Snack'em up

Yes, Yes! It's hot and happening. The snacking category in India is a hot new subject of discussion among marketers at the moment. ITC Foods is all set to storm the Indian snacking market with it's new launch Bingo.

Switch-on any TV channel, you're bound to find at least two-three commercials of different brands trying to grab your attention. Leading the pack is Pepsico's Lays and Kurkure. While Bingo is the new challenger.

The dynamics of the Rs. 2500 Crores snack food market in India is fast changing. 85% of this market constitutes of salty Potato Chips. The market is growing at 25% per annum and that's a healthy sign. In India around 12 million tonnes of potato is grown which is about 4% of the total world production. However, the per capita consumption of potatoes in India is low. And surely there are many more opportunities for brands to tap in this segment. We Indians love our snacks. Jhal Muri, Batata Puri, Pani Puri, Bhel Puri, Delhi Chaat, Kolkata Chaat, Mumbai Chaat, Aloo Bhajji, Dal Puri, Bada Samosa, Chota Samosa, Kachori ...man, snacking itself is a gastronomic delight in India.

Pepsico was the first branded player to offer various products under its Lays, Kurkure, Cheetos, Uncle Chipps brand names. Haldirams, once a small time Halawai (sweet maker) saw huge opportunity and entered the branded packaged snack food market. And they are reaping the benefits of their past effort. P&G's Pringle is a niche brand in this segment. ITC is the latest entrant and am sure they will become a highly successful brand in no time. Remember ITC is one of the most admired companies in India which loves and has the reputation to build successful brands in whichever segment they enter.

Kurkure's Cricket Campaign - 'Jupp for Cup' was withdrawn after India dismal performance in the World Cup. So Kurkure decided to bank on the family summer holiday trips by creating 'Kurkure Express.' Pepsico's train thought started with the 'Blue Billion Express' for Pepsi to support the IndianCricket Team. Since it could not make much hay, Kurkure Express is the new avatar with a little twist. Manish has written a good article on this topic. I kinda share his sentiments too - Visual corruption. As if we don't have much and need another new one. Well, I understand that 50% of Indians travel on Indian Railways and long distance/local trains as an advertising medium is too good to resist. But why make so fuss about it. I would have given a thumbs-up if they were doing some innovative promotion in the platforms and train compartments. But slapping the logo on everything just don't make any sense.

To me Kurkure could have used those 'Garam Chaiwalas' and 'Bhelpuriwalas' effectively. They are the real competition, if you know what I mean, so why not bring them under your fold rather than spend huge money to colour code train compartments.

Well, is Kurkure also taking care to do the cleaning act of left over pouches within the train premise??

Caffeinexperience

Found this interesting kiosk at a Cafe Coffee Day outlet in Bangalore. The Smart Digital Jukebox allows you to choose and play a song of your choice in the cafe. An interactive touch screen interface where you can browse from tens of thousands of songs and list them in the player. Then get back to your sit, enjoy your coffee and relax.

Cafe Coffee Day as a brand is very popular and enough has been written about them. Innovative marketing approach by CCD aka the 'Indian Starbucks' has made Coffee Day, the meeting, mating, greeting, relaxing, chilling zone for youngsters.

Probably the most innovative marketing programme of Coffee Day is doing co-promotion with other brands and space selling within the store. Coffee Day runs several successful in-store promotions for popular brands like Levi's, Fast Track, Radio City, Airtel and Sony Ericsson just to name a few.

On the flip side over the years CCD has become too commercial a space and youngsters have started gathering at places like Java City, Mocha of the world. Therefore, the CCD coffee experience of 'A lot can happen over coffee' is no more unique. Java City for example offers great service, great ambiance and live music. Mocha offers great food and an excellent puff of Hukkah.

Smart Digital Jukebox is one of the many things CCD is doing to get people back. I was wondering in a service category like Coffee Chains there are so many me too brands, how can one differentiate and remain relevant to today's disloyal and cynical young ones. Coffee Day, Coffee World, Java City, Java Green, Barista, Mocha, Qwicky's are some of the popular coffee retail chains at the moment. Starbucks will enter India soon. What will these brands do then? Good Coffee, ambiance, service, food, music are generic and given for this category. Together they sum up as a 'great coffee experience.' What more can they offer? When everybody starts offering the same 'great coffee experience,' will price become a deciding factor. Or will chains re-arrange themselves as premium and value chains.

