Brand Update : Nestle Munch Extends to Breakfast Cereals

 In an interesting move, Nestle has extended its chocolate wafer brand Munch into breakfast cereals. The Nestle Munch breakfast cereals were launched in June 2023. Theoretically, this move is brand extension into unrelated categories. While the breakfast cereals from Munch retain the chocolate flavour and the crispy nature of wafers, it is a big jump from wafers to cereals. 

Indian breakfast cereal market is huge with a market size of approximately $4.5 billion ( Rs 380 Bn) and growing very fast owing to the consumer preference for quick and convenient food options. Munch launched in 1999 had a good run in the Indian market and along with Kit-kat has a significant market share in the Indian chocolate wafer market.

The brand is running a series of campaigns for the launch.

The brand extension is positioned on the crunchiness and taste attributes it has derived from the parent product. The brand focuses on youngsters rather than kids in their campaigns. The parent brand Munch Wafers has been focusing on taste and quick energy as its positioning attributes. One of the major pain points for consumers of breakfast cereals is the taste vs healthiness. This brand extension is for those consumers who consider taste as their most important decision-making criterion. One should also not forget the kids as a major influencer in the purchase process. 

Gerber Baby Cereal : Anything for little ones

 Brand: Gerber Cereals

Company: Gerber India ( Nestle)

Brand Analysis Count: #622

The market for toddler food in India is an astounding INR 2582 Bn ( $3.8Bn). The market is highly fragmented, regulated and dominated by home-made foods. A global brand Gerber entered the Indian market in 2022. Gerber has a very long and successful history. The brand was created in Fremont Michigan by Daniel Frank Gerber. The story is that Daniel's wife Dorothy suggested her recipe and asked her husband to manufacture it in scale so that mothers could save the struggle to make nutritious food for their kids at home. The product became hugely successful and as per wiki, the brand has more than 60% share in the US market. In 2007, the company was acquired by Nestle.

Indian cereal market although huge, is a challenging one. There is opportunity in the organized market owing to the sheer size of India's population. However, there are challenges in terms of retail exposure and brand awareness. However, since  Nestle has a huge and chequered presence in the Indian market and wide expertise in selling baby foods, things may be easy for the new brand.

Gerber is positioned as the segment's premium, high-quality innovative nutrition brand. The brand is targeting mothers and is taking the emotional route to impress the customer. The brand globally is pitching on the history of a product made by a mother. 

It is interesting to note that Gerber is launched as a new brand without any endorsement from Nestle. Despite being one of the most recognized corporate brands, Nestle has boldly decided to let Gerber create its own identity, which is usually a road less travelled in marketing. Building a new brand is a long-term play and I think Nestle is prepared for the long haul. 

Gerber's challenge is establishing credibility because it is dealing with a sensitive product. The legacy of 90 years of existence is highlighted in the advertisement which makes things easier for the brand. The product has come with interesting variants like spinach and carrot, mango and berry which can interest kids compared to other dull products existing in the market. 

Flavors are not a sustainable differentiation and if a flavour clicks, competition will follow suit in a blink of an eye. With Nestle's distribution and marketing muscle, Gerber is in a strong footing as a new entrant. 

Brand Update: Milkybar Attempts Gamification

 Over the last few years, there has been a serious attempt by the milk chocolate brand - Milkybar to chart a new path through activity-based brand engagement. It can be broadly classified as gamification where the game elements are incorporated into the brand and consumption. 

In the earlier campaigns, Milkybar has been focusing on the benefits from its milk ingredient and highlighting the calcium content and the health benefits associated with it. Later there has been a strong focus on bringing in activities through games/puzzles bundled along with the chocolate. This along with celebrity endorsers like Shilpa Shetty is expected to boost the brand's preference. Interestingly, the brand's communication is primarily targeted at the mother rather than the child. The brand has the tagline - Play Eat & Learn.

The brand hopes that the activity bundling will encourage mothers to choose Milkybar over others because of the added benefit ( like children getting smarter !). Milk chocolates are a small segment of the market and it is purely an individualistic choice whether people like this category or not, so marketing makes it much harder since it lacks the universal likeness of ordinary chocolates. The concept of such gamification is good since it engages the consumer ( kids) with the brand beyond just consumption and makes the kid play with the brand longer than usual. It has the potential to create more brand-related outcomes. 

Related Post

Nestle Milkybar

Brand Wars : Perk Vs Munch

Its been a long time since Indian advertisement world saw a humorous fight between the brands. There has been high profile competitive wars between the brands like Horlicks Vs Complan, Vim Vs Dettol, Dettol Vs Lifebuoy, Pepsodent Vs Colgate etc but these were serious fights. 

