A Project Report By Satya R.Tanna T.Y.

BMM 221

Introduction
A long time ago, when the British ruled India, a small factory was set up in the suburbs of of Mumbai city, to manufacture sweets and
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toffees. The year was 1929 and the market was dominated by famous international brands that were imported freely. Despite the odds and unequal competition, this company called Parle Products, survived and succeeded, by adhering to high quality and improvising from time to time. A decade later, in 1939, Parle Products began manufacturing biscuits, in addition to sweets and toffees. Having already established a reputation for quality, the Parle brand name grew in strength with this diversification. Parle Glucose and Parle Monaco were the first brands of biscuits to be introduced, which later went on to become leading names for great taste and quality.

How Parle fought to make biscuits affordable to all

Biscuits were very much a luxury food in India, when Parle began production in 1939. Apart from Glucose and Monaco biscuits, Parle did offer a wide variety of brands. However, during the Second World War, all domestic biscuit production was diverted to assist the Indian soldiers in India and the Far East. Apart from this, the shortage of wheat in those days, made Parle decide to concentrate on the more popular brands, so that people could enjoy the price benefits. Thankfully today, there's no dearth of ingredients and the demand for more premium brands is on the rise. That's why; we now have a wide range of biscuits and mouthwatering confectionaries to offer.

The strength of the Parle Brand

Over the years, Parle has grown to become a multi-million US Dollar company. Many of the Parle products - biscuits or confectionaries, are market leaders in their category and have won acclaim at the Monde Selection, since 1971. Today, Parle enjoys a 40% share of the total biscuit market and a 15% share of the total confectionary market, in India. The Parle Biscuit brands, such as, Parle-G, Monaco and Krackjack and confectionery brands, such as, Melody, Poppins, Mangobite and Kismi, enjoy a strong imagery and appeal amongst consumers. Be it a big city or a remote village of India, the Parle name symbolizes quality, health and great taste! And yet, we know that this reputation has been built, by constantly innovating and catering to new tastes. This can be seen by the success of new brands, such as, Hide & Seek, or the single twist wrapping of Mango bite. In this way, by concentrating on consumer tastes and preferences and emphasizing Research & Development, the Parle brand grows from strength to strength.

The Quality Commitment

Parle Products has one factory at Mumbai that manufactures biscuits & confectioneries while another factory at Bahadurgarh, in Haryana manufactures biscuits. Apart from this, Parle has
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manufacturing facilities at Neemrana, in Rajasthan and at Bangalore in Karnataka. The factories at Bahadurgarh and Neemrana are the largest such manufacturing facilites in India. Parle Products also has 14 manufacturing units for biscuits & 5 manufacturing units for confectioneries, on contract. All these factories are located at strategic locations, so as to ensure a constant output & easy distribution. Each factory has state-ofthe-art machinery with automatic printing & packaging facilities. All Parle products are manufactured under the most hygienic conditions. Great care is exercised in the selection & quality control of raw materials, packaging materials & rigid quality standards are ensured at every stage of the manufacturing process. Every batch of biscuits & confectioneries are thoroughly checked by expert staff, using the most modern equipment.

The Marketing Strength

The extensive distribution network, built over the years, is a major strength for Parle Products. Parle biscuits & sweets are available to consumers, even in the most remote places and in the smallest of villages with a population of just 500.
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Parle has nearly 1,500 wholesalers, catering to 4,25,000 retail outlets directly or indirectly. A two hundred strong dedicated field force services these wholesalers & retailers. Additionally, there are 31 depots and C&F agents supplying goods to the wide distribution network. The Parle marketing philosophy emphasizes catering to the masses. We constantly endeavour at designing products that provide nutrition & fun to the common man. Most Parle offerings are in the low & mid-range price segments. This is based on our cultivated understanding of the Indian consumer psyche. The value-for-money positioning helps generate large sales volumes for the products. However, Parle Products also manufactures a variety of premium products for the up-market, urban consumers. And in this way, caters a range of products to a variety of consumers.

The Customer Confidence

The Parle name conjures up fond memories across the length and breadth of the country. After all, since 1929, the people of India have been growing up on Parle biscuits & sweets. Today, the Parle brands have found their way into the hearts and
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homes of people all over India & abroad. Parle Biscuits and confectioneries, continue to spread happiness & joy among people of all ages. The consumer is the focus of all activities at Parle. Maximizing value to consumers and forging enduring customer relationships are the core endeavours at Parle. Our efforts are driven towards maximising customer satisfaction and this is in synergy with our quality pledge. "Parle Products Limited will strive to provide consistently nutritious & quality food products to meet consumers' satisfaction by using quality materials and by adopting appropriate processes. To facilitate the above we will strive to continuously train our employees and to provide them an open and participative environment."

