Kolson Report

Marketing Issues in Pakistan

Term Project
Final Report
Term Project
FINAL Report
Submitted to: Ms. Saima Hussain
Submitted by: Maha Hanfi (09269)
Khulood Kashif (09240)
Yumnah Shah (08594)
Samra Shaoib (08537)
Musfirah Taqdees (09961)

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Contents
Company ......................................................................................................................................... 1
Mission Statement....................................................................................................................... 3
Company objectives .................................................................................................................... 3
Organizational culture at Kolson ................................................................................................ 4
Customer ......................................................................................................................................... 4
Competition..................................................................................................................................... 6
Pasta and Vermicelli: .................................................................................................................. 6
Biscuits:....................................................................................................................................... 7
Snacks: ...................................................................................................................................... 11
Cereals: ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Collaborators ................................................................................................................................. 12
Distribution Channels of Kolson .............................................................................................. 14
Context .......................................................................................................................................... 14
NOODLE DOODLE ..................................................................................................................... 17
The idea behind Noodle Doodle ................................................................................................... 17
The Product ................................................................................................................................... 18
Target Audience ........................................................................................................................ 19
Pricing ........................................................................................................................................... 20
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Placement ...................................................................................................................................... 20
Promotion...................................................................................................................................... 21
On ground Activities ................................................................................................................. 21
Digital Marketing ...................................................................................................................... 23
Print Media................................................................................................................................ 24
Consumer Promotion ................................................................................................................ 24
Distribution ................................................................................................................................... 25
Positioning .................................................................................................................................... 26
Unique Selling Proposition ....................................................................................................... 27
Competition................................................................................................................................... 27
Branding ........................................................................................................................................ 29
Blind Taste Test ............................................................................................................................ 31
Market Research ........................................................................................................................... 33
General Trade (GT)................................................................................................................... 33
Local Modern Trade (LMT) ..................................................................................................... 34
International Modern Trade (IMT) ........................................................................................... 35
Consumer Survey .......................................................................................................................... 37
References ..................................................................................................................................... 42
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APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................... 43
Consumer survey questionnaire .................................................................................................... 43
Taste Trials (Exhibit A) ................................................................................................................ 47
Online Campaigns (Exhibit B)...................................................................................................... 48
Digital Presence (Exhibit C) ......................................................................................................... 49
Interview Transcript (first interview)............................................................................................ 51
Interview Transcript (second interview) ....................................................................................... 60

