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<ul><li>2021 is going to be one of the biggest growth years for <keyword id="133159" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Parle-Agro">Parle Agro</keyword> as it is set to release two high impact campaigns for its power brands Frooti, Appy Fizz and B-Fizz simultaneously.</li><li>With combined spends of Rs 240 crore for Frooti and Fizz portfolio, Parle Agro is aiming to dominate the beverage category this summer.</li><li>Nadia Chauhan, Joint Managing Director and CMO, Parle Agro tells us how the brand aims to beat the cola category with its strong marketing strategy and how it would go about spending the earmarked marketing budget of Rs 240 crore.</li></ul>Last week, Mumbai recorded its hottest day of this season and the India Meteorological Department issued a yellow alert with a warning of heat wave. Mercury in Odisha has crossed 44.6 degrees, the highest so far. IMD predicts this year to be the hottest summer in India and it’s only April! To beat this heat, consumers turn to refreshing cold beverages and ice-creams and naturally, summer is the peak season for those categories. For Parle Agro that houses drinks like Frooti, Appy Fizz and B-Fizz, 40% of its overall annual sales come from the summers. Last year, the beverage industry’s business plateaued due to the lockdown. Parle Agro decided to curtail its 360-degree media spends until October and started working on its comeback marketing strategy. So, 2021 is going to be an important year for the conglomerate to revive its business. Sharing her expectations for summer 2021, Nadia Chauhan, Joint Managing Director and CMO, Parle Agro said, “The summer months alone from March to May account for approximately 40% of our overall annual sales. We have witnessed a higher consumption in mango drinks over the Fizz category in summers because Mango is a seasonal fruit hence, a higher intake over the Fizz category which is evenly balanced out year-round.” While the beverage category was struggling in the first quarter of 2020, once the market opened up, Parle Agro launched an innovative product ‘B-Fizz’ and expanded its market share strategically. It is now aiming to grow by 50% over 2019. “Looking at the past year, the lockdown had an immense impact on the beverage and FMCG segment as a whole. Due to mobility restrictions, we focused on reinventing our sales and distribution strategy to cater to the market effectively despite the lockdown. This helped us gain an 8% market share within the category. We avoided a 360-degree brand campaign during the summer months of 2020 as it would not serve the desired purpose due to mobility restrictions. Subsequently, we invested in a strategic marketing strategy in September 2020 when we launched B-Fizz. This year, for 2021, with increased mobility and rise in temperatures during summer months, we are expecting a boom in consumption and are targeting a 50% growth in 2021 over 2019 across all brands,” said Chauhan. However, the lockdown did have a silver lining for Parle Agro after all. The consumer pattern changed and they started preferring fruit-based beverages. Chauhan said, “We have witnessed a consistent increase in consumers moving away from synthetic beverages and more towards fruit-based beverages. Along with that, we also see a demand in products under the good-for-you category. The lockdown has also given consumers an opportunity to spend more time with family and friends. This has resulted in a boost for larger packs for in-home consumption.” <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Marketing campaigns for 2021" text="Marketing campaigns for 2021">Marketing campaigns for 2021</cmsannotation> Parle Agro has launched its summer campaign starring brand ambassadors Priyanka Chopra Jonas and <a href="https://youtu.be/Tmy9ViY2qR8">Jr. NTR</a> for B-Fizz. With marketing investments of Rs 120 crores for the Fizz portfolio this summer, Parle Agro plans on generating tremendous buzz with a multimedia campaign. The TVC will be aired across national and regional channels. <div type="Youtube" id="8X1DT09Je7A" title="All new 2021 Be.Feel.Fizz advertisement with Priyanka Chopra Jonas.#befeelfizz#bethefizz#feelthefizz" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8X1DT09Je7A/mqdefault.jpg"></div> On the other hand, its new summer campaign for Frooti starring Alia Bhatt, <a href="https://youtu.be/mfq51l5Auwk">Allu Arjun</a> and <a href="https://youtu.be/oz0_585h1DE">Varun Dhawan</a> aims to accelerate growth and strengthen brand equity. Parle Agro has earmarked Rs 120 as marketing budget for Frooti and Rs 120 for Fizz category. <div type="Youtube" id="kopcKizsMIY" title="Watch Alia Bhatt get her favourite drink in the new 2021 Frooti advertisement. #livethefrootilife" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kopcKizsMIY/mqdefault.jpg"></div> The beverage company has increased its marketing budget every year since 2019. Chauhan shared, “Our overall marketing spends for 2019 amounted to Rs 220 crore while our summer spends for 2021 is Rs 240 crores.” Telling us more about the media spends, Chauhan added, “We have an aggressive multimedia campaign charted out for 2021 with the objective of boosting consumption patterns, gaining substantial market share and driving significant growth for Parle Agro in the beverage industry. Our plan includes using strategic mediums and touch points to ensure impactful reach and visibility for our brands via the right audience. This includes Television, Digital and OOH mediums.” To further break through the clutter, the Indian beverage giant will look at enhancing visibility via on-ground branding opportunities at retail outlets, kirana stores and continue investing in e-commerce. A significant amount of its marketing budget will also be spent on the biggest event of the summer season - IPL. Frooti is the official on-air sponsor for IPL in the mango drink category and B-Fizz is the beverage partner for IPL on Disney+ Hotstar. Telling us how important IPL has grown to be for the brand, Chauhan shared, “IPL has been a game-changer for Frooti and our FIZZ range. We started advertising with IPL for Frooti in the summer of 2014 since most of the investment for the brand happens in this season. IPL being the biggest event of the summer months has helped propel visibility for Frooti during this period, ever since we started advertising with the property. The year 2021 is a big year for Parle Agro. To further drive high SOV for our brands during the high consumption summer season, we have associated with IPL. Frooti shall be the on-air sponsor on TV on Star Sports Network. While in the digital space, B-Fizz will be the associate sponsor for IPL on Disney HotStar. If we go by numbers, just these two platforms will drive a reach of over 500 million people.” With combined spends of Rs 240 crores for Frooti and FIZZ portfolio campaigns, Parle Agro is set to dominate the beverage category this summer. It has the lion’s share of fruit plus fizz category and Frooti, too, ranks among the top two mango drinks in India. Elaborating on the beverage company’s expansion plan and current market share, Chauhan said, “For Frooti we have 28% market share in the mango drink category. In the apple-based drink category, Appy holds the largest share with 61% and in the sparkling fruit drink category, our FIZZ portfolio i.e. Appy Fizz and B-Fizz combined, holds the highest market share of over 90%. We are looking to further grow market share and target new consumers by increasing our reach and market penetration. We are already witnessing a massive boom in consumption this season after a slow 2020. Frooti is part of every household, for every social occasion, these indications instil confidence that the product will become a dominant player soon. And with our aggressive plans for Frooti and FIZZ portfolio this year, we aim to further boost consumption and drive significant growth for Parle Agro in the beverage industry.” Apart from spearheading an aggressive marketing campaign this year, Chauhan will also prepare every level of leadership across all teams in her organization who have all been impacted in different ways by the pandemic, to be really prepared and maintain a very positive mindset.

