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<ul><li>Last week, Zee Entertainment Enterprises mentioned FMCG brands like Pepsi, Maggi, ITC Dark Fantasy, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Red Label Tea and Amul Lassi in its OOH campaign and a week before that, Lay’s also thanked other brands for their services. </li><li>But it wasn’t just brands from unrelated categories uplifting each other. Brands like Dunzo, Swiggy, Dettol and Lifebuoy have also shown in the recent past how difficult times are about putting competition to rest and working together towards a common goal. </li><li>We reached out to experts to understand how well it bodes for brands to opt for this empathetic strategy. They opined that consumers respect brands that care about things other than business and work together for a single, larger cause. </li></ul>For years, <keyword id="9575066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="rival-brands">rival brands</keyword> have engaged in ad wars that called each other out on social media or pulled each other down publicly to achieve one-upmanship. However, we are in the midst of a global pandemic and many SMBs and even well-established brands are struggling to survive in this highly volatile environment. Therefore, it is time for big brands to pause, reflect, rework their strategies and most importantly, keep aside competition to prioritise consumer interest. A few brands like Dunzo, Swiggy, Dettol and Lifebuoy that provide essential services swallowed their pride and decided to uplift each other in their brand campaigns. By acknowledging their competitors, these brands reminded their consumers that we are all in this together. With its wit that it is known for, Dunzo had posted a creative on social media saluting those who chose to do the ‘ride’ thing and thanked Swiggy, Grofers and BigBasket. <div type="javascript" title="Instagram" contenttype="Image"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div> After Dunzo’s post, Swiggy launched a video campaign called ‘Sukhriya Kare’ with leading social media influencers to thank heroes who wear a helmet and drive around on their scooters to deliver essential products -- risking their lives. It also mentions rival delivery partners Dunzo, Medlife and Grofers. <div type="javascript" title="Instagram" contenttype="Video"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div> In yet another heartwarming gesture, bathing soap giant Lifebuoy released a public service print ad that urged the audience to buy a soap they have access to -- be it Lux, Dettol, Santoor or Godrej No 1. <div type="twitter" handle="ambimgp" handlename="Ambi Parameswaran" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1075309911880421378/egNXy-cA_normal.jpg" favoritecount="258" retweetcount="82" status="⁦@HUL_News⁩ Great initiative to advertise the importance of hand wash ⁦@htTweets⁩. And a big hurray for mentioning… https://t.co/66U8bINm4x" createdat="1580453185000" id="1223135428984725504"></div> But does this really work? Unusual times call for unique solutions. Lloyd Mathias, Business Strategist and Angel Investor said it is a great idea to keep aside competition and collaborate, especially during times of crisis. Mathias said, “The Covid pandemic is a moment of great human suffering as brands coming together – even with competitors – speaks well about our larger need to fight this together. Very early on during this pandemic, Apple and Google came together to partner on COVID-19 contact tracing technology. A positive step by two tech giants signalling the seriousness of the challenge and the need to bring all hands on deck.” Highlighting how this strategy can help brands gain consumer affinity, Mathias added, “At times of any major disruption or calamity, brand wars must take a back seat and rise to the occasion keeping consumer interest in mind. Consumers will see this as a positive and mature sign, recognizing that brands can put behind their differences when it comes to larger concerns of humanity.” In the age of social media, anything that is a little different from regular communications generates a lot of chatter. And emotions go a long way. Lay’s had also launched a digital campaign to express gratitude towards the unsung heroes of India who have brought joy to millions even in these challenging times like Dunzo, Zomato, Flipkart, Whisper, to name a few. One might argue this strategy looks opportunistic but Nidhi Sinha, Head of Content, Mintel India told us that brands who care about things other than their business are not only bought more often but gain their consumer’s respect. Sinha said, “In times of the pandemic, Indian consumers have reflected a strong sense of affinity with the environment and local communities. As brands come together for a single cause, it certainly puts them in a good light as consumers respect the fact that these brands 'care' and are not just focused on their own business. According to a Mintel research conducted in February 2020, prior to COVID-19, 26% of Indians said that they expect brands to support environmental issues. As the country fights the crisis together, these initiatives not only show gratitude but also reflect a sentiment of care and selflessness, much needed in these times of need.” Telling us why inclusive ads would work more than <keyword id="9575064" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="competitive-ads">competitive ads</keyword> in today’s environment, N Chandramouli, CEO, TRA Research said, “Empathetic advertising instead of adversarial advertising is what people appreciate, especially in stressed situations like extended WFH, threat of Covid etc. Consumers do not want to be pushed to take sides in such a situation, and they want unadulterated information. Not only are such ads like a breath of fresh air, but they are also non-intrusive and gentle. Which is why they work well.” However, Chandramouli also said that brands will be brands and even in these instances, they subtly show how they have an upper hand over other players. He said, “The competitive spirit of brands comes when you are fighting for survival, market share and mindshare. In some categories, if the category is the beneficiary of this crisis, they may keep the combatant side silent, but soon after the dust of the crisis settles, the pugilist in them will be out with gloves again. Even in these empathetic ads for instance, brands will be brands and they tend to subtly show their advantages against competition. After all, brands exist in a competitive world, and they do not exist to do philanthropy.” Not just in communications, crisis calls for long-term relationships Mathias said brands need to lend each other their expertise and fight the bigger battle together. “The lockdown severely impacted most businesses and in these times collaboration worked as an effective risk mitigation strategy to minimize revenue loss by ensuring supply and fair distribution. Brands may need to collaborate with their competitors in areas that they would normally compete for e.g. combining deliveries and sharing of logistics and manufacturing. Some may even consider doing joint messaging,” said he.

