Moser Baer : Rewriting the Future

Corporate Brand : Moser Baer
Agency : TBWA

Brand Analysis Count : 365

Moser Baer is a leading player in the optical media storage market in India. Not only that ,this Indian company is world's 5th largest manufacturer of Optical storage media. Founded in 1983, this brand has morphed from a business brand to a consumer brand.

Moser Baer started its operations by manufacturing time recorder units in collaboration with Maruzen Corporation of Japan. In 1998, the company diversified into manufacturing of 5.2 inch floppy disk. In 1999 the company went on to manufacturing of CD-ROMs and DVDs.

The Indian optical media industry is estimated to be around Rs 1500 crore. Moser Baer leads the market with a market share of around 40%. The brand is having a global share of around 20% in this industry.

The optical media storage industry is dominated by CD-ROMs. The trend is now moving towards DVD and latest Blu-Ray discs.

The CD/DVD industry is guided by the penetration of the respective disc drives . It is estimated that 75 % of the computers are sold along with the CD Drives and this factor have more impact on the sale of CDs at the consumer end.

If we look at the market evolution of these products, during the formative years, ordinary users never considered the CD drive as a part of the standard PC. CD Drives was considered as a luxury because of the high cost. This has severely restricted the popularity of CDs at the consumer end . CDs during those years was targeting the software segment.

When the CD drive price crashed, it became a part of the standard PC offering which paved the way for the popularity of CDs. Another big market for these products is in the entertainment sector.

Currently the market is moving towards DVD's since the cost of DVD writers/players have come down drastically.

Moser Baer operates in a market which is highly dynamic and volatile.This is a market which is full of disruptive innovations . One can never predict the lifecycle of a product. A small technological innovation can make a product irrelevant. It had happened in the case of Floppy Disks . The MP3 revolution has severely impacted the CD industry aswellas the entire music industry.

Hence to operate in such a volatile environment requires high flexibility in operations and strategy. The simple fact that Moser Baer was able to handle the Floppy to CD transition is a remarkable example of flexible product strategy. It takes corporate vision to identify the changes that are happening in the environment and then take a proactive step in addressing those issues.

It is not easy as we think. Take the example of CD replacing the Floppy Disk. The company has to first identify this as a disruptive innovation . Then they have to forecast the impact of this technology in their business. Then devise the strategy to handle that disruption. The problem here is timing. In technology marketing, timing is the key. We have seen big companies humbled by start-ups ( Microsoft Vs Google ) because the large firms fail to forecast the impact of these changing technologies on their business.

In the case of storage media disruptions are happening on a regular basis. We have seen Floppy Disk getting eliminated by CDs, CDs getting irrelevant by USB Disks, DVDs etc. There is heated argument whether DVD will be replaced by Blue-Ray discs

Look at the removable memory devises or the flask disks, these devices are increasingly making CDs irrelevant. These USB memory disks are portable , reusable and easy to use. These devices are a big competition for CD and DVDs. More over the various online file storing sites and file sharing sites makes life more dangerous for firms like Moser Baer.

So how will a company survive in such a very fluid environment.?

It calls for a very flexible product strategy. Such a strategy allows the managers to experiment and pull the company into different directions. Product Managers will be looking for emerging areas /technologies and will be investing in those new areas. Although this strategy is sexy, it is highly risky. Not all new technologies are disruptive. So it takes lot of wisdom and luck to spot and act on such a technology.

Last two quarters has been very bad for the company owing to the increase in the production cost and decrease in demand due to competition from other categories. One of the raw material for CD/DVDs is polycarbonate which is a byeproduct of oil industry. The rise in oil prices has increased the cost for this raw material.

It is this scenario which may have forced Moser Baer to undertake many related and unrelated diversification. In 2006, the company forayed into entertainment business. The company launched an entertainment division which focused on distribution of movie CD/DVD. The company procured around 10,000 movie titles and aggressively started distribution.

Moser Baer shocked the movie industry by launching movie CDs and DVDs for as low a price as Rs 28 and Rs 34 respectively. At that time, a DVD used to cost minimum Rs 150 and CDs at around Rs 80. The move made lot of sense because the expense for Moser Baer was limited to promotional and distributional expenses.

According to reports, Moser Baer adopted an FMCG model of distribution for these CDs. The reason was to drive the volumes in order to compensate for the low price. The low price of Moser Baer movie CDs was a deadly blow to the pirate- mafia which was a major threat to the entire movie industry.

