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Coco Berry

Cocoberry is the largest frozen yogurt chain in India. Its CEO, G.S. Bhalla, is looking to further expand the business both domestically and internationally. Cocoberry offers low-fat frozen yogurt with fruit and dry toppings. It has grown rapidly since opening in 2009 and now serves sandwiches and beverages in addition to frozen yogurt. However, expansion plans face challenges as Indians traditionally make yogurt at home and competitors have entered the market. Bhalla is a serial entrepreneur who started Cocoberry and several other successful businesses after graduating from university. He aims to open 100 domestic locations by the end of 2011 and 500 total by 2015, and is considering markets in the Middle East for Cocober

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
764 views9 pages

Coco Berry

Cocoberry is the largest frozen yogurt chain in India. Its CEO, G.S. Bhalla, is looking to further expand the business both domestically and internationally. Cocoberry offers low-fat frozen yogurt with fruit and dry toppings. It has grown rapidly since opening in 2009 and now serves sandwiches and beverages in addition to frozen yogurt. However, expansion plans face challenges as Indians traditionally make yogurt at home and competitors have entered the market. Bhalla is a serial entrepreneur who started Cocoberry and several other successful businesses after graduating from university. He aims to open 100 domestic locations by the end of 2011 and 500 total by 2015, and is considering markets in the Middle East for Cocober

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COCOBERRY - GLOBAL AMBITIONS

Introduction

G.S. Bhalla (Bhalla), CEO of Cocoberry, the largest frozen yogurt chain in India, was looking at how he could further spur the growth of his frozen yogurt chain. He had set aggressive expansion goals for his venture and was actively considering foraying into international markets. Bhalla had had entrepreneurial ambitions right from a very young age. After trying his hand at different businesses, he entered the organized retail sector as he saw an opportunity in the market for low fat desserts. Since its inception in February 2009,

Cocoberry had grown at a brisk pace. It offered fresh and low calorie frozen yogurt with different kinds of fruit and dry toppings. Cocoberry is Indias first award winning Premium Frozen Yogurt chain. The name is a blend of the words "Coco" from Cocoa beans and "Berry" from the assortment of fruits that we serve along with freshly made Non-Fat Frozen yogurt. They also serve a selection of hot and cold beverages such as coffees, teas and smoothies and are currently serving 4 flavors of "froyo" in three portions sizes, S,M,L and all of which are customizable with fresh fruit such as Blueberries, Strawberries, Kiwi, Mango, Pomegranate, Musk Melon and Black Grapes or dry toppings such as Oreo Cookies, Snickers, Granola, Sliced Almonds, Walnuts. Cocoberry also serves a variety of freshly made sandwiches. A Frozen Dessert That is Good for You - Cocoberry's most unique differentiating factor from most frozen dessert's is that it has the natural goodness of non-fat frozen yogurt such as calcium, protein, live and active culture and is low in fat and provides you with a healthy dessert choice. Cocoberry is made with fresh probiotic cultures, yogurt and non-fat milk. It is scrumptiously, healthy and low- fat, something that one wants and needs! Cocoberry Frozen Yogurt is a meal in itself. Yogurt Parfait is a complete nutritious blend of yogurt , granola and fruit, while giving a tantalizing taste of all three delights,i.e.the creaminess of yogurt, the crunchiness of granola and the tartness of berries, it also gives a complete balanced and nutritious meal.

Cocoberry's product menu was later expanded to include beverages, smoothies, and sandwiches. Cocoberry was targeted at health conscious young customers with high disposable incomes. Bhalla mostly relied on low cost market communication tools like word of mouth and publicity for promoting his products. He made good use of social media to promote the initial growth of the Cocoberry brand. According to Bhalla, "We have vision to develop Cocoberry as an adorable brand for consumers. And social networking is the only possible stop to substantiate the same, the only transparent medium with no gimmick!" Since many Indian customers were not aware of frozen yogurt products, Cocoberry also focused on customer education to increase the awareness levels among the customers.By 2011, Cocoberry enjoyed a dominant position in the nascent frozen yogurt market in India. The market had also attracted competition from international chains which were more experienced in selling frozen yogurt. While the market was growing, some industry observers

