Brand Saga: Kellogg’s India Part 3- Making Breakfast Irresistible

The third and final part of Kellogg's India advertising journey explores the branding strategy of its four product lines equally contributing in its vision to make India healthier one ad a time. 

Though the initial foray of international cereal maker Kellogg’s in India was considered bland, the brand stayed firm on its vision to make cereal mainstream and eventually got a grip over the market. Today it is one of the major contributors in the breakfast cereal segment in the country. Kellogg's India advertising journey is the epitome of firm belief and self-determination to overcome challenges and build its own identity.

While the second part looked at the marketing strategy of its three mainline products - Corn FLAKES, Chocos, and Special K, the final part of Kellogg’s India brand saga delves into the advertising of All Bran, Oats, Muesli and Crunchy Granola followed by decoding its digital footprint.

Heart
–to-Heart Kellogg’s Oats

After tasting success with the localized version of its advertising for Corn Flakes and Chocos, Kellogg’s brought it's yet another globally popular product- Oats to India in 2010. It must be noted that Saffola and Quaker Oats were already present in the segment then and Kellogg’s oats launch triggered the entry of majors like Horlicks and Britannia.

Entering the oats market with its ‘Heart-to-Heart' oats, Kellogg’s claimed that it was tailored to the Indian palate and emphasized the healthy nature of oats. The challenge that lied here was to change people’s perception towards oats which were considered as a coarse grain for feeding horses rather than human consumption.

Kellogg’s identified the need gap and launched variants like Chatpata Pudina Oats & Tangy Oats to suit the Indian appetite for breakfast.

The commercials also presented the health benefits of Oats as an excellent source of carbohydrate, protein, and dietary fiber. The agency-brand duo also looked at marrying the healthy breakfast with taste to become a differentiator and rolled out various flavors to make it a habit.

It also leveraged festive occasions like Pongal with variants like “Simply Pongal’ adding regional twists and flavors.

In 2015, Kellogg’s rolled out a mini-series titled ‘Kellogg’s Wale Guptaji ki Family’ which brought to life a contemporary Indian household. The campaign adopted a different take on recipes and customization of cereal in the Indian breakfast market. There were recipes shared by experts, celebrities, and bloggers while they made varied concoctions using product variants including Kellogg’s Oats.

In 2016, Kellogg’s roped in the powerhouse of Bollywood Ranveer Singh to be the face of a ready-to-cook range of Kellogg’s Oats. The launch campaign conceptualized by JWT India featured the actor in promoting its variants “Masst Masala” and “Hot Chinese” with the tagline Life mein thoda flavour le aao. Kellogg’s Oats. Dil bhar ke khaao.”

Also Read: Brand Saga: Kellogg’s India Part 1 – Making cereal mainstream…

The ad was a slice of life concept built on the ability of social media to trigger a storm of speculation and frenzy.

With changing lifestyles and the insight that young people over the age of 30 are vulnerable to heart diseases, the brand saw clear opportunities for the oat segment. Kellogg’s Oats specific advertising over the years focused on its fun-filled flavors and nutritional value to boost energy, healthy living and breaking the consumer perception that oats do not make for a “full” breakfast.

The Magic of
All Bran, Muesli and Crunchy Granola

After creating differentiation for each of its major products like Cornflakes and Oats, Kellogg’s introduced All Bran, yet another nutritious wheat flakes product to help in digestion and provide essential nutrients to the body.  It was promoted as a healthy whole-grain cereal packed with wheat bran high in fibre. The same was communicated through its advertising.

In 2012, the Kellogg’s All Bran Wheat Flakes campaign saluted the many roles played by the woman of the house featuring actress Tisca Chopra. The campaign reiterates the thought of ‘Happy Inside, Happy Outside (Andar se khush, Bhar Se Khush ’ based on the insight that for women to play their many roles with ease and happiness, they need to feel good from within.

The campaign targeted Indian women between 35 to 40 years of age who may be prone to digestive irregularity due to either a considerable impact of hormones, poor eating behavior, insufficient exercise, hectic lifestyle, or other medication that affect the digestion process.

Later on, the TVCs highlighted that she must adequately nourish and care for herself first, in order to carry out these responsibilities with a smile.

Apart from featuring the household activities managed by the strong ladies of the house, the campaigns mainly concentrated on conveying how the fibre content in All-Bran can help women maintain digestive health since.

