Having established itself in the healthy snacking category, Too Yumm! to foray into kid’s category soon

• Too Yumm! that was launched its journey in 2017 roped in cricketer Virat Kohli as its face pretty early in its journey.
• Having Kohli as its face, along with various partnerships like IPL and Inside Edge 2 have helped the brand stay visible.
• Too Yumm! has expanded to many international markets and now is on its way to enter the kid’s category.

The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group (RPSG) ventured into the food and snacking category in 2017 with the launch of its low-calorie snacks brand, Too Yumm. The step was aimed at helping the group further its foray into the FMCG segment, which it considers to be a major growth driver.

Since then, the brand has done its bit to make itself heard. It roped in Virat Kohli as a face of the brand, advertised heavily during IPL and recently partnered with Amazon Prime Video for the second season of its popular web series, Inside Edge. It has also recently came out with a high decibel campaign around four of its new flavors. Since its launch, the brand and done enough and more to stay in the public eye.

Moreover, within 2 years of its launch, the brand has been able to scale its operations to reach a Rs 200 crore sales run rate in April 2019, becoming the country’s fastest growing healthy snacking brand in India. Following the reception it got in the country, it also spread to international markets including Singapore, Australia, Dubai, Oman, Bangladesh and Nepal.

In a recent conversation with Anupam Bokey, CMO, RPSG, FMCG (Guiltfree Industries), we talk about all the brand has done so far in terms of marketing, and how it further plans to establish itself in a market that is still only opening up to the idea of healthy snacking.

Edited excerpts:

Q) Healthy snacking as an idea is slowly picking pace in India. Have you been able to convince consumers that healthy really means healthy and doesn’t really mean it won’t taste good?

For over two years now, we have built our product around its core of healthy snacking. We waited to first successfully establish ourselves as a dominant player in the healthy snacking category before we could shift our focus to taste. By rolling out our recent flavors campaign, we have done just that. We have identified India’s favorite flavors and incorporated them into our snacks to provide an offering that ranks high on both taste and health benefits. I believe that through the flavors campaign, we will be able to convince our customers that leading a healthy lifestyle won’t mean compromising on taste.

Q) Tell us a bit about the recently launched campaign and the thought behind it?

Over the years, we have built our brand proposition around the health benefits of Too Yumm! Having established ourselves as a strong player in the category, we now wanted to shift our focus to what consumers tend to take into consideration, more often than not, when deciding between snacks. With our flavors campaign rolling out this year, we have identified India’s favorite flavors and incorporated them into our snacks. What makes our products stand out here is the fact that these flavors have been made specifically to cater to the Indian palete. Our new campaign ‘Har Craving ka Jawaab’ aims to position Too Yumm! as the perfect guilt-free solution to all cravings, irrespective of where or when they arise. The ad campaign reveals India’s favorite flavors according to Virat Kohli – Noodle Masaala, Dahi Pappdi Chaat, Chilli Chataka and Chilli Achaari. The TVCs deliver a strong message that no matter where or when a craving arises, it can be aptly satisfied by opening a pack of your favorite Too Yumm! flavor.

Q) How has roping in Virat pretty early in your brand journey helped you build your brand image?

We realized rather early on in our journey that to succeed in the healthy snacking category, we would need an influencer. With influencers picking only brands and causes that they support and can get behind, consumers take their opinions into consideration before making a purchase. For us, making Virat our health ambassador helped us successfully reach our target audience and convey the right message. Virat’s personality matches that of our brand and hence our consumers get the right idea. We make sure to rope in our health ambassador in most, if not all our communications with our consumers. Additionally, since he is an inspirational personality representing the most-loved sport of our country and falls within the target age bracket, the match seemed ideal. Being an inspiration to the youth of the country, Virat is admired for his fitness regime and healthy lifestyle. Keeping this in mind, when youngsters look at Virat endorsing and enjoying our brand, they immediately associate it to health and wellness. Our latest ad campaign built around the new flavours shows Virat satisfying his cravings by opening a pack of Too Yumm! Hence, making Too Yumm! an aspirational product for the millennial generation by default.

Q) Are there any new categories that Too Yumm! is currently looking at entering?

Our next aim is to expand our presence among kids. Since we have already established ourselves in the healthy snacking category and have the parents’ trust on our side, we believe now would be the right time to provide a greater variety of offerings to the children.

Q) How was 2019 for brand Too Yumm? Can you share some growth figures? What are your targets for 2020, and how do you aim to achieve these numbers?

2019 has been a good year for us overall. We stayed true to the core of ‘Health’ for our brand and entrenched it further with the genres relevant to us – like sports, travel, music, humour, and health; associated with platforms such as Kumbh, IPL, Karare Strikers gaming, Amazon Prime – Inside Edge Season 2, Mughl-e-azam. In 2019, we also became the first and only FMCG brand to set a Guinness World Record at the Kumbh Mela 2019 by lighting the world’s largest diya as a symbol of good health. Within just 2 years of operation, we have managed to scale operations to reach a Rs 200 crore sales run rate by April 2019 – becoming the country’s fastest growing healthy snacking brand in India. Based on our success in India, we have also expanded distribution to International markets with Singapore, Australia, Dubai, Oman, Bangladesh and Nepal being some of the latest additions. From 5 variants and 15 flavours in the market, we aim to continue growing the healthy snacking market with the launch of newer variants and expansion to new markets. Our latest campaign focuses on the 4 hero flavors of Too Yumm! that are made to suit the India palate. Having established ourselves as a healthy snacking option, we want to introduce Too Yumm! in the kids market as well. So in totality, we have a lot of work and great plans in the pipeline for the brand.

Q) How critical a role will your FMCG offerings play in RP Sanjiv Goenka Group’s overall growth?

FMCG is just in its third year from a start-up; and in the very large RPSG group it’s a rather late entrant and small contributor currently. However it’s one of the most disruptive initiatives within the group that has a large vision and ambition for FMCG play with a very strong focus for the future.

Q) What’s your primary media mix?

We have a healthy media mix but a larger share of our communication is through TV and digital platforms as that provides us with requisite width to reach and engage our consumers.

Q) Going ahead, what will be your broad marketing strategy to grow the brand further and capture a bigger market share?

Our marketing strategy is more or less the same to reach our target audience – to provide our consumers with healthy yet tasty options for guilt free bingeing.