Marketing to kids is no child's play

The kids segment in food & beverage offers opportunity of over Rs 19,000 crore in India by FY21

Food and beverage (F&B) categories such as biscuits, fruit drinks, savoury snacks and packaged curd have seen tremendous growth in the last few years. While these categories have national as well as regional and local brands, national brands outshine the rest with huge marketing budgets, aiming for dominant market share. This necessitates smaller players to find innovative ways to differentiate themselves to gain a strong footing. While premiumisation, health and wellness and gifting have been tried, an underdeveloped route is through segment-specific product development, especially targeting kids.

In the US, products targeted at kids form four per cent of all F&B,