Brands are forgetting competition and patting rival businesses on their back, here is why

<ul><li><keyword id="3275685" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="dunzo">Dunzo</keyword> has grown 40X as a business and 8X in terms of number of people on its platform in the past 18 months.</li><li>While its present in eight cities currently, it aims to enter 20 cities in the long run because they believe that’s where 70% of the business comes from.</li><li>With half a million monthly transacting users and two million monthly transactions, <keyword id="5016554" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="kabeer-biswas">Kabeer Biswas</keyword>, CEO, is certain they will touch 15-17 million monthly transactions by the end of next year.</li><li>Recently Dunzo raised $45 million in a fresh round from <keyword id="1058387" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lightbox">Lightbox</keyword>, <keyword id="6355629" type="DEFINITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="google">Google</keyword>, <keyword id="8178411" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="3L-Capital">3L Capital</keyword>, and <keyword id="8233231" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="stic-investment-stic-ventures">STIC Investment &amp; STIC Ventures</keyword>.</li></ul> It was in 2015, while working at another startup in Gurgaon that the idea for Dunzo first came to CEO Kabeer Biswas. The thought was simple – in a day and age when one can hail a cab by tapping a few times on your phone screen, why can’t the same be done for everything else? The thought primarily came to him because he was working for 15-16 hours everyday and did not want to waste his weekends on running errands. He ran the idea by a few friends in Bangalore, to get a validation on his idea, to get a sense of whether it was viable to run a <keyword id="3179264" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="hyper-local-delivery">hyper-local delivery</keyword> organization, and whether there was any demand for it. He set up Dunzo on a Whatsapp group and asked three of his friends to simply text him the chores they needed to get done. While there wasn’t much to do intially, within four months, it blew up on Whatsapp, Biswas had close to 10,000 users, without spending any money on advertising about the platform. It all happened through word-of-mouth. This was also the time when Biswas was the only person managing everything. It was in 2016 that Karthik Reddy of Blume Ventures was in Bangalore and he heard about Dunzo from the wives of his friends. Curious to know more about the venture, he got in touch with Biswas and that’s how Dunzo raised its first capital. The most part of 2016 was spent in building a team and putting up the product on the store. By 2017, Biswas was clear about the business model, Dunzo would largely do three things for its consumers, the business would be about collecting requests from consumers, the platform would help them place those requests seamlessly, would manage payments and then figure out who the correct person on ground is to manage the request. It was 2018 when Dunzo came under the spotlight, thanks to a $12.5 million funding from Google, its first direct investment in India. Since then, in the words of Biswas, ‘Things have been insane.’ He shares that while 2018 was all about building scale, 2019 has been all about managing that scale. What’s worked in favour of Dunzo so far While coming up with a business plan for Dunzo, Biswas says they were studying global players and seeing if they could find any parallel to what they wanted to achieve with their platform. The one platform that came closest to their offering was Indonesian unicorn Gojek, which is known to be a platform that delivers 'everything'. So what is it that Dunzo is trying to achieve? Biswas says, “We have been told globally that the number of times people use Dunzo in Indian cities is higher than what they have seen anywhere else in the world. The top 10% of our users use us 20 times a month. People are using us to largely deal with the local world around them. Someone told us, think of Dunzo as a browser on the top of the real world. It makes the real world a lot more convenient, exactly how the browser allows you to easily surf the internet. I believe by 2025, local search will no longer exist. It will most likely look like Dunzo, where you won’t want to search but tell the app about a shop and item and expect the app to get the work done for you. And the platform will take care of the payment and the logistics at the same time.” That the business model is working is clear from the fact that Dunzo has grown 40X as a business and 8X in terms of number of people on its platform in the past 18 months. Creating the 2.0 versions of on-demand services platforms Swiggy recently expanded its offering and launched Swiggy Go, an instant pick up and drop service to send packages anywhere across the city, a direct competition for Dunzo. While currently its offering the service only in Bengaluru, its plans are to expand to 300 cities by 2020. However, Biswas is unfazed and hardly looks at Swiggy’s offering as a threat. “Today there are two types of businesses, the 1.0 and the 2.0 businesses. Swiggy looks very much like the 1.0 businesses which went behind scale and built out a massive platform but the utilization ratios don’t work out. Globally, everybody who is a part of a 1.0 business has had to pivot to 2.0. For me, this is, if anything, a pivot at Swiggy, where just delivering food wasn’t good enough to make money. This is not only about Swiggy, but about every 1.0 business out there. They have to figure out the 2.0 version of them. Our utilization numbers are atleast 50-60% higher than any of the other 1.0 businesses.” Dunzo is also clear that they want to enter limited markets, and want to cover those markets extensively. “We believe that 20 cities account for almost 70% business in the country today. Our idea is to enter the top 20 cities in India and enter them deeply. We want to make sure that we are the largest local commerce player in these 20 cities. So we are very happy that Swiggy launched. Now that they have launched, we are still growing, and growing even faster. The only thing I can say is thank you, its helps us raise funds,” add Biswas with a laugh. Dunzo might even think of crossing international borders, in the next two years, shares Biswas. Plans for the next few quarters Currently Dunzo has half a million monthly transacting users and two million monthly transactions. By the end of next year, they expect to have 15-17 million monthly transactions on their platform. To achieve that, the platform will focus on improving their user experience. Biswas explains, “We genuinely believe that if you focus on building a better consumer experience, it leads to a better and sustainable business model. We are not in this business to gain market share but to make sure that we’re able to return our investor’s capital at some point. Every company that raises money has to give the money back and it has to be a sustainable business. So our focus will be to constantly invest on improving our consumer experience.” Currently, an average order takes 28 minutes to get delivered and within the next six months, Biswas expects to bump this number up to 25 minutes. Till today, Dunzo hasn’t spent too much on marketing the platform and it plans to keep it the same way in the foreseeable future. “For every 100 users that join Dunzo, 35-40 % of them are organic in nature. Around 35% come on board through incentivized referral channels, 15% come from BTL and 10% through digital,” explains Biswas. So no plans of using TV? His answer is a firm ‘No’. “I have this concept of ‘funny money’. When you have funny money, you should market big. However, if you are an internet business, why aren’t people talking to each other about you? They are all connected on the internet, so why do you need TV, really? TV is good for when your organic growth is slowing down and we are far away from it. It’s a trillion transactions that ‘we are chasing, and we are at 2 million currently. We have a long way to go,” he adds.