Recently the new war started between the arch rivals Perk and Munch. These brands were keeping different paths between each other for quite some time. Both were trying to position themselves on different attributes ; Perk focusing on the glucose content while Munch was focusing on the crunchier proposition. However, Perk decided to poke Munch by launching the first TVC featuring the son - Monu leaving home because his father gave the bigger, heavier Perk to his brother Sonu.

Watch the TVC here : Perk Monu

Not to be left behind, Munch countered with another TVC which features Sonu leaving the father because he gave the tastier Munch to the brother Monu.

Watch the TVC : Munch Sonu

The Perk TVC was hilarious with the brand trying to outsmart Munch by talking about the difference of 1 wafer and 5.5 grams with the Perk. 

Munch however tried to downplay the grammage comparison by focusing on the taste. The brand humorously counter's Perk's claim by stating that chocolates are eaten for taste and not weight. While this argument is weak counter for Perk's claim, what saves Munch was the humour and the instant fight back to Perk's offensive.

 Had Munch not reacted , Perk could have used the "high grammage " value for money proposition  very effectively 

Munch was recently investing heavily in the promotion by taking in cricketer Virat Kohli as the  brand ambassador . Perk was struggling with the positioning proposition and was in my opinion had a weaker platform based on the glucose content. Perk was trying the break away from that weaker spot by launching an offensive against Munch.

With the two brand's paths crossing now, it will be a interesting space to watch for.

Read more brand war
Brand war : Sensitive Toothpaste
Brand war : Colgate Vs Pepsodent

Nestle Alpino : To Love is to Share

Brand : Alpino
Company : Nestle

Brand Analysis : # 530

Nestle Alpino is the company's latest offering in the Rs 5562 crore Indian chocolate market. The premium end of this market is witnessing interesting action with Cadbury's Silk, Ferrero Rocher , Toblerone leading the fight. According to reports, 30% of the market is now consisting of premium chocolates.

Nestle always had been a laggard in the Indian chocolate market. After Kitkat and Munch, the company did not have any serious launches. It seldom fought the leader Cadburys and neither did it tried to respond to any of the launches from the market leader.

This year, Nestle stirred up the market with the launch of its premium offering branded as Nestle Alpino. Alpino has a striking resemblance to Ferrero Rocher. The packing and the product form puts Alpino directly pitched against Ferrero Rocher. That comparison gives the brand a premium image without any effort.

Nestle Alpino is being positioned as a chocolate that should be shared. There is a romance touch to this brand and this is highlighted in the launch campaigns.

Watch the TVC here : Nestle Alpino

Besides the product attributes like the chocolate bon-bon with creamy inside, what makes Alpino different are the love messages written inside the Alpino wrapper. There are more than 150 such messages inside the wrappers. This makes the brand a very cute affordable gift of love. 

Nestle has been investing heavily in boosting the distribution and POP promotions for Alpino and it is showing too. The brand is priced at Rs 25 a pack and the pricing is spot-on. Ferrero Rocher although is in similar price range has a perception of being an expensive product and this have prevented many from buying it frequently. But Alpino was able to create an image of an affordable luxury.

Alpino has all the potential to become a success in the Indian market and may eclipse Ferrero Rocher's brand in India. The fact that now Indian consumers are increasingly opting for premium chocolates rather than traditional mithai also favors product like Alpino. 

Brand Update : Hole New Fashion from Polo

The new campaign " Hole New Fashion " is one of the best campaigns I saw in recent times. The communication  once again brought back the humor, excitement and freshness into the brand. Polo has always been an interesting brand. The " Mint with a Hole " virtually made mint candy category very popular in the Indian market.

The brand was on a hiatus after the " what is your hole story " campaign which took a different take on the concept of " Hole ". 

The current campaign introduces four new flavors for Polo - Lime Mojito, Watermelon Sorbet, Peach Schnapps, and Cocoa Mocha. The most interesting factor being that these new variants are positioned as signature flavors which are "designed" by the Goa based Designer Wendell Rodricks. The brand achieved new heights in creativity when it partnered with a designer to launch a Fashion Range. The new range of Polo is known as Signature Flavors and is a classic case of a Celebrity - Brand co-creation.

What is most important in the new campaign is the new thinking that Polo brought in to mint candy. It is a great big idea to see variants as a fashion range and the execution is perfect. According to Economic Times, the flavors was such a big hit that the entire stock was sold out in two weeks in markets where it was introduced. 

Watch the ad here : Polo Signature

The new campaign will significantly help the brand Polo to reinforce its positioning as an off-beat interesting fun loving brand. The epitome of the brand's personality is its ability to think out of box which is conveyed by the tagline " The Mint with a Hole ". The brand tied to maintain its personality in most of the campaigns. The current campaign brings in much needed freshness to the brand in every sense. The new variants will also bring lot of new consumers to the brand . It also gives the existing fans of the brand to indulge more of the brand.

I am not sure whether these signature flavors are limited editions or permanent addition to the product-line. What ever be the life of these variants, it has achieved in elevating the brand to a higher level of positioning.