This move of Moser Baer was complimented by the low priced DVD players that entered the Indian market. The price of a branded DVD player came to the level of 2000-5000 which enabled many households to own one.

Another diversification of Moser Baer was into the Rs 12000 crore PC peripheral market which include products like CD/DVD drives , hard disks, speakers etc. Moser Baer expects to corner 20 % of this lucrative market .
In the business market, Moser Baer has diversified into manufacturing of photo-voltaic cells which is used in harnessing solar energy.

A major unrelated diversification for this brand was into the consumer durables in 2008. Moser Baer entered the consumer durable space with a high decibel launch of LCD televisions and DVD players.

Watch the tvc here : Moser Baer

Although the corporate tagline for Moser Baer is " Rewriting the Future " , the company decided to have a seperate tagline " Ultra Life " for its consumer durable venture. The brand is projecting itself as the advanced fururistic technology brand. For the movie CD venture, the brand has another tagline " Hello Happiness ".

In a branding perspective, the same brand has three different positioning strategy in three different categories. Theoritically this will result in brand dilution.


I seriously doubt the logic behind Moser Baer entering a space where it has virtually no standing . It does not have the brand equity nor the marketing strength to fight the competition. In this space it will be fighting all the major consumer durable brands of the world like Sony, Philips, LG, Samsung, Onida, Panasonic and what not.

Moser Baer may be a well known brand in the CD category but it is a zero in the consumer durable space. The only advantage for the brand is the brand familiarity. Consumers have seen this brand but that is not sufficient to counter the competition of established brands like Sony.

Moser Baer is trying to fight the war using price as a proposition. The price of LCD TV is much lower than the established players. Hence the price + brand familiarity may give some head start for the brand.

Another serious issue for the brand will be the time and energy needed for Moser Baer to establish itself in the consumer durable space. The company may have to devote considerable resources , both money and managerial time ,to be successful as a consumer durable major. This will seriously impact the investment needed in its core business. In this period, when cash is the king, the brand may have to spend judiciously .

Moser Baer has also launched products like USB disks in order to pre-empt the competition from that category which makes more sense than the consumer durable venture. It could have spent more energy on establishing itself in the USB media space and even launch products similar to ipods.
It makes more sense if Moser Baer concentrated on Memory ,Storage and even PC peripherals space rather than spent valuable resources on highly competitive market like consumer durables

Hanung Toys : Bringing Smile to the World

Corporate Brand : Hanung Toys & Textiles
Agency : Oxygen

Brand Analysis Count : 345

Hanung is a less celebrated brand in India. This company is India's largest soft toy manufacturer and a preferred supplier to some of the well known global retailers like IKEA.

Hanung Toys & Textiles came into existence in 1991. Conceived by Mr Ashok Kumar Bansal, Hanung became a leader in the soft toy market in India within a span of ten years. The company started with a modest order of Rs 6 lakh from IKEA. From there on, Hanung was on the growth path becoming the largest exporter of soft toys and then later diversifying into soft furnishing products during the early 2005.

The company has collaboration with a South Korean company.It adopted the Korean name. Hanung which means - Stem of Tree. The logic is simple, to get the international look., you need an international name Even in India Hanung is perceived to be an International brand rather than an Indian one.

Hanung now manufacturers about 11,000,000 pieces of soft toys and about 1,250,000 furnishing sets per year. The company supplies to retailers across Europe, US , Latin America and Middle East. The highlight of the company history is the Rs 600 crore order it received from IKEA in 2007 which catapulted Hanung to the big league . Till 2007, Hanung was a licensee for Walt Disney in India.


But how many of us know about this company. Although Hanung is an exporter, the company has strong domestic presence too. Infact its the market leader in the soft toy category in India .
Indian toy market is estimated to be around Rs 2500 crore and the organised soft toy market is around Rs 200 crore. The market is in utter mess because of cheap Chinese toys.

With regard to the Hanung brand in India, the company have two domestic brands . Hanung has launched a chain of toy store under the brand Play-n-Pets which is a more upmarket brand. It also have another brand Muskan which is a more affordable range of toys.

What I feel about Hanung is that it is not utilizing its potential in Indian market . I have bought a couple of Hanung Toys ( thinking its a foreign brand ) and is absolutely satisfied with the products. The product has quality and affordable price.

The brands from Hanung gets a good retailer support but on the promotional front, Hanung is almost silent in the media. It could have made these products a rage in the Indian market. But I think they are more focusing on the export market which is more lucrative.