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Company
LOTTE Group is the parent company of Lotte Kolson (Pvt.) Limited. Kolson is synonymous to
innovative and dynamic food products associated with pasta, cakes, snacks and biscuits. It is a
household name since 1942 and has been a leading food manufacturing and confectionery
Company having a big share of worldwide exports as well. Kolson is distinguished by the fact it
is one of the pioneers of food processing industry in Pakistan. Flagship brands of Kolson include
Potato Sticks, Slanty, Jam Hearts and Bravo. (Kolson Official Website)
LOTTE Group is a South Korean conglomerate which is present in around 70 countries. Its key
business areas include finance, construction, food, chemicals, tourism, manufacturing and retail.
It has a turnover of US $ 65 billion. Lotte Confectionery Co.Ltd. is Asia’s No.1 Confectionery
Company.
In Food and Beverages category, the group’s flagship company is LOTTE Confectionery Co. Ltd.
It was established in 1967 and started out with a tiny pack of chewing gum. Today, it is producing
over 500 products globally, including Ice Cream, Biscuits, Gum, Snacks, Candy and Chocolates.
The company is based on the following philosophy:
“We aim to deliver quality products day in and day out that delight our consumers and build loyalty
and trust in our brands and our organization. Being a food manufacturing company, we understand
our responsibility in providing the best quality products enriched with high quality ingredients and
pure value.” (Lotte Kolson - Linkedin)
Kolson (K.S. Sulemanji Esmailji & sons (Pvt.) Ltd.) is now part of Lotte Confectionery, a
household name since 1942. Kolson enjoys the distinction of being one of the Pioneer food
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manufacturing and processing industries in Pakistan. The name of Kolson is synonymous with
dynamic and innovative food products related to snacks, biscuits, cakes and pasta. (Lotte Kolson
- Linkedin)
At present Kolson is market leader in Pasta products such as Spaghetti, Macaroni, Lasagne,
Noodles and Vermicelli.
As company hierarchy enters to the third generation, it befittingly coincides with yet another
stunning product, an innovative range of high-class Biscuits. Jam Hearts, Cream Hearts, Katch and
Bravo. A list of its products is as follows:
o Kolson Spaghetti
o Kolson Elbow Macaroni
o Kolson Long Macaroni
o Kolson Ridged Elbow Pasta
o Kolson Large Elbow Pasta
o Kolson Twisted Elbow Pasta
o Kolson Spiral Pasta
o Kolson Large Shell Pasta
o Kolson Penne Pasta
o Kolson Egg Noodles
o Kolson Lasagne
o Slanty Plain Salted
o Slanty Vegetable
o Slanty Jalapeno
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o Snackers
o Potato Sticks
o Twich
o Cheese Balls
Kolson believes in setting high standards of manufacturing, each product is produced using
systematic production process, high technology & the finest raw & packaging materials, sourced
globally. Testing & sampling the products locally, helps Kolson reach out to its consumers on
"One to One" basis through its aggressive marketing & sales team. Kolson's motive along with
keeping a check on quality & taste has also been to complement various lifestyles & occasions.
Mission Statement
“To provide a one shop to promote socially responsible life style products while growing the global
market with the conscious.” (Kolson Official Website)
Company objectives
The fundamental objective of Kolson is maximum growth in the food industry .A recent example
of the achievement of such an objective was to extend their brand into a completely different
category in late 2004 when they diversified their food line by entering the biscuit market. The
long-term objective pursued by the company is to be on a constant look out for new competitors
and to make efforts to nip them in the bud, so that in the end they do not pose as a threat to Kolson’s
market share.
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Organizational culture at Kolson
At Kolson, we believe that responsibility and trust are inseparable. Kolson must have trusting
relationships with customers, owners, employees and society in general. Therefore a determined
effort is made to attend to the Group’s responsibilities in society in a comprehensive and innovative
way.
Kolson believes that there are close ties between the values you create and the values you promote.
To ensure long-term value creation, Kolson’s activities are based on responsible and sound
business practice in all parts of the operation. (Kolson Official Website)
Customer
The target audiences for their pasta range are female usually young women. In the Kolson pasta
recipe range ad we can see through the type of household (well-furnished, island kitchen, utensils)
shown the product is being catered to SEC A and B. Kolson Slanty holds a similar case. It is
targeting towards children who will influence the buying decision of their mothers. Kolson
Snackers, in its ad depicted teenagers/young adults who were also from SEC A and B as shown
through there trendy modern clothes and an open hood car. Kolson offer its biscuit to lower class,
middle class and working class catering to all ages below 40. Kolson noodle is targeted to children
of urban households. Kolson vermicelli is for the rural markets.
Easy to cook and easy to eat is the motivation behind purchase. Pastas and noodles have been
promoted as easy to make products simplified to 3-4 steps and biscuits and chips are more focused
on variety so motivation might be to evade boredom or try something new.
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Department stores, supermarkets and superstores carry all Kolson products. Convenience stores
carry biscuits such as Bravo and chips such as its Potato Sticks.
Consumer information sources come from television and Facebook. Separate pages are made for
Kolson Pasta and Kolson Slanty as they target differently, the former for mothers and children and
the latter for children. Kolson Slanty is positioned as something that will help you have fun when
you’re enjoying and playing games. Similar is the case for its newly launched noodles. Kolson
Vermicelli also has a separate page targeting consumers below SEC B.
The buying decision behavior for biscuits and chips are of variety seeking buying behavior as
consumers switch brands. Prices are more or less in accordance with the competitors so it’s easy
to switch and try something new which is why Slanty introduced different new flavors after years
being in the market. Noodles and pasta are targeted to consumers with habitual buying behavior
as there is low involvement and low cost. Consumers passively receive information through
television and select the product because it is familiar. The vermicelli sold to rural markets has a
hen as a symbol which indicates that they buy Kolson’s product repetitively.
The buying process for biscuits, chips, noodles and pasta starts with a need recognition that is
hunger and to do away with boredom. Consumers obtain information from TV and Facebook.
They evaluate alternatives mainly through taste and quality. Next comes the purchase decision
which can be influenced by the attitude of others, word of mouth may spread amongst peers if they
find the product flavorsome. The post purchase behavior depends on consumers’ expectations and
the products performance which may be different in every case.
The benefits derived from Kolson’s product would be that it’s easy to cook and easy to eat with
affordability, taste and quality.
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Consumer needs and preferences have changed as newer variety is being offered by Kolson in its
chips, noodles and pasta category. Consumer lifestyle is changing since working women need
more ready to cook meals. Our population comprises mainly of young people who are more
inclined towards new market trends which is why Kolson will introduce noodles in a cup.
Previously in the Slanty ads young women were shown but now children are shown as they are
more aware and active on Facebook which is also where Kolson does its consumer interaction.
Competition
Lotte Kolson’s long term objective is to look for competitors in the market and nip them in the bud
so that later on the competitors don’t become a threat to Kolson’s market share. Kolson tries to get
ahead of its customers by changing introducing new products, changing packaging and trying
innovative techniques for promotion. It does not change its price to counter competition. Price is
set according to the competitive range in the market.
Kolson has 4 product lines that include wide range of products.
Pasta and Vermicelli:
o MACARONI
o LASAGNE
o NOODLES
o SPAGHETTE
o VERMICELLI
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Kolson started with Vermicelli in 1942 in Pakistan. Vermicelli is a seasonal product that has huge
sales during Rajab, Shabaan and Ramazan. It is mostly popular in rural areas. The main
competitors of Vermicelli are the mushroom brands that are widely spread in number in the rural
areas. Since mushroom brands are really cheap, so they are easily affordable by the people.
Kolson’s Vermicelli are a little expensive because Kolson cannot compromise on quality and
because Vermicelli is manufactured on their Italian plant.
Kolson is a pioneer in the Pasta industry. It was the first one to introduce Pasta in Pakistan with a
new look. They packaged pasta in a new manner. After some time Bake Parlour also came into the
market with Spaghetti, Pasta, Vermicelli and Marconi but still Kolson has more market share.
Biscuits:
Lotte Kolson’s objective is to have maximum growth in food industry. In 2004, it entered into a
new market i.e. biscuits and further diversified its range of products. (Tribune)
Products:
o KATCH
o BRAVO
o JAM HEARTS (Vanilla)
o JAM HEARTS (Chocolate)
o CREAM HEARTS
o CREAM HEARTS (Chocolate and Vanilla)
Competitors for biscuits are:
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Major players in the market are English Biscuits Manufacturers with a market share of 40% and
Continental Biscuits with a market share of 23.7%. These companies dominate the market because
they have a strong product portfolio, widespread distribution and strong marketing investments.
Continental Biscuits
Bakeri Classic Family Pack, Snack 50-50 Snack Pack, Ticky
Pack, Ticky pack pack
Bakeri Coconut Family Pack, Snack Oreo Family Pack, Snack
Pack, Ticky pack Pack, Ticky pack
Bakeri Bistiks Family Pack, Snack Tiger Family Pack, Snack
Pack Pack, Ticky pack
Candy Original Family Pack, Snack Tuck Family Pack, Snack
Pack, Bar pack Pack, Ticky pack
Candy chocolate Family Pack, Snack Wheatable Family Pack, Ticky
Candy Gala Family Pack, Snack Nankhatai Family Pack, Ticky
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English Biscuits Manufacturers
Sooper and Sooper Elaichi Whole Wheat
Gluco Click
Rio Whole Wheat
Peanut Pik and Peanut Pista Butter Puff
Party Saltish
Marie Farmhouse Cookies
Chocolate Sandwich Chocolate Chip
Innovative Biscuits
Butter Crunch
Goodies
Digestive
Zeera
Peanut
Xtra
Choc n chip
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Mayfair Biscuits
Brand Type
Café Plain Sweet
Energy Energy
Club Crackers
Break Fruit and nuts
Smar2 Cream biscuits
Zeera Royale Zeera
Chocday Chocolate
Bisconni Biscuits
Chocoalte chip
Treat
Rite
Chocolatto
Peanut
Novita
Butter bites
Coconut
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Local bakery biscuits are also competitors for Kolson’s biscuit brands
Snacks:
o Slanty
o Twitch
o Twinkle
o Cheese Balls
o Smart Chip
o Crinkle Patato
o Friend Chip
o Patato Chips
o Snacker
o London Sticks
o Chata Pata Ring
Slanty was launched in March 1993 and it has 98% share in the market. It has 3 flavors: plain salt,
vegetable and jalapeno available in 2 variants 15g (5Rs) and 35g (10Rs).
Cereals:
o Choco Wheelz
o Froot Wheels
o Cocoa Beans
o Honey Rice Crispies
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Increasing Westernization in Pakistan has led to change in food tastes of the consumers.
Consumers are adopting new food habits and like eating western dishes. In the urban areas, busy
lifestyles have led to new ways of having breakfast. Eating cereals and frozen parathas are getting
more common these days.
In Cereals category, Fauji Cereals has the lead in the market. It has a market share of 72% in the
market due to its outstanding performance in all urban areas of Pakistan, Due to its extensive
distribution and wide range of products, people are more familiar with the brand. Other popular
products are Nurpur juices, Nurpur flavoured milk, Nurpur milk, Nurpur cheese, etc.
Collaborators
Kolson has always considered its distribution network as one of its key strengths. Their distribution
network is exceedingly effective at supplying the various Kolson products at the retail outlets
throughout the major cities of Pakistan. Back in the 2010, Kolson had outsourced their marketing
and distribution operations to Fed Globe International. (Report on Kolson)
Kolson products are available in all general stores, wholesale markets, IMTs, LMTs, departmental
and smaller super stores across the KLI regions. This is a result of Kolson’s growing efforts to
penetrate the market all the more. Kolson has always cultivated good relations with its distributers
and retailers and takes advantage of this relation and uses trade pus to enhance sales. They get
retailers to stock and shelf the products such that they are visible to the customer i.e. “eye level is
buy level”.
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Kolson considers its distribution channel as its strength. They have a very strong distribution
network because its products even of different product category use the same distributor network
like Slanty and Spaghetti utilize the same channel. Kolson has ware houses in major cities like
Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar. These regional warehouses stock the products and from
here the smaller dealers and distributors pick up the stock and distribute it within the city.
It has been Kolson’s objective to make distribution a competitive advantage to reach as many
people as possible and cater to a large network throughout the cities of Pakistan. They have always
aimed to increase the retail penetration of its products and minimize distribution costs. They has
always tried and ensured profitability for the channels and provided benefits to the distributors and
retailers so that a sense of loyalty is developed amongst them and they contribute to a smoother
and hassle-free distribution network. Kolson’s trade marketing department has worked largely to
achieve these objectives.
Opportunities for Kolson include expanding its distribution channel internationally and catering to
Western countries and capitalize on the great demand present for its products. Similarly Kolson
still has to ensure the strength of its distribution channel and improve the supply of its product in
the rural areas.
The distribution channel of Kolson is comprised of around 400 well established distributors from
all over the country. Its network is considered to be very transparent.
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Distribution Channels of Kolson
Kolson Trade
Marketing
Department
IMTS LMTS Distributors Super Stores
Wholesalers Retailers
Context
Kolson, having survived 75 years of hardship, has emerged as a pioneer in almost every type of
product that it has diversified into. One of the best examples to display their endless struggle to
bring to the market something innovative and ahead of its time is the Kolson pasta, which after
years of hindrances, has finally become a product that most, if not all, households cook at least
once a week. As expected, to survive in the tough competing Pakistani environment, Kolson has
had to overcome its micro and macro environment in the following way;
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Kolson foods are eaten by 180 million people daily since almost all Kolson products are FMCGs.
They have a high turnover and make around $35 million annually. 2008 and 2009 however, was
years where a lot of companies faced serious financial crises in terms of the volume of their
products sold because the Pakistani economy was hit where most of the target segments of Kolson,
SECs C and D were out of jobs, close to poverty and hardly able to purchase the same biscuits or
Slanty packets they once could afford daily. Kolson, who had not anticipated such a drastic
decrease in their sales had applied for a loan of nearly 1.3 billion PKR in the form of Islamic Sukuk
Bonds financed by Bank Alfalah ltd and United Bank Ltd to restructure their company, make
improvements and diversify their portfolio and refinance old debt. The company, unfortunately,
could not pay its instalments-50 million PKR- from early 2010 onwards, and caught the eye of
LOTTE, a South Korean company which was looking to diversify its portfolio by buying
businesses all around the world. The deal was signed in 2011, and Lotte has in its possession, 70%
of the company’s shares.
The reasons behind the sudden change in trends could partly be the unstable political forces that
were impact Pakistan at the time, including a very weak and rickety government which cause a lot
of foreign investment coming into Pakistan to stop, causing a lot of people to lose their jobs.
Workers who were impacted the most belongs to the primary audience that Kolson catered to.
Since then, Kolson has picked up better sales, improved on the quality of their products, as well
as expanded the different markets they cater to. Kolson has capitalized on the need of hygienic,
quick and easy to make snacks in homes as well as public spaces, and through its Kolson pastas,
recently launched their own brand of instant noodles, called the Noodle Doodle, that target the
SECs A and B, and university going students.
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Raw materials, which is whole ground wheat is purchased from local producers and made in their
own Kolson mills and spices, for their various products are make within their factories. These raw
materials are put in for further processing using the latest German, Dutch, Swiss and Italian
technology. The high quality Pakistani wheat products procured from select bunch of millers, are
pivotal in determining the outcome of high quality products.
Through its smart positioning techniques and a wide distribution network, Kolson has made its
products available to everyone in the Pakistani economy, and has brought forward latent needs of
the consumers so much so that it is today a brand synonymous for its innovative products.
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NOODLE DOODLE
For the scope of this project we have opted to study the new recently introduced instant noodles
brand of Kolson named Noodle Doodle. Kolson is known for its pasta range and this new addition
to its existing portfolio can be seen as a product line extension, and time will tell how the market
will respond to this extension and if this new brand will turn out to be a brand failure or a brand
success.
We will be analyzing the brand using a holistic approach where we will consider not only the
marketing mix and the marketing strategies of the brand but we will also try and shed light upon
how the consumer is responding to the brand and what is the market’s perception of Kolson’s
attempt to tap into the noodles market.
The idea behind Noodle Doodle

