Mumbai: No matter what the question, coffee is the answer! Or is it Rage Coffee?
Virat Kohli-backed Rage Coffee is a rapidly growing FMCG company that manufactures, markets and distributes innovative coffee products globally through its D2C channel. It is grounded with a patent-pending ‘Small Batch Production’ and comes in exotic flavours, namely ‘Rage Coffee: Original’, ‘Irish Hazelnut’, ‘Crème Caramel’, ‘Sparky Orange’, ‘Mint Mocha’, ‘Chai Latte’, ‘Dark Chocolate’ and more. They have also cold brew bags, ground coffee, liquid coffee, drip bags and recently launched whole beans coffee, a revolutionary new category that makes high quality coffee convenient for everyone. The company also forayed into the snacking segment becoming the first brand to introduce caffeine bases bars and cookies.
The Delhi-based caffeine innovation FMCG company recently launched three new ready-to-drink flavours that are perfect for everyday use, giving you a chilled and energetic start to your day. The three cold coffee flavours you can get include – mocha frappe, salted caramel, and hazelnut latte.
Rage Coffee is a comprehensive coffee company that manufactures, markets, and distributes innovative coffee products in emerging categories. It holds relevant certifications from FSSAI, ISO 9001:2015, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and European Medicines Agency (EMA). Rage Coffee’s confident product and innovation has led to a ‘No Questions Asked’ refund policy and so far amassed a loyal base of over 30 lakh customers.
The brand operates in a high-growth instant coffee market that currently clocks a market size of Rs 11,700 crores at present. This figure is expected to double in the next five years by reaching Rs 24,800 crores. Rage Coffee envisions owning a lion’s share in the high-growth segment with its strong channel and distribution network. It is easily available on its website, all leading e-commerce platforms, and more than 5000+ offline touchpoints. The brand aims to grow its revenue by 5x while also penetrating deeper into the institutional and HoReCa (Hotels, Restaurants, and Cafés) market with an omnichannel approach.
In a confab with Indiantelevision.com, Rage Coffee founder & CEO Bharat Sethi chats about the evolution of the brand, the brand’s offerings, its advertising and marketing strategy, the coffee industry, and more.
Edited excerpts:
On the launch and brand journey of Rage Coffee
Rage Coffee, started in early 2019, is a digitally native FMCG company that manufactures markets & distributes innovative coffee products. It’s the world’s first plant-based vitamin coffee brand. The company started by creating a craft coffee that is instantly consumable, affordable, comes in a variety of flavours, and is ready to mix.
Rage Coffee started off as a brand that disrupted the coffee market with Innovation by introducing flavoured coffee. There was hardly any lifestyle aspirational brand built around coffee. Especially, the millennials who see coffee as a very critical and significant part of their lives did not have anything to look up to as a home-grown Indian brand focusing on the needs of an average coffee consumer. It was largely an unserved duopolistic market that was devoid of any real innovation and under-penetrated online.
On how is Rage Coffee distinctive in its offering – as coffee is already a cluttered market, with leading brands in the D2C space as well as in the offline retail market
Rage Coffee is an aspirational lifestyle brand that offers bold, delicious, and smooth flavoured coffee to coffee lovers. Our coffees are infused with plant-based vitamins that help deliver the benefits of caffeine – no bloating, no acid reflux, no jitters, and due to the proprietary formulations, the flavours make a delicious cup of cafe-style coffee at home. With a focus on innovation, product R&D, and being data-driven (regular consumer preferences and feedback), Rage Coffee’s digital DNA with an omnichannel approach is making the brand command eyeballs, garner attention, and consumer love. With Virat Kohli as the brand ambassador, the brand position is strong and coffee consumers across the country are buying our coffees. We are disrupting the space which was void of innovation led by a few legacy players.
On your plans to counter your competitors and iconic brands such as Nescafe, Bru, Davidoff, Blue Tokai, Starbucks, Cafe Coffee Day etc.
Ans – Our approach has not changed towards the market. There are a couple of ways where we differentiate ourselves from the brands in the market today. For instance, when it comes to legacy brands, previously the power of distribution was their strength. However, with disruption in the e-commerce and D2C space, today we can compete with them. We are able to reach the consumers of legacy coffee brands and establish communication with them. With a mix of POSM marketing and targeted online marketing, the consumers recognise the brand and our association with Virat Kohli who is the brand ambassador has also built goodwill with the coffee-drinking audience. Currently, we have 7500+ touch points offline pan India through a network of five CFAs, 15 super stockists and 190+ distributors. Additionally, we are also available on hyperlocal channels like Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, and more.
When it again comes to brands like Blue Tokai, Starbucks, and etc., they’re not our direct competitors since a majority of their operations lie in the food service and cafe sector. Such brands land in the secondary competitive markets and we’ve taken a very different approach. One measure we use to counter the competition is through caffeine innovation and constantly creating new and innovative products to expand our product portfolio at a rapid pace. Another major tool we have started using rather aggressively is menu engineering. Our strength lies in constantly understanding how the customer taste palette is evolving. Hence, we are consistently tying up and collaborating with a range of brands across the Food Service Business (FSB) spectrum to co-create products and also co-brand and co-market ourselves. Thus, we are creating better economies of scale in the process.
On stepping into the ready-to-drink cold coffee space and plans to lead it with a differentiating factor
RTD is ripe for disruption in the country, with more GenZ consumers developing a taste and liking for coffee as their go-to beverage, it is an important category at Rage Coffee.
