Karare takes on Kurkure with 'tedha-seedha' play

Too Yumm! continues to play its baked-not-fried card - this time, in the Indian snacks segment. Will it work?

The age-old advertising ploy of taking a dig at a rival brand is rampant even today and makes an appearance every now and again. Sometimes the comparison can even go under the radar and sometimes subtlety goes right out the window.

Guiltfree Industries Limited, the FMCG division of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, has launched its latest TVC showcasing the Too Yumm! Karare

Conceptualised by Mullen Lintas, Guiltfree Industries Limited (FMCG arm of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group) has rolled out a new 30-seconder TVC for Too Yumm! Karare, the latest addition to the brand's healthy snacking portfolio. The ad features national heartthrob Virat Kohli who was brought on board in December 2017 as health ambassador for Too Yumm!. Amidst the hullabaloo of cause-vertising and a content-driven brand film format, this time around the brand takes a rather older (maybe wiser... only time will tell!) route on the advertising front.

The spot opens with a lady walking into an airport lounge; she notices Virat munching on a snack. Sitting down near him, she opens her own packet of fried snacks and the two begin describing the taste of each - each of their individual snacks is crispy and chatpatta. It all boils down to Virat's response to the lady's last comment about her snack being "tedha" (crooked) when he points out that his is "seedha" (straight) from the inside. He then adds that his snack is not fried either, it's baked, thus implying that his option is just as good but also healthier.

The big question is if the similar sounding coinage-generated buzz and past controversy of the Indian skipper's dietary patterns help the brand hit it off with its potential TG and gain market share.

The brand's latest spot veers away from the currently famous content-driven ad film format and instead, asks viewers to question their fried snack choices. How do they develop a loyal customer base when the major rival and market leader - Kurkure, a Pepsico India owned product - has ruled the western snacks category space for so long?

We reached out to Anupam Bokey, VP marketing (CMO), RP-SG FMCG to understand how they get consumers to select their brand over a better-known rival (in this case, Kurkure, a major player in the market for much longer). “The key requirement is to create awareness on a mass scale and get distribution expanded to tier 2/3 towns – which is the plan,” is Bokey’s response.

Anupam Bokey

“In the foods segment, the proof is in the eating – so we would do mass scale sampling to build the right conviction for trade and consumers. This approach has given us a great start and we would like to build it further. Honestly, it would be rather difficult to halt Karare’s success,” he states with confidence.

Getting the consumers to switch... is it an easy ride?

Bokey feels that healthy snacking has been a trend for the past few years and there aren’t enough options available to consumers. “... hence, it’s not such a difficult task to shift consumers from unhealthy to healthy anymore. Since the launch of Too Yumm!, we are communicating it actively and we have already taken a sizable share away from our key competitors in the top cities. With more familiar and accessible products, the conversion would only accelerate,” he adds.

Although Bokey notes that Too Yumm! Karare resembles an existing category of product in the market the creative brief to the agency was to simply establish what this product is with a clear differentiator of it being baked. “The Agency worked on it from scratch, including coming up with the nomenclature,” he says.

While speaking about the brand's assessment of different media vehicles (OOH, Digital, TV) while parking media money, he informs, “TV is the primary medium and digital features in our overall media strategy to reach out to the younger lot.”

The latest spot comes with a media span of one month, "... the brand's expected TG is 15 to 35 years, NCCS (Consumer Classification System) ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations) ,” he shares.

Too Yumm! is a rather younger brand making a disruption in the Indian snacking space. Of course, it has its own immediate objective which is to build brand awareness while riding on the wave of 'healthier' campaigns. With IPL being one of the biggest and most relevant media events in the country today, the brand wasted no time in garnering it as the primary platform to launch its Multigrain-Chips variant which one can, apparently, "Eat Lot Fikar Not!".

ALSO READ: When a long copy ad masqueraded as an open letter by Virat Kohli

Bordering on ambush marketing...?

Navin Kansal

Navin Kansal, chief creative officer, 21N78E Creative Labs has a rather interesting take. He says wryly, "Health and taste have typically shared an inversely proportionate relationship. For those addicted to fried snacks, this is an interesting attempt by Too Yumm! to insinuate itself into a campaign which already enjoys great recall and get noticed. It is going to be a slow burn though the spot seems to have the ingredients in place - the poster boy for fitness, ambushing 'tedha' with 'seedha' while conveying that it's also big on flavours. Whether or not consumers will bite remains to be seen."

Looking around, there has been an increase in the awareness toward the benefits of healthier living these days. The number of marathons, fitness runs, triathlons etc. has steadily been rising. This trend is being used by brands like Cult Fit, Eat Fit, Cure Fit and the likes of healthy options for yoghurts, juices etc. So, looking beyond just Too Yumm!, the market dynamics are, in a way, shifting towards healthier options.

Rahul Vengalil

With regard to Too Yumm!, Rahul Vengalil, founder and CEO - What Clicks, feels the brand got two things going for them, ".... Firstly there's Virat Kohli, a fitness and health freak and secondly, their media-muscle has made it kind of omnipresent in the right places. Kurkure isn't as active as Too Yumm! is, at least on digital where a lot of content related to health and fitness is consumed."

But doesn't it seem unlikely to work with its potential TG simply because the last thing on the mind of a Kurkure loyalist would be the health quotient or calorie count? Wouldn't consumers instead, opt for something healthy, like a salad, in the first place?

"Too Yumm! has the price advantage and variant advantage ranging from makhana to carrot and veggie stick etc. The variant advantage would be a big pull for health-conscious consumers. With this TVC, they have taken Kurkure head on. If they are able to take the fight to the distribution front of Kurkure, then it's 'game on'," Vengalil adds.

"What Too Yumm! has to focus on now is their distribution strength as against Kurkure. which is part of the ITC brand. Combining the market dynamics, their creative smartness and media power, if Too Yumm! is able to take on Kurkure in distribution, it would be a tough fight," he elaborates.

Karare marks the launch of the brand's sixth product type in the snacking category. The brand's portfolio includes four other product categories - Wheat Thins, Fox Nuts, Veggie Sticks, Quinoa Puffs, and the most recent - Multigrain-Chips.