IMT NAGPUR 2008-2010

Institute Of Management Technology, Nagpur

Brand Management

Product: Center Fresh.

Submitted to: Prof. R Kamble.

Submitted By:
SECTION ABC
Navdeep Gupta (08IT024)
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Contents
Brief History Of Brand....................................................................................................................3
Brand Strategies...............................................................................................................................5
Key success factors in India........................................................................................................6
Strong brand building..................................................................................................................7
Constant re-invention of brands...................................................................................................7
Innovative products(particular to company)................................................................................8
Competitive Scenario Around the Brand.........................................................................................9
Financial statistics..........................................................................................................................10
Future Plans...................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11
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Brief History Of Brand

Center fresh is a product of Perfetti Van Melle confectionery. Globally, Perfetti Van Melle ranks
third in the confectionery sweepstakes after Mars and Cadbury. Largest manufacture of
confectionery and chewing gum products .Two brothers ambrogio and egidio perfetti founded
perfetti in 1946. Izaak van mella founded van mella in 1841.Perfetti acquired van mella in Jan
2001.

But in India, it leads the pack with a 25 per cent share of the Rs 3,000-crore (Rs 30 billion) per
annum market. India, in fact, is the only country outside Italy where Perfetti is ahead of both its
rivals.
It could boast of other achievements in the country as well. In a market where price points are as
low as 25 paisa, it has three brands which sell over Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) each: Alpenliebe,
Center Fresh and Big Babol.

And, says Perfetti India Managing Director Sameer Suneja, 37, the Indian operations, expected
to scale the Rs 1,000-crore (Rs 10 billion) mark this financial year, have been profitable for some
years now.  (Perfetti came to India in 1994.)
Confectionery, it so happens, is an intensely competitive market in the country. There are large
multinational corporations like Mars (it bought out Wrigley last year for $23 billion), Cadbury,
Lotte (it acquired Parry from the Murugappa Group some years ago), Hershey (it purchased
Nutrine three years ago), Nestle and well-entrenched local players like Parle Products,
Ravalgaon and not-to-forget ITC which had bought Minto from Candico in 2002 and has added
another brand called Candyman to its portfolio since then.
And more heavy weights are ready to test the waters. Dabur for instance, could join the market in
the not-too-distant future its brand, Hajmola, is after all the undisputed market leader in the
digestive candy market. There are distribution synergies which could prove too irresistible to
exploit one day. Then there are local sweatshops which churn out candies often sold unwrapped.
Little surprise then, there are innumerable brand launches every year almost 70 new brands
were seen in the market place in the first half of 2009 Industry experts say not more than ten per
cent of the new launches survive for more than a year. Mortality rate of brands in this business,
therefore, is as high as 90 per cent. (This is still better than Japan where almost 3,000 brands are
launched every year out of which not more than 90 survive!)
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And the price points are fixed. Confectionaries, thanks to the intense competition, have been sold
in the country at 25 paisa, 50 paisa and Re 1 for several years now. Retailers often hand out
confectioneries if they run out of change.

This means that any climb in raw material prices (sugar this year and petroleum-based packaging
films last year) has to be absorbed by the manufacturer. The import is clear this is not a market
for the faint-hearted.
Suneja, slightly built and a peripatetic salesman, is a veteran of 12 long years at Perfetti. After he
passed out of IIM Bangalore in 1994, Suneja had joined Colgate Palmolive and from there he
moved to Frito Lays and finally to Perfetti in early 1997 as a brand manager. After a two-year
stint in Italy, he returned in 2002 as the head of sales and marketing. Last year, he was named
CEO.
Perfetti has a large portfolio of 16 brands. Of these, it has decided to actively promote ten:
Center Fresh, Center Fruit, Big Babol, Happydent, Alpenliebe, Creamfills, Chlor-Mint,
Chocoliebe, Mentos and Marbles. These ten fetch the company almost 80 per cent of its sale
revenue.
Perfetti brands in India
 Center fresh

 Center fruit

 Center shock

 Alpenliebe

 Alpenliebe creamfills

 Chlor-mint

 Chocotella

 Cofitos

 Fruittella

 Happydent white

 Marbels

 Mentos

 Chocoliebe

 Big babol
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 Alpenliebe lollipop

 Chatar patar

Given the clutter in the market, the only way to create brand salience is through innovative
advertising. Like in other FMCG categories, large confectioners spend 12 to 13 per cent of their
sale revenue on advertising and brand promotion.

Center Fresh, the brand with which the Italian candy giant entered India in 1994.The launch
price of this product was Rs 1.50. In 1995, Perfetti dropped the price to Re 1. The real push for
the brand, though, came in 1996 when Center Fresh associated itself with the Cricket World Cup

Brand Strategies

To understand the strategy behind the new campaign, first some background. The first ad was
aired at the brand's 1994 launch. An international commercial, it showed a man rafting
ownstream while the English jingle sang on about a fall of freshness. In the next scene, the
product split in the middle, showing a similar "fall of freshness". The launch price of Center
Fresh was Rs 1.50, almost three times as high as other gum brands.

