One man?s slowdown could be another?s fast forward. That?s the thought conveyed by Deepika Warrier, marketing head of PepsiCo?s Frito-Lay India. Heady with the launch of a new wheat variant of popular ready-to-eat snack, Kurkure Desi Beats Crunchy Wheat (in Flirty Lime flavour), Warrier mischievously rolls her eyes when she says, ?The year 2008 was good for FMCGs. We too have had a solid year.? She should know. She?s served the country?s largest food and beverage company for close to nine years. Looking peppy and relaxed in Frito-Lay?s corporate office in Gurgaon, Warrier spoke to FE?s Radhika Sachdev.
Would you let the cat out of the bag? Media reports suggest that ITC Foods is reeling under pressure and has put several projects on hold; but there is no stopping Frito-Lay. What do you attribute this to?
I?d say, we are spending our money wisely. All that I know is that since our products are priced very rationally at affordable price points, the slowdown has not impacted us, as much as other sectors. Yet we do understand that consumers are feeling the pinch and are therefore trying to pack more value into our products through a combination of value promotions and innovation. You may have seen Kukure?s new Rs 20 offer that offers 20% more snack for the same price. We also have a small price-point SKU (stock keeping unit)?Rs 3?on Kurkure that receives good traction. Innovation and promotions, those are our focus at the moment.
Last year, our portfolio promotion, Chala Change Ka Chakkar, set the tone for an exciting year. This was later turned into a reality TV format and telecast on national television. Each ?life swapping? episode featured a celebrity living the everyday life of the winner?grocery shopping, ordering lunch menu or dropping kids off to school?while the winner swapped his/her life with that of the celebrity, namely, Saif, Juhi and Dhoni. This year, we?ve launched a massive experiential promotion on Lay?s (the Lay?s Playmaster promotion), where in addition to giving away more than Rs 6 crore in prize money, 40 chosen consumers will get to travel to ICC T-20 matches in England and announce the Play of the Day.
A bulk of your new flavours appears to be skewed towards the Indian palate. No fun without desipan?
We innovate with desi/local flavours because that resonates with Indian customers. And as you rightly said, historically our flavours are based on north Indian cuisine probably because our first plant was located in Punjab. However, we have been launching regionally relevant offerings for a while now. As recently as in March, we introduced three regional flavours under Kurkure?South Special (for the south territory), Mumbai Chatpata (for the west) and Parar Tok Jhaal (for the east). We?ve picked up a lot of local nuances in these three innovations. For instance, there is a hint of mustard in Parar Tok Jhaal, chat and chilli flavour in Mumbai Chatpatta and a dash of curry leaves in South Special. Kurkure Desi Beats Crunchy Wheat, if you?d notice, has a distinct lime pickle taste with a wheat base akin to mathri and achaar combination.
Your movement towards healthier products is also perceptible, represented by Kurkure Desi Beats Crunchy Wheat and the use of the ?smart snack? logo.
I prefer the tag of ?wellness? to ?health?, and yes, we are innovating a lot in that respect. Three years ago, we removed, monosodium glutamate (MSG) from all our products and in 2007, in case of our core products (Lay?s Kurkure, Uncle Chipps and Cheetos) we switched to rice bran oil that contains a good ratio of the better fats (33% of MUFA and PUFA). With this, we have effectively reduced saturated fats by almost 40% while maintaining the same price and taste. In addition, all our brands?Lay?s, Kurkure, Cheetos, Uncle Chipps, Lehar ?carry zero trans fat and no added MSG.
However, there is still a lot of sodium content.
That?s the Indian palate. We do consume a lot of salt in everything. However, in our plans, we are working on that aspect as well.
Why two ambassadors for Kurkure?
We continue with both Juhi and Kareena. Kareena, being the face of young Indians, has a great fit with Kurkure Desi Beats, while Juhi continues to be the face of the larger Kurkure family. In their unique manner, they continue to contribute to the brand.
Tell us something about your new television commercial with Kareena?
It?s her first appearance with Jab We Met director Imtiaz Ali, who, she claims is her favourite director. The film has been shot outdoor in wheat fields and the script completely suits Kareena?s personality. You will see the results on air very soon.
You have never thought of innovating with the sweet Indian tooth?
We did a soft launch of a sweet brand called 3Ds in the southern market, but frankly didn?t invest too much in it. We are formulating our thoughts on snack innovation, as we go forward.
Ready-to-eat snacks is a high impulse category. How frequently do you need to launch a variant to keep interest alive in a brand?
On an average, we?ve been launching almost one every month. Quite a few of these are planned, short-run launches, such as Lay?s Chilli Chinese. They are released in the market just to create a stir in the category and are discreetly phased out as soon as the job is done. There are also products set up for a long haul. Kurkure Desi Beats Crunchy Wheat falls in this category.
We do a lot of research before we launch anything new into the market. Often we also involve our customers in this exercise. For instance, recently we had a ?fight for your flavour? activation with Lay?s. In this campaign, spearheaded by brand ambassadors Saif Ali Khan Pataudi and MS Dhoni, consumers were invited to vote (through SMS) for one of our two new flavours Spunky Pimento and Balsamic Blast and it helped us decide what flavour they were rooting for. Ultimately, it was their vote that decided which flavour stayed on in the market. Likewise on Kurkure, we?ve done a promotion called Chai Time Achievers, wherein we invited consumers to send in their innovative recipes. The winner family had their pictures printed over one million packs. Would you believe it?we received over one lakh recipes and 52 families got featured on over one million packs at the final count.
Explain the latest Tedha Hai Par Mera Hai communication for Kurkure.
That?s our new positioning led by the insight that today?s young Indian consumers are no longer striving to be perfect in everything. On the contrary, they are comfortable about their imperfections and quirks. In this campaign, we?re showcasing and celebrating regional quirks relevant to our audiences, thus taking the Tedha Hai Par Mera Hai philosophy closer to our consumers? lives. It?s a national-level campaign with Juhi Chawla in the north version and the west India version and popular Tollywood actress Simran in the south version, promoting their respective region?s palette.
Has there ever been a time when your research misled you? When you over or under promised to your consumer and realised your mistake?
That happens at times and we do quickly rectify, live and learn. I remember when we launched Lay?s Chaat Street with the tagline Chips Pe Chaat Ka Mazaa. We didn?t realise that consumers would open their packs and expect to find the real thing there. That was an over promise and repeat interest in the product petered out over time.
The slowdown must have brought about heavy cuts in market research?
That?s a dangerous thing to do because this is the time to keep close tabs, do price checks, track real value to the customer etc. PepsiCo is investing extensively in insights to get closer to our consumers and understand their needs. To paraphrase someone, ?why waste a good slowdown??