Parle-G is the world leader in biscuit sales

NEW DELHI: In 1929 when Indians were munching crispy imported biscuits shipped in by the British, an Indian set up a small factory in the suburbs of Mumbai to make toffees. A decade later, he started making biscuits without giving a damn to the imported biscuits that were freely available. And six decades later, one of the factorys product has emerged as the worlds single largest brand in any country. With annual sales volume of 179.9m kg, Prakash Chauhans ParleG is the world beater in biscuits, followed by Italys Mulino
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Bianco with 110.3m kg and Americas Control Brand at 108.9m kg. Industry sources said Parle-G sells the most because it is the cheapest biscuit in the branded category. Most Parle offerings, unlike Britannia, are mass brands in the low and mid-range price segments. As it has been around for over 60 years, it has a loyal consumer base. And for most, it is a food supplement rather than an evening snack. In mid-income households, kids averse to dal chawal are often given glucose biscuits to make up for the cereals, said an industry source. But the industry says that even though Parle-G is the highest selling brand, the per capita consumption of biscuits in India is still very low. On an average Indians eat 0.48 kg every year, while Americans eat 4 kg. But surprisingly, Indians eat over three times more branded biscuits (490m kg) than the Chinese (180.5m kg). Given that both India and China have conventional food habits where traditional snack items like idli, dosa, dhokla, samosa have a fair share, Indian consumers appetite for biscuits is enormous, says Anmol Sherpa, global services co-ordinator for AC Neilsen India. According to him, Americans depend on biscuits as they have very few ready-to-eat food items for snacks. They spend $6,897m on 1134.6m kg of biscuits every year, outpacing both India (490m kg valued at $583m) and China (180.5m kg valued at $406.3m). Besides heritage and price points, distribution is crucial to the success of any consumer goods brand. Even though Kelloggs launched Chocs at Rs 5/pack, its distribution strategy was not up to the mark. Parle has 1,500 wholesalers catering to 4, 25,000 retail outlets. Chocs were later taken off the shelves. Biscuits require a mass distribution network and Kelloggs had limited itself to the up market outlets with its premium-priced cereals. Parle over the years has built a robust distribution network. For the fast moving consumer goods industry, the packaged biscuit basket has emerged as a winner with all other product lines like soaps, detergents, hair oil, packaged tea biting the dust. The quick, tea-time snack has
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zoomed into a Rs 2,500 core industry clocking 3-4% growth annually.

Britannia

Introduction:
Moving on to other age groups, Britannia created 50-50 as a biscuit snack for young adults with its sweet-salty duality. The savoury Time Pass brand is targeted at the same age group as well. Britannia Marigold, is a venerated tea-time offering that is 'packed with wheat energy' and has found much favour with health
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conscious urban adults. Good Day, a cookie filled with rich ingredients is a healthy everyday treat for the entire family. Britannia has a range of bread and cakes entrenched in the fresh bakery segment. These products allow the consumers to interact with the brand more often and maintain continuity of the tastewith-health promi

Recent Developments:
A new initiative taken by Britannia, to cater to all the taste fads of the consumer, seeks to widen the range of its snack foods. This will be Britannia's biggest challenge in the next few years. Meanwhile in existing categories of biscuits and baked products, innovation will be the key principle. A host of new flavours and food-formats, as never seen before in the Indian market, are due to enter the market in 2004. Thus, Britannia will continue to define the Indian market in biscuits and other food products.

Promotion:
The role of promotions for Britannia is especially important in this highly fragmented and competitive market. Today, the company prides itself on communication that is innovative, yet constantly able to strike a chord in the consumers' hearts and minds. Britannia's promotions have virtually redefined consumer expectations from this category.

