By Neeta Nair
Recently, the Tata Group entered the spices market under a newly created umbrella brand called Tata Sampann. Subodh Srivastav, Head - New Businesses (Food products group), Tata Chemicals, talks about the big launch and the ad campaigns that take the brand promise ‘Goodness ki Shuruwat’ forward
“The branded spice market is highly competitive, dominated by large regional and local brands. There are various price points in the market. Leading players have good consumer franchise, good trade relations and ability to spend. However, we feel there is an unmet need for high quality spices with an authentic taste, something which we would heavily rely on. At Tata Sampann, we believe, that natural goodness is the way to go for a healthy, balanced life. That’s why everything that emerges from Tata Sampann – be it our dals, besan or spices – is always pure and authentic,” says Subodh Srivastav of Tata Chemicals.
The company has also come up with a unique style of packaging for the spices. “We observed the usual problem faced by home-makers with storage of spices, and thus our product comes with ‘Goodness Intact’. The blended spices come in a 5-in-1 pack, five pouches of 20 grams each, thus preserving the aroma, taste and colour and retaining the freshness and goodness till the last pinch,” says Srivastav.
Tata Sampann, which had earlier roped in Sanjeev Kapoor as its brand ambassador, also released a campaign with the masterchef and his wife Alyona, around the festive season. Elaborate on it, Srivastav says, “This film is a ‘slice of life’ of our brand ambassador, food connoisseur and chef Sanjeev Kapoor, which we decided to share with our consumers. We think it really touched a chord with them and it received a million views in North India alone on various mediums.”
Srivastav goes on to add, “This film was created for the digital medium and has been used extensively on social media. Our mainline TVC for Tata Sampann Spices has been conceptualized by Leo Burnett Mumbai, and brings forth the story of the origin of the spices packaged. Just as a home-maker cooks meals for her family with a lot of love, Tata Sampann packs each pack with utmost love. The intention of the TVC is to invoke the joy of cooking in every home-maker through dramatic shots of the farms, chopping of vegetables, crushing of spices and ending with the delight of the family around the table.”
A little over a month old in the spices market, the brand is going all out to engage with customers. “In the food category, generating trials is very important and thus we are doing home-to-home activation on a large scale to make the product available at the consumer’s doorstep. We have placed brand promoters in key retail stores to educate consumers about the product benefits. We are also participating in fairs like the IITF in Delhi. Further, we distributed sample sachets through innovative mediums such as Rajdhani trains during the festive period. We also have shop sampling, etc. There is significant emphasis on in-shop branding using the point of sale collaterals, which works as an effective recall medium,” says Srivastav.
The spices market in India is believed to be a Rs 40,000 crore plus market, but only 15% of it is occupied by branded products. Talking about Tata Sampann’s plans to tackle this challenge, Srivastav says, “Our aim is to build our brands step by step with all the right quality ingredients. We aim to leverage the vast distribution network of Tata Salt which caters to more than 12 lakh retail outlets. For spices, we will focus on five lakh+ towns and are looking at reaching four lakh outlets in the next five years. We are also planning to reach out to consumers through our home-delivery service, that currently delivers our Tata Sampann High-Protein Dal and Low-Oil absorb Besan to the consumer’s doorstep at the click of a button. We have launched the product in NCR, and will be present in other northern states by the end of the year. We aim to be available across India in the coming year.”
FACTS
Creative agency: Leo Burnett
Media agency: Madison
Social and digital media marketing agency: WATConsult
PR agency: Rediffusion Edelman
