Sunfeast to focus on health peg

The Rs 500 crore Sunfeast foods label of ITC would increasingly associate itself with health and wellness-related categories to build the brand further in India.

It is also looking at newer marketing initiatives, merchandising and building the brand through various national as well as local-level associations to create brand recall.

According to Devarajan Iyer, group brand manager - ITC foods business, depth of distribution, brand building capabilities and ability to manage quality outsourcing would continue to be the key tools for Sunfeast's popularity.

Simultaneously, it would offer differentiated flavours in its next round of variant launches to broadbase its buyer profile and boost sales.

"Before Sunfeast, who could have thought of a biscuit with chilly flakes on it or an icecream flavour butter scotch biscuit," asked Iyer.

Sunfeast would soon launch a range of biscuit variants using recently-acquired expertise to identify new flavours as well as distribution and advertising to reach every buyer.

Sunfeast was bullish on connecting with key consumers like children as that category had been identified as the target group to build the brand further.

Sunfeast would soon launch a campaign targeted at children, with goodies like 'build-it-yourself toys' with every pack of biscuits thrown in. Initially, it would have 12 such buildable toys.

The idea is to associate itself with healthy habits and creativity, and use these as the new motto of Sunfeast.

Sunfeast would do school-level campaigns for association with children.

It concluded the 'Be the inspiration' contest for school children across the country for upcoming Sunfeast Open 2007 tennis tournament to be held in Kolkata.

Sunfeast Open visited 400 schools across Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad, asking children to design a trophy and the using the winning design as inspiration for the actual trophy. The contest drew over 50,000 entries from children across India. "We also plan to build properties through sponsoring national as well as local-level events and promotional campaigns for building the brand," said Iyer.

Sunfeast for Durga Puja this year, is looking at several locality-level activities and promotional campaigns.

Sunfeast operated in the Indian biscuit market is estimated to be around Rs 5000 crore, dominated by Parle and Britannia.

Sunfeast claimed to have already garnered 11.5 per cent market share in India.

Sunfeast was trying to garner more share in the Marie category worth an estimated rs 600 crore by offering Marie with different flavours.

Sunfeast also offered launched Pasta Treat as a healthy snacking option.

Touted as South Asia's biggest sporting spectacle, Sunfeast Open 2007 was a tier III Women Tennis Association event with prize money of $175000, to be played in Kolkata in the third week of September this year with players like Daniela Hantuchova, Marion Bartoli, Kirilenko and Indian stars led by Sania Mirza.

Globosport, the sports management company owned by Mahesh Bhupathi, would bring the tournament to Kolkata in association with the government of West Bengal.