Confectionery as a category is a big one. Brands like Cadbury and Ferrero Rocher are taking a very big and focused approach to shopper marketing. As for the consumer side, exposure to international brand of chocolates has resulted in people spending more on this category.

Confectionery is an indulgent category, so placement of the product is very important. In a majority of supermarkets, you will find that the impulse category products are stocked at the check-out counters where it is unorganized and the brand visibility can get lost. When there is a new launch you need to identify the various touch points and work on a strategy of well thought out entry and exit touch points. Also, there is also a huge opportunity in cross category management. This is because parents accompany the child and in the process of indulging the kids, the parents can also be triggered to do an impulse purchase.  But not many players have taken a category management approach; all of them are creating a brand lock because then there is a top-up purchase which happens immediately. But if you go for category management, the category itself can grow resulting in higher brand sales.

There is not much innovation happening when it comes to branding in the retail environment. As for General Trade, brands in this category have difficulty in getting the right ROI. If they are creating a unit for a sweet which is costing them 50 paise or 1 rupee, it is difficult to justify the unit cost, even if there is an innovation and even that could get lost due to lack of space.

But the fact is that even premium brands cannot survive without GT due to the volumes. And today GT is growing, and getting is converted into newer formats like self help stores, so the trends are changing there. Besides, today the rural markets are also playing a major role. Brands like Parle come up with smaller packaging suitable to that format and environment.   Fresh bakery products are doing very well as well. Bakeries even go to the length of preparing their own breads as the Indian shoppers particularly respond very well to sensory triggers like smells.
On the whole I must say that the Confectionery category is evolving and creating a destination for shoppers by giving a complete package. Examples are in-shop restaurants and there have been instances where the restaurant made more revenue than the shop.
But by and large in terms of trends in the category, the trend is to follow the big brand. If you look at the majority of brands, they just follow the market leader. Everyone is competitive in prices and it is a clear game of margins.

Also, in chocolates there has been a shift; the average spend has gone up. Regular chocolates come for about Rs 30. But international brands need to work on different packs and offers. Customized solutions have to be made like in the case of Ferrero which customized its pack offers for the Indian market.

As far as new retail formats are concerned, I have not seen much because all said and done, chocolates as part of a special occasion is still a Western concept and in India during festive and auspicious occasions, the preference is for traditional sweets rather than chocolates. Chocolates are still an urban phenomenon here; so we still have a long way to go before we can create a destination for chocolates.