CASE TITLE: PULSE CANDY- SUSTAINING THE

BRAND DIFFERENTIATION

SUBMISSION TO:
Mrs. Anugamini Srivastava
SUBMISSION BY:
Shivani Saxena (41274)
Ritwik Naudiyal (41242)
Sourabh Chatterjee (41290)
Shailesh Tiwari (41265)
Shashwat Sharda (41268)
Faizan Ahmad (41321)

Symbiosis Institute of Business Management

Symbiosis Knowledge Village, Lavale
Mulshi, Pune, Maharashtra 412115
Q.1. What will be product’s future?
Pulse Candy officially known as Pass Pass Pulse, is a form of hard boiled candy manufactured
by DS group. It is marketed under its umbrella brand ‘Pass Pass’. The candy was first launched
in a raw mango flavour with core made up of tangy salt and spices. Owing to its tremendous
success, the company launched various flavours like Guava, Orange, and Pineapple. The
pricing of pulse is Re. 1 for 4 gram.

It is a category disruptor and the experience begins with the taste of a fruity flavour and ends
with a tangy surprise as it peaks towards the core.

Pulse plans on spending on a complete marketing campaign. They have decided to utilize
around 6-7 percent of the annual turnover from the candy into the marketing activities. They
plan on releasing advertisements in popular national as well as regional channels and support
these advertisements with the help of campaigns on the digital, BTL and other platforms.
(Source : Forbes India).
In order the fix the demand-supply gap, the company can tie up with more manufacturing
units in addition to the existing ones. The company started with one contract manufacturing
unit and they already have eight today—two each in Gujarat, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh,
and one each in Uttarakhand and West Bengal. They have an average current production
capacity of 1,200-1,300 tonnes per month, and the company aims to increase it to 1,500-
1,700 tonnes (Source: Forbes India). Local manufactures are taking advantage of this gap to
imitate the candy due to which the sales revenue are being lost to the counterfeit products.
And the legal course will further deviate them from achieving the target.

The overall confectionery market is around Rs 6,000 crore, out of which HBC is around Rs
2,400 crore. The overall market is growing strongly, but HBC is growing at 24-45 percent
according to a KPMG report. This is one of the reasons the company should leverage its robust
distribution network of existing product portfolio of Baba Elaichi, Rajnigandha and Pass Pass.
They aim for increasing the 8.5 lakh outlets to even more and they plan on increasing the
distributors from the current figure of 2500.
Going International:
The DS group has already entered the international markets and are placing their different
variants in the UK, Gulf countries, and Southeast Asian markets such as Singapore and
Malaysia. The company aims primarily selling the candy in the Indian ethnic stores which are
a network shops where the Indian diaspora shops for ethnic ingredients and brands from the
home market.

According to Nielsen India, the HBC category has low entry and exit barriers as a result of
which new players enter the market every year and some rely on counterfeit products. Low
entry-exit barriers promote innovation on formats and flavours in the HBC category, the most
recent one being in the coffee-flavoured segment which stands a chance as the competition
for Pulse.
 Segment name Market share (%)
Hard boiled 48
candy
Gums 20
Eclairs 14
Cough 13
Lozenges
Lollipops 4
Jellies 1

MARKET SHARE (%)

Hard boiled candy Gums Eclairs Cough Lozenges Lollipops Jellies

4%1%
13%

14% 48%

20%

A glimpse at present status of Pulse

Q.2. Do people like the candy?

The liking or dislike of the people is indicated in the reviews they give on sites like
mouthshut.com. These reviews are further analysed using analytical tools like sentiment
analysis to accurately gauge the ‘Pulse’ of the population. The results are shown below:

Sentiment %
Negative 30%
Positive 70%
Grand Total 100%
As per our data analysis, around 70% of reviews talk positively about the candy calling it
“favourite, delicious, good, flavourful, mood enhancer and original in concept” as is indicated
by keyword analysis.

On the other hand, 30% of the people who posted their opinion said the candy doesn’t meet
their expectations because of reasons like:

 Irritation caused by strong flavour of salt on the tongue

 Resultant coughing
 Itching in throat
 High price charged by shopkeeper because of shortage

Q.3. What do people feel for it?

The feelings of the people are best described by Emotional analysis tools. The results
obtained were:

Emotion %
Angry 40%
Excited 20%
Happy 40%
Grand Total 100%

Overall, 60% of the people feel happy about the product whereas some 40% still need to be
turned into promoters by addressing their issues.

The detailed analysis is shown in the table below:

 Reviews Sentiment Emotion Keywords

Pass pass Pulse Candy is my favourite candy. It has lots of flavours and
tastes amazing.Its a double layered candy which gives us the taste of both "Pass","favourite","Candy","Pulse
sweet and sour.Its taste is like an ocean of spices in the mouth. Its ","flavours","us","candy","lots","d
packaging is so good that we can take it very easily. The design and layout ouble","gives","good","design","p
of this product is marvellous. I am very happy with this product's quality and roduct","marvellous","available",
quantity.The best thing about this product is that it is available at a very "products","best","happy","thing"
good price. I just love this candy and gives my brother and sister as gift. positive Happy ,"quality","gift","brother"
Pass pulse is a candy which is very popular now adays.it has actually a very
good taste.kachha aam with tangy twist is a great fusion.when it comes to
mouth the taste mesmerizes itself.it has a jaljeera flavour which tastes "aam","Pass","popular","good","c
better.I like the candy very much. positive Excited andy","tangy","pulse"
I like always like mango flavoured candies, recently I saw this pulse candy
and taste it, from that day till today I kept on having it, I feel like am
addicted to it.i cant stop having pulse.
Previously I used to eat mango bite and kaccha mango those were my
favourite at that time, when I taste this pulse candy I left the other candies "candies
and madly sticked to the pulse candy.AM loving it. And I even recommended recently","mango","candy","day",
many of my friends to taste it, they are all loved it. Am expecting other "flavoured","pulse","friends","ma
flavours from this company. positive Happy ny","company","flavours"
"pass","good","original","pulse","
However the new pass pass pulse is not as good as the original one. The new","kind","delicious
original pass pass was one of a kind with some delicious flavor in it. The flavor","alot","whiles","extra","fl
new pass pass has alot of extra added flavor which actually spoils the mood avor","mood","actually","one","p
whiles eating it. I would prefer the original product over the improved one. positive Happy roduct"
Now the pulse candy is not the same like previous the candy has just
sweetness in it that's it no tangy taste like previous now I feel we are just
wasting are money not good at all.
Please put the same taste as it was like in starting when you people just
launched it.Me and my friend is not liking it any more please get that masala
flavour back in the candy other wise the taste is same like normal candy in "previous","sweetness","candy","
market. negative Angry pulse"
When ever I eat this candy my mouth outer part was cutted by the sourness
and kala namak. So, I feel it harms my mouth.the idea is better it's needs to
less the amount of kala namak in the candy. It come into two flavor one
kachcha mango bite and other is guava flavor. I trying both flavors but
guava flavour is better than mango it is much sweeter then mango
flavor.It's packing is good and dark mox with green is a unique method to "outer","namak","part","mouth",
show it's solid taste Talking about it's price. it price is vary cheap only 1 rupe "sourness","idea","amount","kala
per candy.so, it is more value of money .but I would dislike it's taste ","bite","two","mango","flavor","
because not a one time when ever I eat this candy I gives harm on my guava","one
mouth so stay away from this candy.I will give it 1 out of 5 only for it's kachcha","sweeter","flavour","be
packing. tter","flavors","much","price","m
oney","vary
negative Angry cheap","value","rupe"
The packet of the pulse candies was gifted to me by my friend. To be
honest, this is the best candy I've ever tasted! The packaging is upto the
mark. And the flavour is different from all other candies and it's yummy.
Therefore, we can say that it gives total value for money. Everyone should "candies","packet","pulse","frien
taste this candy. The salty flavour inside the candy is amazing. I just love this d","best","mark","candy","upto","
candy. honest","different","flavour","giv
es","value","total","money","Ever
... positive Excited yone","amazing","salty"
Today I am going to tell you about Pass pass pulse candy.first of all I just
want to say taht I hate this flavour of pulse too much because when I eat it
the taste I feel in in my mouth is very bad and you just throgh it from your
mouth. You don't buy it again, but another flavour of pulse I like very much
but I hate this flavour and I don't want to recommended you to buy this
flavour of pulse and I think you also don't like it this is my thought and "Pass","taht","Today","pulse","an
experinece. negative Angry other","much","flavour"
When I first tried this pulse Candy I become crazy for it. It was taste
mindblowing well I have tasted all the Candy is but this Candy was a bit
different. The raw mango flavour in it.It seems and after sometime it gets a
spicy and unique flavour which makes this can be spread from the rest of
candies. It taste is being highly loved all over India.my opinion is that if you "crazy","Candy","pulse","bit","tas
have not try this can be till yet you definitely use this Candy and I can bet te","different","mindblowing","sp
that you will love it again and again and all these characteristics are the icy","flavour","unique","mango","
secret of the success of this candy. sometime","raw","opinion","highl
So I highly recommended you to buy this Candy and taste it thank you. positive Angry y"
When I had candy for first time I thought it might not be good one to taste.
Its awesome to taste first we taste sweet as we go withit longer its taste
changes to spicy it come with green mango and guava flavour awsome
product and it cost for 1rs so its not that costly. I like the green mango a lot "good","time","one","candy","firs
and it has some unique flavour and unique idea to make like this candy. t","awesome","taste","changes",
Must have this candy for one time and it might change you mood and also "withit","idea","flavour","green",
taste. positive Happy "lot","unique","mango"
Q.4. Does it require any change?
The scintillating journey of the Pulse candy has witnessed a gradual slow down in year on year
sales growth rates in the recent charts. The product although disruptive since it's launch,
needs to grow and innovate in order to sustain itself for longer in such a highly competitive
confectionery market. The Hard Boiled Candy (HBC) segment in which the Pulse operates and
leads, faces stiff competition from the other segments within the confectionery products
world. There have been events on the confectionery market timeline where market leaders
have fizzled out of the market within a few quarters. With pressure from different directions,
the Pulse needs to build a brand which can take on these uncertainties and volatilities.
Creating a diverse portfolio of product offerings is the challenge that Pulse faces today.
Despite launching multiple flavors like Guava, Orange, Pineapple and Litchi, the Kacha Aam
version still dominates by contributing approximately 80% of the total turnover of the firm.
The proposed change aims to develop the other flavors of the Pulse candy by catering to the
taste buds requirements of the target audience. Each new flavor needs to be thoroughly
evaluated in terms of their reach, taste satisfaction, purchase patterns and customer loyalty.
An industry benchmarking of separate flavors should be carried out, with equal weightage
allocated to both quantitative as well as qualitative data points.

Moving forward, Pulse needs to create products for the other segments in the confectionery
market like gums and lollipops. The company needs to leverage its brand name to provide
these new products with a smooth launch enabling deeper penetration. Venturing into the
growing cough lozenges category could be avoided as the consumers perceive a product by a
dedicated Pharma company to be superior in this segment and a weak product could dilute
the brand, eventually affecting all its SKUs.

Pulse was such an instant hit due its strategic targeting of the Urban Adults TG and a similar
innovative targeting approach is required for all its new product launches.
An attempt to increase the pie could be made by entering into B2B arrangements with
restaurants, hotels, theme parks, airlines etc. as a refreshing candy is welcome everywhere.
Although a different product packaging is recommended, this new packaging should still in a
way remind the consumers of Pulse, thereby increasing brand visibility and trust.

The DS Group in their bid to become the top confectionery company in the country amidst
cut throat competition from a global heavyweight player like Perfetti Van Melle or a local
giant in Parle, need to focus predominantly on gauging the diverse taste buds of the country
and catering to them in the best possible way. Research and Development is the key area of
investment and an expansive distribution network could just make the new products an
instant hit.