"We thought we could command a premium for being an innovative liquid-filled gum, a nicely
pillow-packed foreign brand," recalls Sameer Suneja, the company's marketing head. Well, they
were wrong. While initial advertising and the novelty factor helped push trials for a few months,
sales soon declined and in 1995, Perfetti dropped the price to Re 1. That helped. The real push
for the brand, though, came in 1996 when Center Fresh associated itself with the Cricket World
Cup. It became the official chewing gum of the World Cup, the rationale being that cricketers
like to chew gum on the field.

The brand emphasized its cricket connection - on the packaging, billboards, hoardings and TV
commercials. Free samples were passed around outside the stadia on match days. Sales took off
and the "official chewing gum" status continued for some years.

The next big push came when Center Shock was launched in 2001. "We couldn't afford to
advertise both Center Fresh and Center Shock. Instead, we launched the new product under the
'Center' umbrella, so that there would be a rub off on the mother brand from the Center Shock
advertising," says Suneja.

He claims the strategy worked then, and again when similar tactics were adopted at the launch of
Center Fruit and Air Action Center Fresh (that ad showed a thin man pushing a chubby girl on a
swing). "We have not advertised the mother brand, but still brand awareness and sales continue
to be very high," declares Wakankar.
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So why a Center Fresh ad now? Have the new variants overshadowed the mother brand, or have
new products that have been promoted aggressively - such Wrigley's Orbit or even Prefetti's own
HappyDent - affected Center Fresh sales?

That may be the market buzz, but the company brushes aside all such rumours. Wakankar insists
the brand is growing at a "healthy" double-digit rate, while Suneja points to the fact that "98 per
cent of all chewing gum sales in India happen between 50 paise and Re 1 - and Center Fresh is
Re 1."

The reason, then, may lie in the new factory Perfetti is setting up at Rudrapur (in addition to
existing facilities at Manesar and Chennai). The additional capacity will need extra demand and
Perfetti's drumming up business. "Our philosophy is that when things are looking good, invest
and make them better," says Suneja.

How was the new ad conceptualised? O&M Group Creative Director Abhijit Awasthy says there
was no formal briefing - just some brainstorming on "what will work best for the product".
For Center Fresh, both agency and client were clear that there was no need to push awareness -
the brand has been around long enough and the variants have done their bit to promote the
mother brand.

"Freshness as an attribute also came out quite naturally from the product name. Plus, a lot of
people have been doing ads for different products on the idea of freshness. So, there was no need
to play on the freshness factor, too," he adds.
Which is where the idea of a more generic ad came up, one that plays upon the more indirect
benefits of chewing gums - it can keep help keep your mouth busy and shut when it is not
required to speak.

Also, since Center Fresh is a mass product consumed by consumers across sections, Perfetti
wanted an ad that cuts across audience types.

Key success factors in India

The Indian confectionery market is very different from the global market. While India is
primarily a mono pack market, globally the confectionery market is a multi pack market. The
trade is also Significantly different with the global market relying heavily on organized trade. In
India, unorganized mom and pop retail outlets such as paan shops and kirana outlets result in the
bulk of sales. Organized trade is still insignificant in terms of sales. Functional products and
sugar free confectionery dominate the world-wide market, while that trend is yet to pick up in
India.
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Strong brand building

Perfetti Van Melle has also shown creativity in its packaging as well as communication and
promotions. Big Babol redemption contests, Cofitos Click Card promotion are examples of this.
Alpenliebe, Big Babol, Chlor-mint are all brands built in the past decade and advertising has
played a key role in the same. A series of conventional and non-conventional branding
techniques and media innovations have been utilized to promote the company's products in India.
Besides media vehicles like television, radio (FM), press, outdoor and on ground activities as
well as “point of purchase” promotional material have been used tactically, across the country.
The company believes in being flexible when deciding spends on a specific brand and lets the
market factors determine spends on the brand and on different media vehicles. However,
advertising has to be backed by availability of the product, in order for the advertising to deliver
the desired results and Perfetti has taken care to ensure the same.

Constant re-invention of brands

The company continually works towards developing its brands and goes to the extent of re-
inventing the same if the situation demands. An example is the brand Cofitos that was re
launched at a lower price point because of the market demands. Variants of Alpenliebe were also
launched in the year 2002 to take the brand forward and to create excitement in the market.
Similarly the company has worked on the positioning of brands like Chlor-mint and modified the
same in order to develop it further. in June 2009 Center Fresh has launched a new campaign
“India, baate kam, kaam zyaada” as an extension to the brand thought “Zuban pe rakhe
lagaam”. 

