A Case Study on Britannia NutriChoice
SGM Submission

Submitted By Group 1, Section B

Alok Thapliyal (B12070) Ankit Kapoor (B12071) S. Swetha (B12106) Saswat Nanda (B12109) Vini Khabya (B12126)
1/12/2014

Britannia NutriChoice Case Study
Realigning a successful health positioning with the demands of Indian consumers' changing lifestyles Britannia NutriChoice has become a pioneer in the Indian biscuit market by offering the elusive combination of a ‘health with taste’ value proposition to an emerging set of health-conscious and discerning consumers. This case study analyzes the evolution of the NutriChoice brands over the last decade and examines various strategies adopted by Britannia to grow the brand into its present marketleading position.

The Journey
• Britannia NutriChoice was the first brand to recognize the needs of the fast-emerging segment of health conscious consumers in India and, for the first time, attempted to combine health with taste in the biscuits market. Through this proposition, Britannia NutriChoice attempted to mitigate the myth of healthy food being low on taste and flavor. • Until 2005 the company market-tested a number of product concepts under the NutriChoice umbrella and, in the process, developed a deep understanding of the need states of India's emerging healthconscious population. The company’s restructuring in 2005 gave a fresh perspective to its otherwise quiescent product portfolio. • NutriChoice was instrumental in broadening the scope of the biscuits segment in India. It has successfully positioned biscuits as a healthy alternative to traditionally consumed savory snacks and, in the process, has expanded competition into a number of other categories such as savory snacks, instant noodles and popcorn, among others. • NutriChoice’s repositioning appears even more apt given that, around the same time, the lifestyle of Indian consumers underwent a massive transformation due to a number of socioeconomic changes. Indeed, it triggered the acceptance of biscuits as a healthy and tasty way to satisfy hunger between meals at a time when time pressured Indians felt guilty for consuming unhealthy snacks. • Britannia’s strategy of giving its biscuits a health and tasty core positioning is increasingly being emulated by a number of other companies. However, the brand has been able to successfully keep the competition at bay by launching product variants and adopting a number of innovative marketing approaches.

Britannia NutriChoice Case Study

Page 1

The strength of Britannia’s NutriChoice brand lies in its evolution from a staid ‘health’ to a ‘health plus taste plus happiness’ positioning
Britannia Industries Limited is the largest biscuit manufacturer and marketer in India. The company has enjoyed its market leading position almost since its inception in 1892, and currently commands a 38.5% market share in value terms in the overall cookies and crackers category in India. The company has a variety of brands in its portfolio and has streamlined them into two segments: ‘delight and lifestyle brands’, such as Good Day, Treat, 50-50 and Pure Magic, among others; and ‘health and nutrition brands', such as NutriChoice, Tiger, Milk Bikis and Marie Gold. These brands cater to consumers across a wide array of ages and income groups. In 1999, Britannia conceptualized NutriChoice as a platform brand for its ‘health and nutrition’ offerings. The launch of NutriChoice exemplifies the company's foresight, as Indian consumers' awareness of health and wellness issues was at a nascent stage at that time. However, the trend was soon to take off and, through NutriChoice, Britannia aimed to capitalize on the imminent health and wellness wave in India. At present, the NutriChoice platform encompasses successful brands such as NutriChoice Classic Crackers, NutriChoice Digestive and NutriChoice 5 Grain, among others. However, over the years, NutriChoice has had to reposition itself a number of times in order to keep up with the need states of Indian consumers, which have continued to change with every successive wave of the health and wellness trend. The evolution of the brand, which was created as a vehicle to promote healthy biscuits that did not compromise on taste, has eventually emerged as a more lifestyle-driven ‘health plus taste plus happiness’ positioning.

Entry of ITC
With the entry of ITC into the biscuits industry with the launch of Sunfeast in 2003, there was a lot of change that was seen in the market. Before 2003, the two major players were Britannia and Parle with over 80% of the market share. When ITC entered the market, the category had gaps which ITC could settle into. Findings revealed that consumers wished to taste new and innovative products. That was precisely what the competition had not done in a big way. Between 2000 and 2005 neither Parle nor Britannia launched any major new product except Britannia re-launching its Tiger brand in 2005. Instead of focusing on products, Britannia tried to focus on different occasions and out of house consumptions. With the help of ITC’s pre-established extensive distribution network and huge spending on promotion and communication, ITC was easily able to eat into the market share of Britannia and Parle in three years resulting in a 7% market share.

