Thursday, August 30, 2007

Brand Update : Bingo

According to today's Business Standard, Bingo has eaten into the market share of Lays. Six months into the launch, ITC has really broke into the stronghold of Lays. The report cite the clever marketing strategy and the localisation of flavors as the main factors that aided the success of Bingo.
Although it is too early to praise Bingo or ITC on their success, I feel that getting the brand to a market share of 16 % is something commendable. Bingo now aims for 25 % of the Rs 2000 crore branded snack market. The share of Lays have reduced from 65% to 45%.


The brand had made a base for itself. There are various factors that aided the success of Bingo.

High Decibel Advertising : Although I have reservations about the quality of ads, Bingo was able to capture the Share of Noise through its heavy spend. Helping that was the latest move of Lays to change the famous tagline to " Har Program ka Main Food"

Novelty Factor : The snack market is driven by impulse purchases and Bingo had the advantage of the ITC parentage that encouraged consumers to try out the product without much inhibition.

Regional Flavors : This is where Bingo beat Lays in their own game. Lays was the first to localise flavors but Bingo specialized on local flavors and the key differentiator was the Localized flavors.

Distribution strength : If you ask me which is the most critical success factor of Bingo, I would put the distribution strength as the numero uno. Go to any supermarket or kirana store, Bingo is highly visible. In India there is no company that can match the distribution strength of ITC and this has helped this new launch very much interms of Shelf Space and retailer support.

Having said that Lays cannot be written off. Whenever a new brand comes, the larger brands lose market share . Like wise the high profile launch of Bingo has eroded the market share of Lays but things can change very fast. Lays have already scaled up their marketing initiatives and new flavors are on the anvil. The brand also have came out with pack costing only Rs 3 ( sachetisation) to induce non users to try out the brand.

The war has started and for marketers and customers, its going to be a treat.

Related Brand
Bingo
Lays

7 comments:

  1. I love their whole promo on Fever 104 FM, where the person has to say Bingo and he will win a lot of moneies...

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  2. Dear Harish

    Outstanding blog....Going thru it is like a dream ...Keep it up

    Pradeep

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  3. Anonymous11:17 PM

    Dear Harish ,
    Yes I agree completely when you point out the strengths of Bingo and analyze the present market case.
    I would like to give my take on the Bingo v/s lays. I believe that Bingo has created a curiosity in the consumer through its advertising blitzkerg. But these are the people it has enticed to take the first bite and these are the curious buyers. But how many become repeat buyers is another story altogether.
    Lays has successfully targeted itself as a youth and a “Party food” (What’s the program?). This would really help the brand to position itself as a youth party food. On the other hand Bingo has no clear target audience and is more of an individual snack item.
    Though Bingo has geographically segmented the market it does not seem to be clear about its TG. Moreover, the 16 flavors ITC has introduces might be a great idea as far as variety is concerned but it could create a problem. Some flavors move much faster than the others. This might reqire fine tuning of its distribution strategy.
    Yes Bingo is supported by ITC’s Strong distribution channel. Yes Bingo is offering higher margins to elbow out Lays. But, as you rightly pointed out, it’s the long term that would spell out who wins the battle!!!
    Gaurav Hazrati.

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  4. well i find lays trying hard to bring a concept(whats the program) but at the end of the day these are all impulse products ...rarely people go to a shop to buy only lays or bingo or whatever..bingo's advertising is excellent..the point is to register grab our mindshare and it has done great!!! it makes me laugh when i hear glad bangels mad angels or vangoo pongoo bingo!!! as long as it makes noise in media it's great!!!all i could say is its (advertising) concept and execution is awesome!!!! guess the agency is o&m!!!

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  5. bingo is good tasty, i love bingo and also i play online bingo with bingo lays......

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  6. Bingo is a really great product. I have it a lot and i love it. The advertisements by the company are well made and loved by a lot.

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  7. What is bingo? The branding is not done properly. It has failed to reach people. Of course it has reached audience well (via ads). Its of no use to reach only audience and not the People! ITC guys...u better put lot of brain here..
    Jnanesh

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