Brand Analysis of DEL MONTE

Submitted to Prof. Rajeev Kamble

Group Members

RishabhRakhecha 2010180 RoshatAdnani - 2010190 S. Srihasa 2010193 Samarth Bharadwaj 2010198 Ashish Attree 2010273

Introduction
The Del Monte Pacific (DMPL) Group is a group of companies that caters to todays consumer needs for premium quality, healthy food and beverage products. It innovates, produces, markets and distributes its products worldwide. The DMPL Group owns the Del Monte brand in the Philippines where it enjoys leading market shares for canned pineapple juice and juice drinks, canned pineapple and tropical mixed fruits, tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce and tomato ketchup. The Del Monte Pacific Group also owns another premium brand, S&W, globally except the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. As with Del Monte, S&W originated in the USA in the 1890s as a producer and marketer of premium quality processed fruit and vegetable products. Del Monte Pacific holds the exclusive rights to produce and distribute processed food and beverage products under the Del Monte brand in the Indian subcontinent. With its 23,000-hectare pineapple plantation in the processing capacity and a port beside the Cannery, Del Del Monte Philippines, operates the worlds largest operation. It is proud of its long heritage of 85 years processing. It has long-term supply agreements Monte trademark owners and licensees around the world. Philippines, 700,000 -ton Monte Pacific's subsidiary, fully-integrated pineapple of pineapple growing and with some of the Del

Del Monte Pacific and its subsidiaries are not affiliated with other Del Monte companies in the world, including, Del Monte Foods Co (USA), Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc, Del Monte Canada, Del Monte Asia Pte Ltd and these companies affiliates. Del Monte Pacific is 78.7%-owned by NutriAsia Pacific Ltd (NPL). NPL is owned by the NutriAsia Group of Companies which is in turn majority-owned by the Campos family of the Philippines. The NutriAsia Group is the market leader in liquid condiments, specialty sauces and cooking oil market in the Philippines.

About Juice Industry and Market in India Fruit juice is a natural product that contains few additives, or none. Citrus products such as orange juice are very familiar breakfast beverages. Grapefruit juice, pineapple, apple, grape, lime, and lemon juice are also familiar products. Coconut water is a highly nutritious and refreshing juice.

Many kinds of berries are crushed and their juices mixed with water and sometimes sweetened. Raspberry, blackberry and currants are often popular juices drinks but the percentage of water also determines their nutritive value. Juices were probably humankind's earliest drinks besides water. Grape juice that was allowed to ferment produced the alcoholic drink wine. Fruits are highly perishable and so the ability to create juices and store them was of significant value. Some fruits are highly acidic and mixing them with additional water and sugars or honey was often necessary to make them palatable. Early storage of fruit juices was labor intensive, requiring the crushing of the fruits and the mixing of the resulting pure juices with sugars before bottling and capping them. Orange juice and coconut water remain by far the most highly consumed juices on the market and are there because of their valuable nutrients and hydration abilities.

Within the fruit juice category in India we have majorly three categorizations: 1. Fruit Juice: These are natural fruit juices where the fruit content is more than 85%. Most of the products in this category consist of 100% juices. For eg: Tropicana 100%, DaburActiz, Saint etc 2. Nectar Juice: Nectars are juices which contains fruit content in the range between 20 to 85%. Nectars have been a growing trend in the Indian markets and we see many brands available as the growth rate is the highest. For eg: Tropicana, Dabul Real, Del Monte, etc 3. Fruit Drink: Fruit drinks have been traditional favorites in the Indian markets. They contain fruit content less than 10%. This category is very fiercely competed and has seen many players. For eg: Frooti, Mazza, Limca, Appy, etc

The juice market in India is one of the fastest growing segments in the beverage industry. The juice market, in terms of volume, has a market size of 660 million unit cases, of which, packaged juice accounts for just 90 million unit cases. A segment that was previously dominated by Tropicana and Real is also witnessing the entrance of many new brands in the past few years. The total size of the juice market is estimated to be of 100 Crores. Pepsi with their brand Tropicana and Dabur with its brand Real command around 80% of the market.With the entry of Parle Agros Saint, Cokes Minute Maid, Del Monte, Godrejs Jumpin and Kissan this is expected to change. The growth of the market has been 40-45% during the year 201011. This market also witnesses competition from local brands like Leh Berry, KDD, Onjus, Sach, Rani etc.