Parle Agro targets a 50% growth in 2021 over 2019 as India prepares for its hottest summer; sets aside Rs 240 crore for marketing activities

<keyword id="133159" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Parle-Agro">Parle Agro</keyword>'s <keyword id="6552425" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Frooti">Frooti</keyword> has once again become India's second most popular mango drink, by outselling PepsiCo's Slice. The popular mango drink has taken the spot last quarter after nearly a decade, after securing a share of 25.6% in India's Rs 6,300-crore mango drink category. As compared to this, Slice got 23.4% in last quarter, as per researcher Nielsen's data. 
 
The top spot is still occupied by Coca-Cola's Maaza, which has maintained the top spot with a share of 48%. 
 
Bollywood’s superstar Shah Rukh Khan has been endorsing the mango drink for about two years now, as its first celebrity ambassador ever. Ever since then, they have been focusing on PET bottles, made of polyethylene terephthalate, so that it could woo both children and adults. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Indian-consumers-might-prefer-to-stay-away-from-packaged-food-Here-is-why/articleshow/47867493.cms">Indian consumers might prefer to stay away from packaged food. Here is why</a> 
 
"The entire communication was designed to ensure we strike a balance towards retaining our large kid consumer base, but building massive appeal amongst the older consumers and subsequently gain greater market share," said Nadia Chauhan, joint managing director at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Ramesh-Chauhan-the-father-of-Indian-soft-drink-industry-is-all-set-to-launch-new-range-of-fizzy-drinks/articleshow/50973316.cms">Parle Agro</a>. 
 
Parle Agro was the first company to introduce tetra-pack in India, almost three decades ago, saying that it was able to build and convert a much larger adult consumer base that liked PET more. 
 
When contacted, a spokesperson for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Leadership-lessons-from-PepsiCo-CEO-Indra-Nooyi/articleshow/51597307.cms">PepsiCo India</a> said, "We do not comment on the specific data, but we are delighted with the continued momentum and strong growth of Tropicana Slice in 2016, and its relative position in the mango based drinks category remains unchanged." 
 
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wrC4hinfNAM/VRuECwwWYeI/AAAAAAAAOug/XzYB9Q44PLQ/s1600/ccccxxxx.jpg">Image source</a>