Related Brand

Polo

Nestle Bar One : Kaafi Hai ? Not Enough !

Brand : Bar One
Company : Nestle India

Brand Analysis Count : # 484

Bar One is a brand which was languishing in the product portfolio of Nestle for around two decades. The brand recently got some attention from the owners and its future is being rewritten. Bar One was launched in India in 1991 ( in some sources its given as 1994). The brand when launched was positioned as an energy /snack bar- some thing that you can eat in between times.

Bar One initially was well promoted by Nestle so much so that at one point in time, Bar One had a market share of around 5 %.But Nestle's attention soon shifted to non-confectionery items and Bar One was pushed aside interms of strategy and investment. I still remember the old Bar One jingle
Nestle Bar One Ba Ba Bar One
For those in between times ......

Later the brand had the tagline " Get More Out of Life " ( see the storyboard)

Bar One is a caramel based chocolate which has naugat and chocolate similar to Cadbury's 5 Star. The brand was positioned as a high energy funky chocolate which is essentially a small snack. The brand was well ahead of its time especially in the Indian market with respect to positioning. Indian consumers were not familiar with the concept of chocolates as a snack when Bar One was launched.

Second factor is the weak positioning of Bar One. Infact Bar One did not had a powerful positioning compared to the competitor . The focus on "energy bar" was too early for the Indian market. Later the company itself ditched the brand by stopping brand promotion.

Bar One in terms of brand competition competed with Cadbury 5 Star. 5 Star had tremendous brand power during the nineties and Bar One could not hold out with the competition. How ever Nestle did not kill the brand but put it on the sidelines. The interesting part is that the brand was available in the retail outlets even when the brand was silent in the media.
The major reasons ( in my opinion) for the brand's lackluster performance are Packaging and Positioning. The earlier packaging was dull compared to the 5 Star's golden packaging. The package for confectionery is significant because this is a product that is bought impulsively and the packaging conveys a strong cue for the purchase. 

In 2010, the brand was relaunched with a new packaging and price. The new packaging is bold and lot of golden color splashed across it. After a long while, the brand had a reasonably attractive packaging. The relaunch also saw a new positioning for the brand. The brand sadly messed up on the positioning in the relaunch also. The brand came out with very poorly executed campaign positioning Bar One as a chocolate that will attract girls !!!

Watch the ad here : Bar One 

The brand now has the tagline " Kaafi Hai " meaning " Its enough ". I really don't understand the connection between the brand and the tagline. One notion can be that Bar One is enough to satisfy your hunger ? Anyways the ad series with the new tagline may not be enough to lift the brand's fortunes. But the strong presence at the retail outlets coupled with the tendency of consumers to try out different brands will once again add more sales for this brand.
Bar One desperately needs investment in serious brand building. The brand is capable of building a position in the market dominated by Cadbury's brands. Bar One also has strong recall among the consumers backed by better taste and reasonable pricing. It needs more focus on developing a meaningful positioning . 5 Star has already owned up the " Taste" platform . The current campaign of Bar One is below average and will only make matter worse for the brand. 

Neslac : Milk For Growing Kids

Brand : Neslac
Company : Nestle India

Brand Analysis Count : 471

Nestle has recently launched a new brand in the 1500 crore infant ( kid's) foods market. The company has launched its global brand - Neslac in the Indian market. Nestle is the market leader in the infant foods market with successful brands like Cerelac, Nestum, Lactogen, Nestogen etc. Reports suggest that Nestle has close to 70 % of the kid's nutrition market.

The Indian infant food market is a difficult market to survive because of regulatory constraints. The market is governed by Indian milkfood substitutes feeding bottles and infant foods ( regulation of production, supply and distribution ) act 1992. There is a restriction in advertising infant food products.

As an established player in the market, Nestle has an advantage since its brands like Lactogen, Cerelac are very famous and has tremendous brand equity in the market. Hence even without ad support, these brands are growing. But for a new player, establishing in this market will be a tough one because of the regulations.

So it is interesting to see Nestle launching Neslac in the Indian market despite these regulatory constraints. Neslac is not an infant food but a milk food for kids above 2 years. The brand is positioned as milk for growing kids. So this brand may not come under the purview of the above act. Neslac is currently running a campaign announcing the launch of Neslac. 

Neslac is a global brand with presence in various markets under different names. In Pakistan, this brand is marketed as Nestlac Honey, in Malaysia it is Neslac Excella Gold etc.

Nestle already has another brand Nido  which is a similar product but targeted at a higher age-group.. I have a feeling that Nestle has replaced Nido with Neslac ( just a hunch.)

It will be interesting to see how the highly regulated market will respond to this high profile launch. 

