|
: Sameer Sunejam has taken over as chief executive officer of Perfetti Van Melle (PVM). An IIM Bangalore alumnus, Suneja started his career at Colgate Palmolive. He also had a stint at Frito Lay before joining Perfetti as brand manager in 1997. Since then he has played a key role in the company’s growth in India. Under his stewardship the company has won more than 28 awards for creativity (domestic and international) and nine awards at the Effies in the past four years. In a freewheeling interview with FE’s Ruchi Kapoor, Suneja talks about how PVM plans to carry the good work forward.
Worldwide Perfetti is known as a gum company. In India it is Alpenliebe, a hard-boiled candy, which is its biggest revenue earner. In effect, Perfetti is heavily dependent on one brand. Is that desirable in a fickle market such as confectionery?
First let me break a few myths. Internationally, we are not a gum company; our largest brand across the world is Mentos. We call it a chew. We are very big with gums in Italy and with candies in Asia. Alpenliebe is big in India, China, and Indonesia. We were dependent on Alpenliebe; but that was almost six/seven years ago.
Unlike Wrigley, which is predominantly a gum company, we have mints, gums and candies. In fact, in India we have a balanced portfolio. Center Fresh is the largest chewing gum brand in India and in value terms it’s similar to Alpenliebe. We have Big Babol, Mentos, Chlormint and Happydent White. We are uniquely placed in that we have a nice mix of products, which allows us to de-risk ourselves in any given segment.
Would you say advertising played a big role in building Perfetti’s brands in India? You have been a consistent performer at the Abby’s and Effies.
It has served us well in this very low impulse category. When consumers go to a paan shop they look at the confectionary items and buy it. As a result the advertising or brand building activities play a huge role in keeping the brand top of mind. However, building top of mind recall is difficult in our category. Distribution plays a massive role because unless a brand is distributed well—and even if it is recalled—it will not be bought. It has to be distributed, visible and has to be upfront. It’s very unlikely that people will switch outlets to look for their favourite confectionery...
More from BrandWagon
| Single Page Format | 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - Next |
Discuss this story on expressindia forums
|
|
 |
 |
 |
About Us | Contact Us | Advertisers | Site Map | Make us your homepage | Work for Us | RSS | Subscribe | Electronic Edition | Privacy Policy© 2009: The Indian Express Limited. All rights reserved throughout the world