Launch of Del Monte

Bharti Enterprises in partnership with Del Monte Pacific Limited launched an exclusive range of international Del Monte products including fruit drinks, packaged fruits, ketchup & sauces, and a range of Italian products in the Indian market in April 2009. More than 100 years old, Del Monte is one of the largest and best known food product brands globally. In India, the DMPL Group owns approximately 46% of FieldFresh Foods Private Limited. FieldFresh markets Del Monte-branded processed products in the domestic market and Fieldfresh-branded fresh fruits and vegetables globally and in the domestic market. Del Monte Pacifics partner in Fieldfresh Foods is the wellrespected Bharti Enterprises, which owns one of the largest conglomerates in India. The Joint Venture also announced plans to set up a greenfield facility near Hosur to produce a range of Food & Beverage products for the Indian market. The Joint Venture made an initial investment of about Rs. 100 crores towards setting up this facility, which started operations in 2010. Although Del Monte has used "Taste Like Never Before" tagline, it may be used for the entire product line. As far as the umbrella brand Del Monte is considered, the brand mark resembles a Quality Seal rather than a Logo. Hence Del Monte does not really need a tagline for itself. However what has been also noticed is that Del Monte is trying to target young customers within the age group of 12-25 yrs. The entire communication strategy focuses on youth and vibrant urban culture. Del Monte's products deliver on taste and innovation, and the positioning task was to generate trials in India. So, the communication is aimed at creating curiosity around the brand in general and the products in particular. Vision To be one of the fastest growing global branded food and beverage companies. Mission To bring to life, health and wellness. y We live up to our heritage of growing premium quality food and beverage brands which are the top choice of all generations for enjoyable and healthy living. y We leverage deep market knowledge coupled with technology and innovation to create and deliver relevant health and wellness breakthroughs to our broad base of customers. y We continuously build on our knowledge and experience in agriculture, while enhancing the sustainability of the lands we cultivate. y We adhere to the highest standards of corporate behavior in our relationships with our employees, business partners, and the communities around us.

y y y

We are a benchmark in corporate social responsibility and the preservation of the environment. We build a highly energized, high-performance organization with a strong commitment to teamwork and to embracing better ways of doing things. We value our people and commit to provide opportunities for learning, professional growth and a better quality of life.

Core Values
y y y y y y

Customer Focus Passion for winning Integrity and Trust Respect for individual Team work Commitment to society and environment

Product Portfolio The Del Monte product range includes: Fruit drinks: Pineapple fruit drink with pulp, Pineapple Orange fruit drink, and Four seasons fruit drink (Pineapple, Mango, Orange and Guava) Packaged fruits: Pineapple Slices, Pineapple Tidbits, Prunes, Fiesta Fruit Cocktail, Whole Kernel Corn and Peach Halves Ketchup & Sauces: Tomato Ketchup, Tomato Chili Sauce Italian Range: Range of dry Pasta, table Olives and Olive Oil Competitive Scenario Del Monte competes in India with strong brands like Real and Tropicana which controls around 80% of the market. However recently we have seen many new entrants in the market with brands like Onjus, Kissan, Jumpin, etc. The table below provides the competitive analysis between four major brands in the market:

Sr No

Parameter

Real Fruit Power

Tropicana

Del Monte

Kissan

Target Grp

School Children

Youth and Working Class

College Students and Working Class

Children and House wifes

Positioning

Healthy Drink

Breakfast Accompanier

Best Taste

Energy with nutrients

Packaging

Vibrant colorful packaging style

Traditional simple packaging style. Use of a lot of green.