Market Statistics : FMCG Market Shares

Today's ( 26/05/10) Economic Times carries interesting market share figurers of FMCG players across various categories in the Indian market. Thought of sharing.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Soaps 47 43.8

Detergents 37.4 36.8

Shampoo 45.3 46.9

Toothpaste 27.9 25.7

Skincare 46.5 45.4

Tea 22.4 21

Proctor & Gamble

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Detergents 13.9 14.6

Shampoo 24.1 22.6

Godrej Consumer Products

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Soaps 9.8 10.5

Dabur

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Toothpaste 9.6 10.6

Shampoo 6.1 5.5

Chawanprash 59.6 60.9

Nestle

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Coffee 41.1 41.8

Chocolates 25.2 25.2

Noodles 63.1 62.2

Colgate

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Toothpaste 49.8 51.2

Toothpowder 43.6 43.5

Tata Tea

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Tea 21.7 20.2

Danone Choco + Milk : Chocolate Smoothie

Brand : Choco + Milk
Company : Danone
Ad Agency : Rediffusion Y&R

Brand Analysis Count :449

Danone is a world leader in dairy products. This Paris based $16 bn giant was present in India as a stakeholder in Britannia Industries Ltd since 1993. By 2006, problems surfaced between Danone and the Wadia group which later culminated in Danone exiting Britannia.

This year saw Danone venturing on its own into the lucrative Indian market. Danone has launched Choco + Milk brand in the Indian market .The company is currently testing this milk beverage brand in certain Indian markets before the national launch.

The milk based beverages market in India is still in a nascent stage and is pegged at around Rs 200 crore. Experts predicts a growth in this segment because of inherent qualities associated with milk products. The total dairy market in India is estimated to be Rs 2,30000 crore.

Choco plus milk is a flavored milk beverage which will be competing with brands like Amul Kool , Nestle Milkmaid Funshake and Horlicks Chill Doodh.
Chocoplus Milk is currently running its launch campaign in certain channels. Watch the ad here

Chocoplus is focused on the health + taste aspect of the product. The brand is calling itself a Chocolate Smoothie and not as a milk drink . The brand features a protagonist Raghu as the brand advocate.As the launch strategy , the brand is running an SMS campaign along with the brand website - Chocolatesmoothie.in. The brand has the tagline " Its not a drink, its chocolate smoothie". The brand is priced at Rs 15 for 200 ml.

The positioning of the brand is nothing much to talk about. Every brand now is talking about health and taste. The only difference that Chocoplus has done is to call itself a Chocolate Smoothie.
In such kind of products, taste has lot of importance . Kids needs to hook up to the brand and chocolate flavor rules the taste attribute. Another critical factor is the brand recall. Most of the existing milk beverages are not aggressive enough in this front. Kids needs to be constantly bombarded with brand messages . The usual strategy of retail visibility and dependence on spontaneous purchase may not be sustainable in the long term .Without building a strong brand pull, these products will be at the mercy of the retailers.

The value added milk beverages has a potential in the Indian market. Milk has lot of positive associations with health and nutrition. Mothers would like their children to take milk based beverages rather than soft drinks. But it is the pricing that is restricting the growth of this market to a certain extent. Rs 15 for a pack makes such beverages a luxury rather than a regular product purchase. These brands needs to make consumers stock these products at home. The brand needs to experiment with product packaging and SKUs to find the right mix.

On the promotion side also, milk based beverages are not aggressive enough. Since these brands target kids (except Amul Kool) sales promotions have lot of strategic importance. But seldom have I seen a good sales promotional campaign for such a product.

Danone is a global force to reckon with. The company has deep pockets and the capacity to shake up Indian market. It will be interesting to see how the company will build this brand in Indian market.

Brand Update : Maggi

I recently saw an ad featuring Maggi Sauce. The ad was commemorating the 25 year celebration of the Maggi sauce brand. The ad was a collage of all the ads of Maggi Sauces that features Javed Jaffery and Pankaj Kapoor. The duo was instrumental in making the Maggi sauces famous through the intriguing tagline " Its Different".

But the new ad also had a shocker. Maggi Sauces has decided to change the tagline ' Its Different ' to " Make A Difference ". Regular readers of this blog will be knowing that I despise when brands changes their famous tagline. This time also, its true. Maggi over this 25 years has built consistently the tagline " Its different " and the tagline has been very famous. Now how in the world should the brand change its famous tagline ?? Who was bored with the tagline- is it the customers or the ad agency or the brand manager ??

There is a lot of positioning difference between " Its Different " and " Make a difference ". "Its different" is a tagline that directs towards the product characteristics. The brand had earlier changed the tagline " Its different " to " Enjoy the difference " but later reverted back to the classic tagline. The tagline was able to act as a differentiator for the brand without clearly mentioning the difference. But " Make a Difference" is something that is directed away from the brand. I am not sure how the brand is going to communicate the new idea . What I have seen is only a teaser announcing the change of tagline.

