Brands
‘Awsum’ idea: Immunity booster chocolate brand launches in India
Mumbai: Amid the Covid2019 pandemic, with people going gaga over immunity boosters, here’s a new one – now, chocolates made of Ayurvedic herbs and botanicals to boost your immunity.
Designed to help the urban working millennials deal with their modern-day lifestyle disorders, Pranav Sharma and Kritik Thakur have launched India’s first functional chocolate brand, Awsum – a first of its kind chocolate brand which uses Ayurvedic principles to make products healthier without compromising on taste. Awsum uses the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda and combines it with premium dark and milk chocolate to create exciting products that come with functional benefits.
Functional chocolate as a category is very new and novel for the Indian markets with no similar brands available in the same space. These chocolates are packed with herbs and nutrients that help the body to deal with modern-day lifestyle health disorders and are very relevant for the current scenario where we are all dealing with a pandemic like Covid, the brand said in a press release. The chocolates have a rich and smooth texture and do not come at a compromise of taste.
Awsum has launched four variants to start off with: Daily Energy, Sleep, Goodbye Stress, and Active Immunity.
“The mission of the brand is to inspire lifelong healthy habits by bringing simplicity, inspiration and delight to the world of supplements and nutraceuticals. These functional chocolates immensely help you to fight and deal with modern-day lifestyle problems- from sleep deprivation to stress and anxiety,” said Awsum co-founders, Pranav Sharma and Kritik Thakur.
The idea of Awsum was conceived in the backdrop of nationwide lockdown declared by the government last year in 2020 when the co-founders themselves grappled with problems such as sleep deprivation, day time lethargy, and anxiety. And their own experience led to the creation of the brand that aims to help people deal with these problems in a more convenient and palatable way.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
