Del Monte has found an unusual spokesperson in Chhota Bheem, an animated character from the eponymous series on Pogo.
Who takes the all-important decision regarding what to buy and which food or beverage brand to pick up at retail in a typical Indian household? Of course, it’s the lady of the house. But Del Monte seems to think it’s a better idea to target the children to drive home its message.
And the company has found an unusual spokesperson in Chhota Bheem. Chhota Bheem is a courageous and fun loving nine-year-old animated boy, who is gifted with extraordinary strength and is seen as a protector of the poor and weak. The eponymous series is telecast on Pogo, Turner’s only-for-India kids’ entertainment channel. This fun-loving character, created by Rajiv Chilaka, CEO, Green Gold Animation, has won hearts with his adventures and is well known for his love for food, making him a perfect spokesperson for the brand in its new television commercial (TVC) of Del Monte, according to the company.
The TVC, created by Pogo, opens with Chhota Bheem playing a prank on his aunt, Tun Tun Mausi. Mausi is shown frying hot samosas in her kitchen and she is suddenly confronted with two ghost-like creatures. She is understandably scared but is relieved to see Chhota Bheem appearing quickly and fighting off these ghastly creatures. She rewards him with a plateful of samosas and also hands him the bottle of easy-to-squeeze Del Monte ketchup. The commercial ends with the two ghost-like creature unravelling their identities-they are none other than Chutki and Raju, two of Chhota Bheem’s friends. The three boys then enjoy the snack, made even more tasty with a generous dollops of the ketchup, and have a hearty laugh over the good-humoured prank.
“Through our commercial, we are targeting children in the age band of four to 14 years,” says Yogesh Bellani, business head, Del Monte food business, FieldFresh Foods, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Del Monte Pacific Ltd. “After a lot of research we found that kids are usually the end users and purchase influencers in this category and so we felt the need to tap this area.” Bellani adds that in order to gain attention of children and also as part of the promotion, the company is giving a free Snapper Band with one of the Chhota Bheem series characters imprinted upon it with every pack of the re-usable plastic ketchup bottle.
“The brief given by Del Monte to our channel was to make a ketchup commercial that attracts the attention of a child easily,” says Juhi Ravindranath, network head, ad sales, South Asia, Turner. “As kids were the core target group, we decided to use the Del Monte squeezy format as the pivot which is very child friendly and saves mothers the worry about the kids making a mess or breaking bottles. The activity was meant to engage with kids (and thereby moms), the key theme being the taste of Del Monte ketchup, which is summed up in the tagline, ‘The taste you will fall in love with’.”
In sum, the creative rendition was meant to highlight the easy of use and the fun element of the Squeezy packaging along with the product’s core proposition-taste-in a seamless and memorable way. Memorable because this is a heavily advertised category and the company figured it will take some amount of ingenuity to stand out.
While analysts say India is a sauces and condiments country, the market for ketchups here is highly fragmented with a major portion of the pie gobbled up by local players. Changes in the consumption pattern of the youth-where they seem to be enjoying pizzas, burgers, fries, pastas quite regularly these days-have led to an uptick in ketchup and sauces sales. Various easy ways of packaging like the flexible plastic packaging, or the use of Tetra Pak and aseptic Brick packing have made it possible to distribute tomato products to remote areas and store them at room temperature for a longish period of time.
According to Euromonitor International data, the ketchup market in India is valued at Rs 638 crore in 2011. It projects the ketchup market will be worth Rs 806 crore in 2012. According to various estimates, Maggi (Nestle) tops the market share chart, followed by Kissan (HUL) and Heinz (Heinz Co, HJ).
Bellani says, “The growth of out of home consumption is terrific, which is around 25 per cent while the in-home consumption is around 12-14 per cent. The high rate of inflation and the proliferation of regional brands are some of the major challenges which the food and beverage industry is facing now.”
Ravindranath recalls some challenges faced by the team while it was working on the ad: “First, the storyboard went through several changes till the final cut was approved. Then the Chhota Bheem slap-bands were enroute from China and the product to market deadline was around the corner; hence the turnaround time was critical for the success of this project. However, Turner Sponsorship & Promotion and the sales department ensured that the production time-lines were adhered to without compromising on quality of the original animation used in the commercial.”
For the records, Del Monte was brought to India in 2008, through a JV, Field Fresh Foods, between Bharti Enterprise and Del Monte Pacific Ltd. In order to break the already clustered market at that time, it came out with two innovative variants in tomato sauces-Zingo and Twango. Zingo offers a sweet and spicy taste, capturing the essence of far eastern cuisine, and is a mixture of red chillies, red bell pepper, garlic and ginger creating an alluring Asian taste. Twango is a tangy and fruity sauce that brings an unusual twist to regular tomato-based sauces. A mustard flavour is the most recent variant added to Del Monte’s sauce portfolio. The inaugural commercial from the Del Monte stable, “Oye Ruk”, targeted women as its primary audience with theatre and television actor Shefali Shah as the protagonist, who was seen flying across television screens chasing bottles of Del Monte sauces.
From the looks of it, like many marketers before it, Del Monte has decided it is high time it cottoned on to children’s influence on their parents’ spending.