Kolson felt that the whole Instant Noodles category was controlled by only two players: Maggi by
Nestle and Knorr. Both the brands are very popular among the consumers and they have the entire
market share. Recently the market for noodles also started growing tremendously as children
became choosier about what they should eat and when they should eat. Noodles are highly
preferred by children and young adults when the meal cooked at home is not of their choice or
when they are alone at home and have to cook something for themselves.
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Kolson had been serving the country with pasta and vermicelli since long, which had to be cooked
by females of the household. Hence it decided to tap into a new market where children could easily
consume the product, without the help of adults.
Kolson had been working over introducing Instant Noodles for years. The research team did long
discussions and market research over what sort of noodles would be introduce, what type of flavors
would be offered and how the noodles would be launched. Even after Noodle Doodle was
launched, the market research did not end. The researchers kept on researching to ensure that
Noodle Doodle was a success.
The consumers only knew about packet noodles. Therefore Kolson along with the packets,
introduced ‘cup packing’ of Instant Noodles for the very first time in Pakistan. The purpose of cup
noodles is to provide an ‘On-the-Go’ meal. They target audience is young adults- especially the
college and university going students- who are always in a rush and need hassle-free and
convenient way to make their meals and carry it wherever they go.
The Product
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Noodle Doodle has been launched in two variants:
 The cup noodle
 The pack noodle
The cup pack of Noodle Doodle is a tin cup which has noodles, taste maker and a fork in it, the
consumer only has to add hot water to the pack and add the taste maker and within four to five
minutes the noodles are ready to eat. It is available in three flavors: Chunky Chicken, Fiery
Chatpata and Smoky Tikka.
The pack noodle is available in plastic packing which contain the taste maker. The noodles are
added in boiling hot water followed by the taste maker to make a one bowl serving of Noodle
Doodle. It is available in four flavors namely Chunky Chicken, Fiery Chatpata Peppy Pasta and
Smoky Tikka.
Target Audience
The target audience as recognized by the marketing team of Noodle Doodle is people from the age
of 12 to 30. Specifically the target group for the cup variant is identified as being of 18 to 30 years
of age and the target group of the pack variant is aged 12 to 18 years. This target group includes
only urban residents.
The basic insight is that young adults and young professionals have busy schedules and don’t have
time to prepare a proper meal for themselves since they’re running into meetings and want to
munch on something during the break that they get. They want something which is fulfilling also
healthy at the same time. Hence, the best option for them in Kolson Noodle Doodle, which they
can have anywhere.
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Pricing
The two variants are priced differently. The cup noodles are priced at Rs.40 whereas the pack
noodles are priced at Rs.25. These prices are affordable and within the range of the target group.
Placement
The product has been made available in the Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Both of the variants
can be found at the IMTs, LMTs, High Frequency Stores and General Trade retails. The same
trade marketing team that dealt with the pasta category has been working on the distribution of
Noodle Doodle. Special gondolas have been placed at IMTs and LMTs.
The team also plans to send in their own kiosks with boilers to IMTs, LMTs and even at
universities so that people can actually make the cup noodles there and consume it right away.
Free Taste Trails are also being conducted at malls and stores. Refer to the pictures in Exhibit A
the Appendix to see glimpses of these taste trials.
The product is also being made available at events and concerts that are being held like recently
the IBA Atif Aslam concert had Noodle Doodle available and people actually gave a positive
response as they enjoyed the warm soupy noodles in the cold weather of January.
Previously the imported brands of cup noodles were only available at some LMT’s like Agha’s.
They were not made available to the mass consumers. The local people wouldn’t just go and pick
this up. So when Kolson brought in a local product Noodle Doodle cup pack they needed to make
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it wanted to be available widely and since they are pioneering that product in the local market,
they need to make the people aware of its use.
Promotion
Suppling the branded kiosks with boilers is part of the promotion strategy of Noodle Doodles. This
strategy is a short term temporary strategy that is being implemented to create a hype and create
awareness for the brand. It is being done to make the consumer become used to the product and
idea of cup noodles and associate Noodle Doodle with the convenience of easy to make healthy
food. Also they are banking on the idea that once Noodle Doodle cup pack establishes relevance
with the market and becomes a habit of the consumer then the products consumption will move
from on the go and in universities to homes as well and hence a demand pull will be created, this
will also led in the canteens and cafe to willingly invest in the boiler machine. So the aim right
now is to create this demand pull.
As the product had been recently launched, it is still in its awareness phase, so the promotion
team’s basic goal at the moment is to let consumers know about a product and let them know who
the product is to consume.
On ground Activities
Taste trials being initiated at IMTs and LMTs also are a means of promotion, the brand hopes that
this will give a major push to the product and will help the product to be registered in the
consumer’s mind and get some space in the consumer’s attention economy. Proper kiosks are being
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set up for this purpose even outside some High Frequency Stores. These taste trials will be carried
out in the KLI regions.
Figure 1: Noodle Doodle visits Beaconhouse School System, Lahore

