The entire restaging should cost Herbertsons a minimum of Rs six crore while an additional multi-crore budget will be used as media spend. The entire exercise will be carried in a phased manner across the country and may take more than nine months.

The company is also working towards expanding the scope and reach of Bagpiper soda. Till date a surrogate product, Bagpiper soda is to be converted into a profitable SKU and will be sold throughout the country. It is now available only in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala. A media burst is being planned withthe total advertising budget of the company being doubled over the past year to more than Rs 8 crore.

According to Herbertsons executive vice-president (marketing & sales) Ashok Capoor, "We are upgrading Bagpiper and setting new benchmarks in the business as it is the market leader." Research done prior to the restaging decision showed that Bagpiper needed to improve its appearance as it was percieved to be rather traditional and old-fashioned. A lot of respondents compared Bagpiper to its contemporary brands like Gilbey's Green, DSP and Imperial Blue (a Seagram offering) unfavourably in terms of looks and personality.

Reacting fast on this input, Herbertsons is not only going in for a fresh image but will also be keeping the price. Says Capoor, "We see the cost of upgrading the look of Bagpiper as an investment and will seek returns on it from increased sales." A Rs 500-crore brand in terms of turnover, Bagpiper is the number one brand in India while it is the fifth largest brand in the world. Capoorplans to notch up incremental sales of nearly a million cases by April 1999 to make it the third largest brand worldwide. At present, Bagpiper sells around five million cases (more than 10 crore bottles) as against a volume sale of 3.2 million cases by nearest rival, Shaw Wallace's Director's Special.

According to Andersen Consulting's Srinivasan Gopalan, "The strategy to upgrade Bagpiper is in the right direction as regular whisky is the heart of the Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) market." Andersen Consulting has been part of UB's efforts to restructure its spirits business for the past 18 months. With the IMFL market maintaining steady growth and seeing many new entrants, Bagpiper, therefore, is going for new packaging to ensure its strong presence in the market. The plan to invest substantially in packaging, says Gopalan, makes strategic sense as advertising is a limited option for liquor companies. He adds that packaging acts as a huge lever in this business. As for soda, Herbertsons should be ableto use its existing distribution network to push Bagpiper soda and with the media support, soda should prove to be a neat, easy and quick profit generator.

Media planning in fact is taking priority at Herbertsons today. While it is sticking to its long standing tradition of getting leading film stars to endorse the brand, the company is sharpening its focus towards maintaining a high-decibel presence in the entertainment industry. In the pipeline are specially crafted film sequences involving the Bagpiper brand and creating branded merchandising items for movies. Capoor has already got a Bagpiper sequence in the forthcoming Ajay Devgan starrer "Hindustan Ki Kasam". He is also getting on to the audio bandwagon as Bagpiper comes out with branded remix cassettes which are the latest craze.

The association with the entertainment industry will also be stregthened through traditional routes like sponsoring popular television serials and film stars-led city events. Herbertsons also plans to start a BagpiperAwards event very soon.

The flurry of brand activity, according to an industry expert, is totally justified as Mallya did suffer loss in volumes in the past years when a cash crunch hit brand budgets. With the UB Group getting its act more focused, Bagpiper is expected to be a key startegic driver to help head in the right direction.