Distribution, e-comm big enablers for London Dairy: Shweta Shrivastava

Premium ice cream brand London Dairy is celebrating International Ice Cream Month all of July. Making the most of this occasion, London Dairy decided to reach out to its consumers through a campaign on social media and on-ground activations. The idea behind this campaign – #LondonDairyIceCreamMonth – was to make consumers indulge in the extensive London Dairy range of ice creams and help them relish their special moments. The brand has also urged the consumers to share their special moments through London Dairy ice creams on social media.

As part of the campaign’s on-ground activation, the brand devised a London Dairy Squad in Mumbai and Delhi, where the Men In Tux from London Dairy barged into the coolest busy offices of the city, asking everyone to freeze and stop their work. The Squad then explained how work can get very monotonous and how one must indulge in things they love the most – in this case, ice cream. The London Dairy Squad then opened up tubs of London Dairy Ice Creams and surprised the employees with a variety of flavours to engage them in the merriment as they turnedaround a boring and monotonous day into an indulgent experience.

Shweta Shrivastava, Marketing Head, London Dairy, said, “On the occasion of International Ice Cream Day, the London Dairy Squad reached out to young working professionals in an attempt to break the monotony of a regular work day and enthrall them with an indulgent London Dairy experience. Throughout the ice cream month, we had a lot of activities for our consumers, celebrating this theme and indulging our consumers the true London Dairy way.”

London Dairy also engaged with consumers on social media like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, inviting them to join the celebrations as they celebrated July 17, 2016 as World Ice Cream Day and became one of the first premium ice cream brands to get this culture here in full swing. The hashtag #LDIceCreamDay was trending at No. 2 in India throughout the day.

Giving further insights into the insights, Shweta Shrivastava, Marketing Head, London Dairy, said…

Apart from the London Dairy Ice Cream Month, what other initiatives/ campaigns have you undertaken in recent times to engage the consumers?
Being a pioneer in the premium ice cream segment, the brand task has been to grow the segment within the larger ice cream market in India. Hence, creating integrated campaigns around relevant themes and occasions has been the key to our success.

The key initiative this year was the #SummerOfIndulgence campaign by London Dairy. With the onset of summers, began our #SummerIsComing teaser campaign on ‘Game of Thrones’ and digital media platforms, which finally culminated with the launch of #SummerOfIndulgence film at Times Holi Fest, where London Dairy was the Presenting Partner.

The summer campaign was further integrated on TV with London Dairy as the Powered By partner of the highly awaited ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6 on Star World Premier HD, which witnessed tremendous traction across mediums.

The summer campaign was taken to the point of buying with whole new initiatives like Dessert Festivals and Ice Cream Fests with retail partners like Godrej Natures Basket and Hypercity. The overall integration of the campaign across all mediums and participation in high profile events like Sulafest as their Indulgence Partner, gave a strong drive to the brand’s salience amongst the right audience.

With summers over, the Ice Cream Month was a fantastic way to indulge our consumers with the London Dairy experience throughout the month with innovative ideas, be it the London Dairy Squad breaking into offices on a regular work day or raining offers at point of buying this monsoon season. The campaign witnessed strong traction on ground and on social media with the #LDIceCreamDay trending #2 in India on Twitter.

It’s been three years since London Dairy entered India. How has the growth been like? What percentage share of the ice cream market does the brand have today?
London Dairy is a Rs 40+ crore consumer brand, growing at 35+ per cent year-on-year and plans to double the volumes in the next three years. On the other hand, the premium ice creams segment is growing at 18-20 per cent.

While the ice cream category is about Rs 4,000 crore, the premium segment is only about Rs 150 crore. Being the pioneer of the ice cream segment, the task for London Dairy is category creation rather than share gain. Category creation is a high gestation project. It requires investment, serious intent and most importantly, patience. Ever since our launch in India, upgrading the consumer into a much higher price point of 300-400 per cent premium has been our key task.

Which regions in India have been the biggest growth areas for London Dairy?
We are present in 28 cities across India with Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata being our big volume contributors.

We also reach to our consumers through the London Dairy express stations which are present across key malls and multiplexes. Currently we have 18 such London Dairy express stations retailing our impulse range and signature creations.

London Dairy expects to touch Rs 100 crore by 2020. What would be the factors driving this growth?
There would be several factors driving this growth, which would be a mix of market dynamics, consumer preferences and in the way we leverage London Dairy brand strengths.

First, the luxury segment in the country is pegged to witness exponential growth due to the evolving Indian consumer. The modern consumer is more aware of international brands, is well travelled and has a discerning palate. Such a scenario makes international brands like London Dairy a preferred choice vis-à-vis other brands given our superior product experience, brand imagery and international flavours.

Secondly, the eating-out culture is on the rise, not just in restaurants & hotels but also in retail, malls & multiplexes. The consumer today is not averse to paying for premium brands, especially when they are out indulging with their peer groups. Hence, significantly enhancing the presence of London Dairy at such touchpoints would be a driver of our growth.

Thirdly, London Dairy has plans to significantly ramp up distribution across the cities of its presence across 5,000 outlets by 2020. With the brand having a large impulse range of bars and cups, availability within arm’s length distance of the consumer will give this range a significant spurt and more people buying into the brand franchise.

Fourthly, usage of technology and e-commerce will be a big enabler for brands like London Dairy to reach out to consumers since the brand is currently distributed very selectively and hence, has a huge unmet demand.

Finally, the strength of London Dairy lies in augmenting its already innovative range in keeping with the changing trends in the market, be it demand for sugar free offerings or fusion ice creams.