How Kellogg’s plans to overhaul breakfast in India

Kellogg's has been patiently working away to generate awareness of its breakfast offerings like corn flakes, chocos, muesli, chocos fills and oats, as alternatives to traditional Indian breakfast recipes.

The brand's healthy eating message has paid off, according to Prashant Peres, managing director, of Kellogg's South Asia. He tells The Drum that muesli has emerged as the fastest-growing category in breakfast cereals.

“The muesli category is seeing a rapid increase in penetration as consumers are upgrading from a single cereal breakfast to a tasty multigrain option.”

Unsurprisingly the growth has led to an increase in brands looking to grab a share of both the breakfast category and the healthy eating positioning. These include PepsiCo-owned Quaker, Nestle, Marico, and Bagrry’s - among others.

Kellogg’s play in the category

Kellogg’s hard work in the muesli and granola category has paid off with the brand now enjoying a market share of more than 70% by value, says Peres.

The portfolio includes the most recently launched protein muesli with 100% plant protein as well as the 21% fruit, nut & seeds variant and the granola, almond & cranberries variant.

Says Peres, “We have worked on building the category over the last few years by generating awareness of our products by consistently demystifying them for consumers.” Peres says this has led to rapid consumer adoption of the category, which Kellogg's aims to continue building.

To drive growth, the brand has targeted time-poor consumers that are prone to skipping breakfast. “We are reaching out to these time-starved consumers by offering them a solid breakfast on busy mornings to fuel them to be at their best," says Peres.

Weaving the muesli narrative with some humour

To tell the story of its muesli offering, the brand has enlisted Indian actor, supermodel and fitness enthusiast, Milind Soman via the recent brand campaign comprising three films that have been conceptualized by Ogilvy India.

Soman, known for his fitness regime, is shown tackling incorrect questions and busting myths surrounding the three muesli and granola products in the films including calling out the absence of ingredients that might not be fit for human health, like trans-fat, cholesterol and added preservatives.

Films

The brief to the creative agency, Ogilvy India, was simple, shares Peres: “To look for one creative hook to bring out the insights about the consumption habits of Indians on the muesli/ granola range.” The agency, in turn, came up with the idea of bringing the focus on the ‘wrong question’ (galat sawaal).

Prem Narayan, chief strategy officer at Ogilvy India, says, “While a lot of times people are curious about what a breakfast cereal meal constitutes of, they sometimes tend to ask incorrect questions about it." With this campaign, the brand wanted to break that clutter and create sharp messaging based on its food story of demystification.

The campaign’s task is “to demystify the category as well as create awareness of the fact that Kellogg’s Muesli range has ‘abundance of good’ & absence of bad’ ingredients”, adds Peres.

Given the fact that the brand has doubled its penetration in the ready-to-eat-cereal category in the past two years, both the cereal category and Kellogg’s seem to be on a growth path in India.