Frooti is once again India’s second most popular mango drink

<ul><li><keyword id="133159" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Parle-Agro">Parle Agro</keyword> launched a new product this week called <keyword id="10127022" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="B-Fizz">B-Fizz</keyword> and earmarked Rs 40 crore for its marketing campaign solely for this calendar year. </li><li>On the back of a strong marketing and pricing strategy, Parle Argo is aiming to make B-Fizz a ₹1000-crore-brand in the next couple of years.</li><li><keyword id="235731" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nadia-Chauhan">Nadia Chauhan</keyword>, Joint Managing Director and CMO, Parle Agro spoke to us about the whole process of launching a product from researching to shelving, idea behind on-boarding two different brand endorsers for different markets, target audience, larger vision for the company and much more. </li></ul>When it comes to coming up with innovative, industry-first beverages, Parle Agro has been the frontrunner. With its latest launch, B-Fizz, a malt-flavoured carbonated apple drink, the company envisions becoming the number one beverage player in India eventually. Parle Agro currently dominates the fruit plus <keyword id="10153209" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="fizz-drink-category">fizz drink category</keyword> by over 90% market share with its flagship brand <keyword id="6374490" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Appy-Fizz">Appy Fizz</keyword> and now, with its foray into malt-flavoured drinks, it is confident that it will be able to accelerate the category’s growth significantly and bring it to up to Rs 10,000 crore from Rs 1,500 crore in 10 years. In the past, the brand has tried to expand its presence with Mango <keyword id="10153208" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="flavoured-frooti-fizz">Flavoured Frooti Fizz</keyword> and Grappo Fizz, which did not last for too long. So, this time, the brand is playing safe and smart by piggybacking on the popularity of Appy Fizz for the newly-launched B-Fizz, which is a marriage between apple and malt. Another reason why the brand believes in this category is because it has seen a consistently increasing trend of consumers moving away from synthetic beverages towards fruit-based beverages. Parle Agro is therefore going all out to promote its new product launch. It has invested Rs 40 crore in a high-decibel 360 degree campaign, on-boarded Priyanka Chopra Jonas for the Indian market and Jr. NTR for the Southern India. B-Fizz will also be the sponsor for a few select marquee television properties and air its TVC during IPL to get the ball rolling. In just two weeks since its launch, the drink is already present in 500,000+ outlets. With a uniquely positioned product and strong marketing strategy, Parle Agro is confident of making B-Fizz a ₹1000-crore-brand in the next couple of years. We caught up with Nadia Chauhan, Joint Managing Director and CMO, Parle Agro, to understand the research process, pricing strategy and goals for this calendar year. Excerpts: Q. What were some of the factors that pushed you/influenced you to launch B-Fizz? As part of our growth strategy, we invest in R&amp;D to introduce innovative new products to the market; products that will appeal to consumers and take our business further. B-Fizz is one such product that our team developed a few years back. After conducting successful trials we were waiting for the right moment to launch it. As we went through various phases of unlock, we noticed a phenomenal performance in our sparkling fruit-based drink category with our brand, Appy Fizz. We thought it was a great opportunity to expand that category further with the launch of B-Fizz which is a sparkling malt flavoured drink with apple juice. We were able to commercialize B-Fizz in less than 30 days from the time we made the decision to launch it. The timing of the launch worked perfectly for us in several ways. As the country underwent the last few phases of unlock, retailers who were earlier operating under numerous constraints during the lockdown, have now opened up and are operating at almost 100%. Consumers are also getting back to some sense of normalcy. Additionally, the second half of the year is not just the festive period where there is typically an upswing in demand, but it also sees a second summer in the month of October across the country. Since the season also plays a large role in the <keyword id="1453601" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="beverage-industry">beverage industry</keyword> it was a great time for us to launch B-Fizz. Q. What is the marketing strategy for your new product launch? What is the marketing investment going to be? We are investing Rs 40 cores in a high-decibel 360 degree campaign across various media for B-Fizz. We have launched two new TVCs, one featuring global icon, Priyanka Chopra for national media and the other featuring Jr. NTR exclusively for southern markets. The TVC campaign will be supported by innovative print, mobile and digital activations. B-Fizz will also be the sponsor for select marquee television properties. The campaign will also be aggressively promoted across IPL on Hotstar and YouTube. We have also been looking to deploy OOH for higher impact across 96 cities as of now. Q. What would your distribution and pricing strategy be? Will it be available on e-commerce and delivery platforms? B-Fizz is a product that we have launched with a mass distribution strategy in place. We’re today at 500,000 outlets with more than 3000 towns covered. We have launched B-Fizz at a competitive price point of Rs. 10 which is a critical part of our strategy. We believe this price point will enable us to scale up distribution for the brand across both rural and urban markets and make it more accessible to consumers. And yes, we will be available across various platforms, not just traditional retail but also modern trade and e-commerce. We expect B-Fizz to become a ₹1000-crore brand in the next couple of years. Q. The product is priced at Rs. 10 for 160 ml SKU, so how environmental-friendly is the product's packaging? Or will that be a focus later on in brand's journey? It’s an incorrect assumption to say a product available at a lower price point is indicative of a compromise in the quality of packaging. Parle Agro has a reputation built on quality, trust and has always ensured products which are best in class to deliver a superior consumer experience. Our ability to price a product at 10 rupees, an extremely competitive price point, is based on our strategy of creating economies through scale. The 160 ml packaging is a pack that is manufactured on a mass scale for Appy Fizz, the same is being applied for B-Fizz through various technological innovations in designing the preforms. These innovations are created and manufactured in-house as well, which is also how we’re able to achieve this kind of competitive price point. Q. Since the packaging and TVC is quite bold and colourful and positioned as a drink 'for the bold', are you looking at targeting millennials? Who will be the core target for B-Fizz? We are primarily targeting the youth between the age groups of 15-30 years for B-Fizz. Nevertheless, the unique taste of B-Fizz will appeal to all age groups. Q. Since consumers are becoming very conscious of their health and avoiding cola-based drinks and people are still at home and snacking more, have you seen an increase in demand of your products in the last few months? Our entire product portfolio focuses on fruit based beverages and has gained huge traction over the years. We have seen a consistently increasing trend of consumers moving away from synthetic beverages and more towards fruit-based beverages. This is perhaps, one of the big growth drivers for our category as well and a reason for why we have grown as much as we have. Q. What kind of trends did you witness during the lockdown? Did you cut down on your ad spends for this year? What will your larger marketing strategy be for the rest of the year? When it comes to business trends during the lockdown, companies had to adapt, on a daily basis, to the constantly changing rules and regulations being implemented across different parts of the country. Pro-active planning became a critical approach to maintain continuity of supply and distribution to tackle the challenges in mobility that emerged during the pandemic. We also witnessed the growth of the ecommerce platform. Though the e-commerce channel is still very small for the FMCG industry, there has been an acceleration in the adoption of this channel by consumers and brands alike. We have also on-boarded numerous ecommerce players and are continuing to do so. With regard to consumer trends, the lockdown has led consumers to become more conscious about their food and beverage choices. We foresee consumers spending a lot more on products that are natural versus those that are synthetic. For instance, fruit-based drinks like our products with natural ingredients, will be the preferred choice of drink over synthetic ones. Through the lockdown, we halted most of our marketing spends since majority of the retail stores were shut and with restrictions in mobility, people weren’t allowed to go out unless absolutely necessary. But now, as we move towards the last few phases of unlock, our budget allocations are back on track. We are investing Rs 40 crores for the marketing of B-Fizz which is until the end of the calendar year for 2020. Next year, we will be back on track with our regular marketing budgets of about Rs 250 to 300 crores across all our existing brands. Q. Why did you decide to get a separate brand face for the southern market? Is that one of your strongest markets? In southern markets, the influence and affinity for regional cinema and celebrities is very strong. Thus, to drive greater brand resonance with the audiences in the south as well as generate higher brand recall for B-Fizz, we chose a separate ambassador for the southern markets. Jr. NTR is a great brand fit and just like for Frooti we have Allu Arjun, we have Jr. NTR for B-Fizz in the south. Q. Parle Agro currently has a brand turnover of Rs. 6500 Cr. With a new addition, what are revenue goals for FY 2021-22? Parle Agro currently dominates the fruit plus fizz drink category with Appy Fizz with over 90% market share. With the launch of B Fizz, the target is to build the Fruit plus Fizz category to Rs 10,000 Cr. by 2030. We believe we will end the calendar year with 5-10 per cent growth over the previous year with B-Fizz being one of the contributors to that growth. Q. What is your overall vision for Parle Agro? Our vision is to make Parle Agro the No. 1 Beverage Company in India.

