Foreign brands up localisation to woo customers

Indian consumers are tough to please – and not just in terms of food and cosmetics. Leading brands would vouch for this. For, they are all busy these days concocting tailor-made chocolates, beer and, yes, even electronic items to woo the Indian consumer.

Instances abound: the world’s first vegetarian Snickers chocolate; the first-ever fruit-flavoured strong beer from Carlsberg; murg makhani at Starbucks; idli-dosa at Cafe Coffee Day; the first-ever vegetarian McDonald’s... all are aimed at the Indian consumer.

Quick service restaurants (QSRs) had been quick to hop on the think-local bandwagon. Now, other brands are slowly adopting the mantra.

As reported by dna last week, Carlsberg, a Danish premium beer-maker, launched a fruit-flavoured strong beer specifically for the Indian market.

Subodh Marwah, MD of Carlsberg India, said, “Localisation is very important in food and beverages, including alcoholic beverages. Our surveys showed that people complained about all beers having the same bitter taste in India. So, we decided to launch something which can cut the bitterness out a little.”

In the consumer durables segment, global brands like LG and Panasonic have been known for continuously evaluating ways to make their offerings more localised.

While LG has decided to come out with a sub-Rs 10,000 LED TV, Godrej Appliances has launched a sub-Rs 3,000 refrigerator to target the bottom of the pyramid customers. Last week, Sony announced plans to launch a Bravia line of televisions for Rs 15,000 for India’s small towns.

Global consumer companies such as HUL and Nestle have also created certain market segments with their tailored-for-India offerings such as Fair & Lovely and Maggi.

Other FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) players have been regularly launching beauty, wellness and food items customised to suit the Indian
consumer.

M V Natarajan, MD of Mars International India’s chocolate business, said, “A lot of people in India are vegetarian. As a result, we decided to come up with a vegetarian Snickers. Now, a higher number of trade partners are stocking our goods, especially in Gujarat and Maharashtra.”

Prior, several distributors and retailers had discontinued stocking Snickers as it contained egg. One such shopkeeper in south Mumbai said, “On seeing the red dot (which suggests the product is not 100% vegetarian) on the chocolate wrapper, several customers didn’t buy the product. Now that a vegetarian option is available, we may start stocking it again.”

Going ahead, Mars may consider launching vegetarian versions of its other chocolates as well, said Natarajan.

Harminder Sahani of Wazir Advisors said that companies make an attempt to localise in countries where they see significant gain from such attempts. “They are based on the size of the economy and the population of the country. In this context, India scores on both fronts. As a result, the localisation attempts made by global companies are much higher as compared to several other nations.”