Q] What was the gap which needed to be filled through the revamp?
Amit: We’ve seen a huge growth in premium indulgences within the macro snacking biscuit market and a massive bounce back post Covid. When we studied the shift, we realised that there was a need to up our packaging, look and feel, and make a few tweaks to the product, to make sure that what is already successful gallops ahead in terms of growth.
Q] Why did you pick The Womb to do this campaign and what was your brief to them?
Amit: Pure Magic has been around for many years. It’s a brand that’s been much loved but has existed in the memories of very few people. In the larger scheme of things, we are still very small and there’s a huge head space to grow. We really wanted to make sure that the brand is back with a bang. And when we thought about the problem statement in that sense, The Womb was a very natural choice for an agency as they have carved out a distinctive name in the industry. From the ability to think through the problem deeply and returning with a strategic direction that touches multiple dimensions, to their ability to then convert that strategy into execution that truly stands out, what they bring to the table is outstanding. I have also had the privilege of working with Kawal and Navin in the past and this looked like a brief, which was up their alley.
Q] Kawal, Britannia is a legacy brand, which has largely worked with legacy agencies, McCann, Wunderman Thompson, Lowe Lintas, etc. What does Womb bring to the table here?
Kawal: We don’t have models, frameworks, and are not slaves to a set way of thinking. We start with a clean slate on every brand. The nature of opportunity that Pure Magic Chocolush presented itself with excited us. According to me brands that own a share of culture eventually have a share of the category. It is a privilege for us to work with a legacy company, Amit is a huge motivator and that put incredible amount of pressure on us to deliver.
Q] ‘Live This Moment’ the new campaign has a very different positioning from the earlier ones with a mystical appeal and classic Belgian feels. You’ve decided to give it a very quirky image, does that work better than classy?
Kawal: No, our starting point was never this debate between quirky and classy. We just had to find the soul of the product first, and then eventually build the brand around it. Unlike a chewing gum which becomes a background-eat very quickly after you put it in your mouth, Pure Magic Chocolush is a very foreground-eat. It needs all your attention. When I eat, I can’t concentrate somewhere else. It is very indulgent, involving. ‘Live This Moment’ came from this. It’s a lighter take on a profound philosophy.
Q] Parle is expected to expand further into the premium biscuit category and Reliance is foraying into this biscuit space through their partnership with Maliban, what would be a bigger challenge for Britannia, dealing with an older rival or a brand-new one?
Amit: The biggest challenge for Britannia and hopefully for all companies, is to make sure that we are not just with our consumers, but ahead of them. There is a remarkable consumption shift happening in the country, the same products that you and I consume, perhaps at a supermarket near us, are easily found in the smallest of towns. The gaps that existed between so-called traditional metro urban markets and rural markets are disappearing, the consumers there want the same experiences as a city dweller. The big challenge for a marketer like me is — are we reading our consumers’ lifestyles quickly enough to know where they’re headed and making sure that not only are we creating products that deliver delight, but also making them available for consumers of premium products across the length and breadth of the country.Speaking in a tone, with the brand personality that connects with all, is another large challenge. So, at Britannia do we always take note of what competitors are doing? A hundred percent. But a lot of our energies are focused on the above-mentioned aspects.
Q] Kawal, during my past interactions with The Womb, both Navin and you had advocated that the new partnership model between agency- brand is one of profit sharing where both are stakeholders. What model is at play as far as Britannia is concerned?
Kawal: In a lot of newer categories, like EdTech or FinTech, there are young companies with new ideas who don’t know how to position their brands and are not even sure of their product. In the models that I have discussed with you, there is a lot more skin in the game and if we are going to contribute beyond the normal ask of an agency, then we should be compensated appropriately. Having said that, Britannia by itself is a legacy marketing company. It has its own structures and very skilful people in different parts of the game, whether it’s product development or marketing or senior leadership, and huge amount of category understanding with knowledge.
For us the least favourable model is projects i.e., doing a campaign and getting out. Skin in the game can be in many ways, one is a financial skin in the game where you invest and become a part of the reward system; or partnering a brand over a three-five year period. Because we don’t pitch, our only way of getting new business, is by making sure that the brand is successful. So, with Britannia it’s the same, we are on retainer on multiple brands, which I feel is our thickest skin in the game. We are also partnering Amit on some of the innovations that’ll hit the market maybe a year down the line.
Amit: On a lighter note, yes, the brand has tremendous heritage and legacy but we are as nimble as they get and that’s what has kept Britannia right at the top of the game for so many years, and it has been an absolutely stellar decade. So yes, we are proud of our legacy, but in the same breath, would like to believe that we are not a legacy company and want to stay at the top of the game. All our agency-partner relationships have been multi-year and multi decade ones. You raised a fair point about agency-client relationships getting transactional in nature i.e., let’s do one project together and get out. But that’s clearly not the philosophy at Britannia. Whether it’s our existing relationship or new ones, we get into a partnership only if we’re thinking extremely long term. And in that breath, we’re very excited to have The Womb with us.
Q] It takes much more than a TVC to connect with the consumers of late. How else are you driving home the new message and what is the marketing mix?
Kawal: In today’s fragmented media world just doing mass media doesn’t work or it works, but to an extent. So, there is a lot of digital content that has already been shot which is topical and calendarized, and experiential ideas that will come through at different touchpoints. But having said that India is a very large country to do one-to-one activations, especially for a scale brand. You still get maximum bang for buck if you do broadcast media.
Amit: Yes, it’s going to be a full 360 programme and as Kawal rightly mentioned, it’s going to be led
by TV.
Q] Your Q3 results have been promising, what were the factors responsible for the growth in revenue according to you?
Amit: 2022 has been a challenging year, especially on account of raw material price inflation, but we have continued to grow our distribution, especially in rural markets and have actually seen solid rural growth unlike other brands. Secondly, we’ve made sure that we do the right balancing act between taking prices up to mitigate inflation and managing volume growths. The number of transactions we’ve done in the quarter stand at solid double-digit levels, driven by prudent investment on our brands. We are making sure that the pockets where we are weak is where we are overinvesting to cover some of these gaps. So, that formula has worked for us across many quarters.
Q] We are seeing gluten free oatmeal, jaggery biscuits with the luxury biscuit consumer becoming health conscious. Does Pure Magic Chocolush cater to them in some way with variants, or are you clear about it being a purely indulgence based snack?
Amit: We crave for different things at different times so we have made sure that Britannia has a comprehensive portfolio for different consumer needs e.g. Pure Magic for moments of indulgence; NutriChoice seeds cookies and herbs cookies made with a hundred percent aata, NutriChoice protein biscuits, Digestive Zero with no added sugar and a whole range of diabetic friendly products. But it is important to keep in mind that there is a baseline level of goodness that all of our products carry, for e.g. Britannia was the first company to completely remove trans fats from all of its products.
Kawal: There are some things that you also need for happiness. It’s all part of health and fitness. What’s the point of having a narrow waist but no smile on your face?
