Bazaar for bizarre: Will outlandish flavours, foods find favour with consumers in India?

The over 100-year-old global brand Oreo recently jumped onto the ‘’outlandish’’ bandwagon by launching “hot chicken wings’’ and “wasabi’’ flavoured cookies in China. Whether these two bizarre flavours will become a new rage in China, or go down the bin, only time can tell. 

But Oreo follows the footsteps of multiple global food brands that have time and again “innovated’’ bizarre foods and flavours in a daring attempt that has often turned “disgusting’’ for customer palates.

From Starbucks’ green tea eclairs and green tea tiramisu in China to Burger King’s KURO pearl burger with black-coloured cheese and bun in Japan, and Pizza Hut’s  biryani pizza (Birizza) in India, the foods appear quirky, and have quite often fizzled out from menu cards.

Experts say in today’s day and age, anything and everything gets passed under the garb of innovation.

According to corporate chef Vineet Manocha from Lite Bite Foods, being outlandish could be a strategy for maximising eyeballs. He says every brand yearns to be recognised as the leader and makes all possible efforts for this recognition. “This compels them to come out with something different. Honestly, you never know what catches the fancy of consumers.”

Akshar Peerbhoy, COO of creative agency MAA Communications, says the consumer has changed and is not one of habit. “Consumers are always looking to try something new, as opposed to sticking to what they already know and like. Majority of millennials expect brands to innovate and they are the first ones to try such innovations like Kit Kat’s recently released salted caramel fudge. This becomes a way for brands to increase their consumer base beyond their classic product offerings, which will anyways remain classic. In a way, a brand uses outlandish flavours to stay relevant and top of mind.” 

But “innovation’’ often appears far from appetising, especially when indigenous spices and ingredients are sourced and infused into any and every food. Like Oreo wasabi and chicken wings cookies!!

“Certain ingredients can make for an interesting infusion. Like for example bergamot orange cookies. But not every locally available ingredient goes well with every type of food. Wasabi cookie looks like a deliberate attempt to win over a certain audience with a flavour that can backfire,” say experts.

Peerbhoy says brands at times tend to bring in a familiar taste into their product and hope that it helps to localise the product.

“But some things are better left as they are. Imagine a dosa-flavoured pizza or a mutton curry flavoured packet of chips? When it changes something like a pizza, wherein you expect a pizza to taste like a pizza and not a dosa, it is bound to fail.”

But despite high chances of failures, what still compels brands to keep investing time and money and introduce flavours/foods that appear outrageous?

According to Manocha, product development teams often have to justify their existence and have to present a targeted number of innovative products.

“A new product or flavour is launched in the market only after many rounds of internal eliminations. It is always better to launch a new product in controlled territories.”

Ajay Thakur, corporate chef at Mumbai based fine-dine Bayroute, says every experiment has its own pros and cons.
“Wrong targeting and segmentation of the product lead to its failure. Also, right ingredients are a must for a dish to be successful. Sometimes, product mixing itself may go wrong, like in the case of say the biryani pizza.”

Peerbhoy says since flavours are a very subjective concept, more so in India, a region focussed approach could be viable, where a brand tries to cater to tastes in each region.

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“Much like in the West, brands like Lays distribute their flavoured products in pockets where those flavours are appreciated, and in places that the flavours are not popular, the product is simply not available.”

Source: DNA Money