Exclusive | Focused towards expanding footprints: Dalda's Sagar Boke

Known as one of the most identified kitchen brands, Dalda was acquired by Bunge India Private Limited in 2003 from Unilever, handing down generations of heritage and trust. Dalda has been part of millions of households across India for the past 75 years as a result of its premium quality and adherence to high quality standards, while being nutritive and uncompromising on taste and aroma. Dalda uses Bunge’s international technology and expertise to successfully make available Dalda's range of refined and taste oils in the Indian market.

While Dalda has always been a very strong player in the Vanaspati category, the brand has transcended beyond Vanaspati and has successfully ventured into cooking oils. Recently, re-inventing their product category and strategy with an extensive range of edible oils, Dalda re-launched itself.

Adgully caught up with Sagar Boke, Head of Marketing, Bunge India on Dalda’s re-launch, new initiatives, journey and more.

He began by stating, “We have outgrown the industry by a very wide margin and internally, Oils portfolio within Dalda has become almost as big as Vanaspati”. Dalda is largely focusing on its mass consumers in Tier II and Tier III markets to create interactive platforms for consumer participation through various experiential activities.

Following the re-launch, there have been lot initiatives by the team to enhance their reach and presence across geographies. If claims are considered, the recent launch of Dalda into edible oils has been a stupendous success for the brand. Elaborating on the same, he said, “Consumer engagement is our key focus in order to retain our existing consumers and attract new consumers. Recently, Dalda has conceptualized and executed various consumer activations which coincide with important Indian festivals and occasions to bring out the traditional aspect of our brand.”

Some of the initiatives conducted this year include the Rath Yatra activation in Puri, Baisakhi activation in Punjab and Holi activation in Uttar Pradesh where their team encouraged consumers to share recipes of food cooked in Dalda Edible Oils for their ‘Dial D Campaign’. “We also decided to do something unique for Mother's Day in Uttar Pradesh, wherein consumers were encouraged to call on ‘Dial D’ and record a personalized message for their mothers. We want our consumers to actively participate and engage with us through these experiential initiatives and to understand that brand Dalda stands for a promise of purity and taste,” he added.

Dalda Edible Oils leveraged the occasion of Rath Yatra by creating a unique art exhibit this year at the Puri Beach for devotees to visit and experience as part of the festivities held at the beach every year.

For the on-ground activity, Dalda Edible Oils collaborated with noted Indian sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik to create a one of a kind life size sand art illustration of the deity Lord Jagannath at Puri Beach which was on display from 29th June - 5th July. In order to make this an interactive activity, the visitors were encouraged to participate by clicking pictures with the sand art and could download the images by liking Dalda's Facebook page.

Additionally, a 12 feet diameter Dalda branded helium balloon was installed at Grand Road to welcome all visitors at the Rath Yatra. This was again, a one of a kind installation which focused on creating a visually appealing medium for all devotees to witness. Dalda Edible Oils also created special branded merchandise such as hand fans, spot umbrellas and caps to be distributed to all pilgrims.

The USP of this activation was the strategic planning of the on ground activities which showcased the culture of the festival whilst ensuring brand visibility to all visitors.
Being more than a decade old brand speaking on where does he see his brand heading in the coming future and what trends he foresees in the industry that they are in, Boke said, “Packaged oil industry is growing at a fast pace and we see a lot of potential of being a long term player in this market”.

Currently present in geographies of North & East India and the channel plans to reach out to more consumers in western & southern geographies. Dalda is aggressively foraying into new oils currently we launched Refined Cottonseed oil which is primarily the best oil for deep-frying. We constantly innovate to produce consumer-relevant products. [By Aanchal Kohli | Twitter: @aanchalkohli]