Aiming for scale and leadership in the FMCG segment, Manish Iyer, Associate General Manager (Marketing and Strategy), is driving the brand Fortune along with other products in the portfolio to become one of the leading FMCG brands in the country.
ABOUT THE BRAND
Adani Wilmar Limited (AWL) is a 50:50 joint venture between Adani Group - a leader in international trading, power sector and private infrastructure - and Wilmar International Limited, Singapore, one of Asia’s leading agri-business groups with revenues exceeding US $ 23.9 billion. The flagship brand ‘Fortune’ came into being in 2000, thus marking AWL’s foray into the branded packaged edible oil business. Within 20 months of its launch, Fortune became a top-selling edible oi brand in India. It was repositioned with a new mantra of ‘Joy of eating’ three years back.
CMO PROFILE
Manish Iyer has been associated with Adani Wilmar Limited since 2004 and currently works as Associate General Manager (Marketing and Strategy). He has over 15 years of experience in Brand Management, Sales and Distribution. He is a science graduate and holds a PGPX degree from IIM, Lucknow.
Q] What is the genesis of your new campaign ‘Har maa ke dil mein’? What is the concept behind your communication stand?
‘Fortune’ as a brand was re-launched three years back with the new positioning ‘Joy of eating’ when the agency Ogilvy India came on board. The idea behind this positioning is that there is no greater joy than the joy of eating. Our research indicated that the one thing common across the country was that at the end of the day, people want to enjoy their food with their family and relatives, irrespective of all the concerns surrounding it. Now, with this campaign, we wanted to build on that positioning of ‘Joy of eating’ and show our scale and leadership. Fortune is the number one brand in the category and we wanted to grow the category as well as take the leadership stand with our communication.
Q] How much market-share does Fortune enjoy in the edible oils market today?
According to the latest AC Nielsen figures, as a company, we have around 15.2% market-share. As a brand, Fortune has got more than 11% share of the market. Nielsen tracks up to five-litre packs. Today, the entire industry, including the organized and unorganized sectors, is around Rs 160 lakh tonnes. Out of this, around 37-38% would be oil that is sold in packs, including tins.
Q] What is your business and communication objective with the current commercial, since you already are a leader in the category?
More than the sales objective, this campaign was for the communication objective because it is a commodity which is being converted into a brand. Also, in our case, it is very difficult to pinpoint whether the communication has played the role in sales. The main objective of the campaign is to create an aura around the brand and to be seen as one of the good leading FMCG brands. Our long term objective is to become a leading FMCG brand. So we wanted to be seen as a big brand and based on whatever feedback we are getting, I think we are on the right track.
Q] How do you plan to execute the campaign, what is the media mix that you are using?
This is the first time that we have a 75-second commercial in the category. It has never been done before. We have also done a few innovations on the media planning and buying side. We did a solo break on the Star Network, which includes Star Plus, Star Jalsa and Star Pravah. We broke our campaign on these channels on November 28 between 7 pm to 10 pm, where every half-hourly slot belonged to us. The first break belonged to Fortune. We were also part of the India-West Indies cricket series. Cricket helps us because it is language and culture neutral. So, communicating through cricket helps us cut through the country and reach consumers as well as trade. This time, we had also explored all possible options of digital and clubbed it with radio and digital cinemas. We had taken around 2000 screens across the country for the movie Don 2’s release to back it up with our mass media campaign. We have not taken print this time, as we thought it would not be the right choice.
Q] How much would be your total spends on the campaign?
For this campaign, we would be spending around Rs 20 crore. We had planned for 1000 GRPs but we ended up getting more than that.
Q] You have also come out with a contest on the digital platform. Can you share more details about it?
We had a Facebook page and surrounding that we have announced a nationwide hunt for a unique cooking contest ‘Mummy Ka Khana’ along with Zee Khana Khazana. We are inviting mothers to send in their recipes and also kids who feel that their mothers have the best recipe or a secret recipe. These recipes will be judged by one of the chefs of Zee Khana Khazana and then the lucky winners will be called to the studio and a 7-8 minute video will be shot and that will be shown live. The contest is on right now and is being promoted through radio and television. So far we have got good response on that.
Q] Now that you have established the brand and created an aura around it, what will be the next step for the brand?
Our next steps will be to build on this and also get into various value-added blended oils under the brand Fortune, because the health factor is becoming important and many brands have adopted this motto. Health is at the periphery of the overall market and over a period of time, more people will switch to healthy blended oils. So that would be our next logical step.
Q] Already, many brands in the edible oil segment have positioned themselves on the health platform. It is the usually dining hall scenario where benefits of a particular oil are highlighted. You did not consider talking about health in this campaign?
We thought that at the end of the day, there cannot be more than one message in any communication. Also, as Indians we love our food, especially home food cooked by our mothers. So, that emotion is too high. And the category is still centred around taste, based on our understanding and reading of our research. Although the health factor is gaining importance day by day, it is more of a premium and urban phenomenon right now. The core of overall market is taste. And so we have consciously taken this positioning and will gradually build on it. We want to cue in health with our other offerings going forward. So, as a brand I am getting emotionally attached to my franchisee and my consumer set, but at the functional level, I would be launching various other products around the health factor.
Q] Is brand Fortune placed at the premium end of the market?
If you look at the edible oil category, leaving aside Saffola and Sundrop oil (these are into extremely niche categories), there is a huge market and Fortune is at the leading end. We also have a couple of other brands for the bottom of the pyramid. So we are premium in the overall edible oil category (leaving aside Saffola and Sundrop) but I won’t say that we are in that niche kind of a market. We are still at the centre of the category.
Q]So, will you expand to smaller regions in the country with the Fortune brand or other variants that you have for the lower end of the market?
It will be a mix of Fortune and the other flanking brands. In this industry, price plays a very important role, especially with the kind of inflation and the state of economy today. We are very conscious about consumers’ spending, especially on food. We will also have distributors in place who will know where to focus on Fortune and where to focus on other brands to fight local players. So that will be a town-to-town kind of strategy. For example, we have a brand called Raag Gold, which is primarily a palmolein oil promoted purely on value because that is what that consumer segment wants.
Q]There are reports that you also plan to get into pulses, soaps, olive oil, etc.
Yes, those are in the planning and development stage, and we will talk about them as and when they come.
Q]Will it be under the same brand umbrella of Fortune or will they be launched under separate brand names?
Those calls are yet to be taken; we are in that process now. It needs to be decided whether those products fit into the architecture and whether in the long term it would make sense. Those brand strategy calls are yet to be taken and we are in the process of deciding on it.
Q]About other health variants that you plan to launch in edible oils - will those be an extension of the Fortune brand or separate brands?
Some of them would be an extension of Fortune and some may not. It is still sometime away, but to build the brand portfolio, some of them will be under Fortune.
Q]Currently, Ogilvy is your creative agency. Will you continue with it for your other products as well or look at other agencies?
Ogilvy is handling the Fortune portfolio as of now and whatever comes under that brand or is an extension, will be with Ogilvy. We have also got Triton, which handles our two other brands. Depending on the need and scope of engagement, we will look at the matter.
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