Kingfisher
Kingfisher
Kingfisher
Currently,
Kingfisher is the largest selling beer brand in India with market share of over 36%. It wants
to recognize the value of human assets and the preferred employer wherever they operate. It
Kingfisher promises to use good quality raw materials to maintain quality standards.
It wants to have consistency of product quality to be high. It wants their products to always
taste fresh due to good quality and well developed distribution system. It also wants hangover
competitors without compromising its quality. Kingfisher wants to provide its customers
unique experience with its products. Kingfisher Strong, India's largest selling beer,
symbolizes the values of strength, style, youthfulness and fun. In essence, it is symbol of
modern India. Kingfisher Premium, is associated with some of the best music, style, food and
Q2. What brand elements are the most useful for differentiating brand Kingfisher from
competing brands?
1. Brand Name
2. Logo
3. Tagline
4. Character
5. Jingle
6. Packaging
The most useful brand elements for Kingfisher that differentiates itself from its
competitors and helps in building brand equity are Tagline and its Jingle.
Jingle: “ola la la o lae o, o la lala le o”
Logo and Tagline: Visual brand elements play a critical role in building equity, especially in
terms of brand awareness. Logos are visual interpretation of the brand promise that it will be
possible to develop highly memorable, easily identifiable, and visual brand signals that cause
consumers to build associations between the brand itself and its chosen position. Logos are
visual symbols providing two necessary functions for brands: identification and
differentiation.
The target audience of Kingfisher beers is clearly aimed at young, wealthy males as
the website signifies youth in swimsuit calendars, a model search. They also differentiated
their product through marketing their product by associating the brand with major sporting
events like IPL, WI cricket team during 1996 WC, Formula One, soccer and football teams.
These branding are done to attract their target group (Youth segment) under focus strategy.
These helped in developing brand associations which sends across a sense of excitement and
thrill. The brand is an epitome of energy, youthfulness, zest and independence mixed with a
touch of professionalism. The brand has a life of its own. The brand has maintained
international quality, but made sure that it is within the reach of the Indian consumer.
Brand Logo:
Q3. Which aspects of product differentiation are the most valuable in setting the brand
As all the liquor brands engage in surrogate marketing, it has been kingfisher which
has always ruled the channels of communication with its “Branding”. From its “ola la la o
lae o, o la lala le o” jingle to its famous ads by IPL cricketers, Kingfisher calendar and
social media marketing, it has a very high brand visibility compared to its competitors.
Product differentiation: The company offers a wide portfolio of beers in the low, medium
and premium price bands. It also benefited from launching more premium products towards
the end of the review period, such as Kingfisher Ultra Max. This is a stronger variant of
Kingfisher Ultra and benefits from using premium imported pilsen malts and a slow-brewing
and maturing process. The brand also features premium packaging with black and gold
labels, glass bottles and a ring-pull closure. The company meanwhile also relaunched
Kingfisher Ultra in new packaging with a white and gold label. These new packaging and
relaunching played a crucial role in retaining its customers. The brand elements and the
associations along with the product helps in differentiating itself among the competition.
They are sold in all channels of distribution like Restaurants, Hypermarkets, Grocery
Among the competitors, Kingfisher has the highest number of SKUs which satisfies
their respective TG, which has helped in retaining the market share. Also, Kingfisher, in 2012
introduced Heineken, which now holds a share of 42% in UB group, to fight out against
foreign rivals.
the marketing mix. They differentiated their product by earning category membership in all
Q4. How does Kingfisher use packaging and labelling to support its brand image and
Kingfisher Beer has created a unique identity with its logo of a flying kingfisher and
catchy anthem and tag line. Recently, London based branding agency Butcher & Gundersen
have developed a new Marketing campaign for the brand introducing a vibrant new look &
feel, inculcating the colours of India to articulate their prominence and distinctiveness.
The new design features an embossed bottle which gives it a more premium touch and
a simplified label to highlight its status as India’s number one beer brand. It is also hoping
that the new packaging will help the foreign customers feel they are having an authentic
Here, they’ve tried to bring in a real sense of authenticity to its consumers and have
them fully absorbed into the Indian culture. The audacious pattern now incorporated into
retail and trade packaging, as well as digital and social media space, takes its inspiration from
Kingfisher also intends to create strategic messaging to reinforce the origin of the
genuine Indian beer, with a tagline that transfers the cultural heritage that consumers would
appreciate and resonate with. Researching the Indian Market and the traditions of India
Butcher & Gundersen had defined Kingfisher as the authentic Indian beer with the tag line
‘The Real Taste of India’, which was reinforced by theme messaging - ‘Boss of Bangalore’,
Kingfisher aims to give its customers the true feel of India. In the words of marketing
manager of Kingfisher Beer Europe, John Price, the company is very much excited about the
new packaging and he believes that, the new look and feel of the product instantly transport
Q5. What are the current pricing objectives of the brand and what price adaptations
(such as discount allowances and promotional pricing) does the brand include?
Beer market in India has been highly competitive and a fast-growing industry. It has
grown by 6% to 22.3 million hl (or to 286 million cases) in the previous financial year 2014-
15 (latest data not available). Kingfisher being a strong player in the beer industry accounts
for 55% market share of sales by volume. It currently markets 6 beer variants (mentioned in
table below) each in 4 packages- 650ml bottle, 330ml pint, 500ml can & 330ml slim can
under the Kingfisher umbrella. They have priced their products aggressively with respect to
its competitors without compromising with its quality & live up to their promise of 'The King
of Good Times'.
Kingfisher Ultra & Ultra Maxx products have been strategically priced to carve out a
Strict Govt. regulations on Pricing & taxation structures (varying State wise) have
handicapped strategic pricing options. Unlike other consumer product categories, liquor
companies do not enjoy the advantage of correcting product prices based on raw material
prices, media inflation, new launches, probable re-launches and competitive pressure. Liquor
companies can change prices once a year but are not permitted to alter these in the course of
The sector also faces progressive taxation, which dissuades price hikes, as it attracts
higher taxes. Further, miss-pricing in the case of liquor companies’ products cannot be
covered by offering freebies or by managing trade margins and discounts. A few companies
are overcoming the price hike issue by using a premiumization strategy to pass on the volatile
prices of molasses and glass, thereby improving realizations. As consumers are upgrading
from country liquor to Indian made foreign liquor and from regular to premium alcohol,
brands with premiumization strategies will continue to do well. Hence, Kingfisher have been
competing solely on improving margins by controlling costs through state of the art brewing
facilities.
Adding to this agony, in some states even the distribution channel is completely
controlled by the State Government. Ban on liquor advertisements have limited product line
(until 2006) had assisted local liquor brands in maintaining their strong market position.
However, the dynamics of trade are changing in recent times, entry of Global players like
Heineken, Carlsberg and AB InBev have posed stiff competition to Kingfisher forcing it to
The industry has witnessed drastic shifts towards strong beer due to change in
customer preferences. These global players have launched tailored specific products such as
Turbo Strong, Carlsberg Elephant, Budweiser Magnum priced at par or higher than
Kingfisher’s premium products slowly eroding away Kingfisher’s niche market space.
Q6. How does the pricing strategy of the brand differ from its competitors?
In both mild and strong beer segment Kingfisher used Competitive pricing strategy.
The price range for a 650ml beer bottle lies between Rs 65-100 and for 330ml bottle the price