Brand Audit of Britannia Bourbon

BRAND AUDIT OF BRITANNIA BOURBON – ‘THE ORIGINAL’

SUBMITTED BY: RISHI KHEMKA (09DM023) KAUTUK CHAURASIA (09DM054) PRAKHAR RAJ (09DM107) ANURAG KASHYAP (09DM109) PRADIPTA ROY (09DM112) DATE OF SUBMISSION: 13th September, 2010 PGDM – A

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A. BRAND DESCRIPTION 1. BRAND IDENTIFICATION & HISTORY: Thick, rich and delicious chocolate sandwiched between two crunchy chocolate biscuits topped with sugar crystals! This definitely calls to indulge one‟s dark side. The brand we have selected for this project work is none other than „Britannia BOURBON‟. India's first and favorite Bourbon's sweet adventure began in 1955. Since then, Bourbon lovers across the country have been caught opening this chocolate couplet, licking the cream, and nibbling at the melt-in-your-mouth biscuit, bit by bit. Some have been witnessed chomping it whole, at one go. Some have been noted to alternate it with sips of coffee; others team it with lots of gossip and gupshup, while a few have been observed enjoying it with a book. And some have been seen reluctantly sharing their Bourbon. Earlier when Britannia launched „TREAT‟, it included BOURBON in this category itself but soon realized that this was like „trying to bound the CALYPSO in human form‟. BOURBON was targeted to all the class of people of all the age groups primarily adolescents and adults unlike TREAT which was targeted only towards the children. So Britannia played smart and relaunched the Electric Ebony as the Original BOURBON. 2. CORPORATE INFORMATION: The story of one of India's favorite brands reads almost like a fairy tale. Once upon a time, in 1892 to be precise, a biscuit company was started in a nondescript house in Calcutta (now Kolkata) with an initial investment of Rs.295. The company we all know as Britannia today.

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The beginnings might have been humble-the dreams were anything but. By 1910, with the advent of electricity, Britannia mechanized its operations, and in 1921, it became the first company east of the Suez Canal to use imported gas ovens. Britannia's business was flourishing. But, more importantly, Britannia was acquiring a reputation for quality and value. As a result, during the tragic World War II, the Government reposed its trust in Britannia by contracting it to supply large quantities of "service biscuits" to the armed forces. As time moved on, the biscuit market continued to grow… and Britannia grew along with it. In 1975, the Britannia Biscuit Company took over the distribution of biscuits from Parry's who till now distributed Britannia biscuits in India. In the subsequent public issue of 1978, Indian shareholding crossed 60%, firmly establishing the Indianness of the firm. The following year, Britannia Biscuit Company was re-christened Britannia Industries Limited (BIL). Four years later in 1983, it crossed the Rs.100 crores revenue mark. On the operations front, the company was making equally dynamic strides. In 1992, it celebrated its Platinum Jubilee. In 1997, the company unveiled its new corporate identity - "Eat Healthy, Think Better" - and made its first foray into the dairy products market. In 1999, the "Britannia Khao, World Cup Jao" promotion further fortified the affinity consumers had with 'Brand Britannia'. Britannia strode into the 21st Century as one of India's biggest brands and the pre-eminent food brand of the country. It was equally recognized for its innovative approach to products and marketing: the Lagaan Match was voted India's most successful promotional activity of the year 2001 while the delicious Britannia 50-50 Maska-Chaska became India's most successful product launch. In 2002, Britannia's New Business Division formed a joint venture with Fonterra, the

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world's second largest Dairy Company, and Britannia New Zealand Foods Pvt. Ltd. was born. In recognition of its vision and accelerating graph, Forbes Global rated Britannia 'One amongst the Top 200 Small Companies of the World', and The Economic Times pegged Britannia India's 2nd Most Trusted Brand. Today, more than a century after those tentative first steps, Britannia's fairy tale is not only going strong but blazing new standards, and that miniscule initial investment has grown by leaps and bounds to crores of rupees in wealth for Britannia's shareholders. The company's offerings are spread across the spectrum with products ranging from the healthy and economical Tiger biscuits to the more lifestyle-oriented Milkman Cheese. Having succeeded in garnering the trust of almost one-third of India's one billion populations and a strong management at the helm means Britannia will continue to dream big on its path of innovation and quality. And millions of consumers will savour the results, happily ever after.  Management Information: The CEO & MD of the Company is VINITA BALI. The management team of BIL is as follows:

