Brand journey: Dalda evolves from Lever's vanaspati to Bunge's edible oil

Being one of the oldest cooking medium brands, Dalda has come a long way with its rural marketing strategies. In order to understand the brand's journey, BestMediaInfo.com caught up with Prashant Sukhwani, Senior Marketing Manager, Bunge India

Archit Ambekar | Mumbai | May 25, 2016

Refined oils have emerged as an essential cooking product for most households in the last two decades. Historically, there was a time when 'ghee' was considered expensive and not all households could afford it. That's when Hindustan Lever (which then owned Dalda, now owned by Bunge India) launched a similar affordable product called 'Dalda' as an affordable 'Vanaspati ghee' for the common man.

The brand has come a long way since then. It was at one time so popular that people thought it was a monopoly in the edible oils category. But it didn't. There was always local competition which was less highlighted because of less communication and a lesser evolved media back then.

Taking us through the journey, Prashant Sukhwani, Senior Marketing Manager, Bunge India, explained how Dalda has been relevant with the changing needs of the consumer. From being the oldest player in the category to launching refined oils about a decade back, internet has it all. Sukhwani was glad that people believed the brand had a monopoly.

On the rural front, Dalda has been doing some phenomenal work. Sukhwani said, “We have been a part of the biggest melas in different parts of North India like Nauchandi Mela, Bareily Numaish, etc., which attract crowds of over 10 lakh in a span of a month. These melas become a hotspot of rural consumers who travel from near and far. These melas become a good touch-point for us to engage with our rural consumers. Besides we also run contests for the entire mela duration.”

Meanwhile, for metros, the brand does a 360-degree campaign that involves using of traditional media like television, print, radio, cable and experiential marketing.

The brand's communication has always been simple across all media. While communication has changed over the last decade, it is no different for Dalda. Sukhwani said, “In the last couple of years, as a strategy, we have been trying to contextualise the brand with the celebrations of consumers. Dalda brand stands on the pillars of legacy, taste, trust, mothers and expression. Our campaigns and activations reflect the same. In each of our activation we try to give a platform to our target group to express them. Our campaign calendar works on purchase cycles and festive bursts with experimental marketing initiatives to meaningfully engage with our consumers.”

Transition from vanaspati to edible oil

The journey isn't smooth for all brands. There are always challenges and competition will ensure you do better. For Dalda, the association always rested with 'vanaspati.' The challenge was to move this to edible oils as a category. But it was a natural shift considering the nature of business.

Prashant Sukhwani

“During the launch we had the product shot 10-seconders to establish the presence of the brand in the edible oil space, besides a thematic TVC which focussed on our brand proposition. The launch was a 360 degree campaign,” Sukhwani informed.

During Holi this year, Dalda did the 'Dalda Holi Milan Samorah' in more than 15 cities across multiple states. They believe in experiential marketing and wanted to provide a platform to its target group to come and express them. The association was fruitful. “We received tremendous response for it and it has become a brand property with us. Such initiatives help us engage with consumers in a more meaningful way and understand their journeys of evolution which help us contemporise and contextualise our initiatives to suit the consumers better,” said Sukhwani.

The campaign improved the brand scores by over 5 per cent across key awareness metrics in targeted markets. The brand has consistently been growing in double-digits year after year, although it couldn't reveal figures for this and for their marketing budgets.

Speaking about the way forward, Sukhwani said, “We have quite a few marketing campaigns lined up for the year. We are targeting campaigns around appropriate time periods in different parts of the country. The details can't be revealed now but expect exciting marketing campaigns coupled with high quality consumer engagement initiatives in the coming months.”

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com