FMCG INDUSTRY IN INDIA

Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) goods are popularly named as consumer packaged

goods. Items in this category include all consumables (other than groceries/pulses) people buy at

regular intervals. The most common in the list are toilet soaps, detergents, shampoos, toothpaste,

shaving products, shoe polish, packaged foodstuff, and household accessories and extends to

certain electronic goods. These items are meant for daily of frequent consumption and have a

high return. The Indian FMCG sector is the fourth largest sector in the economy with a total

market size in excess of US$ 13.1 billion. It has a strong MNC presence and is characterized by a

well established distribution network, intense competition between the organized and

unorganized segments and low operational cost. Availability of key raw materials, cheaper labor

costs and presence across the entire value chain gives India a competitive advantage. The FMCG

market is set to treble from US$ 11.6 billion in 2003 to US$ 33.4 billion in 2015. Penetration

level as well as per capita consumption in most product categories like jams, toothpaste, skin

care, hair wash etc in India is low indicating the untapped market potential. Burgeoning Indian

population, particularly the middle class and the rural segments, presents an opportunity to

makers of branded products to convert consumers to branded products. Growth is also likely to

come from consumer 'upgrading' in the matured product categories. With 200 million people

expected to shift to processed and packaged food by 2010, India needs around US$ 28 billion of

investment in the food-processing industry.

India Biscuits Industry is the largest among all the food industries and has a turnover of around

Rs.3000 crores. India is known to be the second largest manufacturer of biscuits, the first being

USA. It is classified under two sectors: organized and unorganized. Bread and biscuits are the

major part of the bakery industry and covers around 80 percent of the total bakery products in

India. Biscuits stand at a higher value and production level than bread. This belongs to the

unorganized sector of the bakery Industry and covers over 70% of the total production. 

India Biscuits Industry came into limelight and started gaining a sound status in the bakery

industry in the later part of 20th century when the urbanized society called for readymade food

products at a tenable cost. Biscuits were assumed as sick-man's diet in earlier days. Now, it has

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become one of the most loved fast food products for every age group. Biscuits are easy to carry,

tasty to eat, cholesterol free and reasonable at cost. States that have the larger intake of biscuits

are Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh. Maharashtra and

West Bengal, the most industrially developed states, hold the maximum amount of consumption

of biscuits. Even, the rural sector consumes around 55 percent of the biscuits in the bakery

products. 

The total production of bakery products have risen from 5.19 lakh tonnes in 1975 to 18.95 lakh

tonnes in 1990. Biscuits contributes to over 33 percent of the total production of bakery and

above 79 percent of the biscuits are manufactured by the small scale sector of bakery industry

comprising both factory and non-factory units.

The production capacity of wafer biscuits is 60 MT and the cost is Rs.56,78,400 with a motive

power of 25 K.W. Indian biscuit industry has occupied around 55-60 percent of the entire bakery

production. Few years back, large scale bakery manufacturers like cadbury, nestle, and brooke

bond tried to trade in the biscuit industry but couldn't hit the market because of the local

companies that produced only biscuits. 

The Federation of Biscuit Manufacturers of India (FBMI) has confirmed a bright future of India

Biscuits Industry. According to FBMI, a steady growth of 15 percent per annum in the next 10

years will be achieved by the biscuit industry of India. Besides, the export of biscuits will also

surpass the target and hit the global market successfully

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COMPANY OVERVIEW

Cadbury is a British multinational confectionery company owned by Mondelēz International. It

is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Wrigley's. It is headquartered

in Uxbridge, Greater London and operates in more than fifty countries worldwide. It is famous

for its Dairy Milk chocolate and many other confectionery products. Cadbury was established

in Birmingham, England in 1824, by John Cadbury who sold tea, coffee and drinking chocolate.

About Mondelēz International

Mondelēz International, Inc is a world leader in chocolate, biscuits, gum, candy, coffee and

powdered beverages. The company is comprised of the global snacking and food brands of the

former Kraft Foods Inc. following the spin-off of its North American grocery operations in Oct.

