Parle to compete with Kellogg and Nestle as it enters breakfast cereal category with Hide & Seek Fills

Parle Products has entered the breakfast cereal category with Platina’s Hide & Seek Fills.  It is tiny, crunchy pieces filled with chocolate that you can dip in milk or, maybe, eat it as it is.

According to Krishnarao Buddha, senior category head, marketing, Parle Products, it is predominantly positioned as breakfast cereal and wants consumers to consume it with milk. But, at the same time, anyone can consume it as a meetha (sweet) snack because of the chocolate filling.

This cereal is targeting kids. If you look at Parle’s history, it has mostly focused on “women (mothers, housewives, etc.) and kids. They are the target group (TG).” For ‘Fills’, Parle is targeting the mothers in order to reach their kids.

What, however, sets Fills apart from its rivals is the amount of chocolate filling. It comes with 50 per cent chocolate filling, as compared to its rivals’ 30 per cent or so. Hence this Parle brand will compete against the likes of Nestle Koko Krunch, Tata Soulfull Ragi Bites, Kellogg’s Chocos Fills, and Cadbury Bournvita Fills.

Hide & Seek Fills is competing against not only these packaged brands, but also desi breakfast items, idli, dosa, poha, jalebi, parantha, dhokla etc…

In fact, the consumption of packaged snacks has “shot up disproportionately. Consumers are fed up of dal, roti, and chapatti. They want something exciting. This is a pure indulgence product.”

The point about indulgence caught our eye because Fills is placed under Parle’s ‘Platina’ range. It is where you will find the company’s premium products, such as Hide & Seek, Nutricrunch (digestive cookies), and Mexitos (nacho chips).Hide & Seek Fills is currently available in North India, and will hit the western region by early October. Fills is priced at Rs. 10, because it’s a trial pack and will initially be available in general stores, then online and, finally, at modern trade outlets.