Things may not have come to such a pass where the cook inquires from the Indian missus, ?Madam, which brand should I knead today??, but wait, we may soon be getting there.

If retailers have their way, you?d soon have the option to choose not just among varieties of rice and atta, but also of dal and spices, some of which may come loaded with extra nutrients. The move towards de-commoditisation may have started about a decade back, but lately, it has got a leg up with the introduction of value-added spices and dals at swanky retail outlets, opening up the market for branded groceries.

Take this. Recently, the Tamil Nadu-based Rs 100-crore Asian Health & Nutri Foods signed up Mudra Communications, Chennai (account size: Rs 7 crore) for the national launch of their Jeyyam brand of dals. Jeyyam is a nutrient-enhanced pulse variety that?s become very popular in the southern market since launch in 2003. The company is now keen to launch Gundu Sambar Paruppu (full toor dal with sprouts) under a catchy slogan ?Q3 Jeyyam?, to be followed by an array of urad, moong and fried grams.

Speaking to FE, S Radhakrishnan, executive vice-president, Mudra, south, says, ?Since, trust is the main differentiator in the price-sensitive commodities market, our strategy is to build this brand through value-added offerings.?

Towards this end, the company claims to have invented a unique dal processing technology, STPT (soft touch process technology), that doesn?t remove husk from the grain in the same way as conventional methods do. Jeyyam dal is, thus, peddled to be more nutritious than the loose conventional varieties. This, it hopes, will raise the stock of this branded commodity with the Indian consumer.

Sadashiv Nayak, CEO, Pantaloon Retail?s Food Bazaar, that showcases 10-12 key commodity-brands at 85 stores across the country, says, ?The Indian consumer?s transition from non-branded to branded to value-added commodities, is not just a reflection of their increasing brand consciousness but also the trust they repose, first in the food chain, and second, within that, in the brand that they are buying.?

Indeed, the opportunity is immense. The food and grocery segment constitutes 62% of Rs 12,00,000-crore Indian retail market. According to IMAGES F&B Research estimates, just 0.8% of this segment is organised. While the organised segment grew at 30.8% during 2005-06, food retail segment clocked a measly 2.2%. Therein hangs the tale of the unused retail opportunity in the food and grocery segment.

Incidentally, Food Bazaar hawks its own label Premium Harvest, the raw stock for which is sourced from group subsidiary Pantaloon Foods. ?The turnover of Premium Harvest products is over 90% in comparison to other branded commodities,? says Nayak.

It?s not that loose commodities are not popular at big retail formats. ?In fact, people still like to touch and feel their grain before its crushed,? says Nayak, ?But in big metros at least, the demand for branded commodities is growing at 30% per annum.? Small wonder, the group plans to double their Food Bazaar stores by the end of this fiscal.

Explaining how this change has come about, Prasoon Joshi, national creative director of McCann-Erickson India, the agency that launched the country?s first branded atta, ITC?s Aashirvaad atta says, ?The challenge in devising a brand identity for commodities lies in making them distinguishing yet relatable.? That?s easier said than done, because at the end of the day, atta is just plain atta that you require to make chapatis. How much can you persuade a consumer to pay for branded atta, when there is so much product parity?

Yet branded commodities are becoming popular essentially on the promise of better hygiene and quality. ?Ultimately, the consumer must feel that someone is paying attention to ensuring that the best grain is being picked and packaged. In a price sensitive market, the credibility of the source?where is the grain coming from and how is it being processed becomes very important,? says Joshi.

?When we worked on Aashirvaad,? recalls Joshi, ?we bore in mind the fact that the imagery has to be accessible and that we cannot connote the product to be expensive. We also had to understand the storage conditions under which atta is stocked in kirana shops. The design, graphics and colours of the packaging had to stand out.?

Last but not the least, keeping the category in mind, commodities branding also requires a strong emotional connect with the consumer. Hence names like Ashirvaad or Annapurna, HUL?s atta brand launched nationally in 1998.

Driving home this trust and emotion associated with commodity marketing is the TV commercial for Dhara oil. Stomping into his room, a toddler flings his books on the bed. His brother gives him a puzzled look. ?I am leaving home,? the kid informs his brother in no uncertain terms. With a twinkle in his eye, the elder one calls out, ?But mummy has made jalebis today.? The boy drops dead in his tracks.

The next clip shows him gorging on the jalebis. The ticker reads: ?Anokhi shudhata, anokha asar. Dhara?.