Magical Recipe for Intuitive Branding

Client

Moi Soi

SERVICES

Brand Positioning | Naming | Packaging Design | Range Architecture | Pack Activation

Bottled culinary recipes or “ready to cook” sauces have been a part of the Indian culinary market for the last 4-5 years. During the pandemic, as people craved a restaurant experience at home, this space saw a remarkable uptick in popularity. Soon brands in this space, both old and new, are in a race to deliver the best experience.

Indian brands like Veeba, Knorr, Ching’s, and Sprig have noticed a boost in sales, and even international brands like Blue Dragon and Lee Kum Kee saw an increased demand on online channels. Several D2C and small businesses have also popped up to claim their share of the market All of them compete not just in terms of taste, but to deliver a great cooking experience.

Deb Mukherjee, a serial restaurateur, started selling sauces and gravy as bottled recipes when Covid forced shut the doors to the restaurant experience. These recipes, despite lacking a brand, saw huge popularity on Zomato in 2020. The assortment of variety available made it the must-have experience for consumers craving something new and different.

Naturally, Deb realised to kick it up a notch and create a brand around his uniquely crafted recipes.

The ready-to-cook market has seen a huge growth spurt due to the pandemic, but it is not a new market. This space is cluttered with brands and invites new entrants every day.

To become a solid competitor, a new brand has to solve four major problems.

1. Creating higher recall than competitor brands.

2. Striking a balance between “lifestyle” and “product.”

3. Communicating the USP of the product without being too overt.

4. Developing intuitive range navigation for the range of products.

The team considered these important ingredients to develop a foolproof strategy - product, consumer, category, and the competition.

The key consumer insight identified is that while consumers loved cooking oriental food at home, they struggled to - recreate 'restaurant-style' taste, and finding 'difficult to come by' ingredients.

Delivering an experience to the consumer, it is important that the brand is ownable and truly offers something unique. L&F came up with the idea - 'My Asian Kitchen' putting the consumer at the very heart of the brand and inspiring them to set off on a journey of culinary imagination.

This strategy also translated into the unique name of the brand - 'MoiSoi'.

Content: MoiSoi simplifies Asian cooking and makes the consumer’s kitchen a place for culinary transformation. The key personality traits of the brands are knowledgeable, magical and 'easy' to inspire people to discover hidden flavours and foray into the world of Asian cuisine. The packaging of MoiSoi recipes includes a 'cooking playlist' and 'recipe book insert' to truly craft an immersive experience for the consumer.

Design: MoiSoi’s design, compared to competitor brands, has immense shelf throw on all platforms. The 'magical' attribute of the recipes inspired the idea of using the two “O”s on the pack. This was complemented by real and appetising product photography with a fresh and unique colour palette. L&F also came up with an easily extendable design system and intuitive information hierarchy to showcase the depth of offering.

Magical recipes paired with intuitive positioning and design, MoiSoi has met rapid success. Selling over 7,500 units every month, compared to the industry standard of 5,000 units, MoiSoi has successfully claimed a notable chunk of the market.

Immensely popular even without a brand, on Zomato, as a brand they are now digitally live on platforms like Amazon Prime, Big Basket, Flipkart, Superdaily, Jio Mart, and counting. The Sichuan Chilli Oil was even tagged as the Amazon Choice in just one month of launch.

The recipes are also taking over the globe. MoiSoi products have cooly found their way into the kitchen of 5-star hotels in their marque restaurants. They have even met raging reviews, notably on Vogue India, and are soon to go live in Singapore and UAE.