Ferrero Rocher's brand endorsement strategy decoded

Ferrero India's Zoher Kapuswala shares how the brand zeroed down on Hrithik Roshan and Sara Ali Khan for their two product lines

Italian chocolate confectionery Ferrero has established its presence in the Indian premium chocolate market. In its about two decades of operations in the country, the chocolate has been a hit with the population, having a distinctive taste and design which can be easily recognisable. Ferrero Rocher's business in the country has been driven by its most popular product, the hazelnut chocolate ball.

The product has been able to establish the brand in the premium chocolate options for gifting as well as becoming a means to crave your sweet tooth. But the company has only been relying on the aforementioned product till now. Rocher has been able to build brand without extensive marketing and also without using celebrities in their campaigns.

This changed only recently when the chocolate brand appointed Hrithik Roshan for brand endorsements. The first digital ad campaign with Roshan was released by Ferrero India on October 3. "Roshan's love for Rocher" feature showed the star's preference for the chocolate, highlighting its "style and elegance".

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Zoher Kapuswala, marketing head, Pralines, Nutella, Tic Tac, Ferrero India, details that the Roshan endorsement came about at the right time when the brand was looking to target a particular audience. "The association with Roshan came from our particular consumer perception and what sort of an endorsement would appeal to that set of audience. The normal Rocher aficionado would be someone with a refined taste owner and must be placing a high value on their relationships. When we were looking at bringing a face for this particular influencer campaign, Roshan was an instant match and brought a lot of synergy to the whole campaign," he shares.

Kapuswala shares that Roshan's image perfectly aligns with the brand imagery they are aiming to build. While Roshan endorses Ferrero Rocher, for its other product, Ferrero Moments, his image didn't really align. So the brand appointed Sara Ali Khan. "The product is purely introduced for the Indian market and is being positioned as an everyday gifting brand. Here we wanted to star an upstart stellar, who's popularity is yet to reach the peak of success. The person we needed had to be bubbly and had to be someone who has close tie-ins with their family. Sara Ali Khan seemed like an appropriate fit and the scripting for the ad and shoot all were devised in a manner that they bring out these particular aspects," he said.

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These celebrity-led campaigns are a first for Rocher. Kapuswala says that the brand is testing the waters with the same and these kinds of endorsements will only increase if they feel that the campaigns were successful. He says that these campaigns would be integral for Rocher to create particular imagery for the brand. "Ferrero Rocher is all about the premium taste and experience. Sara is very bubbly but she comes from a royal background. So, somewhere down the line, we would like to get that royal but bubbly image associated with the brand as well," he explains. He further adds that the brand is looking to create value for their product with the endorsements and at the same time make it more fun and youthful.

The brand is currently taking the digital route for promotion. This is because they believe that their target audience is active more on social media than on other platforms. Through the social media campaigns, the brand is also looking to establish a stronger base on e-commerce.

Kapuswala believes, that most of the higher socioeconomic community is now inclined to buy their gifts online. "We are leveraging the social media campaign for e-commerce. We are available across various platforms and we are actively promoting the product on these sites as well. Further, quick commerce is also something we are focusing on of late to expand our business digitally," he said.

Even though the brand has been present in the country for a while, it launched 'Rocher Moments' only two years ago. "We have been growing in the past and we continue to grow year after year. Ferrero Rocher is a very premium category but we believe with Moments we would enter the affordable premium with Moments. This opens up a new horizon of expansion for us," he said.

The brand has observed significant eyeballs for its new campaign. However, Kapuswala wants to see how these endorsements deliver before making comments about future endorsements.

"The initial results look positive, but the season is still on. The campaigns have helped us get more traction on social media. Our Instagram handle has seen an upsurge in the number of followers post the release of the two ad features. So, there's some traction being built with this, but is it worth the bank for the buck? That is something which we will realize as time goes forward," he shares.