Dairy packaging technologies and materials involved in the process makes the products more attractive and eye-catching. Innovation in dairy packaging is not only being driven by the need for sustainability but also because dairy products are highly perishable. 

Ban on single-use plastic

There have been numerous proposals in the pipeline for the ban of single-use plastics across consumer-facing sectors in the packaging industry. The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change announced the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules on August 12, 2021. It prohibits 20 identified single-use items by 2022. 

The packing industry has demanded uniform state level implementation for the same. Also, since alternate packaging for single-use plastic like wood is not feasible for manufacturers, this may give rise to new trends. 

Technology-led packaging trends and solutions

Controlled and modified atmosphere packaging

Modified atmosphere packaging is a system in which the atmosphere within the dairy package is initially altered and is eventually allowed to change during storage. Through this technology, the shelf life of the dairy product can be increased through microbiological and sensory indicators. 

Active packaging

Active packaging is a technology-led solution that’s referred to by names like ‘intelligent packaging’, ‘smart packaging’, and ‘connected packaging’. In this packaging methodology, ethylene, oxygen, and moisture absorbent packs are used to maintain the freshness and consistency of the dairy product. 

RFID Tags

Radio Frequency Indicator Tags use electromagnetic fields to auto-identify and track packages. In dairy packaging, these tags are used to track and inform customers about the quality of the dairy products. 

Intelligent Biosensor packaging

Intelligent biosensor packaging technology is the use of biosensors on dairy product packs. These biosensors will communicate the deterioration of the product through colour changes or indicators. This will ensure the health and safety of the dairy product consumer.

QR code embedding

QR code embedding technology, as the name suggests will track the dairy product packages wirelessly. This technology will also create an interactive experience for the consumer. It’s a connected packaging technology. Manufacturers using the technology can enable the QR code to prompt better readability on digital gadgets like smartphones and tablets. The QR codes can be connected to social media and other brand touchpoints. 

The Olympic fever is still very high. Brands and businesses are in a mad rush to feature the brightest faces for their social media campaigns and hashtags. Since the trend of India’s Olympic win is still very raw, this is a golden opportunity for companies to capitalise on the exposure and the coverage by showcasing inspirational faces like Neeraj Chopra and Mirabai Chanu.

Who is Neeraj Chopra?

Neeraj Chopra, is India’s newest Olympic Medallist who created history by bringing Gold for India after 121 long years. His spectacular win in the Men’s Javelin Throw event in Athletics is India’s first win in a Track and Field Event since a very long time. His Olympic debut brought immense glory to India when he scored the winning throw of 87.58 m on a second attempt. A junior commissioned officer in the Indian Army, he also goes by the title ‘Subedar Neeraj Chopra’.

Neeraj Chopra’s past brand connections

Country Delight Natural

A fresh cow and buffalo milk brand, Neeraj Chopra associated with the brand through an ad campaign before his Olympic win. He rendered his face and athletic training journey for the campaign and spoke about how farm-to doorstep delivery of fresh Cow milk helps athletes incorporate a healthy diet in their training regimen.

Gillette India

Neeraj has endorsed Gillette India’s ‘Barber Parivar Suraksha Program’ that covers Indian barbers and their families with Covid-19 insurance of INR 1 lakh. This programme is aimed at raising awareness about the struggles faced by barbers during the pandemic and supports their return to work while ensuring safety.

Mobil India

Mobil Lubricants India launched their ‘Farak Laakar Dekhiye’ campaign which was a Covid safety protocol awareness campaign. It featured the faces of Olympic bound athletes at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 and Neeraj Chopra was also a part of it.

Other brand endorsements

Neeraj has endorsed multiple brands like Amstrad, Muscle Blaze, Gatorade, IQOO, JSW Sports, etc. through one-time campaigns or on a full-fledged endorsement basis. Post Tokyo, he is witnessing a surge in his brand value which will no doubt bring more names to the list.

The new golden boy for branding

Neeraj Chopra is the new face of advertisers as a sports superstar. He has a brand worthy face, is equipped with the skills and specialisation, and has two stellar titles to his name; those of being an Olympian and a Soldier. His win at the Olympics propelled him into the elite club of Indian sport brand personalities which include the likes of Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Sports Branding scenario in India

Who charges how much?

Virat Kohli, ace cricketer is one of the highest paid sport personalities when it comes to brand endorsements. He charges a whopping INR 1 Cr-5 Cr per brand. KL Rahul is also a very popular face among brands, and he gets INR 50 Lakh-1 Cr per brand for ads and endorsements. Hardik Pandya also charges INR 1 Cr for brand endorsement fees. PV Sindhu’s bronze at the Tokyo Olympics has upped her brand value. Her brand endorsement fees are now in the range of INR 1.2-4.5 Cr.