The emergence of NutriChoice came from a desire to form a distinct health platform
Britannia had been marketing a few of its biscuit brands with a health positioning since its inception. These brands were offered on a loosely-defined health platform and did not have well defined health benefits that were marketed effectively to the target audience. For example, since the 1960s, the company has marketed brands such as Jacob’s Thin, Cream Cracker and Thin Arrowroot. Prior to the late Britannia NutriChoice Case Study Page 2

1990s, these brands had a very staid and often vague health positioning and, as a consequence, their consumption was limited to a narrow group of consumers with special health conditions. The positioning of these health biscuits was mostly curative and consumers often believed that, by consuming them, they were compromising on taste in order to address certain specific health issues such as diabetes and gastritis. In 1993, Britannia entered into a joint venture with French player Danone. This international alliance ushered in a number of radical changes within the organization and, as a consequence, Britannia acquired a new corporate identity. The move was very much in line with Britannia’s intentions to diversify and broaden its offerings from biscuits to other food products, as Danone was a significant player in the dairy market. However, even in the wake of the impending diversification, the company was determined to strengthen its biscuits portfolio, which was its core business. The change in the company’s tagline to ‘Eat healthy, Think better’ was an important landmark for the company, as the eventual shift was aimed at providing consumers with a combination of physical and mental benefits—a concept almost pioneered in India by Britannia. Britannia's overall brand portfolio underwent a further restructuring in 1999. As a part of this exercise, NutriChoice was created as a separate platform, and brands such as Britannia Thin Arrowroot, Britannia Digestive and Britannia Cream Crackers were brought under the NutriChoice umbrella to clearly differentiate them as part of the company's health offering. Britannia made a further attempt to strengthen its NutriChoice platform by launching a number of brands such as NutriChoice Good Morning and NutriChoice Junior by 2001.The core brand attribute was that of health, and the marketing largely revolved around the specific health benefits offered by these brands.

NutriChoice was overhauled in 2005 to accentuate health and lifestyles demands
Over the subsequent years, Britannia’s overall brand portfolio did not undergo any significant change, at least until 2005. During these years, the company continued to test a number of products in the market under the NutriChoice umbrella in order to gain a holistic understanding of the psyche, tastes and preferences of Indian consumers. Although brands such as NutriChoice Goodmorning, NutriChoice Junior and NutriChoice Isabgol were launched to counter competition from local and imported brands, these new brands failed to ignite much interest among the target audience and were phased out over a period of time. However, on the positive side, as Britannia continued to promote different products on its NutriChoice brand platform, the brand gained a reasonable amount of recognition among the target audience. In addition, although some of the earlier efforts proved futile, they did help Britannia to learn from its mistake of half-heartedly promoting the brands under the NutriChoice umbrella. The company realized that it could not simply ride the burgeoning health and wellness trend to gain acceptance in Indian households, but would need to communicate the overall value proposition and the possible health benefits associated with the consumption of these brands clearly.

Britannia NutriChoice Case Study

Page 3

With a change in the company’s management in 2005, Britannia once again underwent a transformation, as its product portfolio and overall marketing approach were overhauled. As part of this restructuring, the company separated its biscuit offerings into ‘delight and lifestyle’ and ‘health and nutrition’ categories to clearly align its marketing efforts according to the target audience. Under the health and nutrition umbrella, the company either re-launched its brands according to changing consumer preferences (as in the case of NutriChoice Hi-Fibre Digestive biscuits, which were sold in an international large sized biscuit pack) or introduced new products under the NutriChoice platform (such as Britannia NutriChoice 5 Grain). Most importantly, all of these brands were aggressively promoted using several media platforms and innovative concepts, which have made the NutriChoice brand a frontrunner in promoting the concept of ‘health, taste and happiness’ in the biscuits category in India

