At the BreakfastBrief huddle in Ahmedabad, Roli Shrivastava, CMO, Hocco, said creators, quick commerce and content are crucial levers for a modern ice cream brand trying to build salience, recall and cultural relevance in a cluttered market.
Roli’s comments were useful because she did not reduce digital marketing to performance or acquisition. She spoke about the creator economy’s noise, the need to handpick the right creators, Hocco’s work with Gen Z creators, rap artists and graffiti artists, and how online content has helped create offline pull in markets where the brand was not yet physically present. And more. In a quick Q&A format.
Could you introduce yourself and Hocco?
I am Roli Shrivastava. I head marketing for Hocco.
I joined Ankit, the promoter, in 2018. At that time, I was heading marketing for the restaurant portfolio of brands that we have. In 2023, we gave birth to and incubated Hocco ice creams. Ever since then, it has been a fantastic journey for us at Hocco.
What shifts are you seeing in marketing for a brand like Hocco?
Two very interesting things are very crucial levers for us as well: the influencer economy and Q-commerce.
Creators are very important, because there is so much noise. Every second person is a creator.
What is the challenge with the creator economy?
As brand marketers, it becomes very important to declutter that noise and handpick and collaborate with the right influencers.
There are many agencies who come forward and say they will help handpick influencers. But I still feel there is a dearth of the kind of partners who can help brands get the right kind of influencers with whom we can co-collaborate and create content.
That would be amazing if someone steps in and helps brands collaborate better.
What did you learn about price and value in ice cream?
When we started our journey, there was a lot of pressure within the company to have Rs 10 ice creams and Rs 5 candies, especially for rural markets.
In one of my market visits, we were standing at a push cart, and some youngsters came and said they wanted Rs 100 worth of product.
It was so surprisingly beautiful to see that people are no more skewed only towards Rs 10 or Rs 15 candy, even in smaller markets.
What did that tell you about Indian consumers?
If you really give them value, if you give them a good product, Indian consumers are really willing to spend.
It does not matter what category they are in. They are willing to spend for value.
That is one beautiful insight we have seen. We just need to keep adding value to the products that we bring to the market, and Indian consumers are going to embrace us.
We have been having a wonderful journey with the products that we are launching. People are embracing us with Rs 200 ice creams and Rs 150 ice creams, and it is a delight to see that.
How do you think about Meta, YouTube and performance marketing?
To be very honest, Meta and YouTube are still channels that, as Hocco, we are looking at more from a brand-building perspective.
A lot of media houses approach us saying they will do performance marketing for us. But I have not been able to get there, because our demand and supply is an altogether different game right now.
Sales is not even an issue. We produce, we put things in the market, and they really get picked up.
How do creators fit into Hocco’s brand building?
We have figured out such beautiful Gen Z creators in the market.
We have worked with rap artists and graffiti artists to co-create together. They are very collaborative with the content they bring to the table.
So at Hocco, we try to find these Gen Z people who have the talent and are happy to collaborate with us, and make ice creams a part of their conversation.
How does digital content help offline expansion?
When we entered certain new markets, retailers did not know us.
But social media and all the content marketing had already taken Hocco to different cities where we were not physically present. That helped us in placing the products in the market, because retailers started saying, “Naya ice cream aaya hai Hocco karke.”
