What happens when you mix raw mango, masala, and marketing rebellion? Pulse

New Delhi: India does not just love spices; it worships them. From the chaat at the street corner to the myriad dishes cooked at homes, spices are condiments that are seldom left behind in recipes. 

Holding on to India’s love for spices, DS Group in 2015 launched a product that, in today’s time, has disrupted the candy space forever. 

At a time when India’s candy aisle was brimming with lookalike sweets sold for 50 paisa and targeted mostly at children, DS Group did something entirely unexpected. It launched a Rs 1 raw mango candy with a tangy, masala-filled core. 

The name? Pulse. The response? Explosive. A product that didn’t scream for attention but had all the makings of a rebellion - a desi flavour centre, a price twice the category average, and a bold refusal to follow the rulebook. 

It didn’t target just schoolchildren. It didn’t even try to look cute. Instead, it asked a question that cracked open the market’s most rigid assumption: Why should kids have all the fun?

Setting the flavour

When DS Group first began exploring the candy segment, it was less about launching a product and more about understanding why so many of them tasted the same and felt the same. “There was some sort of monotony, consumer loyalty was negligible, competition was too cluttered,” recalled Rajeev Jain, Senior Vice President - Corporate Marketing, DS Group at the recently held Goafest. 

Digging deeper, the group noticed that the candy market revolved around children and overlooked a much wider, more flavour-savvy audience. “Our basic question was, why should kids have all the fun? Age groups of 4 to 14 have limited formulation. The moment you go from 14 to 54, the canvas gets much bigger,” said Jain. 

He recalled, “So that was a very big decision for us. We will not focus only on kids. We will focus on everyone. 

Street to shelf

What followed was an unusually long R&D process for a candy that can cater to everyone. “For two years, we kept experimenting with different formulations, different formats,” Jain shared. 

At that time, 50% of the candy market was dominated by mango flavour, 26% raw mango and 24% normal mango. Nearing their eureka moment, the team at DS Group also noticed a very familiar yet underutilised taste - raw mango with spice. “There is a likeliness of multiplicity in taste, nostalgia for Indian taste and flavours. People enjoy raw mango with spices. That was a very basic insight behind Pulse,” said Jain. Instead of drawing inspiration from the global candy playbook, DS Group looked inward. They focused on the very culture towards India’s pantry of nostalgic, hyperlocal tastes. 

The final product was bold in every sense - a hard, raw mango candy with a powdery masala core that surprised the consumer mid-bite.

“We were able to develop Pulse, breaking all the norms. Instead of a regular candy, it was a centre-filled candy that was not just different in taste but in experience. Other candies had less longevity. But we gave Pulse a high longevity,” said Jain. 

The Rs 1 gamble

Even with a differentiated product, Pulse faced a fundamental hurdle - pricing. At the time, 86% of the market was dominated by 50 paisa candies. A stark and obvious realisation hit DS Group - they cannot compete at that price point, not without compromising on ingredients. 

“With extra masala in the candy, and after figuring out the costing, our R&D team clearly stated that we cannot sell the candy at 50 paisa. Then, all the big brands were selling their candies at 50 paisa,” Jain noted. 

Deciding to sell their candies at a price point of Rs 1 was a big gamble. But DS Group bet on the fact that the Indian consumer had evolved. If there is value in the product, the consumers will pay. Going forward with this belief, DS Group launched the candy at Rs 1 price point. 

And the risk paid off. A decade later, the industry followed suit. “It was 86% products at 50 paisa and 14% at Rs 1. Now, as per the latest data, 14% is at 50 paisa and 86% at Rs 1. We reversed the industry completely,” Jain said. 

In just eight months, Pulse Candy racked up Rs 100 crore in sales—without spending a rupee on advertising. The brand’s explosive success came from smart distribution, ensuring the candy was available in every nook and corner of the cities it entered.

Marketing without a megaphone

Pulse by DS Group was not only filled with spices but also with unconventional choices. Accompanying the pricing was another unconventional choice - launching Pulse with zero ATL backing. 

Jain recalled, “All the big brands were very heavy on TV. Digital was not so strong in 2015. The big brands had a huge share of buyers, big GRPs.” It was indeed a tumultuous task competing with these brands in terms of GRPs. 

And hence, Pulse candy took an entirely different approach. The product got launched on alternatives like social media, influencer marketing, heavy merchandising - all in all, a strong BTL plan. 

“There were a lot of UGCs; lots of consumers, on their own, were making videos and sending them to us,” said Jain. The wave took over celebrities as well, who started posting about the candy on their social media without even charging a single penny from DS Group. 

The brand advocacy hit the top charts when it came to Pulse. “In our case, every consumer was a brand advocate,” Jain highlighted. He remembered how users on social media trolled a Korean influencer who shared some negative reviews about Pulse. “No comments were prompted by us. Our consumers countered that video.” 

Scaling Pulse

The product hit a sweet spot. Too well. “Demand suddenly went up so high that we were not prepared for this kind of demand,” said Jain. To meet the spike, DS Group scaled up contract manufacturing across nine locations. Quality consistency became key. 

“We developed this very foolproof mechanism so that candy, which was being made in the East, was as good as candy being made in the North, and in the South and West,” he explained. Within just eight months, Pulse reached Rs 100 crore in 8 months - a number usually reserved for brands years into the market. 

When Pulse finally launched its first ATL campaign in 2017 - two years after hitting shelves - it already held the top spot in the category. Today, Pulse is present in over 35,00,000 outlets and is, by Jain’s estimate, “twice in sales of any number two candy brand in the country.”

Pulse’s journey - low, steady, and stunningly successful - isn’t just a story of branding. It’s a reminder that Indian consumers crave cultural relevance just as much as affordability or novelty.

In an industry obsessed with jingles, formats, and celebrity equity, Pulse broke through with little more than an idea, an insight, and a question that changed everything: Why should kids have all the fun?