 Hello and welcome to exchange for media. Today we have with us Shailaja Joshi. She is the marketing director for the potato chips category at PepsiCo India. Welcome Shailaja. It's a pleasure to have you. Thank you Aditi. So Lays has launched these range of slow cook premium kettle chips Lays Gourmet last year and this year you have roped in Saif Ali Khan as the brand ambassador for it. I want to ask you what led to the launch of this premium range and the collaboration with Saif. So thanks for that. Yes, we launched Gourmet last year and the whole idea behind the launch of Gourmet was to provide our consumers who were looking for the fine indulgent experiences and snacking with something that would really stand up to that. So we launched Gourmet with that intent in mind and when we were creating the proposition for the brand which is more about the crafted experiences, how Lays Gourmet is not just a chip but it's crafted. It brings out the final taste of what you want to savor in life. We couldn't think of anybody better than Saif because Saif stands for his charm, he stands for the flair, he's the nabab of Hollywood and hence the association of him with Gourmet was very seamless and we went for it. And so Lays already has a wide range of chips and is a household name and now you have come up with the Gourmet which you're calling as a premium range. Wouldn't it be a competition for your already existing range of chips that we've been eating Lays for like years now? I think how we segment our consumers' behaviours and needs is based on what consumers are eating in various occasions at various days or points in time and hence when you do that segmentation there's a very clear need which is differentiated from the core Lays which is obviously a huge brand, love brand. But there is an occasion need where Gourmet fits in better. It's a very seamless choice in those occasions like I said which is more crafted, which is more indulgent, which is more premium. So all our research and insight work clearly showed us that there is a need for an experience like this which is incremental to what your Lays core stands for or satisfies today and because we've been in market for some time now we've also seen that coming into play and hence it's only going to be an incremental to the brand overall and to the business. So how is this range of chips different or better than the existing range and how do you have, if I ask you, an edge over other brands? So Gourmet is made from a technology which is very core to PepsiCo globally and they brought it to India too. The entire process is very premium, is very differentiated and hence the word crafted is lose because we choose the choicest potatoes, right? We slice them into thick slices. We cook them over a period of time. So the process is a slow cooking process, right? Which creates a differentiated crunch. It creates those curls, right? And then the kind of seasoning flavors that we've brought in for the consumers are over these together make a very differentiated experience from any other chip that's available in market today, right? That's the reason we say it's not just the chip, it's crafted, you know, it's the finer experience that we've created with this process in place. Okay, and if I may ask you who are your target consumers here and right now the, you know, how did you reach the pricing point like the price at which you have kept a packet of lays Gourmet. So what kind of research did you do and who are your target consumers? So one, I think we've also got a news for you. So with the set coming in, okay, with this new season, we're launching a new Rupees 20 pack on Gourmet. This comes in fact of what we've seen in market right now. We've seen a very good response coming in from the key consumers with the targeted reach, you know, both on media as well as on market that we've done till now. So that's something that we're really excited about to scale this new proposition further. In terms of who we targeting is more of a psychographic behavioral segmentation. We want to reach out to more and more people who are looking for those finer experiences, those indulgent moments in life where Gourmet can come in, elevate those experiences further. So it traverses across age groups, right? It's more of that psychographic behavior. And hence, Seth fits in very seamlessly there, right? To all who are looking for an experience like that, Seth is somebody that they really relate to, okay? So that's the entire strategy in place when we talk about consumer segmentation. And so chips are usually not considered as a healthy snacking option. So are you saying that Gourmet are healthier than your existing range? I think what we're saying is that we've got a range of offering which can target to various consumers, right? As PepsiCo, we've got offerings which go, which tries to cater to every moment or every kind of consumer needs, right? So we've got something like makeup or healthier audiences, we've got something like lace for people who want to really have that lip-spacking experience with snacking on there. And as a company, as a global company, as a very responsible company, we have continuously been working on the global standards of what's good for consumers and we stick to that. What I'm trying to say is that even when you look at Gourmet, right, what