The launch of NutriChoice was a pre-emptive move to cater to an emerging set of health conscious Indians
Until the late 1990s, health awareness among Indian consumers was limited, as was the segment of consumers who made a conscious attempt to stay healthy. Most health-conscious consumers were seniors who suffered from various age-related diseases, heart diseases and/or diabetes. Also, healthier foods were generally sought only in the case of specific health problems. As a result, food and beverage manufacturers in India mostly kept health foods with a medicinal positioning exclusive from their normal product offerings. It was only during the mid-1990s that Indian consumers’ orientation towards health and wellbeing started to witness a gradual transformation. This phenomenon can largely be attributed to a combination of factors such as the liberalization of the Indian economy (which resulted in Indians having increased disposable incomes), exposure to Western economies, the creation of more service-oriented employment opportunities and a subsequent increase in professional and social responsibilities, and the increasing cost of medical treatments. One of the most salient features of this transformation was that Indians realized the importance of preventive healthcare, contrary to long-practiced curative healthcare. Consequently, the definition of a healthy life became synonymous with having a healthy lifestyle, which made health as a concept much broader in scope. The concept of a healthy lifestyle started to encompass a wider array of attributes, from near tangibles such as energy, stamina and physical appearance, to intangibles such as mental wellbeing and work/life balance. As Indian consumers became increasingly aware of the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, many fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturers came up with healthier product variants, mostly in categories such as oils, spreadable fats and juices. Indian households traditionally believed in eating three core meals a day in a timely and healthy fashion so as to keep themselves fit and healthy. The consumption of dietary supplements was virtually nonexistent and was done only on a need basis. The only supplements which were consumed by a few communities included dried fruits or immunity-building Ayurvedic products. As a result, Indian consumers never perceived biscuits or similar snack food products as a source of health and nutrition; rather, Indians traditionally considered biscuits as an accompaniment for hot beverages such as tea and coffee. Therefore, the consumption of biscuits in India remained strictly occasional and the elderly Britannia NutriChoice Case Study Page 4

population refrained from eating them until medically advised to do so, as sweet biscuits were perceived to contain a lot of sugar and savory biscuits were thought to be rich in oil. However, over the years Indians' perceptions have changed and consumers have become more accepting of eating foods to maintain their health, including healthy biscuits. Britannia has benefited from this change and still enjoys the benefits of being one of the first movers in terms of marketing products with the help of a focused health platform in India. This has boosted NutriChoice brands’ consumer recall and acceptance in India. Furthermore, the company leveraged its image as an ‘honest and trusted’ brand in the eyes of millions of Indian consumers, establishing strong consumer trust. As the brand evolved over a period of time, its marketing specifically communicated the inclusion of key ingredients and their associated health benefits—for example the benefits of arrowroot, fiber and whole grain were highlighted prominently through marketing communication. This not only differentiated the brand from other competing brands, but also gave it the necessary visibility in an already crowded biscuit market in India.

NutriChoice led the way in offering a ‘health with taste’ proposition as Indian consumers always perceived healthy food to be low on taste and flavor
Indian food has always been characterized by rich taste and flavor. Even in the midst of rising consumer awareness of issues relating to health and wellness, and time-pressed lifestyles, taste continues to supersede the importance of health and convenience across most product categories. The conventional wisdom in Indian markets is such that food products that are low on taste and flavor struggle to gain significant acceptance. Also, Indian consumers hold a pre-conceived notion that healthier variants of food products invariably score low on taste. This can partly be attributed to the way in which health food products have been presented to Indian consumers. Consumers view abstinence from potentially unhealthy yet tasty foods as a way to attain a healthy lifestyle. However, such a dietary regime is often not sustainable, as Indian consumers’ desire for tasty food is too strong. As a result, there has always been a latent demand for food and beverages which are healthy but do not compromise on taste. This consumer demand led to the emergence of the ‘health with taste’ proposition in health food products in India. Although this positioning had been explored by various FMCG players in the past, NutriChoice was the first brand to explore this concept in the biscuits category. Package literature for NutriChoice 5 Grains clearly illustrates this positioning, as shown in Exhibit 1. This resulted in the evolution of a new target audience for the NutriChoice brand: health seekers who were struggling to adapt to a healthy regime because of a perceived compromise on taste.

NutriChoice sub-brands were re-launched on the ‘health with taste’ platform
Several brands in Britannia’s portfolio underwent innovation with the change of management. The company identified that a number of competitors in the industry were able to emulate the health with taste positioning. Therefore, in order to further differentiate its offerings, Britannia launched a few Britannia NutriChoice Case Study Page 5

