Too Yumm!’s Better-for-You Positioning in Packaged Snacks

Industry & Competitive Context

Packaged snacking in India is a large category dominated by fried formats and entrenched incumbents. A 2024 afaqs report, citing IMARC Group, put the Indian snacks market at ₹42,694.90 crore in 2023 and projected ₹95,521.8 crore by 2032. It listed PepsiCo’s Lay’s, Kurkure and Doritos, Balaji Wafers, Bingo, Parle Wafers and several local brands as Too Yumm!’s immediate rivals. The same report, citing Mintel (2023), described Gen Z as the “super snacking generation”, with nearly half snacking to boost mood and 30% treating snacks as a convenient meal replacement.

In this setting, a new entrant can compete on price, distribution or product attributes. Too Yumm!’s documented choice was to compete on an attribute that incumbents did not own. At launch the company cited “a huge opportunity in the healthy snack market owing to changing consumer preference towards a healthy diet”.

Brand Situation Prior to Campaign

Too Yumm! is the flagship snacking brand of Guiltfree Industries Ltd, the FMCG arm of the RP–Sanjiv Goenka Group, and launched in April 2017. The group announced its FMCG entry with two products, Foxnuts and Wheat Thins, launched in Kolkata, Pune and Gurgaon. It stated plans for ten products with 40–50 variants and expansion to 30–40 cities within a year, and a goal of a US$1 billion FMCG business in five years. Within about six months it added a third product, baked Veggie Stix. At launch, the foxnuts were described as air-popped and the wheat thins as baked.

The company name itself carried the proposition. The brand’s head of marketing said in the launch announcement that it was “not by accident” that the company is named Guiltfree. A design agency that built the brand identity and packaging described the first two products as twists on traditional Indian snacks, with a bite mark in the pack design to increase impulse pick-up. The brand launched during the 2017 Indian Premier League, and its logo appeared on a franchise team’s attire. Mullen Lintas was appointed creative agency after a multi-agency pitch involving six agencies.

Strategic Objective

The documented objectives are layered. At the group level, the company stated a US$1 billion FMCG ambition in 2017, and Business Standard reported the chairman’s target of ₹100 billion in FMCG revenue within five years as of December 2018. These are management statements, not outcomes.

At the brand level, the objective in the 2017 launch announcement was to build a healthier-snack franchise, with the stated philosophy of launching “newer and healthier snacks” under the brand. By December 2018 the company described its goal for Karare as making the product offering “more mainstream” and appealing to “a much wider set of consumers”. In 2024 the objective shifted again. Curativity announced a revamped positioning aimed at Gen Z, and the brand’s marketing head described the ambition as becoming “the coolest, trendiest snacking brand for young snack lovers”. By April 2026 the company’s own release described the brand as “better-for-you” and as having “pioneered a smarter snacking category” with guilt-free alternatives that do not compromise on taste.

Campaign Architecture & Execution

The execution can be read in four documented phases.

Phase one, 2017: health-led launch. Virat Kohli was announced as the brand’s “health ambassador”. The launch TVC showed him eating Too Yumm! in different situations while others wondered how he managed to “Look Too Yumm!”. The product range was built on baking and air-popping.

Phase two, December 2018: mainstreaming through a familiar format. Karare, described as the sixth product, was launched in a format the company called a favourite with consumers, with the differentiation that it is baked and not fried. The campaign line was “Bahar se Tedha, Andhar se Seedha”. In the TVC, a woman eating a fried snack discovers that Kohli’s identical-looking snack is baked. Karare was sold at ₹5, ₹10 and ₹20 price points. Business Standard reported that the group was also planning non-baked items, noting that “baked and not fried” had been the brand’s primary proposition until then.

Phase three, 2023–24: portfolio and audience broadening. Too Yumm! entered Indian ethnic snacks through a Namkeen sub-brand, announced by group retail and FMCG head Shashwat Goenka. A Telegraph report said it launched ten variants and engaged Varun Dhawan as endorser. afaqs reported that the brand launched BHOOT Chips in August 2023 in collaboration with hot-sauce brand Naagin, and Twisties in February 2024. It also reported a Marvel-licensed range aimed at school kids, a sponsorship tie as snacking partner to the group-owned Lucknow Super Giants, and an in-house ad for Twisties made by Curativity after a pitch. afaqs described these moves as the brand slowly distancing itself from its healthy-snacking equity because it had not made as deep a dent among Gen Z as intended.

Phase four, 2026: flavour-led innovation under a “better-for-you” label. The April 2026 release for Korean Karare describes it as “not fried and made with 100% rice bran oil”, aligned with “better-for-you positioning”, and part of a portfolio spanning chips, Karare, Namkeen, multigrain chips and snacks, and K-Bomb Ramen. A separate campaign, “Switch to NPO (No Palm Oil)”, reiterated the brand’s no-palm-oil stance in its snacks range. A campaign announcement also named Ananya Panday as the face of the K-Bomb noodle range.

