Did Bingo eat Lays ?

When people go to retail store now days, they often end up buying what they do not actually wanted to buy and often they want to buy a particular product but Fail to recall a particular brand. It s a game of 4P s and advertising tactics which is responsible for creating an all-time brand recall.Bingo was launched in India on March 14, 2007 during the world cup time. Their advertisements have a kind of buzz creating appeal which helped in creating a strong brand recall. While the objective of bingo was to capture the minds of the customer first and market later, they wanted to gain at least 8% market share nationally. The ad agency wanted to base the campaign on the three pillars ofProduct, Placement and Personality. After a few brainstormingsessions, the team realized that people in India still prefer traditionalsnacks, such as banana chips and biscuits. To counter that, theydecided to use the familiar tastes and come up with somecombination of local flavors.Strategic placement of the product was also an important factor, as the aim was to widen Bingo sreach and impact. Bingo was available in more than 250,000 stores in the first six months of itslaunch. Brand awareness was also built by placing the Bingo racks in local grocery st ores as wellas supermarkets. In most cases, a TVC is the main source of awareness for a brand, while inBingo s case, it was the Bingo rack.Another thing that had to be taken into consideration was the fact that snacking is a mindlessactivity .They wanted to promote a brand that would be deliberately mad, spontaneous andmindless. The product launch was preceded by an online viral campaign, Wait or Suffer . The product wasintroduced with a television, print and outdoor campaign.Since it was a youth brand, digital media was used heavily for promotions. O&M claimed that the 360 degree campaign helped Bingo gain 12 per cent market sharenationally, as opposed to their initial target of 8 percent. Bingo had 16 per cent market share inmetros and a market share as high as 66 per cent in certain cities. FritoLay took anaggressive stance and launched the marketing campaign led by its star endorsers, Saif Ali Khan, MS Dhoni andJuhi Chawla. In order to add further zing to its product portfolio, in January 2008, the c ompany launched Kurkure Xtreme , a limited edition variant in two flavors Risky Chilli and Electric Nimbu(lime). This was perhaps a move to outdo competition from ITC s snack brand Bingo, which waslaunched in March 2007, in local Indian flavors like Tandoori Paneer Tikka (spiced cottagecheese) and Chatkila Nimbu Achaar (tangy lime pickle).

Bingo s success in the market is backed by ITC s strong distribution network, which allows it tostock its products in shops that previously did not sell snack food. Additionally, ITC Foodsprovides shopkeepers with plastic molded shelves that allow local vendors a convenient way tostock their product, and the company benefits by increased visibility for its brand. Taking a cuefrom its competition, Frito Lay India is focusing on unconventional retail points like cyber cafesand telephone booths, in order to increase brand visibility and product reach. To maintain top of the mind recall among its customers the brand has undertaken several uniquecommunication initiati ves. The most recent, for example, is called "Chala Change ka Chakkar,"which was an umbrella campaign for Frito Lay India s entire product portfolio (Lay s, Kurkure,Cheetos, Uncle Chipps , and Lehar). This promotion allowed chosen consumers to live a day inthe life of an Indian Bollywood celebrity (who are the brand endorsers) like Juhi Chawla or SaifAli Khan . The idea is to generate excitement around the brand and have it stand out in the clutterof existing brands. The brand has undertaken similar promotions in the past. For instance, in 2004 it launched the"Kahani mein Kurkure" ("Crispiness in the Story") campaign, which was a take on Indianpopular culture. The advertising campaign spoofed popular Indian TV shows like Jassi Jaissi KoiNahin (Indian adaptation of American sitcom "Ugly Betty") to appeal to Indian housewives, thelargest target audience to watch these programs. In addition to targeting housewives, who play a significant role in making purchase decisions,the brand appeals to the Indian fam ily as a whole. The "Kurkure Chai Time Achiever s Award"was a contest launched by the brand where families were invited to submit interesting recipesmade with Kurkure . The winning family would have the opportunity to be famous and have theirphotograph featured on one million Kurkure packs. This direct marketing campaign was supported through television advertising, where Indiancelebrity Juhi Chawla , Kurkure s brand ambassador, announced the winners of the competition.The contest was also publicized t hrough the website http://kurkure.co.in, specifically designed topromote the contest. Using the website as a strategic tool for promotion helped the brand appealto a young audience that spends a considerable amount of time surfing the web. Another novel branding initiative was a tie-up with South Western Railways in India to havetrains called the "Kurkure Express." These were special trains that operated only during theholiday season. The brand was featured on reservation charts, coach indication slips, an d duringany announcements about the train. This outdoor media was a unique way to target families whotravel by train during the holidays.

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