Parle Agro is confident of making B-Fizz a ₹1000-crore-brand in a few years

Days after Maggi fiasco, other food manufacturers like <keyword id="29464" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Parle">Parle</keyword>, KFC, Wendy’s and many others are being dragged into parallel issues by the consumers. A report circulated by the Economic Times suggests that the age-old biscuit maker Parle is receiving a minimum of 5 phone calls each day by its fuming customers. 
 
The calls, as mentioned in the report, are by and large about the contaminants being found in the food products. Not just this, but demands of compensation from Rs 5,000 to 5 lakh has also emerged as a matter of concern. What adds more to one’s surprise is the fact that some has also threatened the country’s largest food maker saying that if it doesn't cough up, they'll go to the media and even the regulator. 
 <keyword id="115414" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ramesh-Chauhan">Ramesh Chauhan</keyword>, a member of the family that runs Parle and also the chairman of <keyword id="140687" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bisleri-International">Bisleri International</keyword>, said, "Consumers are panicking. Some are raising genuine issues, which is good. But some are taking advantage of the existing environment." 
 <keyword id="120094" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mayank-Shah">Mayank Shah</keyword>, the company’s deputy marketing manager, also came-up to cover the matter. Shah said, "There are customers who are getting overtly concerned and some want to use the opportunity to make a quick buck." 
 Other food manufacturers like <keyword id="268892" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Yum-Brands">Yum Brands</keyword>, Pepsi, Wendy's, Mondelez and Dabur too are facing similar issues and are fielding alike calls from consumers. 
 There have also been reports that some of the companies have used ‘Make in India’ platform to get their unregulated products passed by the <keyword id="109212" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Food-Safety">Food Safety</keyword> &amp; <keyword id="179673" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Standards-Authority-of-India">Standards Authority of India</keyword> (FSSAI). Those manufacturers who have made it to this list are: Tata Starbucks, Ferrero SpA, Field Fresh Foods, Kellogg's and McCain. 
 
Nadia Chauhan, a member of the Chauhan family and also the joint managing director Parle Agro, which has brands like Frooti and Appy, said, "Companies can only put themselves to ransom by panicking. Globally, no one would entertain such stuff because the awareness level is so high. As a company, you need to settle the matter but paying up is just out of the question."

Indian consumers might prefer to stay away from packaged food. Here is why

<ul><li>IPL is scheduled to start on April 9 and the final match will be held on May 30.</li><li>Disney+ Hotstar has announced its list of sponsors for <keyword id="10884239" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="vivo-ipl-2021">VIVO IPL 2021</keyword>.</li></ul>Disney+ Hotstar has had a strong start to VIVO IPL 2021 and has already signed 10 sponsors for this year's tournament. Dream11 is the co-presenting sponsor, Upstox and Vimal Elaichi are the ‘co-powered by’ sponsors. Phone Pe, Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), Unacademy, Pharmeasy, Livspace, Swiggy, and Parle Agro have signed on as associate sponsors. “IPL is a prime sporting property that provides advertisers an opportunity for real-time consumer engagement on Disney+ Hotstar. Going by the response from the market, IPL 2021 promises to be an even more significant opportunity for brands. All key features such as Super 4s, Super 6s, Fall Of Wickets, Milestones, and Super Savers have sold out within a short period, and we see early closures across categories,” Nitin Bawankule, President - Ad Sales, Star &amp; Disney India. “With a host of innovative advertising formats, targeting on connected TVs, and custom branded content solutions, brands have the unique opportunity to reach a highly engaged and affluent audience through the sharp targeting options available on live sports,” he added The series will be streamed on Disney+ Hotstar in five languages – English, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, and Tamil and will be exclusively available to subscribers of Disney+ Hotstar VIP (Rs 399 for 12 months) and Disney+ Hotstar Premium (Rs 1499 for 12 months).

Disney+ Hotstar onboards 10 sponsors for VIVO IPL 2021; Dream11 to be the co-presenting sponsor

