Who doesn’t remember the 1989 commercial of Parle G which says SAB KO PATA HAI JI...SWAD BHARE SHAKTI BHARE...PARLE G. Well from 1989 to date, Parle Products has added a lot of SKUs to the Indian shelves – brands like KRACKJACK, Monaco, Milk Shakti etc. One of the brands it has on its platter in the premium segment is HIDE n SEEK. Rightly described on its website, Here’s a choco biscuit that flirts with your taste buds. Seek out the chocolate chips that aren't really hidden. And relish a delectable experience as they melt in your mouth. Also know to work as an effective icebreaker it’s easy to see why it’s tasty itna, ki dil aajayee. Effectively communicated by a flirty Hritik Roshan and a series of beauties like Isha Sherwani and others. The first ad showed Hritik Roshan at poolside playing hide n seek with a lady. Nice way to launch a brand and help the audience build the image. The recall value would increase undoubtedly since the the TG remembers HIDE n SEEK and Hritik and the commercial comes in their mind. Now they don’t stop with just one campaign, they have a series of such campaigns – the best seller yet was the Isha Sherwani (Kisna fame) where she refuses to dance and Hritik (with Hide n Seek) makes her do so. Point to be noted is the tune which was born out of this ad is still carried on – where we’ll get in a moment.Followed by cafe ad and the fight ad
Now lets talk about extensions! Since about a week or so, PARLE has been showing a (rather lethargic) commercial of Line Extension for HIDE n SEEK. There are 3 models who carry with them banners of HIDE n SEEK’s 3 new variants – ORANGE, MINT AND COFFEE. Ok! Didn’t notice it yet? Not your fault. Probably they need to realise if you want TG to welcome your extension, you gotto shout. Where is Hritik Roshan – your brand ambassador? Ok if you think why is it that HIDE n SEEK is going crazy behind launching variants – you mus know this is not their first attempt. They have extended the variants of HIDE n SEEK Chocolate by launching the Rs. 5 SKU too. Wow the one that has 4 odd biscuits packed and comes in a huge PET Jar. Man that is penetration. Also sometime last year they launched the HIDE n SEEK Milano - A cookie with a reputation for romance. As the site says, Indulge in the sinful taste of Milano and everything that follows it.
So actually the brand has done all to leverage on its chocolate equity. So the net logical decision was to extend it to suit more taste buds. But why these flavours? There is a reason -Pioneering the chocolate-chip cookie category with its Hide & Seek brand in 1998, Parle had subsequently extended the brand into three variants - orange, coffee and mint. However, poor offtake led the company to discontinue these products while the Hide & Seek chocolate-chip cookies continued to be successful. Claims Sundara Rajan,"For the first time, Good Day will have a challenger brand at the national level. All this time Good Day had competition in the cookie market mainly from the regional players." In fact, cookies, which generally have high butter content, are manufactured by a host of regional players (mainly the local bakeries) and the big national players will have to fight for their share in this segment from the unorganised local players.
Explaining the reasons for the earlier failure of the Hide & Seek variants, Lakshmi Goyal, Business Director, O&M, the advertising agency handing the account, says, "The chocolate variant had a broader appeal and this led to the other variants falling by the wayside." The `exotic' nature of the variants did not help acceptance in the market.
Also I don’t want to get into another story here but fortunately for the second, Parle Products Private Ltd has withdrawn the variants of its chocolate-chip cookie brand, Hide & Seek. Having extended the Hide & Seek franchise early 2005 to two new flavours - butter and cashew badaam - the biscuit major fortunately then restricted it to chocolate-chip cookie. Explaining the rationale behind withdrawing the variants, Mr Mayank Shah, Product Manager, Parle Products Private Ltd, said: "Hide & Seek has a strong association with chocolate. It has always been accepted as a chocolate chip cookie brand and people were not ready to accept the butter and cashew variants. We have now de-linked the variants and re-introduced them as Parle Cookies. The products will soon be re-launched nationally."
To sum it up, I’d say, that yes it is weird to imagine the brand which partially outsmarted Legacy Brand GOOD DAY by entering the choco-cookie variant has got into flavours like Orange, Mint and Coffee but if we want to leverage on the brand equity, you have to come up with variants. Acceptable or not – only time will decide but surely my take is if you want to make a success out of these variants , one – we need to believe these will work gloriously- its ultimately about how we position them in the minds of the TG. Two- get a brand ambassador or work on the dates of Hritik Roshan- since you need him to take it ahead – the magic of HIDE n SEEK and Milano will persist.
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