Kurkure:"Tedha Hai Par Mera Hai"

Industry & Competitive Context

By the mid-2000s, India's organised branded snacks segment had emerged as one of the fastest-growing categories within consumer packaged goods — expanding at approximately 30% annually, according to the case documented by IBSCDC and cited in published academic and industry analyses. However, the market remained structurally uneven: unbranded and unorganised players commanded roughly 50% of the total salty snacks market, while the organised segment was dominated by two broad archetypes — western-style potato chips anchored by PepsiCo's Lay's, and traditional Indian namkeens led by Haldiram's. Into this duopoly, Kurkure had carved a distinct third lane since its 1999 launch — what PepsiCo's own team publicly characterised as the "bridge category," a finger-snack that was neither a western-style chip nor a traditional namkeen. The snack was made from rice, lentil, and corn, and had been developed entirely in India — the first such product from PepsiCo India — making it uniquely positioned to straddle mass Indian taste cues with modern FMCG packaging and distribution. The competitive equilibrium shifted decisively in March 2007 when ITC Foods launched Bingo!, its entry into the branded snacks space. As documented by The Case Centre (IBSCDC reference BBP0119IRC), within just ten months of launch, Bingo had captured approximately 16% of the market. The threat was multi-dimensional: ITC brought an established national distribution network, deep investment capacity, and crucially, a variant named "Tedhe Medhe" — a product that competed directly on Kurkure's textural and shape-based territory. Kurkure's position as the culturally resonant, uniquely shaped Indian snack was no longer uncontested.

Brand Situation Prior to Campaign

Kurkure launched in 1999 under the banner "Lehar Kurkure" — the Lehar prefix providing borrowed equity from PepsiCo India's existing local partner brand while the team assessed consumer receptivity to an unconventional product format. As Deepika Warrier, then Vice President (Marketing) at PepsiCo India, noted in a Business Today interview: "We were not sure if people would take to the new brand and so we had called it Lehar Kurkure." The earliest communication, "Kya Karen Control Nahi Hota," focused squarely on the snack's addictive taste — a rational, product-led proposition anchored in sensory indulgence. By 2005, the brand had established enough scale to invest in celebrity endorsement. Actor Juhi Chawla was signed as brand ambassador, and the campaign "Kahani Mein Kurkure" — where Chawla spoofed the iconic character of Tulsi from the popular soap opera Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi — successfully embedded the brand within mainstream popular culture. The subsequent "Kya Family Hai" campaign extended this direction, framing Kurkure as the snack that united India's characteristically dysfunctional yet affectionate families at tea-time.

However, by 2007–08, two pressure points converged. Externally, Bingo's rapid market entry had disrupted share and more critically, consumer attention. Internally, the "Kya Family Hai" phase was described by Warrier (as reported in Business Today, 2014) as a "minor communication challenge" — the brand had become pleasant but perhaps predictable. The positioning was functional and sentimental, but lacked a distinctive identity that could anchor Kurkure's irregular, twisted physical shape as an asset rather than an oddity. The strategic problem was not awareness or distribution, but brand differentiation in a cluttered, high-growth category.

Strategic Objective

The "Tedha Hai Par Mera Hai" campaign, launched in 2008, was designed to accomplish two related but distinct strategic goals. The first was defensive and competitive: to recapture consumer attention and mental availability that had been eroded by Bingo's aggressive entry — and specifically, to neutralise the threat posed by the Tedhe Medhe variant, which had begun to colonise the very product territory Kurkure had pioneered. As Warrier stated in the Business Today case analysis, the new campaign "allowed the company to win back attention of customers from Bingo." The second goal was more profound and durable — to shift Kurkure's brand equity from a product-centric frame ("deliciously addictive snack") to a cultural identity frame ("the snack that represents the real, imperfect, proudly Indian self"). This represented a classical move in brand architecture: transitioning from a functional benefit position to a self-expressive benefit position, as understood in Aaker's brand equity framework. The twisted shape of the product — long a curiosity — was to be repositioned as a symbol rather than a mere product attribute. In parallel, PepsiCo India had launched a broader portfolio initiative called "Chala Change Ka Chakkar" in early 2008 — a campaign designed to revitalise the company's entire India foods portfolio. "Tedha Hai Par Mera Hai" was the Kurkure-specific articulation of this wider strategic pivot, providing both a standalone brand platform and a vehicle for portfolio expansion under what PepsiCo would later describe as the "Kurkure mega brand" strategy.

Positioning & Consumer Insight

The campaign's foundational insight was rooted in a shift in Indian consumer psychology that was specifically verified through what PepsiCo's marketing director described as a "proprietary insight mining process." Speaking at the campaign launch in 2008 and reported by Campaign India, Warrier articulated the core insight as follows: "The new communication platform 'Tedha hai par mera hai' has been developed through a proprietary 'insight mining' process. The new platform is based on the understanding that young confident Indian consumers are no longer striving to be perfect in everything, but are comfortable about their imperfections and quirks." This insight was not incidental — it mapped directly onto a macro-cultural shift visible in early 21st-century India. The liberalisation generation, now entering adulthood, was increasingly assertive about Indian identity rather than aspirationally western. Imperfection — "tedha-pana" — was being reclaimed not as a deficit but as a marker of authenticity. The campaign's tagline, translated literally as "It's twisted, but it's mine," fused the product's physical form (the irregular, twisted shape of the snack) with an emotional permission for consumers to own their own quirks and those of their loved ones.