felt that selling frozen yogurt to an even larger number of Indians might prove a formidable challenge for Cocoberry given the fact that Indians had been preparing curd at homes for centuries and that middle income people might not be interested in buying frozen yogurt at a premium price. However, buoyed by his early successes, Bhalla planned to expand the chain both domestically and internationally to reach a total outlet count of 100 by the end of 2011 and 500 by the end of 2015. He was looking at some Middle East markets which had some similarities with the Indian market to make the first global foray. Bhalla was also trying to arrange additional capital to fund the company's ambitious expansion plans. Considering that the Indian market held so many opportunities as well as challenges, industry observers wondered whether it was too early for Bhalla to set his sights on foreign shores.

A Serial Entrepreneur

Cocoberry was started in February 2009 and its first store opened in Delhi. It was the first premium frozen yogurt chain in India. It was started with seed funding from the young and aspiring entrepreneur Bhalla. Bhalla belonged to the new breed of entrepreneurs India had produced after the economic reforms of the early 1990s. He was a commerce graduate from Delhi University and did an executive program on launching new ventures at Harvard

Business School. Bhalla had nurtured his entrepreneurial ambitions from a very young age. He was all of seven when he started a small book stall at his house and started renting out old comics when his family refused to give him money to buy new ones. Children from his neighbourhood flocked to Bhalla's home to rent his comic book collection and soon, the young entrepreneur had made enough profits to build a large collection of new comics. During a summer break in school, Bhalla took up a small job for three months in a bakery. There, he learned the rudiments of the retail business and customer service. Commenting on his entrepreneurial ambitions, Bhalla said, "Business runs in my genes. From the very start, I began to groom myself for that one big day of my life when I would turn an entrepreneur, and a successful one." After his graduation, Bhalla embarked upon his first major entrepreneurial venture with a sum of Rs.110,000 borrowed from his mother. He started with a corporate gifting company which was successful. The remarkable success of his first venture encouraged Bhalla to look out for new opportunities. He turned into a risk-loving serial entrepreneur building businesses and selling them for a profit. Bhalla jumped onto the outsourcing bandwagon and started a Knowledge Processing Outsourcing (KPO) unit called Horizon BPO Pvt. Ltd.2 (Horizon) which offered back-end services to healthcare companies in the US.

THE ISSUES OR CHALLENGES FACED BY COCOBERRY

Unlike the western customers, Indians had the habit of preparing yogurt in their homes for centuries. After the initial success, Bhalla had the plans of entering the international markets to fulfil his expansion dreams. Cocoberry wanted to leverage its experience in serving to customers in different states with diverse tastes. Should a start-up with limited experience start exploring foreign markets? Which marketing strategies should be used to enter in a new market and what should be the degree of resource commitment to a particular market? From

where would the additional capital be raised? Given the enormous opportunities in the domestic front and the associated challenges in tapping these opportunities, should it set its sight at international shores? Issues : What kind of Entrepreneurial strategies cocoberry followed to enter in a new firm in a virgin market? marketing mix in the success of the marketing strategy of Cocoberry Expansion plans (domestic and global) by Cocoberry.

COCOBERRY - STRATEGIES Creating a Brand


Innovation was the key for the launch and success of Cocoberry. The innovation at Cocoberry was to offer the healthiest options in food along with good taste, flavor, and a lot of varieties to choose from. Cocoberry recognized the potential in the Indian health and wellness foods segment. Its yogurt offerings were low-fat, low-sugar, and low-calorie. It did

not select the already overcrowded drinkable yogurt business but instead chose frozen yogurt as it was the fastest growing product categories in the F&B segment...

Cocoberry in the social media space


'Cocoberry is using its official page for various activities that range from marketing to customer care to market research. Cocoberry had conceptualized and developed their Facebook page, on the launch of its very first store itself.