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The location of the corporate office of BIL is: Registered Office: 5/1/A Hungerford Street, Kolkata - 700 017 West Bengal Ph.: 033 - 2287 0505 / 2287 2439 / 2287 2057 Fax: 033 - 2287 2501 3. BRAND GRAPHIC:

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B. EXTERNAL MARKETING ENVIRONMENT The external marketing environment has got a significant effect on the brand. This external environment consists of Social, Demographic, Economic, Technological, Political, Legal and Competitive Factors. Each factor has got a specific implication. a) Social Factors: Our society is undergoing a period of changes. The habits and choices of the society are changing. Biscuits which are actually snacks are being used as main food by the student community. This has propelled the growth in the sales of the biscuits. Britannia Bourbon has become the choice of the society and is liked by people at mass. Hence it can be said that society is having a positive influence on the sales of Britannia Bourbon. b) Demographic Factors: The demographic factors such as age, sex, income, occupation, etc… all of them are having a positive impact on Britannia Bourbon. As the brand is targeted towards the adolescents, youth and the adult, there is absolutely no restriction to the reach of the brand. The changing lifestyle of people from normal life of old times to fast life of modern era is promoting more consumption of readymade eatables like Britannia Bourbon. c) Economic Factors: At this moment of time when prices of all the commodities are touching the sky, Britannia Bourbon is available to the consumers at affordable prices and consistent high quality. Although Britannia Bourbon is a premium product in its segment, it is still affordable by everyone. d) Technological Factors: Whatever be the technology developed by the R&D team of Britannia Bourbon, the taste and quality of the biscuits is amazing and consistent. No

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competitor has been able to achieve the taste and quality level which has been benchmarked by Britannia Bourbon. e) Competitive Factors: Britannia Bourbon has truly been the king of the market in its segment. It is priced more than its competitors but is still the first choice for buyers because of its taste and quality. Apart from this, the strong and efficient distribution channel ensures the constant supply of the brand to the shelves in the market. The retailers and wholesalers however get incentives in the form of margins and discount to promote the product. In terms of the competitive factors, Britannia Bourbon is the leader on all frontiers and hence can be considered as untouchable or invincible by other brands. It has left all its competitors starting from Sunfeast and Bisk Farm to Parle and Dukes far behind in the competition. The craze is such for this brand that it has become a generic for „BOURBON‟, the most popular type of chocolate cream biscuits which are actually named after a whiskey.

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C. MARKETING MIX 1. PRODUCT:

a. Product Type: Britannia Bourbon is a convenience product. It is easily available across the marketplace at various outlets starting from the local kirana store to the supermarkets like Reliance Fresh and Food Bazar. It is a product which is sought daily by the consumers and the purchase decision in this case is quick & positive. It is available in 5 different packs as pocket pack, party pack, hangout pack, family pack and gift pack. The biscuits inside those packets are really tempting and mouth-watering which makes the tagline „indulge your dark side‟ come real. The consistency in the product has been such that in spite of many me too products venturing the market our brand is still unmoved and unaffected by any sense of competition. The Rs.120-crore brand has a 33 per cent market share in chocolate biscuits market. b. Product Life Cycle: Britannia Bourbon is in the Growth Phase of product life cycle. There has been a significant increase in sales figures which is still rising. Besides the competition has increased a lot by the entry of new players like Sunfeast Dream Cream Bourbon, Parle Hide & Seek Bourbon, Bisk Farm My Favourite Bourbon and Dukes Bourbon. The awareness about this brand has increased in leaps & bounds while the popularity of the brand is touching skies. Britannia Bourbon has made BOURBON so popular that new words have been coined after Bourbon like: „BOURBONEER meaning group of people that loves eating BOURBON‟,