What ever said and done, changing a tagline which has become an integral part of the brand and which has become a powerful brand element is not at all a good idea.

Brand Update : Maggi

Maggi has launched its product in the growing Pasta market recently. The variant called Maggi Nutri-licious Paazta is Maggi's major new brand extension in recent times. The Indian pasta market is still in nascent stage with a market size or around Rs 50 crore ( source) but growing very fast.

Maggi pioneered the noodles market in India 25 years back but was not the brand which created the pasta category. The credit goes to Sunfeast which first launched a National brand in this category.

Maggi decided to jump into this Pasta bandwagon for obvious reasons. There is a lot of customer interest in this category. Indian consumers are now more adventurous in their food habits. The Gen Y is mesmerized with the exposure to various cuisines thanks to the media. So there is no dearth of innovators in this segment. Once you get into the good books of these foodies, the flock follow.

Maggi's move was further endorsed when Domino's forayed into the Pasta market with their offerings . So this market is going to see lot of action.

Maggi is currently running a TVC for their Pasta variant : Watch it here

The ad is very similar to the Noodles positioning and both pasta and noodles are sharing a common tagline(with a slight variation) . Paazta uses the tagline " Health bhi, taste bhi, happiness bhi"

One marketing practice reader observed the risk of Maggi moving into a different product category ( brand extension) . He opined that the equity of Maggi will be lost because of this extension . Personally , I differ because Nestle had slowly but surely developed Maggi as an umbrella brand for their food products. They have launched the soups and sauces under this brand. And the brand is doing well in these extensions.


Maggi is currently addressing a category competition. The brand feels that pasta can have a negative impact on its noodles business. For consumers, they view these products as snacks. For such customers, Maggi needed to offer pasta choice otherwise they will move to a competing brand. The current brand extension will have all the disadvantages of brand dilution and cannibalization . But on a broader perspective, it is a matter of survival and category leadership.

Related Brand

Maggi
Sunfeast

Brand Update : Cadbury Eclairs

This year Cadbury Dairy Milk Eclairs has comeout with a new campaign and a new positioning. The brand has identified itself with a sweet chocolate time bomb that will explode in your mouth. 

The brand is running an interesting TVC to communicate the postioning. 

Watch the ad here : Cadbury sweet bomb

Cadbury's Dairy Milk Eclairs has always been focused on its chocolate inner and as a consumer  we get a special feeling when the crispy outer covering of the eclairs give way to the soft chocolate liquid inside.  The brand is now trying to capture this feeling through the new campaign. 

The brand is equating this experience akin to the blowing up of a chocolate bomb from inside. The ad captures this concept quite beautifully. 

Although the ad is quite good, there is a striking resemblence with the recent KitKat ad claiming to be more chocolatey. The only difference is that the chocolate explodes outside the head.

Watch the Kitkat ad here : Kitkat exploding

Competition is not only for market share , it is also for the ad copy.

Related brand

Cadbury Dairy Milk Eclairs

Brand Update : Maggi

My favorite brand Maggi is now 25 years old. Born in 1983 , this brand has created a market for itself. Maggi is a brand which showed the power of marketing. This brand made noodles a household product. When many foreign food brands are trying to change Indian consumer's taste, Maggi bought in a silent revolution.

To mark its silver jubilee, Maggi is running a campaign " Me & Meri Maggi". The new campaign is designed to be interactive with the brand inviting from its consumers interesting stories about them and Maggi. For this, the brand have initiated a new website meandmeri.in. Consumers can write in their stories and lucky ones' photos will feature in Maggi Packs.

Maggi became successful because it understood consumers . The brand never wanted to change Indian consumer's habit. It did not had ambitions about changing Indian's breakfast or dinner preferences. What Maggi did was to slowly attach itself to Indian consumer's need without disruption.

Maggi was also closely watching consumer preferences.When consumers wanted healthy food, Maggi launched Atta Noodle variants that was healthy . More importantly this move addressed the concerns of Homemakers. The brand extended itself to multiple segment but without diluting the core brand equity.

Maggi over these years have made lot of mistakes. It made mistakes because the brand was willing to experiment. More importantly the brand learned from those mistakes and corrected itself.
Maggi also invested heavily in brand building. The campaigns for one of Maggi's products were always there in the media which kept the brand fresh in the mind of the consumers. Maggi personifies the basic principles of understanding consumers, innovating and investing in the brand.

Related Brand
Maggi

Brand Update : KitKat

Kitkat now has become more chocolaty. The brand has changed the product to appeal to Indian Palate .
The brand is currently running a campaign highlighting its chocolaty nature

Watch the new tvc here : Kitkat Chocolaty

What is interesting is that the brand has gone back to its famous tagline " Have a break,Have a Kitkat ". The brand had adopted a new tagline : Kitkat break banta hai...

