I scream, You scream

There was one of the many hoardings for Kwality-Walls ice cream way back in 2005 in which a boy and a girl were shown in a compromising position with less of clothes and enjoying an ice cream. I guess the brief which produced the ad would have gone as follows:

"Yaar, icecream is seen as a kiddie product. Make it exciting for youth. Make it sexy."

And that, literally, was what was done. Maybe it was an international campaign used in India - the models were quite foreign-looking. But it could have been an Indian campaign trying to look international - 'aspirational' they called it.

As a side-bonus, the hoardings caught the eye of the Moral Police who filed a PIL and provided the brand with lots of free space in newspaper columns.

As happened with VIP X underwear once upon a time.

Aakhir kyun

Something was gadbad. Young people were not eating enough ice cream, which was why advertisers tried to shock them into noticing their product.

Here's what I think went wrong.

When I was growing up - in the mid 80s - the ice cream parlour was THE coolest place to hang out. It was the place you went with friends to give your birthday treat.

There was also the Dollops ice cream parlour - from Cadbury's which had a really good black current ice cream I still remember vividly.

Cut to 2010 and you'll see the coffee shop has taken over hangout status completely. The ice cream parlour culture is dead.

Dollops - which I as a consumer thought was a fairly successful diversification for Cadbury - was apparently not such a good idea. It was sold to HLL, which killed off the brand.

Thanda matlab ...

All that's left now is Baskin Robbins - which has good icecream but is sold from tiny, uncool shops or counters and the ubiquitous paanch ya dus rupaye waala 'softy' machine. Then there's kirana shop icecream. Here, Amul is beating HLL because it's priced lower. And because it contains 'real milk' as opposed to Kwality-Walls which is made from vegetable oil. That's a real selling point in Amul's favour as far as parents are concerned!

The last avenue is home consumption and here too Amul appears to be more popular. They generally have some offer like "20% extra free" or buy strawberry and get a small vanilla pack free and a lot of junta feels their ice cream tastes creamier and better.

Still, I would be more than happy to try out Kwality Walls -if they came up with something out of the ordinary. Sadly, their last such attempt - the Vienetta - was a disaster. The ice cream looked nowhere like the enticing picture on the pack and in fact tasted extremely ordinary.

Still, there's hope

I think ice cream is one of those things people young and old love. It just has to be packaged and sold better - as an experience.

One way to go could be Haagen Dasz - which offers really rich creamy and sinful stuff. If they actually come to India though, they are likely to be too expensive to ever make a mass impact.

So the space is wide open for a Vadilal or a Kwality Walls to upgrade themselves and corner the adult ice cream-as-a-treat market!

I think ice cream is all about flavour and Indian ice cream makers have hardly tried to invent new ones. Vadilal once experimented with gulab jamun icecream and gajar halwa ice cream (because people apparently liked the combination at weddings). It didn't work but hey, at least they tried.

Vanilla, chocolate and butterscotch are 'killer app' ice creams. With trial and error, I'm sure many more are possible!

Creating magic

"Had a bad day? Had a good day? Either way, our four NEW Mood Magic flavors are sure to bring you emotional rescue". That's Ben and Jerrys icecream for you - and I think the appeal is far more effective than sexual innuendo! Of course Ben and Jerry's is the crazy company which sells Cherry Garcia and Karamel Sutra - flavours which were in fact suggested by consumers.

Ben & Jerrys is the google equivalent of the ice-cream world, and retains its uniquely cool and delicious image. Despite now being a wholly owned subsidiary of Unilever.

Hey, that means we just might see Ben & Jerry's in India in the near future. Keeping my fingers crossed! Toes too!!

In Gurgaon, the visual with boy and top of girl was replaced with a close up of only the girl. The 'course correction' came after comments from consumers about the 'Pleasure Up' campaign being too daring.