Pulse - The ?1 story

In 2015, Pulse entered the Indian Market. Everyone thought it'll FAIL to sell its candies when Parle's Mango Bite and Kaccha Mango Bite ruled But to everyone SHOCK, it sold 1 BILLION pieces in less than 8 months! How Pulse Altered the Pulse of India:

The candy market in India is tough to crack. The biggies like Parle dominate the Sugar Boiled Confectiary (SBC) Market - with their Mango Bite, and Kaccha Mango Bite holding up to 50% of the market. 60% of such SBC candies cost just ?0.5

On the other hand, DS Group's Pulse cost ?1. It was 50% more - But it was worth it.

For ages, Candies have been popular in India. It is tiny. cheap. and sugary (who doesn't like sugar???) But for decades, it was seen as an occasional 'time-pass' mouth filler. You just grabbed ONE, and ate it.

Unlike chocolates, it didn't enjoy the exclusivity of being the show-stopper. It was sometimes equal to chillar (change)- for when the shop owner didn't have coins at hand.

But DS Group didn't want that. They wanted their product to be different. Since 1929, they have launched mass products like Rajnigandha, Pass Pass, and Catch Catch. But whatever their product - one thing remains common: They LOVE market research.

When they were about to launch Catch Catch, they spent 4 YEARS just studying the market. 4 Years! For Pulse - it was 2 whole years. Because either you can launch your product locally and see the IRL demand. Or, see the demand beforehand through research. DS Group did both.

During their research, one thing stood out: the Indian SBC market was dominated by MANGO-flavored candies. So, they made a bold move—launch another mango-based candy. But wouldn't they either flop, since others were already selling it, or land in legal issues for copying?

No. Because they had an astute observation: In parts of Western India, like Gujarat, Kaccha Mango (Keri) with some red chilli and salt masala mix. So they'd do the same: Inside their (perhaps copy-paste) unripe mango and sugar syrup - they'd put some salt and spice.

And then, they applied some genius moves:

The Chillar Framework: Back in 2015, UPI didn't exist. Getting change was a big hassle. Especially when the item was deliberately ?12 or ?15 and you just had notes. So the shops usually gave candies as chillar (change).

That was their first strategy: Don't be sold as a product. Be sold at some chillar.

By using their already mammoth distribution of Rajnigandha and Pass Pass, they INSTRUCTED, not asked, the shops to give THEIR Pulse candy instead of others as chillar. ...and the shops happily agreed. Because of

1. Higher Margins -Get this: 60% of the candies available then were sold at ?0.5. Taking a rough estimate, the shopowner would hardly get ?0.1 as a margin per candy sold. Phff. But Pulse was sold at ?1 --- giving both DS group and the shopowner much more money. Who'd refuse?
2. Some Salt- Everyone loves Mango. Everyone loves sugar. But what is unique to Indians, is that everyone loves MASALA as well. This is what separated Pulse from others: others just had sugar. These had masala as well. This minor difference made a huge impact.
3. The Lucky gap - But what had a bigger impact: was their 40% underproduction. Yup! Producing LESS than people demand can be CATASTROPHIC for usual FMCG companies but not for DS Group.

With their sugar + mango + masala combo, people got addicted. Instead of being sold at CHILLER, Pulse started selling as CHOCOLATES. Instead of 1 or 2, people bought up to 10 at once!

People loved Pulse for their taste. Shopowners loved Pulse for the margins. DS Group loved Pulse for their demand. And revenue.

Influencer Game - But what got them to grow further: Was Word of Mouth - first from customers, then influencers. After around a year of their launch, they started the #PulsePePulseChallenge

It was basically when they asked influencers like Ashish Chanchalani, and Prajakta (MostlySane) to try to stack 3 pulse candies over each other in less than 15 seconds. They got 1.6 CRORE impressions with it. This is the power of influential marketing.

So why do YOU love Pulse Candy? How many have you eaten in ONE go?