Mktg - Tata stirs up responsible brew

Seema Sindhu

Tata Tea’s Jaago Re! One Billion Votes campaign is stirring the conscience of young Indians. The campaign, launched in September last year, creates a platform which facilitates citizens’ entry into the electoral process. The website www.jaagore.com hosts a voter registration engine that allows people to fill in voter registration forms online. Almost 250,000 youngsters have registered for voting through the site.The Jaago Re! campaign is an extension of the brand’s previous campaign in which a young man questions a politician’s qualification on being asked to vote.“The
first campaign was a huge success. However, we realised that to make its impact more meaningful and powerful the concept needed to be taken to the grassroots and went ahead with the Jaago Re! One Billion Votes campaign,” said Sushant Dash, marketing head, Tata Tea.Dash added Tata Tea’s market share increased from 19.4 per cent in December 2007 to 20.6 per cent in December 2008 and the increase could be attributed in part to the two campaigns.“We wanted to combine four of our brands: Tata Tea Premium, Tata Tea Gold, Tata Tea Agni and Tata Tea Life under one umbrella brand. We wanted the mega brand to have a positioning and aura that no other brand could copy. Hence we came up with the tag line Jaago Re! for this umbrella branding exercise. The idea was that while other brands wake you up, Tata Tea awakens you,” Dash added.The Jaago Re! website has emerged as the medium through which people are encouraged to vote. After filling the online voter registration form, one has to take this form to physically register at the regional election office. The site offers an interactive Geographic Information System application to facilitate location of one’s electoral ward. Street-level maps of major cities with constituency boundaries are available. The data is currently available for 35 cities.Bangalore-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) Jaanagraha conceived this idea. Jaanagraha works with citizens and the state to improve the quality of life in India’s cities and towns. Tata Tea came in as its corporate partner to provide funding.Jaanagraha provides back-end support to run the site. “The chief election commissioner’s office helped us with data required for voter registration. We are working on integrating data for more cities,” Sharat Potharaju, communications coordinator, Jaanagraha, said.Youth-oriented institutions like Infosys, Wipro, Mt Carmel, St Xaviers, IIT -Madras and IIT-Delhi are covered by a team of Tata Tea and Jaanagraha. The team has visited around 250 colleges across the country. The target is to enroll as many first-time voters as possible. “Post-election, we plan to launch a campaign to encourage youth to participate in politics and educate them on using their vote wisely,” Potharaju added.“We launched the campaign to position tea above a medium of mere physical and mental rejuvenation to a medium of social awakening in consumers’ lives. We have definitely succeeded in this and are now on our journey to awakening the nation with billion votes,” Dash added.He also said the campaign had strengthened brand loyalty. The response from companies, educational institutions and the advertising fraternity was encouraging, he concluded.