As for breaking into it, we have used our proprietary caffeine innovation technique to differentiate ourselves. When it comes to differentiation, it is our deep knowledge of the coffee category which helped us understand consumer preferences. Innovation is our DNA and with the new RTD on the shelf, coffee lovers have a delicious, flavourful, and balanced cold coffee made with pure coffee beans, cold brewed for 12 hours, and made using creamy and frothy milk. Virat Kohli being on the packaging of the cans is a big pull to the audience that we have created for this. The RTD coffee is brewed for 12 hours and we use a rich creamy milk that makes it foam. Hence, it goes in line with our differentiated brand positioning of bringing a premium coffee experience to customers in the market.
On Rage Coffee also foraying into the snacking segment becoming the first brand to introduce caffeine bases bars and cookies, and consumers’ receptiveness to this kind of a new offering
Our concept with the caffeine bars was bringing a cup of coffee in the form of snack bars for the go-to coffee needs and snacking. Innovation has always been the cornerstone of our brand’s uniqueness. Additionally, it also helped consumers derive the punch of coffee in another form apart from that of a drink. In terms of consumer reception towards this category, it’s been positive. Our consumers loved the bars and cookies (that complement a cup of coffee). Out of the several emerging preferences, bars, and cookies are definitely one of the most popular ones. Our audience demands more from the category like different varieties. Following this, we are heavily focussed on R&D, and our teams are regularly working on this.
On the advertising and marketing strategies for Rage Coffee and its various offerings
The advertising and marketing strategy we had until now was to deploy an omnichannel approach. We have a balanced approach towards marketing across offline and online platforms including SEO, digital marketing across Meta and Google, and mainstream media. We want to be available to our consumers where they are – whether it is hyperlocal apps, marketplaces, or modern trade stores. Our advertising also follows the same principle of establishing touchpoints with users across channels. Digital has been very helpful in getting momentum over D2C channels.
Recently we also launched an OOH campaign as well. In terms of branding again, onboarding Virat Kohli has helped us target the exact demographic of consumers we wanted. Additionally, tie-ups and collaborations with multiple brands for menu engineering also get us marketing and co-branding opportunities overall.
Additionally, we also recently changed our branding. We have been working on our new jars for a year and have finally found an iconic design that stands out. With them, we’re closer to our goal of becoming a brand that’s instantly recognisable through their product. Additionally, we’ve also rebranded our identity. Overall, our approach is to become a loved brand by coffee drinkers that gets recognized instantly. Hence, starting from the shape of our jars to the colour of our logo is very different from what the coffee market is used to. We want to create an identity that’s similar to Coca-Cola or Nestle, where customers, even from afar, can recognize our brand without having to read the label.
On the media mix that you are looking at for the brand, and are you considering associating with IPL or any other sport in any way
We have a balanced mix of digital and offline marketing assets. We are now present in 7500+ stores where we are driving Point of Sale Marketing POSM aggressively. We are also regularly experimenting with traditional media – radio, OOH, print, and other channels. Virat Kohli, the ace cricketer not only in India but the world over is our brand ambassador. We have been a brand that advocates for a healthy lifestyle. In the past also we have been associated with the Bengaluru FC as part of the ISL. A BIG campaign with Virat Kohli is planned for the next quarter.
On the brand’s retail and international expansion plans
Due to several factors, there has been a huge shift in the markets. We have always been omnichannel but now the focus has shifted from online marketing to offline marketing as offline expansion happens. Our expansion offline will be to reach over 15,000 stores by end of this year and the online growth will come in from retention and other channels for growth such as Hyperlocal apps like Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart. Yes, we have international expansion plans – we are already supplying coffee products in the Middle East, US, and Europe. The export market is very relevant.
On the new launches
The last year was filled with exciting product innovation and the same spree will continue in the next FY. We have launched exciting blends in instant coffee, some unique flavours, categories such as snacks, bars, cookies, ready-to-drink cold coffee, French vanilla, Italian Cappuccino, drip bags, drinking chocolate, and more. Some of our most well-received launches have been the liquid coffee, that’s created using triple-filtered purified water and natural flavours like Filter coffee, French Vanilla, Irish Hazelnut, Dark Chocolate, and Creme Caramel. Additionally, we also have sachet shots that contain 3.25mg of flavoured instant coffee and 275mg of natural plant extracts. Additionally, we have launched our new jars that are made with the highest quality of glass, have a unique shape and design with rounded edges, and are completely sustainable!
On the trends and innovations that are expected to disrupt the market in 2023
The coffee market is expected to keep growing at a steady pace. With an increasing number of customers consuming coffee, we are expecting a very strong reception. Some of the key trends we believe the market will take to instant coffee rapidly. Consumers are accelerating the product adoption rates. Packaging solutions are particularly in focus this year with customers being more keen on purchasing premium coffee and brewing it in the comfort of their homes. Overall, the outlook is favourable and positive for the coming year. Consumption of instant coffee with cafe-style coffee experience will continue seeing growth and an uptick in this year.
On India’s market for menu engineering and how it adds up with respect to other elements in terms of scaling the brand
Menu engineering is a very efficient way to create unique products by associating with brands that you love. We have created unique products with Nirulas, Keventers, Get a Whey Ice Creams, 99 Pancakes, FatTiger, Creamstone, and more. The awareness created by such maverick partnerships is great for both the brands involved, the product creation nurtures innovation and establishes important relationships.
On your vision and way forward for Rage Coffee in 2023
Our vision for 2023 is to keep expanding our product portfolio and scale the brand effectively. We are looking to constantly innovate and introduce newer products that help consumers get the premium experience they’re looking for. Apart from the same, we will be looking to continue and seek out newer and more exciting collaboration opportunities with FSBs in the market who want to collaborate with us and build new products for co-promoting and co-marketing the brands. It has been an exciting journey for us having grown exponentially Y-O-Y. We are committed to changing the coffee experience of an average Indian consumer and taking the brand to all coffee-consuming homes, across the country.
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