2012. Mondelēz International’s portfolio includes several billion-dollar brands such

as Cadbury and Milka chocolate, Jacobs coffee, LU, Nabisco and Oreo biscuits, Tang powdered

beverages and Trident gums. Mondelēz International has annual revenue of approximately $36

billion and operations in more than 80 countries.

About Mondelez India Foods Private Ltd.

Mondelez India Foods Private Ltd. (formerly Cadbury India Ltd.) is a part of Mondelēz

International and is in the business of creating delicious moments of joy. It operates in five

categories – chocolate, beverages, biscuits and gums & candy and has been a chocolate category

leader since its inception in India for over six decades. Cadbury Dairy Milk, CDM Silk,

Celebrations, Bournville, 5Star, Perk, Gems, Glow and Toblerone are brands available in India

under the chocolate category. The beverage portfolio consists of Bournvita and Tang. Oreo is a

part of its biscuit portfolio, while Gums & Candies consists of Halls and Choclairs.

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BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Analysing business markets

India represents perhaps Kraft’s (Mondelez) most promising developing market, with its

ballooning population and growing consumer base. Given the way Oreo is performing in India

there is a high possibility that Oreo will introduce its other products as well. India has an

estimated market of Rs 13,000 crore biscuits market here. The snaking and eating out sector in

India is on the rise. Abroad Oreo is undoubtedly a cookie brand with the highest brand equity

and know all over the world. The business markets will also see the sales and revenue models of

Oreo across the globe and compare it to the Indian market. It helps in gauging the gaps in the

business and devising strategies to overcome them.

B2B and B2C focus

B2C – Oreo mainly engages in B2C business where the biscuits are manufactured for the

customers and sold to them directly via retail outlets. This is more transactional in nature and

short lived process. Customer satisfies his own personal need.

B2B – Oreo under Cadbury engages into B2B business when it ties up with McDonalds for

McFlurry or Cafe Coffee day for Oreo shake on their menu. This will be more relational and

long term in nature.

Analysing consumer markets

Building consumer insights by taking a 360 degree view of the daily lives of your consumers,

their consumption habits, their buying habits, lifestyle and the changes that occur in their lifetime

are important so that the right products are always marketed to the right customers in the right

way and the product keeps evolving as the customer evolves so as to remain relevant. Oreo takes

care of the cultural aspect as it tries to position itself as a family brand and spreads the idea of

togetherness. Personal factors would include the taste and wants of its target segment. Here is

also becomes important to understand what stimuli and response encourage the customer to buy

the cookie. Also the decision making model and purchase and post purchase behavior needs to be

analysed. Thus it is more like talking a look at ‘a life in the day of your consumer’ and

understanding it to ingrain consumer insights.

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BRANDING STRATEGY

It is a name, term, sign, symbol or a combination of all these which differentiate the

goods/services of one seller or group of sellers from those of competitors. Brand is a promise

that the product will perform as per customer’s expectations. Thus, Brands are “what the

consumers buy”, while products are “what concern/companies make”.

Brand name and connect– There’s something neat about those O’s in OREO. O at both ends,

even though most people aren’t conscious about that. Thus the brand name and the product you

are selling under it are important. Oreo uses the concept of togetherness, emotional connects to

tingle the soft corner of its customers. Moreover the idea of splitting the Oreo with your loved

ones and the adorable characters used in the ads makes the user fall for it. . Oreo builds the

feeling of togetherness, sharing and nostalgia into its marketing, and is quite successful in

establishing a brand by creating this emotional appeal.

Brand Positioning- Cadbury has positioned Oreo as a family brand. And that’s why the

communication of the brand stresses on a special way of enjoying Oreo cookies ‘Twist, Lick and

Dunk ritual’ as they call it.

