Reflection – Learning Launch

Challenge

I was working as an intern in the marketing department for a major FMCG company in India. The  brand I was working for was a premium biscuit brand, which was also the 2nd largest brand in terms  of Value. The task was to make this brand the biggest in India. To do that we had to beat a rival  biscuit brand, competing in the value/ low cost biscuit category. The gap over the years had reduced  and come down to INR 32 Cr (Thirty-two crores Indian Rupees) per month and this remaining gap  had to be reduced further by the end of the financial year. To do this, we analysed the monthly sales  across India and got to know two States where the biscuit consumption was the highest, including  the sales of the rival brand, but our sales were below the national average. So we devised a  marketing campaign to increase the sales in those two states.

After have used various design thinking concepts, including Secondary reseach, empathising with  distributors, retailers and consumers in those two states through In depth interviews, Focus group  discussions, shadowing them and ethnographic studies, we got to know that the distribution was  very poor in those areas, and the consumer were used to the taste of the rival brand. They also  thought the rival company to be an age-old company, and ours to be new, when in reality ours is a  100 year old one. The campaign therefore had to be two pronged; It had to make consumers try the  biscuit, and the distribution of the biscuit had also to be increased so that they are available near  consumers. This meant the task was to be a joint effort of both sales and the marketing team.

Further, through FGDs we reached at two broad insights on which the communication plank had to  be created namely;

1. Our brand is special and can be served to guest who come home. While the other brand is

for regular day-to-day eating

2. Our brand is rich as it contains cashew and butter

The task at hand therefore was to check which one works.

Selection

Since we are now at a stage where we have to check the feasibility of the two insights, we tried  using the launch tool. The launch tool, is a quick experiment done within a limited time frame and a  small group of people to check the feasibility of the idea and to decide which one to continue with.

Application

So, for this purpose, we chose two similar villages, identical in size and consumer taste, in the state  where we want the sales to go up. We came up with mock creatives for both ideas. They also  included message that our company was a 100 year old one and that the biscuits are also available in  small packs. The creatives were basically shown through posters and wall paintings in the respective  villages for two weeks. We then measured the sales at nearby retail outlets after the week of test  and compared it to the sales before the test.

Insight

After doing this we got to know that the sales for both the messages went up, but not by equal  amounts. The first insight, where our brand could be used for serving guests showed better results  than the rich one. This also confirms India’s age old belief in ‘Atithi Devo Bhavah’, which means  treating guests like gods. To confirm this result, we inversed the messages in the two villages and

asked the villagers which message they liked the most. The second message was good, but we  obviously went ahead with the first one.

Approach

From my experience, I found this tool very useful and the outcomes were positive. Not only were we  able to identify which message was better, we also got to know a few hurdles in distribution that  might happen, and which needed to be ironed out. Had we conducted FGDs for the same, we might  have gotten to know which message works, but a small test showed us that the entire campaign  gives positive results. This was the extent to my internship in the company, so I was not present for  the state-wide launch. But given the promises the campaign showed, I am pretty confident that the  project was a success.