Positioning & Consumer Insight

The documented consumer insight comes from the 2018 Karare release. Mullen Lintas stated that the campaign was based on how consumers rationalise unhealthy snacking choices and are cynical about healthier new products because they believe the taste experience will not be the same. Kohli’s role was to “debunk” that belief. This is a sophisticated reading of the barrier to better-for-you snacking: the obstacle is the taste trade-off, not awareness of health.

Interpretation: across the phases, the health claim moves from the headline to a supporting attribute. In 2017–18 the promise was health without taste compromise, carried by a fitness icon and a “baked not fried” product claim. By 2024 the stated audience had shifted to Gen Z, and the marketing language centred on being “coolest” and “trendiest”. By 2026 the company’s own release used “better-for-you” as a portfolio-level label while the campaign leads were Korean flavour, cinema-style intrigue and IPL timing. The positioning appears to be moving from a health brand that tastes good toward a flavour brand that is better for you. That reading comes from the sequence of company statements, not from any single company claim.

Media & Channel Strategy

The brand’s documented media pattern is built around cricket and entertainment. The 2017 launch coincided with the IPL. The April 2026 release states that the Korean Karare campaign was timed with the IPL, which it calls one of India’s largest media consumption windows, and describes the brand’s playbook as relying on pop-culture moments, from “edible IPL posters” to creator-led narratives. afaqs reported that the brand released a Cricket World Cup anthem with a creator, launched BHOOT Chips on a streaming reality show and was title sponsor of another streaming show.

On distribution, the Korean Karare release states pan-India availability across stores, the brand’s D2C website and quick-commerce platforms Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart, at ₹5, ₹10 and ₹35. Business Standard reported in December 2018 that management claimed an outlet count of 0.45 million, with 30,000 sales points being added each month, and that exports to West Asia and Singapore had begun.

Business & Brand Outcomes

Documented, brand-specific results are limited. In December 2018, Business Standard reported management statements that group FMCG turnover was ₹6 billion, with a stated 3.5% share in the western Indian snacking category and an expectation of EBITDA positivity within the next fiscal year. These are unaudited management claims as reported.

At the group level, RPSG Ventures reported FMCG segment revenue of ₹144.96 crore for Q3 FY25. The segment includes brands other than Too Yumm!. For Q4 FY26, Free Press Journal reported that the FMCG and sports businesses continued to report losses at the segment level.

Strategic Implications

The points below are interpretations of the cited disclosures.

1. A differentiating attribute can be a launch asset and a ceiling. Health let a new entrant stand apart from fried incumbents. The brand’s own later movement toward Gen Z and flavour suggests that, in this category, health alone was not treated as enough for the audience the company wanted to reach.

2. The better-for-you label has become flexible. In 2017–18 the operative claim was baked and not fried. Business Standard reported plans for non-baked items. The 2026 release describes “not fried” and 100% rice bran oil, and a separate campaign emphasises no palm oil. A broader umbrella claim gives innovation room but depends on the consumer accepting that the criteria will keep evolving.

3. Distribution price points matter as much as the claim. Karare’s ₹5, ₹10 and ₹20 packs and Korean Karare’s ₹5, ₹10 and ₹35 packs show that the brand pairs its premise with mass price points rather than keeping it premium-only.

4. Culture-led marketing adds reach and complexity. Celebrity, licensed characters, sports sponsorship, streaming properties and flavour trends widen audiences, but they also give the brand more ground to hold together than a single health message did.

5. Public evidence of commercial payoff is thin. The brand-level reporting available is mostly management claims and segment-level figures. Anyone assessing the strategy should treat the evidence on outcomes as incomplete.

Discussion Questions

1. The 2018 Karare campaign was built on the insight that consumers doubt healthier snacks will taste as good. How does that insight differ from simply promoting a health benefit, and when does it stop being enough?

   
   

2. Too Yumm!’s documented language shifts from “guilt-free” and “baked not fried” to “better-for-you” and flavour-led culture. What are the strategic benefits and risks of loosening a distinctive product claim over time?

   
   

3. afaqs reported that the brand moved away from its healthy-snacking equity to win Gen Z. How should a company decide whether to change its positioning for a new audience or protect the original one?

   
   

4. The brand pairs mass price points with celebrity, licensed-character and sports-linked marketing. What does that combination imply for brand-building in a low-price, impulse category?

   
   

5. Given that stand-alone brand financials are not publicly disclosed, what evidence would you ask for before concluding that a better-for-you positioning created business value?