Brand Equity-Brand Equity is the value, both tangible and intangible, that a brand adds to a

product/service. OREO The customer – based brand equity focuses exclusively on the

relationship customers have with the brand. The market – based brand equity aims at producing

measures in dollars, Euros or yen. Oreo has a positive Brand equity, as it has been able to capture

consumer preference and loyalty. Considering the facts that buying biscuit requires low

involvement and consumers display variety –seeking behaviour and engage in brand switching

when buying cookies, Oreo has maintained its brand loyalty. For them vanilla crème between 2

cocoa sandwich meant only Oreo and this is the kind of Brand recall associated with the brand. 

Oreo has a very strong brand whose brand personality are the kids enjoying Oreo moments

with their parents.

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Brand Evangelism– The basic positioning is that of a biscuit for ‘good times with family’. The

idea is to make them brand evangelists when they grow up, carrying the ‘Twist, Lick and Dunk’

tradition forward, when they bond with their kids.

Oreo logo – The Oreo logo is easily identifiable as it is distinct and is also inscribed in the center

of the cookie. A brand like Oreo needs to have a strong brand recognition through logo and font.

 

 

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Product Innovation– is important from branding perspective. Constantly evolving the brand and

having fun with it is important. Oreo has a versatile range of products abroad but since its just 3

year old only the trademark sandwich Oreo cookie is available here. But it is astonishing to see

how this 3 year old has climbed up the pyramid and established itself as a premium cookie. It

because has been fuelling the innovation cycle in India’s robust eating out/snacking sector by

integrating itself into products like McFlurry, Oreo shake and donuts by strong brands like

McDonalds, Cafe Coffee Day and Mad over Donuts. For now, only the classic flavor has been

introduced in India, but considering it has a strong pipeline of international variations, the

potential for growth is exponential. Besides this, Oreo has a strong market internationally for use

as a basic ingredient in various sweet dishes and desserts abroad. Its availability here, gives

opportunity for those market players (international fast food outlets, ice-cream chains,

restaurants) to expand into the lucrative Indian market.

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Protect your brand– Any brand like Oreo with a strong Brand Equity would register

Intellectual property to protect the brand and its business. If this would not happen, you would

see Black-white knock off cluttered at the shelves of supermarket.  Cadbury is leaving no loose

ends and is taking the fight out. It recently sued Britannia for trademark and copyright violations

with its ‘Treat-O’ biscuits, and has sought an injunction to prevent it from ‘manufacturing,

selling, marketing, or advertising’ any product with any distinctive element of Oreo cookies. It

alleges that the florets and other design etchings on the biscuit, or the ‘Oreo cookie trade dress’

has been copied, besides the use of the similar sounding name with a stress on ‘O’. They are also

trying to sue ITC for Sunfeast Dark Fantasy, but that may be tough, as although at a glimpse it

looks like Oreo (dark brown biscuit sandwich with white cream filling in blue packaging), on

closer inspection its quite different; the name being completely different, and the biscuit design

also being quite different, with a sun symbol in the centre and different floret designs on the side.

 

Branding Plan– Oreo has successfully leveraged its brand to stand out in a crowded industry,

and in doing so laid a roadmap for businesses to follow to protect their own brand. Laying out a

branding plan is utmost important. Emotional ties are going to be what set your product apart

from the rest, and you need to be prepared to capitalize on those ties which oreo does very well.

Connect with your customers, protect your brand, and establish a solid reputation and managing

that tactfully in case of crisis is important to sustain the brand.

 

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COMPETITORS

1. Britannia Bourbon

Parent Company Britannia

Category Biscuits

Sector Food Products

USPThick, rich and delicious chocolate packed between two crunchy chocolate biscuits

STP

Segment Quality conscious children and adults

Target Group All age groups middle and upper class people

PositioningThe biscuit you can carry when you hangout on any occasion

SWOT Analysis

Strength

1. Price is an advantage as its reasonable for people for spontaneous buying2. Good advertising and popularity specially amongst children and youth3. Nano packs, party packs, gift packs

Weakness1. Limited target audience 2. Global presence is limited.

