AgTalk | Confectionery industry not anywhere near maturity; Wrigley's Deepak Iyer

Confectionery maker Wrigley, subsidiary of Mars Inc, is a recognized leader in confections with a wide range of product offerings including gum, mints, hard and chewy candies, and lollipops. Creating simple pleasures for consumers every day and with operations across 50 countries and distribution in more than 180 countries, Wrigley’s brands bring smiles to faces around the globe.

With 20+ years of professional management experience, Deepak Iyer has been a veteran in the confectionary space and had recently taken over the position of Managing Director at Wrigley. At Wrigley, he is responsible for developing the business strategy to drive growth across various functions and brands of Wrigley India.

Deepak Iyer (DI): The journey has been fascinating to say the least. The industry offers many exciting opportunities for the future and we have been busy formulating & executing our plans for the same.

AG: What is to your take on the fast maturing Indian confectionery market?

DI: We don’t believe that the industry is anywhere near maturity. The Indian confectionery market is going through rapid changes in terms of trends and consumer behaviour patterns. The industry is benefitting from the country’s economic growth and so too growth in consumer spending. Data suggests that apart from the softness in the past few months, it has consistently clocked healthy double digit growths. We hence believe there are more exciting times around the corner.

AG: Do you think having an international label and brand image helps you in getting an advantage over home-grown brands?

DI: The world we live in today is fast becoming One-Global-Village. It is no longer important if one’s lineage is international or local – the more pertinent question is whether you have a brand that consumers like, love and will buy. We firmly believe that the ‘Consumer is the Boss’ and is smart enough to call it right – whether international or local.

AG: Where do you place India on the global map viz-a-viz its counterparts as far as growth of the industry is concerned?

DI: In the last 5 years, industry has witnessed double digit growth. India is right up there in the Elite league of top growth markets, if not the #1 Growth market. It has the potential and proven credentials to be the next Growth Engine for this industry viz-a-viz its worthy counterparts.

AG: A category like yours is no more a single-player game. Do campaigns and commercial activities lead the way in dealing with competition?

DI: No category has remained a single-player game for long and surely not in today’s competitive and entrepreneurial world. If you are in one, then you can bet someone worthy will come along to give you company!!! Sure, campaigns and commercial activities are an important part of the mix to stay competitive. But then these two do not qualify as sufficient-condition to stay competitive. Businesses for long have competed on cost, quality, innovation, responsiveness to name a few. The game has further changed to add many more elements to competitiveness e.g. talent, product portfolio, route-to-market, etc.

AG: Being one of the leading players in the sector, which communication and marketing strategies according to you have worked for the company?

DI: Boomer has always been the leader in the ‘Fun’ Bubble gum category. Hence you will see in our new Boomer commercial that we continue to stay in the FUN domain (Mischief & camaraderie among friends) to talk to our consumers.

AG: Shed some light on the idea and rationale of the new Boomer campaign. What was the brief given to the agency?

DI: The new Boomer campaign takes camaraderie between friends to a new level. It captures the feeling of mutual trust and friendship among people who spend a lot of time together. The core brand promise of Boomer is Fun and we have positioned it as Fun, Mischief, Humour…BOOMER. We wanted to playfully connect with our consumers, with the new tag line “Phat Li” (a pun) – “Phat” being the sound which emanates when the bubble bursts, and Phat Li to denote “pulling a gag”.

AG: What is the kind of media mix that will be used for this campaign? How are the spends split among all platforms?

DI: We will deploy all relevant media to reach as many consumers as possible be it Electronic, Digital or Print. As a company policy, we do not share these numbers.

AG: Now that almost every brand is going the digital and the social way, would you also be taking the digital/ social media route with separate / special focus?

DI: Digital/ Social media has emerged as a very strong medium to engage/ talk-to consumers. We will surely engage this medium.

AG: Very recently one of your competition brands did a fantastic social digital mobile campaign, what is your take in terms of driving sales and business through something of that sort along with TV?

DI: As a policy, we donot speak about the strategies of other companies!

AG: How do you think will this campaign stand out different and hence add value to your brand?

DI: Boomer is our iconic bubble gum brand and we recognized that the category isn’t limited to any one age group and on the back of an industry showing robust year-on-year growth, we felt that there was a need to expand the category and include more consumer groups in our communication. The change in positioning of our brand Boomer is a result of extensive consumer research. It is imperative for us to engage our consumers and take the concept of Fun to the next level.