Understanding from case: Marketing brand Aava: not as simple as water

This case study is related to Brand Management, strategic marketing, and business strategy.
And this case is based on Aava natural mineral water, which is developed by Mr Behram Mehta,
Chairman of Shelpee Enterprises.

The case explores the various marketing strategies adopted by Aava in India including the
following:

 Origin of the Packaged water industry in India

 Background of Aava
 About the Product & its pricing
 Positioning of Aava
 Growth prospects and market of packaged water and Natural mineral water in india
 How did Aava grown from regional player to PAN india brand
 Promoting Natural Mineral water in a budgetary constraint market with highlighting the
difference in packaged water and Mineral water.
 Targeted the upmarket with premium pricing and this strategy helped the brand to
increase it sales because consumers felt that being served as mineral water at a
premium price designated a certain class and quality.

Current Positioning of Aava

The Aava has major sales in the institutional segment and has very limited revenue from B2C,
however, it has been positioned as the following in B2C segment:

 Seller and Producer of Packaged Natural mineral water

 Institutional sale
 The Product is well balanced natural mineral water which is good in taste and have health
advantages also
 Separate positioning from clutter of normal package water category.
How a repositioning strategy can be developed for the competitive advantage

As Aava face tough competition from a brand like Vedica, Himalayan, Qua in Natural Mineral
water particularly in the B2C segment, it needs to do reposition it to have a better space for it in
this segment.

At present, the Brand recall is very poor for Aava in comparison to brand like Vedica,
Himalayan, and qua.

The Indian package water can be divided into three segments i.e Regular bottled, natural
mineral, and sparkling water. The premium water bottle is expensive as it has special properties
or have high mineral content.

Business strategies are all about competitive advantage; repositioning strategy is one of the
strategies organizations use in achieving their goal of competitive advantages. The high
competition in the business environment in recent years has made it even more important that
business organizations must do more than just reacting to market situation, they must
continuously analyze and have great understanding of the present and possible future market
situations, so they can come up with a repositioning strategy that will keep them in a good
competitive position in the market. From the data following are the perceived changes in the
Natural Mineral water market in inida:

1) Although the consumer is not much aware of the difference in Packaged drinking water
and Natural Mineral water but awareness is increasing about the natural Mineral water
2) Outbreak of Covid made the consumers much more health-conscious and they are
looking for a holistic way to improve immunity as well as to be away from the impurities.
3) During a pandemic it has been seen that the percentage share of natural Mineral water
has increased.

In view of the above the strategy to position Aava as a Natural Mineral water seems correct to
me, but seeing the increasing demand for Ntural Mineral water there may be a new position can
be created for Value for Money category of natural mineral water which can be work as an entry
for the consumer who was not the user of Natural mineral Water but after gaining awareness
want to use this. As pricing for Natural miniral water is 300% higher than the package drinking
water and it can work for them as a barrier to switch between. Therefore Aava can positioned it
as entry level brand in Natural mineral water with all the advantages of the other premium brand
but on a slightly lesser price as in coming time this segment will no more be a premium segment
with increased awareness and earnings and subsequently market share for Natural Mineral
water will increase and subsequently the market share for the packaged drinking water will
reduce and may be got limited to bulk supply of 20-50 liter water bottles. Most of the player from
that segment will shift to the NMW segment. At that stage the Positioning of Aava will provide
them the advantage of 1st mover to the entry level NMW segment.

However the following Marketing strategies has to be worked out by Aava to establish it in a
concrete situation in the market:-

Marketing Strategy:

 Start selling the product online with Amazon and other online platform as along with
increasing the sale it will be an advertsiment without any cost as whenever any one
will search for Natural miniral water on these site he will see Aava along with other 3-
4 brands, which will definitely enhance the brand recognition.
 Increased market penetration as discussed above by repositioning itself as entry
level NMW
 Increased use of digital marketing: as cost of digital marketing is low compared to the
traditional marketing and company can move to traditional marketing once its obtain
a suitable size and can bring out a regular budget for conventional marketing.
 Segmentation (like demographic, Psychographic, Geographic & Behavioral)
 Target market, as the budget for marketing is limited company need to work out the
target segment and need to do marketing among those targeted customers.
 Focus on quality
 As survey revealed that the NMW and PDW is used by most of the customer during
the travel and therefore focusing on Institutional sale seems a better option along with
retail sale at premium malls, theaters, airports and premium restaurants.
 Cost-effectiveness: focuses on developing an integrated marketing approach, digital
marketing efficiently and expertly has helped the company reach a wider audience at
a lower cost, reaching consumers effectively rather than.
grandeur, in-house copywriters for marketing campaigns to control cost and efforts on
ground activities which are less expensive than commercial marketing tactics

 Innovation: stayed updated with latest developments in marketing research and

marketing knowledge, makes use of new and innovative tactics to reach its target
consumers, each marketing campaign launched by Aava is effective catchier and
more influential than the previous one

 Strong market research and consumer understanding grounded: marketing strategy is

strongly grounded in consumer and market research, informed marketing campaigns
and goals based on consumers’ behavioural feedback, based on market trends, and
consumer needs and wants
 Appearances do Matter: Looks of product and feel-good factor effect attracts
customer.
 Making effective use of emotional appeals: Consumers’ emotional needs strongly
influence all marketing objectives and marketing goals, tries to fulfil the emotional and
psychological needs of the consumer and to build a strong emotional bond with the
consumer, which also results in high consumer loyalty.
 Strategic Group Analysis: competes with direct and close competition based on quality
and price, Consumers choose between different companies from the industry based
on their functional offering, Aava also competes, thereby, with close competition for
building stronger brand image, increasing consume loyalty, and for forming strong
emotional ties with the consumer
 Digital marketing: social media for reaching consumers effectively, also makes use of
blogging, emails, and content creations as a means of digital marketing
 Influencers: For direct, on-ground engagement, the company uses influencers,
Influencers interact with consumers directly, or through their channels of
communication as a means of content creation and endorsing the Aava brand.