The biggies in sport branding

The biggies in sport branding have mostly been the top performers like Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Sania Mirza, Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom. But now brands are fighting to feature young and fresh faces for their campaigns either via high paid Instagram ads or quick television commercials. Mirabai Chanu was already leveraged by Dominos, and now Neeraj Chopra is slowly becoming a brand favourite.

Neeraj Chopra as the face of business

How much will he charge?

Up until he won the gold medal at Tokyo, Neeraj Chopra’s brand endorsement fees were an estimated INR 20-30 Lakh per year. However, after bringing home the gold, Neeraj may charge a tentative INR 2.5 Cr or higher.

Decoding his brand value

Neeraj Chopra has seen a 1000 per cent increase in his portfolio valuation after his Olympic victory. Brands across a variety of categories are approaching him at top speed and his portfolio is much more open. JSW Sports who manages his portfolio is expecting brand ambassador endorsement deals as well as digital-led deals in the coming future.

In a fiercely competitive business environment, new startups are jostling to own the maximum share in reach and profit pie. We live in a digitally induced lifestyle, surrounded by abundant information and ideas that can be overwhelming at times. It is a risk for the startups and businesses to get lost in the clutter and might even get erased from people’s recall. The distinctiveness is lost in the process, which is why the personal branding of entrepreneurs is imperative.

The road to entrepreneurship is a bumpy one. When an entrepreneur comes out of its cocoon to do something disruptive they undergo several barriers and hardships. These hardships further shape the entrepreneur’s personality and journey to add distinctiveness to it. Many Indian entrepreneurs perceive personal branding to be an advertisement for themselves that might not give the business limelight whereas, effective personal branding can drive tractions to business and generate leads.

Personal branding helps an individual communicate their unique story and draws attention to what matters. It strengthens the trust between business, colleagues, and clients alike while boosting the reputation of the business founder and fostering successful relationships- both personally and professionally.

The art of personal branding is well showcased by Shailja Dutt, founder of Weryz, a personal branding solutions app, helping individuals to deep dive into the brand ‘You’.

Shailja Dutt – her journey of entrepreneurship

Shailja Dutt, an economic honours graduate from Lady Shri Ram College, holds an MBA from International Management Institute. Weryz is not Shailja’s first entrepreneurial attempt. She first stepped into the entrepreneurial shoes two decades ago by establishing Stellar Search-a leadership advisory firm specializing in senior talent acquisition in emerging markets across the globe. It provides services in Leadership Assessment, Executive Coaching, Employer Brand Consulting with its presence in India, South East Asia, and Africa. 

The founder feels that the important aspect of an individual choosing a career path or beginning a business should be finding the ‘Why’ and position themselves as thought leaders. The answer to Why is what most aspiring entrepreneurs do not have an answer to. To enable individuals to showcase their unique journeys and answer the ‘Why’ effectively led Shailja Dutt to set up personal branding firm Weryz in October 2020.  

Imagine how much traction your brand could obtain if you received as much media and coverage as a sports personality who recently brought glory to the country at a grand event or stage. Even though your business was not directly sponsoring such an event, your brand is still in the spotlight and receiving positive perception from consumers. This is what moment marketing is about, taking the opportunity to contribute or partake in a trending event and striking gold in terms of marketing and brand outreach.

What is Moment Marketing?

Moment marketing is a branding and marketing strategy which is a spur-of-the moment creation of a marketing resource, collateral, or an initiative to obtain instant outreach, presence and coverage. It benefits brands immensely in terms of short bursts of sales, quick collaborations with other brands, and publicity which usually lasts as long as the sheen of the event lasts.

Case study: Domino’s Pizza offers free lifetime pizza to Mirabani Chanu, Indian Silver Medallist at the Tokyo Olympics 2021

All it took was a single statement by India’s star performer at this year’s Tokyo Olympics. Mirabani Chanu made a simple comment about wanting to eat some Pizza after her spectacular win at weightlifting live in front of a global audience. Domino’s immediately took the opportunity to come to the forefront and offer an international winner a lifetime’s worth of free Pizza through a Digital Activation Pact with the brand. This move triggered a chain of events where Domino’s is now receiving brand mentions every time the Olympic champion is mentioned in the media. This has boosted Domino’s brand outreach tremendously making it a talking point throughout the Olympic season in India.

Benefits of Moment Marketing 

As gleaned from the case study above, moment marketing benefits brands in three key ways

Celebrity collaboration achieved

Without spending a dime or going through tedious collaboration procedures, brands can capture the celebrity’s face for endorsements.