we're trying to offer is a more indulgent, a more lip-smacking experience, but it's very differentiated from what a lace core is, right? Now those tangents, like I said, are built out from the entire process, right? And with the P20 launch now, we'll be able to take it to a wider set of all the audiences. So when we segment consumers, we segment consumers, basis, what they're looking for, what is needed. And in that, as a responsible company, we always provide them something that's in line with what the regulations of the country are. Right. And coming to your marketing strategy, like what is the marketing strategy and how are you planning to promote lace gourmet? Are you also opting for the influencer marketing which is like really popular these days? I think we're very excited about this entire launch plan because we want to take Gourmet to the new scale. What becomes important is obviously high impact reach for which TV remains an important medium. You will be seeing us with high decibel noise on IPL where you're already seeing a lot of lace with our Lays in Home Rajkumar Rao campaign, right? Gourmet will be the next in line both on TV as well as on digital. However, for Gourmet overall, digital will be very highly indexed plan, okay? We will be reaching consumers through various platforms, through various touch points. We'll be doing a lot of things in different manner this time, right? There's a lot of innovation on digital which is planned for the consumers on Gourmet for sure. Influencer marketing is an integral part of what we do on lace code but on gourmet that becomes more important. Like, you know, we work a lot with people who are lovers of lace whom we call friends of lace, okay? So how do we bring alive this proposition and get consumers to engage with it with influencers is going to be an integral part of the gourmet media strategy. With this range of chips, are you expecting to capture a bigger market? And if you can share with us your media mix and advertising spends also? Yes, definitely. We're planning to make gourmet available to a wider set of audience. But like I said to the people who are the psychographic segment for, you know, the consumers who would be looking forward to an experience like this. And the entire reason of Launcher P20 is that we intend to more than double our distribution with the Launcher P20. In terms of consumers, we intend to go to a lot more consumers. And in terms of media, this is going to be, I cannot quote numbers, but this is going to be a very, very high decibel plan for us. With IPL, with IPL on more TV and digital, with step and a lot of more TV impact as well as digital, you can be rest assured it's going to be one of the highest reach and impact media plan that you will see on this year. Great. And my last question before I let you go. How challenging is that has it been to maintain brand loyalty when it comes to lace? So, you know, what I would say is that if you look at some of the numbers that, you know, lays as a brand, really, and we're proud and we're very happy, you know, that the consumers love us like this. So, if you look at us versus category, we enjoy a much, much higher affinity. We enjoy a much, much higher brand love. Okay. Our spawned awareness as well as all those brand matrices are actually much higher than what the category averages, which clearly shows you that we are blessed with consumer love, right? We spread millions of smiles per day. Now, as categories and most of the categories in India, okay, there are, there are occasions, there are frequencies of occasions, purchase, etc. that categories enjoy, right? But for us, we see that the consumers who love us stick to us. They love us as a brand, right? It's not easy to have and we've been in the past four years working very hard towards it, right? Like I told you that by doing activations like smile, which was huge by bringing in brand ambassadors like, you know, Alia, Ranveer, or even Seth for that matter, who are loved by consumers, when you associate with them, your consumer love also increases further. Doing things like hard work in the midst of pandemic, right? Where we did not do it only for ourselves, but for all the other brands, okay? Really valuing what they were doing at that point in time. It came from our heart, right? We've done several LTOs on the brand. So what it takes in order to get consumers to be consistently interacting with a category like us is continuous engagement, whether it's through new products, like we've launched Wafer Style, we've launched Simply Hot, we've launched Cool Make, all that builds into that frequency. Then secondly, what you do on media, how often are you talking to them? Then how are you talking to them? What is your language of talking to them? Are you a brand like Amit Seth, sticking to your sustainability goals? Are you sticking to what's good, right? So like we have that entire positive narrative, which we take very seriously on days, right? So I think all of that together, consumers do appreciate it for us and we get it back in terms of brand love and a continuous frequency of purchase that we get from them. Great. Thank you, Shailja. It's been wonderful talking to you. Thank you, Amit, as well. And we wish you all the best for the campaign ahead. Thank you very much. Thank you for talking to us.