variants of its existing brands under the NutriChoice platform, along with reformulating some NutriChoice lines, to enhance consumer engagement. These variants were aimed at further strengthening the link between taste and health in the NutriChoice brands by offering flavors and ingredients that appealed to the Indian palate. One of the important changes was made to the NutriChoice Cream Cracker brand, which faced a particular taste disadvantage as it was a low-sugar biscuit. The brand was improved to make it crispier and tastier, and was re-launched as NutriChoice Classic Lite Cracker. In addition, another variant of this brand, NutriChoice Nature Spice Cracker, was launched carrying the claim: "with the goodness of jeera (cumin seeds) and ajwain (carom seeds) which aid in digestion". Continuing with this initiative, the Britannia NutriChoice Digestive brand was also re-launched with a new tagline— 'Delightfully tasty and wholesome'—to offer a better value proposition to consumers. Furthermore, launches of the NutriChoice Sugar Out and NutriChoice 5 Grain brands added more credence to NutriChoice's new positioning. The intention behind the launch of such line extensions was to strengthen the NutriChoice brand under the new ‘health plus taste’ umbrella as well as further strengthening the brands’ taste component. Exhibit 2 shows a few of the repositioning exercises undertaken with the NutriChoice brands during this period.

NutriChoice’s positioning triggered the acceptance of biscuits as a healthy and tasty way to satisfy cravings between meals
Traditionally in India, biscuits have been consumed by two main target segments: by the elderly as an accompaniment for evening or morning tea; and by children as a sweet snack during the mid-day break at school or as an after-school snack. Generally, biscuits were not considered as a standalone betweenmeal snacking option; a prominent eating occasion in Indian societies. This is predominantly because of the fact that, traditionally, Indians enjoyed consuming savory snacks typical to various regions in the country. Biscuits had a relatively rigid positioning as an accompaniment to hot beverages due to the lack of sufficient variety and marketers’ efforts to promote the few available savory biscuits as a snacking option. However, since the beginning of the last decade, a number of changes in Indian society (including employment, outlook towards health and wellness, gender roles and affluence) have resulted in Indian consumers moving away from ethnic homemade snacks to more convenient and healthier snacking options. Rising awareness of health and wellness played a major role in this transformation, as traditional Indian snacks had often been perceived as unhealthy. As a part of the goal of living a healthy life, Indians started following specific diet plans and demanded products with high fiber or whole grain to fight a number of rising health concerns such as diabetes and coronary conditions. Britannia NutriChoice has been the first biscuit brand in India to clearly position itself as a healthy between-meal snacking option and a ‘hunger-buster’ targeted at those health-conscious Indians who felt guilty about their snacking indulgences. The positioning of Britannia NutriChoice corresponds with the findings of a recent consumer survey, which revealed that 42% of Indian respondents felt guilty for snacking between meals. As shown in Exhibit 3, this feeling was shared by men and women across all age groups. Britannia NutriChoice Case Study Page 6

Britannia was prompt in spotting a tremendous opportunity and positioned its NutriChoice sub-brands to cater to this emerging set of health-conscious Indian consumers. The biscuits clearly had a snack-like positioning, and the company, through its marketing communications, made it clear that these brands are a healthier way to satisfy hunger between meals. The company's initiative has not only broadened the scope and reach of the NutriChoice sub-brands by increasing the number of consumption occasions, it has also mitigated the age bias seen in the consumption of biscuits with a health positioning. Since 2007, NutriChoice has adopted innovative ways to further broaden the scope of its sub-brands and target a variety of consumer segments through a more snack-like positioning. For example, the brand is also targeting opportunities in the out-of-home consumption of biscuits, such as at the workplace or while travelling. As a part of this strategy, Britannia launched the NutriChoice 5 Grain biscuits in ‘pocketsized meals’ to achieve portion control and make them more convenient for on-the-go consumption. This was an innovative strategy: standard biscuit packs do not allow for consumption in a single session, and biscuits are usually sold in non-resealable packs. Through these innovations (shown in Exhibit 4), Britannia NutriChoice further strengthened its positioning as a snack, as savory snack products from competitors had also started offering smaller SKUs to address the same issue.

