Snacking as a habit after COVID-19 has changed so dramatically that the number of occasions has exploded. As a result, snacks, noodles, and even the biscuit category continue to grow. Dairy has penetrated markets like Bihar, and ITC Foods’ value-added portion of dairy has grown.
In e-commerce, ITC Foods has crossed 11-12 percent. Even in a city like Delhi, it’s crossing 18-20 percent. Juices contribute to 50 percent in e- commerce and modern trade platform. The 10-kg atta bag continues to be one of the dominant products that ITC is selling through quick commerce.
Temporarily, rural India might look sluggish, but the company wants to build brands that rule India Alpha (the top 2-3 percent of India), Tier 2-3 India, and rural India. The total number of Indians connected over the Internet in rural areas is larger than in urban areas; their aspirations are growing. The company is engaging with homemakers and youth in village after village. It is witnessing significant growth in consumption patterns in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand.
Storyboard18 caught up with Shuvadip Banerjee, Chief Digital Marketing Officer, ITC Foods, to understand what it has been doing during this festival season, why it did not advertise during a marquee event like the World Cup, its strategy to market millet, current consumption preferences, and how it is using Generative AI.
Bringing festivities into play
Every year, ITC Foods marks significant participation in Durga Puja, not only in Kolkata and West Bengal but also beyond. According to Shuvadip Banerjee, Chief Digital Marketing Officer, ITC Foods, the company’s engagement this year has been larger than last year. “We do not believe in being visible in 20 pandals. We would rather be visible in one pandal, engage in something meaningful, and bring the brand world to the consumer.”
This time, in Bagbazar, Kolkata, ITC’s Aashirvaad ensured that at the place where women were dancing during the Dhunuchi dance, there were sensors that generated electricity. “We took it forward with an NGO, and we lit up houses. We are also thinking of installing solar panels in those villages so that there is some permanent solution around it,” said Banerjee.
With Bingo! Tedhe Medhe, ITC Foods merged the World Cup with Durga Puja and created a pandal that resembled the Eden Garden. Considering the fact that football plays a significant role in Kolkata, the Narendrapur Pujo Committee created the Lusail stadium and a 45-foot Messi statue; Sunfeast Dark Fantasy was a co-sponsor there.
Then Mom’s Magic leveraged the fact that Ronaldinho is close to his mother and sponsored and created a pandal that had 1,000 avatars of real mothers transformed into Maa Durga.
To invest or not to invest in the World Cup?
Banerjee said that this time ITC Foods neither invested in media nor entered into a tie-up with the ICC or Star Sports. However, the conglomerate kept celebrating Team India. That’s because the industry’s situation was not as buoyant as it was in the first quarter. “If we invested a lot of money in the World Cup, somewhere ITC would compromise, and we didn’t want that as brand building requires consistent investment. As marketers, we thought about how to plan better, keeping the entire year in mind rather than just an event.”
However, indirectly, ITC Foods has been involved in cricket. ITC Fabelle created the One Earth. Since Fabelle embodies a global point of view towards the chocolate category, it picked up ingredients from all nine countries (coincidentally also part of the World Cup) and created a chocolate. One Earth was launched by Lisa Carprini Sthalekar, a former cricketer and captain of the Australia Women’s national cricket team, Dinesh Kartik, Waqar Younis, and Andy Allen.
Present-day market and buyer
“Since COVID-19, there is a little bit of caution from an expenditure standpoint. From a mindset standpoint, there is positivity. The top 2-3 percent of India (India Alpha) is rather immune from this cautious approach, and that (segment of) India continues to buy. The premium and super premium ends are seeing healthy growth. We see e-commerce and grocery growing continuously,” shared Banerjee.
Banerjee also pointed out that the present-day consumer doesn’t want to go halfway but prefers indulgence and health to be separate. When indulging, buyers are careful; they prefer having smaller portions.
ITC has realised that things that were once considered aspirational are no longer aspirational; now the marketer needs to consider ways to generate accessibility. And then, a trend that was at the top end of India has now started to percolate down. In east Uttar Pradesh and north Bihar, one can hear conversations around electrolytes and ingredients like caramel.
“We are also pushing towards authenticity and transparency. In our organic products, like Aashirvaad Organic Atta, you can scan the pack and know from which farm the ingredients of a particular pack have come,” shared Banerjee.
Sensorial explosions are also occurring in the packaged food space. “Today, we need a lot more textural play and taste cues. This is leading to growth in certain flavour buckets. Take spices, for example. It’s being used in conjunction with cheese, lemon, and honey, thus leading to many options. Also, hazelnut, which was being discussed by the top end of India, is growing at a rapid rate of 4x, 5x. Earlier, makhana was to be found in the north, but now it is growing as well,” highlighted Banerjee.
Ready-to-eat never really took off in India. But now the ready-to-cook segment is growing. People don’t want the full thing to be made but want frozen snacks, cut vegetables in frozen form, curry pastes, and ready-to-use dips and sauces. This outside-in phenomenon is about not ordering outside food via Swiggy or Zomato but replicating that food at home, said Banerjee.
360-degree millet approach
In January-February 2023, Sanjiv Puri, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), ITC, flagged off ITC’s Mission Millet journey. It was actually pegged under three large verticals: educate, empower, and encourage. ITC needed to educate farmers since most have stopped growing millet for a long time. Consumers were also not adequately aware of the usage of millet, despite knowing that it is healthy.
ITC’s Mission Millet is also about empowering and encouraging farmers by working with them and helping them grow. “Our hotel team, including chefs, created a huge number of recipes around millet. We populated all of those on our website. We worked with publishers and influencers like Kunal Kapur and created sessions on busting myths for consumers,” shared Banerjee.
The company has also added millet to its poha. For early morning tea and coffee, ITC Foods offers 100 percent millet cookies. Yippee has a millet noodle variant, and Bingo Tedhe Medhe has a chatpata version with 15 percent plus millet in it. ITC Foods also offers a Candyman Fantastik, where the chocolate stick is made of millet.
“Consumers don’t need to make an effort to adopt millets. ITC will create a convenient product you’re familiar with under your favourite brands. We also thought about the food clock — tea moments, snacking moments, and evening hot and fresh snacks were considered when the product portfolio was created,” said Banerjee and added, “Our hotel teams ensured that they were popularising millet through their chefs.”
ITC Foods also showcased millet in the G20. Currently, it has embraced food tech and owns cloud kitchens. Under Aashirvaad Soul Creation, it has created millet khichdi, poha, and breakfast. Some of ITC’s croissants are made of millet; Sunfeast has millet brownies.
Innovation and AI
Earlier brands were allowed to have long gestation periods of two to three years to come up with a product that sold. But today, brands need to be far more agile and sharper in order to maintain their edge and relevance in the industry. ITC is using technology to mine new data and understand things like midnight snacking. Banerjee explained that, in order to understand consumers’ preferences, words are not enough. “Do you want something in your palm that might make your hands oily in the middle of the night? These answers are not expressed through words but images.”
ITC is now working with a lot of AI agencies and media deployment AI tools to achieve high efficiency. Its social listening tool is based on AI; it has also used AI to do language translations since vernacular works well for its marketing. ITC Foods has also incorporated Generative AI for Sunfeast Dark Fantasy and Bingo!
According to Banerjee, as the business grows exponentially, it can be challenging to adhere to customer care without the intervention of AI. Thus, ITC Foods is employing conversational bots so that the turnaround time is quick and the consumer is happy.
However, ITC Foods doesn’t think AI will replace human creativity. “You need human intervention for sure to bring creativity,” concluded Banerjee.