Snack whack - snacking habits of consumers

We’d finished the recording at 8.00 p.m. and I was getting out of the studio. Kavita was at the lobby, carefully peeling open a Kit Kat. “You want some?” I said no. And in my cynical style, asked, “Early dinner?” “No. I will not be home for another hour and I felt like snacking.”

Snacking. A new term to eat a little bit., To keep hunger at bay. Avoid ulcers. Yet stay in shape. Got me thinking and led me to some hypothesis, all my own. All probably wrong. Or could it have some accuracy?

The Indian chocolate market has almost totally depended on kiddie purchases. The market tends to wildly swing up and down with chocolate prices. Cadbury took a major initiative at bringing grown-ups into this market. The objective: make chocolates a ‘legitimate’ indulgence for adults. To move chocolates from the realms of pure indulgence for children to indulgence for everyone.

Cadbury’s advertising has shown adults eating chocolates, at times self-consciously, at times brazenly. All set to warm, emotive music.

Contrast this with Kit Kat. The entire brand advertising is focused on the product: Open the pack. Break the foil along the ridges. Peel the foil off. Break the chocolate-wafer finger and pop it right in.

An elaborate ritual that is legitimised by the promise: “Have a Break. Have a Kit Kat.” Is there any mention of chocolate? No. Is there any mention of milk? No. All the communication is product-centric. No great music. No dancing girls. And premium pricing to boot!

Who is playing it right? Cadbury’s Dairy Milk or Kit Kat? While Cadbury is trying to sell an indulgence to adults, Kit Kat is selling a ‘ritualistic’ break to teenagers/young adults. Now pull back a bit and look at the mosaic that is India. Indians are not used to sweet snacks. Almost all our snacks are salty. So is selling a sweet snack sound strategy? Will Indians like to eat a chocolate-coated wafer as a snack? At a high price?

Reports indicate that within a very short period of time, Kit Kat has caught on in a very big way across the country. While numerous global brands have failed to make an impact in the foods arena, Kit Kat has punched a huge hole. That too with strategies pretty much perfected in over 50 countries. At prices that appeared to be very high at one stage. So who says Indians are different?

Cadbury’s Dairy Milk is supposed to be full of milk. Milk is supposed to be good to you, any time, any place; remember “Doodh Doodh”?). Could Cadbury have gone after “tasty snacking” in a more focused manner?

Now who will own the ‘Snacking’ market? Will it one day become larger than the ‘indulgence’ market? Is that day around the corner? Very often, while creating communications for consumer products, it is tempting to fly on pure emotion. Which can often relegate the product to an 'also ran’. Kit Kat and other such brands working on the fringes of marketing and entertainment, come as a reminder to us that it is often more effective to make the product the hero. Albeit in an interesting, amusing, entertaining manner.

Well, I am sure Kavita would agree.

(Based on an article that appeared in Economic Times - Brand Equity 8th February, 1999)