Opportunity

1. Tie-up with corporates/hotel chains2. Launch various flavours for the cream3. Have more distribution in rural areas as well as global markets

Threats1. Similar biscuit categories e.g. Sandwich Biscuits3. Chocolates

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2. Sunfeast Dark Fantasy

Parent Company ITC

Category Biscuits

Sector Food Products

USPThick, rich and delicious chocolate packed between two crunchy chocolate biscuits

STP

Segment Quality conscious children and adults

Target Group Youth from middle and upper class people

Positioning It’s a luxurious mix of aromatic cocoa and vanilla.

SWOT Analysis

Strength

1. Low cost

2.Good advertising and visibility

3.Good product quality and packaging

Weakness 1. Limited target audience i.e. people who prefer chocolate

Opportunity 1. Tie-up with corporates/hotel chains

Threats

1. Severe threat from wafer and salted snacks segment

2.Similar biscuit categories

3.Chocolates

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3. Parle Hide & Seek

Parent Company Parle

Category Biscuits

Sector Food Products

USP Chocolate Chip Biscuits

STP

Segment Quality conscious children and adults

Target Group All age groups middle and upper class people

Positioning World’s best molded chocolate chip cookies

SWOT Analysis

Strength

1.Low cost

2.Good advertising and visibility

3.Good product quality and packaging

4.Three Different flavors

Weakness1.Limited target audience i.e. people who prefer chocolate

2.No Sugar Free version

Opportunity1.Tie-up with corporate/hotel chains

2.Sugar Free Version

Threats

1.Severe threat from wafer and salted snacks segment

2.Similar biscuit categories

3.Chocolates

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PROMOTIONS/INTEGRATED MARKETING

COMMUNICATIONS

Marketing Communication Mix

Through the years, Oreo brand advertising and promotions continue to be world-class. With

integrated marketing plans, each and every Oreo communication is built around a key consumer

insight: that Oreo offers everyday moments of connection that are unmatched by other cookie

brands. With significant spending behind promotions and public relations, the Oreo brand has

forged strong, lasting connections with customers and consumers. In India OREO employs all

tools of marketing communications in order to spread awareness about the product. Below are

some of the tools of IMC and how they have been advertised in India and abroad.

The Oreo ritual also seems in sync with the Indian habit of dunking biscuits in tea and milk and

that’s what Oreo is looking to capitalize on, while vying to capturing the mindshare of families

in this highly competitive market. The company has used a mix of TVCs, outdoor campaigns,

on-ground activation and digital outreach for its launch, however the major thrust has been on

TV. The TVC of Oreo was launched during Cricket world cup 2011 to grab maximum eyeballs.

The TVC played on all major channels in Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and

Malayalam. Market reports suggest that Cadbury has allocated one of its largest marketing

spends on Oreo in India.

Advertising

The advertisements of OREO portray the positioning of Oreo as a twist-lick-dunk biscuit very

well. Their brand icons were traditionally small children but now ads are being created that

showcases popular actors and teenagers. Oreo commercials show the idea of fun frolic and the

joy of splitting an Oreo with your family/loves ones.

Advertising thought print media ( newspapers, magazines), broadcast (radio, TV), network

media (telephone, cable, satellite, wireless) , electronic media (web pages, videos, audios), and

display media (billboards, signs, posters).  The brand OREO blends the current trends in the

world and uses it to create a buzz.

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Out of Home (OOH) 

The launch of the commercial is backed by OOH (Out-Of-Home) media in major cities

(Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi and Kolkata), setups in malls, amusement

parks, multiplexes and retail outlets to engage with families, specifically the children.

     

   

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Point of Purchase Displays

The POP’s and the placement of product on the shelves of the supermarkets play an important

role sales promotion and helps attract customer attention. Often these POPs have salesmen

around them for personal selling.

 

 

Events & Experiential

Events and sponsored activities by the company that are designed to create interactions with the

consumers and let them experience the brand first hand. Experiential marketing involves the

consumer highly and engages him totally.  These could be sports, arts, entertainment, fashion

shows, social cause events, awareness drives, gaming etc.

