kellog Becomes Desi - The power of Market place!

First posted on Facebook on November 23rd, 2020

What a joke - Amma cheti (mother's recipe) Upma. Really Kellogg! This smacks of opportunism. And at a level, deeply thought-provoking too.

Kellogg came to India, chest-thumping and with a lot of swagger. They had conquered the world and India was supposed to be another notch on their gun, a conquest to be savoured.

Kellogg the market leader of breakfast food in the world thought that they would capture India just as easily as they conquered the US and Europe. Yes, the bland breakfast habits of the Europeans and the Americans were easy to break.

Basking in confidence Kellog made grand plans, it pooh-poohed the Indian breakfast menu. The promotion was clear "your breakfast is not good, not healthy, not nutritious and the positioning was 'ME ONLY"!

The Indian homemaker did not like the assault on their sanctum santorium -the kitchen. They royally snubbed the MNC!

Eating humble pie, Kellogg tried out Indian versions of the cornflakes and changed to a reconciliatory "ME TOO" positioning. Eat whatever you want but please eat Kellogg too!

Even that does not seem to have worked. So if you can't fight them, join them seems to be Kellogg's motto.

They have started selling Indian breakfast items and have zeroed in on the humble upma. Now the positioning is "Try me along with many others".

This is surprising. With all its efforts Kellogg would have created a hard-core loyal customer base (niche maybe).

There is a danger that even that customer base might shy away from Kellog. They bought Kellogg as it is an aspirational product. And Kellogg is selling Upma now. Appears Kellog is caught between a stone and a hard place.

Would amma believe that Kellogg makes better umpa than herself! I doubt it. Now Kellogg has to slug it out with Maggi, Yuppie noodles, MTR, Bambino, and even the humble cart seller at every street corner! What a fall Kellogg!

Swiggy and Netflix - Me too strategy, complimentary products and Generic competition

Always told my students to watch ads and learn from them. "Watching ads is the most fun one can get with their clothes on". Not my phrase, taken from an ad guru.

The picture is from a TV Ad of Swiggy. The ad urges us to cook some dishes at home and get some from Swiggy. I think Swiggy is taking our criticism that they are weening us away from the so-called healthy home-cooked food a little too seriously.

So if you can't avoid the bandwagon, jump into the gravy train! Swiggy is meeting us halfway. It is telling us to cook at home but spice up our meal with some side dishes, courtesy Swiggy. Reminds me of Kellogg.

Kellog quickly understood that it can't be a substitute for the elephant in the house, the Indian breakfast. So instead of fighting the Indian breakfast, it became me too. Eat whatever you want to (grudgingly accepted by Kellogg) but eat me too. From being I, me and myself, it wants to be me too. Like from a single hero film to a multi starrer!

Similarly, Netflix is pitching itself as a genetic competitor, one who is competing for the same time spent. It is telling us not to try to get hangover by partying on 31st December 2019. But what about the hangover that we get from binge-watching mind-numbing TV soaps, serials and movies. Food for thought. Bring it on marketers, loving it!

7th Article Published in HANS INDIA "Marketing Lessons From Kellogg's

7th Article Published in HANS INDIA titled "Marketing Lessons From Kellogg's'. It is an article about how Kellogg got its positioning wrong in India and later went on to correct its positioning!

Colours in Marketing!

Image credit: The Logo Company

Colours are exciting. Life without Colours would be very drab. We experience the world in Colour - Man is the only species that can see Colours. All other species see the world in black and white.

Thus it is not surprising that colours play a very significant role in the field of marketing. Most of the products and their packaging would be in the primary colours - Red, green and blue or a combinations of these three primary colours. Coca-Cola is predominantly red and Pepsi is blue and green is a Colour that symbolizes agriculture and is now the latest buzz is green field marketing or green marketing.

One other Colour that is very prominent in yellow. Yellow, Green and red are the colours that are used in traffic signals. Why these three colours? These are the colours that are attractive and visible from a distance. Precisely the reason why the golden arches of the McDonald are yellow. Yellow because they have to attract the travelers’ attention from long distance and induce them to stop.

Kodak too is heavily yellow. But as a marketer one needs to be careful about colours. Yellow is a very sacred colour in India. It is associated with the sun god.  

Colours have different symbolism in  different cultures. In South India white is seen as a sacred colour and white coloured clothes are worn for marriages and for holy occasions. But in the western part of India white is the colour of mourning.

I had worked in Ethiopia and once I wore a white flowing kutra pyjama to a college function. I was surprised at the reaction that I got. Many of my Ethiopian colleagues expressed their regret. I was shocked. On enquiry to my surprise I came to know that Ethiopians have the same custom as in the western part of India. White is for mourning. Talk of similarities of culture across the continents!

Similarly one needs to understand a culture before we try to assimilate ourselves into that culture. One US based company sent its senior executives to do business in Taiwan. The executives got off the plane wearing green caps. They conducted the entire day’s business wearing the green caps. Later that evening they returned to their Taiwanese hotel. The hotel manager almost fainted when he saw his US guests wearing green caps. He was laughing his head off. The crest fallen US business men were sheepish when they were told that in Taiwan wearing green hats by men signifies that the wearer’s wife has been unfaithful – unknowingly the US businessmen were going around the town proudly proclaiming that their wives have been unfaithful.

For the typical Taiwanese it made no sense at all. He could understand infidelity but why make a hue and cry about it. The behaviour of the US businessmen had left the Taiwanese stumped and bemused. Read more about colors in marketing at

https://www.helpscout.net/blog/psychology-of-color/ &
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233843