Dunzo is aiming at achieving 17 million monthly transactions by the end of next year, with minimal marketing

<ul><li>As the country continues to stay put and spend more time with their families, there is an increase in demand for snacks. </li><li><keyword id="5948549" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dilen-Gandhi">Dilen Gandhi</keyword>, Sr. Director and Category Head- Foods, <keyword id="110163" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="PepsiCo-India">PepsiCo India</keyword> tells us how difficult the lockdown period was for <keyword id="54572" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="PepsiCo">Pepsico</keyword>'s <keyword id="115385" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kurkure">Kurkure</keyword> and how it plans to leverage on the current rise in-home consumption for snacks.</li></ul>The pandemic-infused lockdown has affected consumers’ lifestyle and behaviours to a great extent. From what they watch to what they eat, consumers' priorities have completely changed. Albeit, it did bring along a silver lining as it gave them an opportunity to spend more quality time, reconnect and rediscover moments of togetherness with their families. Among many other things, the new normal has affected people’s snacking habits, which has now become more of a family bonding exercise than a personal activity. As a result, packaged food products like Lay’s and Kurkure -- that can be binged on while working, watching content or during weekend watch parties with your family -- have seen an uptick in demand for in-home consumption. PepsiCo’s Kurkure has not only seen its penetration in the country increase due to the lockdown, consumers are also ordering it more frequently and in larger packs. According to Kurkure’s recent study, 80% of the families surveyed have started snacking together. It has become a family bonding activity during these challenging times. To leverage the rising demand for in-home snacking, Kurkure launched a campaign earlier this month to capture how Indian families share an amazing bond in their own ‘atpata’ and ‘chatpata’ ways. <div type="Youtube" id="kf5UmRc3PYA" title="An Ode to Chatpati Indian Families | #ChatpataShukriya" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kf5UmRc3PYA/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Kurkure’s supply chain is also up and running now and has almost come to the normal levels to meet the demand. We caught up with Dilen Gandhi, Sr. Director and Category Head- Foods, PepsiCo India to understand what kind of changes has he observed in consumer behaviour during COVID, how is the snacking category evolving with time and what has adjusting in the new normal taught him. Experts: Q. We are living in unprecedented times today. How is Pepsico's Kurkure sailing through these challenging times? The nationwide lockdown imposed various challenges for businesses across industries. But with the world gradually coming back to normal, businesses and brands have been innovating and implementing new ways of working in today’s times. Changed consumer preferences led to an increase in demand of online deliveries, especially of food and other essentials. One of the key initiatives we took was to partner with delivery services such as Swiggy and Dunzo to meet in the increasing in home demand and support smaller business. Our associations with Swiggy and Dunzo, helped us deliver our products, such as Kurkure and LAY’S to our consumers. This further helped us strengthen our direct-to-home services. We have also been using this time to double-up on market research, helping us always have a finger on the pulse of our consumers. Our findings and internal surveys have helped shape our latest campaign, which aims to express gratitude towards Indian families for their continued support towards each other during difficult times. Kurkure’s latest campaign is an ode to the Indian families and thanks them for always being supportive, entertaining, and adding ‘masaledaar fun’ to each other’s lives. Q. What kind of changes in demand have you witnessed lately? As people have been adjusting to the ‘new normal’, in-home consumption has witnessed a significant uptake. We have witnessed a jump in both penetration and frequency of our food category. There has been a growing demand for our larger packs as in-home occasions have increased manifold. While the consumers are looking at in-home experiences and seeking convenience, they are also looking at value. We have also introduced various combo packs for our food portfolio creating and further driving in-home consumption. Q. How have you observed consumer behaviour changing during COVID in the snacking industry? The current situation requires brands to constantly evaluate the consumer experience and challenges being faced by them. During this time people sought moments of joy and togetherness with brands became the perfect companions in those moments. Several studies have shown that consumers are reassured by positive brand actions and commitments. This has underscored the need for the brands to be more purpose-driven than ever before. Thereby, making it essential to build genuine, empathetic, and transparent communication, which focuses on offering solutions rather than hard-core promotion. Besides Kurkure, even for LAY’S and Quaker our first communication was purpose-driven and the response we have received has been very encouraging. Q. How did you tweak your marketing strategy to resonate with the consumers in the current challenging situation? These unprecedented times gave rise to a ‘new-normal’ world and also altered the rules of a marketer’s playbook. Consumers today believe in brands that make a difference. A number of recent studies have shown that brands should not act alone – instead, they should join forces with others and contribute to the cause collaboratively. We are keeping a close eye on evolving trends of consumer behaviour and redefining our brand strategies accordingly. Keeping the above in mind, we launched Kurkure’s Thanks To Indian Families, wherein we leveraged increased in-home consumption and families spending more quality time together. Q. Your recent campaign tries to leverage on in-home consumption. Tell us a bit about why you decided to change your focus? What does your overall communication strategy look like now? Earlier this month, Kurkure launched a campaign to express gratitude towards millions of Indian families for their continued support and for entertaining each other in their own ‘atpata’ and ‘chatpata’ ways during these challenging times. The new campaign is based on three key insights. The cultural insight of how India has been known for its family - centric setup, the social insight - which recognizes the deepened bond, uptick in family time and increased connect between family members during the lockdown phase, and the consumer insight which identifies people's need to express themselves in fun and quirky ways. These insights fit well with Kurkure as the brand has always been about fun times with family in its trademark ‘quirky and full of masti’. It aims to capture the nuances of the relationship that all family members share with each other and celebrates how they have kept one another upbeat even during these times. Going forward, the strategy will be to continue leveraging insights and purpose-driven storytelling and communicating through a mix of channels, led by digital. Q. Is your supply chain up and running completely? Our Supply chains are very close to normal levels. All our food plants are functional at this point of time while maintaining the highest standards of safety. Q. Have you partnered with any e-comm players or delivery partners to bolster your sales? In the last few months, consumers have been seeking more from the safety of their homes which has contributed to the increased relevance of e-commerce platforms. Keeping the consumer’s requirements in mind, PepsiCo has strengthened its relationship with the e-Grocers like Big Basket, Amazon PepsiCo has partnered with Swiggy and Dunzo to ensure uninterrupted availability of our brands, such as Kurkure and LAY’S to consumers across locations. Our tie-up with Dunzo has been encouraging, with safe delivery-on-demand and fulfilling our promise of last-mile-delivery. We are now working in scaling the model and expanding it to other states. Q. Did you come up with any out-of-the-box solutions to adjust to the new normal? We have a big out of the box campaign announcement coming soon. Do watch out the space. Q. As a leader, what were your learnings from this time? As a marketing leader, these times have reinforced 2 central beliefs I’ve long held. Consumers will always reward brands who deliver to their needs – right now consumers are looking for brands to take actions that are authentic and true to the core of the brand. The other is that consumers are incredibly resilient and will look to brands that can share that positivity, albeit in a genuine manner.