In 2006, the then Rs 500-crore organized breakfast cereal category witnessed the launch of Kellogg’s Muesli positioned as ‘Just Right- a premium breakfast cereal targeted towards urban India

Kellogg’s Muesli’s print campaign in 2015 was designed to appear like an Instagram post. Featuring the multigrain, multi-sensorial breakfast cereal, the brand endeavored to go beyond merely showing the food and bringing alive the experience of the sensorial journey of the product

The print ad designed and conceptualized by JWT aimed to bring alive the product and give consumers the real ‘taste experience’ of Kellogg’s Muesli.

The brand further roped in renowned international food photographer, Stephen Clarke to bring to life the sensorial delight of enjoying the food. The attractive shots captured the multi-grain-cereal toasted to crisp perfection and garnished with rich inclusions like fruits and nuts. They are meant to highlight the appetizing features of the product and draw consumer reaction of desire to experience the multi-textured taste of the food. The insight was driven by the popularity of Instagram.

Over the years, through campaigns like ‘Multigrain breakfast for the Unstoppables’, the brand launched a  video series getting a sneak peek into the lives of a stand-up comedian, an athlete, a yoga practitioner who look forward to healthy breakfast every day.

It also leveraged the comedians like Jose Covaco aka Hoezay in one of the videos to add a fun element in the communication.

While its most recent campaign focuses on it multigrain proponent and pushing consumers to fuel their mornings with Kellogg’s Muesli to get the right boost to the start of your day.

In January 2019, Kellogg’s India assigned its creative duties to Ogilvy from JWT Mumbai - an association which witnessed decades of churning creative campaigns and stories.

With Kellogg’s Crunchy Granola’a launch in 2018, the brand focussed on top metro cities calling it the new cereal.

Also Read: Brand Saga Kellogg’s India Part 2: The journey of Indian-izing cornflakes

The insight that led to the launch was while consumers continue to seek more and more nutrition in the food choices they make, taste remains the primary driver of that food preference. Kellogg’s Granola (Almond and Cranberry) came were positioned as tasty, oven-baked creation carefully crafted to cater to both, taste and nutrition.

Ruling the Digital space

While stirring conversations around its products with TVCs and multiple traditional activations, Kellogg’s hopped onto the digital storytelling and hashtag banner quite early. With campaigns like #BreakTheHabit, 21 days 21 recipes, Healthy Mornings, it has been preaching the significance of breakfast in one’s life.

In 2018, Kellogg India joined India's fight against malnutrition and unveiled the #BreakTheHabit of skipping breakfast campaign celebrating the National Nutrition Month.

Other than the maser brand video, on digital, it roped in influencers like celebrity chef Ranveer Brar, celebrity and fitness Enthusiast Mandira Bedi, and Chef Pankaj, and various bloggers to join the movement to educate people on the importance of eating right and starting one's day right.

The brand also partakes in moment marketing as and when required - the creatives are cross-posted on its Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter page.

Along with posting various recipe posts and initiatives, Kellogg’s Muesli also leveraged TTT’s community for Father’s Day in 2018 to meaningfully engage with consumers. When  TTT came together with Kellogg’s Muesli, the outcome was several user-generated short-stories about #UnstoppableDads that were published by TTT on their social media pages for seven days, in the lead-up to Father’s Day.

Apart from regular content creation, the brand throws open challenges to stir conversations on social media around special occasions. For instance; Kellogg’s Chocos Fills introduced the ‘#PhotoBombWithFills’ Challenge on Valentine’s Day last year. The brand roped in social wizards like comedian José Covaco and influencers from ‘Musically (now TikTok)’ and ‘Instagram’ who took to their social media pages by posting videos of them constantly photobombing couples with their awkward poses and postures urging people to do the same.

In April, this year, just after the 21-day lockdown was announced, Kellogg’s in its endeavor to help parents tackle the challenge of skipping breakfast, curated snackable content of ‘21 recipes for 21 days’, developed by a consulting chef, Ranveer Brar. The campaign was launched digitally by Ranveer himself along with his son through a live session, #KidsKitchenWithRanveerBrar on user-generated content platform Momspresso Hindi’s Facebook page.

This month it launched yet another all-digital user-generated content campaign, #PassTheBowl to exhort consumers to start their day with a nutritious bowl of breakfast even during the on-going lockdown. The campaign puts this thought forward in the recently trending format of passing an object virtually with videos of users passing their nutritious bowl of Kellogg’s cereals to their loved ones throughout.

The video was shared by Ranveer Brar and other social media influencers helping the brand increase its reach.

The Kellogg’s India brand journey is a reckoning force where initially a foreign entrant couldn’t adapt to an average Indian consumers’ taste and preferences but has now become one of the market leaders in the breakfast cereal category. From creating a differentiation through its of its products to delivering the promise of health, Kellogg’s India took care of it all.