To reach out to the Indian consumer, Britannia has successfully leveraged India's two prime passions - cricket and movies. Britannia addressed these platforms in a manner true to its unique innovative style. It capitalised on every Indian's dream to watch a cricket World Cup match and created the 'Britannia Khao, World Cup Jao' contest in 1999. It based itself on instant gratification. All the consumer needed to do was buy packs of Britannia biscuits, scratch a lucky card and win an all-expenses paid trip to England to watch a World Cup match. This promotion was so successful that it set a trend that has got every company scrambling for tickets to take their consumers for the World Cup. This promotion was repeated successfully in 2002/03 with the destination of choice being South Africa. Taking the success further was the promotion of 'Britannia Khao, Cricketer Ban Jao' that was fuelled by the need of every Indian to be a part of the passion called cricket. Britannia followed it up with another unique promotion, a vehicle that dealt with India's other passion - movies. A promotion called 'Britannia Lagaan Match' that revolved around a movie called Lagaan was based on a cricket match. This promotion gave the consumer a chance to interact with the film stars and also get to play cricket with them. The match had over 40,000 spectators and made the headlines of leading newspapers and news channels. Britannia promotions have proved to the marketing world that promotions per se need not be only tactical but could also be strategic - used as a tool to further brand equity. Britannia advertising has distinguished itself from competition in terms of imagery and recall value. The innovation of such communication was exemplified through the launch of Britannia's salt-sweet biscuit. The brand name was 50-50 and the consumer was never told upfront that the product was salt-sweet. But by just allowing the consumer to decipher the message himself, the company was able to draw the consumer closer and distinguish the offering from competition.
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Brand Values:
The Britannia brand is all about eating healthy, to lead a better life. It advocates values that stand for health, hygiene, family, trust and taste. It reflects the strong link between physical and mental wellbeing, that is so important to a person, and is typically a result of what one eats. Today, Britannia, driven by a passion for excellence, manifested by its innovative thinking, has been able to weave itself into the fabric of the consumer's everyday life. While Britannia strives to give consumers a healthier life, the consumer on the other hand, has come to expect innovation from Britannia's offerings - a huge challenge for the company.

Things You Didnt Know About Britania:

Britannia products are sold in over 2 million outlets, reaching millions of consumers who buy approximately 2.4 billion packs each year. A small army keeps Britannia going - over 100 stock-keeping units, 3,000 employees, over 1,500 authorised whole sellers, 53
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depots and 46 factories.The number of biscuits produced by Britannia in one year, would be the equivalent of one pack of 12 biscuits for every two people in the world. Stacked on top of each other, all Britannia biscuits sold in a year would stand 10,000 times taller than Mount Everest. Britannia has had a long association with cricket and cricket players. Nearly half the members of the current Indian cricket team serve as its brand ambassadors. Launched in 1997, Tiger became the largest selling Britannia biscuit brand in just 4 months of launch. It crossed the Rs. 1 billion sales mark in its very first year and is growing stronger.

Sunfeast Biscuits
In 2003, ITC forayed into the Biscuits market with the Sunfeast range of Glucose, Marie and Cream Biscuits. Sunfeasts brand essence, "Spread the Smile" connotes happiness, contentment, satisfaction and pleasure. The mascot Sunny reinforces the emotional aspects of the brand.

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Sunfeast immediately established itself as a provider of innovative and distinctive products - Sunfeast Marie was launched in an innovative orange flavour and the 'Sunfeast Dream Cream' range includes new flavours as well as flavour enhancers. The Sunfeast Dream Cream range is currently available in 8 variants. The Company has also introduced 'Sunfeast Dark Fantasy', a dark chocolate and vanilla cream offering for the premium segment in select markets. Riding on the success of its initial offerings, ITC also entered the milk biscuit category with Sunfeast Milky Magic biscuits. Apart from milk which helps mental growth, these biscuits also contain the finest quality wheat aiding physical growth. In the last two years, the Sunfeast biscuits portfolio has been enhanced to include salted crackers and cookies. The 'Sunfeast Snacky' salted crackers are available in 2 unique variants Chilli Flakes and Classic Salted. Sunfeast's latest offering, 'Sunfeast Special' biscuits are also available in select markets. The Sunfeast Special range currently includes cookies in two variants Butter and Cashew, as well as cream biscuits in two variants Choco and Orange.

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The Sunfeast product portfolio has been further expanded to include healthy snacking options. 'Sunfeast Pasta Treat' is a whole wheat based instant pasta for children. After the tremendous success of the 4 initial flavours, the instant Pasta range has been extended with two new exciting flavours Pizza and Chicken. The pasta segment was further expanded with the launch of 'Sunfeast Benne Vita' in 4 innovative variants.

Sunfeast extended the biscuits portfolio to the nutritional segment with the launch 'Sunfeast Sachin's Fit Kit' a range of healthy products co-created with Sachin Tendulkar. It is for the first time in India that an icon of the stature of Sachin Tendulkar has been
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actively involved in the product development process as co creator. This shared vision will enable create "Champions of Tomorrow". The launch range comprises two offerings - Sunfeast Sachin's Vitamin and Protein enriched biscuits and 'Sunfeast Sachin's Multigrain' biscuits.

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