Kurkure witnesses a jump in penetration and order frequency as in-home consumption rises

<ul><li><keyword id="54572" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="PepsiCo">PepsiCo</keyword> India said within 30 years of our establishment in India, PepsiCo India has grown exponentially to emerge as one of the largest Food and Beverage company in the country.</li><li>On account of such a tremendous growth, PepsiCo India has committed to invest over $2.1 billion in the country over a five-year period ending in 2022. </li><li>"While there have been some short-term head winds due to Covid, we at PepsiCo are extremely optimistic about the future and are committed to provide consumers the right portfolio of products across food and <keyword id="23943" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="beverages">beverages</keyword>," they said.</li></ul> In an interview with IANS, Vishal Kaul, Vice President &amp; Business Head, Beverages, PepsiCo India and Dilen Gandhi, Senior Director and Category Head of Foods, PepsiCo India said within 30 years of our establishment in India, PepsiCo India has grown exponentially to emerge as one of the largest Food and Beverage company in the country. On account of such a tremendous growth, PepsiCo India has committed to invest over $2.1 billion in the country over a five-year period ending in 2022. "'As people adjust to the enew normal', in-home consumption is witnessing a significant uptake. We are witnessing a jump in both penetration and frequency of our food and beverage categories. There is a growing demand for our larger packs as in-home occasions of togetherness have increased manifold. While the consumers are looking at in-home experiences and seeking convenience, they are also looking at value," they said. "While there have been some short-term head winds due to Covid, we at PepsiCo are extremely optimistic about the future and are committed to provide consumers the right portfolio of products across food and beverages," they said. "Even in the COVID environment, our categories are seeing robust demand and growth across most channels," they added. Q: How is PepsiCo India responding with its business models to the Covid-19 situation? A: The COVID-19 has led to a complete paradigm shift as everything around us has changed- consumer behavior, retail landscape, competitive environment. Very early on, we realized there was no playbook to tackle the COVID challenge and the situation would continue to change. So, we had to arm ourselves with taking quick decisions while not having all the relevant information. To help us navigate the crisis, we established 6 guiding principles: Being People Centric, Being Consumer Centric, Being Customer Centric, Being Community Stewards, Being Agile and Being Prudent. These were the lens through which we saw every decision and we empowered our teams for agile decision making. At a time when stepping out for even essentials was fraught with risks, making our product conveniently available for our retailers and consumers was a key focus area. Hyper-local delivery emerged as a solution and we invested in emergent channels like Ecommerce for both B2C and B2B. We partnered with Amazon, Big Basket, Grofers, Swiggy and Dunzo to ensure uninterrupted availability of our food and beverage products to consumers across locations with safe delivery-on demand for all our consumers. For B2B, we further strengthened our existing Distributor model with the EB2B model, where we partnered with Udaan and Big Basket to help small and medium businesses. This partnership ensured our product portfolio was easily made available to retailers, so that they can cater to demand in the market. Q: How does PepsiCo view the big jump in consumption of snacks and beverages at home? A: PepsiCo India has always kept a pulse on consumer trends and continued to develop its portfolio in line with what consumers want. As people adjust to the enew normal', in-home consumption is witnessing a significant uptake. We are witnessing a jump in both penetration and frequency of our food and beverage categories. There is a growing demand for our larger packs as in-home occasions of togetherness have increased manifold. While the consumers are looking at in home experiences and seeking convenience, they are also looking at value. In order to serve the consumer better and rapidly adapt to their changing requirements we have introduced a 1.25-liter PET pack in our beverage portfolio at a very affordable price of Rs 50 which will enable the stay-at- home times even more special for our consumers. We have also introduced various combo packs for our food portfolio creating and further driving in-home consumption.Q: What are the investment plans for PepsiCo in India? A: Within 30 years of our establishment in India, PepsiCo India has grown exponentially to emerge as the largest Food and Beverage company in the country. On account of such a tremendous growth, PepsiCo India has committed to invest over $2.1 billion in the country over a five-year period ending in 2022. This commitment is a part of our previously disclosed commitment to invest $5.5 billion in India and includes our plan to double our manufacturing capabilities locally in the next five years, to cater to the ever-increasing demand of our products among the consumers. In recent years, we have announced an investment of Rs 514 Crores in a new foods facility in Uttar Pradesh which will provide 1,500 direct/indirect jobs. We have also invested in increasing capacity at our existing foods plants in West Bengal and Maharashtra and have additionally proposed to set up a greenfield project in Assam. Q: What is the production capacity for the PepsiCo products, and has it reached pre-Covid levels? A: We have resumed operations/ manufacturing across foods and beverages in the best manner possible, ensuring that all guidelines regarding safety of our employees are strictly adhered to. In the current environment and limited workforce across shifts, we are trying to ensure that we can meet the demand and operate at an optimal level to cater to our consumers with their favorite snacks and beverages. Nonetheless, we remain committed towards our employees and our consumers and see an uptake in both supply and demand in both categories. Q: What has been the response to the Covid situation? A: As brands look at engaging with consumers, the first and foremost part is that the current situation requires brands to provide consumers with a seamless and safe buying experience. That apart, this is also a unique opportunity to build an even more authentic relationship with the consumers by listening to them and providing the functional and emotional comfort. While there have been new ways