"Parle G - Mane Genius" - Great campaign by Parle G - The king of biscuits - throughout the world.

Think of it - what are our best memories in life?  A childhood full of happiness and being carefree. The only tension was getting to school and not coming back home. Coming back was automatic.

A beautiful moment in our lives was evening tea with our parents. As children, we were not allowed the guilty pleasure of sipping tea or coffee with our parents. But we found a way out - dip the ever-present Parle-G biscuits in their tea and have the best of two worlds, tea, and Parle-G biscuits.

Parle G unabashedly is THE INDIAN BISCUIT. It is found everywhere and is the traveling companion of all Indians who travel a lot. It is available at a very affordable Rs 5/-. 

Parle G would have satiated the hunger of many an Indian who can't afford to have something expensive when they travel. It is a biscuit available in all nooks and corners of India. It is the, "Biscuit that India eats".

As the Management gurus, Al Ries and Jack Trout have said in their seminal book "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind", Positioning is the space that the product occupies in the minds of the customer.

When asked "First man on the moon" we quickly respond  "Edmund Hillary/Tensing Norgay. " First person to score 10,000 runs in test cricket?" Sunil Gavaskar would be the quick answer. Who cares about the second person on Mount Everest or the second person to score 10,000 runs. No one knows or cares. It is the first that matters.

In all categories, we have a product or a service in the "Top of Mind (TOM)". Only TOM matters and not any other Dick or Harry (Punning from the phrase Tom, Dick, or Harry). If you ask me the best brand in chocolates, I will blurt out "5 Star".

In the expensive Detergent category, it is, "Ariel", for daily wear clothes it would be, "Surf" and for washing bedsheets and towels it is, "Nirma". Occupying the space in the mind is important.

Interestingly the space occupied by India differs from country to country. USA is the most inward-looking country in the world. They are bothered mostly about themselves. When asked about India, most would feign ignorance. Some would come out with Taj Mahal, some with the concept of "Bangalored", some might associate India with "Bollywood songs" and lately, Indians are being recognized for their prowess in Software and now India is being recognized for its food. Indian food is a rage.

Interestingly in Ethiopia Positioning about India and Indians is quite different. Indians are recognized and yelled at, "Babuji" a reference to Mahatma Gandhi. They could also holler "Namaste" as most Indians they would have encountered were teachers who taught in Ethiopian schools and later in universities.

All Indian men irrespective of size, shape, colour with or without hair on the head would become "Sha Rukh Kha (Shah Rukh Khan)" and all women would become "Ranis (Rani Mukerjee)". These were the famous film actors when we were in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia circa 2002-2006.

Parle G is a giant and it has crossed US 2 billion in sales only in biscuit sales. Its name itself was an interesting coincidence. It was started in 1929 in Vile Parle, a suburb in Mumbai and Parle derives its name from the locality. Parle added the magic word Glucose to emphasize the product's benefit, Glucose gives energy and nutrition.

Success usually spawns rivals and Parle-Glucose was no exception. Competitors climbed on the bandwagon, and everyone started using the same name "Glucose". This strategy was eating into the sales of Parle-Glucose, and it had to act fast. The shove became a push when Britannia did a campaign "Gabbar Singh ki asli Pasand". In 1980 Parle Glucose became Parle-G and it remained the same over the years.

The letter G has been used very cleverly by the company. They are already synonymous with Glucose biscuits, and they need not repeat it ad nauseum in their campaigns.

Parle did many campaigns including "Biscuit of India, You are My Parle G, Nostalgia campaign "things have changed but Parle-G remains the same” etc. But the campaign that they have stuck all along is Parle G and G means genius or now being politically correct G mane genius.

The play is on the word "genius." The positioning is that Parle-G is good for geniuses (past, present, and future). The latest ads focus more on the human side of the geniuses rather than on the materialistic end results of the being geniuses. The girl and the boy ad, for example, play on the genius of the girl who longs for a toy.

But it is not for herself. Rather, it is for her brother. That is the genius part of Parle-G. Similarly, there is another very interesting ad about a couple who move into a new Mohalla (locality). The lady feels very lonely that she is not part of the Holi celebrations.

A teenage girl cleverly (another genius) makes the lady become a part of that Mohalla and helps her celebrate Holi happily. The positioning tack is slowly moving from biscuits for the kids to biscuits for everyone. Just like Cadbury Dairy Milk, which went from Cadbury for children to Cadbury for all ages and all occasions.

I am totally okay with the campaigns, but the only complaint that I have is that girls are more in focus in the advertisements, and the boys and men are used as sidekicks only. Is it because Parle-G has a picture of a girl on its packaging, or is it because girls rhyme with the "G" of the product? Your guess is good as mine. 

Anyhow, women complain of inequality and not being represented in good numbers. Parle-G has seen to it and has made girls and women its prime spokespersons!