DARK FANTASY CHOCO FILLS STORY

• Back in 2010, the premium biscuit market in India was boring and undifferentiated. The market was filled with plain vanilla cream biscuits.
• ITC's Sunfeast Dark Fantacy was a challenger brand and was looking for ways to disrupt the premium  cream biscuits market.
• ITC's consumer research revealed that there was a significant change in consumer behavior
• Consumer needs were evolving and consumers were now willing to pay a premium for superior product experiences.
• ITC saw this as a perfect opportunity. And in November 2010, it made a bold move.
• ITC launched Dark Fantacy Choco Fills - the chocolate - filled baked cookie - which was the most premium offering in the biscuits segment.

• It was priced at a significant premium to other brands. The idea was to disrupt the market with a differentiated product, pricing and create a niche where the brand could keep expanding.
• ITC spent aggressively on marketing to communicate the differentiated proposition of Choco Fills.
• Its advertisements portrayed consuming Choco Fills as an exotic experience that re-positioned other biscuits as boring.   

• Also its packaging strategy was a masterstroke. ITC intentionally packaged Choco Fills in single serves ( in a carton box). This gave the product a premium and exclusive image in the eyes of the consumers. 

• Choco Fills was soon a big hit. Consumers loved the taste and the premium experience. 
• Seeing its success ITC used its distribution might to help the brand to expand across the country.
• Choco Fills kept on growing and taking market share away from its competitors over the years.
• It kept engaging with consumers and maintained the brands premium feel with its awesome marketing campaigns.
• Fast forward to today, Dark Fantasy Choco Fills is the largest selling premium cream biscuits brand in India with sales in excess of Rs. 600 crores.
• Its success can be attributed to creating a great product and combining it with innovative marketing practices.

 STORY OF LIJJAT PAPAD

• Story dates back to 1959, when 7 Gujarati women living in South Mumbai, who had no formal business education, came together to start a small business of papads from their houses.
• Jaswantiben Popat, and six others had borrowed a sum of Rs.80 to start their business with the aim of earning moneyand taking charge of their lives.
• India's oldest all - women cooperative started as Shri Mahila Udyog Lijjat Papad, the company is now India's oldest all - women cooperative and has a net worth of over Rs.1600  crore.
• As of 2021, Lijjat Papad company is co - owned by 45000 women who together make 4.8 million papads every day.
• It is largely run by women as it aims to empower them financially and help them earn extra income for their households. Men have only limited roles in the company such as drivers, helpers etc.
• Today the Lijjat Papad enterprise has 82 branches and is involved in the manufacturing of numerous FMCG goods such as detergents, rotis etc.
• Besides having a strong presence in India, the brand also exports overseas to countries like USA and Singapore.
• In November 2021, one of Lijjat Papad's cofounder who is over  90 years of age, Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat was awarded the fourth highest civilian award 'Padma Shri' by President Ram Nath Kovind.