The question again lingers.. if you have a very famous tagline and consumers like that and if your brand has developed a strong association with that tagline, why change it ???

Indian consumers has been lukewarm to wafer chocolate brands like Perk and Kitkat. After the initial sales boost, both these brands are facing the issue of stagnant growth. Both Perk and Kitkat have tried to boost sales by product innovations. Kitkat launched Kitkat Chunky and Kitkat Lite while Perk launched Ulta Perk. They have even tried coming out with different SKUs inorder to increase consumer usage. But consumers seem to prefer the chocolate bars over wafer ones.

A tricky situation indeed....


Brand update

Kitkat

Nestle Milkybar : Dum Hai To Bahar Nikal

Brand : Milkybar

Company : Nestle
Agency : JWT

Brand Analysis Count : 372

Milkybar is the leader in the white chocolate market in India. Launched in 1998, the brand is now making lot of noise in the media as a part of its repositioning exercise. In a typical market challenger strategy of Byepass attack, Nestle always avoided fighting head on with the market leader Cadbury's Dairy Milk.

Nestle chose to attack the market by launching brands like Kit Kat , Munch and Milkybar and thus create a new market for itself away from the market leader. Milkybar is one of such brands.

Milkybar is a white chocolate. White Chocolates are those which contains Cocoa butter, milk and sweets and no cocoa solids.

Milk Chocolates are those which contains milk solids in addiction to chocolate. In some reports, Milkybar is considered as a white chocolate while in some it is referred to as a milk chocolate. Nestle have anothe milk chocolate brand hence Milkybar can be positively confirmed as a white chocolate.

When I was indulging in chocolates, milk/white chocolates were a regular part of my indulgence, especially when bored with brown chocolates.

Although Milkybar was around in Indian market for a while, the brand came into aggressive state during the relaunch in 2006. During that time, Nestle relaunched the brand on the platform of healthy chocolate. The chocolate was fortified with calcium and positioned as a chocolate bar for energy and strength.
"Milkybar gives me power " was the brand's positioning platform.

Milkybar not only created the white chocolate segment but expanded it through product innovations. The brand launched a soft chewy fudge form of Milkybar branded as Milkybar Choo. This was a big hit for the kids who loved the soft fudge form of chocolate. The brand also made itself affordable by pricing the variant at Rs 5.

Currently the brand is running a campaign with a new tagline " Dum hai to bahar nikal " ( if you have guts, get out and play ) . The brand asks the youngsters to just get out and play.

Watch the campaign here : Dum Hai to bahar nikal

The ad is well made and drives a point. The campaign is backed by events and contests to reinforce the new positioning.

What is interesting is that the brand is addressing the higher age group of the target segment . I think that the previous TG audience for Milkybar was the kids of age 5-10 yrs. But the current ad is targeting pre-teens (8-12).

Milkybar is has competition from Milk Treat from Cadbury's.


Milkybar is a global brand from Nestle's portfolio. The brand was born in 1937. Globally the brand is positioned towards small kids. The brand have a mascot which is the " Milkybar Kid".
In India, instead of Milkybar kid, we have the picture of cow to reinforce the " Milk " factor.

The positioning of Milkybar was a healthy chocolate works well with parents. I was surprised when our family doctor suggest that we give milk chocolate to our child rather than the brown one. As a parent, I am also influenced by the " Goodness of Milk " factor. But often kids prefer the brown one over the white one.

Milkybar is a nice example of a brand carving a place for itself in a market which is dominated by an iconic brand. The new positioning may broaden the consumer segment for this brand. But how the older kids are impressed by the brand is something to watch for.

Brand Update : Kit Kat Chunky

Kit Kat has launched its globally successful variant Chunky in India this year. Kit Kat Chunky is a king size single finger variant of KitKat.
Kit Kat Chunky was globally launched in 1999. The high profile launch was a result of an internal rejuvenation project ( project Tyson) to lift up the sagging Kit Kat brand. Kit Kat Chunky was an instant hit and was touted as Nestle's most high profile brand success in that decade.

The reason for the variant launch in 1999 was because of the lack of popularity of original Kit Kat among the 18-25 year old. Chunky made the brand popular again in that segment.

In India , the brand has been launched in two variants : African Choco and Hazel nut
The variant is being promoted through TVC. Watch the commercial here : Kitkat Chunky

The look of the product itself raised some questions in me. The product is so Un Kit Kat like . Instead of the famous four finger product you have a single finger chunky chocolate bar. The packaging is also entirely different from the original brand. Will it not affect the parent brand ?

The success of this variant globally shows the paradox of marketing. The success of Chunky itself contradicts the 'conventional ' wisdom of Brand Extensions that extensions should be in line with the original brand's core values and strengths. Here that rule is broken that too successfully.

