Will Bira Boom be successful as a mass market brand?

Abstract

Bira91 is an Indian brand launched in 2015 by B9 beverages. It started as a craft beer manufacturer in the light beer segment. The brand has enjoyed a healthy growth (9X) within the short span of around four years and succeeded in capturing a market share of 0.9%. Off late the company has aimed to penetrate the tier II and tier III cities by introducing new offerings in the mass brand, strong beer segment. To this end, they have launched BIRA BOOM around February 2019. Our research aims to answer the simple question: Will BIRA BOOM succeed as a mass brand? To this end we have laid out a direction for answering the above question. We have tried to identify the key success factors for a major competitor, in a similar segment in to which BIRA BOOM wishes to enter. Based on preliminary secondary findings we have chosen KINGFISHER STRONG as the relevant competitor brand. The key finding of our research points that the key success factor for the competitor brand is availability; both ‘physical availability’ meaning extensive distribution coverage and ‘mental availability’ meaning occupying a strong positioning in the minds of customers through extensive & innovative promotional strategies. Additionally, our research points that the key factor behind the exponential growth of the BIRA BOOM brand is a strong positioning in the customer’s minds. But the positioning is not similar to that of the competitor brand. The current positioning of the product hovers around a happy-high and socializing dimension. People prefer the BIRA brand during special occasions, while socializing and simultaneously enjoying a happy-high.