India Gate Food has served the nation for the past 25 years. Its products are now in every corner of India with a strong distribution network. Global Product now exports to over 82 countries across the globe. Hello Entrepreneurs is curious to know about the brand’s journey, challenges, future planning and more. Without wasting time, we took an opportunity to interview Mr. Kunal Sharma, the Head of Marketing & Business Head – Modern Trade & Ecommerce, India Gate Foods (KRBL).
Q. India Gate Food has been serving the nation for ages; with what planning will you take forward this legacy?
Strengthen credibility | Enable company vision execution
Keep the brand relevant as per the changing needs of the consumers and make India Gate the partner of choice at consumer’s every interaction with rice Brand India Gate has tasked itself to drive conversion from unbranded Basmati Rice to branded. There are well-thought-out strategy basis on robust consumer and category insights that have been put in place to drive this, which includes sharp consumer communication, aggressive retail footprint expansion from the current 3 lacs to 5 lacs outlets, distributor expansion in lower population class markets and scaling up digitization to accelerate efforts in this direction.
Q. What changes have India Gate Foods adopted since you took charge?
Setting up a cohesive marketing team specializing in branding, media, digital & consumer research, and new agency partners onboarded in line with this vision (Creative and digital agencies). Alignment on a clear strategy for the brand with a singular focus on expanding packaged basmati segment as the World’s No. 1 Basmati Rice Brand with food habits and business challenges varying across markets, a regional approach to communication strategy was adopted, leading to different TVCs crafted with regional insights being launched I love my Saasumaa – https://youtu.be/ePDZpW5lFqQ Maa ke haath ka khaana – https://youtu.be/FKptBujuzr8
Inka Favorite Pulav – https://youtu.be/z2c7ZUW5QlY
Laying out a clear New Product Strategy and getting the organization’s focus and efforts on building a portfolio for the future; a new innovative product, India Gate Sugar Watchers Special, launched in the market in Dec ’22, Increased focus on consumer-facing channels like Modern Trade and E-commerce.
Q. What is the brand’s strength that makes it stand out from its competitors?
India Gate enjoys the highest top-of-the-mind awareness among consumers. Over the years, India Gate has developed a successful global consumer franchise, as evidenced by the fact that it is exported to over 90 countries and sells 8+ cr. packs annually, India Gate is recognized as the World’s No.1 Basmati Rice Brand, as per Mordor Intelligence Report on Packaged Basmati Rice, MAT Jun ’22. High focus on delivering the best basmati rice products in each segment consistently.
Q. How was your journey so far; what was the most challenging period you faced?
Understanding the nuances of the category as it has parts of the business which behave like FMCG and some which operate like pseudo-FMCG but that offer immense and diverse experience. The initial period was also spent setting up internal capability and external agency ecosystem before I could hit the ground running.
For a period where research and communication strategy was being worked upon, it was a tough call to stay media dark just to ensure that the new campaigns that came to market would be impactful and hard-hitting.
Q. At KRBL, how do employees get recognition for their efforts?
Strong performance-led culture, which leads to rewards for high-performing individuals. A transparent ecosystem that encourages employees to speak out irrespective of their levels.
Q. What are the further plans of India Gate Foods?
Brand India Gate has tasked itself to drive conversion from unbranded Basmati Rice to branded – only suits a category leader to pave the way for category expansion.
En-route to being an FMCG brand as opposed to just a commodity business. We have a slew of New Products in the pipeline, and scaling them up will be one of our focus areas going forward. We are working towards redefining the way the basmati pack is bought. Today, cconsumers do not really understand why they buy a particular variant of basmati rice; they mostly buy a price point or a grain length. We have undertaken an exercise where the consumer archetype will define which pack he/she picks from the shelf. I feel this is one of the biggest interventions that will happen in the packaged basmati rice segment. Our play in regional rice will increase, and we are looking at expanding our play in the Sona Masoori, Kollam and Gobindobhog segments of regional rice.