NutriChoice’s novel packaging and marketing efforts complement the brand’s image to create health awareness among easy-going consumers
Over the years, Britannia has continuously invested in branding efforts to create the right kind of consumer awareness and trust regarding its product offerings, to allow it to always stay ahead of its competitors. With NutriChoice, the company realized that it had to create the right kind of perception about the products’ health benefits and communicate this through product packaging, brand associations and advertising. Over the last five years, Indian consumers have become discerning in reading and understanding the nutritional information of food and beverages before making a product choice. This trend has become more prevalent as the government has made it mandatory for companies to declare nutritional information on all packaged food and beverage products. Ever since, Britannia has ensured that the specifics of the health positioning of the NutriChoice biscuits have featured prominently on the product packaging. To understand how often consumers are actually using this information, in a recently conducted survey respondents were asked about the extent to which nutritional information on the product packaging drives their purchasing decisions. As shown in Exhibit 5, the survey revealed that a high proportion of Indians, especially women across all age groups, use the nutritional information on the product packaging to help make food and drink choices. As well as declaring nutritional information in the standard format dictated by the government's statutory requirement, one side of the NutriChoice box also includes highlighted specifics of its health benefits. For example, the package literature of NutriChoice 5 Grains biscuits communicates specific

Britannia NutriChoice Case Study

Page 7

ingredients-related and nutritional information such as ‘contain 0% trans-fat’, ‘no cholesterol’, ‘contains oats – high in antioxidants and fibers’ (as shown in Exhibit 6). Britannia has also used marketing communication and campaigns to create a strong consumer association between the NutriChoice brand of biscuits and a healthy lifestyle. For instance, the marketing campaigns on television were targeted at office goers, and the product was positioned as being ideal to deal with snacking needs in between meals. The advert persuaded consumers to substitute their unhealthy snacking indulgences with NutriChoice. These marketing initiatives contributed greatly towards building a strong brand recall for NutriChoice. In addition to the television commercials, Britannia launched a promotional campaign during the 2010 new-year, which offered consumers a week-long pre-activated gym pass at a renowned fitness center in India, a gym sipper bottle and a diet chart (as is pictured in Exhibit 7). Britannia also created eye-catching advertising campaigns in the print media and established a strong connection with the brand’s core target audience. Advertisements such as the one shown in Exhibit 8 added significant credibility to the ‘health plus taste plus lifestyle’ positioning that the brand was aiming for. These campaigns and the new product packaging were launched during the new-year, targeting Indian consumers, who have been trying to make a resolution to move to a healthier dietary regimen and lifestyle. The understanding of the consumer psychology behind this campaign is evident from the following excerpt: "It is our New Year resolution to make India healthier. Several consumers have shared with us that their resolutions are sincere but somehow they don't get started because they don't find the right motivator. Fitness is 60% diet and 40% exercise and that is why the Health Starter Kit was conceived to facilitate the start of both healthy eating and exercise. INR100 is the actual value of the biscuits while the rest of the kit is a pure health activation bonus from Britannia” Neeraj Chandra, COO of Britannia Industries., at the launch of Britannia's NutriChoice Health Starter Kit

Conclusion
Britannia’s NutriChoice brand has been able to obtain and capitalize on its first mover advantage in the ‘health with taste’ positioning in the biscuits segment. Although this positioning was explored by other industry players in subsequent years, other biscuit manufacturers did not leverage it so successfully due to often ambiguous product positioning. NutriChoice's success can be attributed to a combination of continuous product development, innovative marketing practices and, above all, persistent and consistent brand communication among its target audience. For example, as more and more brands joined the health and wellness trend and attempted to emulate NutriChoice’s strategies, the company incorporated a lifestyle angle into its communication in order to stay ahead of and differentiated from its competitors. Britannia NutriChoice Case Study Page 8

Exhibit 1: NutriChoice pioneered the creation of formulations which positioned biscuits on a clearly differentiated ‘health with taste’ platform

Exhibit 2: After 2005, the NutriChoice sub-brands were repositioned to further improve their taste and to offer a better value proposition to consumers amid intensifying competition

Exhibit 3: Britannia NutriChoice provided healthconscious Indian consumers with a healthy option for snacking in between meals

Britannia NutriChoice Case Study

Page 9

Exhibit 4: The product packaging and literature on NutriChoice products were aligned carefully to communicate the brand positioning of a ‘guilt-free snack’

Exhibit 5: Indian women across all age groups use nutritional information on product packaging to help them make food and drink choices on a regular basis

Exhibit 6: In addition to the statutory requirements, NutriChoice biscuits' packaging has detailed nutritional information and an illustration of health benefits

Britannia NutriChoice Case Study

Page 10

Exhibit 7: The Health Starter Kit boosted NutriChoice's popularity among brand-conscious consumers and was aimed at activating consumers’ resolution to start a healthier lifestyle

Exhibit 8: Innovative marketing communication and using a variety of media have helped NutriChoice to communicate with its target audience more effectively

Britannia NutriChoice Case Study

Page 11