Both the domestic brands Muskan and Play-n-Pets are nice brand names and can catch the fancy of Indian consumers. As a parent, I am now concerned about the quality of toys which my child plays with. I think Indian consumers are slowly waking up to the quality issues in Toys.
Now I check the toys and the manufacturer before buying it and Chinese toys are now out of my shopping list. So there is a growing market for quality brands like Hanung.

Competition is also in the offing. Reports say that Reliance Retail is planning a category killer in the toy retail space. Hanung will only benefit out of these since they can supply to these retail giants .

As a consumer I accidentally discovered this brand and now become a loyal customer .There will be many customers who need such a brand but unaware of its existence.Its a marketing mistake to under utilize the potential of such a wonderful brand.

Related brand
Funskool

Khaitan : The Name is Enough

Brand : Khaitan
Company : Khaitan Electricals
Agency : JWT

Brand Analysis Count : 282

Khaitan is a well known name in the small appliance market especially in the Fans Category. Khaitan is a heritage brand which has a history of four decades. The brand came into existence during 1960s .
The brand is currently in a diversification mode extending itself to become a major player in the small appliances market. Khaitan now holds around 16% share in the Rs 1400 crore Indian Fan Industry.
Although the fan industry size is huge, the industry players are facing issues of competition from unorganized sector. Unorganized sector holds around half of the total market.It has to be noted that in the early 1990s the market was in the hand of four of five players like Usha, Polar, Khaitan etc . But later regional players hit the market with low priced fans which eroded the market share of these major players.
Facing this critical issue , Khaitan decided to enter the small appliances and electrical market since 70% of the revenue was dependent on fans. The entry ( related diversification) is aimed at reducing the risk of dependence of a single product category.
Khaitan was a brand built on trust. The brand was consistently positioned as a trustworthy brand and the tagline was " The name is enough ". From my childhood days itself , I have seen the ads of Khaitan and its popular voice over " What to say about Khaitan, the name is enough" . The brand was trying to communicate its core values of Quality and Trust. Although the ads were poorly executed, the communication strategy was consistent all through these years.
Inorder to reinforce the quality proposition, Khaitan introduced an innovative concept of Replacement bonds which was the guarantee from the Chairman Mr. SK Khaitan that the company will replace the fan if it has any manufacturing defects within one year of purchase.

In 2007 , the company diversified into small appliances (Heaters, Mixers,Iron) Electrical ( CFL,Circuit Breakers etc) . It is commonsense for a brand like Khaitan to enter the small appliances market because of the challenge it faced in its core fan business. I would say that it was late for Khaitan to diversify because the small appliance market has become equally crowded and highly competitive.

Khaitan knew that when entering a new market , it needs to change the perception of a " Fan Brand". The brand chose to take the Celebrity Endorsement route and signed the EX- Bollywood diva Karishma Kapoor as the brand ambassador. The new campaigns featuring Karshma is already on air. It is interesting to note that Khaitan is wise enough to retain the original tagline for its new range of products. The small appliance range is sub-branded as Hommate.
Watch the TVC here : Khaitan

Although Khaitan has diversified, it has not forgotten its core business.The brand has taken on the unorganized sector with a low priced variant Zolta. Interestingly , while the entire fan category is facing price competition, Khaitan has launched Designer Fans priced in the range Rs 10,000 - Rs 1,00,000. The new designer range is branded as Fantasy. Khaitan is also trying to strengthen its distribution by launching two company owned outlets Khaitan Fantasy and Khaitan City. Khaitan Fantasy will sell only designer fans while Khaitan City sells all range of products including small appliances.

Like any heritage brand, Khaitan is also trying to make itself relevant in the Indian market which has seen sweeping changes both interms of Competitors and also consumer taste and preferences.

Ajanta Quartz : From Clocks to Tiles

Brand : Ajanta /Orpat
Company: Orpat Group
Agency: Mudra

Brand Count 157

Ajanta Quartz was established in 1971 and the story reminds us of a typical rags to riches kind. Starting as a small establishment at Morbi in Gujarat , Ajanta rose to become the world's largest clock manufacturer in 1999-2000 clocking 1 crore time pieces in that year.

The company was founded by Odhavjibhai R Patel ( O.R.Patel) who started manufacturing mechanical clocks under the brand name Ajanta. During the mid 1980's , Mr Patel was wise enough the foresee the end of mechanical watches/clocks and the evolution of Quartz technology in clocks. The company was quick to change over to quartz clocks .

