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Britannia ropes in Former PepsiCo CEO Varun Berry

Britannia Industries has made key appointments in its management functions. The company has appointed Former PepsiCo CEO Varun Berry as COO and VP of Marketing, Sales and Innovation.

He comes with over 27 years of work experience with premier companies such as Hindustan Unilever and PepsiCo, both in India and overseas

Berry replaces Neeraj Chandra, who will now take over as the VP of Strategy and New Business Development.

The company has also appointed Vinod Menon as the VP and CFO, effective February 1, 2013. He replaces Raju Thomas, who will relinquish his post on January 31, 2013.

Menon has been an integral part of Britannia since 1993 and has handled both, functional and business roles in commercial, finance and accounting. He has also been the head of the dairy business and is currently the VP and Head of Strategy and New Business Development.

With several popular brands such as Tiger, Good Day, Marie Gold, 50-50, Milk Bikis, Treat, NutriChoice, Daily Fresh Dahi, Britannia Cheese, Britannia Daily Fresh Dahi, Britannia caters to consumers in all demographic and socio-economic segments, across urban and rural India.

Classmate attempts to drive sales via loyalty programme

Classmate, the stationery product brand from ITC Group, launched a consumer purchase-linked loyalty programme to drive trials and sales. Through the ‘Classmate – Get Set Score’ activity, the brand’s target audiences got an opportunity to earn points for every purchase of Classmate stationery products. These loyalty points further offered them an opportunity to win gifts.

Candid Marketing executed the initiative for Classmate.

The 12-week campaign began on October 1, 2012 and was promoted across 12 cities through on-ground and online initiatives. On-ground activities included school contact programmes, a ‘Feet-on-Street’ activation, and tie-ups with Café Coffee Day. In the online space, initiatives included a dedicated microsite and a mobile phone version, digital marketing on Google, Facebook and Twitter, besides e-mail and SMS marketing.

The School Contact Program (SCP) covering more than 200 schools across 12 cities, whilst driving awareness on the overall campaign, centered on Classmate’s brand sign off ‘Because you are one of a kind ’.

Amrita Kumar, Managing Partner, Candid Marketing said, “We have been associated with ITC Classmate since last year and have conducted various integrated campaigns for them. The Classmate ‘Get Set Score’ campaign is gaining high visibility and delivering on all action standards set. It’s exciting to execute this campaign across multiple and exciting media touch-points that we have conceptualised.”

Students were asked to write a short essay on ‘Why they are unique’, with winners being given Classmate gift hampers. Besides the SCP, the ‘Feet-on-Street’ activity engaged students with hand-held tablets across a mix of hot-spots, encouraging them to know more and participate in the programme. Classmate ‘Get Set Score’ merchandising was also displayed across 50 strategically chosen CCD outlets in metros, tier I and tier II cities – in the form of tent cards, beverage cup tags and sleeves.

Pantaloons celebrates 15 yrs with aggressive mktg push

On completing 15 years of its brand presence in the country, Pantaloons, fashion retailer from Future Group, has rolled out an aggressive marketing campaign named ‘In love with fashion’.

Speaking about the new campaign, Madhumita Dutta, Chief Marketing – Pantaloons said, “‘In love with fashion’ is an expression of the passion we as a brand have for bringing the best and the latest to the consumer.

According to Dutta, 50 per cent of the marketing budget is allocated for print campaigns, 20 per cent for out of home, 10 per cent for digital and remaining 20 per cent on other engagement activities.

The retail brand wanted to ride on the festival season and started the campaign from East India to capture the market during the pre-Durga Puja period. The campaign officially went live on September 26, 2012. From on-ground activities, which included music concerts and celebrity fashion shows in mall hubs, to tie-up with the ABP Group for various engaging promotions, the retail brand created a buzz. Aggressive print campaigns and out of home visibility was also created.

After the eastern phase, the campaign broke nationally. With about 150 plus sites pan India and targeting 75 plus multiplex screens, the campaign will continue to be live till the end of December 2012.

‘In love with fashion’ is not merely an advertising punch line; it is the new brand mantra. The campaign is youthful, vibrant and exciting and captures the true spirit of the brand and the consumer. It mirrors the aspirations of the youth of today who are free spirited and believe in expressing themselves even in the way they dress. For them, dressing up is not a chore; they want to be well turned out whenever they step out. The campaign echoes this consumer sentiment,” added Dutta.

Dutta shared that from the last quarter Pantaloons is proactively looking at including more activities in its digital communication plan. For this particular campaign, it has tied up with Yahoo and created a digital catalogue wherein users can see the product range available at the stores. This is happening above its social media activities.

           Marico to separate Kaya biz, list it on bourses

·        FMCG firm Marico will demerge its Kaya skin care business into a separate entity:

The company's board, at its meeting held today, approved restructuring of Marico's businesses, corporate entities and organisation, effective April 1, 2013.As part of the restructuring process, the company's Consumer Product Business (CPB) and International Business Group (IBG) will now form a unified FMCG business while Kaya will be re-defined as a separate business

·         Different names:

The company's board has proposed to create two separate companies through partitioning of the current Marico Ltd, into an FMCG business company which is Marico Ltd (already in existence) and a Kaya business company which will be Marico Kaya Enterprises Ltd (MaKE, to be formed), MaKE will have its own separate board of directors, distinct from Marico's board, the company said."Harsh Mariwala will continue to be the Chairman and Managing Director of both Marico Ltd and Marico Kaya Enterprises Ltd,"

·         About kaya:

The Kaya skin care business, which was launched in 2002, has 82 clinics in 26 cities across India, 19 clinics in the Middle East and 2 clinics in Bangladesh. Its product range has over 40 products for skin, hair & body for both women and men.In 2010, Kaya also acquired the aesthetics business of Singapore-based Derma Rx Asia. Pacific Pte Ltd. There are 3 centres across Singapore and Malaysia. Marico, which is present in more than 25 countries across Asia and the African continent