<ul><li><keyword id="29464" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Parle">Parle</keyword>, founded in 1929, has been able to reinvent itself over the years, while keeping its legacy intact.</li><li>We speak to <keyword id="120094" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mayank-Shah">Mayank Shah</keyword>, Senior Category Head, <keyword id="235733" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Parle-Products">Parle Products</keyword> about all that the brand has been doing, to further grow its presence in the market. </li></ul>Every time someone says Parle-G and we bet you cannot help visualize yourself dunking one in a steaming cup of chai (and at times losing half of it too). For decades now, Parle-G has been our favorite tea-time companion, the most affordable ‘snack’ that got many of us, from the previous generations, through college, and well basically a comfort food, that is so nostalgia-inducing. Much before Oreo popularized dunking it in milk, we had been doing it with Parle-G. <div type="image" title="Parle Products Creative 1" msid="84131808" hostid="261"></div> Parle, founded in 1929, first started manufacturing orange candies. It was only 10 years later that it manufactured its first biscuit, coming up as an alternative to the more elite British biscuits. From there to now, this homegrown brand has come a long way. While entering the premium segment with <keyword id="4498428" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="parle-platina">Parle Platina</keyword> in 2017 that comprises products like Hide &amp; Seek biscuits, Milano cookies, Mexitos nacho chips and Nutricrunch range of nutritious products, it recently further diversified its offering, with the launch of its <keyword id="480300" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Parle-G">Parle G</keyword> Chakki Atta. The aim was to cash in on the momentum that branded atta consumption has been witnessing, since the <keyword id="43587" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="pandemic">pandemic</keyword>. <div type="image" title="Parle Products Creative 5" msid="84131819" hostid="261"></div> Last year, Parle made headlines when they spoke about a surge in sales of Parle-G biscuits during the <keyword id="91743" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="lockdown">lockdown</keyword>. This demand was a result of people stocking up on biscuits. It also became the most affordable ‘meal’ for thousands of migrant workers, who we saw with distress, walking back to their villages. It makes for an interesting case study, to understand how this brand, that was started 82 years ago, has stood the test of time. Despite being eight years short of a century old, Parle has tried to reinvent itself over the years, while keeping its legacy alive. A lot of the love for the brand comes from nostalgia, and also from the fact that despite entering newer categories, launching premium products, it is still looked at as an aam-aadmi product. How they react during a crisis also says a lot about the ethos of brands. The pandemic and Parle Last year, even before the pandemic hit India in full force and the government announced its first rounds of lockdown, Parle was prepared. Observing how things were in other countries, it had increased its production, just to make sure that the market never ran out of its biscuits. “What happened after the pandemic was something completely unprecedented, but we had been studying what was happening in neighboring countries, or in Europe, and we decided to double down on our production,” shared Mayank Shah, Senior Category Head, Parle Products. They also started shipping the products, keeping the stocks closer to the market, to minimize supply chain disruptions. As a result, when the lockdown was announced, and most brands were caught unprepared, Parle had its products, and especially Parle-G, in shops across the country. Having said that, Parle did meet with its fair share of troubles. With the sudden lockdown and with uncertainty looming large, there was a shortage of labor which the company was able to tackle by prioritizing its production; it stopped producing many of its offerings that were more labor-intensive. “As a result of this prioritizing, we were able to meet maximum demand. If at normal times, the demand is at 100%, during this time we saw between 160-170% demand, firstly because people were pantry-loading and secondly because of speculative buying,” explained Shah. However, this was also the time for the brand to give back to the society. The brand won a lot of love when it donated close to 3 crore biscuit packets to the government and NGOs. “Parle G is a brand that stands for goodness, in all senses, and we are more than just a corporate brand that is only interested in profits. We have always been a brand for the common man. Last year, raw material prices were going up and we could have easily taken a price hike, we never did that. I have been a part of this company for 20 years and I was surprised when my management came and told me we should be helping people. So each and every employee in the company lives by the philosophy of doing something for the greater good. Parle was launched as a Swadeshi brand to take on global biscuit brands, and this was during this last one year that I saw those philosophies come in play,” said Shah. “We saw so many posts on social media talking about us saying they were proud to see a brand go out and service consumers in the time of their need, it was a very moving experience for us,” he added. Entry into newer segments Over the years, we have seen Parle innovate and expand its portfolio to enter premium segments too. But why did the company, which primarily produces biscuits, decide to launch an atta brand? Shah said that the company has been producing atta for years now, but the product was exported to markets like the Middle East, UK and USA. “The packaged atta segment in India is worth around Rs 20,000 crore and only Rs 10,000 crore out of that is for branded packaged atta, which are either national or regional brands. But the overall atta market is much larger, and that is mostly people going out, buying wheat and getting it milled. During the pandemic however, we observed that people wanted to buy products that they thought were safer and we saw many switching to packaged atta. Penetration of packaged atta in the market is still very low and there is a huge opportunity for growth, so we thought this was the ideal time for us to launch it here,” explained Shah. He is not even worried about the more established players as he feels there is a huge, unpenetrated market for the brand to capture where people who used to buy loose atta are now converting to packaged, trusted brands. Parle had launched its premium range Platina three year back and now wants to focus on it to grow its market share, and to build relevance. “There has been a bit of a slowdown in the growth of our premium products in the last 1.5 years, so we will renew our focus on the segment with the opening up of markets,” explained Shah. <keyword id="6354839" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="marketing">Marketing</keyword> during the pandemic During times of crisis, marketing budgets are usually the first to get slashed.While Parle did not cut down majorly on its spends in the last 1.5 years, it did rationalize its spends, shared Shah. “During the pandemic, we did two things, firstly, we increased our digital spends, which helped us a lot, while also continuing to advertise on TV. Secondly, we also tweaked our creatives. Our communication in the last one year has been very different from what we usually do. All our communication has been about what has been happening around us. We paid tribute to the known and unknown frontline workers. That communication also sent a strong signal to our internal stakeholders that its our responsibility to rise to the occasion because so many of them were risking their lives in working during those times, and we wanted to acknowledge that.” Meanwhile, brands like Parle G also gain a lot from nostalgia. The last year has seen people take to social media to talk about their love for the brand, come up with content using the product and also coming up with innovative recipes using the biscuits. “That’s the thing about Parle G asa brand, everybody has their own way of eating the biscuit and they have their own stories. I have my Parle G story too; I stayed in a hostel for about 10 years. For anybody who has stayed in hostels knows how the food is. So we would eat the hostel food at 10 and then get hungry by 12. So we had a routine of having chilled milk from Aarey at 1 pm, we used to add a packet of Parle G to it, mix it and have it as a slurry. That was our lunch for 10 years. It was not just me, I know many people who did it. So we have always had a lot of user-generated content but the pandemic took it to a whole different level. It was heartening to see that kind of response from consumers,” he added. On where the next phase of growth for Parle as a brand will come from, Shah said, “It will come both from our biscuits and non-biscuits portfolios. While the penetration of biscuits is high, the per capita consumption is still lower, compared to Western markets. So I feel there’s still a scope of growth in the <keyword id="11569298" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="biscuits-segment">biscuits segment</keyword>.”

