Brands
Parle’s bid to overthrow Britannia’s Nutrichoice
MUMBAI: The digestive cookies range in India is dominated by Britannia Nutrichoice range of biscuits. The market is huge and every brand now sees opportunity in the segment due to increased awareness and healthy eating choices of the consumers.
In a bid to compete and make its mark in this sector, home grown brand Parle Products has launched its own range of digestive biscuits under the umbrella of NutriCrunch. The launch of the healthy range of biscuits is inspired by the growing demand for healthy snacking options among Indian consumers and will include products like Nutricrunch Digestive, Nutricrunch Honey & Oats, Nutricrunch Digestive Marie and Nutricrunch Lite Cracker.
This is the second innings for brand Parle in the health category. The company has decide to phase out its older health biscuit offerings that was sold under the Simply Good brand name. While the production of Simply Good has been completely stopped, Parle Products now wants to complete switch and focus on NutriCrunch. The sheer reason for Simply Good not being so “simply good” was due to lack of effort and focus on the product’s marketing as a healthy alternative to regular biscuits and Parle Products does not want to repeat the same again.
Priced at a sweet spot of Rs 20, the confectionary and biscuit giant wants to capture a sizeable share of 15 per cent in the 1200 crore health segment in India. The company, however, faces stiff completion from Britannia Nutrichoice that occupies a major 70 per cent premium health biscuit category followed by ITC’s Sunfeast range of Famlite biscuits and McVitties Digestive biscuits.
For Parle Products, it’s important to diversify its portfolio into more premium products as a majority of its revenue – both in value and volume terms – still comes from its mass market brand Parle G. While that segment is growing steadily, premium offerings will bring in better margins and faster growth in future. The Platina division is just a year old but is already growing in the high double-digits.
Indiantelevision.com spoke to Parle Products category head for biscuits Mayank Shah to understand insights into launching the product, competition with Britannia, scope in the market and much more.
Why did you decide on launching health products at this point in time?
It was the right time for us to enter the market as we see huge potential in this category. Consumers of health category are divided into those who are actively seeking healthier options and those that passively consumer healthy products once in a while to reduce the guilt of leading an unhealthy lifestyle. A primary reason why we didn’t want to get into health segment was because a larger pool of consumers were passive health-conscious but that is increasingly changing. The active health conscious consumers will not consider the price of a product while purchasing a product, whereas passive consumers only tend to buy when there are offers or the products are available at a cheaper price.
But why did you decide on launching NutriCrunch? What happens to Simply Good then?
We were already present in the health category but we didn’t really focus on those products and rather focused on our other products. We didn’t really see a huge value in Simply Good products as well. That why our focus was limited. However, we have seen an increasing traction in the health category. Soon after we launched the Platina category last year, health segment was always going to be our next focus.
What kind of consumer research behind the product launch? You much have had a lot of pressure on getting it right the second time?
We conducted extensive research this time. We reached out to consumers across India and asked them what kind of product would they like to have. Our research revealed that most consumers were looking at healthier alternatives with low sugar and multigrain biscuits.
What kind of growth opportunity do you see in the sector?
The health segment in India is growing in double digits. It is growing at the rate of 15-17 per cent per annum. There is a shift in consumer’s trend where they are actively seeking healthier products. There is a large quantum of consumers that seek healthier options out of guilt and we see a large scope there and want to tap those consumers.
What is your distribution plan like for the new range of products?
It’s launched under the Platina range and so will be well distributed across metros and mini metros. We are looking at selling it to more than 1 million towns over the next two-three months.
What about online sales? Will that also be your focus to get the product out in the market?
Online and modern trade will be an important channel for us. We will be available across all leading e-commerce platforms.
Why did you launch this new category under Platina umbrella?
Simply because Platina is skewed towards modern trade and online channels. Also because it has a natural fit with the distribution channel and the consumers. Platina consumers are relatively evolved and modern who don’t mind spending some extra bucks for a quality product.
What are your revenue expectation with this product?
There is a huge potential and scope in this segment. The health segment market is currently valued at Rs 1200 crore and we want to corner a 15 per cent share of it by 2019 (by the end of first year of operation for Nutricrunch).
Don’t you think it is a super competitive market for you to enter in? There are already established players in the market…
Yes, it is a super competitive market but it is an extremely growing category as well and there is a scope for more players to participate in it. Its because of the entry of multiple players coming in and more buzz around the category.
What kind of investment went into the launch of this new product line?
We cant really reveal the numbers but yes, we did invest heavily into the R&D for these products and getting them right. It took us a year and half to design the product.
What were your biggest barriers while entering into the category? What sort of challenge do you see in the market?
