Allow your taste buds a free reign because Dhara is there to take care of your health, says the new marketing campaign of the edible oil brand. The budget allocated to the campaign is Rs 10 crore.

With its new positioning as “India ka tadka”, the new marketing campaign comes after a gap of six years. The new television commercial hits the small screens on Saturday. Mudra Communications, which has been associated with the brand for last 24 years, remains the creative agency behind the latest advertisement.

“Our brand is grounded in Indian ethos and the current marketing campaign is the extension of our old ‘ jalebi’ advertisement where a child runs away from home, only to be lured back by home-made jalebis ,” says Dinesh Agrawal, Chief Operating Officer, Dhara.

The new campaign also marks a shift away from the ‘purity’ plank which Dhara had followed earlier. The brand, which recently celebrated its 24{+t}{+h} birthday on August 18, claims that their product has low absorb technology and is fortified with vitamins.

“Earlier our positioning was playing on purity and taste, but now we are also stressing on health. We want to tell our consumers ki aap khaiyen, health ki chinta dhara pe chhod dijiye (eat and leave your health concerns to us). Our assurance is that Dhara would marginalise the guilt of calorie intake and our customers need not kill taste buds,” adds Dinesh Agrawal.

The television commercial will be supported with below-the-line activities and out-of-home advertising, mostly in tier 2 towns. Out-of-home is approximately over a quarter of the marketing budget.

The company’s core strength lies in small towns and rural areas. “ Hum galiyon ke raja hain, national highways abhi door hain (we are the king of bylanes, national highways are still far away),” remarks Agrawal. “There is still an untapped rural market that has immense potential because of high levels of loose oil consumption,” he adds. Only 12-15 per cent of the company’s business comes from metros.

The advertisement will also be telecast in Marathi, Kannada and Bengali. Thirty per cent of their television advertising would be on regional channels.

heena.k@thehindu.co.in

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