Having said that I feel that one has to be very lucky to get away with that kind of extensions. In India the market for wafer based chocolates has been negligible. Although Perk and Kit Kat had initial volumes, these brands now occupy a negligible share in the total chocolate market. The reason for Chunky's launch is to address this issue. Compared to the wafer chocolate, Chunky is a full finger Chocolate with added crispies like nuts. The launch is from the insight that Indian consumers like to have more chocolate than anything else.
But Kit Kat Chunky is not the first brand to try out these products. I remember Cadbury's having a Chunky range which later faded in the market . Whether Chunky will raise the fortune of Kit Kat is some thing to watch for.

Related Brand
Kit Kat

Milkmaid : Makes Everything Tempting

Brand : Milkmaid
Company : Nestle
Agency : Publicis

Brand Analysis Count : 275

Nestle Milkmaid is the market leader in the Rs 150 Crore condensed milk market in India. Milkmaid is a heritage brand which was imported to India from the time Nestle started its operations 90 years ago. It was in the year 1969 that Nestle started manufacturing this brand in India.
Milkmaid is partly Skimmed sweetened condensed milk. This is a popular ingredient in sweets and delicacies and desserts prepared at homes. Milkmaid has more than 55 % share in the organized condensed milk market in India.
Milkmaid is positioned as a premium brand and is promoted with the tagline " Bana De Everything Tempting " ( Makes everything tempting). The brand is positioned as the inevitable ingredient in all home-made delicacies.

Milkmaid although was a market leader, the brand faced issue of product usage. There were certain factors that inhibited the product usage : price and convenience . Milkmaid was a premium brand and the shelf life of the product was limited , hence the affordablity of this brand was limited. Another factor was that many households were unaware of the use of Milkmaid other than as an ingredient in sweets and desserts.
The brand tried lot of promotional activities to increase the usage of the brand. The brand was promoted heavily through visual media and through cookery shows, the brand tried to educate the customers on the various recipes with Milkmaid.
The brand also came out with a package innovation. The brand created a variant Milkmaid Squeezy which was the tube form of Milkmaid. The purpose was to use Milkmaid as a topping for biscuits and breads.
Milkmaid faced intense heat of competition when Amul launched Mithaimate brand in the market. Mithaimate was priced much lower to Milkmaid and this forced Milkmaid to reduce the price to match the Amul brand.With the lower price, Amul was giving Milkmaid a tough fight for the marketshare.

This year saw a unique move by this bramd. Milkmaid has comeout with a brand extension. Milkmaid has recently launched Milkmaid Funshake : a fruit flavored milk targeting kids. The marketers predict a huge growth in the ' Alternate Milk Category " in the coming years. I think that Nestle had earlier tried out a Milkshake version of Nescafe but with little success. It was little surprising to find a brand like Milkmaid extending itself to a milk shake category. The ads are already on air. Funshake is available in Mango , banana and Chocolate flavor and comes in a tetrapack. The message is similar to Nido. The ad shows kids crying when their mothers try to give them ordinary milk and then seen enjoying taking Funshake. Old message and nothing new in execution .
In my personal opinion, Nestle needn't have sought the extension of Milkmaid for this product. Funshake could succeed as a standalone brand. By associating with Milkmaid, Funshake is not going to gain any positive association.
Milkmaid is facing two challenges now. One arising from the price war from Amul and host of other competing brands and second is to make the category popular in households. In this era of Sachets and single use packs, I wonder how Milkmaid miss out of small packs ?

Nestle Munch : Can't Stop Munching

Brand : Munch
Company : Nestle
Agency : JWT

Brand Count : 272

Munch is the second largest brand in the chocolate based confectionery segment in India. It is also the largest selling SKU in the industry. Munch was launched in 1999 by Nestle to counter the brand Picnic from Cadbury. But now Munch survived and Picnic is dead.

Munch is positioned as a tasty brand. The brand is a result of the intense war between Kitkat and Perk. When Kitkat was launched, Cadbury launched Perk to flank its flagship brand Dairy Milk. The war between Kit Kat and Perk resulted in a stalemate and the category itself became stagnant. Then Munch was launched by Nestle as a price warrior. At Rs 5, the brand became a blockbuster success cannibalizing Kit Kat and forcing Perk to launch a low priced variant.

Munch is an any time consumption product. The product is a wafer layer covered with delicious chocolayer. The brand is positioned based on its taste. Munch uses the tagline " Can't Stop Munching" to promote its taste as the USP.
In 2004, the brand roped in the Bollywood actress Rani Mukharjee as the brand ambassador. The brand is promoted heavily across the visual media.

