Breakfastcerels

BREAKFAST: THE CEREAL KILLER
MEERA SETH

If rice and wheat are already core to Indian eating, can cereals survive with a strict
breakfast
Aadesh Saxena looked with surprise at the spread on his house guest’s breakfast plate.
There were two chapatis, a bowl of vegetables, a cup of dahi and a boiled egg. “How can
you eat this meal at 7 a.m.?” he asked Om Vasisht, a marketing consultant, and a close
friend of the Saxenas.
Om looked down at his plate and said, “It is quite light, and very nourishing too!” Aadesh
tucked in his napkin as his tray of cereal, fruits and eggs arrived. “You must eat cereal,”
he said. “So I am,” said Om, pointing to the chapatis, “except bigger and rounder!”
Aadesh, who was the marketing head at Energee Foods, shook his head. “You obviously
didn’t notice these boxes of Healthee wheat, corn and rice flakes,” he said. “At least
when you are my guest you must eat what my company makes!”
“Oh, I gave up milk six years ago,” said Om. “In any case, I am sure there are enough
people out there who are doing Healthee a lot more justice.”
And that is what Aadesh was not sure of. Energee Foods manufactured a range of ready-
to-cook and eat foods and instant foods for breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea time and dinner,
including instant dosas and idlis, baked beans, jams and canned cooked vegetables.
Cereals were a growing market and were perceived as occupying a significant share of
the breakfast table. Consequently, last year Energee added cereals to its portfolio.
But research findings this year were far from encouraging. Healthee was being bought
but not as often or as much as expected. Detailing parts of his research, he said to Om:
“We found that convenience foods have a maximum chance of succeeding in the
breakfast slot. Even there, for those who eat cereal it is not a total meal. They eat a bit
with their milk, but that is to wash down the milk. Kellogg’s describe cereal as the
complete meal, but what is it completing? The per unit consumption is not what we
would prescribe for a full breakfast.”
“But that will be so,” said Om, “because it can never replace the vast repertoire of
breakfast foods we usually eat. You cannot change the eating habits of a people because
it is governed by the climate, the culture, what grows, the lifestyles, the affordability...
everything.”
Om, in his research, had found that when it comes to food and eating, there were a variety
of segments—varying from time as the limiting factor, to nutrition, convenience and
taste. “Let’s look at different kinds of consumers, look at each set’s breakfast or eating
habits. For example, how many eat breakfast at 7 a.m.? For example, the housewife who
is busy with getting the kids. At that point will cornflakes satisfy her? Or is she also
reaching for a paratha with pickle? The issue is not what you want them to eat Aadesh;
the issue is what are they eating anyway? Don’t try and only change habits. Stay with
current habits and fit your products into those slots. Simultaneously evolve their habits
and allow your product range to evolve there from.”

“Tell me," said Om, “Did you adopt one single position? A single position works, you
know.”
“What position?” asked Aadesh. “Within breakfast I adopted the convenience slot.
Kellogg’s has occupied the breakfast slot, and that is what cereals are coming to be seen
for. It has already called it a breakfast food; naturally I am also calling it a breakfast food.
But it didn’t exactly set the Yamuna on fire. The bottom-line is: I don’t get a good feeling
about our sales. Dealers are buying, but not enthusiastically, consumers are buying, but
there is something to consumer attitudes and behavior. Our research shows that the
number of families buying is as per our expectations, but not their volumes. I feel there is
something more which we haven’t identified.”
“Okay, let’s look at your positioning then,” suggested Om. “The whole idea of
positioning cereal as a breakfast food, as a complement or a supplement to the traditional
Indian diet, was predominant in your mind. Now the mix that an average Indian eats is
most complete in most contexts already. So the niche that you have selected is a narrow
one which is where the problem comes in. Why do you think it is a breakfast food?”
“Okay, at that hour people are in a rush to get to office or school,” explained Aadesh. “So
we said it can be quickly had. Besides, it is light and nutritious and healthy. We
discovered that the rush segment doesn’t eat anything anyway, and the non-rushed
segment already has a full meal, for whom this breakfast slot is not a valid slot at all.”
“Even the rush segment,” continued Aadesh, “while it does consume cereal, and claim it
is a healthy diet, does not eat a full cereal breakfast. The add-ons vary from a paratha roll
which is eaten on the way to the bus stop or in the car, to a cheese sandwich or a bowl of
fruit.
I also feel, to a large extent that time defines what they will eat. I know one family which
has always eaten Champion oats for breakfast ‘because it is filling’, and suffered the
resistance of the kids or the vast quantities of sugar that goes into dressing up the oats.
These days they add generous quantities of Frosties or Chocos to the porridge which sells
better with the kids. So on days when the kids get up late, the oats are eliminated and it’s
just Chocos and milk.”
“You didn’t realize that in India it is used as an additive to milk,” said Om, “and,
therefore, unwittingly pitted yourself against Bournvita and Horlicks! So, what then is the
role of the cereal?” asked Om. “Breakfast? When I think about it, I don’t think Kellogg’s
has positioned its cereal for the rush segment or for a state of rush. It positioned it as a
supplement. Now who is it competing with? With the paratha or dosa, with Bournvita or
Boost or Complan which is added to flavor the milk to push it downs the throat easily. So
where is the cereal landing up? Necessarily it is cornering itself into a position of
insignificance.
This means that if the cereal is not present on the table, it won’t make such a big
difference. It is incidental. Most families have a menu of options—honey, Bournvita,
oats, dalai, dosas, paratha—all these have been conventional breakfast options. In such a
basket, the cereal is an incidental come-and-go activity. By offering it as a nutritional
element at breakfast or a complement to the existing breakfast fare, it is doomed to be a
niche player in the basket. Do you see?”

