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Cadbury, Nestle lock horns over Pehli tarikh adWe have ample stock of food grains: FM

: Any time is a good time to snack as long as it is convenient, tastes sinful and doesn’t burn a hole in the pocket. Agree?

For many consumers, regimented breakfast-lunch-dinner lifestyles have ceased to exist. They are simply grabbing a bite on the run and in cars, while waiting for the bus in long-winding queues. Or while watching the seemingly endless saas-bahu sagas on television, plonked on their drawing-room sofas.

Little wonder the snack food market is growing fatter… err… faster than ever before. The market, which was growing at a steady trot of 16-20% for the past few years, is expected to clock 25% growth in 2007 to stand at Rs 5,000-Rs 5,500 crore. Of course the branded segment is much smaller at Rs 2,200 crore, which is what makes it so attractive to food companies that are looking at bigger shares. In the branded snacks market, to get down to basics, FritoLay commands a share of 45%, followed by Haldiram’s at 27% and ITC at 16%. The rest is divided between a handful of new entrants, wannabes and many regional players.

Since snacking is largely a hunger-driven impulse decision rather than a planned eating occasion, staying top of mind is high on the agenda of most big players in the segment. Look at the kind of things the big boys are doing to grab more eyeballs and, as a corollary, a larger share of the wallet.

Kellogg India, the subsidiary of breakfast cereal maker, Kellogg Co, is beefing up its distribution network to promote its snack brand K-Pak (Rs 10 per pouch), which was launched last year and targets kids. On Kellogg’s new initiative, Anupam Dutta, managing director, says, “K-Pak is basically an accessibility initiative. We have developed a unique positioning for it in India—as a nutritious afternoon snack for school children.” Hence, the ad for K-Pak reads Sham ka Nashta.

Currently, K-Pak range has four variants in India. “Our core focus will be on school contact programmes. Our target is to contact 3 lakh schools across tier-I, II and III towns across the country,” Dutta adds. To this end, the company is also beefing up its brand building activities, including a new mass media campaign. To support its mass media plans, Kellogg will unveil a slew of below-the-line activities which include on-ground promotions and sampling exercises.