Watch the TVC here : Munch

Personally I never liked any of the commercials of Munch. All though Rani Mukharjee is perceived to be smart and full of energy, I always felt a touch of artificiality in the ads. ( compared with Perk and Priety Zinta) . And I never believe that the brand succeeded because of the commercials. The prime factor behind the brand's success was the price factor. Rs 5 always enthused the customers to make that impulse purchase. The quantity was just right for the price and parents will have a feeling that kids are not eating too much chocolate.
Munch is brand which has been innovating to keep the excitement going. Munch earlier had come out with a Coconut variant . Another major innovative variant was the Munch Pop Chocs. Pop Chocs are chocolaty nibbles in the form of wafer cubes. This variant is also promoted by Rani Mukharjee.
There is another interesting fact about Munch . Like Kit Kat, Munch is also trying to create a Brand Ritual. The ad asks the customers to Take a Munch Pop Chocs, Twist it and Pop it into the mouth. I feel that this attempt of creating a Ritual is not going to meet with the success that Kit Kat had.
Although I have serious reservations about the campaigns, the market has given a thumbs up to the brand. The company has also invested heavily into the brand which has reaped rich rewards.

Kit Kat : Have a break , Have a Kit Kat

Brand : Kit Kat
Company : Nestle
Agency : JWT

Brand Analysis Count : 261

Kit Kat is one of the world's largest selling chocolate brands. I am little nostalgic about this brand because when I was doing the management degree course, the war between Kit Kat and Perk was at the peak. I still remember doing a retailer survey to find out who was winning the fierce marketing battle at that time.

Kit Kat was born in 1935 as Chocolate Crisp. The company which manufactured this brand was Rowntree Ltd of York, England. The brand was renamed as Rowntree Chocolate Crisp in the year 1937 and acquired the brand name Kit Kat shortly after Worldwar II . The brand was acquired by Nestle in the year 1988. According to Wikipedia, Kit Kat derived its name from the Kit- Cat Club which was a literary club located in Christopher- Catling (Kit- Cat) Pie House. Except for US, Kit Kat is marketed by Nestle while in US the brand is marketed by Hershey's.

Kit Kat was launched in India in 1995. The brand was an instant hit because of smart marketing as well as the novelty of the product. Kit Kat is wafer covered in chocolate. During the time of the launch , there was no such kind of product although wafer biscuits were available in the market. The high profile launch of Kit Kat and Perk created a new segment of Wafer Chocolates. Though a new segment was created, none of the brands were able to sustain or grow this segment.

Kit Kat was launched as a young vibrant snack . The brand was positioned as an anytime snack ( similar to Perk). Kit Kat differentiated itself based on its finger shaped wafer bar( product form). More than the shape, Kit Kat differentiated itself by a ritual. We all know that to teach an Indian consumer new way of doing things is one of the most difficult tasks for a marketer. Nestle has proved to be a master in that. Using smart advertising, Kit Kat taught Indian consumers a new way of eating this product. Kit Kat used advertisement to promote a ritual for eating a Kit Kat. The ritual has the following steps:

Remove the wrapper.
Separate a finger bar using your finger
Break the bar
Eat it.

Surprisingly customers accepted this ritual. Even now, after over 12 years of this campaign, still customers follow this ritual. That shows the power of smart advertising. And I think that the campaign succeeded because
It made sense. ( Its first time customers are seeing such a product form)
&
The ads were cool.

The brand used the world famous campaign " Have a break, have a Kit Kat". I think it is one of the best taglines a brand can have. From the tagline itself, its obvious that the brand is positioned as anytime snack. The brand targeted the young crowd and the ads were in line with the TG. The segmentation is based on the Usage Occasion.

Surprisingly , during the 2004-05, the brand changed its famous tagline of Have a break to " Kit Kat Khao Khush Ho Jao" translated to Eat Kit Kat , Be Happy. I am not sure why brands change their famous and successful taglines. Kit Kat is currently running campaigns based on this tagline. I have seen some reports of legal hindrances faced by Nestle in copyrighting the tagline " Have a break " , but for a successful tagline like this , Nestle already have taken copyright from the customers. Even if the competitor uses this tagline, only Kit Kat benefits. But Kit Kat is now struggling with establishing the new tagline.

In 2007 , the brand made a smart move by launching a new variant Kit Kat Lite , which is a low sugar low calorie variant. The launch is in line with the trend in the Indian market for healthy foods. The brand is now promoted with a cool commercial. I am sure the ad will appeal to the hip -hop crowd.

Watch the commercial here : Kit Kat Lite
Kit Kat lite is promoted as a healthy option for all the calorie conscious. The variant uses the tagline " 50% less sugar, 100 % taste, don't think Just bite" . There is also a brand site justbite.com. I am little skeptical about the attractiveness of " 50% less sugar" : whether it is compelling enough for a calorie conscious to take the bite. However, the brand has to be lauded for the initiative.

Kit Kat faced tough competition from Perk during the nineties , but now Perk is also struggling to find the right positioning after discarding its original positioning. Both the brands have struggled to expand the market for this segment. I personally feel that Kit Kat may do well if it gets back its original positioning based on the tagline " Have a break".

source: wikipedia, nestle.in