How Parle has stood the test of time

The Central Pollution Control Board (<keyword id="68804" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="CPCB">CPCB</keyword>) has told the NGT that it has issued show cause notices for closure of operations to <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> and <keyword id="6356684" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="patanjali">Patanjali</keyword> Peya as they are not registered with it and have not responded to its communications on the matter. In a report submitted to the National Green Tribunal, the CPCB has said the show cause notice under Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, has been issued to these units on October 8, for closure of their operation and environment compensation for non-compliance of provisions of Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2018. The CPCB further informed the NGT that four firms -- Hindustan Coca-cola Beverages Pvt Ltd, Pepsico India Holding Pvt Ltd, Bisleri International Pvt Ltd, and Ms NourishCo Beverages Ltd -- are registered with CPCB. 'However, they have not provided information for evidence based assessment of implementation of action plan for fulfilment of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) liability'. The documents submitted by them have not been endorsed by state pollution control boards (SPCBs) and accordingly, the show cause notice has been issued to these firms as well. It also informed the NGT that "Amazon Seller Service Pvt Ltd, Coca-Cola India Pvt Ltd, Parle Agro Pvt Ltd, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp Ltd have been recently granted registration by CPCB as Brand Owner/producer under Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rules,2018". It told the NGT that they are required to submit quarterly progress reports and comply with conditions stipulated in the registration certificate issued to them. With regard to the tribunal's direction on environmental audit of these firms, the CPCB said it has held deliberations with expert agencies on the matter. "Since, it will be for the first time that such an audit shall be conducted, a committee has been constituted to deliberate and suggest mechanism for conducting environmental audit as well as specify the agencies which can be engaged for such audits," the CPCB said. It said that directions under Section 5 of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 has been issued to all SPCBs for identification of the Brand owners/ producers who are operating without registration from them and to take action against the defaulting units as per provisions of PWM Rules, 2018 which may include closure of their operations, and levying Environmental Compensation. The report said: "Further, CPCB receives applications for registration under Rule 13(2) of PWM Rules. Applications are examined by CPCB and clarification/information, if any, are communicated to the applicants. However, many such applicants have not responded to CPCB's queries. "As the applicants are non-compliant during this period, list of such applicants has also been forwarded to the State Board for taking action against the defaulting units as per provision of PWM Rules,2018 which shall include closure of their operations, and levying environmental compensation". The NGT has directed the CPCB to conduct environmental audit and recover fine from Amazon and Flipkart for violation of environmental norms. The green panel observed that the statutory regulators were not taking coercive measures, including invoking of "polluter pays" principle for enforcing the statutory norms against the e-commerce firms. The CPCB has earlier told the NGT that e-commerce giants need to fulfil their extended producer responsibility under the PWM Rules and need to establish a system for collecting back the plastic waste generated due to the packaging of their products, the CPCB had earlier told the NGT. "Primary responsibility for collection of used multi-layered plastic sachet or pouches or packaging is of producers, importers and brand owners who introduce the products in the market," it said. The submission came in response to a plea filed by a 16-year-old boy who has approached the tribunal to stop e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart from excessive plastic use in their packaging. Aditya Dubey, through his legal guardian, has pleaded the NGT to direct Amazon and Flipkart to stop excessive use of plastic in packaging the goods delivered by the firms. In the second plea, Aditya alleged violation of the PWM Rules by Coca-Cola India Pvt Ltd, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd, Pepsico India Holding Pvt Ltd, Bisleri International Pvt Ltd, Parle Agro Pvt Ltd, Patanjali Peya Private Ltd, NourishCo Beverages Ltd, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp Ltd in terms of principle of Extended Producer Liability. "The e-commerce companies are covered under the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016. But due to a lack of monitoring and implementation, the respondents continue to use excessive amounts of plastic in wrapping and packaging their sold items," said the plea, filed through advocate Meenesh Dubey. Dubey's plea had contended that the companies deliver items in cardboard boxes, which are too large as compared to the size of the items being delivered. "To ensure that the sold items do not move around in the outsized boxes, they wrap the items in multiple layers of plastic sheets and plastic bubble wraps and thereafter fill the large empty spaces in the boxes with additional sheets of single-use plastic," it had said. Once goods are delivered, the plastic waste is thrown away in garbage and it ends up at landfill sites, leading to a burden on the earth and damaging the environment, it said. <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/wipro-board-approves-9500-crore-share-buyback-plan/articleshow/78638511.cms">Wipro board approves ₹9,500 crore share buyback plan</a>

Flipkart, Patanjali issued show-cause notice for closure of units over registration under Plastic Waste rule