Any caffeinated opinions from anyone?

Eddfest of poor marketing

“Did you know 'The Beasts of Metal' are coming to Bangalore?” was one buzz doing rounds among music lovers, well, hard rock lovers to be precise in Bangalore. At last, VH1 and newspaper ads announced 17^th March as the date of the great gig. Ticketpro.in managed to sell most show tickets. Early adaptors bought their tickets well in advance while the late majorities awaited until the last moment. ‘No tickets available’ was the next buzz and frenetic call from friends in Mumbai & Delhi forced me to press the panic button. I called up people in media, sponsors and friends working in agencies if they could help me with just two more passes for the show. No one is a real friend – no one in the media could help me with two free passes. Surprisingly, tickets were always available at Planet M, so without spending anymore time calling people for help, I picked up three tickets for myself and my friends. That was on Thursday, the 15^th of March.

Image by www.hindu.com

Main sponsor of the show was Royal Challenge from the UB Group. Co-sponsored by VH1, Nokia, Reliance Mobile and Sanyo. Other sponsors were Levis, Pepsi, Radio Indigo and NDTV 24x7.

A look at the promotional materials and you could tell brands have just lent their logos to the event. Few Reliance Mobile, Radio Indigo and Nokia banners were all that I could see on the way to the venue. No one took the effort of creating a brand experience in sync with Eddfest. Probably, Levis was the only brand that managed to converse with the audience inside the venue. The Levis stall was selling official Maiden merchandise. Pepsi was official beverage supplier; thirsty head-bangers stormed the Pepsi stall to find all drinks over. It was Kingfisher bottled water instead of RC that was being served in the venue.

And mind you this isn’t the first time.

A captive audience of approx 40K gathered for 5 hours. What a brilliant opportunity lost for brands I wonder. So much could be done but I guess no one thought about it. Lending the logo doesn’t always help much.

• Nokia: When you know music connects, why not use this platform to CONNECT. Well, N93i is an entertainment phone right? You could have made huge dummy of N93i screen for the live action. You could have announced an N93i Best Bootleg competition. (I could see almost everyone trying to capture the guitar gods on their mobile cam)
• Reliance: You could have done so much beyond those banners. Mobisodes of Iron Maiden for all your mobile and broadband customers
• VH1: Why no special Iron Maiden show/songs on the channel during the week?
• Sanyo: You know you have so much to do to get a strong foothold in the Indian market. Your LCD panels were the perfect product to bring alive the experience. Several LCD panels could show the live action to audiences standing at far end
• Indiatimes: Am sure Iron Maiden search in Google and Youtube was an all time high during the last one week. No brand have used web effectively. The show was powered by Indiatimes.com yet nothing much on their website except a banner ad. Webisodes is such a brilliant idea. Live webcast of Iron Maiden playing live at Bangalore for the world at large. Technology has advanced. Industrial compressions of video files is very much possible, why not use it as streaming video? Pay few dollars and watch it online as it happens
  

Well, all said and done, the show wasn’t worth the money spent. Only 90 minutes of Maiden on stage to hear 666, Fear of the Dark, Run to the hills, 2 minutes to midnight wasn't what the audience expected. Young rockers from Pune, Mumbai, Goa, North East, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Jakarta and Singapore were indeed very disappointed. They obviously expected more head banging. “You don’t’ need to wait another 17 years to see us again, we’ll be back soon,” was the only hope that Bruce Dickenson gave us all.

And before I end, hope brands which sponsors these shows from next time will try going, ‘Where eagles dare.’'

Era of Eggvertising

It's time for Eggvertising folks. Indo Nissin launched it's new Egg Noodles with advertising on eggs. Complete story here.

Mark of a man

This is front page picture on today's DNA. A promotion of Gillette in Dubai. Federer, Henry & Woods were using Gillette Foam and Razor to shave clean. Wow. Three top-notch celebrity sports person doing a shaving stint in front of the public. Great promotion idea. Simple. To the point. End result high recall.

Now here's my promotion idea - In India, we still have the concept of 'Eetalian' Salon (Road side barber sitting on a brick with a small mirror doing shaving and hair cuts). Why not gather all the Eetalian Barbers in a particular city together and get them to do a branded act. For which brand? Ofcourse, Godrej Shaving Cream and Wilkinson Blades. Isn't it, still the most preferred 'Eetalian' brand?

Like the idea?