beingdesh

Tag: FMCG

  • [Food Documentary]: The Foods That Make Billions

    In the past few weeks I have gone through a wide-variety of food related documentaries. They have ranged across the typical Bourdainian browsing the food-cultures type to weird eating styles to those bashing the American Fast Food culture. I thought it will be worth sharing a few with my fellow food bloggers, readers and marketing enthusiasts.

    The Foods That Make Billions is a three part documentary created by BBC about food categories that have grown from simple commodities to multi-billion dollar brands. It is a stunning lesson for marketers and business students, giving them an opportunity to visualize the so often heard about “Value Addition” in practice. Also it showcases the stupid heights of capitalism, and its ability to change our habits and the way we live life. The documentary is slightly U.K. and U.S. focused, and few of these categories are still evolving in India, but it is definitely worth a watch.

    The first in series is on Cereals. It goes through the history of cereal development right from the early days of Kellogg’s, new product innovations in the category, how multinationals changed the way we had breakfast, the tough activism faced by the brands during the 70s and how the products reinvented themselves to suit the new environment.

    BBC Documentary: The Foods That Make Billions–Cereals

    The second one is on Yogurt. The story of taking a simple milk-based product to a fruit-flavored, sugar induced multi-billion dollar selling cocktail. The story traces the origin of Functional Foods from the days of Dr. Shiroto and Yakult, to Danone and Muller’s reinvention of the category. Given my recent interest in frozen yogurts, I enjoyed this one to the core.

    BBC Documentary: The Foods That Make Billions–Yogurt

    The third talks about a product which I believe embodies the heights of marketing success, Water. To take a product as fundamental as water and to create some of the most profitable brands in the world out of it is a marketer’s dream come true. I haven’t found a full link to the video, so listing all the three parts.

    BBC Documentary: The Foods That Make Billions–Water Part I

    BBC Documentary: The Foods That Make Billions–Water Part II

    BBC Documentary: The Foods That Make Billions–Water Part III

    Let me know your thoughts on these documentaries, planning to share a few others in the coming weeks.

    Note: I have just shared the links from Youtube, and have not uploaded or distributed these videos. I would have liked to see BBC upload such wonderful documentaries on their channel though. They have uploaded a few clips on their official website. In case someone has an issue, will pull them down.

  • Fake it till you make it

    Sometime in mind 90’s I was sitting in my school auditorium with friends waiting for the swamiji to come. He used to come every year and used to interact with us. I don’t recall his name, but his face is so clearly etched in my memory, it had tonnes of happiness sprinkled all over it, and he seemed content with everything. In fact when I read Hesse’s Siddhartha years later I was reminded of him.

    Mamaji of one of my batchmates in school, Swamiji had left his family and a well-paid job as a Chemical Engineer (he studied at Jadavpur University, so many awesome engineers in the country came from there in the mid 70’s, ask a bong and their heart still beats for the place) to join Ramakrishna mission (around the same time DD showed the movie on Swami Vivekananda, in which Paramahamsa was beautifully played by Mithunda, and I also read some literature by both the teacher and disciple).

    That day Swamiji talked on the topic, of Fake it till you make it. He discussed it in the context of shedding away inhibitions, developing confidence and all. I don’t remember exactly what he talked but that phrase just stuck on. And I came across it again during the ethics course at SP, when we were discussing Geeta.

    You imitate something which you can’t do naturally, and slowly it becomes a habit and you are in a comfort zone with it. Like lets say one asks me to talk less for some days, even if I am uncomfortable doing it, slowly faking the habit can actually lead to me adapting and enjoying the change.

    Travel through the markets and you always see these distortions. Obviously many don’t observe it, but look closely and one is sure to find packs of well known brands Fair and Lively, Lux, Colgote, Bora Plus, Ankor swtiches, Paracheet, Detol and so many more. The market for counterfeit/fake/me-too (products which look and feel the same as original, many a times come from Registered companies, the visual elements are same but the names are slightly different) products in India is huge and continues to grow at a similar speed if not more as the real products are growing.

    I remember having this discussion with Sagar, KK and our Professor of Consumer Behavior (one of the best courses I did in the second year) on me-too brands and why does someone buy it. Well in most cases the prices are similar (for the retailer though the me-too brands offer heavy discounting), but the Indian consumer just goes for the colours and visual elements mostly. Like if he visits a small shop and asks for a toothpaste and receives something which is a red colored tube with white font over it and the symbols appear somewhat relevant he doesn’t event think. Same for a cream and a pink and white tube. Although we think its as practice prevalent in smaller towns and villages, how many of us actually check/inspect the products we buy? I even consider the main competitor of Glucon-D launched by a top FMCG company in the country to be a me-too, the visual elements are copied, and only after a court ruling they managed to get the family pic and the font changed (both of them so symbolic of the Glucon-D pack).

