Spot on

It is not often that one finds a firm in India executing a marketing/promotion plan or product launch which captures Indian consumer insights well. I do not know the exact reason why it is so difficult to find such examples, although I have my theories on that (will be posted sometime on this blog). Coming to the examples.

One is Food Bazaars (retail chain owned by Pantaloon) which captures the Indian housewife's favourite shopping habit of asking dhania (coriander) for free if she buys a lot of sabji (vegetables) from the vendor. Food Bazaar has used a smart ploy of giving a shopping bag (albeit a small one) FREE for anyone who purchases more than Rs.1000 worth in their shop.The shopping bag can be filled with as many vegetables as one wants or fits in the bag without tearing the bag.. One has to see it to believe the success of this ploy and the real fight the housewives put in getting maximum vegetables into that bag. Kudos ...

Second is Maggi's decision to launch veg atta noodles. This is not any new insight but listening to a continous refrain of moms who felt Maggi with its Maida was bad for stomach and rightly so. This was leading to a lot of substitution of this favourite evening snack with other healthier alternatives. Although the wheat changes the colour of good old Maggi a bit, its slightly brown not the bright yellow.

Third is ITC Sunfeast Pasta Treat. It aims to create a new home snack categort a la Maggi noodles. Pasta is already popular but not eaten regularly by families due to the high prices charged by the designer restaurants. Aptly branded the advertising brings a sense of a treat, plus the goodness of wheat in the pasta and the convenience of making it at home at just Rs.15 a pack. This would just heat up the action in the foods market and challenge Maggi which already costs a high Rs.11 a pack...