Start with a strong insight, technology comes later: Nitin Saini, Mondelez India

In a spotlight session at the India Brand Conclave 2024, Nitin Saini, Vice President - Marketing Mondelez India Foods, took the audience through a journey of acing ‘Purpose beyond Taste’, as he shared Mondelez’s story of building iconic brands over the years.

Saini began the session by highlighting that for any snacking or food company, ‘taste’ is almost like a table stake. “If you are providing a food experience to someone, then it better be tasty otherwise why would anyone have you? It is also something that you have to keep working on, to improve it further,” he said.

Looking at the same from a brand community perspective, Saini feels that the brand should be able to communicate that visually as well. “It becomes extremely important to be able to communicate the taste experience visually, in a very impactful way. But when it comes to snacking and food brands, that is not enough,” he added, as he explained that what actually helps build an emotional connect with consumers is being purpose-driven.

When speaking of brand purpose, for Mondelez, a couple of aspects are very important. Firstly, Saini says, it needs to be very meaningful to people and help improve their lives. “Secondly and more importantly, it has to be credible. If it is not, it is certain to bring down the impact of what you’re trying to reach,” he added.

Sharing the example of Cadbury or the company’s gifting brand ‘Celebrations’, Saini said that the brand purpose here is ‘inspiring the world to be more generous’. “If you see the tagline of our communication, it says ‘kuch acha ho jaaye, kuch meetha ho jaaye’, it basically captures the spirit of generosity,” he said as he showed some ad films to the audience depicting the same.

He further spoke about how the brand tapped into the Diwali season, and how its ad featuring Shahrukh Khan, called ‘Not just a Cadbury Ad’ went on to bag a Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions. “In 2023, we focused on making homepreneurs happy,” he shared, further stressing on the importance that generosity holds for the brand.

Further Saini pointed out how during events like IPL, a lot of focus is mainly on the likes of players or coaches but not much on the Ground Staff. “This was another opportunity for the brand to bring its purpose to life,” he said as he shared Cadbury Dairy Milk’s ad film with the audience, which focused on celebrating the Ground Staff. The impact of the campaign was such that the BCCI increased the salary of the ground staff, post this.

Another one of Cadbury’s campaigns focused on going to watch IPL in a stadium, with your staff. “Ogilvy’s Piyush Pandey actually said that he had the most lively discussions on cricket with his cook,” Saini shared.

The last campaign he showcased was the #GoodLuckGirls campaign, which was remade in 2021. The first part came out in 1997 and was widely praised, as was its remake.

All the purpose-driven work that the company has done, Saini says, has not just resulted in getting fame (in terms of awards), but also resulted in good business.

Responding to an audience query around leveraging digital and tech, Saini said, “Technology is not what you should start with. In the beginning, there needs to be an insight and a strong purpose. Technology can then be a nice way of bringing ideas to life.”