DSIMS - Case Study Centre

Monaco Biscuits – Will competition rock the Boat

Mayanak Shah, Category Head of legendary brand, Monaco Biscuits, allayed the fear of his
colleague Ram Kumar Seth that their competing brands 50:50 and Snax biscuits will no way
eat Monaco’s market share in their quarterly meeting held at Mumbai on a bright early
morning.

The ubiquitous brand Monaco had survived several attacks of its competitors from different
corners for last 75 years ever since it was launched in 1942. Every time, when the brand was
attacked, it came out with flying colours unscathed. Monaco biscuit in Indian market was an
eponymous name among namkeen lovers. The brand Monaco had several positioning
campaigns targeting different segments of consumers in its journey. This new brand was
introduced to elite housewives to showcase as special namkeen in their kitty parties. Priced
high, packaged either in tin or foil pack, Monaco, was cleverly positioned as‘new variety
snack’ among housewives. It of course caught the attention of socialites. There was no
looking back since then.

Popular chef Tarla Dalal once mentioned about Monaco, “A light and crispy biscuit
sprinkled with salt, Monaco adds a namkeen twist to the sweet dominated biscuit world.
The salty taste is well-balanced and is liked by kids and adults alike. It can be had consumed
at any time of the day, and with anything”.

Background

Monaco came from the staple of Parle Products, a well-known Indian FMCG company
which was founded by Mohanlal Dayal in 1928 with just 12 people working for the
company. The company was not only known for its dynamic marketing strategies, but also
known for its technology adaptation. Parle was the first company that created India’s
longest oven of 250 feet long in mid 40’s to expedite its biscuit manufacturing processes.
Later, Parle Products were split into three different companies – Parle Products, Parle Agro
and Parle Bisleri – amicably separated by the brothers of founder’s family. Iconic brand
Monaco went to Parle Products Company which was led by three brothers Vijay, Sharad
and Roy Chauhan. Monaco brought close to Rs. 475 crore as revenue to Parle Products of
the total estimated market size of Rs. 1900 crore salted biscuits in 2017.

The Journey

When this snack was introduced, consumers loved it because it was a new type of biscuit
ever offered in the market that was light, crispy. While narrating the initial journey of
Monaco, Mayank Shah went on record describing to one of his colleagues, “ The historic
communication was targeted at affluent housewives and kitty parties.

Prof. C. Babu has prepared this case for classroom discussion. This case doesn’t illustrate effective or
ineffective handling of business situation
It was more about offering an option as there was no other salted cracker in the market. We
positioned it as a snack that you could not only have on its own, but was also a great
accompaniment with tea and could be had with toppings”.

But subsequently, Parle products changed its positioning to different occasions to expand
Monaco’s Customer base. Soon after the independence, Monaco biscuits were positioned as
common man’s snack that could keep hunger away in anytime and at any place. People,
gladly accepted this biscuit as one form of snack to keep hunger at bay anytime for a little
money. Monaco as a namkeen started registering its name in many customers’ minds. The
‘mind share’ was substantial that helped Monaco team to increase its market share steadily.

Harish Bijoor a well-known brand consultant, while commenting about Monaco opined
once “It has been globally recognised as a biscuit of repute and has tried to remain very
contemporary”.

Expansion of customer base

Monaco team were innovative while coming out with different strategies to expand its
customer base. In the 1980’s their promotional campaign educated its customers about
toppings. All Monaco advertisements demonstrated as how topping such as cheese, hung
curd, veggies could be fun and tasty. The demo campaigns were so lucid, most of the
consumers tried out these little cookery experiments in excitement. The customer base
continued to grow. In the 1990’s Monaco witnessed entry of many competitors; some of
them were giants in other category of biscuits. Parle caught on the fitness and health wave of
customers and leashed out a campaign with a tag line “ Halke Phulke Monaco, halke phulke
palon ke liye”. Subsequently, the brand added fun quotient to capture the attention of its
customers by roping popular celebrity Aamir Khan. Around the year 2005, plethora of ads
were spearheaded by Aamir Khan with tag line “life namkeen banaiye” was released by
Monaco’s marketing team. The journey was quite long and exciting for this marquee brand.
Parle team has expanded its product line from one single product to many (see Exhibit I) to
suit the palate and occasions of its consumers.

The Challenges

Competitors having realised the huge opportunity, jumped into the race, one by one,
challenging Monaco. Monaco had two major competing brand 50:50 and Snax of Britannia,
besides numerous small time competitors.

The task given to Mayank Shah’s men was to steadily increase the marketing share by
pushing competing brands, which was not going to be easy considering the mighty
resources of close competitors be it – money, men or anything else for that matter!

For Monaco team, it was quite evident that the brand was popular among customers
because of its low price point, quality packaging and patronization by health conscious end-
users. But the team was also aware of the fact that competitors were growing day by day
with numerous offers in the form of wafer and salted snacks luring customers to drift away
from this category (see Exhibit II).

For Mayank Shah, it was a major task to continuously protect and grow Monaco market
share by exploiting future market opportunities. But to do that, he had to keep his
teammates morale high by constantly innovating new areas of opportunities, infusing fresh
ideas to reposition Monaco biscuits for further market expansion.

(Sources: Rashmi Pratap, “Cracker of a brand”, Business Line Link, February 24, 2018, P. 8; “Parle
Products aims to be Rs. 20000 cr. Company in next five years” Financial Express, February 11, 2011;
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/parle-products and other information accessed at
www.parleproducts.com;http://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/food-and-beverages/606-parle-
onaco.html; Source: www.mbaskool.com)

Exhibit I

Monaco Product Line

Monaco Salted Cracker

Monaco Jeera Cracker

Monaco Cracker Sandwich Cheese

Monaco Cracker Sandwich Peanut Butter

Monaco Cracker Sandwich Chocolate

Monaco Cheeslings

Monaco Sixer

Source: www.parleproducts.com

Exhibit I
 Monaco Product Line

Monaco Salted Cracker

Monaco Jeera Cracker

Monaco Cracker Sandwich Cheese

Monaco Cracker Sandwich Peanut Butter

Monaco Cracker Sandwich Chocolate

Monaco Cheeslings

Monaco Sixer

Source: www.parleproducts.com

Exhibit II
Parle Monaco SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Low Cost

Highly Popular

Good product quality and packaging

Preferred by health conscious people as light snack

Weaknesses

Many Competitors in this segment

Storage issues as it quickly absorbs moisture

Some people find it too salty

Opportunities

Tie-up with schools as a part of meals

Untapped rural market

Can be positioned as Tea Time biscuits like Marie

Threats

Severe threats from wafer and salted snacks segment

Similar biscuit categories

Source: www.mbaskool.com