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Purvita Chatterjee

Mumbai , Sept. 16

HINDUSTAN Lever Ltd has stretched its Modern brand of bread and cakes to biscuits in a bid to enter the conventional mass biscuit market.

Pitted against the might of brands such as Parle-G and Britannia's Tiger, HLL's Modern `Energy' biscuits are priced on par with the existing glucose brands at Rs 4 for 100 gm.

Differentiating its biscuits on constituents such as wheat and soya, Modern Energy Biscuits are expected to give more protein and energy to kids and carries the baseline `Get Modern. Get Healthy'.

The biscuits are being manufactured by a Navi Mumbai-based company called Mr Brown Bakers Pvt Ltd, which also manufactures the Kissan `Greedy Bistix' range of fruit cream biscuits.

Mr A. Sundarajan, Managing Director of market research firm, Market Search, said: "Given the distribution muscle of HLL, the first phase of the fight in the biscuit market will be the battle for shelf space.''

This would apply to even ITC's new glucose brand of Sunfeast biscuits, which was launched recently. But soya being a new ingredient in biscuits is likely to differentiate Modern's biscuit from the rest, which have the same generic claims of giving energy and protein.

Mr Sundarajan added, "Soya is a new ingredient being used for a mass market brand and is likely to have a positive connotation for mothers who tend to make most purchase decisions.''

Established players in the business, like makers of the Parle-G brand are, however, not impressed by Lever's new offering.

A brand manager from Parle Products said, "It is not going to be just the price alone which will help in the acceptance of the new brand. Including an ingredient like soya will change the taste of these biscuits, which will not go down well with consumers. But it is still a big market and distribution will be the key to success apart from advertising which will help in picking up sales.''

Appointing SSC&B Lintas, which already handles the Modern portfolio as well that of Kissan `Greedy Bistix', HLL is still looking for an adequately distinct positioning for its new brand.

Mr Ajay Chandwani, President, SSC&B Lintas, said: "As of now, Levers has not thought about advertising the brand. It has still not differentiated the product.''

Commenting on HLL's new product launch, Mr Jagdeep Kapoor, Managing Director, Samsika Marketing Consultants, said: "It is a good strategy to enter the mass market but the biscuit market is a tough one and unless there is a value-added proposition, it cannot exist as just another generic product.''

However, since per capita consumption of biscuits continues to be low, the biscuit market is likely to expand quickly as a result of the entry of such players. "Initially, the market will expand due to trials but it will soon stabilise to levels which will be higher than before,'' said Mr Sundarajan, whose company researches the biscuits market.

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