Brand Saga: The advertising journey of the Biscuit with a Smile

Having been consistent in its core positioning to spread  ‘happiness’ since the inception, the Britannia Good Day advertising journey is as cheery as its ethos.

It was the time when Indians relished glucose-induced biscuits as their regular companion with tea and occasionally resorted to the creamy delights. Food major Britannia was looking for ways to fit in. Instead of launching yet another glucose or cream biscuit, it decided to helm a new category altogether - the ‘cookie’ one. Thus was born the ever-smiling Britannia Good Day. This week, we dive into the Britannia Good Day advertising journey – glancing through its marketing and communication tactics.

The Inception

The foundation stones for Britannia Biscuit CO.Ltd were laid in Kolkata in 1892 with an investment of INR 295. The century-old company has since been advancing with technology and grew. The first breakthrough of the company came in 1954 when it pioneered the development of high-quality slice and wrapped bread in the newly independent India.

Later years were followed by the launch of Bourbon biscuits, Britannia Cakes, Glucose-D. In October 1979, the company was rechristened Britannia Industries Ltd. It celebrated sales crossing a whopping INR 100 crore mark in 1983. It was a big feat considering the desi land adopting to modern food habits.

In 1986, sensing the gap between the dominating glucose and cream biscuits market, Britannia launched ‘Good Day’ cookies creating  a whole new category and positioned it above its ‘glucose' offering.

Britannia Good Day Advertising Journey

‘Glucose’ biscuits were the talk of the town in the late 70s and Britannia too joined the bandwagon with the launch of Glucose-D, which was then endorsed by the late Amjad Khan. Khan was roped in as the face of the brand just after the release of Sholay and his character, the iconic villain, Gabbar Singh, became a cult among the masses. The brand’s creative partner Lintas joined the tribe to bring out a campaign that highlighted the goodness of Britannia Glucose D - as The Real One and 'Gabbar ki asli pasand' targeting kids.

Later, a dominant player in the market - Parle underwent a revamp which saw it transitioning from Parle Gluco to Parle-G in the 1980s in order to differentiate itself in a market that was already flooded with Glucose biscuits.

While the business ran as usual, Britannia thought of foraying into the premium segment with the ‘Good Day’ range of cookies - introducing a new buttery flavour. ‘Have a Good Day’ fit the bill well as the brand tagline whose primary vision was to make India smile and spread optimism in its full glory.

The brand ethos was communicated well in its early year campaigns – whether it be the jolly Jaaved Jaaferi’s comic stint at haircutting from the early 90s or the father-son duo ‘having a good day’ while at fishing. The 30 second long advertisements captured the brand sentiments created on the ‘happiness’ platform.

When the competition opted for marketing the ‘healthy’ glucose variants, Britannia asked people to indulge in the goodness of butter and dry fruits filled with Good Day cookies. The brand later gauged the response and fully concentrated on building up a premiumization strategy.

Good Day, the over-three-decades-old cookie brand from Britannia did not restrict its target audience to a particular age group but in fact targeted everyone from kids to young adults to senior citizens - they all have been a part of the brand’s communication palette to date.

One of the insights that led to the Good Day evolution was when Britannia launched two varieties of biscuits in the indulgence category and it failed to generate a positive response due to the product's ‘hard to bite’ specimen. Thus the company went onto devise – Good Day – a much softer cookie - with a definite smiling structure and round format resembling human faces.

Britannia Good Day soon created a niche for itself by constantly reiterating that the foremost purpose of one’s life is to be happy through is communication portraying varied instances integrating the smiling cookies. The Britannia Good Day advertising has advocated happiness as the primary objective by showcasing personal and family bondings, emotions and warmth while keeping the cookies as the only source of making someone smile and move on.

After garnering a lull response to the Orange Delite and Coconut Crunch variants, Good Day projected its energy towards marketing the ‘goodness of butter’ and dry fruits which was reflected in its communication including taglines like ‘Kaju ho ya khushi dikhni chaiye’.

The idea behind this campaign was also to show that they did not skimp on the dry fruit, a common issue Indian consumers tend to have in all dry-fruit products, be it branded or from local store.s

The buttery phenomenon was followed by the launch of Good Day cashew and pista variants which made people obsess over the dry fruit-filled cookie indulgence throughout the 90s.

It was also the time when the brand initiated a revamp strategy where it changed the product packaging during 1997 and launched the ‘Eat Healthy, Think Better' campaign.

In 2008, the brand’s tagline was changed to ‘Iska toh ho gaya re Good Day’ in a bid to be local and relevant to the masses- speaking their language. The development was supported by the launch of a campaign, the TVC featuring the dancing station became an instant hit with the added Punjabi tadka making it homely.

The tagline was later extended to a few more TVCs revolving around various offers, like the brand gave a mini 50-50 biscuit pack free with a Good Day biscut and the 'Dancing Ddadaji’ ad film which carried the ‘Mauj Bahara’ soundtrack in similarity with the station master commercial.