Positioning Analysis

By linking product form (twisted shape) to a consumer value (comfort with imperfection), Kurkure achieved what brand strategists term "product–identity alignment" — the physical characteristic of the snack became the metaphorical proof point of the brand promise. This eliminated the classic tension between product truth and brand aspiration; the two became inseparable. Crucially, the insight was also scalable. The "tedha" identity could be applied not just to individual quirks but to the Indian family — with all its inherent contradictions, affections, and imperfections. This allowed the brand to move fluidly between individual identity (Phase I, 2008) and family dynamics (Phase II, 2012–13), maintaining strategic coherence across communications while evolving the narrative.

Campaign Architecture & Execution

The campaign evolved in two publicly documented phases, each with distinct execution strategies while maintaining the central "Tedha Hai Par Mera Hai" platform.

Phase I (2008): The initial campaign was conceived and executed by JWT India under a competitive time constraint — a fact noted in trade reporting, with sources describing it as having been developed "in a very short period of time." The campaign featured Juhi Chawla as the continuing brand ambassador and repositioned Kurkure as "the Rangeela Indian snack that celebrates Everyday Imperfections," according to Social Samosa's verified brand retrospective. A 360-degree campaign was deployed, and notably, a separate commercial was produced specifically for the South Indian market — featuring Tamil actress Simran as brand ambassador in a campaign titled "Konala Irundhalum, Ennudiya Thakum" (the Tamil translation of the tagline). PepsiCo explicitly noted, as reported by Campaign India (June 2008), that this was "the first commercial by a major Salty Snack brand made exclusively for the South Indian market" — indicating a deliberate regional differentiation strategy within the broader national platform.

Phase II (2012–13): By late 2012, PepsiCo India's marketing leadership (now under Vidur Vyas as Marketing Director – Foods) described the 2012 campaign as the "biggest campaign launch till date" for the brand, according to Adgully's contemporaneous coverage. The brand created a "Kurkure screen family" — a cast of six Bollywood personalities (Parineeti Chopra, Kunal Kapoor, Farida Jalal, Boman Irani, Ramya Krishnan, and Shivansh) who embodied distinct family archetypes, all "quirky" but loveable. Creative duties remained with JWT India, with Chief Creative Officer Bobby Pawar overseeing the campaign. Each cast member was introduced individually in separate television films before being brought together in a collective family TVC that aired in January 2013. The 2013 campaign was tied to the launch of Kurkure's first Extra Large Super Saver pack (180g at ₹30), with PepsiCo EVP Foods Nalin Sood publicly stating that "the key insight behind the latest campaign is that there is no such concept as a small family party in India" — directly connecting pack size innovation to the brand's family identity platform. The 2013 campaign was supported by a verified "360-degree marketing plan including print, radio activation and digital media engagement," as confirmed in press releases carried by Adgully and Indian Television.

Media & Channel Strategy

Verified information on specific media spend allocations is not publicly available. However, the campaign's channel strategy can be characterised through publicly documented evidence. Both the 2008 and 2012–13 phases were anchored in television advertising — consistent with the mass-reach imperative of FMCG snack categories in India at the time, where television commanded the largest share of advertising budgets. The use of high-recall Bollywood celebrities across both phases reflects an earned-media amplification strategy: celebrity association generated news coverage, trade press interest, and word-of-mouth, extending paid media effectiveness. The 2008 campaign was explicitly described by PepsiCo as a "fresh 360-degree campaign," indicating multi-channel deployment beyond television. The South India-specific execution demonstrated a regional media localisation strategy — an unusual and deliberate investment that signalled the brand's intent to compete for cultural relevance across geographies, not just metros. The 2012–13 phase incorporated digital media engagement alongside traditional television, print, and radio — reflecting the expanding role of digital platforms in India's media ecosystem by that period. The phased introduction of family characters (individual introductory TVCs followed by a collective family TVC) also demonstrates a structured, sequenced media strategy designed to build consumer familiarity and anticipation before the full campaign reveal.

