Q] Nutella has been able to sustain so far without extensive marketing, or featuring celebrities in campaigns. What’s the reason behind the brand taking steps to onboard celebs now?
Although, formally, we have not had a celebrity brand endorser, the brand has been active for the past few years on Digital platforms with a few celebrity collaborations. Just last Diwali we did an influencer collaboration with Celebrity Chef Vikas Khanna, and we had influencers doing DIYs and other content on a regular basis. We have been associating with Ranveer Singh, not as a strategic partner, but as an influencer for the past three years. We had collaborated with him on World Nutella Day, and Christmas. Now with the brand growing, we want to give more fuel to consumers and shoppers.
We have taken a step further to formalize the association with Ranveer Singh, and rather than using him only as a tactical influencer on certain occasions, we have decided to use him strategically as a brand endorser for multiple festivals. We have a year-long calendar planned for the brand, including a back-to-school campaign, a Diwali campaign, and of course, Christmas and New Year. For instance, the moment school starts, a mother is actively looking for quick-fix solutions for her kids’ tiffin, that’s when we will activate ‘Back to School’ with Ranveer Singh. We will also activate a campaign during Diwali when consumers make traditional Indian dishes at home. They can give a modern twist to it with Nutella.
Q] The brand Nutella is more of an urban phenomenon. Are you planning to expand into Tier 3, 4 towns in the coming months/ years?
As you have rightly pointed out, our key markets are basically urban markets - metros, tier I, tier II towns, where we can find global Indians. Our core TG primarily remains mothers of kids aged four to fourteen years. We also have consumers who have been with Nutella since their childhood, and they love the brand. These consumers are the advocates of Nutella, and the brand is growing through their word-of-mouth.
As a company, we have a distribution of Kinder Joy and Tic Tac, which goes to Tier I, II, III, IV and V towns, along with some rural penetration. With Nutella, we are currently focusing only on the bigger towns. The primary focus is on the top contributing outlets, where you can find consumers and shoppers of Nutella. I believe that there is enough scope and potential in the Metros, alongside the top Tier I, Tier II towns.
Q] How do you plan to amplify the latest campaign, and what kind of a media mix have you planned for it?
We plan to activate the brand during occasions by being digitally focused. Although, we are using some amount of TV, the truth is that TV is mainly meant for building reach. We know that our consumers are based in Metro tier one, tier two cities. Hence, rather than opting for the “spray and pray mode” of TV, which is more of a mass medium, we are choosing Digital. Through Digital we can ‘sharp target’ these particular geographies and target audiences, and we can activate and build on distribution. YouTube, OTT, social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram are our mainstays.
Furthermore, we actively did some strategic tie-ups with Blinkit, and on the occasion of World Nutella Day, we leveraged our partnership with a lot of e-commerce players.