The marketing team of noodle doodle
is also doing school and university
visits so that the can make the brand
available to its target group directly.
This is done to create awareness,
attract attention and generate
talkability which will be good for the
brand
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Digital Marketing
Noodle Doodle is also promoting its brand on the social media platforms particularly on Facebook
and Twitter. It is also present on YouTube and Instagram.
The Noodle Doodle has a selfie competition going on currently where it has asked people to click
their pictures while eating Noodle Doodle and send it in on Facebook and Twitter to become a part
of the selfie competition and the winner will get interesting prizes. By doing so Noodle Doodle is
trying to increase its consumer base attract attention and generate recall. Quite a lot of people are
sending in their pictures and tagging their friends to like their pictures or commenting on the post.
This will definitely add to the brands recall and make the brand more popular. (Kolson Noodle
Doodle - Facebook)
They also initially had a trivia competition going on their social media called Noodle Doodle Trivia
where they asked people to answer the trivia questions by commenting in the pictures to win
exciting prizes.
Noodle Doodle’s marketing team is trying its best to use social media platforms to the most which
also makes sense because their target audience is readily found on these social sites. Refer to
Exhibit B in the Appendix for images of these online campaigns of Noodle Doodle.
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Print Media
Kolson Noodle Doodle is making its presence felt in every way possible. It can also be seen
promoting its brand on the print media.
Consumer Promotion
In order to increase sales Kolson Noodle Doodle also gave consumer promotion offers to its
consumers. This offer was a bundle offer which offered the consumers a free Noodle Doodle pack
if they bought 4 packs. Another offer said that on buying 3 Noodle Doodle cups the consumer
would get the Noodle Doodle pack free.
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These consumer promotions were not aimed at a stock clear out from the market neither was it an
attempt to meet sales targets as the brand team claimed to have already surpassed their targets by
a mile. Its sole purpose was to induce sales and get consumers to buy not only one but more packs.
The idea came from the insight that young mothers when go shopping generally buy items in bulk
as they have time for revisits to stores so the offer was to incentivize them to buy Noodle Doodle
as opposed to competition.
Distribution
The product moves from the companies to the distributors. These distributors are divided on
regional basis and they work in five different regions across Pakistan. Then the product goes to
the wholesaler, who gets the primary sales. Retailer gets the products from the wholesaler or from
the company itself.
The same distribution network is used for Noodle Doodle that is used for the other products, this
ads to the products availability and the retailers are more willingly to stock the product as the trade
marketing team is using the Kolson Pasta’s equity to ensure the credibility of the new product.
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The Noodle Doodle in packs is delivered through the same distribution channel as pasta whereas
the cups are placed at LMTs only. The Noodle Doodle cups are quite costly (Rs.40/cup) so only
people who have strong purchasing power may want to buy it. These people mostly visit LMTs to
buy their groceries. Hence, placing cups in LMTs can only bring sales.
In the start, Kolson pushed the product successfully around the LMTs and retails and the number
of sales exceeded the target. It was able to make customers buy it for the first time. After some
time, the sales dropped. Kolson is still figuring out whether the pull of product in the first stage
came from the market or not. Kolson believes that they had an issue with restocking the product
since the sales were more than the expected. Hence Noodle Doodle was unavailable in most of the
shops and stores. Now it is again working on its distribution channels to make the Noodle Doodle
available and accessible to all customers.
Positioning
Noodle Doodle uses the platform of imagination for its positioning. It basically targets the busy
lifestyles of people and says that Noodle Doodle is the “ticket to imagination.” After a tired day
of working and not being able to do things of your own accord, Noodle Doodle provides you with
the freedom you want, you eat Noodle Doodle and let your imagination spark. Break free of all
the strings attached to you, and the only strings that matter are the strings on noodle that you are
eating.
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Unique Selling Proposition
The unique selling proposition of the cup variant is that it provides the customer with utmost
convenience as all you have to do is add water to the cup and you have a healthy meal ready for
your consumption. People living a busy lifestyle can benefit from this as it is instant food for them.
It also is useful for on the go consumption.
Another point of differentiation that the brand team wants to play on is the fact that Kolson Noodle
Doodle cup is the first locally produced cup noodle in Pakistan.
Also the pizza flavor is also something that makes the brand stand out from its competition as it is
an entirely new flavor being added to the noodle range and Kolson is the first to do so.
Competition
Kolson Noodle Doodle has been launched in a market which is already dominated by two major
players namely, Maggi and Knorr who have been providing instant noodles for quite some time
and have established a huge consumer base. Kolson Noodle Doodle hence has to work hard to
penetrate into this market and capture the market share.
The brand team believes that Maggi and Knorr are not the benchmark for Noodle Doodle and
Noodle Doodle has a lot more to achieve and aims to go beyond what the existing brands of noodles
are doing.
The brand team stated that Knorr and Maggi and international brand and even though Kolson has
Lotte’s backing, Noodle Doodle is still a local product so they are trying to play that as an edge
that the brand has. When further questioned about how the brand plans to create a differential
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relevance for the normal packs apart from the pizza flavor, they said that they will ensure that their
distribution of the brand is at its best they will try to penetrate the market.
They also added that since the instant noodle market was an already established market it would
have been foolish to not tap into it, there are only two major players and that is nothing there are
product categories where there are many more players in the market. They saw the noodle market
as an opportunity and decided to tap into it.
Knorr also uses imagination and fun as its platform, Kolson Noodle Doodle also went with
imagination as its platform as the brand team said that if you are the market leader entering into a
new market that is when you have to think big and outside the box, if you are entering an already
established market then you just look for convenience and take the safe way by either following
the competitor or doings things at par with the competition. Noodle Doodle has followed in the
steps of its competition but it has not set its competition as its benchmark it plans to go beyond
what the competitors have done.
When asked about the strategy of introducing and pulling back seasonal flavors like Knorr. The
Noodle Doodle team said that we won’t call pulling back flavors a strategy variants and flavors
are pulled back only when they are not working in the market. Unlike Knorr, Noodle Doodle does
not plan to pull back flavors from the market because the brand is essentially very new to identify
which flavors are not doing well.
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Branding
The brand has chosen Fahad Mustafa as the brand endorser. He is seen in the adverts running on
Television and social media as using the product. The ad also has Hina Altaf a familiar drama
industry face. Fahad Mustafa was chosen because of his brand personality. The brand manager
stated that Noodle Doodle used Fahad Mustafa as they wanted to leverage on the celebrity brand
to create a brand personality for themselves. Fahad Mustafa is shown to be a young adult
professional where he is working and others are pulling his strings and he does not have much
freedom. This seems to resonate with the young adults who are just starting their careers at the age
of 24 or 25, these people do not have full independence and they do not have control of their lives.
The idea behind Noodle Doodle is to break free from these strings holding you back and that is
what they are portraying through their ads.
The concept the ad tries to showcase is that break all those strings and the only strings that matter
are the noodles. Let go all of problems, and let your imagination free. Give yourself some time
and have some comfort food. Free yourself for food. A lot of people find comfort in food. So they
are try to link to that.
When deciding upon the celebrity to choose as the face of Noodle Doodle they brand team had
other options as well like Osman Khalid Butt and Bilal Ashraf but they went with Fahad Mustafa
because at the moment his career in Pakistan is at an all-time high and he has mass appeal. The
other celebrities were not as big a brand as Fahad Mustafa and Noodle Doodle’s team only wanted
to associate the brand with the person who could get the brand mainstream attention and
widespread appeal.
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Hina Altaf was chosen because at that point her popularity rose although she was not the team’s
first choice.
The Brand team of Noodle Doodle believes that the name of Kolson familiarizes people with the
new range by banking on the equity of the existing range. Consumers can relate to our product by
saying that they use Kolson pastas, and second comes Noodle Doodle. So, that’s how they plan on
building the brand by leverage the equity of their already established brands.
They brand team says that the artwork associated with the brand is very unique compared to other
players. Other brand elements also come into play in building our brand image like the catchy
jingle and the unique brand name. A lot of thought process went into the name of the brand. Great
amounts of thorough research was conducted to ensure to what will work with the target audience
and what will not. Once we came up with a name another research was conducted in order to gauge
its acceptability and to see if the target group is able to understand the positioning. Hence, market
research was a very important. Even the colors of each pack are a result of thorough market
research.
In order to reinforce the brands positioning that is
imagination, creativity and storytelling, every taste
maker has its own story that is printed on the pack and
that the kids can relate to.
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Blind Taste Test

We conducted a Blind Taste Test to explore which brand of Instant Noodles tastes the best. On
Thursday 20th April 2017, we organized the test at IBA main campus between 1.00 pm to 3.00 pm.
We prepared 2 packets of Instant Noodles of three different brands; Maggi, Knorr and Noodle
Doodle. All were Chicken Flavors.
At the time of the test, we presented our participants with 3 plastic cups filled with Noodles:
 The cup covered with pink paper was filled with Knorr Noodles.
 The cup covered with purple paper was filled with Noodle Doodle.
 The cup without any paper was filled with Maggi.
7 students of IBA took part in the Taste Test. They were told to taste all three noodles one by one
and in the end tell which cup of noodles tastes the best. They were also required to tell which
Brand of Instant Noodles they usually use.
The participants were unaware of the brands that we used. However, in the end when they
answered both the questions, the Brands were disclosed to them.
The table on the following page shows the participants answers to our questions.
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Participants Brand they liked Brand they use
1 Noodle Doodle Maggi
2 Knorr Knorr
3 Maggi Knorr
4 Noodle Doodle Maggi
5 Maggi Knorr
6 Noodle Doodle Knorr
7 Maggi Knorr
The results show that Maggie and Noodle Doodle are more liked by the people whereas Knorr’s
flavor is least liked. However, Knorr is the most consumed Brand out of all the three types of
Brands that we used.
When we disclosed the Brand names to the participants they were surprised at their choices.
Majority of participants had been using Knorr at home but they least liked it in the taste test. They
remarked that it was either tasteless or too salty. All of them had never consumed Noodle Doodle
before but they comparatively liked its taste better.
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Market Research
Market research is essential to understand how well a product is doing. It also helps us to know
where a certain product stands with respect to its competitors. Noodle Doodle is at its initial phase
right now. To get a sense about the product, market research is necessary. We conducted market
research through an online survey and by visiting GT’s, LMT’s and IMT’s. The market research
helped us in gaining insights about the price, availability and popularity of the product.
General Trade (GT)
We visited around 15 GT’s in the vicinity of Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Gulistan-e-Jauhar. Out of those
15, only two stocked Noodle Doodle. Both of these were over-the-counter shops. This was a
shocking revelation, knowing that Kolson’s campaign is on-air nowadays. Initially, we thought
that this might have been a fault at the company’s end but it turns out that the company did supply
the product. After chatting with the general traders, we got to know that most of them had to return
the initial stock because of no sales.
The ones who stock it did not have very positive things to say either. They told that majority of
the people ask for Knorr and the most selling flavour for all the companies is chicken. The GT’s
only stocked the packets and not the cup noodles. This was because cup noodles don’t sell and this
may result in a loss. A packet’s retail price is Rs. 25. Also, the company did not supply them with
any point of sale materials. According to the owner of Nagori General and Milk Shop, a shop in
Gulshan-e-Iqbal, only 5 out of 100 people will ask for Noodle Doodle. He orders only 1 carton per
month. Both of the GT’s did not shelf it in front of the customer. It was stored in the back of the
shop.
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All GT’s had stocks of Knorr and Maggi in the instant noodles category. Some of them also had
Indomie.
Local Modern Trade (LMT)
We visited Bin Hashim Store, an LMT, on
Naseerabad Road. It had 4 types of instant
noodles placed on 2 vertical shelves. They
were Noodle Doodle, Maggi, Knorr and
Indomie. Maggi and Knorr were placed on
eye-level separately on the two shelves. All of
their flavours were available. Chicken flavour
was available in large quantities. Indomie had

Picture 1: Shelving at Bin Hashim
a few packs only which were placed on the top
of the shelves.
Noodle Doodle was placed in the two bottom racks on
one of the shelves. Both of its SKU’s, cups and
packets, were available. In cups only 2 flavours,
Chunky Chicken and Fiery Chatkhara, were offered.
However in packets, the other two flavours, Peppy
Pizza and Smoky BBQ, were also available.
However, Smoky BBQ was only available in the ‘Buy
4 Get 1 Free’ offer. These offer packs were sealed