Marketing : In case there is an announcement like introduction of a new product, launch of a new store, and any other such activities, besides mediums like PR, advertisements, etc, Cocoberry takes up social media as the pivotal medium to reach out to its consumers. The whole idea is to present the activities in as exciting way as possible, so that the fans virally spread it, at their own will, by re-sharing it. Customer care: Cocoberry also uses its Facebook page as a transparent door between the consumers and itself, leveraging the platform to behave as an entity that responds to customer queries in shortest possible time. G.S. Bhalla, Founder & CEO, Cocoberry says, 'It helps us to

better understand the consumers' psyche and interests, and entertain their queries. This gives the customers satisfaction and makes them emotionally connected with the brand.' Market Research: Facebook has enabled consumers to say what's on their mind right on the page of a particular product/service. And hence, now it is not as difficult for a brand to understand what its consumers think about it. With Cocoberry, such trail of comments left by fans revolving around the experience they have had with Cocoberry, is being utilized to better understand the consumers' changing demands, and interests. This also helps them serve the consumers better in terms of service and quality. Keeping fan base hooked through Facebook 'A look at Cocoberry's official page on Facebook is an example of how they are using a mix of videos, photos, events and wall posts to keep their fans hooked to their page and get their constant attention. Wall posts : A look at Cocoberry's wall shows that it is flooded with customer queries on things starting from opening of outlets in different locations to queries on availability of different flavours. And the interesting thing here is the quick responses posted by Cocoberry to all these queries which make them keep coming back. Also company keeps promptly posting updates.

MARKETING MIX -COCOBERRY


Cocoberry is a right example of perfect 4P model.

Product
Product sold in their outlets is a great alternative of ice creams and other desserts. Though many companies have tried to sell yogurt earlier in Indian market but somehow it has never picked up. Frozen Yogurt topped up with fresh fruits is highly popular among girls and young crowd. Cocoberry being a premium product helps in setting up a target market of high class people. Price

When any product is launched in Indian market, price point is always a key growth driver and also keeps proper check against competition and Cocoberry is very aggressive on this front. Small yogurt is priced at around 40 rupees which is comparable to various ice creams, donuts, pastries and other desserts.
Place Cocoberry outlets are majorly found in Delhi and NCR, well there are outlets in other Indian metro and Tier A cities. Cocoberry outlets are also found at high end places of mumbai .The company plans to open 50 outlets in next 2 years.

Promotion Cocoberry has used many promotional activities in order to commuicate to its target market . for eg: use of digital media. Cocoberry made a huge impact by creating a facebook page . It engages its fans with lot of quizzes, regular updates and offers. Word Of Mouth publicity is

also being used by Cocoberry in order to promote its products. Latest being promoted by Kareena Kapoor and Imran Khan . Cocoberry has also tie ups with Fortis Healthcare and DT Cinema for increasing its distribution.

EXPANSION PLANS BY COCOBERRY


Cocoberry broke even in the very first year of its operation (in just nine months). It achieved a total turnover of Rs. 110 million by 2011. By March 2011, Cocobbery had 24 outlets out of which 10 were company-owned outlets. By mid-2011, Cocoberry had expanded into five Indian cities with 29 outlets. The company, which started with five employees, had increased its manpower to 200 by 2011 and which such manpower the company plans to have 80 outlets all over the country
Over the next three years time, Cocoberry will be investing close to Rs 120 crore on its expansion. It has set a target to grow from 22 to 100 outlet-chains by the end of the next year. The frozen yogurt chain is also exploring options to expand its operations in the international market and is in the advanced stage of finalizing the locations in some of the South East Asian countries and in the Middle East.

Decision to go Global According to Bhalla, Cocoberry had a 95 percent market share in India's frozen yogurt market. He was expecting to achieve 400 percent growth in 2011. Savoring its early success, it was aiming to enter international markets to speed up its growth. In July 2011, Bhalla said that Cocoberry would go global within 12-18 months. Attracted by the new business model, many international markets like Ukraine and Serbia were making franchise enquiries of Cocoberry.

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