Did you miss Kellogg's Anaaj ka Nashta campaign in partnership with Meru cab service?

Ask any B-school graduate about how Kellogg’s found it hard to enter Indian market and one might get an entire account of what happened.  It was indeed difficult for Kellogg’s to get inside the Indian households where breakfast tables are adorned with plates of Poha, Upma, Parantha and Dosa. But recently I came across a BTL sampling activation of Kellogg’s which might be a good example of right intervention in the consumers’ mind at the right place and at the right time. This campaign was run only through cab advertising. This activation however small in terms of reach and investment had capacity to reach the right target audience and induce trial of Kellogg’s into the daily lives of the people and also delight the customers using the product, already. Campaign details

[caption id="attachment_41330" align="alignleft" width="300"] Free breakfast meal box with milk and container to eat[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_41335" align="alignright" width="300"] Meru Cab with Kellogg's campaign[/caption]

Image Source: afaqs.com

Type: BTL activation (Cab advertising/Sampling) Name: Anaaj ka Nashta Description: Free Anaaj ka Nashta pack for cabs booked for pick-up between 5AM and 9AM. An SMS is sent to the passenger informing about the cab being equipped with a free breakfast. Pack consists of a small Kellogg’s Muesli packet (new variant) along with 100 ml milk carton. Chauffeurs trained to make the passengers comfortable, also providing with sanitizers and scissors. The campaign focuses on the message – ‘Importance of having breakfast everyday’ Running period: Dec 2013 – April 2014 [caption id="attachment_41329" align="aligncenter" width="460"] Kellogg's and Meru tie-up with perfect key elements[/caption]   Right Target audience There can be no better target for breakfast meal than early morning travellers who mostly start in wee hours without eating much for breakfast. They are either early office-goers who are there in the city for a short time or people catching an early morning flight (frequent flyers). The timings of the free breakfast meal and the user of Meru cabs clearly defines the target audience as early morning travellers generally to airports who have a tendency to skip breakfast to make it to their destinations on time. Right intervention The free breakfast meal sure does act as a customer delight for the early risers starving for a quick bite before starting a long day. By identifying this need, Kellogg’s breakfast meal is the perfect intervention in the consumer’s radio cab journey. Right partnership Choosing a right partner for any campaign is extremely important and this campaign isn’t any exception. Meru, which is the No. 1 radio cab service in India, fits aptly in this case.  Meru in this case also had a derivable benefit for themselves through this campaign. Radio cab business, today, has many players making it difficult to differentiate and stay ahead. The free breakfast meal surely will be a value addition and a differentiation to their existing service. The campaign had a perfect mix to be a potentially successful endeavour for Kellogg’s but eventually it metamorphosed into the unrelated Anaaj Ka Nashta campaign, which was heavily publicized all over. Possible improvements 1. Exploring the potential in Social Media Campaigns such as these have a great Social Virality Quotient. But absence of a proper medium for the delighted consumer played a significant role in curbing the viral nature of the campaign. The above picture demonstrates the stickers put on the head of the seat in the cab. The message of the campaign is clearly conveyed through the campaign. Although, consumers who get delighted to get the free breakfast meal are left on their own without any encouragement to share their experience with others. Something like “Share your breakfast experience with us on xyz.com” or “Tweet your experience with #PowerofBreakfast” would have at least made this campaign noticeable to others on the social media space. With ‘Selfies’ being the new ‘in’ thing these days, a ‘Selfie with the breakfast meal’ contest would have been a hit on Instagram. Not tapping social media properly led to lack of data capturing from the consumers in form of testimonials and experiences. Also, they missed an opportunity to gain valuable insights from the consumers about their new product which eventually would have helped in the succeeding campaign. Following are the only tweets related to the campaign:  

Amazing Marketing- Kellogg's breakfast box handed over my Meru Cab @ airport drop off. Really good work. pic.twitter.com/6MuYw3X0iK — Akshay Mehrotra (@akshay_mehrotra) February 17, 2014

RT @Priti1703: 100 days of #happiness - day 1 - #free # Kellogg sample in #meru #cab :-) pic.twitter.com/zxvNGfE5SS — Meru Cabs (@MeruCabs) January 28, 2014

So I get into a Meru to find a box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes waiting for me. Brilliant sampling idea. — Old Jedi Mind Trick (@Samit) December 17, 2013

 

Innovative marketing by #kelloggs Morning passengers of #meru cabs get treated to breakfast in neat lil packets :) pic.twitter.com/QVPcCJjKv1 — Anu Lall (@anulall) January 23, 2014

  2. Renaming the campaign Agreed Kellogg’s is trying to find space on the common Indian’s breakfast table for years. But this campaign could have had a different name to it. Anaaj ka Nashta could have been renamed as ‘Discover the Power of breakfast’ for this bit of the campaign separating it completely from the original campaign. This would have ensured a brand connect with the target audience of corporates and early travellers. Cornflakes is still perceived to be as a non-Indian way of breakfast. Naming the campaign in Hindi is still a longshot for achieving consumer acceptance of cornflakes cereal in the Indian way of eating. 3. Aligning with the parent campaign Once this sampling campaign was over, Kellogg’s launched Anaaj ka Nashta campaign across all the media focusing on helping children realize the power of breakfast. This shows a complete turnaround in terms of the target audience for Kellogg’s (from corporate to children). This might be a better decision considering the fact that indulging a habit in a  child is easier than adults and once a child starts accepting cornflakes in the breakfast, Kellogg’s would have acquired the child as a consumer for long term. The following sums up the campaign which truly had the potential to make it nationally but could not achieve what it deserved.

Hits	Misses
Target Audience	Providing an adequate environment for social sharing of the delighted experience
Choosing the right partner for the target audience	Name of the campaign not in sync with the target audience
Free breakfast meal adding to the delight for the consumer	Sampling activity not getting attention to scaling up to a larger campaign

- Tejas     Tejas Chaudhari is currently working at Audi India. An alumnus of IIM Lucknow (2013 batch). Cricket passionate and a Social Media enthusiast. You can read his blog markidharhai.blogspot.in