Kurkure’s ‘Videshi Main Deshi Chatpatapan’ brings a flavour explosion

While the Indian salty snacks category continues to see increased consumer demand for flavour buckets like ‘cheese’ and ‘masala’, PepsiCo India's internal research revealed that this flavour combination has untapped potential in the extruded snacks category for consumers looking for distinct flavour combinations. Kurkure offers its latest fusion product, Kurkure Chatpata Cheese, across the country as a brand that always captures the pulse of the nation.

Kurkure Chatpata Cheese has been localised from the globally iconic and widely loved platform, Cheetos Cheddar Cheese & Jalapeno, to create the perfect ‘jugalbandi’ of cheddar cheese, jalapeno, and Kurkure’s classic ‘masaledaar’ flavour that aim to create curiosity among the youth to try an irresistible new dairy flavour that is just ‘two much fun’.

Kurkure continues to transform the landscape of salty snacks with its novel product formats and flavour profiles, including Kurkure Chatpata Cheese, which is available at key retail and e-commerce platforms across the nation for Rs 5, Rs 10, and Rs 20. Kurkure will stick to its unique yet true representation of current Indian family circumstances in the TVC that debuted in June, followed by a full 360-degree digital campaign that spans several platforms for this launch.

In conversation with Adgully, Neha Prasad, Associate Director & Brand Lead, Kurkure, PepsiCo India, shares the idea behind the campaign, brand ambassador preference and engagement strategy, collaboration with influencers, and more.

What is the idea behind the latest campaign – Kurkure Chatpata Cheese perfect ‘jugalbandi’?

This has become a concretised kind of category because all of us are playing in the same format – only masala flavours – and it is really important to keep ourselves differentiated to stay ahead of the curve and for that we know that we need to give a differentiated experience. Something which is different from what we have been offering or what the rest of the competition has been offering and that’s why we are doing this never-heard-before kind of a launch. There are two reasons – one is the fact that consumers are looking for a different experience. The other thing is that the flavour bucket, which is having a significant mix in the overall flavour basket, is also growing in double digits.

It’s in a very healthy momentum right now. What makes this unique is obviously riding on the bucket, which is doing well, and the other is taking inspiration from a player which is globally successful, like the cheddar jalapeno flavour. We applied all our R&D brains and really customised the flavour for our local palette; the cherry on the cake has been the rigorous consumer research for this flavour that we adopted and has come out as a very dark green winning flavour. We launched this flavour on May 4. We have actually achieved more than what we had taken as our ambitious target. We received a great traction before launching the campaign, along with physical outlet distributions and on different online platforms. The response from the consumers till now has been amazing.

A lot of thought has gone into this and we are seeing the results. When we were working on this product and on the concept, we knew that there is a lot of magic when two different things come together. This product, which is a jugalbandi of an international cheese coming together with Kurkure ka masala and chatpatapan, is a magic in fusion; that is what we have layered in our concept and proposition as well. The way we are building it out is Videshi Main Deshi Chatpatapan, which is the jugalbandi of two different worlds coming together.

You have roped in Akshay Kumar to endorse the brand. Why did you choose him as the brand ambassador and how does he connect well with the brand Kurkure?

Akshay Kumar is an entertainer, and he is somebody who even at this age has a great appeal to the youth of the country. He is also very diverse and is known as a comic icon with over-the-top humour, which is also the way we have been telling stories of Kurkure. If you look at the past campaigns and the different launches that we have done, we have always taken a tonality of saying very important and relevant examples from this society, but with a very light-hearted, over-the-top humour tonality. That’s the DNA of Kurkure and Akshay Kumar is the god of comedy; he uplifts the storytelling on Kurkure. He was a perfect face. All the campaigns that we have done with him have obviously given great results. It’s never a celeb out on Kurkure, we always think about what the brand wants to say through the offerings that we are doing. Then we search for a celeb or cast an actor that will uplift the story.

What’s going to be your engagement strategy with your audience? What was your media strategy to create a good impact for the campaign?

The proposition is around the magic of fusion, because it’s so true at the product level. It’s a very important launch because it’s a permanent flavour, and we have launched it pan-India. Obviously, certain markets are more important from a Kurkure trademark point of view, and hence, we see that kind of skew happening in terms of the plan, and strategy. It’s true for Kurkure as a brand and not for a launch. We always plan the campaign from its inception keeping our target audience in mind, and how they are engaging. We will have a proper media mix to cater to the audience at different touchpoints that they have been engaging. Furthermore, we will launch our TVC along with the digital campaign.

We also had a micro-influencer activity because we know the millenials today like to follow certain influencers; they have been really trying to engage, and they really click with this kind of audience. Apart from that, we know that different digital platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are something that the youth is really spending time on. So, we have been activating those with the idea of Videshi Main Deshi Chatpatapan. We will have different creative elements to trigger those platforms, and we will be engaging with our customers.

How do you plan to measure the effectiveness of this campaign? What kind of goals have you set to evaluate the campaign?

It depends on everything that we are doing, For example, the first and most important KPI is always business. Everything that we do needs to finally translate into business. We have KPIs right from availability to business performance and also in terms of reach and engagement with our audience. When we launched our campaigns, we have KPIs benchmarked to industry standards, and we have already seen our early traction in terms of availability; our target and business performance are way ahead of what we set out for ourselves. This product is clicking in the market; we are expecting a great reach and engagement targets as well.