of ensuring consumers had 24X7 accessibility of our products in a safe and hygienic manner, Brands across the PepsiCo India portfolio have also initiated interesting campaigns rooted into insights that we mined through the real time social listening we do at PepsiCo For consumers, safety comes first, and they are now refraining from going to crowded places and prefer low exposure. Hence, we partnered with SWIGGY and Dunzo to provide our products across food and beverages at their doorsteps, 24X7. We also saw that with low touch format being the new trend, there was a need to work with our partners to find low or no touch solutions for dispensing water. After extensive research and trials, we were able to finalize the Aquafina Low touch dispenser model as a product that we could roll out now given it meets key criteria including safety of consumer,practicality as well as economies of scale. We also evolved in the way we communicated to our consumers with messaging that were more relevant in current times. For example, <keyword id="44672" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pepsi">Pepsi</keyword> identified that while social distancing was the new normal, however a lot of consumers were either not aware of it or were not following it fully. Salaam and Namaste, which were deeply rooted into Indian culture are actually the best forms of contactless greetings, which was the need of the hour during the COVID times. In an endeavor to make these contactless Indian greetings a part of pop culture, Pepsi introduced a digital forward campaign that aimed at inspiring the world that greeting each other with salaam/namaste is a perfect way to ensure social distancing and yet maintain connections responsibly. It encouraged behavioral change through adherence to social distancing norms in an entertaining manner. The campaign broke all past records in India and made a meaningful impact to the consumers' lives. On the other hand, LAY'S, started a special initiative for the many unsung heroes of India - farmers, truck drivers, retailers, etc. e who continue to bring joy to millions even in these challenging times. The brand partnered with Smile Foundation to provide hygiene kits to over 40,000 families of such unsung heroes. These hygiene kits contain masks and sanitizers, to support these champions as they continue to work hard even in these unprecedented times. As part of the initiative LAY'S has also collaborated with leading Indian brands like Airtel, ICICI Bank, Parachute, Dunzo, Big Basket, JK Type, Vistara, Grofers and together have thanked millions of these unsung heroes. We also had other brands from our portfolio like Mountain Dew, Quaker, Tropicana etc do similar contextual campaigns and the response from the consumers has been overwhelming.Q: What have been the sustainability initiatives of PepsiCo? A: In its role as a responsible social citizen, PepsiCo India has taken several initiatives to contribute to the nation's ongoing efforts to combat the COVID-19 outbreak. As part of its #GiveMealsGiveHope global programme, PepsiCo India provided over 10 million meals to the underprivileged and marginalized families impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak across India. The meals were distributed in partnership with Akshaya Patra Foundation, Smile Foundation &amp; CII Foundation, across the country. The company also extended support to the healthcare and diagnostic facilities by providing over 35,000 COVID-19 testing kits to government labs, supplementing their efforts to combat the pandemic. Furthermore, the COVID 19 crisis has impacted the restaurants and the workers significantly. It is forecasted that 4 out of 10 restaurants would shut down. Pepsi initiated a campaign #PepsiSaveOurResturants, an inclusive program where every time you order food and add a beverage to your order and it can be any beverage -- Pepsi or any other beverage, Pepsi will give that many meals to the restaurant workers who have served us. Pepsi partnered with NRAI and Swiggy to bring this campaign to life. The campaign has got great response as it has provided many consumers an avenue to support the restaurant workers who have always served them. Q: What are the changing consumer patterns expected due to Covid? A: The COVID-19 challenge is making both consumers and brands face a new reality. Consumer behavior and pattern is emerging and evolving at a fast pace. Some of the key insights that are emerging are as follows: #Mobile is the new TV: Consumers, customers, employees and our ecosystem partners have leap frogged towards leveraging digital solutions and the mobile is at the epicenter of all this. Be it work from home, communication to consumers, taking orders from customers or Ecom, consumers are practically dependent on their mobiles. They are consuming content online, buying online and even engaging with extended family and finds online. Therefore, it's important to jump shift this capability and work with the ecosystem partners to strengthen this muscle. #Value in Table Stakes: While value has always been important for consumers, going forward it would become even more crucial. The brands/companies who can re-engineer their business models to deliver this via an advantaged model, would succeed in the long term. #Hope Trust and Fun: We believe consumers would be looking at 3 emotional benefits and brands that can provide the same authentically, would be the ones that consumers would choose - The first is Hope. Hope is tied very closely to empathy. Brands need to be empathic and craft messages which are reassuring and relatable to consumers in these unprecedented times. - The second is Trust. Now more than ever, consumers need to see brands walk the talk in everything they do e whether it is the core product promise or leading a cause to support communities. -The third is Fun. Today, consumers are working twice as hard, donning multiple hats and with sources of entertainment and recreation limited, a brand that can that can present an opportunity for consumers to express themselves in a fun manner will be able to build deeper connects with the consumers The situation would continue to evolve and it is important we continuously have our ear to the ground and we keep sharpening the strategy basis consumer needs. Q: What are the initiatives to bolster the retail network by PepsiCo? A: The pandemic has given rise to a enew-normal' world and we at PepsiCo India have maintained a close look out on the evolving consumer behavior pattern to be better prepared for the future. We take cognizance of the fact that we need to cater to different audiences, be it consumers, partners, distributors through different channels. For the consumers, demand for online deliveries