HLL to target young consumers

Kochi, Jul 6 (UNI) Seeking to maintain its "market leader position," Hindustan Lever Ltd's (HLL) flagship coffee brand "Bru" will focus on young consumers, Senior Brand Manager Herjit Bhalla said today.

Addressing a function here organised to announce the Kerala segment winners of the Bru "Treasure of Happiness" contest, he said as per the latest industry figures Bru emerged as the market leader with a nearly 45 per cent market share.

"We are going to maintain that position and our main effort will be to increase the market penetration by catching new consumers, especially the youth," he said.

Hindustan Lever, which had merged its smaller coffee brands with the Bru brand in 2004 under the "One Face of Bru" concept, has now launched different blends to cater to the customers across different segments.

"Roast and Ground," "Malabar" and "Cappuccino" were some of the new blends and among these, "Cappuccino" was targeted at the "GenX," which was familiar with this flavour due to the increasing number of coffee shops.

Mr Bhalla said the company had launched the "Treasure of Happiness" contest last year, inviting its customers to share their intimate personal moments or the "Bru Moments." Stating that the contest had evoked an "overwhelming response," Mr Bhalla said altogether 5,000 entries were received from the four southern states. In all, eight winners were selected by a panel of judges comprising illustrious writers and artistes like M T Vasudevan Nair, M S Sathyu, Suhasini, Anita Nair and Chandana Chakraborty.

The two winners from Kerala were Ms Bhiba Antony and Ms Reshmi Mariam. The winners get an all-expense paid holiday for two nights and three days at any of the select Taj Resorts in India for upto five members of the family.

Novelist Anita Nair said the judges looked at the entries not from a literary point of view but the ability to cull out a moment which reflected genuine happiness, warmth and togetherness.

Mr Bhalla said nearly 60 per cent of the entries were women, and mainly from the age group of 16 to 64.

"We will now be launching our next happiness idea in a few weeks' time," he added.

UNI ARC AJ ROY 1524