PET bottle and cans

Emphasis on Soya

Communication Strategy

Healthy and important for childrens growth

Breakfast is complete only with Tropicana

New and better taste which should be tried

Energizing children with juice

Socio-Economic environment around the brand Unlike colas the juice markets biggest competition comes from the unorganized market. Juices have been available on the Indian streets from ages and have been a favorite drink amongst consumers. However with the changing scenario we have seen the growth of packaged juices. Thus it is very important to analyze the consumer behavior for the study. 1. Increase in disposable incomes: With the economic growth that has been witnessed during the past and the present decade the disposable income has increased exponentially. This has also resulted in changing life styles of people and also development of organized retail. 2. Target Markets: With the rise of disposable income in many Tier I and Tier II cities we have seen the consumption for packaged juices increasing. 3. Change in consumer preferences: Previously what was observed that consumers expected their juices to be freshly prepared, andbecause of this it was difficult to compete with the unorganized competition on thestreets. However, the focus of the consumers has gradually shifted from freshness to naturalness. Today, consumers have accepted packaged products that have a natural taste.

4. Focus on healthy eating habits: Due to change in life styles a large amount of attention is being spent by consumers today for healthy eating habits. Also the influence of western world has impacted all the eating habits in our country. Thus people prefer juices to the carbonated drinks that are known for their adverse effects on health. 5. Low awareness between nectars and juices: In India the awareness between different categories of juices is very low. For an average consumer the knowledge of nectar or a 100% juice is very low and thus they consider both the products to be same. Also the companies that have product in these verticals are not educating the consumers about the differences, as they are able to sell more products. 6. Flavors and Taste: Previously the juice market was dominated by very few flavors like orange, lime and mango. However today we see that there are many flavors available. The consumer today is focusing his decision on flavor, as he wants to variety. Also the taste of the juices is changed to suit the Indian taste bud. Juices in India today are made sweeter as compared to other places in the world.

Brand and Communication Strategy Del Monte successfully launched a TVC in April 2011 for its juice brands that became very famous. The TVC, created by Contract Advertising, is in the form of a catchy song. It shows people from different genres trying to explain the taste of the drink. Newsreaders, rally drivers, a pianist, a chef and a businessman amongst others try explaining the taste unsuccessfully. The film ends with a shot of a bottle of Del Monte and a voiceover that says, Taste like never before. The insight set the ball rolling and ensured that Del Monte maintained the cool quotient. They wanted to make a fun commercial and did not take the phrase it tastes like too literally when it came to communicating the brand message. They had the option of following a story based approach but chose a montage format instead. Their objective was to arouse a curiosity and a happy feeling instead of simply imparting information about the brand and products. They wanted the consumer to connect with the TVC emotionally and be entertained by it. The simplicity of the message was amplified by the attractive characters, visuals and the foot-tapping Del Monte song. With this TVC, Del Monte hopes that they will be able to engage viewers to sing along and ultimately join in on the fun to try out the fruit drink. The brand also tried to use adaptations of the TVC across other media like the Internet, OOH and Radio amongst others.

The communication platforms used by Del Monte include the following:

y y y y y y y

Television Commercials High reach with the catchy ad Print Media Low reach OOH Medium reach Store Promotions Medium reach Digital Low reach Facebook Low reach Engagement Activities High Reach with the Del Monte Legend Brigade.

What did the brand do differently? The Indian market was dominated by Tropicana and Real in the juice market which together controlled around 80% of the market. Del Monte tried to differentiate by following ways: 1. The target consumer for Del Monte is the youth. Thus differentiating them from Reals family audience as well as Tropicanas working executives. Also the youth today are more favoring non carbonated drinks and thus makes a logical choice. 2. The packing used by all the brands in the juice category was common in form of tetra packs. However Del Monte introduced two new packaging styles: cans and PET bottles. For small and instantaneous consumption they introduced cans which was previously used by carbonated drinks. This helped them to compete in terms of space with carbonated drinks. Also PET bottles made for large consumptions helped them to woo the Indian consumers as bottles have usage even after consumption. They also introduce festive packs.