Branding done

By strategically placing their brand in a crucial event with global relevance, Domino’s branding activities are sorted for the entire year effortlessly.

Trending forever

The brand will trend throughout the event or until its relevance is valid. Sporting events like the Olympics hold significance for a long time to come which means that brands like Dominos will stay forever associated with it in a way.

5 best moment marketing instances in recent times

The Rahul Bose Movement

When popular Bollywood actor Rahul Bose spoke about being overcharged for 2 bananas at the JW Mariott, a lot of brands like Manforce Condoms and Godrej Nature’s Basket took the opportunity to do moment marketing.

Oreos’s Super Bowl Campaign

Oreo released a popular campaign during the 2013 Super Bowl game’s brief power outage through its ‘You can still dunk in the dark’ campaign.

Flipkart’s World Emoji Day campaign

Flipkart released a moment marketing campaign on World Emoji Day in 2018 with a creative ad campaign.

Paytm’s tweet during the demonetisation drive

Paytm expertly used the demonetisation drive in India as an opportunity to promote their platform through a single tweet which was a brilliant marketing strategy.

The Durex campaign during the discovery of the Black Hole

When the image of the first ever captured black hole was released, Durex utilised the opportunity to run a moment marketing campaign.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is the country’s largest food body which regularly issues circulars and notifications regarding compliance and best practices to be followed by businesses in the F&B and Food Services Industries. 

The following are the latest updates by FSSAI on packaging criteria to be followed by fruit and vegetable-based F&B products and brands. 

Packaging Criteria for Fruit and Vegetable Products by FSSAI

Protection of identification mark against seal damage

Fruit packages must have the licensing number and the manufacturer’s special identification mark to be kept sufficiently away from the seal. This is to ensure that they don’t stand at risk of being torn away when the seal is broken by the consumer. 

Sanitary, clean and secure packaging requirements

FSSAI requires that the packaging must have sanitary top cans made from tin plates belonging to a list of approved types. It must be fully airtight to prevent any kind of moisture from seeping in. The packaging must be clean, secure and must be stored or shipped in appropriate containers, either in cartons (for frozen products) or wooden barrels (for sulphited products). 

Brand-new, lined and lacquered containers

The containers must be brand new and must have been covered by a polyethylene lining of 250 gauge from the inside. Lacquered packaging may also be used. Open tops may only be used for food products containing less than 0.5% of acetic acid. 

Recommended packaging material

Recommended packaging material for fruit and vegetable products include paper, wood or cardboard. The packaging material must be flexible and aseptic. It must be of food grade quality and should conform to BIS standards. 

Businesses that need to comply as per FSSAI

Any Business in the F&B Industry and in Restaurants and Food Services who sell packaged fruit & vegetable products need to fulfil the packaging criteria laid out by FSSAI. Here are some of the businesses that are eligible to comply:

• • Fruit based beverage manufacturers
  • Canned fruit and vegetable brands
  • Bottled vegetable and fruit juices
  • Brands that manufacture crushes, squashes, barley waters and pulps 
  • Fruit product brands manufacturing jams, jellies, preserves and marmalades
  • Vegetable based products like pickles, tomato ketchup and sauce brands
  • Dried fruit and vegetable products, candied fruit and peel brands 

From Shah Rukh Khan becoming a teacher in Byju’s new ad highlighting after-school learning to Pankaj Tripathi showing Kirana store owners ease of doing business on Udaan app, Indian start-ups have been all in with their advertising spend.

Be it Indian Premier League (IPL) on a TV Channel, an episode of your favourite show on an over-the-top (OTT) platform, a fitness video on Youtube or casual Instagram scrolling, you cannot ignore the growing number of ads by start-ups that are ruling the break time.

Nothing New, Yet Unusual: What Changed?

It is not new for start-ups to go aggressive with advertisements in attracting and retaining customers in their growth stage. Back in 2015, we saw a huge surge in ad spends by e-commerce start-ups like Myntra, Flipkart and Snapdeal as the industry boomed. This trend picked up pace over the years with start-ups riding a particular industry boom (e-commerce, e-retail, edtech) each year, putting in big cheques in advertisement.

This number was expected to rise in future. However, something has been unusual in the past one or two years, especially post pandemic. According to media buyers’ estimates, start-ups now account for 10% in India’s advertising expenses. The overall ad spend may hit Rs 80,000 crore in 2021. This means 8,000-8,500 crore (10%) has come from new-age companies. No doubt, the surge was expected, but not to the level of 10%.

Besides developing a big advertising appetite, the start-ups have gone a step further and overshadowed big brands across many platforms. What happened in the past one year? Let’s find out.