What Pushpanjali Banerji teaches about brand purpose

You know life is a painting which you're painting every day and like an artist you need to step back. So advertising in the Alcobev industry is very tricky and the surrogate route is the only route you can take and that sort of limits what you can do. You can't always go with talking about package drinking water. What are the creative solutions out there? What have you done probably yourself or as an industry observer? What have you seen? I give you two cents.

So you're absolutely right. Technically alcohol advertising is banned but of course the whole industry has found some creative ways and means to advertise and make their presence felt. You know for brands which have a bigger budget of course BTL is a very big way to go. There are massive events, massive promotions at bars and pubs and clubs which are done. The retail channel is obviously also very well used to win customers. Direct selling is done. So there are a lot of ways and means in which brands have actually worked. Shop displays.

Yeah, shop displays, direct selling. So a lot of means have been applied by competition. But if you're a brand with a limited portfolio, if you're a company with a limited portfolio and you have a limited budget and it just doesn't justify going the ATL route, then you have to be really creative and you have to find ways and means. And that's where I think digital really comes in as a very big space to showcase your creativity and to really appeal to the state of mind of your customer.

How do you see the consumer behaviour evolving in the AlcoBev space with especially the risk appetite that millennials have for experimentation, trying out new products, new variants for existing drinks as well? See, I think it's a very exciting time because millennials are, I mean, we guys. We are millennials and post-millennials. Yeah. And we are so different than our parents because we are so happy to try something new. We're using phones which were born, you know, a company like OnePlus or something.

We're not going for a Samsung. We're not going for an Apple. We're open to try out new products and features. And what really matters to us is how different a product is or how innovative it is. And that's sort of also shown itself in the AlcoBev space with the craft trend taking off where people are really seeking out products which have been made passionately, which have something different about them, which are small batch or they're unique. So people are looking for new experiences.

People are looking to talk about products that their dads never drank. They want something special in their bar that only they have. So we're really looking for, we're really looking to make conversation. There's also that slight bit of comparison that's come in because of social media, because, you know, I'm better than you or I have a better taste than you. And how do I sort of showcase that? So that's where a lot of new brands have been born, you know, and it's exciting because.

So how do you see new segments opening up in the AlcoBev industry, especially for the long tail where you have small batch niche production, people experimenting with sort of different variants. What is the opportunity there for Kindle, for the industry? Maybe from a global perspective, what is happening in other markets that you may be seeing, maybe you hope to see in India over the next few years? Well, so like I said, there's a lot of exciting things happening. I mean, gin is making such a massive resurgence, you know, all over the world. In India?

Yeah, even in India. In India, it was a, it was in a degrowth sort of situation. And now it's getting exciting because so many gin brands have come out of India. They're being made every day. And even a lot of craft brands from, you know, around the world have now been introduced in India. So there are categories which are, you know, having a lot of excitement and there's a lot of word of mouth about them. And there is also, you know, stuff like flavored beer, interesting things like spiced rums.

And there's a lot of interesting segments which are opening up. Again, to sort of give a new experience to the customer. It's all coming from the same restless need to, you know, shake things up, to consume new things, to try new stuff. Okay. So, you also manage the creative agency, Tali. Right. Some sort of insights and experiences or stories from there. What is the kind of work you have done? Because I believe you've done a lot of work in the alcohol space. Right. So, some sort of an insight I think about the video. We were speaking about the video.

Yeah. So, we've just launched, you know, as a part of Cocktail Crew India, we've just launched a video called The Icebreaker which features Devendu Sharma. What is Cocktail Crew India again? So, Cocktail Crew India is basically India's first drink statement channel. And it's got everything to do with drinks and, you know, all kinds of drinks. Doesn't even have to be alcoholic. In fact, we've even done some chach, you know, reviews and things like that.

But it's really just, it's that feeling when friends get together and they drink and what they talk about, what they share. Also, a lot about different Alcobev brands, reviews, things like that. So, it's a community? It's a community. It's a community. It's a community that you've created and you have a website but you're also across Facebook.

We've also done an on-ground event where we did a pub crawl in Horska's village where we got, you know, a couple of people together who were second generation entrepreneurs who got to network a little and then, you know, play a real life game and then go to a couple of bars and have curated cocktails. Yeah, yeah. So, we did an on-ground experience like that as well which was very well received, I'd say. So, Pushpanjali, you're a lady of many talents.

We spoke a little while back, you mentioned that you sketch, you also compose your own music, you play guitar. Yeah. So, a little bit about that. How does that sort of keep the excitement alive? You're in a creative field and you do a lot of creative things. Where did that come from? What was that journey? And what is, do you have certain ambitions with your music or your sketching or do you want to keep it at a… I have no ambitions at all with those things because that's so personal to me that that's my place to unwind.

And, you know, I've been singing and making my own stuff since I was a child and even sketching and drawing, that's something that I like to do. So, when life is actually pretty hectic and, you know, stuff is hard then it's a good time to take some time off and reflect and just sort of see the overall picture because I believe that, you know, life is a painting which you're painting every day. And like an artist, you need to step back and you need to look at it and you need to see, okay. For a perspective?

For a perspective and, you know, art gives me that.