Ajanta in a way changed the entire clock market in India. The market for watches and clocks are estimated to be around 30 million units. Surprisingly Ajanta during the eighties was the only Indian manufacturer of clocks. The brand came into limelight by creating a price disruption in the market. The clocks were priced ridiculously low and came in wide variety of shapes and sizes. The ever value conscious Indian consumers did not waste any time to lap up this brand. At one point of time Ajanta clocks were a favorite gift item in marriages. Favorite for the giver, because the product was cheap and had reasonable quality. For the receiver of this gift, he would be left with too many clocks that sometimes you can see more than two clocks in the same room! After my marriage, I was left with too many clocks that some of them are now still in a packed condition. The brand was also clever in coming out with various designs and the blockbuster religion based designs that was highly popular in the Indian market.

But competition was starting to create problems for this brand. Many Indian firms started to emulate Ajanta's business model and the market was flooded with cheap clocks. Added to that the low cost clocks was dumped to Indian market from China. Sensing that the business may soon become unviable, Ajanta tried to set up a manufacturing facility in China to balance the cost equation and to compete with cheap imports. At one point of time Ajanta commanded 70% of the market share.

Ajanta also ventured in to the manufacturing of calculators under the brand Orpat (derived from the founder's name O.R.Patel). In this market also the brand faced competition from the cheap imports.Then came the telephone set market where also Orpat has established itself as a major player.

2003 also saw the company diversify to totally unrelated areas like FMCG. Ajanta launched its toothpaste with much fanfare and tried to repeat the story in clocks to this segment. Ajanta shaked the toothpaste market with its low price of Rs 18 for 200 gm pack while the FMCG majors like Colgate retailed for Rs 54 for 200 gm. This caused ripples in the market and the Goliaths were to a certain extent humbled by the Davids like Ajanta, Anchor and Babool. But this story also went sour with Colgate and Hll flexing its marketing muscles with launching low priced flanker products like Cibaca Top and ended up regaining market share from these price warriors.

The Patels were unfazed by these setbacks and their entrepreneurial spirit should be really appreciated . The group then ventured into small appliances and then to CFL lamps under the Orpat name. In the CFL lamps segment, Orpat quickly established itself again using price as an advantage and is reported to have a market share of 50% in that segment fighting out with Philips. Now the company is venturing into Vitrified Tiles segment under the brand name Oreva. All these diversification are banking on the model of Low price, high volume and Economies of Scale.

Orpat has evolved into an umbrella brand for many product categories . The brand is positioned on the basis of "Low Price " platform. The brand is also facing challenges because of this positioning. Every company which is using "low cost " of production as a competitive advantage faces the problem of sustaining the cost advantage. With the trade barriers becoming a thing of past, most of the companies can take advantage of outsourcing from low cost countries to compete with low price warriors. The problem become dangerous when the Brand is being positioned as a " Low Price " brand rather than a " High value " brand. A classic example of High Value Positioning is Tata Indica where the company is not raving about its price but the value that it delivers.

Ajanta has relied on the distribution strength to build its business with low brand building activities inorder to cut costs.In the initial phases, the brand was very aggressive in promotions. But now the brand is facing competition with brands like Samay who is more aggressive in the promotions front.Ajanta now faces the issue of differentiation because the Price is now not a differentiating factor. The brand also faces competition in the technology front interms of the LCD clocks may replace quartz in future.Theoretically Ajanta should be pioneering the digital clocks if it want to get the first mover advantage.

Orpat as a brand in the electronics and small appliance market will have a bright future if it position in the platform of Value rather than price.


Source: orpatgroup,economictimes,agencyfaqs,businessline

Dinesh Beedi : Smoked Out

Brand : Dinesh Beedi
Company: Kerala Dinesh Beedi Cooperative

Brand Count: 145

Dinesh Beedi is one of the regional players in the Indian Beedi market. Manufactured from the district of Kannur in Kerala state( Gods Own Country), this brand is facing the dark prospect of extinction.
Beedi's are Indian cigarette prepared by rolling tobacco wrapped in Tendu leaf and secured with colored thread at one end. This is the cigarette of the poor. But in recent years, this product category is facing a crisis.

Dinesh Beedi is the product of Kerala Dinesh Beedi Cooperative which is the largest "worker owned cooperative " in the world. Besides It is also the largest women owned cooperative in the world. Run by the communists, this society came into existence in 1965 following a bitter fight between the beedi workers and owners. The fight led to the formation of a society that offer good management practices and owned by the workers.

