Go Cheese adopts aggressive marketing push in festive season

Parag Milk Foods is promoting its 'Go' brand of cheese products and has positioned it as international quality cheese.

Maharashtra based Parag Milk Foods, which owns the Gowardhan brand of dairy products, recently launched an outdoor campaign for its Go Cheese brand.

The campaign promotes soft wedges and cheese slices under the brand name Go Cheese. The campaign has been launched in Mumbai, Pune, Gujarat, Delhi, Chandigarh and Kolkata. Along with television commercials, the campaign is using the outdoor medium to amplify brand recall.

Scion Advertising of Bengaluru, its creative agency, has worked on the campaign, while Carat handled the media, with Posterscope handling the outdoors.

The ongoing month long campaign for Go Cheese was launched on December 18, 2010 and will continue till mid-January. Besides the bus shelter outdoors, on ground activations are also being done by way of sampling at malls, multiplexes, hyper markets and traditional retail outlets.

In December, Go Cheese also had a print campaign running especially in Goa since Christmas is a big event there and cheese consumption picks up in Goa during that time of the year.

Rahul Akkara, vice-president, marketing, Parag Milk Foods informs that the brand is being aggressively marketed at this point in time as the company intends to capitalise on the festive season.

"From November to December, we had many festivals and events. Also, this is the season for marriages and family occasions and people like dining out during these months."

He shares that the total spends on television for this Go Cheese campaign is approximately Rs 2 crore, while the outdoor spend is about Rs 70 lakh in the above mentioned markets.

Quoting industry figures, he informs that the size of the cheese market in India is approximately 20,000 tonnes (valued at Rs 5,000 crore) annually. The current market share of Go Cheese is 12-14 per cent.

Akkara adds that when it comes to cheese, the company is not in direct competition with dairy majors such as Amul and Britannia, but is competing with international brands such as Kraft. "If you look at our portfolio of cheese products, most of our products are first timers in India, for which there has never been a domestic competition. For example, cheese wedges, cheese powder, fruit and dahi."

Discussing the company's two key brands, he says, "Gowardhan and the Go range are two different architectures. While Gowardhan represents something which is more traditional and homemade, Go represents products which are westernised, innovative and premium."

Therefore, while ghee, lassi and gulab jamun mix come under the Gowardhan brand, cheese, cheese products and flavoured yogurt come under the Go range.

The company is designing its product portfolio to suit the new Indian consumer who travels globally, sees new products abroad and wants to experience these products in the Indian market - but at a competitive price.