Creating an Indian Food Brand

All about creating a food brand in India


At the ongoing annual conference and exhibition on Indian food business – Food Forum India, '10 – the session titled 'Insights from food brand creators' had some of the stalwarts from the food segment, sharing their experience about surviving and growing in the food and beverage segment.


Sudeep Goenka, director, Shubham Goldiee Masale elucidated, “Creating a food brand is like the birth of the first child. Also food in itself is an emotional thing. With the reach of modern retail now every brand has the opportunity to be everywhere. We are trying to do so with our good old Indian spice brand.”


Like spice is an important aspect of Indian food, similarly there are interesting ways in which some of the food industry players are trying to spice up the experience for the consumers. Venkatesh, MD, Goli Vada Pav emphasised on how a 'desi name' helps the consumers to connect better with home grown brands. He said, “We are an ethnic fast food chain brand since 2004. From my experience, I would say that the basic foundation for food product is the food itself. So the key factors to keep in mind are product standardisation, safety of food, a three-month shelf life at least in order to become national and the use of technology.”


From the perspective of an importer of international food brands, catering to the Indian consumer is equally appetising. Sanjey Bajoria, MD, Bajoria Foods noted, “A strong brand needs consumer loyalty. Thus, a brand owner needs to have good knowledge of the consumer as well as the market. Ten years ago our country was a closed economy but now things have changed. The imported brands need to Indianise the product.” In order to illustrate his point with examples he pointed out how McDonald's has been doing well with their aloo tiki burger and Pizza Hut doing good business with paneer tandoori pizzas. He also stressed on the fact that imported category is precisely an 'impulse buy' category. Bajoria added, “Once the consumer likes the taste, they will be become loyal.”



Anjana Ghosh, director, Bisleri stated, “The brand Bisleri has existed for the past 40 years now. In fact, we have become a generic name for packaged mineral water. What has worked for us I feel is the connect we have been able to create with the consumers. When we changed the packaging from blue to green, our sales grew by 56 per cent. We have been able to communicate our brand essence to the consumer in a way in which he or she understands best. I personally feel that the product may come and go but it is the brand that plays in the mind and heart of the consumer.”



As a final word, K Radha Krishnan, chief mentor, Aligned Business Partners (ABP) observed, “I feel that if a brand name becomes generic, it is a huge compliment in itself. I would like to say that there will be conflicts between the need to customise and the need to standardise and how much of the volume will be dedicated to what. But the key take-aways such as product safety, topicality, availability and of course good quality still remain.”



Source :http://www.imagesfood.com/

Indian consumer willing to pay premium on Food Brands - A survey

Indians have become increasingly wary about the food that they buy, thanks to the rising issues concerning the safety of food and the resultant food-borne diseases. According to the Nielsen global online survey, 97% Indians consider safety of food an important factor in deciding where they shop and 73% Indians are confident in the safety of the food that they purchase from their local store.




As per the survey, India along with Ukraine is the second most willing nation to pay a premium for food that is safe (85%). Saudi Arabia and Phillipines lead with 86% votes in their willingness to pay a premium for safe food.



More than six in ten Indians think that the food manufacturer has the main responsibility for providing them with safe food. Around 30% hold the government responsible for providing safe food and only 8% think that the retailer has the main responsibility in providing safe food to them. However, Indians trust the government the most when a food safety scare arises (32%). With 29%, food manufacturers are the second most trusted entity in case of a food safety issue. Over 26% Indians trust media and only 13% trust retailers when they are skeptic about food safety.



“Food contamination is a problem that Indians face every now and then. Food supply in the country is often fragmented involving a multitude of middlemen, which exposes it to various types of fraudulent practices. In such conditions Indians are very careful of where they make purchases from and mostly go by the name of manufacturer.



The retailer is not seen as the prima donna in India, the manufacturer is,” said Biswarup Banerjee, associate director, marketing communications, South Asia, The Nielsen Company.


Nearly nine in ten Indians (86%) believe that they are responsible for the safety of food they consume at home. This is higher than the global average of 75% who believe that they are responsible for the safety of food that they consume at home.



The most important reason why Indians buy locally made products is because they think that by doing so they are supporting the local farmer or producer.

Source - Nielsen Survey