Ferrero India expands Kinder portfolio, sweetening its bid to increase market share

Launched in India in 2004, Ferrero India being a part of the Ferrero Group is a house to a wide array of product offerings under the sweet-packaged foods category such as Ferrero Rocher, Tic Tac, Nutella and Kinder.

Of this, it is Kinder, which in German means children, that enjoys a strong 70% share in the total company portfolio of Ferrero India, as per Amedeo Aragona, Marketing Director- Indian Subcontinent, Kinder Brands.

Having said that, the brand doesn’t target or communicate to children but their mothers with its tagline ‘A little less, a lot more’, which essentially reflects the offering’s content- less cacao and more latte, and strengthens the brand’s philosophy of coming up with products that are little treats or small portions that are designed to bring a lot of joy.

“There is this message of reliability that we want to pass to our shoppers every day which is why for Schoko Bons Crispy as well, the ad campaign that will go live in January will showcase kids in it, but the communication message- passing a good moment with your kid, is centred in a way that it talks to mothers,” he said.

While Kinder brands forayed into India with a test launch of Kinder Joy in South India, followed by a pan-India launch in 2010, what truly expanded the product portfolio was the launch of Kinder Creamy that took place in September, last year.

Cut to now when the Kinder brand currently holds a market share of 4% in the sweet packaged food market, the brand is launching the newly incepted and made-for-tropical markets offering- Kinder Schoko Bons Crispy in India.

This product launch is the second launch of a Ferrero India offering for this festive season. Earlier, on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan, the brand had launched a premium yet affordable offering, Ferrero Rochers Moments, for which it had roped in Sara Ali Khan for the #MaketheMmmmomentPerfect campaign.

 

 

 

 

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Speaking on the occasion, Rudolph Sequeira, Managing Director of Ferrero India said, “India is one of the important markets for Ferrero globally, and the expansion underlines Ferrero’s focus to build on its tropical portfolio. We are delighted to expand the Kinder portfolio, with a unique innovation in Kinder Schoko Bons Crispy, that is successfully made-in-India.”

Aragona also said, “As a brand that embodies fun, genuine care, modernity, and balance traits, Kinder has always been at the forefront of creating delightful experiences for families. The introduction of Kinder Schoko Bons Crispy adds another layer to this legacy, celebrating the evolving relationships between parents and their pre-teens.”

“In India, the consumption of chocolates is growing incrementally at double digits and during festivals, the trend only gains all the more momentum, which is essentially where the opportunity lies and hence we launch new products, not just for Kinder but for other brands as well during these times with the anticipation of gaining a little bit more space along with the existing products. We will also launch assortment packs for the festive season to solve for the gifting needs of kids,” he added.

During the course of the interaction, Aragona also stated that given that India is a land of opportunities and Kinder has become one of the big players in the country over the years, especially amongst children, it was only prudent that the brand launched its new Made-in-India product offering which is manufactured at the brand’s Baramati factory in Maharashtra wherein most of the working population comprises females.

Having said that he also pointed out that while the product has been available in some international markets already, the one that is launched in India may have the same name but the recipe is different because the new Schoko Bons Crispy has been incepted only for tropical countries in a way that the wafer acts as a protective layer from heat and therefore preserve the quality of the product itself.

“For the Kinder brand, the target audience is the mothers of children in various age groups, for example, the TG for Schoko Bons Crispy is mothers whose offspring are a little bit older in age when compared to that of Kinder Joy,” he said.

Further, he also mentioned that since Ferrero as a brand strongly emphasises cleanliness and hygiene globally, the new offering also comes in individual packaging which is further packed into packets of 4 and 12 pieces which cost the consumers as little as Rs 40 and Rs 100, respectively.

“Linked to hygiene and portion control, which is a crucial aspect of Kinder’s DNA, each bite of Kinder Schoko Bon Crispy is individually wrapped so that the kid doesn’t feel forced to eat all four or twelve of them at once,” he opined.

For the launch of the new offering, he pointed out that since the brand communicates only with parents, the positioning of the new product is also about having a fun moment of togetherness between mothers and kids.

Also, it is the first that the brand has collaborated with mega influencers- Subhashree Ganguly for the east and Sneha Reddy for the south and Indian Actress Karishma Kapoor encompassing north and west for the brand who wanted to do something that includes mothers and is locally relevant at the same time.

He also stated that the brand endorsement featuring the mega influencers will go live right after Diwali to create awareness for the product across various digital touchpoints.

“The launch is going to be 100% digital and we’ll not be using any traditional mediums because we believe that digital is the place to be, even for new launches. But in the lead up to Diwali, we will be leveraging both TV and Digital to reach out to the audiences,” he said.

Furthermore, he also stated that apart from Kinder Schoko Bons Crispy, Kinder Creamy is another brand which is present only on digital, unlike Kinder Joy which is present on TV majorly because of it being a comparatively older, bigger and more penetrated brand.

This, in his view, will be supported by a strong 360-degree marketing communications campaign wherein along with TV and digital presence, the brand will also adopt a mass media approach and launch its mascot, curated especially for the new offering under the Kinder brand.

“We know that the festive season along with the Cricket World Cup is one of the moments where there is a higher consumption of chocolate, therefore we’ll also be present on the WC23 with a teaser announcing the launch on the OTT channel,” he added.

The launch of the new offering which is comparatively more sophisticated than the rest because of the layer of cocoa sprinkles covering the crispy wafer underneath which is present in the milk and cocoa in a fluid format, in his opinion, at the beginning would be centred more towards the urban and Tier I markets and slowly penetrate the comparatively smaller markets.

But having said that, the product will be available across all leading outlets, including Modern Trade and Traditional stores across India and taste imprinting drives will be carried out across Modern Trade and e-commerce channels such as Amazon, Flipkart, Blinkit, Big Basket etc.

Delving deep into the marketing objectives that he has set aside for the brand Kinder, he said, “The new generation today is looking for a much more sophisticated taste vis-a-vis traditional sweets and therefore to reach out to them, there is an opportunity for global brands to not just leverage touchpoints like digital but also experiment with Artificial Intelligence, Metaverse, etc. and scale both the points of distribution and sales.”

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