Our biggest challenge right now is to make the product available across India at the earliest and have a strong distribution muscle. The biggest challenge initially was supplying the products to retailers due to the recent transport strike. We were all ready and geared up for the launch but had to push it due to the transport strike. Our next challenge will be to ensure that we have enough conversions from passive health product custumers to active consumers. We will have to make consumers relatively price insensitive and ready to pay a fair price for these products.
When will you launch your campaign to advertise and market these products?
Once we roll out the products entirely, which should be done by mid September, then we will look at launching the campaign in August.
Will you look at having a brand ambassador for the category since you also have Twinkle Khanna for Platina?
No, we are not looking at having a brand ambassador at the moment.
What will be your marketing strategy for product marketing?
It will definitely be a 360-degree campaign with an increased focus on digital.
Lately, a lot of brands are looking at cutting down sugar and salt in the products. Will Parle Products also look at going the same route?
Our new range of products is a step towards cutting down sugar and salt content in products and we will increasingly look at how we can improve the quality of our existing line of products without changing the taste of quality.
Brands
Creative Intelligence: Using AI to Predict Which Ads Will Actually Convert
Priyanka Aeron, Director & Co-founder of Thrive Global AI
MUMBAI: In a heavily populated digital landscape, simply being creative with your advertising will not guarantee that your ad will be successful. In fact, brands today are producing more content than ever. However, very little of that results in actual engagement or sales. However, Creative Intelligence, powered by AI, is fundamentally transforming the advertising industry.
Creative Intelligence utilizes data, machine learning, and statistical behavioral insights to analyze and predict how well a creative asset will perform prior to it being published. Therefore, marketers no longer have to rely on either their gut instincts or post-campaign analytics for making informed decisions before production. That said, AI-powered creative intelligence greatly improves results and decreases wasted dollars spent.
Moving Beyond Guesswork
In the past, making ads was a mix of gut feeling, experience, and A/B testing. These methods were useful, but reactive by nature. People have already spent their budgets by the time the results are looked at. AI models can find patterns that are linked to higher engagement and conversion rates by looking at huge datasets. These datasets can include things like past campaign performance, audience behavior, and visual elements like color, composition, and facial expressions. This helps marketers guess which ads will do well even before they go live.
Decoding What Truly Drives Conversions
AI-powered creative intelligence allows for an evaluation of advertisements that is not limited to the basic data but also explores the elements of an effective advertisement through subtle reactions; clarity and directness of the ad message and how well the ad captures audience’s attention in the first three seconds. AI can also provide insights into the successful use of advertisements directed to human faces, which connect through eye contact based on media channels, and how advertisements that utilize shorter but clear calls to action may produce more clicks from certain populations. The insights, provided through AI, provide marketers with the ability to think beyond creating more advertising material and additionally create more effective ad campaigns that actually convert.
Personalization at Scale
Consumers expect relevance more than ever. Irrelevant mass messaging is not going to work in a society inundated with information. Hyper-personalization, using AI, allows companies to create content that suits individual segments within their target markets based on their demographics, interests, and behaviors. Rather than having one single message that aims to reach everyone, brands can have many versions of their messages tailored to each segment within the market. Such flexibility is what makes campaigns successful nowadays.
Faster Iteration, Better Results
Another advantage to using AI in creative decision-making is speed. Companies must improvise because their campaign cycles are shorter than ever before, and having the ability to iterate rapidly is more important than it has ever been. There is no greater way to do this work than through AI, as new technologies give brands the ability to test multiple creative avenues and figure out which ones are working well. This reduces a lot of the testing that companies would otherwise have to do and makes the process faster.
With AI, brands can also make creative changes in real-time during a campaign, allowing the, to make vital decisions and adjust their creatives, rather than waiting out. This allows for faster adaptability, well-tested campaigns and reduced lost ad spend.
The Human-AI Collaboration
Even though AI is capable of performing certain tasks, its purpose is not to eliminate human creativity. Successful campaigns require human collaboration with computer intellect since both complement each other. While computers are capable of dealing with massive amounts of information, discovering patterns, and providing predictions, humans are the one to inject stories and emotions into campaigns.
The Future of Advertising
As the complexity of advertising becomes harder with the passage of time, Creative Intelligence will play a significant role in helping marketers formulate a strategic approach. The yardstick that will set standards for determining whether a marketing firm has fulfilled its responsibilities will be the forecasting of future outcomes, as well as personalized content and optimization of creative elements in real-time. In contrast to the existing scenario where the campaigns remain fixed, these campaigns will be capable of adjusting themselves according to the customer interacting with the brand, as well as other trends on social media channels. This will enable brands to offer customers an engaging experience that will exceed expectations. The biggest hurdle marketers will face will be finding ways to utilize these capabilities without compromising branding and enhancing the creativity of the team involved.
