With What Marketing Strategy Did Britannia Enter 50% of Indian Households?

   
•     Team Digitofy
   
•     December 2, 2023

Britannia deploys an astute marketing blueprint encompassing product portfolio expansion, emotional brand positioning, penetrative pricing, and integrated communications. It stands out by leveraging nostalgia through owning heritage brands, hyper-localizing tastes, and strategically dominating state-by-state—Britannia banks on differentiation rather than competition. 

About Britannia

Britannia’s origins can be traced back to 1892 when it started as a small bakery in Kolkata by an enterprising British expat named C.H. Holmes. The fledging company gained notoriety for its specialization – biscuits – which were regarded as a luxury indulgence in those days.

The business changed Indian hands post-independence, going through turmoil and rebuilding before being acquired by the Nusli Wadia group in the 1950s. This stewardship helped Britannia gain a new lease of life through broader distribution, brand-building efforts, and product innovations.

Today, Britannia is one of India’s trusted food brands, with an annual revenue topping over Rs. 10,000 crores. For most Indians, the name evokes nostalgic memories of the iconic Britannia biscuit tin finding a prime place in homes across the country. From healthy, affordable Tiger biscuits for the masses to premium indulgences like Treat Choco Creams for special occasions, Britannia has become a beloved brand interwoven in the country’s socio-cultural fabric.

Also, Watch Our YouTube Shorts Video on: Day 10 – With What Marketing Strategy Britannia Entered 50% of Indian Households?

What’s New with Britannia?

In recent years, Britannia has renewed its marketing emphasis by:

• Launching biscuit variants like Bourbon Neapolitans and Treat Crème Wafers to capture premium and health-conscious urban consumers
• Introducing more fortified Tiger variants like Iron-Shakti and Gluco+ to grab health platform buyers
• Revamping Milk Bikis packaging and rolling out exotic fusion flavors like Tutti Frutti to attract kids and youth
• Running emotional and nostalgic ad campaigns focused on bonding generations through the sharing of Britannia biscuits
• Roping in megastar Amitabh Bachchan as brand ambassador to underscore its heritage appeal
• Investing over Rs. 300 crores to open one of the world’s most extensive biscuit manufacturing facilities in Uttar Pradesh

Britannia continues to evolve dynamically along with the changing socio-economic milieu in India while retaining its purely ‘Desi’ essence.

Buyer Personas

Britannia targets a wide demographic across the Indian population. Its primary buyer personas can be categorized as:

1. The Health-Conscious Urbanite: An upper-middle-class consumer aged 25-45 years living in metros and tier 1 cities. Modern, well-informed about health trends, and willing to pay more for premium products perceived as healthy and nutritious. Makes purchases from modern retail chains and e-commerce apps. Connects with aspirational advertising and cause-based marketing.

2. The Value-Seeker: Middle and lower-middle-income consumers across urban and semi-urban areas looking for affordable but trusted options. Shops for familiar Britannia brands like MarieGold and 50-50 Milk Bikis for the wholesome value they provide. Buys primarily from general trade stores in residential neighborhoods. Responds to regional media and publicity efforts.

3. The Nostalgic Traditionalist: Typically above 40 years of age with fond childhood memories of Britannia brands being integral snacks within their households for years. Seeks the familiar, homemade taste profiles preferring bread and Marie Gold to recent offerings. Responds positively to messaging invoking nostalgia.

4. Kids and Youth: School-going children and college youth who make independent snacking choices and favor trendy and fun foods. Dictates purchase patterns of parents. Connects with catchy ads, in-school promotions, and experiential contact initiatives.

We will analyze how Britannia appeals to each of these core demographics through well-crafted marketing strategies.

Marketing Mix

Britannia has systematically tailored each aspect of its marketing mix to promote widespread affinity and availability for its products across India. Here is a closer look at the 4Ps:

Product Strategy

Britannia offers consumers a well-rounded portfolio spanning the spectrum:

• Daily healthy biscuits like Tiger Gluco and Milk Bikis Sooper aimed at the masses
• Premium and indulgent specialties like Treat Funky Strawberry and Bourbon Neapolitans for affluent buyers
• Nostalgic originals like Marie Gold, 50-50, and Nice, which have been around for generations
• Innovative category expansions like cakes, rusk, bread, and dairy whitener powder

The extensive range caters to varied tastes, price points, and consumer segments while retaining Britannia’s brand signature of delivering quality, affordable nutrition.

Price Strategy

While premium niche variants are priced high, Britannia ensures wide accessibility of flagship brands. A pack of 5 Tiger biscuits costs just Rs. 5, making it economical for lower-income groups. Likewise, 50-50 Milk Bikis are priced nominally at Rs. 10 for value-seeking audiences. Variants like Nice and MarieGold cost between Rs. 10-25, while specialized offerings like Treat Creams and Bourbons fall in the Rs. 25-60 range. The efficient cost control and distribution help Britannia price biscuits as low as just Re. 1 per piece.