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„BOURBER means BOURBON eating male‟ and „BOURBONETTE meaning BOURBON eating females‟. 2. PLACE: a. Marketing Channels: Britannia Bourbon follows intensive channeling strategies using a plethora of whole-sellers & retailers to make the product available to the market. The company uses both; push as well as pull strategy to sell its product in the market. The channel followed is much simpler as the company directly sends the product from factory to distributors who then forward the stock to the wholesellers and retailers. The product is available everywhere, be it a small grocery shop or a large Shopper‟s Stop store. b. Major Retail Outlets: The brand is sold at every possible location starting from a small local grocery shop to the super stores and hypermarkets. Some major retail outlets are: i. Grocery Stores ii. Reliance Fresh iii. Food Bazar (Big Bazar) iv. Pantaloons v. Shopper’s Stop c. Effectiveness of these Retail outlets: The retail outlets have been highly effective implementing the pull strategy, and thus pulling the customers to buy Britannia Bourbon. The sales figures for BIL has increased rapidly from 1817.92 crore in the year 2005-06 to 3424.58 crore in the year 2009-10. As Britannia Bourbon is a convenience product, the ease in availability is an important factor for the success

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of the brand. Hence by looking at the success of our brand, we can easily conclude that the retail outlets selling our brand have been highly effective in catering the needs of the market and thus, satisfying and attracting customers towards this brand. 3. PRICE: a. Pricing Objective: The pricing of Britannia Bourbon is profit oriented. This is evident from the very fact that Britannia Bourbon is prices higher than its competitors in the market. A 169gm (15 biscuits) pack of Britannia Bourbon is priced at Rs.22/- while 170gm (15 biscuits) of Bisk Farm and 148gm (16 biscuits) of Sunfeast are all available at Rs.20/- However the quality of Britannia Bourbon drives the sales efficiently despite of the profit oriented pricing. b. Pricing Strategy: Britannia Bourbon follows the ‘Status Quo’ pricing strategy. The company has efficiently maintained the high quality of the product never compromising on any frontier be it the chocolate quality or the quality of the biscuits or even the sugar crystals. This has helped the brand position itself as a premium brand and hence maintain the status quo pricing keeping the prices more than its competitors. c. Fine – Tuning the Base Price: The strategy used by our brand for fine – tuning the base price is giving margin and discount to retailers & wholesalers. Britannia gives 10% margin to the retailers and 3% margin to the wholesalers. The wholesalers get another 2% discount along with the mentioned margin. Apart from this no strategy or tactics are followed by Britannia Bourbon to fine – tune its base price. Direct discounts or offers to customers have hardly been seen in

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case of Britannia Bourbon. This strategy has left the customers with the following prices: i. Nano Pack – Rs.5/ii. Pocket Pack – Rs.12/iii. Hang-out Pack – Rs.15/iv. Party Pack – Rs.22/4. PROMOTION: a. Analysis of Advertising Campaigns: Britannia Bourbon was previously categorized under the kid-centric „Treat‟ catalogue but lately after conducting several researches about the target customers and the potential of the brand, Britannia Cream Treat Bourbon was rebranded as Britannia Bourbon – The Original. An extensive ad campaign is now being used with the tagline „Andar se kuch aur, Bahar se kuch aur!‟ which ties the surprising resourcefulness of youth with the biscuit‟s characteristics of chocolate sandwiched between biscuits. “Bourbon, through the ad, becomes a partner in your pranks,” sums up Prasoon Joshi, the head of creative team at McCann .The tongue-in-cheek ad is the first ad directed by the dark theme film maker Anurag Basu which blends how the youth usually get their way through ingenious means with the experience of eating a Britannia Bourbon. A girl, miffed at her boyfriend watching a cricket match with his gang of friends on an evening planned for a date, does not protest. She instead turns the very act of enjoying a Bourbon biscuit into a trigger for them to be driven out of