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PR Campaign

The 100th birthday of OREO was huge PR program where games and interesting activities were

designed for the people.  Huge space of newspapers, supplements, social media were full of

stories about OREO. The millions of fans the brand has from all across the world played an

integral role to viral it’s PR.

Below The Line

Cadbury is spending one third of its marketing budgets on below the ground activities and trade

outlet promotions. Commenting on other initiatives being taken by Cadbury to strengthen the

brand in its category, Chandramouli says, “We are investing a lot on in-store visibility of the

brand as well. Biscuits are usually cluttered in one place in large store formats, so we have

created special Oreo panels to make the brand visible, it is called the wall of blue.”

Candid Marketing is executing the ‘Oreotogetherness’ bus activity for the brand-Cadbury India

has launched Oreo-Time initiative, as a part of which a fully branded ‘Oreotogetherness’ Bus

will travel across nine cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Pune,

Lucknow, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mysore. The campaign was launched in the capital with

Cadbury India’s Director – Snacking & Strategy, Chandramouli Venkatesan flagging off the bus.

Bringing the Oreo-Time movement to life are the special activities planned in and around the

bus. Parents will be encouraged to take the Oreo Pledge, which stands for a promise to spend

more time with the children. Making the zone even more fun for families are various interactive

activities based on Oreo’s much-loved ritual of ‘Twist-Lick and Dunk’.

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Social Media – Oreo takes it content marketing very seriously to achieve a

high degree of engagement

Oreo India has started taking content seriously. For the 101 year old brand, which came to India

only in March 2011, Facebook has become a medium to engage, entertain, and inspire its

audience with the kind of content which only Amul had created earlier.

Social media Strategy–

Oreo boasts an effective social media strategy.  Oreo know that teenagers and the youth that they

target are on social media. With enormous fan following on social media, Oreo enjoys seeing the

numbers growing: 34 Millions + fans on Facebook, 161 K+ followers on Twitter, 20 Million +

views on YouTube, 95K+ followers on Instagram, 3K+ followers on Pinterest. Most of the Oreo

followers on Facebook are teenagers.

In order to achieve such a great success, Oreo must have clearly defined how to listen and talk to

the groundswell: humorously, consistently and smartly.  Oreo not only listens to what the

customers are saying about the brand, but especially keeps an eye on the bigger environment and

targets the trendiest topics that the customers would be interested in. The idea to interject a

business marketing message into a current news story in order to gain additional attention from

both customers and the media works perfectly well for Oreo.

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For example Superbowl, the festival of modaks with the Oreo brand but also promoted this with

its fan base on Facebook.

Oreo’s Daily Dunk:

The brand should be considered an example in the way it used Facebook to spread interesting

content. Oreo India’s Facebook page has taken its cue from Amul’s print campaign and created

content units which connect the brand with an important event of the day on which the post is

made.

For example, on June 21, it posted a visual update reminding people that it was the longest day

of the year, an obvious fact that seems to pass the grownups, and to connect it with the brand, it

used a stretched pack of Oreo biscuits as the graphics (see the image below).

 

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What’s Unique About Oreo India’s Campaign?

The first thing you notice about the posts is the use of the product and its packaging as a visual

device to explain the event that it talks about in the post. For example, in the following image,

posted on June 06 when Tetris (the famous video game) was released, an Oreo biscuit has been

broken into small pieces to resemble Tetris blocks.

Another thing that you will notice in the posts is the use of hash tags. The brand’s hashtag,

#DailyDunks, is not the only one being used, but it is also piggybacked on the hashtag relevant

for the days. For example, it has used the hashtag #DoctorsDay on July 01 with a relevant image

to celebrate Doctor’s Day. The use of these varied hashtags has acted well to amplify its reach.