With an aim to create a distinctive identity for its premium products, biscuits and confectionery maker Parle has created a new division <keyword id="4498428" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="parle-platina">Parle Platina</keyword>, and is eyeing a quarter of its revenue from this segment over the next two to three years, according to PTI."Brands like Hide &amp; Seek, Milano, Mexitos and Simply Good are more futuristic and aspirational. These brands are very different from the mother brand, Parle."Hence, we wanted to create a distinct identity for these set of brands, and hence Parle <keyword id="125053" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Platina">Platina</keyword> came about, which will consolidate our premium brands under one division," <keyword id="235733" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Parle-Products">Parle Products</keyword> Category Head <keyword id="120094" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mayank-Shah">Mayank Shah</keyword> told .The new division will also include the company's gourmet snack offering Parle Mexitos.The premium segment is growing at 15-20 per cent for the company and <keyword id="1858" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shah">Shah</keyword> said, "there is a huge growth potential for premium products over the next 2-3 years and we see this segment contributing to about a quarter of our revenue."Parle Products enjoys a market share of 15 per cent in the premium biscuit industry and the city-based company is aiming to increase it to 25 per cent in the next two years.The premium biscuit industry stands at Rs 6,500 crore growing at 14-15 per cent, according to Nielsen.The company's mass brands include flagship product Parle G, Parle Marie, KrackJack and <keyword id="3324" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="monaco">Monaco</keyword>, among others.The biscuit major will invest substantially in Parle Platina and will unveil a new packaging and logo, which will feature prominently for all products under this division. "Going forward, we will be adding new products, new formats and new innovations under the Platina division," Shah said.

Parle is now focussing on premium products

<ul><li>TAM Sports has released a new report on <keyword id="7866747" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ipl-2021">IPL 2021</keyword>.</li><li>As per the report, Film Actors led in brands’ endorsement with 48% share of ad volumes, followed by Sports Persons with 38% share during IPL 14.</li><li><keyword id="106133" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ranveer-Singh">Ranveer Singh</keyword> was on top with 15% share of ad volumes during 29 matches of IPL 14.</li></ul>During the 29 matches of Vivo Indian Premier League 2021, versatile actor Ranveer Singh was the most seen celebrity in IPL ads, revealed TAM Sports. He had a share of 15% in ad volumes. MS Dhoni followed Singh with 9% share. Virat Kohli’s ad share went down from 5% to 4% this year. New entrant this year was Salman Khan with 7% share of ad volumes, 3% more than Kohli. The report stated that 3 out of top 5 overall celebrities were common in 29 matches of both IPL 14 and IPL 13. Dhoni, Kohli and Rohit Sharma were common sports celebrities in IPL 14 and IPL 13. Number of sports personalities grew by 15% during 29 matches of IPL 14 compared to IPL 13. <div type="image" title="sports celebs" msid="82517993" hostid="261"></div> <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Advertisers during IPL 2021" text="Advertisers during IPL 2021">Advertisers during IPL 2021</cmsannotation> There was also an increase in average ad volumes this year. According to TAM, Avg. Ad Volumes during 29 matches of IPL 14 grew by 2% compared to IPL 13. Tally of categories grew by 7%, whereas count of advertisers &amp; brands decreased by 4% and 10% respectively in IPL 14 and IPL 13. The Top 5 categories contributed more than 33% of overall ad volumes compared to 40% in the previous edition and 30+ new categories appeared in 29 matches of IPL 14 compared to IPL 13. Among the new categories, Securities/Sharebroking Organization topped the list followed by Fans. <div type="image" title="top brands ipl" msid="82518006" hostid="261"></div> Dream11 had the biggest share of 5% in ad volumes this year, followed by UPstox at 4%. Dream11.com and Phonepe were common between IPL 14 and IPL 13. The top 5 brands Sporta Technologies, Epx Uptech, Just Dial, Parle Agro, and FX Mart contributed a 21% share of ad volumes during 29 matches of IPL 14 as compared to 24% in the previous season. Ecom-Gaming, which was on top in both IPL seasons, contributed 10% share of ad volumes this year followed by Ecom-Education (6%), Aerated Soft Drink (6%), Ecom-Wallets (6%), and Pan Masala (5%).

Ranveer Singh was the favourite brand endorser this IPL, with 15% share of ad volumes during 29 matches: TAM Sports