has soared since the start of the stay-at-home order. Thereby, it was almost imperative for businesses to enhance their Direct to Customer (D2C) channels like Swiggy, Dunzo to ensure we have exclusive e-stores and a mechanism to cater to our consumers at their doorstep 24/7. By tapping the 'Daily Grocery' on Dunzo's app, customers can visit the LAY'S E-store and get these products delivered within an hour of ordering. The initiative has currently been launched as a pilot in <keyword id="6354321" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bengaluru">Bengaluru</keyword> and will eventually expand to 4 more cities across Mumbai, Gurugram, Delhi, and Jaipur. For the beverage category, we have tied up with Swiggy stores where we ensure availability of our products to the consumer on demand and delivery within 2 hours. On the other hand, Aquafina has tied up with a micro delivery platform OwO is for expanding reach into "At -home" consumption of packaged water. From a consumer perspective, our research has shown that consumers prefer dealing with apps such as OwO as they find it convenient. For the retailers and wholesalers, an interesting emerging channel is the EB2B model, under which PepsiCo India has entered into deep partnership with Udaan and Big Basket to help small and medium businesses. They should always have access to our product portfolio to ensure that they always meet demand. On the other hand, we remain committed to the distributors and ensure that we grow them and grow with them. Q: How does PepsiCo view the recent agriculture reforms including the flexibility to farmers to sell their products? A: Let's talk briefly about our collaborative programme and how that is focused on working closely with the farmers and based on years of trust and relationship. At PepsiCo India, we are guided by eWinning with Purpose' - our fundamental belief that the success of the company is inextricably linked to the sustainability of the world around. Agriculture is at the heart of PepsiCo India, and the companies relationship with farmers in India goes back 30 years. PepsiCo was the first company to introduce own researched processed grade varieties in India in late 90's. At present, PepsiCo is largest processed grade potato buyer in India. To fulfill its chip grade potato demand locally, PepsiCo developed largest collaborative farming for potato in India spread across 13 states working involving over 24,000 farmers. The potatoes are then processed in 3 manufacturing plants which employ close to 2,000 direct and indirect employees. The retention rate of farmers being part of the collaborative farming program is as high as 98 per cent. All the potato used in Lay's and Uncle Chipps is sourced from farmers in India e in fact, PepsiCo is the largest buyer of chip grade potato in the country today. Q: What are your views on the outlook for consumer sentiment? Is it an essential versus discretionary choice? A: India consumption story has just started and according to industry reports, India will be the 3rd largest consumption market by 2025. While there have been some short-term head winds due to Covid, we at PepsiCo are extremely optimistic about the future and are committed to provide consumers the right portfolio of products across food and beverages. Even in the COVID environment, our categories are seeing robust demand and growth across most channels. Our robust and balanced portfolio across "Fun for You" products like Pepsi, Lays Dew, Kurkure or "Better For You" products like Lipton, Pepsi Black or "Good For You" products like Quaker, Tropicana and Gatorade are getting greater acceptance from consumers. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/after-google-pwc-india-declares-a-company-wide-holiday-for-its-employees-this-friday-offers-time-off-for-a-well-deserved-break/articleshow/77125627.cms">After Google, PwC India declares a company-wide holiday for its employees this Friday – offers time off for a 'well-deserved' break</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/mukesh-ambani-is-now-the-fifth-richest-person-in-the-world-according-to-forbes/articleshow/77105843.cms">Mukesh Ambani is now the fifth richest person in the world, according to Forbes</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/tcs-infosys-hcl-tech-dont-want-h1b-ban-but-are-pocketing-savings-while-it-lasts/articleshow/77120776.cms">The H1-B visa ban is not what Indian IT firms want⁠— but they are pocketing some savings while it last</a>

PepsiCo India has grown exponentially to emerge as one of the largest F&B companies in India

<ul><li>Uber Eats in India discontinued its operations on January 21 and was acquired by food giant Zomato.</li><li>We speak to industry experts to find out the reasons why the food delivery platform took a nosedive and if the onus can be put on macro-economic factors or its brand-building strategy.</li><li>Experts opine that working with minimum funding, rivaling against stronger communications from competitors, disadvantages of being a late entrant, not having a separate identity, getting sidelined from the parent company and offering deep discounting were some of the factors that led to its decline.</li></ul> Food aggregator Uber Eats, which started its journey in 2017, was acquired by Zomato on January 21 for ₹2,485 crore. While its entity will cease to exist, Uber Eats’ consumers, restaurants and delivery partners will now be directed to Zomato. However, the buyout has left more than 200 employees on a cliffhanger. The acquirer Zomato started in 2008 and now has over 40 million users. Swiggy, on the other hand, started in 2013 and has gathered 42 million users. Uber Eats, which was established just three years ago, had over 10 million users. And with Uber Eats’ huge consumer base in its kitty, Zomato will now have control over 50-55% of the food delivery market. Experts opine that one of the reasons for Uber Eats downfall was its heavy discounting strategy. The operational losses amounted to ₹2,197 crore, more debts followed and a heavy competitive market did not let it sustain. As Uber Eats hits its brink and merges with Zomato, we speak to experts to find out the reasons, what could the platform have done differently to sustain and explore if upping its marketing game before would have helped in dodging the bullet. Increasing the frequency of communication with audiences Uber Eats had on-boarded Alia Bhatt as its brand ambassador -- the only food aggregator in India to get a celebrity involved in its communication. However, it released its first brand campaign after two years of its existence -- in the month of January 2019 called ‘Everyday moments.’ According to Voodly, it garnered more than 50.3 million views by the end of January and secured the first spot on the list of Top 10 Most Watched Indian Ads on YouTube. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 <div type="Youtube" id="fUN47Yeefvo" title="Alia’s Tinda Moment! | Uber Eats" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fUN47Yeefvo/mqdefault.jpg"></div>



















