MUMBAI: The beer Britain loves! Now in India! Premium brand Cobra Beer has announced that it has appointed former cricketer Farooq Engineer as its brand ambassador.
While Cobra Beer has been available for the past three years now it has started brewing in India. Speaking to Indiantelevision.com last evening, Cobra Beer international marketing manager Santosh Cherian said, "Farooq Engineer is young at heart. That is what our brand stands for. He is a close friend of the company’s founder Karan Bilimoria. In the past Engineer had worked with us in England and we decided to extend our association with him."
"He will help us get branding in Mumbai’s clubs and Gymkhanas. Besides Mumbai, the other key Indian markets for us include Pune and Delhi. We hope to capture a five per cent share of the beer market," he added.
Cherian added that Lowe Lintas has been appointed as the company’s creative agency. The company is looking to do a don’t drink and drive campaign. This will be done in bars and pubs through posters and beer mats. In fact the back of the beer mats that Lowe has designed gives a background of the company. Right now though the priority is to improve the distribution channels.
"While we are planning to get involved with events like concerts and charity events as we do in the UK, we want to ensure that our product is first available. We already have a tie up with nine major outlets where we have scratch card promotions where the consumer can win gifts. Some outlets also have a two for one offer. The 330 ml bottle is priced at Rs 30 while the 650 ml bottle is priced at Rs 50. We are looking to cultivate a niche consumer base. Of course Indians are not heavy beer drinkers. Indians consume less than one litre in a year compared with 20 litres for a Chinese person. In terms of beer consumption, India is where China was 20 years ago. Mumbai, Cape Town and New York are the three cities where we are focussing on growing the business," he said.
In the UK Cobra Beer sponsors movies on ITV. It recently launched CobraVision – a competition that will showcase literally hundreds of short films made by the British public.
Every month the company chooses 20 actors' films to be aired on national television during its sponsorship of ITV2 and ITV3 movies. In addition, every film shown on television will be automatically entered into the CobraVision awards in 2006, where the best of the best will win cash prizes, trips to India, and, of course, lots of Cobra Beer.