‘Kaju, Badam, Pista, Butter se bhara - Good Day yaani acha acha’ remember humming to the jingle that came with a tagline ‘Achai Jo Chaa Jaye’. One distinct characteristic about Good Day’s advertising includes the rich amalgamation of realism with the brand purpose induced with melodious background scores. A few also made you dance with them.

Experimenting with more flavours like rich butter and butterscotch, Britannia decided to add a chocolaty touch to the cookie range and rolled out Choco Chip and Choco nut Good Day in 2010. ‘Khushiyon ke ghar naya meheman aya’ campaign conceptualised by the brand’s long-standing creative partner McCann welcomed the new range of chocolate saying ‘Ho gaya re Good Day!’

Britannia celebrated its silver jubilee in 2012, with the launch of a heartwarming TVC conceptualised by McCann Erickson Bangalore and helmed by Equinox Films’ Ram Madhvani. The ad film portrayed the innocence of a sibling duo who by the mere showering of Good Day biscuits become cheery eyed. The objective was to communicate how Good Day has been the giver of happiness and warmth through all its years of existence and the one delivering positivity all over.

During the time, as per AC Nielsen ORG’s data, Good Day was pegged as an INR 1,500-crore brand and estimated to have daily sales of 365 tonnes that go into 3.8 million packs. Also, it was ranked as the second-largest biscuit brand in India with Parle-G occupying the lead.

In 2014, Britannia Good Day joined the Kings XI Punjab’s league of sponsors for IPL. Executed by Jack in the Box worldwide, the #FunjabiFunde IPL digital campaign aimed at introducing Happy Singh in his brand new avatar, Baba Happy Singh, and established the concept of a Funjabi Player who plays the game in true spirit.

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It was also to position Britannia as a fun spirited brand and continue Good Day’s association with the IPL i.e. Kings XI Punjab. The brand leveraged the reach of the tournament and created curiosity around its famous character- Happy Singh. Digital videos followed where Baba Happy Singh gave away Funjabi Fundes to the cricket lovers who came to him with their problems.

During 2015, Good Day owned 27% of the then INR 8000 cr cookie market which was a steep decline from nearly 40% in the past year. At the same time- Parle and ITC were making new waves in the category with their latest cookie collection.

Britannia resorted to relaunch Good Day in a new avatar and a new positioning – the ‘smile’ even brighter this time incorporated in every level, right from packaging to the logo.  The straight lines were redesigned to curves and to communicate the new brand revamp, Bollywood diva Deepika Padukone was brought on board as the ‘smile ambassador'.

Britannia joined hands with a design firm, Innovations Kitchen based out of San Francisco and Tata Elxsi from Bengaluru for product packaging overhaul and biscuit redesign.

With the new tagline, ‘Har Cookie mein kayi smiles’ in 2016, Britannia Good Day encouraged Indians to smile more often and launched the ‘Smile More for a Good Day’ campaign featuring the dimpled beauty Deepika, built on the insight that smile is one of the simplest gestures known to mankind.

Through this campaign conceptualised by McCann Erickson, the brand attempted to bring back the smiles that have faded from our lives and encourages Indians to smile more. Aligned to the brand’s philosophy “It’s a smile that makes a Good day”, the campaign captures the everyday smiles that help cut across barriers, bring people closer, and spread happiness.

Good Day’s major part of the communication over the years has always focussed on its philosophy of ‘spreading smiles’ which is reflected right in the Britannia Good Day advertisng journey. Be it the Mother of Smiles – Good Day or #EverySmileMatters or the ones featuring its smile ambassador Deepiak Padukone, the brand has time and again endorsed human warmth and happiness as major elements to live life to the fullest.

Cut to 2020, the Britannia Good Day #KhushiyonKiZiddKaro campaign delivered a timely message, an ode to the human spirit, and a rally for hope. The film conceptualised by Wundermann Thompson stood in solidarity with the people battling the pandemic and instilled a sense of optimism in them by reassuring them that ‘some curves are better raised’.

September 2020 saw the roll-out of  ‘Har Khushi ko Banaye Khaas’ campaign from Good Day Cashew where daddu is seen mulling over what should be his first message in the family Whatsapp group where he has been recently added. The reply brings only happy smiles around.

The latest campaign from Good Day has the company urging consumers to participate in the #LearnFromHome contest and win prizes. Here the ad film reinforced emotions shared by two school going friends who miss studying together, therefore adding a human touch.

The Good Day Britannia advertising journey has been reuniting people to share laughs and add a smile to their faces through heartwarming stories and campaigns.

Where the brand was massively active on traditional mediums like television and print, it has a significant digital presence as well. We take a detailed look at the Britannia Good Day digital advertising journey next week . Stay tuned.