“The job at this point is of category creation”, says Shekhar Agarwal on Havmor ice cream cakes

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While winter for ice cream brands is not necessarily ‘offseason,’ sales are definitely lower compared to the rest of the year. It is also the time of the year when, at least in terms of large advertising campaigns, most brands in the area go into hibernation.

Now it’s that time of the year. Interestingly, however, we found Havmor, one of the many space brands, advertising on social media for its relatively newer product,’ ice cream cake.’

In Bollywood actress Yami Gautam the brand has roped to say that ‘you don’t need an opportunity to have a Havmor ice cream cake. ‘Shekhar Agarwal, marketing manager of Havmor ice cream, tells over a call that the other concept behind the digital campaign is to create on ‘why settle for cake when you can get an ice cream cake.’

A few years ago, Havmor presented the item to understand the customers and get an understanding of the demand, Agarwal says. The company launched four new ice cream cake flavors earlier last month in December 2020. Chocolate Fantasy, with a layer of chocolate ice cream between two light and fluffy sponges; Nutty Caramel, made with butterscotch ice cream sandwiched between two baked vanilla sponges; Cookies & Cream, filled with freshly whipped cream and chocolate cookies; and Heartbeat, edged with red velvet ice cream.

From Rs 600, the four new flavors start and go up to Rs 750. There are 18 different flavors of existing ice cream cakes, which are available at leading general trade outlets and all Havmor parlors across the nation.

The recently introduced ice cream cakes, Agarwal says, are basically a romance with both cake and ice cream. He describes that the job at this stage is the creation of categories. Therefore, the whole idea behind the campaign was to present the product against the cake to bring out the true scope and merit of the product. “The category is innovative and consumers are still discovering the product. Both with distribution and communication, we are looking to strengthen the category.

For him, there were 3 main learnings from the pandemic situation. First, customers are looking for products for in-home consumption. They want to eat and be at ease in their homes. Therefore, there is a possibility of developing newer formats to work for in-home consumption.

Second, individuals want the maximum standards of hygiene and sanitization. In these moments, local brands that don’t take it as serious production criteria will find it hard to sustain.

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