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A red leather overcoat billows out around her all-black outfit as "Anti-Marie Bureau" chief Kajol strides down the dimly-lit corridors of the Anti Marie Bureau office, her troop hustling behind her.
A shopkeeper is summoned and instructed to quit selling "saadharan" (regular) Marie biscuits. When he asks why, the bureau explains Parle Digestive Marie's (PDM's) plus points - high fibre, low calorie and low fat content. Newspaper headlines scream "Anti Marie Bureau does it again".
Cut to a dingy restaurant, where the restaurant owner betrays another regular Marie-eater. The podgy man has been clandestinely munching on regular Marie biscuits, hidden inside a lunch box.
The Anti-Marie bureau led by its chief, storms in. As the man looks on, the Bureau points to a product shot while Kajol rattles off its benefits. The now-converted biscuit eater gratefully reaches out for the new snack. Kajol flashes a pack of PDM, declaring "yahi Marie, sahi Marie" (this Marie is the right Marie).
PDM's minute-long launch commercial hit TV screens in early January, a few weeks after two teasers of 20-seconds were aired. Ad agency Everest Brand Solutions, with whom Parle Products shares a 60-year-old relationship, created the campaign. Everest's recent work for Parle includes the "G for Genius" Parle G campaign.
Ad-film production house Black Magic shot the PDM commercial in five days across Mumbai's Famous Studio, Mukesh Mills and central suburb, Bandra.
The brief given to the agency was simple: highlight PDM's unique selling points - high fibre, low calorie, low fat and a light feeling on regular consumption - to existing Marie eaters.
And convince them to switch to PDM. "We didn't want to launch PDM on the taste platform because all Marie biscuits taste alike. So we opted for the superior fibre platform," says Vijay Chauhan, chairman and managing director, Parle Products.
Chauhan's simple strategy made PDM stand out in the crowded Marie market. Currently, the core biscuit - including Marie and the popular glucose varieties - segment makes up 55 per cent of the Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) biscuit segment. That works out to a significant Rs 2,200 crore (Rs 22 billion).
The remaining Rs 1,800 crore (Rs 18 billion) is shared between cream biscuits, savoury biscuits and variants. The market's been growing at a robust 12-14 per cent a year since 2001 (source: KSA Technopak). This, when FMCG as a category has been languishing. Parle Products commands a 33 per cent market share in the total biscuit industry, just behind market leader Britannia's 38 per cent.
There's been a healthy appetite for Marie, too. The Rs 490 crore (Rs 4.9 billion) segment has been growing consistently at 10-12 per cent. But Marie Choice, Parle's decade-old brand, hadn't been expanding its share of the market for a while. If the company were to revive an interest in the product, it had to innovate. So Parle blended the high fibre content of digestive biscuits like McVitie's Digestive, into a regular Marie biscuit.
Even the name was tinkered with to reflect the change - Digestive Marie. PDM claims to have has five times more fibre than the regular 0.7 per cent fibre content in biscuits like Sunfeast Marie Light. It's also the low-fat alternative, apparently: 10 per cent compared to 22 per cent in regular digestive biscuits.
Naturally, Parle needed to generate consumer interest - and a celebrity endorsement does translate into greater initial awareness and conviction. Hence, Hindi filmstar Kajol. "Kajol is a good ploy," agrees Sunil K Alagh, chairman, SKA Advisors. He's better placed than most to pass judgement: Alagh is a former managing director and CEO of Parle's arch-rival Britannia Industries.
Ad agency Everest, of course, had its own reasons for its choice of celebrity. "Kajol has credibility, seriousness and masti. She and Anti Marie Bureau were a perfect fit," declares Vijay Lalwani, creative director, Everest Brand Solutions. "And PDM's so much better and healthier than other Marie, that consuming any other Marie, would be 'criminal'." That sparked off the Anti Marie Bureau idea.
The ad has already achieved one objective: it's got people sitting up and taking notice. That's critical in a nearly-commoditised segment like Marie biscuits, especially since "Marie" is not a trademarked brand. "It's important for every Marie player to establish itself as a brand. And Parle has caught everyone's attention by giving a product plus brand and communicated it well," says Alagh.
Parle also claims that sales have already picked up. But the big picture doesn't look as appetising. One of the bigger Marie markets is eastern India. That market is crowded with about 30 regional players, offering lower price points. "Even Britannia has lost out there," says Parle's Chauhan. It can't help that PDM is more expensive than all other Marie brands.
That's mentioned upfront in the ad itself. "The extra fibre costs extra money," says Chauhan. A 200-g pack of Britannia Marie Gold costs Rs 12, while a similar size pack of PDM is 25 per cent more expensive at Rs 15. Parle is urging consumers to try PDM through the well-tried route of introductory discounts. At present, there's a discount of Rs 2 on both the 200-g and 400-g packs. That offer is likely to be withdrawn in a couple of months.
But Parle is not content with just a cut in price. It's also emphasising on the brand switch to PDM. That means it may also eat into its own franchise - Parle Marie Choice consumers could also shift to PDM, thereby reducing Marie Choice's market share to crumbs. But Parle claims its strategies are well-baked. Even if Marie Choice's market share crumbles, PDM's market share will rise. So the scenario evens out.
In the pipeline are 45-second and 30-second edits of the current commercial. Follow-up commercials explaining the benefits of fibre are also being planned.
Meanwhile, danglers and posters are already up at wholesellers and mom-and-pop stores. (Point-of-sale displays at organised retail outlets like Food Bazaar aren't planned, though, since they come with a price tag.) The teaser hoardings across cities, too, have been replaced with ones that now show product shots as well. Will consumers bite?
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