Tea for two

In February this year, Tapal Danedar aired the third instalment of their Tum, Mein Aur Aik Cup Chai TVC series. The series started in 2015 with a stereotype breaking concept, featuring Fawad Khan and Momal Sheikh, whereby the husband makes tea for a tired wife, rather than the other way round. The second in the series featured Sanam Saeed and Adil Hussain, who once again endorse the ‘husband helping out with home chores’ concept. The husband makes tea for his wife, who is also a new mom. The latest in the series casts the same couple within the context of a supportive husband encouraging his wife to resume her job as their daughter is old enough to start school.

“The campaign began with the idea of modernising the brand and connecting with Millennials. There are more nuclear families now and young couples have much more open and balanced relationships,” says Rashna Abdi, Chief Creative Officer, IAL Saatchi & Saatchi (Tapal’s agency).

The first and second ads (aired in 2014 and 2017) depicted greater understanding between couples, with a gender reversal theme; the third ad pushed the idea further with a supportive husband giving his wife the confidence to start working again.

“The concept of men playing a bigger role in household chores and child rearing and women contributing to finances and pursuing career goals is breaking stereotypes,” says Nida Haider, Strategy Head & Managing Partner, IAL Saatchi & Saatchi.

The ‘marriage means equal partnership’ concept was a result of research into the dynamics of marriage in Pakistan today. With increasing urbanisation, high internet penetration and the rise in the number of nuclear families, relationships between husbands and wives are evolving into more equal partnerships.

The basic driver of this change is the rapidly increasing rate of urbanisation in Pakistan; with an annual increase of 2.77% (Index Mundi, 2018), the UN Population Division expects that over 50% of Pakistan’s population will be concentrated in the city centres by 2025. This urbanisation has increased the proportion of working women, a change that is challenging interpersonal relationships in Pakistani households – particularly between husbands and wives.

Tapal’s target audience is mainly urban, belonging to SEC A and B within the 25 to 35 age bracket. “The communication aims to challenge the status quo of traditional relationships and is building on a successful campaign idea,” highlights Abdi.

The previous ads in the series were supported by social media campaigns asking: ‘When was the last time you made tea for her?’ and wives tagged their husbands in these posts.

“Research on brand health further validated that people’s perspectives are changing and more men and women were receptive to the message the brand was trying to convey,” says Khawaja Zulfiqar Ansari, GM Marketing, Tapal. “We have become the voice of a modern egalitarian relationship that does not abandon its roots but builds and evolves the relationship.”

Apart from gender role reversal, an important campaign objective was to communicate that doing little things every day does more to strengthen the bond between couples, rather than grand gestures reserved for special occasions, such as anniversaries.

The brand and the agency are also aware that tea’s share in the beverage market, particularly among the young, is being eroded by carbonated soft drinks (case in point: Coke’s campaign Zaalima Chai Nahin, Coca Cola pilla de). It was important to develop an idea that would resonate among young people and remind people of the cultural importance of tea in Pakistan – “there is nothing more refreshing than enjoying a cup of tea with loved ones after an exhausting day at work” is how Abdi put it.

According to Haider, it was a bit of a risk to develop a campaign around the concept of a couple living separately from the family, given that close-knit, yet large families have always been at the heart of Danedar’s communication. However, positive customer reaction suggests that the sensibilities of the target audience would not be hurt by further developing this idea and using it in subsequent campaigns.

The ‘marriage means equal partnership’ concept was a result of research into the dynamics of marriage in Pakistan today. With increasing urbanisation, high internet penetration and the rise in the number of nuclear families, relationships between husbands and wives are evolving into more equal partnerships. According to Haider, the situations, dialogues and settings in the TVC are a true reflection of a modern household in Pakistan.