Picture 2: Bundle packs at Bin Hashim
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together with a tape and had all the 4 different flavours plus one extra pet of chicken flavour.
These sale packs were offering a huge discount of Rs23. Individual packs were for Rs.23 whereas
Sale packs were for Rs.92 only.
The selves were last in the lane/ row and very close to the cash counter and exit gate. We had a
short question-answer session with a family who was buying Noddle Doodle packets. They were
buying Noodle Doodle for their kid for the first time just to try the new flavours. They had been
regular buyers of Knorr Noodles so they wanted a change in taste.
International Modern Trade (IMT)
The IMT we visited was Metro Cash and
Carry, Gulshan-e-Iqbal branch. We were
not allowed to take pictures but the
shelving is quite similar to that of Bin
Hashim. Two shelves were filled with
instant noodles.
Picture 3: Noodle Doodle at Bin Hashim

One shelf had shelf-talkers of Knorr while
the other had shelf-talkers of Maggi. The shelf with Knorr shelf-talkers was only filled with Knorr
products and had almost all the variants present. On the other hand, the shelf with Maggi shelf-
talker had Maggi, Noodle Doodle and Indomie.
All the variants of Noodle Doodle were present on the shelves. The cup noodles were placed on
the top shelves and the packet noodles were placed on the eye-level and lower shelves. The packets
were only available in bundles and not individually. One bundle was of Rs. 330 with around 15
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packets of noodles. The cup noodles were available individually and were of Rs.39 each. Gondolas
or any point of sales material was also not present here. According to the concerned person at
Kolson, they were going to start taste tests from Saturday at all LMT’s and IMT’s of Karachi,
Lahore and Islamabad but this was not the case here. They also said that their promotional stuff is
placed in LMT’s and IMT’s but that was also not present.
Out of all the brands, Indomie had the lowest shelving space. Also, Maggi was the only one
offering a customer promotion which was 12 packets of Maggi with a free flask.
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Consumer Survey
In order to better gauge how the market is perceiving the product and responding to it we carried
out a little survey. The survey was kept brief to ensure that people respond to it. The survey
questionnaire can be found in the Appendix. The findings from our survey are iterated below.
Graph 1: Which company's pasta do you use?
The pie chart above shows which company’s pasta do people use. We thought it was essential to
ask this question because the Noodle Doodle team plans to leverage on the pasta category’s
consumer base and equity to establish the new noodle category. The results showed that indeed
Kolson has the largest consumer base and majority of our respondents use Kolson’s pasta range.
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Graph 2: Which instant noodles do you use?
In our next question we had asked the respondents to name the brand of noodles that they are using
mostly and not even a single one of the respondents mentioned Noodle Doodle in the answer. This
can be attributed to the fact that it is a fairly new entrant in the market and it will take time for it
to establish its consumer base. The majority of the correspondents named Knorr as being the brand
they use. This indicates that Knorr is the noodles market leader and will Noodle Doodle be able to
capture the market share is something that time will tell.
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Graph 3: Which company's ad do you remember watching recently?
We asked the respondents if they remembered watching an instant noodle ad recently and to those
who replied in positive we asked which company’s ad is it that they remember. Despite the massive
promotional activities that Noodle Doodle is doing its ad recall is not the highest. People
remembered Knorr’s ad more than that of Noodle Doodle. Neither Fahad Mustafa nor the catchy
jingle helped in capturing the audience’s attention apparently.
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Graph 4: Have you heard of Noodle Doodle?
The pie chart above shows that when we straight out asked the people if they had heard of Noodle
Doodle a lot more people replied affirmatively this shows that Noodle Doodle is not being
successful in creating recall for its brand and is not becoming a part of the attention economy of
the people. Around 51 percent of the participants had heard of noodle doodles.
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Graph 5: Have you tried Noodle Doodle?
Only around 12 percent of the participants had tried noodle doodles, this shows that even the
people who had heard of the brand had not tried it this shows that the advert is not convincing
enough and it does not tempt the person to actually go and buy the product. They people who had
tried the product out of them a great majority had tried the pack variant and not the cup variant
which the brand team claims as their USP as shown in the following figure.
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References
Kolson Noodle Doodle - Facebook. n.d. <https://www.facebook.com/KolsonNoodle/>.
Kolson Official Website. n.d. <http://www.kolson.biz/>.
Lotte Kolson - Linkedin. n.d. <https://www.linkedin.com/company/lotte-kolson-pvt--limited>.
Report on Kolson. n.d. <https://www.scribd.com/doc/31873219/kolson>.
Tribune. n.d. <https://tribune.com.pk/story/615853/fmcgs-biscuit-industry-shows-impressive-
figures/>.
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APPENDIX
Consumer survey questionnaire
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Taste Trials (Exhibit A)
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Online Campaigns (Exhibit B)
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Digital Presence (Exhibit C)
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Interview Transcript (first interview)