 Karthik Srinivisan, Social Media and Brand Expert, says that there isn’t much for food aggregators to talk about so its communication strategy cannot be blamed. The ads can be about ‘variety, prompt delivery, post-delivery customer care, ease of ordering, UI/UX, payment options, loyalty program, promotions, etc.’ Gone are the days when brands would wait for some key occasions for a big media splash. Now it is more about participating in daily conversations, listening to what your consumers say. And being active on social media isn’t very expensive either. Srinivasan thinks Uber Eats could have been more consistent like Zomato and Swiggy here. “To be in the top-of-mind recall in such a category, the brands need to continuously be in the buzz. Zomato and Swiggy have cracked that code to a large extent, always being in the social buzz one way or another. Brands are moving away from one or two big-budget media blitzkrieg every year to announce their brand name to the largest number of people, to having sustained presence throughout the year to the most appropriate target audiences. This ensures that brands do not have only two peaks in a year where people notice their communication, but there's a consistent wave (instead of peaks) all through the year where a large enough number of target audiences notice their brand. Uber Eats perhaps did this less impressively or consistently compared to both Zomato and Swiggy,” adds Srinivasan. However, Srinivasan says the real reason is unplugging Uber Eats’ support system. “Beyond all this is the investors' appetite to continue funding these businesses despite losses. At some point, they may want to pull the plug to cut their losses and that could be the bigger reason for the sale.” N Chandramouli, CEO, TRA Research feels Uber Eats did not offer anything different from its competitors and its USP wasn’t clear in its communication. “Other than the fact that they used a celebrity for endorsements, I think the ads did not communicate much. With more number of restaurants available on the competing apps, the promise of variety or choice, felt lame,” he explains. Chandramouli rates Zomato’s communication strategy the most innovative in the category, followed by Uber Eats and then Swiggy. Late mover disadvantages Almond Branding’s Founder and Director, Shashwat Das, thinks the reasons for Uber Eats’ downfall has more to do with the business model and category dynamics rather than its communication strategy. “The two largest incumbent players in the market, Swiggy and Zomato, were already half-way to the top by 2017 and had by now exclusively tied up with major restaurants. Uber had to hence rely on heavy discounting to acquire and retain users and deep discounting strategy is never sustainable as consumer keeps benefiting but none of the market players win in the battle of dominance. Last-mile delivery is an operations-heavy, low-margin business where most of the startups failed due to lack of knowledge, field experience, and funding,” notes Das. “Uber knows from its cab hailing experience that any app brand that is not number 1 or 2 in the country it operates in, will find it difficult to be a successful and profitable business. In any app-based delivery brand, only ONE brand remains top-of-mind for consumers, with one more kept as backup. There is rarely room for a #3,” seconds Chandramouli. Some of the restaurants in India still offer free home delivery with no price caps and Das thinks the food market isn’t easy to crack. Downloading more apps, building new relationships and settling for lesser pay cuts did not make a stronger pitch for restaurant partners either. “Once an app signs up a merchant, a regular flow of business determines what importance the delivery app holds for the restaurant. Plus, the incumbents had more focus, spend-power and aggression than Uber Eats. With Uber Eats India accumulating more losses than Uber, its cab hailing sister-concern, added to the pressure from international investors after their poor IPO, the only good option for Uber was perhaps to cut losses and focus on their core,” says Chandramouli. Developing a distinct identity While Uber Eat’s core idea was to piggyback on Uber’s image and use its established network, Chandramouli suggests that this wasn’t a smart move as it affected Uber’s disruptor position. “I think they should have launched the food-delivery business under a different brand. Truly speaking, Uber's cab hailing app was always recognized as an innovator and leader, but by launching Uber Eats, it almost seemed like a me-too, copycat brand, losing its innovator positioning. Another risk of extending the Uber brand to this new business was that cab hailing apps business required a more involved and intimate decision of the consumer, which a food-delivery app did not,” he elaborates. Thanks to Swiggy and Zomato’s heavy funding, they had the bandwidth to innovate and offer discounts. However, their core focus is food delivery and Uber’s, on the other hand, is mobility. Das thinks this could be one of the reasons why it was sidelined and cut at the source when it fell loose. “Even though Uber Eats was launched with much fanfare, Uber couldn’t focus on it as much as its competitors. Clearly its core mobility ambitions in India were its top priority. Cab hailing companies like Ola and Uber after having burnt their fingers in this cash-guzzling sector saw more merit in focusing on their core rather than the side businesses,” says Das. Was it a smart move for Zomato? As per media reports, Uber will get a 10% stake in Zomato in a deal that values Uber Eats at $300-350 million. "It was a bad deal for Zomato I think, giving away stock worth 300 million USD, to a company struggling to stay afloat. I think Swiggy will gain from this. And for Uber, of course, this seems to be their long term strategy of buying into local food compaines," says Shubho Sengupta, Brand Consultant. "There is no economic crisis for those who order on Zomato. They are in the top 15% earners of this country," adds Sengupta. All eyes on Swiggy and Zomato While Dunzo and Food Panda also exist in the battleground, the horse race will continue between two stalwarts Zomato and Swiggy. This consolidation, experts opine, will bring some more financial discipline, nudge them to be more creative and source the much needed tech support from their parent companies.

What went wrong with Uber Eats?