The Indian tobacco market is huge and worth around Rs.10,000 crore .Predominantly this market is dominated by Beedi's. It is estimated that beedi contributes 70-80% of Indian tobacco market.
The beedi market is highly fragmented and there are regional players catering to respective markets.There is no one major player in the Indian market and no more than 5% marketshare is held by a single player.

The beedi industry is faced by a myard of issues. Although this industry employs 44 lakh workers, there are rampant cases of exploitation of workers, poor working conditions, child labour etc. With the governments banning tobacco promotions and also the ban of smoking in public places been enforced, this industry has been put into death bed.Along with the rising input costs, labour issues, taxes has virtually removed all possibilities of profitability.While large cigarette manufactures passing on the tax burden to the consumers, beedi manufacturers cannot do it because of price sensitiveness of the market.

Dinesh beedi was the brand that was affected to the maximum. Once a profitable company, this society is now in deep finacial trouble. With diversification projects failing, the livelihood of thousands of workers are at risk.

While private players in the beedi industry can afford to reduce costs either by mechanisation or reduced labour costs, Dinesh Beedi could not do that because it has been constituted to give workers a decent life. With the Government trying to demarket the entire category , the brand does not have a chance to survive.

The possible option before the company is to restructure the entire process and eliminate costs, raise the prices to bring in profitability.

While Dinesh has tried to diversify into unrelated foods category, what could have been more marketable is to venture into low end cigarette category although you will be competing with the likes of ITC. There has been cases of failures in upmarket diversification, but Dinesh had its competence in the tobacco industry .Hence any tobacco related products in the like of chewing tobacco could have benefited the company more ( I am not touching the ethical part of selling tobacco). Like Liqour market what ever demarketing that government does , this is a market that is not going to die and there is a good potential for players like Dinesh had it taken due care in ensuring profitability.

Source: Indiatoday,businessline,cess.edu,wikipedia,businesstoday

Singer Sewing Machines : Facing a Crisis

Brand : Singer
Company : Singer India ltd
Agency : JWT

Brand count : 141

Singer is a 130 year old brand in India famous for its sewing machines. Singer came to India in 1870 and is a Pioneer in developing the product category : Sewing machines.
Sewing machine was once a must in every households in India and was even a part of one's dowry. Those aged >30 may have noticed the dusting old machine at their homes. This once popular small durable is slowly fading into history.

Sewing machines are losing popularity in India because of the changing demographics and lifestyle. With the couples working and the evolution of Nuclear Urban Families (NUF) , the relevance of this category itself is now in doubt.

In olden days the brand was an example of Craft and Frugality. Craft in the sense that it showcases the talent of the Bahu and Frugality in saving the stitching costs. Now with the popularity of readymade clothes , this category has been thrown out of Urban households.

Singer is one of the largest manufacturers of sewing machines in India . The brand is credited with pioneering the installment culture in India by offering sewing machines to rural households on installment during 19th century. Still rural India contributes to the sale of sewing machines where it is used as a wage earner.

The marketers of sewing machines have tried to create more interest in the urban households by introducing electronic sewing machines ( userfriendly) and coming out with " Sew yourself patterns" encouraging the homemaker to experiment and create her own fashion wears. But these initiatives were not successful and it has forced these players to diversify into other small appliances.

The basic issue with the machine being less popular is

a. The task is tedious.

b. It takes training to make a good stitch.

c. No longer an attractive pasttime.

d. Machine not user friendly.

This product category is failing because it failed to change with the consumer.Although there were innovations, the product was such that the users had to be trained in using this product.

With the urban women not getting enough time to engage in attend classes, the category began to lose popularity.

Unless the manufacturers address these issues , the product category will be limited to industrial sewing machines and customers in the sewing machines. The category is already a century behind the new generation. I bet that an urban 15 year old may not have even touched this machine. May be the marketers have to comeout with an automatic computer aided machine that prints or stitches with the click of a button or something like that which is fast and easy to use.Other wise this category will fade from the households forever.

Source : businessline,myiris.com,wikepedia agencyfaqs.com

Dyna Beauty Soap : Be A Lady

Brand : Dyna
Company: Anchor Beauty and Cosmetics
Agency: Art Advertising

Brand Count : 110

For the last couple of months I was intrigued with a tvc featuring a new brand of toilet soap DYNA. The ad featured the super model Katrina Kaif and the frequency of the tvc was quite heavy that it was sure the brand had some large corporate backing it . It took some time to find out that this new brand is owned by Anchor groups who rules the electrical accessories market in India.

