Tupperware is here to stay

Tupperware is undoubtedly a leader in its space. We caught up with Anshu Bhagai, CMO & Head- Institutional Sales, Tupperware, who shares the brand’s journey in India.

Neha Malmotra (NM): Customisation is what Tupperware had to undertake to be a success in India. Can you brief us about this?

Anshu Bhagai (AB): Tupperware exists in 100 countries and has 400 products at present. The first thing we had to do for the Indian market was to customise our product range and develop products for the Indian market as India has its own unique requirement.

We also introduced special materials for India for which we upgraded our plant a couple of years ago. Poly carbonate has been introduced in our service range along with printed Melamine dinner sets.

Worldover our range is available in subtle colours. India is where we have the most brightest and colourful range while being sophisticated and elegant keeping the upscale and international identity in mind.

We have printed our products according to the Indian flavour as well. We have canisters printed with designs inspired by Blue pottery of Rajasthan. Elephants and other Indian themes which give the products a contemporary feel have also been introduced.

NM: How did you penetrate the Indian market?

AB: 5 years ago, people thought that Tupperware was expensive. So we developed our door entry product, water bottles. That was developed only for India. That was the first time that the mass customer experienced Tupperware quality for the first time. Having seen Tupperware’s quality and the fact that they get a lifetime warranty, they wanted to try other products. This transition made them a regular customer. This is what the bottle did for us and was our first penetrated product and also helped us reach many more markets.

A lot of people like experiencing new brands but don’t know who to trust and whom not to trust.  When they see a brand in mass media they tend to trust it more.  This is one uniqueness about Indians which is not present elsewhere in the world. So we had to incorporate this. Also India is a touch and feel market.

Most of the people experienced our products in catalogues, which meant we needed to give them a chance to touch and feel our product. What we developed for Indian is our ‘Integrated campaign’.  We set up experience centres and kiosks in malls and organised retail formats through which they can experience our product.  We have also adopted a push and pull strategy.

NM: How are you targeting the smaller cities? How has the response been?

AB: We do carnivals in Tier II and tier II cities where we take up a hall and put up stalls over a weekend. These are done in cities where organised retail is still not developed so much.

We have a ‘Kitchen on wheels’ wherein we have created a Tupperware kitchen in a van which goes from city to city covering a distance of 200 kms.  The objective here is also to give them a touch and feel of the brand.  The response from these cities has been very good.

NM: How does Tupperware work with women?

AB: Tupperware is all about women empowerment. We have an all women work force. They not only earn money but this also makes them confident individuals. That is engraved in our business model. This is what we stand for.

NM: Tupperware has introduced a cookware range. Why this diversification?

AB: India is many countries into one. We already had a lot of products in our international portfolio so we thought of introducing them in India. Some people want to buy the best and for them we have imported our cookware range, Ultimo. This is endorsed by celebrity chef, Kunaal Kapor. This has a unique portfolio with a lot to offer. Strategically we have moved from being just a food container company to lifestyle culinary brand. With more and more competition coming in, we have to be ahead of them.