The agency was tasked with creating a new approach for the existing brand proposition. The film
shows a group of policemen, office executives, politicians, doctors and two cricketers seemingly
engrossed in serious discussions in their respective fields. This is accompanied by an audio
praising the talent and future of India. Cut back to the same set of people actually discussing
about the most mundane things which are absolutely not related to their respective professions.
This is followed by the voiceover “India, baate kam, kaam zyaada”.
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Innovative products(particular to company)

Perfetti Van Melle has introduced several innovations in its products, cases in point being
Center Shock, Alpenliebe Swirl and Happydent Gum. The company offers products through
continuous innovation, and by setting and achieving high quality standards, rigorous processes
and controls. As a result these are recognized by the consumer to be amongst the best two in the
respective product categories in which it operates. The company believes that this contributes
significantly to their achieving and maintaining a dominant position in the market. Perfetti Van
Melle has also successfully adapted its products to the Indian palate, serviced the market with
superior products and ensured the maximum flexibility to give what the market would demand.

CENTER FRESH

SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths
 Innovation

 Promotional tactics

 Packaging

 Quality

WEAKNESS
 Maintaining technology superiority

 Price constrain

OPPORTUNITIES
 Innovation within the brand

 Sugar free products

THREATS
 Competition from international brand.

 Competition from domestic players .

Competitive Scenario Around the Brand

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Because of Target advertisements need to appeal to consumers across age brackets and socio-
economic groups. Confectionery brands cut across consumer categories.
Perfetti therefore puts humour (Mentos and Center Fresh), emotion (Alpenliebe), bizarreness
(Happydent and Chlor-Mint) and fun in liberal measures in all its commercials. We do some
edgy work and are willing to take risks, says Suneja. Story lines have been dropped and film
shoots scrapped at the last moment, says he, to get the perfect advertisement.

Perfetii Promote there Product with following Promotion tools

 Free sampling.

 Animated films.

 Trump cards.

 Advertising .

One way to create a difference in the mind of consumers, Perfetti has realised, is to coin taglines
for all its flagship products. Others who do that now will only be seen as following it.

Thus, there is Zubaan par rakhe lagaam (reins in the tongue) for Center Fresh, Dobara mat
puchna (Dare not ask again) for Chlor-Mint and Dimag ki batti jala de (Lights up your brain) for
Mentos.
Hidden Competitors in India
 Pan

 Flavored supari

 Chutki

 Pass Pass

Competitors

 Orbit

 Pim Pom

 Boomer

 Spearmint.

 Juicy fruit
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Financial statistics

 Overall turnover in India of chewing gum is Rs 325 crore .

 In which center fresh capture 33%.

 In between 2001-2006 confectionery market was growing at a rate of 8.7%

 Under confectionary market chocolate segment is growing at the rate of 10%,chewing

gum and mint segment increasing at a rate of 12-15% and sugar segment increasing at the
rate of 5%.

 Global confectionary market would rise 16% between 2006 - 2010.

Future Plans

Perfetti Van Melle's vision is to enhance its world leadership in confectionery by creating value
for people through delightful and imaginative high quality products. The company's mission is
to:

• Develop, manufacture and market high-quality and innovative products for consumers, through
Efficient use of its resources and in partnership with its customers

• Create a fulfilling workplace for its employees built on trust, mutual respect and appreciation
of their diversity

• Value the role it plays in communities, as a socially and environmentally committed

Organization

• Generate economic value through superior growth and profitability

India and China are the focus countries as per the Group's global plans, given the important
positions of these two economies at the global level. In India the company strives to change the
face and nature of the confectionery industry. It aspires to shift it away from the unorganised
segment, dominated by low quality and unhygienic products, to a more competitive and
organised scenario, dominated by high quality manufacturing, innovative advertising and
widespread distribution extending even to small towns and villages.
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Living the Perfetti Van Melle Values requires courage, vision, trust, commitment and
pragmatism.

The following values guide the company's actions

in achieving the mission:
• Integrity without compromise
• Achieving excellence
• Dedication to the consumer
• Care for its people
• Social and environmental responsibility
• Independence

References

http://www.campaignindia.in/news/center_fresh_urges_india_to_talk_less_and_work_more

www.authorstream.com/.../himanshuvohra-102291-center-fresh-perfetti-chewing-gum-
centrefresh-07-education-ppt-powerpoint/

http://business.rediff.com/special/2009/aug/18/spec-perfetti-success-in-india.htm

Article by on center fresh Bhupesh Bhandari & Byravee Iyer.( http://www.business-

standard.com/india/news/perfecting-perfetti/367216/)

http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/mar/20ad.htm