<ul><li>As consumers started cooking or baking more evolved, gourmet dishes at home during the lockdown, <keyword id="9613152" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="britannia-cheese">Britannia Cheese</keyword> witnessed an increase in its demand. </li><li>We caught up with <keyword id="917197" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gunjan-Shah">Gunjan Shah</keyword>, CCO, <keyword id="146218" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Britannia-Industries">Britannia Industries</keyword> to understand if the brand has been able to retain the demand it saw in the beginning and how it has changed its marketing strategy in the unlocking period. </li><li>He also told us how the company transformed its business digitally during the lockdown and all about its biggest digital campaign, Britannia Cheese StarChef starring Saif Ali Khan, that brought in the highest growth for the brand till date. </li></ul>With the pandemic-induced lockdown, consumers started brushing up their cooking or baking skills and eating became more of a family exercise. It brought out people’s hidden talent for cooking, especially among the urban masses, which they were exploring only now, thanks to them staying at home and not having to travel to work everyday. In April, recipe searches also surged on the internet, as people began experimenting with a variety of cuisines ranging from the easy to the complex, gourmet varieties. Cheese became one of the ‘star ingredients.’ Britannia Cheese was quick to recognise this opportunity and it amped up its digital marketing strategy to latch onto the increasing demand for cheese, which became an integral part of consumers’ grocery list -- providing a huge impetus for the growth of the category. As a result, cheese became one of the highest growing food categories during the lockdown. As per Nielsen’s report on COVID-19 Impact on FMCG &amp; Retail, the cheese category saw a 60% growth. The report also highlighted how the rapidly evolving preference of urban consumers includes cheese as part of the monthly shopping cart. <div type="image" title="cheese trend" msid="78258099" hostid="261"></div>(Source: Nielsen RMS) Britannia Cheese saw 300% of its business coming from E-commerce during April to August. To leverage this demand, Britannia executed a three-way plan. Elaborating on the company’s digital plan, Gunjan Shah, CCO, Britannia Industries, said, “We provided ease of discoverability and convenience to new users on key ecommerce platforms like BigBasket by creating Britannia Cheese Brand stores on the home pages for an extended shop-in-shop experience. Secondly, we have tied up with several subscription-based e-commerce platforms like Milkbasket and Supr Daily, which provide daily essentials delivery services across all major metros. This helped us recruit new users, gain consumer retention and increase stickiness by incentivizing purchase frequency. Thirdly, to strengthen the last-mile delivery, we have also entered into partnerships with portals like Dunzo, Swiggy and Zomato which provide superior hyper local grocery delivery services.” Star campaign on digital mediums To become a part of people’s daily meals, Britannia Cheese launched a digital campaign with Saif Ali Khan called Britannia Cheese StarChef. The show transforms Khan into a StarChef as he learns to cook from MasterChef winner Shipra Khanna. It targeted newbie cooks and keen learners and provided easy-to-cook recipes. Sharing the insight behind the campaign, Shah said, “The dramatic rise in in-home cooking since the outbreak of the pandemic, was the key trend that informed the making of the show. We worked on the insight that every home chef is looking for extraordinary dishes that makes her a star in the kitchen! And Cheese is the magical ingredient that has the power to help make those dishes. The adage ‘Life is great, Cheese makes it better!’quite sums up the universal love for cheese. The Britannia Cheese StarChef show hones in on Cheese as that special, star ingredient that turns a good dish into a dish extraordinaire.” It soon became the company's best performing digital campaign. Shah said, “The Campaign was significant on two fronts- first, it is the largest single brand Digital Campaign that Britannia has ever embarked upon and second it has performed the best in terms of the metrics that we track for our digital investments. The Click throughs achieved on our promos have been between 200-250% of the industry benchmarks and the campaign has helped drive a significant spike in growth for Britannia Cheese Year till date. The overwhelming response to the campaign made us take it to mainstream TV media towards the end of August.” Altering marketing strategy with changing times The lockdown period proved to be challenging for companies across business verticals in India. There was no rulebook in place for an unprecedented situation such as a pandemic. However, Britannia Cheese understood the magnitude of the situation. To seize the opportunity, it altered its strategies and concentrated on achieving short-term goals. Sharing how the company responded to lockdown, Shah said, “First and foremost, we responded quickly to the changing consumer preferences by keeping our ears on the ground. The Britannia Dairy Team reached out to over 500 retailers in the first month of the lockdown, analyzed the demand-supply situation and the swiftly emerging consumer trends. Anticipating a rapid uptick in cheese consumption, we worked with our manufacturers to ramp up supply by removing bottlenecks and increasing the supply of the fastest moving formats like Cheese Slices, Cubes, Blocks and ‘Cheezza’. Secondly, on the field, we focused on Pareto outlets to ensure that we get a massive increase in throughput from the same stores. We also mapped geographies displaying a huge shift in consumer awareness and adoption to increase our width and depth of distribution of cheese, in the process leading to a sustained growth in our cheese business and growing revenue from E-commerce by over 300% (Apr-Aug’20).” Changing consumer preferences after lockdown Globally, more than <a href="https://www.marketresearchreports.com/blog/2020/07/07/cheese-market-india-leading-players-industry">3,000</a> varieties of cheese are available for consumption, whereas only about 30 to 40 variants are marketed in India. With the changing preference, this presents a huge opportunity for global and local players to grow in the country. As we start entering the unlock phases, the consumer is demanding a range of products to experiment with. Britannia Cheese is also working on expanding its portfolio to meet this demand. “We have put the focus on new outlets and towns and will scale up both range and depth to ensure that we are ahead of the curve, while continuing to tap the potential of e-commerce platforms. Driving availability of even smaller SKUs like Spreads and Cream Cheese is becoming more important and hence, Britannia is driving the width of availability,” said Shah. “The extended stay-at-home period has led to consumers learning how to use the many available cheese formats for the first time. This has led to inorganic business growth in new stores and new towns. Post unlock phase, it’s imperative for us to nurture these stores and towns through loyalty programs, tracking and monitoring,” added Shah. On the brand’s unlocking strategy, Shah said, “With demand stabilizing, the market is again becoming competitive and hence there is a need to increase investment in the ATL and BTL space. We have now taken Britannia Cheese StarChef content on to TV which still delivers the widest reach for us. We have also increased our in –store investment.” Britannia’s focus is going to be on staying agile and invested in making the most out of the behavioral shifts and macro consumer trends. Vision for the brand Britannia is currently the second-largest player in the Rs 850+ crore Indian retail cheese category. Even post-COVID, it aims to be the consumers’ most preferred ally for culinary experimentation. “We will continue to build preference for Britannia Cheese. In the past few years, a lot of consumers have made us an integral part of their cooking forays and celebrations. We value this and are committed to stay invested with a unique positioning and taste delivery, peerless quality and easy accessibility. We aim to build an ever-expanding consumer franchise firmly rooted in their passion point of cooking,” said Shah.

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