Munch on this: Kurkure changes its brand strategy to perk up image

In the age of actor-ambassadors and digital influencers, PepsiCo is bucking the trend with a mascot for its salty snacks brand Kurkure, one of the eight Rs 1,000-crore-plus brands for the company. It is turning a leaf in its in-house branding book too; after having actors endorse the brand (Juhi Chawla, Taapsee Pannu), it is turning to a mascot called Ms Kurkure. While the company believes that this will help drive tongue-in-cheek conversations online, around the brand, experts see it as a way to break the clutter and sidestep controversy and online trolling.

The mascot helps drive home the brand’s positioning, Khayaal toh chatpata hai, which translates into challenging established norms around family roles, in conversations laced with humour. So for instance the mascot is seen helping a friend deal with mother-in-law problems in one ad and suggesting that a man make his own meals in another.

Dilen Gandhi, director marketing–foods category, PepsiCo India said, “With Ms Kurkure, we are confident that our consumers will build deeper connections by identifying and relating to her as she reinforces the brand ethos of building progressive 

thinking, while adding more fun and excitement to family time.”

Brand Kurkure has always sought to walk down the fun-and-family values branding path. One of its memorable taglines from the past was mouthed by actor Juhi Chawla (Tedha hai par mera hai) which implied that not every family member may be perfect, but they are still family. Just like the crooked spiral shaped Kurkure pieces. Tapsee Pannu who stepped in as brand ambassador after Juhi Chawla played a similar role, furthering the contemporary and unconventional image that the brand sought to embody. 

The mascot will adopt a similar tone and approach, in fact it is being introduced and launched by Pannu. But as Varun Channa, senior V-P and managing partner, Wunderman Thompson, the agency which designed the mascot explained, a mascot brings a unique identity and helps the brand stand out in the clutter of influencers and ambassadors. “It allowed us to visually show the quirky Kurkure humor that consumers love,” he added. 

K V Sridhar, founder and chief creative officer at HyperCollective, agrees that the mascot works as a differentiator, but he adds, more importantly it helps break the language barrier. “Juhi Chawla in Tamil, Odiya or Kannada may not be as appealing. With Taapsee Pannu, the issue is the same. Now, regional markets are becoming important and the regional players are taking the market away,” he said. He believes that people are more likely to accept a multi-lingual mascot rather than one actor speaking in many tongues. 

The regional markets are playing a big role in the rapid growth of the salty snacks market in the country, which has been estimated at Rs 19,360 crore in retail value in 2018, as compared to Rs 17,060 crore in 2017 in a country report by market research provider, Euromonitor International. 

The other advantage is that a mascot can help the brand steer clear of controversial stands that an actor-ambassador may take. Harish Bijoor, founder of Bijoor Consults, says that a brand ambassador is only as good as his or her reputation, but a brand mascot is something that the brand can put together on a drawing board and therefore give it the positive attribute that it wants to convey. The company controls the communication of the idea. “A brand ambassador can do wrong, whereas a brand mascot can't do wrong,” and he added, the mascot is sharply targeted at the young mother, the main category of buyers of the brand. 

Ambi Parameswaran, founder of Brand-Building.com says that Kurkure has always had chosen its actor-ambassadors well, stepping away from the usual celebrity endorsers. And its shift to a mascot is well timed too. “I think there are too many brands using celebrities. It is time the pendulum swung the other way and brands explore other devices like mascots, slice of life stories, real consumer interviews or such,” he said. Besides the use of celebrities as brand ambassadors come with many riders. Rarely can a brand use an actor in his own skin, he plays a character in the story that the brand wants to tell. And for that the actor and the character must embody the brand’s values. A mascot can do the same, perhaps more efficiently and with less controversy.