We have managed to gather the following information by interviewing Ms. Nargis Fatima who is
the Brand Manager at Kolson.
Interviewer: Tell us something about the company Kolson.
Respondent: Kolson was established in 1942, started off by making vermicelli. Then started
making pasta. Kolson was the first to introduce pasta in Pakistan. The product portfolio for the
pasta category includes Italian pasta, recipe pasta and newly introduced instant noodles
Interviewer: Did you face difficulty in introducing Pasta in a market like Pakistan?
Respondent: Pasta is made from wheat flour, it doesn’t have its own taste so it was difficult for
us but we introduced it. Since it is not our local food, the acceptability was difficult. People enjoy
localized flavors as you can see they enjoy tikka pasta.
Interviewer: How has Kolson pasta brands evolved over time?
Respondent: The category was there in the market for 30-40 years but it didn’t have any refreshing
look and was very old so we decided to give it a new look. A campaign by the name of ‘the new
look of Kolson pasta’ was launched you can find it on our Facebook page. In this the entire
packaging was revamped; every pack had a window because on food consumer wants to see the
product. Many consumers are women as they go grocery shopping and have a habit of checking
everything since it is being fed to the children. People can see it, touch it and realize that this is
hygienic which very important factor is when it comes to food. The new campaign was then
communicated to the audience, you can see a commercial on Facebook. There are a lot of shapes
and variety because pasta is a bigger term. Pasta compromises of Italian pasta spaghetti, elbow,
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spiral, shell etc. Most commonly people eat elbow pasta in Pakistan. Then there is egg noodles,
lasagna. The whole revamp campaign was done in 2013 after that communication was done on
TV, on-ground (sampling activities, drives)
Interviewer: Any recent product development campaigns that Kolson did?
Respondent: Last year we launched recipe pasta (pasta with a recipe sachet) because one of the
barriers is that women don’t know how to make it and even if they know it’s only in one way.
Example of recipe pasta: kofta, tikka, achari etc. We have 10 recipes in pasta. The basic idea was
to provide consumers with a combination of Italian pasta with local cuisine. The point was to
increase local usage. We did not just introduce local flavors but international flavors are also there
for people who have different taste. The purpose is to grow the category and make things easier
for consumers.
Interviewer: How does Kolson get consumer feedback?
Respondent: Customer feedback: taken through user and attitude study this is done in two ways:
FCGs and on-ground. In FCGs we bring in 7-8 consumers and one moderator. In on ground we go
to people’s houses to fill a long questionnaire, the sample for this is bigger than FCGs like around
200-250 people. From this we get top of the mind awareness. U and A studies are expensive so
they are conducted after 2-2.5 years. Other researches are however ongoing. No research is done
from Facebook because many comment uselessly.
Interviewer: How does Kolson decide upon new products or flavors?
Respondent: When a product is made then there are taste trials, CLT study. This is an integral
aspect of the food and confectionary industry.
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Interviewer: Who does Kolson identify as its target market?
Respondent: Female (housewife, students and working women), SEC A and B, 18-35/40 years
(from college girls to university to young mothers as young girls have more inclination towards
market trends)
Interviewer: Who are Kolson’s major competitors?
Respondent: For Pasta and Vermicelli, major competitor is Bake Parlor for biscuits and chips it
is all the brands available in the market even the unbranded products.
Interviewer: What is Kolson’s approach towards brand evolution?
Respondent: Consumer lifestyle is changing so there was need for us to introduce a new look in
the market. Quality, look and hygiene need to be constantly improved.
Interviewer: Does the company want to change the price of pasta to reach a wider range of
customers?
Respondent: No change because pasta is an expensive, high involvement category so we cannot
increase price. Price is in line with the competition and market.
Interviewer: What are the categories in your product portfolio?
Respondent: There are Italian pastas, recipe pastas and recently we’ve launched instant noodles.
Did you guys hear about noodle doodle?
Interviewer: Yes. It’s on air these days.
Respondent: We’ve just launched it and I’m over the moon because this is a new category for us.
We didn’t have instant noodles. You have been eating Knorr and Maggie since your childhood.
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We felt that we’re already offering pasta and the women in the house make it but we should also
offer something for the children who eat noodles. Noodles are a very high growing category.
Almost every day a household consumes one packet of noodles. A lot of people eat it especially
the kids because you get a choice in case no food is available in the house. Our company already
offered pastas and vermicelli and only one thing was missing that was instant noodles. We had
been working over it for years: the research, what flavors would be offered, how the product would
be, how to launch it. Alhumdulillah we’ve launched it successfully. It is available in the market
now and the campaign is still going on. The noodle range you’re seeing on TV is only the half of
it. There will be a second part. We’ve tried to differentiate ourselves by offering noodles in cups.
There are packets also like Knorr and Maggie. Have you tried it or saw it in the market?
Interviewer: We haven’t tried it but we have seen it in the market.
Respondent: When you guys will eat it you will be excited and you will be amazed to see it. For
the traditional instant noodles packet, you have to warm the water and cook it and then serve it in
a bowl. There is too much hassle. Especially the young adults and people of your age- the college
and university students- we thought this is a spot on category for them, because you are eating a
samosa or a roll which is unhygienic. So, you just grab a cup and put hot water in it. In universities
tea is available to hot water dispensers are there. We are even going to install our own hot water
dispensers.
Interviewer: Have you placed your product in the universities?
Respondent: We haven’t started that yet but it’s there in the retail. If you visit Hyperstar and
Imtiaz, you will find it there. Even in smaller shops it is available. The price is also very lucrative.
It’s only of Rs.40. In Rs.40 you are getting a very hygienic product. You don’t have to do anything.
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The tastemaker is already in it and the fork is also attached with the product because you won’t be
going around with a fork or spoon in your bag.
Interviewer: There are many students living in hostels so a lot us use this.
Respondents: I’ll send a sample of noodle doodle in a cup after the interview so that you can try
it. It makes your life very easy and is an on-the-go meal. Just like you buy a coffee cup and easily
move around with it. Similarly, you can eat noodles moving around easily. It’s a yummy thing.
Tastemaker is already in it, the fork is also attached with it, and you just have to pour hot water,
cover the lid for 4-5 minutes and then eat it. It’s cooked. We’re going to launch its campaign soon.
We’re just waiting for something and have launched only half of it. We’ve launched the campaign
of only the packets for now. Cups noodle ad will be soon on-air. Insha’Allah.
Interviewer: What is your USP?
Respondent: Our major USP is the quality and the taste. Taste is something people don’t really
differentiate over since the ingredients are not much different. Still if we take the example of milk,
the ingredients of packaged are almost the same but people develop a taste for one brand for
example; Olpers or Milk Pak. Similarly in pastas, when we take a bite and chew on it, some of
them just melt in your mouths. So you just develop a taste for it. Even if you eat imported pasta,
there is a different feel to it. Because that is made of hard-wheat pasta and other ingredients are
different.
Interviewer: Where do you procure your raw material from?
Respondent: Our raw material is local. Because in pasta, the raw material is only wheat, flour and
water. In recipe pasta, the masala is made by us. We don’t take it from companies like Shan or
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National. Certain ingredients of the masala are imported. Otherwise, you can say that it is local
product completely.
Interviewer: Does the government policies impact your company?
Respondents: No. There are taxes like GST that are applied. Other than that there is nothing.
Interviewer: Do you launch different variants or products in different provinces?
Respondent: The pasta has a KLI phenomenon i.e. Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. If you go to
the cities smaller than these, you might not find that much usage or availability. Our major sales
are from these three major cities. They are available in smaller cities but not at large scale. We do
not have a rural market for pastas, we have it for vermicelli. Pasta is an urban phenomenon and is
based on cities only.
Interviewer: What is your supply chain model?
Respondent: We have distributors to whom we provide the product and then they pass it on the
trade.
Interviewer: How many distributors do you have?
Respondent: We cannot tell you how many distributors we have. Although we can tell you that
we have distributors in different cities and not a centralized distributing operation. We have 5
regions and then in every region there are different distributors. This is how it is structured.
Interviewer: In vermicelli, what competition do you have in the market?
Respondent: There are a lot of mushroom brands in the market. This is tough for us because they
sell at a very cheaper price. A company which is offering a brand can’t do that. The interesting
thing about vermicelli is that it is a seasonal product and consumed in months of Rajab, Shaban
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and Ramzan, especially in rural markets. Pastas are consumed throughout the year. We have a
brand called Murgh Marka Vermicelli. For instance, if we sell it at Rs.30 the mushroom brands
will cut down their price to Rs.10. Their manufacturing processes are not as refined as branded
companies. We have Italian plants on which our product is manufactured. Obviously it costs us.
Here we have a challenge of pricing in the rural markets. The mushroom brands sell it cheaper and
we have a pressure over us to reduce prices. But there is not much reduction we can do, since we
have to take into consideration our costs as well.
Interviewer: Do you have a strategy to overcome this problem?
Respondent: We have started a campaign for vermicelli in cities like Hyderabad and Multan and
rural areas like DG Khan and Muzzafargarh. We work on customer engagement by taking trucks
and dhols to these cities and villages so people can have brand recognition. This way people
remember the product and ask for it from the name of “Murgha”. They are not very educated and
ask for products from symbols. They ask for “Murgh wala” or “Oont wala”. This is how the market
works.
Interviewer: It is very important that your product is placed correctly in retail stores. What do you
do to ensure that your product is easily visible to the customers? Do you contact the retailers
directly or ask the distributors to ensure it?
Respondent: It should be on eye-level. We do not ask the distributors. In General Trade (GT), it’s
really not possible. In LMT’s and IMT’s, we have our own trade marketing team because it is very
important for us to have a Gondola or a display stand. If we use the retail shelves, then we place
our talkers or headers for branding so the consumer could see and recognize the brand immediately.
Ideal placement is eye-level but if it’s not available then you place the product below that level.
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You have to talk to the trade and then they ask for the rentals. We set up a deal for a certain amount
of rent to place it at our desired spot. We also do brand promoters activity in LMT’s and IMT’s
where we place our sales representatives and they pitch the brand to the customers and recommend
them the relevant product for their taste. A lot of people come to the shelves and they don’t know
what to buy, these reps guide them and introduce new brands to them. For noodle doodle, we have
started this activity. The setup is already in Bin Hashim- Johar, Chase up and soon in Imtiaz. Brand
promoters are promoting noodle doodle there and telling people about it. Because Knorr and
Maggie are in the market from a long time and a lot of people use them.
Interviewer: I remember when Maggie came in the market they had taste tests.
Respondent: Yes. We are planning on doing that in schools. Especially for noodle doodle in a
cup, I have to go in colleges and universities because our target market is young adults like you.
When we go the target market and let them taste it, they’ll know what it is. All of this is in line.
Interviewer: Has there been an impact on the marketing strategy since LOTTE group bought
Kolson?
Respondent: Yes. We get stuff from the entire region. If there is a study that is relevant for us, it
is shared with us. Everyone from the entire region has their eyes on noodle doodle right now. If
this works, then Insha’Allah we’ll have a very successful case-study because Knorr and Maggie
have penetrated this market. If you see the competition, Maggie’s share is shrinking in the market.
Knorr is growing and now we have entered. Shoop came but it was not very successful. Shoop is
around for 4-5 years but it couldn’t penetrate the way Knorr and Maggie have.
Interviewer: There was an issue with the taste of Maggie.
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Respondent: There was the MSG issue which was in India.
Interviewer: I felt the change in Pakistan as well. There was this smell and the taste changed.
Respondent: Yes. This is the reason why Knorr’s share has grown in the past few years. Now we
have launched our product and we have very carefully developed our taste because taste is the
main thing that defines the product for the customers. Do try noodle doodle. We have got 4 flavors
and their names are very interesting as well like chunky chicken, smoky tikka, fiery chatpata and
peppy pizza. The names are like this to attract and appeal to the kids and the youth. Concept is
noodle doodle meaning hangout people to do the doodle because everyone has this habit of
doodling. So I’ve given them a thought to doodle with the noodle. This is a new thought that I’ve
tried to work on. When we go to schools, then we’ll to endorse this thought more.
Interviewer: Which brand is the flagship brand?
Respondent: Slanty is our biggest brand.
Interviewer: What is your market share in the pasta category?
Respondent: I do not have the exact numbers but you can say that we are the market leaders. Bake
Parlor is 2nd.
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Interview Transcript (second interview)

