The Success Story of Carvaan

How many times have you seen an advertisement and wished if you could go back in time too? From products to marketing strategies, brands have always made us nostalgic through their advertising strategies and have kept us engaged. Some brands not only tapped this but also created experience for the consumers. Now, marketers are struggling to devise strategies to target the millennials but what about their seniors or super seniors? How about bringing a smile on your mother’s face? How about helping your parents’ travel back to their college days? Not many brands think about this. The seniors comprise of about a third of the population in India.

CD’s and cassettes being obsolete these days, listening to music has become very complicated for the seniors. Saregama came up with their product called ‘CARVAAN’ which not only targeted this segment but also marketed strategically helping people to travel back in time. This is a time machine for a musical journey to the past, a box filled with nostalgia and those fresh memories etched in the minds of our parents. The product aims to create an overall experience. The complications of modern applications like Saavn and Gaana were avoided while developing this product and convenience was the key factor. The product looks like a good old transistor, thus reviving those distant memories.

The team Carvaan made the best use of data to bridge the gap in the market and the strategy of nostalgia marketing proved its prowess. The product was mainly positioned as a gifting a gifting item. So, the advertisements conceptualized by ‘The Womb’ targeted the emotional and nostalgia quotient of the youth and the seniors at the same time and managed to strike the perfect cord. Young people living away from home and watching the advertisements considered the product to be a perfect experience. The product experience is mostly targeted to the people above 40 years of age while the advertisements are mostly targeted at the millennials so that they can connect emotionally and find the best gift for their parents.

Saregama’s first brand film of Carvaan is named as the “The Perfect Gift”. The commercial takes the audience on a roller coaster ride of emotions as the film travels in time starting with a lady humming ‘Lag Ja Gale’ to her husband carefully so as to not wake up their little child. As the commercial proceeds, the couple keeps growing older as the infant turns to an adult. The time changed but their choice of music didn’t. At the end of the commercial where the lady dies, the grown up son watches his father sleep as he sleeps beside a Carvaan playing the same song which was his favorite. The commercial is targeted at the millennials so that they go back in time and relate to this and end their search for other gifting items and go for this one. Most of the 80’s-90’s born kids must have had heard this music who were oblivious of today’s applications and cloud streaming. Most of their parents’ used tape recorder, transistors or any other tangible products to enjoy music. The advertisement points out that sense of belonging.

The Womb also came up with new campaigns where advertisements show relation between mother and son/daughter. One of the advertisements show how a mother reminisces her past memories on a swing while Carvaan sets the mood for the day. She relives her past days all over again as her son watches her groove to the music like a 20 year old. The image of being a ‘perfect gift’ gets bolstered too. The campaign series is referred to as the ‘First Love’.

The team Carvaan also went back in time in terms of how they design the product in order to develop that emotional connection required to market it to a particular segment. According to Vikram Mehra, Managing Director of SaReGaMa, Carvaan had to be convenient and also have famous songs so that the target customers could go back to their era and enjoy music in their own fashion. Therefore, the strategy was pivoted around the retro era, from product design to advertisements and thus they not only sold their product but also sold an experience which boosted their brand value and sales figures. After all Old is Gold!