Makeover of Britannia

The Balancing Act Contd...

BIL had structured a wide range of price-points: from Re 1 for a sachet of Tidbits to Rs 12 for a pack of 10 Good Day Pista Badam cookies, to Rs 15 for a 100 gm pack of Cheezlets. Likewise, BIL had straddled the spectrum of segments with different product-benefits, all of which only reinforced the mother brand's new platform. In regard to brand building, BIL followed the strategy of 'brand clustering'. The strategy was to let 'Britannia' remain the mother brand under which a cluster of sub-brands would be present for specific product categories. While the umbrella brand would act a guarantee for the consumers, the sub-brand was used to give focus and distinct images for its new product categories and businesses to get economies from brand building. (Refer TABLE II) Analysts felt that a company like BIL, whcih wished to cater to a varied customer-base, needed to possess a large portfolio of brands, with different USPs, positioned at different price-points, yet unified under a uniquely differentiated mother brand. With this in view, BIL revamped its biscuit business.

At the low-end price-point, was the 'Tiger' brand, a "calcium-enriched" glucose biscuit launched in 1997, which acted as the umbrella brand for the mass market. Until then, BIL had focussed on the middle and premium segments of the biscuit market, leaving Parle's Parle G to rule the mass market. With the mass segment accounting for half of the unorganised market, it seemed strategically important for BIL to make inroads into the same.

Therefore, as a part of its new plan to attack the mass market, BIL launched the 'Tiger' brand and positioned it as a 'healthforce biscuit' as consumer research showed that good health was the overwhelming consideration when mothers chose snacks for their children.

Analysts felt that since Glucose had become a generic brand, BIL by establishing a new brand was clearly differentiating its Glucose biscuits from others. The 'Tiger' brand eventually seemed to have been a huge success with its products, Tiger Glucose (Rs 5 for a 100-gm pack) and Tiger Cashew Badam (Rs 6 for 75 gm) together, achieving within a year of their launch a turnover of Rs 100 crore and a marketshare of, 30% in the glucose biscuits segment. BIL then focused on its core biscuit brands- Marie, Thin Arrowroot, and Milk Bikis-which faced competition from similarly branded alternatives like Bakeman's English Marie, Milka Biscuits, and Priya Marie.

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Case Details

Case Code : MKTG006
Themes: Marketing Mix
Case Length : 8 Pages
Period : 1997-2000
Organization : Britannia Industries Ltd
Pub Date : 2001
Teaching Note : Available
Countries : India
Industry : Food, Beverages & Tobacco

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