How Pulse became #1 candy in India

Pulse is a hard-boiled 'spicy-powder-filled' sweet-candy with a raw mango flavor priced at Rs1.

It comes from the stables of Dharampal Satpal Group, a Noida-headquartered conglomerate that also makes Paas Paas mouth freshener, Baba chewing tobacco, Rajnigandha paan masala.

It was launched in mid-2015 and has since notched sales of over Rs 100 crore. It crossed the Rs 50 crore mark within 6 months of its launch. It contributed 40% to the Group's revenue in the confectionery segment in the year gone by.

And We are discussing it because all this was achieved without any formal advertising push.

Its popularity has been attributed to its online-viral-phenomenon caused by its massive social media presence created by its eternally-satisfied customers:
Its users have created a lot of online-content on Quora, FB, Instagram, Youtube - praising/discussing the candy. This never happened with popular candies of earlier times like Poppins, Mango Bite, Phantom sweet cigarettes. In western markets, where internet penetration is deeper, many brands have created a loyal following and a recognizable identity by marketing intelligently on social media. As this industry report says, in the US, social media “now plays almost as large a role in purchasing decisions as TV, and 57 percent of consumers say they’re influenced to think more highly of business after seeing positive comments or praise online”.

But there is another theory that attributes its popularity to planned-&-clever-marketing:
"The candy is popular solely due to grocers who refuse to tend loose change. The candy shouldn’t have been this popular if it wasn’t forced on people through their purchases. Now, it has replaced chewing gum as the default thing people get when they want to have something in the mouth. The addiction people talk about is basically behaviour moulded through habits"

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the Story of Pulse's launch

Pulse was launched to capitalise on the fastest growing HBC (Hard-Boiled Candy) segment in the confectionery basket. As per the market research and insight firm Nielsen India, while the overall sweet candy category, pegged at Rs 6,000 crore, is growing at 14 per cent year-on-year, the Rs 2,100 crore HBC segment is growing at 23 per cent. Kaccha Aam (26 per cent) and Mango flavour (24 per cent) together claim 50 per cent share in the HBC market. Raw mango was thus, the obvious choice. 

Pulse's makers also realised that there were only straight flavours such as mango, orange, caramel in the market. But in India, the common practice is to eat raw mango with something tangy - Whether it is 'aam panna' or a slice of raw mango sold on the roadside, it is incomplete without the tang/spices. That's how the group got the idea of a spicy-powder-filled candy.

It was named 'Pulse' because it sets your pulse racing.

The candy market had started shunning the Rs0.5 price point a couple of years ago with big players such as Mondelez, PVM (Perfetti Van Melle), Parle launching or re-launching their products at Re 1. High raw material costs, fewer 50 paise coins in circulation, and the demand for higher margins by retailers were some of the factors that propelled the wave. However at the time when Pulse was launched, 86% of the industry was at Rs0.5 for a candy weighing anywhere between 2-2.5 grams. The DS Group decided to go with Rs1 instead, and to justify the price, the weight was increased to 4 grams.

The experience life cycle of any other candy in the market, it is usually constant throughout. But, in Pulse, the experience of eating peaks later as you reach the powder filling. In order to give consumers a full mouth feel for a heightened experience, grammage was increased.

Raw mangoes are relished by people of all age groups and geographies in India, so there was no particular target group singled out for Pulse. The candy, with its tangy taste, was expected to cut across age groups in a market focussed on kids, and therefore, flooded with straight and sweet flavours.

Did the makers think of owning any particular consumption occasion? No. Pulse was ideated as an anytime, anywhere candy. India is a hot country where you need to keep having something to keep the saliva going. That's exactly the reason why candy sales are maximum in tropical areas. 

Since Rajasthani and Gujarati cuisines share a similar tanginess as Pulse, the company decided to test-market it in these states first. The exercise proved so successful that it had to be converted into a full-fledged launch.

Distribution was no challenge for the Group.

The challenge was to scale up production to meet the skyrocketing demand. By January, the brand managed a pan-India presence. Meanwhile, cheaper imitations such as 'Spicy Beats', 'Plse', and 'Plus' exploited the need gap. As of now, Pulse is produced in 7 contract-manufacturing units.

The unorganised candy market in India is big, and no brand has been able to break the tradition of flavour over brand, wherein customers ask for "orange, mango or mint wali" candy. Pulse has changed that. It has taken the category from impulse-driven to Pulse-driven. This is true of the pricing strategy as well. Looking at the success of Pulse, other players have started launching their 'gold versions' at Re 1.

A Pulse TVC

the Pulse candy

Sources:

Scroll.in/bulletins/48/how-indian-hospitals-are-innovating-to-improve-patient-satisfaction
Afaqs.com/news/story/47821_How-Pulse-candy-captured-the-market-The-Full-Story