Business & Brand Outcomes

Verified public data on specific campaign-attributable sales uplift, market share changes directly following the 2008 launch, or documented ROI figures is not available. The following outcomes are drawn exclusively from published, attributable sources. By 2014, when Business Today published its case study on PepsiCo's Kurkure strategy, the brand had achieved a scale of "Rs 1,000 crore" in revenue — a figure that places it among India's largest salty snack brands. Simultaneously, Kurkure commanded approximately 60% market share in the bridge category — then valued at ₹1,950 crore — as reported in the same Business Today article, which cited Deepika Warrier. This market leadership, sustained despite the 2007 Bingo entry and associated competitive pressure, provides contextual evidence of the platform's effectiveness in defensive market positioning. "Such was the impact of the tagline and its recall that we even started applying it in our daily life when we termed our quirky loved ones as 'Tedha hai par mera hai'."— Social Samosa Brand Saga: Kurkure advertising journey (January 30, 2020) At the brand equity level, "Tedha Hai Par Mera Hai" achieved a level of cultural penetration that is measurable through its linguistic adoption — the phrase entered common conversational Indian usage as a term of affectionate ownership for quirky individuals or things, as documented in Social Samosa's brand retrospective. This organic language adoption represents what marketing theorists term "cultural resonance" — the highest order of brand equity outcome, where brand language is absorbed into everyday discourse independent of paid media. The campaign's longevity is itself an outcome metric. Launched in 2008, the platform sustained for at least five years as the brand's primary strategic anchor through multiple product launches, ambassador changes, and competitive disruptions — indicating that PepsiCo's internal brand assessments continued to validate its strategic relevance. The brand's expansion into international markets including the UK, Canada, UAE, and Pakistan also proceeded during this period, suggesting the "Tedha" identity was assessed as having export potential among diaspora communities.

Strategic Implications

On Competitive Response and Timing: The "Tedha Hai Par Mera Hai" platform illustrates an important principle in competitive brand strategy — that the most durable response to a product-level competitive threat is often not a product-level counter, but a brand-level repositioning that creates asymmetric differentiation. Rather than launching a new SKU to directly counter Bingo's Tedhe Medhe variant, PepsiCo converted Kurkure's physical form into a cultural symbol — territory that ITC's Bingo could not credibly contest without appearing derivative. This is consistent with the concept of "mental availability" as theorised by Byron Sharp: Kurkure built distinctive asset salience (the twisted shape) by elevating it from a product feature to a brand philosophy.

On the "Bridge Category" and STP: Kurkure's foundational insight — positioning between namkeen and potato chips — represents a textbook application of category creation strategy. The "Tedha Hai Par Mera Hai" platform deepened this positioning by translating the product's in-between-ness into a consumer value: the snack for real, imperfect Indians who are neither purely traditional nor purely western. This is a sophisticated example of STP alignment, where the brand's segmentation (confident, culturally self-assured Indians), targeting (mass urban and semi-urban, family units), and positioning (celebration of imperfection as authenticity) were brought into coherent alignment through communication.

On Celebrity Strategy: The transition from Juhi Chawla (single ambassador, 2005–2011) to a multi-celebrity family ensemble (2012 onward) reflects a deliberate shift in endorsement strategy from individual-led brand equity to character-portfolio-led brand equity. By casting six personalities as an ensemble "Kurkure family," the brand avoided the risks of over-dependence on a single ambassador while simultaneously representing the diversity of the Indian family. The choice of Bobby Pawar at JWT to frame this as character archetypes (Social Butterfly Dadi, Chupa Rustam, etc.) shows how creative strategy was used to make characters memorable independent of the celebrity's personal brand — a more scalable approach for long-term platform management.

On Regional Localisation: The 2008 South India campaign in Tamil — confirmed as an industry first for the category — demonstrates the strategic value of language-market localisation within an overarching national platform. The "Tedha Hai Par Mera Hai" philosophy translated cleanly into Tamil because it was rooted in a universal cultural insight (comfort with imperfection), not a culturally specific one. This is a critical design principle for brand platforms intended to operate across India's linguistically diverse markets: the insight must be universal, even when the expression is local.

Discussion Questions

1 PepsiCo chose to respond to Bingo's entry with a brand repositioning rather than a product-level counter. Using frameworks from competitive strategy (e.g., Porter's generic strategies, resource-based view), evaluate whether this was the optimal strategic response. Under what market conditions might a product-led response have been more appropriate?

2 The "Tedha Hai Par Mera Hai" platform is rooted in a cultural insight about the Indian consumer's evolving relationship with imperfection and identity. Critically assess how durable such a culturally grounded insight is as a long-term brand platform. What conditions would make it obsolete, and what signals should a brand manager monitor?

3 Kurkure's 2012 campaign deliberately shifted from a single celebrity ambassador (Juhi Chawla) to a six-member ensemble "family." Using the theory of celebrity endorsement (source credibility, meaning transfer model), analyse the strategic trade-offs of this decision in terms of brand equity building, cost efficiency, and competitive defensibility.

4 Kurkure's South India campaign (2008) was described as the first major salty snack brand commercial made exclusively for the South Indian market. Evaluate PepsiCo's regional localisation strategy for Kurkure. How should national FMCG brands balance unified brand architecture with regional market customisation, particularly in a country as linguistically and culturally diverse as India?

5 By 2014, despite Kurkure's ₹1,000 crore scale and ~60% bridge-category share, PepsiCo India had begun to trail local players like Haldiram's and Balaji Wafers in the overall salty snacks market. What does this reveal about the limits of brand positioning as a growth driver when structural factors (regional taste preferences, local distribution depth, price-point economics) are in play? How should brand strategy and business strategy be integrated in this context?