The Shrewd Surrogate Marketing Tactic of Arna
In an industry teeming with formidable players such as Gorkha Brewery and Chaudhary Group, Yeti Brewery has held its own and captivated the Nepali audience through its quirky promotional song that has stuck in the minds of the Nepalese audience to date. As a late entrant in the industry, Arna has entered the hostile arena with a thunderous drum roll, thereby drawing the attention of domestic and international brands. With product variants like Arna, Arna Extra Strong, and Arna Light standing shoulder to shoulder with well-established products like Gorkha Strong, Nepal Ice, Tuborg, and Carlsberg, the brand “Arna” stands as a force to be reckoned with in the beverage industry of Nepal.
Notwithstanding the draconian policy barring the liquor companies from advertising through electronic media, Arna has judiciously leveraged the YouTube platform to churn out content (Chiso Chiso Pani) that has generated 14 million-plus views and counting. What initially started as a beer promotional song did not take long to galvanize the Nepalese youths who quickly caught on to the infectiousness of this song, so much so that the song has become an instant classic amongst the youths, dancers, and party-goers.
The Art of Marketing in Disguise
Essentially, Arna is using a trick ubiquitously used by Indian companies to circumvent the problem of not being able to advertise the products directly. The surrogate marketing tactics involve obliquely marketing the regulated product by not giving direct references to the product under question but using the same brand name.
The music video “Chiso Chiso Pani” features hip-hop artists delivering a crisp rap song revolving around Arna beer. The intermittent dances with all the twists and twirls add to the jolly vibe. The efficacy of this song lies not only in its lyrical content but also in the contextualized beat that goes perfectly well with the song and evokes a party vibe. The party setup is graced with bikini-clad models who flaunt their presence both inside and outside the swimming pool for the duration of the song. With all the upbeat activities taking place by the poolside, the viewers indeed get a feeling that chugging down a bottle full of Arna beer is synonymous with a feeling of comradery and that one should unabashedly go for Arna when he/she is in a festive mood.
Surrogate marketing tactics have been used extensively in the liquor and tobacco industry of India. Seagram’s Imperial Blue, one of the widely popular alcohol brands, uses its music CDs and other similar products by making no direct references to its alcohol products. “The Men will be Men” advertisement series has received much adulation from the viewers and this disguised alcohol advert has generated added mileage for the brand. Kingfisher has also resorted to surrogate advertisements to promote the brand. The annual calendar published by United Breweries group features swimsuit models and this promotion had been stellar in terms of creating a brand recall. United Breweries has even gone on to the extent of owning an IPL team and naming the team “Royal Challengers” as a way to promote its “Royal Challenge” whiskey. To make things even more definitive, the logos and brand color of both the whiskey product and the IPL team are similar, thereby, consolidating the brand recall phenomenon.
Summing Up
Successful brands invariably incorporate thematic concepts like music, fun, festival, amusement, dancing, food, and direct complementary products such as soda into their disguised adverts to promote their primary product. While the promo song made by Arna is not the textbook example of surrogate advertising as references to the alcoholic drink have been made a few times in the song, it has been able to tick the right boxes by playing with those themes and associating Arna with those themes. Moreover, Arna has been able to cut through the massive entry barrier and bolster its brand name in a short period by finding a way around the problem. While we do not advocate raunchy content, we are of the firm conviction that what Arna has achieved in a short period is nothing short of commendable.