“And that is because you have put it into the breakfast slot,” said Om. “Therefore by
definition, once it is 9 a.m., the box of cereal is of no relevance on the table; it is not
visited until the next morning. It does not return to the dining table. That’s what you have
to apply your mind to. By restricting it to the breakfast table you are reducing its efficacy
and utility for the rest of the day.
“Healthee should seek to be a product which has free mobility on the table, across all
meals,” felt Om. “Healthee should be an anytime food, in the same way in which Magi
noodles can be had at breakfast, or at lunch or as a filler or at dinner with a variety of
vegetables thrown in,” suggested Om.
“How is that tenable?" asked Aadesh. “When the Kellogg’s of this world are swearing
they are breakfast foods, how can I come in and say, ‘Healthee is an anytime food?’”
“A food is what you position it as,” said Om. “Now look at Maggi’s positioning.
Fundamentally, it can be perceived as a meal-time food. Instead, it is an anytime food. It
is two minutes away from satisfaction and convenience. If Maggi had positioned noodles
like you have positioned Healthee, it would have ended up becoming another meal. But
Nestle' researched and found the evening slot as the key slot to take up a position. So it
became a snack food. With time, overlaps happened and people started having it at other
times, as a filler, as a distraction, as a meal-between-meals and it came to become an
anytime food. So the two-minute concept was positioned more as an evening emergency
snack for kids and then it caught on. From ‘once-a-week-Maggi’ it started happening
thrice a week.”
Convenience, nutrition, health were just positions to take, felt Om. “And each of these
has a place in every meal,” said Om, “and you have to decide on the meal slot. For that
you will need to look at eating habits at every meal. The day shifts in India because of the
huge trading community. So, you have a heavy breakfast which is essentially the lunch
fare. Very few people actually eat lunch regularly at a restaurant. Either they carry
packed food or have food delivered to them or, like the traders, eat an early 10 a.m. lunch
on which they subsist the whole day. For different professions it works differently. But it
is the dinner hour that is mostly pegged to 7-7.30 p.m.
“So, where are the slots where a snacky meal can come in,” asked Om, “where
convenience is required, where time is the issue, where the meal has to be light? These
are the slots for your cereal to fit in. What I am saying is that you don’t necessarily have
to position Healthee as a breakfast food.” Aadesh resisted that. “You can’t change
something so fundamental!” he said. “Let us look at what you have,” persisted Om.
“You came in with cornflakes because you believed the Indian habit was changing in that
direction. Have you examined current eating habits?”
“The point is, Healthee, or for that matter any cereal, while it is being bought, isn’t
becoming the core breakfast item on the table,” said Aadesh. “Because there are any
number of substitutes.”
“I think there’s another reason linked to the product that it’s to be had with, namely,
milk,” said Om. “You can’t, for instance, have cereal with dal, though I wonder why not!
It’s all a matter of serving and positioning it. Come to think of it, Maggi is essentially a

