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When people go to retail store now days, they often end up buying what they do not
actually wanted to buy and often they want to buy a particular product but Fail to recall a
particular brand. It͛s a game of 4P͛s and advertising tactics which is responsible for creating
an all-time brand recall.Bingo was launched in India on March 14, 2007 during the world cup
time. Their advertisements have a kind of buzz creating appeal which helped in creating a
strong brand recall.

While the objective of bingo was to capture the minds of the customer first and market
later, they wanted to gain at least 8% market share nationally. The ad agency wanted to
base the campaign on the three pillars ofProduct, Placement and Personality.

After a few brainstormingsessions, the team realized that people in India still prefer
traditionalsnacks, such as banana chips and biscuits. To counter that, theydecided to use the
familiar tastes and come up with somecombination of local flavors.Strategic placement of
the product was also an important factor, as the aim was to widen Bingo͛sreach and impact.
Bingo was available in more than 250,000 stores in the first six months of itslaunch. Brand
awareness was also built by placing the Bingo racks in local grocery st ores as wellas
supermarkets. In most cases, a TVC is the main source of awareness for a brand, while
inBingo͛s case, it was the Bingo rack.Another thing that had to be taken into consideration
was the fact that snacking is a mindlessactivity .They wanted to promote a brand that would
be deliberately mad, spontaneous andmindless.

The product launch was preceded by an online viral campaign, ͚Wait or Suffer͛. The product
wasintroduced with a television, print and outdoor campaign.Since it was a youth brand,
digital media was used heavily for promotions. O&M claimed that the 360 degree campaign
helped Bingo gain 12 per cent market sharenationally, as opposed to their initial target of 8
percent. Bingo had 16 per cent market share inmetros and a market share as high as 66 per
cent in certain cities.

͚FritoLay͛ took anaggressive stance and launched the marketing campaign led by its star
endorsers, Saif Ali Khan, MS Dhoni andJuhiChawla In order to add further zing to its product
portfolio, in January 2008, the co mpany launched͚KurkureXtreme͛, a limited edition variant
in two flavorsͶ͚Risky Chilli͛ and Electric Nimbu(lime). This was perhaps a move to outdo
competition from ITC͛s snack brand Bingo, which waslaunc hed in March 2007, in local Indian
flavors like ͚Tandoori PaneerTikka͛ (spiced cottagecheese) and ͚ChatkilaNimbuAchaar͛ (tangy
lime pickle).
Bingo͛s success in the market is backed by ITC͛s strong distribution network, which allows it
tostock its products in shops that previously did not sell snack food . Additionally, ITC
Foodsprovides shopkeepers with plastic molded shelves that allow local vendors a
convenient way tostock their product, and the company benefits by increased visibility for
its brand. Taking a cuefrom its competition, Frito Lay India is focusing on unconventional
retail points like cyber cafesand telephone booths, in order to increase brand visibility and
product reach.

To maintain top of the mind recall among its customers the brand has undertaken several
uniquecommunication initiatives . The most recent, for example, is called "Chala Change
kaChakkar,"which was an umbrella campaign for Frito Lay India͛s entire product portfolio
(Lay͛s, Kurkure,Cheetos, ͚Uncle Chipps͛, and Lehar). This promotion allowed chosen
consumers to live a day inthe life of an Indian Bollywood celebrity (who are the brand
endorsers) like ͚JuhiChawla͛ or ͚SaifAli Khan͛. The idea is to generate excitement around the
brand and have it stand out in the clutterof existing brands.

The brand has undertaken similar promotions in the past. For instance, in 2004 it launched
the"KahanimeinKurkure" ("Crispiness in the Story") campaign, which was a take on
Indianpopular culture. The advertising campaign spoofed popular Indian TV shows like
JassiJaissi KoiNahin (Indian adaptation of American sitcom "Ugly Betty") to appeal to Indian
housewives, thelargest target audience to watch these programs.

In addition to targeting housewives, who play a significant role in making purchase

decisions,the brand appeals to the Indian family as a whole. The "Kurkure Chai Time
Achiever͛s Award"was a contest launched by the brand where families were invited to
submit interesting recipesmade with ͚Kurkure͛. The winning family would have the
opportunity to be famous and have theirphotograph featured on one million ͚Kurkure͛
packs.

This direct marketing campaign was supported through television advertising, where
Indiancelebrity ͚JuhiChawla͛, Kurkure͛s brand ambassador, announced the winners of the
competition.The contest was also publicized through th e website http://kurkure.co.in,
specifically designed topromote the contest. Using the website as a strategic tool for
promotion helped the brand appealto a young audience that spends a considerable amount
of time surfing the web.

Another novel branding initiative was a tie-up with South Western Railways in India to
havetrains called the "Kurkure Express." These were special trains that operated only during
theholiday season. The brand was featured on reservation charts, coach indication slips, and
duringany announcements about the train. This outdoor media was a unique way to target
families whotravel by train during the holidays.
In all the above examples there has been repeated attempt by Bingo to create buzz in the
market and increase its market share and strong reply from Frito Lay to get the share back.
It͛s been a long marketing warfare between Bingo and Lays. In this paper we would like to
study how Bingo can increase its market share by improvising on its current strategic
planning. What will be the future of snacks and chips segment and who all are the key
players. We would perform the SWOT analysis for all the key players. In the end we would
like to suggest improvement opportunities

aaftab@amity.edu