We have managed to gather the following information by interviewing Ms. Mahreen who is the
part of the Noodle Doodle brand team.
Interviewer: What can tell us about Noodle Doodle?
Respondent: Noodle Doodle is the first cup noodle being introduced in Pakistan. There are two
categories of Noodle Doodle. We have cup noodles with 3 variants and packet noodles with 4
variants. The pasta range is separate from the Noodle Doodle. The target market for the cup
noodles is 18-30 and the packets are for the school going kids. That’s what we are targeting.
Besides that, the price range is very normal. Our TG can afford it. The pack noodle is for Rs.25
and the cup noodle is for Rs.40. The USP for the cup noodles is convenience. Because if you’re a
student you would go home, so you wouldn’t be cooking anything. You would just need hot water,
put it in the cup and just eat it. You can have it on-the-go as well. Even for young adults and young
professionals we don’t have time, we’re running into meetings or we’re sitting and want to munch
on something which is also fulfilling at the same time. It’s also healthy instead of eating chips. Not
that I’m going against chips because it’s also one of our products. We can always eat chips but
you know something healthy when you’re skipping meals. It takes around 4-5 minutes to prepare
the cup noodle. It’s really convenient to carry it around as well.
Interviewer: Don’t you think that the availability of hot water would be a problem?
Respondent: So what we’ve done is that we’ve supplied our boilers at IMT’s and LMT’s. So for
example, if you’re hungry and running out of time, you’ll just go into any LMT and IMT, you’ll
grab a cup, open it there, use the water and move on. As far as I know that would be a temporary
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strategy. This thing wouldn’t be there in the long term. These are promotional things that we are
doing just to make the consumer used to of the convenience and actually get used to the product.
Basically this is the awareness phase of the product. So you want to let the consumer know how
to make the product. If you look at it, the cup noodles before were only available at LMT’s like
Agha’s. This was not something that was highly available. The local people wouldn’t just go and
pick this up. So once you bring in a product and you’re pioneering that product in local market,
you need to aware people of its use. And answer to your question is, how do you make tea at home?
Respondent: I meant that you need to have hot water in universities.
Interviewer: For universities, we are supplying permanent kiosks for a month or so, till Ramadan
or maybe after Ramadan. So we are supplying these kiosks with a permanent boiler that will be
within the university. Like I have seen other companies like Telemart, so you must have that
charging stand at your university. These are permanent and are charging something from the
university, so I think we are coming up with a similar plan for the cup noodles. This could be
seasonal as well because the off take will be higher in winters. When we launched this product, it
started off in winters. We set up stall in concerts like Atif Aslam’s concert in IBA. People were
going crazy over it. It worked really well in winter there because it was like hot soupy noodles
kind of stuff. We can have this kind of seasonal and put this on rotation. The purpose is that once
your habit is developed of eating and just getting used to it, then you’ll think that it can be used in
universities as well as homes. The main thing is to make this cup of noodle a habit of yours. Once
your product has its push and it has been established in the universities, and I’m only talking in
terms if universities, like you keep this setup for a little while and you remove it but you see that
the demand is there. When there is a pull from the consumer’s side, the canteen guy would invest
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in this machine and it will be a must-have. Basically right now, we are trying to create that pull so
we’re planning accordingly.
Interviewer: Our focus is on branding, so let’s talk about that. So, your advertisement for cup
noodles with Fahad Mustafa. What is your positioning and why did you take him? What sort of
message are you trying to convey?
Respondent: For the cup noodles, we’re showing the age we’re targeting. Fahad Mustafa is not
part of the TG. You guys have seen the kid’s ad. So basically the kid’s ad, it shows hit on your
TG. Fahad Mustafa is shown as a young adult, a young professional. It’s about his image. You
don’t always look at the age. For example, take Mahnoor Baloch. Everybody knows she’s ancient
but you don’t look at the age, right? You have to look at the person’s brand personality. It’s
basically the brand personality of our product that we’re trying to create and we have to use that.
Because even celebrities are brands so we’re trying to leverage that.
Interviewer: So what sort of personality does Fahad have? What sort of personality characteristics
were you looking for?
Respondent: What we’re trying to show is that he is young and adventurous. We have a life,
especially this working life, which we have in this young age. Let’s say you’re 25 onwards. At 24-
25, it’s the start of your career and there are a lot of people who are pulling your strings. There is
not full independence. After finishing your university and doing your BBA, you feel like you are
going to conquer the world. Nothing of the sorts happen. Everyone is in control except you. Others
make decisions for you. Be it your boss, your parents or even your elder siblings. That’s exactly
what we’re trying to show. When you are a young professional and you are really ambitious, there
are still things that are pulling your strings. So you break free from those things and just be
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yourself. That’s what we are trying to portray. Fahad Mustafa has a very high popularity in this
time period. You always try to capture it. Initially, when we were hiring people for this particular
ad, we were trying to get Osman Khalid Butt or Bilal Ashraf. The issue was that they are pretty
faces but they themselves aren’t big brands and right now, we are in that phase that we have to
associate our brand with that particular person who can get our brand mainstream. Fahad Mustafa
is a strong celebrity himself. As for Hina Altaf, at that point her popularity rose but she was not
our first choice. We could have gone with better options. Every celebrity has its time period. Like
Fawad Khan, right now, is on a rise but even he knows it and he’s cashing it. He knows that his
fall will come because he’s out from India now. He’ll cash this time and the others will do the
same who are associated with that celebrity.
Interviewer: So I get the strings part but how eating noodles can solve the problem?
Respondent: The creative thinking behind that is you have to let go all of that, give yourself some
time and have some comfort food. It’s like free yourself for food. A lot of people find comfort in
food. So we’ve tried to link that. Break those strings and the only strings that matter are noodles.
Interviewer: There were already two competitors in the market i.e. Knorr and Maggi. How are
you creating differential relevance with your brand? There are already loyalists for the two brands
and then you bring in a new brand. I understand the cup differentiation but what about the packs?
How are you differentiating that your product is better than theirs?
Respondent: We have Pizza flavor which is not there in the market. So, one is that we have
differentiated with flavors. Then, Knorr and Maggi are basically international brands. Although,
Lotte has our back but it is a basic Kolson product. This is something local. So, we are trying to
capture from that as well. As for how to differentiate in the market, sometimes there is a single
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beverage which is produced by many. Same is the case with biscuits. We have so many sandwich
biscuits out there. The market for the noodles is there. We need to tap it. Only two players are in
the market. It will be stupid not to tap in the market that exists. Two players are nothing. Take
sandwich biscuits. There are thousand players. We need to see that what way we are tapping into
the market. No doubt the existing players have strong market share. What comes in the concerns
is that how to keep the products distribution. We have to have equal amount of penetration so we
can cut into Knorr and Maggi’s market share.
Interviewer: About distribution. What is your distribution model? Did you introduce Noodle
Doodle through your existing distribution channel?
Respondent: The distribution model is that your primary sales go to the wholesalers. Wholesalers
forward it to the retailers. Sometimes the company also deals directly with the retailers. The pack
noodles are going through the same distribution channel as pastas. For the cups, we are trying to
push it on traditional trade. It’s a learning curve for the brand right now, because it’s in the launch
phase, but it seems like that cups are more of an LMT product. So, your push would be more from
there. If you look at it, it’s a Rs.40 cup. You need a strong purchasing power to actually push the
product. For LMT’s we are using a much aggressive approach this time. For Noodle Doodle, our
budget is very high. So, for LMT’s we’ve planned programs. Taste trial drives are starting from
this Saturday. This will also give a major push to the product. Insha’Allah. We’re going a little
aggressive so let’s what it comes to.
Interviewer: For our project, we have to do a blind taste. For that, I was looking for the packet
noodles. I couldn’t find it on the shops where I usually buy pasta from.
Respondent: I’m working on this. Which place was this?
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Interviewer: Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Block 10-A.
Respondent: Was it an LMT?
Interviewer: No, General Trade.
Respondent: I live in Block 11. It is available near my place.
Interviewer: I did it find it eventually. But it was not available where I usually buy pastas from.
Respondent: Please let me know the name of the shop. I’m asking because if there is an
availability issue, we need to resolve it. The thing is that we have had our first push. Maybe there
is an issue of restocking. The thing is that when you’re working on distribution, there is a lot going
on. Your product is easily sold the first time. In every brand, the first selling is never the issue. It’s
the resale. We have to study now that whether the push came from the market or not and how to
push the product from our side. So, if the product has been sold and the retailer hasn’t asked for it
again, we need to understand that is there a problem on his end or ours. Also, our target to sell a
certain number has exceeded. We are getting great sales and the feedback is great from the
customers. So, we are a little on stock at the moment because we sold more than what we
anticipated. It will take a little time to be at every place. It’s not like that it’s not there in the market.
We made sure that wherever there is a demand we supply the remaining stock. It takes a little time
for the reports to reach us from the retailers. But it is available in most of the places.
Interviewer: About taste trial drives, where will this be taking place?
Respondent: All the LMT’s. It’s a KLI drive. So, it will be conducted in all the LMT’s and IMT’s
of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. It will be for around 30 days. The Ramadan is around the corner
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as well so we definitely cannot conduct taste drives in Ramadan. We have to wrap it up before
that. So it will start from this Saturday and end almost 5 days before the start of Ramadan.
Interviewer: What have you planned for Ramadan? How will you be doing consumer promotion,
if you’re planning to do any? Or your consumer promotion is just taste test.
Respondent: For now, it’s just the taste test. We’re having trade promotions like we push the
product with other products. Being a marketing student, you tell me what can we do for the
consumer promotions?
Interviewer: Bundle offers, maybe?
Respondent: That’s what we are going to do. For the packs, it’s easier. We see that when a mother
goes shopping, she doesn’t just buy one packet. She’ll buy around 4 packets altogether. We have
a Rs.25 pack so we can give 5 packs for the price of Rs.100. Instead of paying Rs.125, she’ll just
pay Rs.100 and get the 5 packs. The bundle may consist of different variants or the same one.
Interviewer: Other promotions done in LMT’s and IMT’s like setting up spaces and placing
gondolas. Is that happening as well?
Respondent: Yes, the setup is there in the LMT’s and IMT’s.
Interviewer: How do you use social media for promotion?
Respondent: In social media, we are active on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as well. If we look
at the Pakistani market, your Facebook users exceed your any other media users. Twitter has
around 1-2 million users. Facebook has around 40 million users, according to the recent stats I
have read. Your first focus would be to develop your fan base on Facebook. Second is Twitter
because majority of the twitter users in Pakistan are young adults and university students. So
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basically, we are trying to get influencers from that platform. On YouTube, up till now we haven’t
had any amazing video content but there can be some in the future.
Respondent: How do you plan to develop your fan base on Facebook?
Interviewer: Through our digital strategies. Basically, whenever you launch a new product, your
strategy is to try to create awareness. If you’re asking me what particular digital strategy we would
use, so I can only tell from media spending. Media spending is done via three ways on Facebook.
One is the money we spend on page likes, second is on the video and third is on your posts. If you
want to increase your fan base initially, there are age brackets available. Luckily for Noodle
Doodle, the age bracket is really big. So, it starts from 13 and so on. It is below 13 but on Facebook
it usually starts from 13.
Respondent: Doesn’t it make you lose the focus, if the age bracket is so big?
Interviewer: Age bracket is 13-18 and 18-24. There are two age brackets on Facebook that you
can actually use for the product. Basically, Facebook only has one option. You can’t particularly
choose that you only want to target someone from 18-20 only because they have given their age
brackets. Focusing on only 13-18 does not make sense because you are targeting people above 18
as well. I feel like that even 24-34 ages bracket is relevant to us because it includes young and
working mothers. The noodles also cater to these mothers because they are looking for quick and
convenient meals. So, you gain your fan base from the age bracket. Secondly, you increase your
media spending on page likes, and then come your content and so on. It also includes the number
of content that goes on your social media. In initial phase, you always try to put more content.
Interviewer: When you started what kind of problems did you face, if you faced any? Knowing
that there are two big market players.
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Respondent: We already have a good market for our pastas. People know Kolson pasta exists. So,
we can cash on that. Whenever you bring a new product in the market, you can always cash on
something that is already under that umbrella. When you tell the retailers about the new product,
you’ll always tell them that that you know about the Kolson pastas now they’re launching instant
noodles. That is exactly what we’re doing in the IMT’s and LMT’s. Even for the consumers, the
pitch is the similar. First the name of Kolson familiarizes people with the existing range and they
can relate to it by saying that they use Kolson pastas, and second comes Noodle Doodle. So, that’s
how we are building the brand. Our artwork is very unique compared to other players. Other brand
elements come into play to build that brand image.
Interviewer: It is said that naming a product is also science. Where the idea came from for “Noodle
Doodle”?
Respondent: There is a lot of thought process involved. When my team was working on the idea
for Noodle Doodle, I wasn’t here. It was way before me that how it was shaped. I don’t know when
this was done but every flavor has a story. Every pack’s taste maker has a story written on it so
that kids can relate to it. So you have seen the ad that when the kid opens the packet, the doodles
are coming out of it. Every doodle is related to that flavors story. The name focuses on storytelling,
imagination and creativity. Before actually bringing a product, a thorough research is conducted
to ensure whether it works with the TG or not. The research would have been conducted to know
what is this particular TG i.e. kids interested in. When you get to know their interests, then you
start moving towards idea generation phase. You come up with a name and then another research
is conducted to check its acceptability whether the TG is able to understand the positioning. We
check that we came up with this name with of help of past on insights and whether or not these
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insights are still applicable. So, market research is very important. On its basis you come up with
a name. Even the colors matter. We take feedback about the colors that if we’re keeping the pizza
flavor packet blue, why we are doing it.
Interviewer: So your positioning is on imagination. Knorr’s positioning is also based on
imagination so what’s your take on that.
Respondents: Knorr would have done market research too. If you take kids and young adults, they
are rebellious and creative. When you’re being the market leader, then you’ll think out of the box.
This category is already established. Even if you take Maggi as well, there focus is more on
convenience. It’s been done. So you’ll either try to follow the competitors or try to be at least at
par with the competitor. Other than the creative side, we also talked about breaking barriers but
imagination and playfulness is the goal if we’re talking about kids. Take any kids brand,
playfulness, imagination and creativity will be there. There are some things that are related to some
TGs and the research we get, we have to play on that and base our product on it. Also, we have
not our competitors like Knorr and Maggi as our benchmarks. You might have studied that
whenever there is a new entrant in the market already having some strong competitors, the new
entrant set the other competitors as benchmark. We have not done that. We are thinking of being
better and have different strategies than the both of them. We are not trying to achieve that level
but are trying to go beyond that.
Interviewer: Knorr has this strategy that they introduce new variants seasonally and then they pull
them back to get the interest of the TG. Will you be following that?
Respondent: Up till now, there is nothing of the sorts because it’s just the initial stage of the
product. Knorr’s global base is very strong and basically it’s a fancy way of saying that we are
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doing it in terms of strategy, sometimes those flavors just doesn’t work. Chicken is their highest
selling SKU. Their most of the profits are from the sale of chicken flavor. Within a year, we cannot
establish that whether we’ll be keeping any flavors or pulling them back because this is the initial
stage. We’ll look at the growing phase that whether or not this flavor’s sales have grown overtime.
Chicken flavors growth is always the most. When you see that a certain product will not grow to
the phase of maturity, you pull it back. We can never tell in a year that whether the product will
work or not and if your ad budget will be engaged with the audience, your product will always be
pushed in the market. After sometime you reduce your ad budget and see that if the product’s push
is the same or not. Then you decide what to do.
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Marketing Issues in Pakistan

