The Kellogg Company officially became Kellanova and WK Kellogg Co. in 2023, after the former's Board of Directors approved the pending separation into two independent, publicly traded companies.
As Kellanova today, the company envisions a new era with a more growth-oriented portfolio, marching forward with a renewed vision and strategy, and an energised organisation grounded by a winning culture and its founder's values. The company has an ambitious plan to build on the strong brand equity and legacy savoured over the previous 117 years as Kellogg Company.
We spoke with Prashant Peres, Managing Director, South Asia, Kellanova and Vinay Subramanyam, Head of Marketing South Asia, Kellanova on how the new dynamics are impacting the India business and their growth plan for the coming years.
Excerpts:
From Kellogg to Kellanova, it has been an exciting journey for us to watch. Tell us how is the rebranding of the corporate going to impact the future of the business.
Prashant: The rebranding from Kellogg to Kellanova is something that we've done globally as an organisation, really looking at the way the food industry is moving. We moved away from the US cereal business, but the rest of the erstwhile Kellogg business has remained intact. We've also made it our stated position to say that we want to become a snacking powerhouse.
And as know, we have very powerful snacking brands, Pringles being one of them, which is there in India. But there are many others that we have in the US and many other countries. Hence, very clearly, we are going to accelerate our play in snacking. But at the same time, Kellogg as a brand, will remain the market leader in breakfast cereals in countries across the world, including India. With strong market leaders, we intend to continue to drive the breakfast cereal business as well. So, there is no change on that part of the business, but adding the muscle and adding the drive behind the snacking part.
While it is reported that the rebranding effort will not affect the brand's packaging, what kind of an impact are you expecting on the existing consumer base?
Prashant: It is very much a corporate rebranding. Therefore, Kellenova, which is keeping Kellogg in some way in the name, along with Nova, meaning new, really represents what we're going to do. It's holding on and building on our breakfast cereal business, adding new in the stacking space, none of which will impact the consumer from a brand point of view, because our brands are going to remain the same.
So, Kellogg is going to continue to be and that's what the consumers will see. The way it will impact consumers is the fact that they will see a lot more coming out of this organisation and from our company, a lot more innovation. We'll continue to innovate in breakfast cereals as well and they're going to see that dual approach from us in the coming years.
And how these recent innovations will add to your overall growth?
Prashant: We've been innovating and trying to stay ahead of the market for a long time. If you look at the breakfast cereal space in India, for example, we are the ones who really help accelerate our news team and we're very strong leaders in the new segment, which is growing very well.
At the same time, we also introduced granolas. We put a placeholder over there where people who understand the concept can also tap into the granolas well and so on. Also, we were probably one of the first to launch no added sugar muesli. So, sugar as you see, may be the top concern right, but saw it almost four or five years back.
To give you an idea, we first introduce a platform (like muesli) and then build on it by adding variants. Even in the kids segment, we built the kid's breakfast cereal segment through brands like Chocos, and then also introduced step changes like Choco fills, which is the centre-filled product.
Hence, you will always see this balance from us where we bring in new platform innovation and also add on variants and step changes on that platform, just make it stronger and stronger.
Talking of the rebranding, Chocos has been recently rebranded to a new proposition. Please tell us more about it and why you think it was essential at a point like this.
Vinay: The reinvention of Kellogg's Chocos that we have done really is part of a continuous improvement process that we follow on our brands. We are continuously looking at things in which we can make our products better in terms of taste and their nutrition profile.
There's actually a combination of two insights that went into the creation of this new Kellogg's multigrain Chocos. First, mothers really care about the nutrition profile of the food that they give their children- different grains, fruits, textures, etc. At the same time, one also loves to see children eat food with joy. This is where Chocos comes alive and it really brings the best of two worlds together, and that really is at the foundation of the relaunch of Kellogg's multigrain Chocos.
Second, once you make a product which is as good, the marketing rebranding translates into packaging, translating into the colours we use, the height and Browns in the new pack will show you the chocolatiness of the product. This gets translated into the claims we make which are multigrain, zero maida, more chocolaty power of five nutrients and so on.
This eventually leads to the communication that you currently see in our ads.
Can you take us through the overall communication strategy that has been adopted to actively convey the rebranding and repackaging effort?
Vinay: Communication is obviously the place where you put the big bucks and you want to make sure that enough people get to know about it through what they see. On media, three very simple legs are done at scale beginning with mainline communication. Next is social because a lot of information and opinions about food are being made there. Third is sampling, which is getting people to try the food because the proof of the pudding in any new food is in the tasting.
Do you have similar plans for other categories of the brand as well?
Prashant: Yes! Once we've put in place a platform, we're constantly looking to evolve it.
We're doing this on Chocos and we will look at other parts of our portfolio and continue to look at how can we evolve our products and take them to the next level. We don't see the need to launch variants for the sake of variants, which is unlike Pringles which is very much a flavour and taste game, and then it changes quite dramatically in the breakfast cereal space. It is also about taking your existing platforms and taking them to the next level, both taste and nutrition, but doing it in a very focused manner because we still have so much room to go to tell people and penetrate the market even with our existing products. We want so many more people to try what we already have.
Can you help us understand the KPIs that you are actively measuring around this marketing effort?
Vinay: Usually for us, the biggest KPI is consumer penetration, followed by consumption.
The brand is targeting double-digit growth currently. What will be some of the overriding factors, considering the looping consumption challenge due to inflationary pressure?
Prashant: The inflationary pressures hold you back for some period of time. But when you step back and look at the long-term horizon, the proposition that we have in our breakfast cereals, is a win-win, which is great nutrition, great taste, and very convenient. And really helps unlock one of the most busy moments in any mom's life, which is the early morning period. It is a proposition that is going to gather steam one way or the other. And that's the way we look at it. Therefore, we have no doubt that this proposition will grow from strength to strength.
Taxation structures, inflation and cost do hold you back. India is a value-conscious market and every time you have very high inflation, you've got to take on pricing and it prevents some more consumers from trying you. That year, at least, we try and minimise the impact on consumers as much as possible. We do it by running a very tight ship internally so that we can give the best possible value to consumers and not have to pass on all the inflation-led pricing that probably comes in. But, what we are also equally clear about is that this category needs communication. It means it needs to be explained to consumers, it needs to be made relevant to their lives and therefore, we don't hold back on those investments because that is really the fuel that is going to drive this engine.
That's the way we believe that- you may have a couple of quarters which aren't as good, but you're going to just bounce back in the time to come and that double-digit growth will indeed happen at the same time. What we are also doing as an organisation is that we are moving into newer spaces and some of those spaces are seeing good growth and we will continue to do more of that as well. And the combination is definitely going to work well.
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