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the house. The boyfriend, of course, does not want his friends‟ imagination to run riot. The print ad of Britannia Bourbon is somewhat the same provoking us to enjoy our moments in life. The print ad is as follows:

Hoping to strengthen its appeal with the youth, which it couldn‟t boast of until now, Britannia is pegging the brand as an anytime product that, for example, can be had on the go with a cup of coffee. Below the line activities include tie-ups with cafes and college fests and more distribution in departmental stores near colleges. After this current campaign, the brand is expected to post a growth of 15%. b. Media Types used in Advertising: Britannia uses TV and print media (magazines) for advertising apart from Over-the-counter advertising using the posters of BOURBON. However, it is only the TV ad of this brand which is tremendously

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popular. The sense of fun drives the viewers of the ad crazy and this craze combined with the amazing taste persuades the consumers to go for ‘word of mouth promotion’ of the brand. c. Public Relations: Britannia has largely underutilized the public relations tools for promotion. The major PR tool used by Britannia is good investor relationships. Britannia is the 5th Most Trusted Brand in India after Nokia, Colgate, Lux and Dettol, while it is the most trusted Food Product Brand. The investors are happy investing in the shares of the company as they are assured of getting good returns. The company rewards the investors with incentives frequently and this has helped a lot in maintaining cordial relationship between the two. Sometimes, the company also goes for product publicity via newspapers and its website. The website of Britannia has proved to be yet another effective tool for maintaining public relations by the company. d. Sales Promotion: For the sales promotion purpose Britannia gives margin and discounts to the wholesalers and the retailers. The retailers get a margin of 10% while the wholesalers get a margin of 3%. The wholesalers also get an additional discount of 2%. This acts as push strategy in sales promotion as the product is pushed through the distribution channel. However it should be noted that this brand hardly needs any sales promotion to increase sales because of its consistent quality and high brand value.

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D. SWOT ANALYSIS  STRENGTHS: o Quality – The quality of Britannia Bourbon has always been uncompromised and extraordinary. It is uniform in all the biscuits in all the packs. This is one of the most important factors that people buy the product in spite of its higher price. o Taste – The richness in taste is such that it‟ll just spellbind the one who consumes it. The biscuits are light baked, perforated with sugar crystals sprinkled over them and carry an implicit taste of chocolate. The chocolate cream is thick and rich and makes one feel in heaven. o Consistency – The brand has been consistent with its quality and taste for a long period of time and this has become one of its strength as people now swear by its taste and quality. o Price – The price of our brand is higher than its competitors, but acts as strength because it gives the feel of a premium product which is affordable by all. o Packaging – The unique and attractive packaging of this brand helps to attract the buyers to have look at the product after which they actually can‟t resist to buy our brand.  WEAKNESSES: o Calories – The health freak customers will definitely avoid the brand as it contains calories and is so heavy that one won‟t prefer to have more than 3 – 4 biscuits at one go. However much can‟t be done on this aspect because its all due to the taste and quality of the brand and changing this will spoil everything.

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 OPPORTUNITIES: o The brand with its uncompromised and consistent high quality and rich taste can clean sweep the stakes in the chocolate cream biscuit market. Britannia Bourbon is already the market leader with 33% market share of cream biscuit market. This is an opportunity for the brand. o

The brand can further accelerate the sales if some offers directed towards the consumers are provided which hasn‟t been done before.

o Coming up with a family pack can me a successful venture for Britannia Bourbon.  THREATS: o Dukes Bourbon: It is the only threat to our brand in terms of competitors because of its good quality and taste at low price, however Dukes is not that popular brand and the supply chain of Dukes is also not that effective.

REFERENCES “http://www.britannia.co.in/index.htm” “http://www.theadtube.com/articles/tag/britannia-bourbon/” “http://www.britannia.co.in/Britannia_AR_2010.pdf”