3. As an integral part of its marketing and business strategy, Del Monte has taken a step further by installing Del Monte's fruit-drink vending machines at various locations.Fruit drinks are an important part of their portfolio globally and thus vending machines will help Del Monte fruit drinks reach mass consumers at distinct locations.

4. Innovative products have been Del Montes forte. They always experiment and create different flavors which gain a lot of popularity in the market. Flavors like four seasons have done well in the Indian market. 5. For the B2B segment, they work very closely with national key accounts, offer institutional packs and even customize the products as per their requirements. They have their own quality assurance personnel, food technologists, nutritionist and corporate chef, who work on customizing products for key customers. What did the brand achieve in forms of consumer preference and price premium? Del Monte has been successful in gaining a strong foothold in the modern retail and select general trade channels. Within a year, they had spread across top 25 cities in India, including Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Kolkata. Del Monte products are now available at all leading modern retail chains and popular retail stores. As a B2B player, Del Monte has made inroads into the HORECA segment. They have been able to develop business associations with leading QSR chains, coffee chains, pizza chains and various low-cost airlines. In a nutshell, the achievements have been outstanding. The products are competitive in pricing with the other major brands. Critical evaluation of winning strategies Del Monte has been successful in creating an effective position for themselves in the Indian markets. Their tie up with Bharti has given them a launching leverage as Bharti has deep understanding of the Indian consumer and also Bharti is involved in the retail market before forming the tie-up. Also their high involvement in the B2B market has helped them gain bigger share. What has worked the most for them is their unique packaging style. All the brands used tetra packs that became the norm of the industry. But Del Monte launched its

products in two unique styles i.e. cans and PET bottles. Cans help them to compete with the carbonated drinks in the market in terms of space and visibility andit also helped them to differentiate with other juice brands in terms of Point of Sales. The promotion strategy followed by Del Monte has helped them to create awareness of the brand. They have extensively used OOH, Print, Outdoor and TVC to capture attention. They have also used many engagement activities like Del Monte Legend brigade and also their micro site worldfoody.com.

To formulate the strategies for Del Monte for the future we had to see the relative position of Del Monte in the minds of the consumer against the competitive brands. Thus we need to prepare a perceptual mapping for the consumer.

The parameters that were selected for the perceptual mapping are as follows: Sr No

Parameter

Priority

Reasoning

Value Money Taste Preference Availability Brand Awareness Brand Imagery

for

Most important criteria for consumer decision process Being a food item consumer will choose the product based on liking of taste Presence of substitutes affects the priority Affects the consumer preference set in the decision process Affects the consumer consideration set in the decision process The category is considered to be comparatively healthy Affects the consumer decision process Retailers help to push the product to the consumer Provides the consumer with variety and options and thus affect the decision process

Healthy

Popularity Retailer Influence Range Flavors of

10

Packaging

To attract consumer attention and affect his consideration set Affects the price for the product

11

Offers

Now all the criteria that were selected do not have the same level of impact on the consumers buying decision. Thus is important to give different weights to different criteria to have a map that resembles to the one in consumers mind. Thus the priority for different criteria was selected. The parameters that affect the consumers buying decision like taste, flavors etc were given high priority. But parameters like healthy were given low because the juice in general is considered to be healthy product. For the different priority levels the weights were capped as follows: High: 7 Medium: 5 Low: 3 After conducting a thorough survey involving consumers and retailers the following weights were allocated to each criteria depending upon peoples responses: Sr No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Parameter Value for Money Taste Preference Availability Brand Awareness Brand Imagery Healthy Popularity 5 6 5 5 3 2 5 Real 4 4 5 4 5 3 4 Tropicana 2 3 2 1 4 1 1 Del Monte Kissan 3 2 2 2 2 2 2

8 9 10 11

Retailer Satisfaction 6 Range of Flavors Packaging 7 3

4 5 1 4

2 1 3 2

3 1 1 2

Promotional Offer 2

Brand Imagery

Brand Awareness Availability

Healthy

Taste Preferen ce

Popularity

Value for Money

Promotion al Offers Retailer Satisfactio n Scale High: 0-7 Medium: 0-5 Low: 0-3 Packaging

