US MFD Giant Kraft Heinz Ropes in Sourav Ganguly as Brand Ambassador for Complan

During his long and glorious cricketing stint, he was seen, many a time, stepping out to hit a sixer. He was never willing to settle for less. He was also known to be an uncompromising skipper, building and taking ‘Team India’ to a higher level. And now Sourav Ganguly, the former Indian skipper, has padded up to come on to the crease on a new mission- advising kids and youngsters not to settle for less, when it comes to protein intake.

Complan, the leading milk food drink brand from the stable of Heinz India Pvt Ltd, an arm of the global food company KraftHeinz Company, has roped in Ganguly to roll out a new campaign initiative with the slogan: ‘Kom Protein Cholbe Na’ (Say ‘No’ to Less Protein). Ganguly has been roped in for three years to boost one of the key brands of the world’s fifth largest food and beverage company. Quite interestingly, it is after a gap of four years, brand- Complan will be endorsed by a celebrity (name and face). Complan's last celebrity endorser was Bollywood megastar, Amitabh Bachchan.

If Heinz India top brass is to be believed, Ganguly, a national youth icon, himself happened to be a ‘Complan Boy’ in his growing up days and is now a ‘concerned and caring father’ of a budding daughter. And therefore who better than Ganguly could have been their brand ambassador, at a time when the company is trying to push and strengthen its decades-old brand, re-launched six months ago with new formulations, explained Heinz India managing director Sankalp Potbhare.

The new campaign and initiative coincided with the company's overall aggressive drive to reach a sustained double-digit market share nationally for the health drink. The health drink, one of the major brands in the Rs 6,000 crore milk food drinks (MFD) category in the country, has already registered a healthy growth since its re-launch about six months ago, said Potbhare.

West Bengal and Tamil Nadu being the two major states accounting for one-third of the market, the company thought it fit to start the new campaign from Bengal. More so because Complan already has a 15 percent market share in the state and its market share has increased by 2.5 percent in the state since the relaunch. The same campaign and initiative will eventually be rolled out across the country. And if needed, the company is open to involving more faces, more icons, said the MD, adding that the company was keen on consolidating its existing product portfolio before launching new global brands like Planters in India. Globally three biggest brands from the company's stable are: Kraft, Heinz, and Planters, with each brand having revenue of over $1 billion. In fact, the company globally has 100 brands out of which eight are over $1billion brands.

Potbhare said that their mission and thrust of this new initiative is to create awareness and make consumers know their requirements and what they are having (how much protein intake is happening). The packaging itself clearly mentions details of the composition and one can actually make a comparison with other similar products available in the market, he said. Besides Complan, the MFD segment in the country is currently dominated by GSK’s Horlicks, Mondelez International’s Cadbury Bournvita, and GSK’s Boost. Interestingly GSK has reportedly evinced interest in selling its growing brand and there are indications that Kraft Heinz could be a possible contender. However, Kraft Heinz officials have all along been tightlipped on this.