Parle-G is a leading biscuit brand under Parle Products for biscuits and confectionary items. With a worldwide presence, Parle has carved out a place for itself in the biscuit business with value-for-money products, widespread availability, consistent taste and a very long presence in the business.
Foundation
Founded in 1929 by Mohanlal Dayal Chauhan, House of Parle grew and gained popularity as a trusted biscuit and confectionary company in India, eventually gaining worldwide presence. It got its name from the location of the first factory in Vile Parle (then Irla Parla) Bombay, Maharashtra.
The founder, Mr. Mohanlal Dayal, was a part of the Swadeshi movement and Parle Products was started as an attempt to have a homegrown biscuit and confectionary company to serve Indians. At a time when biscuits were considered to be luxury goods and were imported from Britain, only the rich could afford it. Parle Products started with the aim of making confectioneries and biscuits available to all classes of the Indian society, rich and poor alike. Parle-G or then known as Parle Gluco was born in 1938 and thrived on being affordable to all and was marketed as healthy biscuits available to all.
As the years passed, Parle Products introduced various products for Indian markets, understanding the demands and psyche of their consumers. This included a variety of biscuits, candies and other snacks. In 1947, when India gained independence, there was a shortage of wheat supply. However, this did not stop Parle from producing India’s very own biscuits. There was a temporary shift to Barley biscuits and their ad campaign focused on encouraging people to buy barley biscuits instead.
Market Success
Parle-G has created its brand value and brand trust among consumers over the past 90 odd years. Many factors have played important roles in achieving the success the brand enjoys today, with a worldwide consumer base and being the top-selling biscuit brand in India and the World. Some of these include the following:
- Advertising
Starting from printed advertisements in the pre-independence era to having an active social media presence today, Parle-G’s advertising has been one long journey transforming a local confectionery product to the biscuit brand that India loves. But in all these years, while Parle Gluco went on to become Parle-G, the company’s positioning is the one thing that still holds true to the brand even today. Right from its packaging to its pricing, Parle-G has always appealed to the masses of India. Sometimes by harping on the emotion of nostalgia and most times constantly evolving in their advertising insights to stay relevant to their audience. Parle-G’s 2018 campaign – ‘Aaj ke digital geniuses ke liye’ is the perfect example of that.
- Pricing
Low and affordable prices was the principle behind the inception of Parle Products during pre-Independence India and has since been carried forward as the distinguishing factor for Parle-G. Not only is the brand popular among the more affluent, it is also the most popular biscuit brand amongst the impoverished because of its affordable pricing. According to Kamal Kapadia, who worked at Parle for 32 years and left as CEO, Bengaluru project, this has been possible because “it had everything in-house, from packaging to procurement. And, the owners were hands-on.”[1]
- Packaging
Over the long period of time that Parle-G has existed, it has maintained a simplistic yet differentiating packaging, with the photo of a young girl on all Parle-G packaging. This has helped the brand create a unique identity and a visual association of the brand with the product. This in turn helps the brand stand out and have a loyal consumer base.
- Product
Parle Products have maintained their quality, including Parle-G, with consistency in taste and by marketing the product as a healthy glucose biscuit. Even though it is manufactured on a very large scale and in different factories across the country, Parle-G has maintained its taste over the years. The brand boasted of having created the country’s largest oven between 1946-50.[2]
From Parle Gluco to Parle-G
During its inception in 1939, Parle-G was called Parle Gluco because the brand sold very popular glucose biscuits. For a very long time, Parle Products sold these biscuits under the name of Parle Gluco and enjoyed exclusivity of this name. However, “Gluco”, which stood for “Glucose” was of such a nature that it belonged to the public at large for common use and could not be registered as a trademark. Hence, it was a “publici juris trademark” and the competition for Parle Gluco increased since many other companies started using “Gluco” to sell their brand of glucose biscuits.
In 1982, a rebranding and reimaging of Parle Gluco biscuits by Everest Brand Solutions gave birth to the very popular “Parle-G” biscuits, which was a trademark of the glucose biscuits sold by Parle Products. This helped secure the consumer base and develop consumer loyalty towards Parle Products by discarding the use of a word which could not be used exclusively by the company.
Breaking Sales Records during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Although Parle-G has been the favourite biscuit brand of the country for a very long time, the market has seen the growth of many other brands in the last few years. However, the onset of the Coronavirus Pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns brought about an interesting spike in the sales of the biscuits. At a time when packaged food has emerged as the go-to grocery option and people have found themselves indoors for a solid few months, snack consumption has increased considerably. Other than this, those financially weaker have also resorted to these cheaper yet healthy biscuits during these unprecedented times.
For the brand, March, April & May have been their best months in over eight decades. “We’ve grown our overall market share by nearly 5%… And 80– 90% of this growth has come from the Parle-G sales. This is unprecedented,” said Mayank Shah, category head at Parle Products.[3]
Therefore, by catering to a variety of needs during a pandemic and by maintaining steady production of Parle-G biscuits, it has seen the highest ever sales during the country-wide lockdown.
By Ria Mishra
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[1] https://www.business-standard.com/article/management/40-years-ago-and-now-parle-g-tackled-crunch-with-price-and-reach-115022601254_1.html
[2] http://www.parleproducts.com/timeline
[3] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/fmcg/82-year-old-parle-g-books-best-sales-in-covid-times/articleshow/76275237.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