<ul><li>Parle-G registered its best sales figures in over eight decades during the COVID-19 lockdown period. </li><li>We caught up with Mayank Shah, Sr. Category Head, Parle Products to understand how the brand managed to meet the ever-increasing demand, secret behind hike in sales, its shifting focus on digital mediums and overall marketing strategy. </li></ul>We all have grown up munching on Parle-G, dunking it in our chai and savouring the half-tea-soaked cookie everyday before rushing to school. The five-rupees pack came to the rescue yet again, cured the lockdown blues when our migrants trekked hundreds of kilometers back home. As a result, while many businesses struggled to survive, this home-grown glucose biscuit hasn’t seen its sales dip even for a day. In fact, Parle-G broke its own sales record by selling the maximum number of biscuits during lockdown in eight decades. Parle saw its overall market share increasing by nearly 5% in May and 80-90% of this growth came from Parle-G sales. “We have witnessed that during natural calamities and during COVID, there is an urgent need to supply rations to people and Parle-G has always been the go-to product and comfort food in any situation or location. It has a longer shelf life and the packaging keeps the biscuits fresh, thereby making it an ideal storage item,” said Mayank Shah, Sr. Category Head, Parle Products. Various NGOs and welfare organizations included Parle-G in their donation kits when Cyclone Amphan hit West Bengal and Odisha. Many people stocked it at home for emergencies. Another reason why Parle-G saw an uptick in sales is because the whole country was home and needed something healthy to snack on. “Today, most spending is happening on food and given the behavior, we are noticing people buying all sorts of biscuits, not just for snacking but for preparing various dishes. This is one reason why the demand went up. The second reason being staying at home has increased the consumption drastically. Typically, at the workplace the focus remains at work, at school focus is on studying but at home 24x7, consumption of food and snacking goes up. This is the reason why we saw uptick in consumption and we expect that this momentum will continue going forward as long as there are some or the other form of restrictions and also because of the concerns that people have in consuming outside food,” tells Shah. Challenges of meeting the market demand But how did Parle manage to meet this ever-increasing demand with scarcity of labor? “Right from day one, we were on the job in terms of ensuring that we get permissions to operate our plant, to ensure that the people are taking care of supply chains so any issues coming at any local level, there was a team that was functioning and taking care of those things to ensure smooth operation. Right from sourcing to manufacturing and supply chain, there were partners and teams already taking care of it. A big challenge was, a paucity of labor and the government additionally declared that offices will not operate with more than 50 percent capacity, which has changed today, initially it was even less than that,” said Shah. He added, “Depending on how a particular zone is affected, we probably have 20-40% labourers. To inspire and get laborers on board, we had to make them understand that it was not just a commercial activity rather it was food security of the country because of the sheer volume and consumption by people.” Shifting focus on digital mediums The lockdown has pushed even a traditional brand like Parle to embrace digital and explore the options available to reach out to its customers. While its ‘G Maane Genius’ iconic tagline continues to be a part of popular culture, to make it more relevant today and increase its recall value, Parle recently partnered with Amazon Prime Video for Shakuntala Devi. Talking about this partnership, Shah said, “This partnership celebrates what sets us apart, which is the generations of children that go above and beyond exploring possibilities in a way that makes their little world and imagination better.” Shah told us that the brand shifted its lion’s share from TV to digital during the lockdown because there was no fresh content on TV and on the other hand, there was a disproportionately higher rate on digital. “We would be investing a good amount of our budget into digital. Pre-COVID, the investments were typically 10 to 12% of the budget. During the initial part of the COVID, not just ours but many companies invested almost one third of the budget spent on digital. Now within a year or two, we will see almost about 20-25% of the total advertising spend happening on digital. Secondly, associations on OTT or TV only if we see a good synergy with our brand. So unless and until there is no great synergy in between our brand communication or brand proposition and the medium or rather the property with which we are associated, we normally don't associate,” said he. Tweaking marketing strategy to stay relevant This 82-year-old brand has grown to become a feeling in our country, it is not just any a cookie you dip in your chai. There is immense nostalgia associated with it. And to resonate with its consumers in gloomy times, Parle tweaked its overall marketing strategy. “We ensured that Parle remained part of consumers' life. Although we observed advertising by many brands, we opted to stay relevant and sometimes out of it. Rather, we continued talking to consumers about inspiring in these times, making them appreciate the role of the frontline workers and ensuring that they understand how the lockdown is beneficial to everybody. So they were not only public service ads which we executed, but ads of our products which talked about how we are part of their life by sharing their concerns. So, most of our communication was topical in nature.” When asked what keeps Shah motivated and at it, he said, “Today we are seeing many companies in the same category, same sector, who are giving up saying that it's the time of lockdown and nothing can be done. On the other hand and extreme, we can see companies that view this as an opportunity to rise up and go all out and carve out an opportunity out of constraint. We have seen both sides of the spectrum. A positive frame of mind, a positive bent of mind and a motivated team is something that makes all the difference.”

How Parle-G continues to exceed its sales record despite a recession

<ul><li><keyword id="6942044" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="bl-agro">BL Agro</keyword> aims at a multi-fold increase of its Rs 2500 crores turnover.</li><li>The company plans to invest Rs 150 crores on Advertising in FY 2021-22.</li></ul>BL Agro Industries Limited, a Rs 2500 crore edible oils and food products company in India, is on an aggressive expansion mode, with extensive brand endorsements, to reach out to its target audience. The company which recently launched TVCs for its brands, Bail Kolhu and Nourish has rolled out its expansive marketing plans for the fiscal year 2021-22. The company would be investing in a media mix, of mainline, digital and innovative media vehicles lead by Television, to create brand positioning resulting in consumer awareness and demand of BL Agro’s products across India. “Our company is on an aggressive B2C expansion spree with a keen eye on profitable incremental growth and sustained capability, which can be achieved through proper marketing strategies,” says Ashish Khandelwal, Managing Director, BL Agro. “To take the brand to the next level through marketing and proper messaging, we have earmarked a media budget of Rs. 150 crores for the current year. With a vision to contribute in nation’s agri-economy, we would be channelizing our capacities through manifold approach to reach out to the maximum audiences,” adds Ashish. “BL Agro’s brands include ‘Bail Kolhu' a 50-year-old brand and ‘Nourish’, that have envisioned the growing need for adding nutrition to consumer’s daily food habits. The company recently on-boarded Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Manoj Bajpayee, Pankaj Tripathi and Shilpa Shetty for its brands," says <keyword id="11329634" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="richa-khandelwal">Richa Khandelwal</keyword>, Brand Spokesperson, BL Agro. “The entire range of BL Agro’s products are for all age groups, across different stratas of society, and therefore it is imperative to be on every media. Television still holds the maximum mileage, where our spends would be close to 60%, followed by the print/radio/OOH, digital and online media and other media such as PR and influencer marketing," adds Richa. BL Agro produces nutritionally well balanced and superior quality food products, consistently, by using state-of-the-art technology that provides substantial support to nation’s farmers. The company has a wide portfolio of food products and rely on agricultural value chains to procure raw materials at scale thus boosting farmer income. The company also aims at empowering farmers and driving long-term growth through creation of infrastructure to support the agri-industry. At the same time, with expansion of such a magnitude, BL Agro is contributing considerably in the domain of employment generation. The company already has a workforce strength of about 5000, including a huge field force, and this number is set to go up in the times to come. In the current pandemic scenario, BL Agro is committed to work towards empowering the nation through large scale employment generation.

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