The Hindu Business Line : Protein punch

Nutrela's strategy was to sell the idea of `nutrition' to the mother and `taste' to kids. This, it achieved through the baseline `Aagey Badhna Hai'.

WITH a new brand positioning, an aggressive expansion plan and an all-new brand slogan, the Rs 3,400-crore Ruchi Soya Industries, which owns the largest soya food brand Nutrela, is all set to make it big.

Through its new brand positioning, Pro Gro, or proteins for growth, the brand is trying to drive home the message that it has the necessary proteins for overall growth. On the expansion front, the company plans to enhance its presence in new markets, especially the Southern states.

Elaborating on the plans for Nutrela for the next few years, Dinesh Shahra, Managing Director, Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd, says: "Nutrela is completing 25 years this year. We plan to build on its existing brand legacy and rejuvenate the brand through extensive brand and marketing initiatives."

Ruchi Soya, an integrated soya processor and manufacturer of vegetable oil, is the flagship company of the Rs 7, 000-crore Ruchi Group. Its brand, Nutrela, is the largest selling national soya brand in the consumer segment, enjoying a 55-per cent volume share in the Rs 250-crore soya market. It was the first national brand in the Indian market.

The Nutrela portfolio presently offers a range of products in soya foods, which includes soya chunks, soya mini chunks, soya granules and defatted soya flour. A new product is being worked upon (which would be easier to cook as well as tasty) under the Nutrela franchise.

Besides, the company also has acquired a brand called Nutri Nuggets, which has a franchise in the North. While Nutrela has its largest market in the East, expanding into the Northern markets with the brand will be a challenge as taste is a crucial driver for the Northern market while South and East are more evolved in terms of acceptance of health products.

Explains Rashmi Varma, Associate Director, AC Nielsen-ORG Marg Research Services Pvt Ltd: "While there is familiarity with the brand, in most homes, soya is not being cooked on a regular basis. There continues to be an attitudinal block in terms of enjoying the food since consumers believe it will not be tasty enough."

While taste may remain an issue, the brand is trying to tap the growing mass of health-conscious consumers. Says Shahra: "In the current environment, there are facilitators such as growing health consciousness and vegetarianism which is creating a shift in current eating habits towards meat substitutes such as soya among Indian consumers. Soya has been rated as the best provider of digestible protein, ie 54.2 per cent, which is higher than fish, eggs and milk."

Some of the initiatives taken by Nutrela to expand the soya market include tying up with mahila mandals in metros and conducting live demos twice a month on how to cook soya. Besides, the brand has also been involved with the American Soya Association, which is conducting seminars and holding soya awareness campaigns to focus on doctors, nutritionists, dieticians and consumers to spread the `goodness' of soya. Schools and catering colleges have also been approached for the same.

Jagdeep Kapoor, Managing Director, Samsika Marketing Consultants, who has devised the new positioning for Nutrela, says: "The new positioning of `Pro Gro' has been taken specifically to target the buying decisions of the mother. A general concern for family health has also been taken into account. Keeping this in mind, we have targeted mothers with growing children and the USP is `Pro Gro' or proteins for growth.."

Even Ambience Publicis, the ad agency for the brand, while devising its campaign realised that although Nutrela was a highly recalled brand in the soya-based food product category and was perceived to be healthy, there were many barriers. The most critical one was that of the taste not being suitable for consumption. The agency thus decided to undertake a project to understand the consumers and their food habits.

The key findings from the research revealed that it required time and investment to change consumer behaviour in this category. The person who is most open to trying out new products in this category is the mother who has kids. But that would happen only if the promise of health for her kids is assured. Health is not just restricted to physical wellbeing but has to include mental sharpness. Mothers believe proteins are essential; in fact, it is the most important thing for growing children.

However, the research also showed that kids would consume the product only if they perceive it to be tasty. And they retain the power to veto! If the resistance is significant, then the mothers look out for alternative products. Hence the strategy for Nutrela was to promise `nutrition' to the mother and give taste as a benefit to the kids. The emotional bonding with the mother through the kids was created with the baseline `Aagey Badhna Hai'.

Says Ashok Kurien, CMD, Ambience Publicis: "The key insight that was leveraged was that mothers needed to help their kids be strong to win/succeed in life for which nutritious food was essential. Since proteins were most essential for growing children and soya is the richest source of proteins, the brand promise developed, Pro Gro, translated to a more consumer understandable proposition — what calcium is to bones, proteins is to muscle. Hence the proposition chosen was one that leveraged a strong insight and connected with the consumer with the premise that Nutrela with Pro Gro will give my kid strength to take on life."

Adds Samsika's Kapoor, "Considering soya is still a category which is not entirely penetrated, the purpose was to own the positioning of protein for growth and target the children through their mothers." Convincing its target audience to buy and cook soya still remains the biggest challenge for the market leader in branded soya, an onus it has taken upon itself to put more punch in the category.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
Protein punch

On leaping before you look

Who killed the idea?

The sunny South beckons

Has MTR got its recipe right?

Reverse-engineered branding!

Attracting a mate is like selling a used car