Anchor has been very aggressive in its diversification strategies. From Electricals, the company moved into a totally unrelated and cluttered FMCG space by launching Anchor toothpaste. Branding experts were shell shocked at seeing the Electrical accessory brand extending itself to toothpastes. I thought the brand will fail, but it didn't . Anchor brand of toothpaste is now having a market share of 7% in the toothpaste market with a differentiating feature of being 100% vegetarian.

Anchor has enteredthe soap market, which is estimated to be around 4800 crore . The market is cluttered with lot of brands, dominated by none other than HLL with a market share of over 55%. So it is a brave move by Anchor.

Dyna is available in two variants. The brand is said to have higher total fatty matter and is positioned as a popular grade one soap. Although the company is spending money in building the brand and is using a well known model to endorse the brand, the execution of the campaign failed miserably in communicating the Brand. There is no positioning , no segmentation. I think that the brand is aimed at the mass market. The baseline " Be a Lady" conveys no meaning at all. The tvc just shows the beautiful Katrina using Dyna Beauty Soap . Thats it...

Dyna has entered a market which is fragmented and segmented in all possible way.The brands in this market are positioned on all possible ways . You name a positioning strategy based on feature/benefit/size/shape/attribute/celebrity/price/value/

psychographics any thing, a brand has taken that positioning.

So can Dyna survive as being "Just A Soap" + Katrina ?

Source: Magindia.com, Businessline. sify.com

Sunfeast : Spreading the smile

Brand : Sunfeast
Company : ITC Ltd
Agency " FCB Ulka

Can a cigarette manufacturer succeed in marketing Biscuits? What do management thinkers say about unrelated diversification? Unrelated diversification will succeed if it is based on the core competency of the firm. So What is the core competency of ITC that is being leveraged when it decided to enter the Foods market. ITC relies on three core competencies

1. The depth of distribution

2. Its brand building capabilities.

3. The ability of Quality outsourcing.

Sunfeast has been a success because of these three competencies of ITC. Sunfeast was launched in 2003 was one of the diversification forays of ITC which wanted to establish itself as a serious FMCG player from its position of Tobacco products leader. ITC had the advantage of the well entrenched distribution setup which is matched only by HLL.

Indian biscuit market is estimated to be around 4500 - 5000 crore. The market is dominated by Parle and Britannia. Parle is the volume leader with brands like parle- G, Krackjack and Monaco while Britannia is the value leader with brands like 50: 50, milk bikis, Tiger, Goodday etc. The biscuit market has now moved from the core Glucose base to more value added categories. The key markets are UP, Maharashtra, and Tamilnadu. The percapita consumption of biscuits in India is only 1.2 kg per annum while the percapita consumption is 15 kg p.a in developed nations. While the glucose biscuits are popular in Rural India , Urban market prefer Cream biscuits.

To establish a brand in this tough market was never easy. Sunfeast using heavy promotion and careful brand building have already garnered 10% market share in this market. Sunfeast is positioned as an exciting brand. This platform is supported by a series product launches. Since Biscuits are convenience goods , new tastes and new products are essential to built excitement in the market. Sunfeast have maintained continous series of new launches like Milky Magic, Coconut, strawberry, pineapple cream etc. Recently Sunfeast launched a product for the premium segment named " Dark Fantasy" with chocolate flavour and cool advertisements.

Sunfeast have used the baseline " spread the smile" as the brand essence and the brand is endorsed by Shah Rukh Khan. The use of SRK makes sense since the TG is mainly kids . SRK have the energetic persona that goes well with the brand. The mascot of Sunfeast is the Animated Sun which is the symbol of contentment, satisfaction and Pleasure. This mascot has been well received by the TG. The ad campaigns are catchy and full of colors and excitement. The product is also of very high quality. Thus Sunfeast has managed to get all the winning combinations in the right mix.

Sunfeast is also trying to garner more share in the Marie category which is estimated to be around 600 crore. It launched the Marie with different flavours that has enabled it to gain a strong foothold in that category. To expand the brand in to the snack category Sunfeast has launched Pasta Treat which talks of a healthy snacking option for kids.

Sunfeast also uses lot of Below the line promotions for brand building. It sponsors Sunfeast Open, a recent initiative aiming at the school kids by providing them an opportunity to enhance creativity through painting competitions, " Hara Bano " campaign which set a world record in planting maximum number of saplings etc.

The constant product launches and careful promotions have enabled Sunfeast to move to the top league in the biscuit market with in a span of 3 years. We may see this brand expanding to many categories .Hope they don't mess the brand by extending it to underwears.

Sunfeast : A marketing success story.