How are brands innovating with their products during Covid

Coronavirus has caused deep uncertainty and turmoil throughout the country and the world. The canvas of eating out (delivery, restaurants, cafes, QSR etc.), like many other businesses, has been and continues to be disrupted by both the supply and demand. 

We have reason to believe that the element of trust is the most important thing for the end consumers today, the trust that they place in a brand. They trust us to make authentic and tasteful products, to provide great value for money, and most importantly than ever before, to be 100% hygienic in the entire process. For e.g. At Instapizza, we firmly believe that utmost transparency will help us build that trust, as such transparency is the very foundation upon which we are building our brand. To establish this transparency we have recently launched www.instapizza/crustflix. CrustFlix is a channel where we live stream feeds from our kitchens 24/7. We launched CrustFlix in an effort to make our commitment to hygiene and our practices extremely transparent to all our existing and potential customers - and, as they say, seeing is believing.

Also Read: https://www.indianretailer.com/restaurant/article/digital-innovation-is-the-reason-behind-success-of-this-brand.13326

Due to COVID-19 we will see a variety of trends emerge across the F&B industry that will help drive sales. Restaurants have already moved into home delivery, DIY (Do it Yourself) kits, conscious decision to eat healthier, innovative and family combo packs, even so online cooking sessions with the well-known Chefs of restaurants and wellness centres are trending innovations. 

Key amongst the many emerging trends across many industries including F&B, three are very notable: firstly, that customers are beginning to trust & appreciate innovative, home-grown Indian brands. Secondly that spending will be driven by value-for-money and third, innovation in the space of DIY, i.e. how to create a restaurant style meal at home.

The DIY kit concept has emerged strongly and a space within which several brands have innovated. Kylin has come up with “Secrets of Kylin” a great range of pastes that allow you to cook up restaurant style Thai Curry or Chilli Chicken from your home kitchen. Chef Ritu Dalmia’s chain of restaurants, DIVA has launched “DIVA CASA” a curated menu that sends you all the ingredients of the menu item that you pick so that you can finish the dish at home. Numerous pizza brands have launched pizza making kits for pizza lovers and the online world is flooded with cooking sessions with Chefs and videos by them, letting go of recipes that were once only to be tasted at their restaurant.

Our committed focus to and investment in technology will further allow us to embrace the future of hospitality as the country recovers from and learns to live with the pandemic. We are working on a lightning quick, app-based, contactless ordering and dining experience for pizza as a quick-service in-store item thus reducing the human to human interaction whilst positioning quality and convenience at the forefront of all technology enabled solutions. 

As we continue to progress through these uncertain times, we believe that our focus on transparency, product innovation and competitive pricing strategies will play a key role in our success as a brand.