My best campaign is Britannia's 'exciting goodness': Interbrand India MD

This campaign is special because the project repositioned and re-imagined an old and well-established brand, says Ashish Mishra

Which is your best campaign and why have you chosen it?
The campaign “exciting goodness” — as a part of Britannia’s brand-led transformation which was ushered in in 2018 — is my
favourite work. This campaign is special because the project repositioned and re-imagined an old and well-established brand.

 
What was the key idea behind the brand makeover?

In the second half of 2016, Britannia’s board of directors tasked Interbrand with the responsibility of making the brand more contemporary. The brief was to rejuvenate the century-old brand to draw new consumers and explore new market opportunities in a manner that it reflected the company’s future plans and portfolio expansion. The brand’s new positioning of exciting goodness espoused the increasingly relevant idea of balance. The new logo celebrates this beautiful balance between the two fundamental choice drivers — well-being and excitement — and also between accessibility and being recognised as premium. Britannia is uniquely placed to champion this growing philosophy of consumption as well as lifestyle. When goodness and fun combine, new possibilities arise. The idea was to dispel the belief that these are mutually exclusive. Exciting goodness not only provides a unique positioning for Britannia portfolio but also informs its purpose and its future innovations framework.
 
How do you think the campaign helped redefine brand Britannia?

Although the world around had changed, merely refreshing the design would not have helped. The most compelling reason for the rebranding was strategic. It was to bring the future business strategy to life through the new-look brand. For the future, Britannia’s business ambition warranted a stronger connect with the youth and needed a broad-basing of the portfolio beyond biscuits while retaining its premium positioning.
 

Did you conduct a consumer research before creating the campaign?

The campaign followed a two-year brand engagement involving analysts, strategists and design experts from across Interbrand’s India, Madrid and London offices, who drew upon the wisdom of Britannia’s leadership, varied consumer cohorts, chefs and nutritionists. Insights drawn from these formed the basis of the refreshed new positioning for the brand.
 
At the core of the strategic uplift was a larger narrative. It was about how the long-standing master brands should be treated. The heritage mother brands in our market, as also in many other parts of the world, have had an existential challenge. There seems to be a pattern that they follow as they evolve. They all begin with being primary brands dealing in certain product(s) and gain substantial equity over time. That equity then provides the strength for extensions and expansions into newer categories through corresponding product brands.
 
Over time, the product brands become big and get managed by dedicated teams at business unit levels. Simultaneously, the mother brand, devoid of a structural custodianship or governance, keeps getting weaker. This creates a downward spiral as the product brands, especially the premium and special ones, begin to distance themselves from it. Eventually, the powerful mother brands get relegated to being a mere endorser for the portfolio brands. The objective was to restore the prominence and respect for the mother brand Britannia. We did that by establishing the larger role of Britannia vis-a-vis the product brands.

Ashish Mishra, Managing director Interbrand India

My Take: 
We managed to strike a balance between well-being and excitement as well as accessibility and premiumness

Brand: Britannia

Year of launch: 2018 

Agency: Interbrand India