commodity. You can have it the way the manufacturer prescribes or do your own thing,
with Maggi as the core and garnishes of vegetables, minced meat or eggs.
“But as I said, the suggestion of the how to’ has to come from you. Since it has to go with
milk, there are any number of substitutes—cocoa, Bournvita, Rooh Afza, chocolate or
Rose syrups, and even oats. Milk goes well with so many of them. And in any case your
product is only a supplement.”
Om felt it was not just a question of what to eat’. It was also a question of when to eat’
that went into the perspective of planning. “Take the case of Mother Dairy’s Aloo Tikki,”
said Om. “It is a ready-to-eat Tikki, can be had anytime. But unusually, as I have seen,
people examine the pack, are amazed it is ready to eat, but usually put it back because
there is no message which comes with the product which suggests when it can be eaten!
Strange isn’t it? An Aloo Tikki is staple Indian diet, but the minute it comes in a
packaged form, if you don’t suggest when to eat it, the impetus to buy and consume it is
not there. I think you need to tell the woman that she needs a ready-to-serve emergency
snack, you need to position yourself into her habits—only then does she start viewing
you with interest.”
“Or take Milkmaid condensed milk,” continued Om. “It didn’t move when it was sold as
condensed milk, the consumer received no suggestions on how else it could be used.
Since in its commodity form she had not much use for it, the purchase was very limited.
But once the suggestions came, and mind you, these were suggestions that fitted
themselves into the consumer’s habits, the purchases shot up. The same thing happened
with tomato puree. It is such a fundamental ingredient, but they all said tomato made
easy’. But once they started talking about good-looking Rajma, smart-looking Aloo
mutter, the puree moved out of the store shelves into the kitchen. "Talking of habits, Om
suggested that Aadesh take a look at the new habits in food preparation, storage and
eating. “The newest preoccupation today is microwave cooking,” he said. “For some
time, the woman rejected the microwave because she was convinced Indian food did not
lend itself to microwave cooking methods. But when the heating attributes of microwave
began to appear overwhelming, some of them purchased it. Then arose this notion that
refrigerated food is not as tasty when it is reheated. True or not, there it is. But that little
bit of instant ginger paste or tomato puree when added to my reheating process is
perceived as refreshing the food! It’s amazing, but it is in fact true. For the fragrances
come alive and the dal is no more yesterday’s leftover. And this is so common to Indian
households—this whole process of re-tadka. You have leftover dal, you quietly chop up
some onion, fry it in ghee with ginger and garlic and throw it into the withering old dal
and, presto, it comes alive.
So what has happened? Tomato puree and ginger pastes became generic commodities
which could be used to refresh food. Essentially they enabled the housewife to reposition
the old dal with a few touches to its basic personality!”
Fair enough, thought Aadesh. “But where does Healthee cereals come into this?” he
asked.
“You need to learn from the evolution of these products,” said Om. “Thus, you can
expand Healthee’s market if you also address the ‘when’ issue. But few marketers are
doing that. Everyone who is marketing cereal is harping on the same usage attributes:

health, nutrition and breakfast. No one is suggesting the ‘when’ aspect and that is what is
required to grow the market. If the consumer does not eat cereal anyway, Healthee will
never appear on her purchase list,” said Om. “But if you can find innumerable situations
in her life where the cereal can readily fit itself, she will buy the cereal for those other
situations too and willy-nilly also have some of it occasionally at breakfast, because it is
there anyway!”
Om went back to his favorite example of Maggi noodles. “As pasta it could have got
stuck in the lunch mould, but Nestle’ deftly sidelined that and bravely said, ‘Anytime’.
And mind you, Maggi came 15 years ago, when the Indian was far from adventurous
about food. Maggi’s maximum consumption is between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. which is
typically the time when you are looking for an emergency snack. It is also the time when
you have a madly hungry child on your hands, homework done and an appetite that is
soaring and your good sense is preventing you from giving him a samosa or a series of
dosas or biscuits because he has to eat dinner by 7 and you want him adequately hungry
by then. So what do you give him? Maggi and milk!”
Om was of the view that the new millennium was the era for change, for innovation,
adaptation, the era for creating a revolution in worldwide food habits. “You have gone
into the standard mould of putting the cereal in the breakfast basket,” he said. “But the
issue that emerges is, are you looking at the ‘when’ and the ‘how’ and the ‘how-else’? It
is for you to generate the ‘how elses’ if you want to grow the market. For, believe me,
market share can be won only by those who can grow the market, not by the me-toos.”
As far as he could see, cereals were a commodity, like noodles and tomato puree. “It is
for you to create the magic with new ‘how tos,” said Om. “If it becomes her core
ingredient to innovate with, be sure your product has entered the kitchen of every
housewife for good. Your cereal has to transcend to the level of becoming an ingredient
in the housewife’s recipe book. Leave it to her to innovate by showing her that your
product is but an add-on for nutrition and health. For that is what a cereal is ultimately.
But right now you and Kellogg’s are simply saying ‘eat breakfast with milk’, thereby
restricting usage. Naturally, away from breakfast and milk, the cereal will have no
salience.”
The other issue, felt Om, was that food was being marketed and researched by men, not
women. “This is a country where the woman is the predominant creator of food. She does
it for a living!” he said. “When food companies leave the product research and adaptation
to women, the market will grow. The way she re-tadkas the dal, or crumbles stale bread
and chapatis to create a mesmerizing upma, the way she alternates her rasam with lime
once, tamarind the next time, tomatoes the third time... the way she stuffs capsicum with
cheese rice... If you understand the poetry that food is, you will be able to write new
verses.”
Om was confident that anybody entering the foods market must learn the ‘how’ and the
‘when’ and the ‘how-else’ aspects of food if they want to grow the market. Innovation
was the key. “If you tap the actual usage of bread,” said Om, “what share of it is used as
plain bread vis-à-vis in other forms? The traditional form of bread is toasted and buttered.
But in India you even have bread pakora, shahi tukra, bread upma... The innovation in
breads over time is what is responsible for the acceptance of bread as a product in India.

It is not an original Indian product, just as cornflakes and condensed milk are not. So,
take your cue from bread if you want Healthee to grow,” he said.
As they got into their respective cars, Om said: “Remember Aadesh, no market share
wars are won without growing the market and you can do that when you create new uses
for the same product and for that you need to delve into the habits of people. In the
beginning there is a fundamental habit of eating. Now go ahead and stimulate desire!”

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