India. Molson Coors India unveils ‘Thunderbolt’ in new premium packaging

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Molson Coors Cobra India Ltd., the Indian subsidiary of leading global brewer Molson Coors Brewing Company announced a new brand packaging for Thunderbolt, a leading strong beer brand in India.

Designed to uphold the macho imagery of the brand, the new look of the bottle and the new typography Thunderbolt in bold and upper case stands for confident, fresh and strong, embodying the brand image.

Targeted at the savvy, go-getter and avid adventurers, the newly designed pack is available across Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh from June 2016.

This redesign will include a new look bottle, a change in visual identity and a new logo. The new look will have thunderbolt labels on the body and neck of the bottle in mono-color (blue) with white typography that will be visually appealing when the bottles are lined up.

“Packaging is a valuable visual identity which connects to the consumer, and the heart of the repackaging strategy was to create a stronger connect with our consumers. We decided to create a look which was more effective on the shelf, appealing to our consumers and gave us competitive advantage,” said President of Molson Coors in India, Ashish Kapoor.

“The new packaging is an embodiment of our brand and how we plan to connect it to our consumer. Packaging is about the look and feel of the brand, it’s about bringing an experience to our customers. Thunderbolt is about being fresh, confident and strong and the new bottle and labeling is about this,” added Ashish Kapoor.

The look of the bottle was conceptualized and designed by Molson Coors Cobra India, the technical feasibility and testing was done by American Glass Research (AGR). The bottle matches Thunderbolt’s one-of-a-kind bold taste, and has proprietary design which is uniquely recognizable in the marketplace, while remaining easy to produce.

Produced in emerald green glass, the new Thunderbolt bottle features an instantly iconic debussed, shield-shaped label panel adorned with the familiar Thunderbolt silver and blue logo. The angular and aggressive shoulder construction displays an embossed lettering wrap that spells out the Thunderbolt brand name including a lightning emblem within the letter ‘O’. Two additional embossed lightning emblems bracket the back label panel, just above the lower sidewall pinch, which transitions into a prominent heel construction. A new ring-pull cap gives the bottle a modern and premium twist in both look and function.

“We have received rave reviews from both customers and consumers about the new Thunderbolt bottle, which we believe reinforces the brand’s identity of always staying original,” said Ashish Kapoor.

Dr. Wenke Hu and Brad Salitrik of AGR created the bottle using the concept design provided by Molson Coors. Using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) techniques, the AGR team was able to evaluate the bottle’s ability to acceptably with stand the expected loading conditions (internal pressure, impact and vertical load) and to verify that the bottle would perform as desired once it was manufactured.

India is largely a strong beer market and Thunderbolt has seen an unprecedented success by retaining its position as one of the leading players in the North. Post the acquisition of Mount Shivalik Breweries Ltd (MSBL) in April 2015, Molson Coors has made a substantial investment toward upgrading the existing facilities to international standard and expanding Thunderbolt’s presence in the northern markets. As a result, the brand has been able to deliver international quality output while maintaining consistency.

The new Thunderbolt pack (650ml glass bottle) is available across Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh.