Q] Lays is aggressively expanding its portfolio in the Indian market. What should a Lay’s consumer expect from this expansion?
Our consumers who love us should expect their love for the brand to increase as Lay’s is expanding into platform innovations like wafer style, which is a very different experience. This is the thinnest chip from the house of Lay’s. Then we are of course entering into the premium portfolio, which is called gourmet. We want to provide our consumers with options that satisfy their taste buds, and are a part of their snacking routines. We have already brought in a lot of our global expertise to India.
Q] PepsiCo portfolio is quite quirky in delivering messages. So how is Lays trying to market this product to the masses via advertisements?
We as a company are very consumer centric, and have portfolios that play in different cohorts, each has its own propositions built around the brand. So, there’s a lot of marketing science, art, everything that goes behind it. Some PepsiCo brands like Kurkure have a quirky way of delivering that message. However, Lay’s is more about fun. The idea of this brand is to add more fun to people’s lives.
Q] During the pandemic, many brands opted to be Digital heavy, what advertising strategies is Lays looking at to reach the masses?
We don’t go by the strategy of just reaching out to the masses. Maximizing our reach to tap the right target audience is a very important strategy when it comes to media for us. I think we are using digital wonderfully in this regard. We give importance to digital, OTT, e-commerce, among others. With our global frameworks and with marketing and media acumen, we have started doing a lot of cohort targeting to reach the right audiences, and also to target them with tailored communication for them, which digital allows you to do fantastically. We did that very aggressively with our Sizzling Hot campaign where we had three defined cohorts. We had different communications that were designed for those cohorts to target them, and got fantastic results.
Q] With so many wafer brands available in the Indian market, whom does Lay’s consider as competition?
India is a very competitive market. But we are also quite happy that we are still the leaders in the potato chip category. We have been growing very fast, much ahead of the category. Our objective is, how we as a snack brand or as a potato chip brand can change the dimensions of the category with innovations? Because we are by far the leaders and the category is growing very fast, consumer expectations are growing very fast, and because innovation is a very strong agenda that we are driving, we are actually in this journey trying to carve the way for this category.
Q] When we talk about Lays portfolios, which flavour is doing well in India and abroad?
Most of our flavours are doing well as the numbers suggest that we are growing by double digits in India. In India, we attribute its success to its strength, and when it comes to imagery, it’s the flavour. The intent of having six different flavours is that each one of them is sizeable, and thankfully each one of them is contributing towards the growth of the brand. So, it’s very difficult for me to call out one over the other. It is this entire bouquet of different flavours that consumers want to try at different points in time, in different parts of the country. When you look at consumers, India is made up of varied or different consumers in different parts of the country whose expectations from a potato chip or food is very different. So, we have carved out our offerings in a way that we are able to really take care of, or incorporate the many Indias strategy into our framework.
Q] How different is the potato chip market in India and abroad?
The Indian market is very different from any other global market. But what I want to add here is that there are a lot of global markets that come close to India, at least in the kind of food pallets that they have, and hence we always go back and take inspiration from what is doing well globally. But we adapt it uniquely for the Indian taste. So, for example, if you look at Sizzling Hot, we have a very strong platform called Flaming Hot, which exists globally and is doing fantastically well. The inspiration of Sizzling Hot is from there, but the product is suited to the Indian palette.
Q] What innovative strategies does Lays utilize to keep itself ahead of its competition?
The first thing is that we innovate ahead of competition, our intent is to bring to consumers the most innovative, and new exciting formats. Last year we launched two new flavours for a limited time. This year we have launched three.