Marketing Issues in Pakistan

Submitted to: Ms. Saima Hussain

Submitted by: Maha Hanfi (09269)

Khulood Kashif (09240)

Yumnah Shah (08594)

Samra Shaoib (08537)

Musfirah Taqdees (09961)

Company objectives .................................................................................................................... 3

Organizational culture at Kolson ................................................................................................ 4

Pasta and Vermicelli: .................................................................................................................. 6

Distribution Channels of Kolson .............................................................................................. 14

NOODLE DOODLE ..................................................................................................................... 17

The idea behind Noodle Doodle ................................................................................................... 17

The Product ................................................................................................................................... 18

Target Audience ........................................................................................................................ 19

On ground Activities ................................................................................................................. 21

Digital Marketing ...................................................................................................................... 23

Consumer Promotion ................................................................................................................ 24

Unique Selling Proposition ....................................................................................................... 27

Blind Taste Test ............................................................................................................................ 31

Market Research ........................................................................................................................... 33

General Trade (GT)................................................................................................................... 33

Local Modern Trade (LMT) ..................................................................................................... 34

International Modern Trade (IMT) ........................................................................................... 35

Consumer Survey .......................................................................................................................... 37

Consumer survey questionnaire .................................................................................................... 43

Taste Trials (Exhibit A) ................................................................................................................ 47

Online Campaigns (Exhibit B)...................................................................................................... 48

Digital Presence (Exhibit C) ......................................................................................................... 49

Interview Transcript (first interview)............................................................................................ 51

Interview Transcript (second interview) ....................................................................................... 60

It has a turnover of US $ 65 billion. Lotte Confectionery Co.Ltd. is Asia’s No.1 Confectionery

The company is based on the following philosophy:

pure value.” (Lotte Kolson - Linkedin)

Noodles and Vermicelli.

Bravo. A list of its products is as follows:

o Kolson Elbow Macaroni

o Kolson Long Macaroni

o Kolson Ridged Elbow Pasta

o Kolson Large Elbow Pasta

o Kolson Twisted Elbow Pasta

o Kolson Spiral Pasta

o Kolson Large Shell Pasta

o Kolson Penne Pasta

o Kolson Egg Noodles

o Slanty Plain Salted

market with the conscious.” (Kolson Official Website)

Organizational culture at Kolson

business practice in all parts of the operation. (Kolson Official Website)

of urban households. Kolson vermicelli is for the rural markets.

on variety so motivation might be to evade boredom or try something new.

Vermicelli also has a separate page targeting consumers below SEC B.

the products performance which may be different in every case.

affordability, taste and quality.

set according to the competitive range in the market.

Kolson has 4 product lines that include wide range of products.

Pasta and Vermicelli:

because Vermicelli is manufactured on their Italian plant.

o JAM HEARTS (Vanilla)

o JAM HEARTS (Chocolate)

o CREAM HEARTS (Chocolate and Vanilla)

Competitors for biscuits are: