Big brands lose market share to smaller brands in Bharat: Report – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Market leaders in FMCG food segments, such as, instant noodles and tea, are losing ground to smaller brands in tier-2 and tier-3 towns, showed a report.
The minor loss in market share by these top brands, such as by Maggi and Red Label has been the gain of challenger brands, including Ching’s, Yippie, Top Ramen and Wagh Bakri.
These are a few among several findings of a report published by OkCredit, a digital bookkeeping app used by mom-and-pop stores to record credit, which accounts for a large chunk of transactions in India.
Parle is India’s favorite biscuit brand followed by Britannia and ITC’s Sunfeast, while Britannia’s strength is in Bihar, Delhi, North East and Southern states, the report showed. Red Label is the most popular tea brand followed by Tata Tea and Taj Mahal.
“SMBs are rarely a part of the mainstream conversation, even though a significant part of the GDP is contributed by them. They are the real monitors of the consumption story in “Bharat” and we are fortunate to have a pulse on that, through our network,” said Harsh Pokharna, co-founder and CEO of OkCredit.
Given its reach of 95% pin codes and more than 2.3 crore registered merchants, Pokharna said, the platform has extensive data on consumption patterns across tier-1,2, and 3 towns. The report also highlights demographic trends in the adoption of digital tools such as bookkeeping by neighbourhood stores.
Contrary to the popular perception that women are usually missing from traditional businesses, about 7-15% of users on the platform are women. The concentration of women is higher in apparel related businesses as compared to others.
The report primarily delves on three major areas- telecom, FMCG and modes of payment used at the neighbourhood stores. A large base of mobile recharge merchants gives OkCredit deep insights on the pre-paid user behaviour, operator wise.
While Jio is a pan-India leader, it hasn’t been able to conquer the markets of Goa and Kerala where Vodafone Idea is still at the top. Similarly, Airtel has made significant progress in tier-3 locations, on the back of 2G upgrades, according to the report.