What a billion-dollar ‘chakna’ brand can teach MNCs about India
Haldiram’s, India’s favourite ‘chakna’ maker, has just become a billion-dollar brand. In its remarkable growth story – of taking on both multinational food giants and the corner halwai and beating them at their own game – lies a salutary lesson for any global company that wishes to crack the 1.4-billion-strong Indian market: listen to the Indian consumer or perish. Global giants that have come to play the long game in India have learnt this the hard way.
When Coca-Cola re-entered India by buying out local entrepreneur Ramesh Chauhan’s beverages business, it may have thought it was only a matter of leveraging Chauhan’s bottling and distribution network to push their brands. But consumers stubbornly voted with their feet for Chauhan’s erstwhile brands, Thums Up and Limca. Today, both are billion-dollar brands in their own right, outselling Coke by a margin.
Rival Pepsico too, had to bow to the Indian consumer. When Frito-Lay, the food division of Pepsico, bought the local chips brand Uncle Chipps – which at one time had a 70% market share – it found the brand impossible to dislodge from its portfolio despite restricting its distribution to North India for a decade. Uncle Chips refused to die because, with its unique insights into local consumer preferences, it had products that addressed niche needs and preferences.
For instance, its ‘sendha namak’ (rock-salt) variant is a hot seller during the Navratra period, when religious Hindus observe a diet that prohibits cereals and processed salt but allows potatoes and rock salt. Although Indian consumers are great experimenters and take to foreign foods with gusto, they also demand a certain ‘Indian-ness’ in what they consume. So, even as affluent, top-of-the-pyramid consumers
. Read more on livemint.com