                  

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Cadbury Oreo kick starts the “Play with OREO” campaign

nationally Cities across India get lively and playful with Play with OREO Graffiti and Pop-Art

Mumbai, June 3, 2015: Cadbury Oreo has launched its “Play with OREO” campaign in India to

inspire consumers to get playful and enjoy the small moments of life. The brand is on a mission

to unleash imagination and playfulness, not only by the means of creative fun with the iconic

Oreo cookie, but also in consumers' everyday lives. Oreo is running a 360 degree marketing

campaign nationally, to spread this message of “playfulness” amongst its fans.

In addition to an exciting new TVC, “Play with OREO” will be seen on a wide array of media

platforms like innovative Graffiti wall art, Outdoor, Radio, along with a prominent presence on

digital and social media. With the “Play with Oreo” campaign, Oreo has managed to do what few

brands can – retain its authenticity while staying contemporary and relevant.

Speaking on the brand philosophy of “playfulness”, Pandyan, Associate Director, Biscuits India

and Kids Fuel AP, Mondelēz International said, The “Play with OREO” campaign will

encourage people of all ages to tap into their imagination and incorporate a little more play into

their daily routines. Further, we wanted to offer consumers an experiential platform to celebrate

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“playfulness” which is an integral part of Oreo’s brand’s philosophy. We have a wide range of

initiatives in this campaign including an exciting collaboration with renowned graffiti artists for

an innovative Oreo wall art project across the country expressing & celebrating the idea of play.

He added, “All of us could do with some more play and fun in our hectic, busy lives. Through

this campaign we seek to inspire people and bring in a little more Play in their lives.”

As a part of the “Play with OREO” campaign, interesting Graffiti art installations expressing

play through the unique lens of Oreo have been put up at prominent locations in the cities of

Mumbai (at Bandra Reclamation), Delhi (at Moolchand Flyover) and Bangalore (at Richmond

Flyover). Renowned graffiti artists like YANTR, Harshvardhan Kadam and Ranjit Dahiya have

used the city street walls as their canvas and created their own versions of Oreo art.

The Outdoor hoardings across the country comprise of Oreo pop art having exciting graphics and

cheerful colours that radiate liveliness with attention-grabbing messaging. Thus, breaking from

the clutter of typical outdoor hoardings and making it a visual treat for passersby.

“Playfulness” has also got an interesting creative twist through new-age creative art forms like

doodle art. One can visit the “Play with OREO” website to indulge their creative side and create

OREO cookie characters or just have a good laugh at the creativity inspired globally by the

popular, much loved brand. The response so far, has been wonderful. Fans across the globe have

shared their wonderful moments and creative art associated with their favorite OREO cookie.

The fan art comprise of imaginative Oreo doodle and pop art, photographs of unconventionally

styled dishes made from Oreo Cookie, creative videos and much more!

As part of the digital campaign, Oreo will also run a series of web-films on YouTube, and

Facebook dedicated to the Play with Oreo theme.

The graffiti idea will extend to social media with the #DoodleIt activity where fans can create

interesting and creative doodle art around the Oreo Cookie and post their works of art on the

brand’s social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram. All these

creations will then find their home on www.playwithoreo.com which is a global platform for

Oreo fans to connect and share their love for the much loved cookie.

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MARKETING AGENCIES

The Brand Activation agencies are Candid Marketing and OOH agency is Madison. The

animated TVC created by the Global agency FCB features customized Indian lyrics and

regional singers. The creative agency for Mondelez India is Interface Communications.

AWARDS

1. Oreo Daily Twist Campaign Wins The 2nd Annual Facebook Studio Blue Award

Facebook’s Creative Council evaluated hundreds of Facebook ad campaigns submitted by brands

and agencies from across the globe to select winners for the 2013 Facebook Studio Awards. The

winner was Oreo, taking home the Blue Award for the Oreo Daily Twist Campaign, a social

program that marked Oreo’s 100th Birthday Celebration by posting 100 pieces of social content

referencing culturally-relevant events in 100 days.

2. "OREO." 2015 REGGIE Awards Silver Winner Shopper Marketing Campaigns.

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