea while drawing an analogy with the “awareness” campaign that Tata Tea promotes. The campaign as a whole was an attempt to make a smooth transition within the society while promoting a real change. A brand as established like Tata itself, can actually initiate such movement. The movement actually did not stop there. The company went a step further and launched a website called www.jaagore.com. This site was eventually transformed into a community platform currently having about 661546 members and some government registered NGOs. This site is now a place where discussions regarding , Corruption, Education, Child Rights, Global Warming, Voting, Human Rights, Women’s rights, Health, Civic Issues etc takes place. Like a social networking site, this platform can be regarded as a “Social Change Network”. Launching of the site definitely makes sense as the company itself will get a chance to get connected to the consumers directly while at the same time getting an opportunity to promote the underlying theme of the campaign, while initiating a real movement. The socially driven campaign theme actually made the overall branding process so unique, as none of the ads of the brand, bluntly states the quality parameters expected from a tea brand. But rather, they urge people to implement certain changes in their lives.

 

 

Now, as I went through the website I could suddenly make a cultural connection. Well, when I was young, we used to have these big tea sessions in our home, where my folks and heir friends used to talk about social issues, just like what are included in the site of Tata Tea.  Also the coffee houses in our city (Kolkata) were famous for political debates and slogans of social change. So, is there a relation between having tea and thinking about social changes? Being a citizen of Kolkata, I can definitely make this connection and think it’s an appropriate one too. Well I might not be a tea addict like my girl is, but I certainly cannot deny the fact that a cup of tea definitely gives me a kick on my head and helps me to think straight. So, is it the purpose of having tea? The next time you have a cup, just give it a thought.

 

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