Place Strategy

With India’s challenging physical terrain and trade complexities, ensuring penetration and visibility across urban and rural markets is pivotal. Britannia products are available in over 5 million outlets through coverage of:

• Modern trade outlets like Big Bazaar, Star Bazaar
• Traditional general stores & kirana shops in neighborhoods
• Vending carts and mobile sellers accessing remote areas

It also taps institutional sales channels, selling to corporate offices, hospitals, academic campuses, etc. Besides traditional wholesale distribution networks, Britannia also partners with leading e-grocers like BigBasket and Grofers for online product availability and home delivery.

Promotions Strategy

Britannia runs integrated promotional campaigns spanning:

• Television commercials (TVCs) during prime-time shows and women’s afternoon serials broadcasting its emotional messaging and new products
• Targeted digital ads across properties like YouTube, Facebook, and Snapchat
• In-store merchandising with posters and standees at retail touchpoints
• Consumer promotions like freebies on specially marked packs
• Experiential marketing via sponsored college fests and sports tournaments to give hands-on engagement

The multimedia awareness drives help Britannia stay top-of-mind among audiences nationally.

So, through its well-rounded 4Ps program, Britannia achieves extensive penetration to enable easy product access when consumers seek them. Now, let us see how it fares competitively.

Competitor Analysis

Despite many strong competitors, Britannia has held its own through robust marketing. Let’s see how it stacks up against major rival brands:

• Parle Products: Founded in 1929, maker of universally popular Parle-G biscuits – the world’s largest-selling brand by volume. Key mass-market competitor known for scale, penetration, and products priced as low as Rs.5 per pack. However, Britannia scores through greater brand loyalty, emotional equity, and premiumization.
• ITC Foods: Diversified Indian conglomerate specializing in FMCG foods division under brands like Sunfeast. The product range is comparable to Britannia’s, but the perception of biscuits is not ITC’s core strength. Britannia races ahead in tradition, brand love, and focus.
• CavinKare: Leading South Indian foods company, makers of the famous Ruchi pickle brand and a sizeable biscuit, chocolate, and snacks portfolio viz Garden, Bingo, Milky Magic, Chikki, and dairy whitener Milko. The strong regional player gives stiff competition in the southern market through the grasp of local tastes. Britannia maintains lead through national-level scale and messaging.

Britannia’s Market-leader nuances: Despite increasing competitive activity, Britannia sustains leadership through:

• Nimble innovation pipeline tuned to emerging consumer preferences better than rivals
• Faster turnaround in addressing market feedback and fine-tuning product taste profiles
• Leveraging the in-house design team and ad agency partner Lowe Lintas for great storytelling in line with regional sensitivities
• Forging an emotional connection with Indian families by invoking nostalgic legacy, as highlighted before

So, while competition is increasing, Britannia’s nimbleness to Indianize products and communication has helped sustain love for its brands across regions and generations.

Core Marketing Strategies

At its core, Britannia’s marketing blueprint focuses on forging deep emotional bonds with consumers, remaining approachable through penetration pricing, and constantly innovating products to align with evolving Indian tastes. Let’s analyze some pivotal strategies:

Adopting Hyperlocal Preferences

Food tastes vary remarkably across India based on regional palates, availability of local ingredients and crops produced, and differences in heat humidity levels impacting storage life. As a processed food category, biscuits must also balance taste with nutrition and keep quality across geographies. Now, Britannia could have mass-produced identical products nationally without localization. However, mindful of ‘variety being the spice of life’ for Indian consumers, Britannia tailors regional variations like:

• Low-sweet and less-salty profiles preferred by southern consumers
• Unique use of shakkarpara ingredient giving brittle texture liked in east
• Creative fusion flavors like reasons-almond for Gujarati markets
• Exploring regional fruits like mango, pineapple, and litchi for specialty lines

So, while keeping signature flavor profiles intact in flagships, adaptability to hyperlocal liking has served Britannia well in getting embraced locally.

The One-Market-at-a-Time Approach

Contrary to rivals that try capturing everything nationally in one go, Britannia turns the laser focus first to dominate target individual states before moving to the next. Traditionally, it divided India into five zones with state clusters – North, South, East, West, and Central. 

It would launch marketing blitzes and state-specific product & pack innovations to consolidate its position as the No.1 player in the states within a zone before shifting attention to the next area. This ensured entrenchment while retaining the agility to customize regional variations meeting local consumer sensibilities across a diverse country. The result is leading market share nationally built on the bedrock of regional leadership one state at a time!

Conclusive words

Through these and other strategies centered around resonance, accessibility, and responsiveness to Indian consumers, Britannia has maintained its leadership in the food domain after over a century. Truly, the company lives up to its famous jingle – “Britannia mein hai ji Bharosa; National ko biscuit ka rishta jodne ka!” (Britannia is dependably there; Uniting the nation through the bond of biscuits)