    If the appearance is mostly similar, you can actually push through the fake ones, and the original ones despite all their efforts are at loss. But in the long term does it work out for small players, or they just make some money and maybe will switch businesses or disappear over a period of time?

    In the past couple of years I discovered another huge market with a high penetration of fakes in the system, that of people. Although this is a much more complex market, its extremely difficult to identify fakes. Past couple of year I found many people who were experts in the art of faking, being a different person than what you are with many people, turnaround and not necessarily think the same about so many. Be best friends in front of the world and then crib about them behind their backs. You found them all over, from fighting on organizing events, to fighting over the best jobs. Even the hugs at final farewell parties, the singing together of Puraani Jeans / Yaaro Dosti songs (with so many people as if you are actually going to be in touch with even 10% of them over the next year). Talking bullshit about people in hostels and liking them on Facebook pics. So many things, so many instances. But its not bad, its just the way one is.

    And there were few who tried to be honest and conveyed whatever they thought about the person in front of them and mostly landed into trouble. But those who faked had a much better time, they didn’t fall into unnecessary jhamelas. Again not bad, but its just the way one is.

    Couple of them I knew very closely were what we called experts in faking, they had the ability to change the way they behaved with different sets of people and sometimes just kill the real feeling, brilliant they were! The visual elements were mostly same, so was the outer appearance, but the product was not the original one.

    So is faking worth it? I don’t know about that but certainly being honest is surely not worth it.

  • Simplicity and Chaos

    From the time is was a Rs. 6 green fatty-boxed luxury, to the Rs. 10 yellow slim box regularity, Frooti has been one of my favorite brands. Why do I love it? No it’s not the usual nostalgia I associate with so many things; it’s just because of its simplicity. There have been many changes to it with times: the fat green box (Rs. 6) to green long boxed Yo! Frooti (Rs.8) to Rs. 10 yellow boxed one (it spiked to Rs. 12 one summer, evoking concerns from fans like me). But Frooti’s soul remains same, being Mango. At core it’s the same simple mango drink, and its packaging might change, or the price, but its soul (read positioning) remains just the same.Super Shimplu! (For SP marketing junta, recall one of Ashita mam’s classes,when Pooja and Nitika gave this presentation, I was super excited and we had a nice discussion on Frooti). Frooti has become a routine for me, I don’t care much, I just pick it up, I know it’s my Frooti, and it always will be.

    Then there is always the other extreme. Remember Liril, the superb refreshing lime soap (the la lalalalalaa lalalala laaa classic ad featuring Karen Lunel created byAlyque Padamsee is still so refreshing). But Liril somehow became confusing.It used to be my favorite soap, but they tried out too many things. They came up with what I recall as India’s first shower gel, different variants to core Liril (blue Liril) and finally disappeared. And then it came back, in a disappointing way as Liril 2000- aloe vera soap with an element of freshness.It felt like Ekta Kapoor took it from Unilever, performed a plastic surgery using another actor known as Levers 2000 and re-introduced the character. It was disappointing for a true Liril fan. The simplicity of freshness was replaced with chaos, and finally what emerged was something without its soul in place. Maybe a lot of people won’t relate to it, but a true Liril fan would just know it. But what power does a consumer hold, finally it was Liril who wanted to change, did they really care for a loyal consumer? But still sometimes I buy it and try to look for my old Liril, maybe I will find it.

    One tends to fall for simplicity, it’s always comforting,and it gives you peace of mind. You get a sense of oneness with it, simple things click, they are long lasting and consistent with what your mind desires.Be it simple things or simple people, life is much better with them around.

    And chaos is disturbing, trying out too many things,thinking about too many things, and trying to hide your simplicity with randomness. One might try to change a lot, feel a lot different, but a person who knows, would always spot the difference and then try to disassociate from chaos. But chaos has its own fans, and they are very different from those few who desire simplicity.

    What happens to the entity under change, what is its identity now? Well it’s for them to change, it’s their choice and person who knows the entity so well should also respect the change, whether it works for them or not. Still one tries to reach out for the simplicity which is still there, but hidden.

    I would always desire simplicity, and for things which move away from it, I will hope for them to be simple again.

    [I messaged Shaik and Dolu to find out a few brands which have had a chaotic rise, they couldn’t come up with anything major, stupid they are :), but I super miss having FMCG discussions with both of them. The discussion featured Dolu- the marketing guy, Shaik- the sales and distribution expert, Desi- the fact, figures and insights guy and harsh- the listener. Well all this is a bit unrelated to the post.]

    A bit more from earlier times on simple things,

    Hrishikesh Mukherjee – Simple movies, Simple life (http://beingdesh.blogspot.com/2006/10/hrishikesh-mukherjee-simple-movies.html)

    Who Enjoys It? (http://beingdesh.blogspot.com/2009/01/who-enjoys-it.html) (This one written somewhere mid SP days)

    Simple Things again…(http://beingdesh.blogspot.com/2010/07/simple-things-again.html)