Range of Flavors

Real Tropicana Del Monte Kissan

So from the perceptual mapping we can see that Del Monte has a lot to catch up to if it needs to impose a threat to its competitors. It has certain factors to its advantage like the brand image and packaging. But it needs to work on many factors. Thus following are the strategies for them to work out on:

1. Increase the availability of the product - The product is currently not available as freely in the market as its competitors. It has to concentrate on mom and pop stores as well as small retailer outlets. 2. They have to come up with new flavors - The Indian consumers are always on the look out for variety. And taste is one of the most important parameter in the selection of product. Thus they will need to introduce new flavors but will have to keep innovating with the product. 3. They will need to find a brand ambassador for the product - Majority of the FMCG companies in India follow this strategy with great success and Del Monte with its quality product offering can also use the brand equity of the ambassador. Thus it would be beneficial for them to increase the availability and acceptability of the brand. 4. They will have to create a strategy to increase retailer satisfaction, as the pushing of the product is highly dependent on them. 5. They would also look at capitalizing on their brand value and get into newer product categories like jams and milk based drinks.

The Road Ahead . . . .

FieldFresh Foods wants Del Monte to become one of the countrys top food and beverages brands. Can it cut through the clutter? Its an ambitious target but Del montes approach would definitely get them a good bite of the pie. FieldFresh Foods, the 50-50 joint venture between Bharti Ventures of the Mittal family and Del Monte Pacific of the Philippines, wants to find a place among the top ten food and beverages companies in India by 2014. The market may be large but there are well-entrenched players in the business like Nestle, Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Heinz, Parle Agro and Dabur. It wont be easy for FieldFresh to snatch market share from them. Still, it is dead serious. After pumping in Rs 300 crore in a food processing plant at Hosur in Tamil Nadu and in research on fruit and vegetables, in less than two years, it has reached its products to 20,000 retail outlets in 25 cities. FieldFresh is banking on the expertise of Del Monte, especially in supply chain. Del Monte is the only company that supplies both fresh and processed fruit. It has got pineapples from the Philippines, peaches from South Africa, olives from Spain, and prunes from California. This gives them a lot of options Does it have any recall with Indian consumers? According to Del Montes own studies One-third of all customers have come back to the stores and have asked for a Del Monte product. Still the company feels it needs to work on the brand.

Indian Non-Alcoholic Drinks Forecast to 2012 suggests that the juice market (including both fruit and vegetable) has emerged as a fastest growing segment of the Indian non-alcoholic drinks market over the recent past. It foresees the Indian market for fruit/vegetable juices to grow at a CAGR of around 24% (in volume terms) and around 30% (n value terms) from now till 2012.

It is learnt that convenience and natural taste together with health-consciousness has played an important role in the growth of Indian juice market in recent years. Sales have been boosted by the changing lifestyle of the Indian middle-income group amid rapid urbanization. Furthermore, it has been seen that cola sales have fallen dramatically after rising health concerns associated with it and this seem to have benefited the fruit beverage industry. Tetra packs, pet bottles and cans have emerged as a boon for providing practically fresh and preservative-free juice.

For Del Monte the massive investments in the new facility clearly heralds a new phase of development for brand Del Monte in the processed food and beverages category in India. This investment underlines FieldFresh Foods' commitment of delivering world class products of great quality and taste for the discerning Indian consumers and raising the standards of the industry.

Recommendations

1. Strengthen the brand a. Greater Advertising and Promotions b. Getting closer to the customer with interactive marketing like their bike campaign c. Partnering with food chains like Pizza hut, 24/7 etc and having their juices on the menu along with dispensing machines available at these joints.

2. Venturing into other products a. Jams with new flavours such as plum or kiwi (good differentiator just like their juices) b. Del Monte Fit 'n Right Drinks with to be targeted at a new audience (young executives, athletes and health conscious people) c. Introducing market need based products.