Power of Strategy- ITC's Bingo Story.

ITCs entry into wafers market with Bingo chips is an excellent case study of how to enter in to already overcrowded market and be successful with right strategy.

A year ago, ITC Foods was looking at new business segments to expand its product portfolio. The packaged snacks category was growing at approximately 25-30 per cent every year. But it had only one national player — PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay. Ten months after it entered the category with its wafer snack brand, Bingo, ITC’s foray into the Rs 1,800-crore branded snack market has fetched the company a 16 per cent market share across the country.

Bingo’s success story is about how a combination of leveraging synergies, building on consumer insights and high decibel advertising can win the game. There were many advantages for ITC to enter this segment. The company could leverage its existing distribution network and also source from farmers easily, as its earlier foray into categories like atta and biscuits had already given it access to the supply chain.

Once this decision was made, a cross-functional team of eight individuals were sent across the country to research the snacking habits of the Indian consumer. After travelling to 14 cities and speaking to more than 1,000 people, the team came back with an insight that Indian consumers were looking for novelty and excitement in existing snacks.

The team found that while vada pavs and samosas still sell, vada pav with cheese and paneer-filled samosas, or for that matter, tomato-flavored khakra were the ones that excited the new and more demanding Indian consumer. Based on this information, the company decided to look at chips with innovative flavors.

For the recipes, the company went to the chefs in its hotels. The chefs came back with 16 flavors with twists like bindaas masti chaas, chatkila nimbu achar and tandoori paneer tikka-flavoured potato chips, chilli and tomato-flavored mad angles — inspired by khakras — and other snacks. The company decided that youngsters in the age group of 16-30 are the most experimental and hence they would be the primary target audience.

But there was another challenge. Advertising in the category was extremely crowded. Every week, two-three new brands (many of them, local) are launched and more often than not, they are targetted at the youth.

ITC also ensured that it reached its audience through every possible medium. It first created a website www.bingeonbingo.com with offers, online games, downloads and even mobile games. The site was advertised with banners on websites such as Yahoo!, Rediff and Sify.

On television, the company booked 10 to 15 spots per channel per day on youth channels such as MTV and Star World, mass Hindi channels like Zee and Star TV, and news channels. It also had around 20 spots on a variety of radio channels and advertised in most leading national dailies. In the top-30 cities, over 1,000 outdoor hoardings advertised the product.
But, analysts believe the Bingo story is more about well-leveraged distribution. The company distributed more than 4 lakh large racks, to display the brand at all points of sale. The racks created so much impact that even competitors like market leader Frito-Lay’s introduced its own version of wafer racks. After all in India, joh dikhta hai, wahee biktha hai,”.

It is all about offering a differentiated product or service, which will clinch the market share. ITC has been there and have done it!.