How The Laughing Cow is Adding Value to Consumers’ Lives Through Delicious and Nutritious Products

The Laughing Cow is an international cheese brand with a rich legacy of more than 100 years. Operating under one of the world’s leading groups in the healthy snacking space - The Bel group, The Laughing Cow’s journey in India began in October 2018, under the leadership of Alamjit Singh Sekhon. Since then, the brand has come a long way to become a household name in the country.

India is one of the largest dairy markets and milk producers in the world, however, the cheese market in India is relatively small and has a lot of potentials. The idea behind launching The Laughing Cow in India was to add value to consumers’ lives and give them the great tasting experience of The Laughing Cow. Since the brand has a unique portfolio that is delicious and nutritious, it embarked on this challenging journey of category creation and has seen great success until now.

“The cheese category in India is largely focused on slices, blocks, cubes, and spreads. We are present across all these major product formats. The Laughing Cow Creamy Cheese Triangles and Creamy Cheese Sachet are also some of our differentiated products in the cheese category and are loved by consumers. Our vision is to grow the cheese category. Globally, we have a wide product assortment and we will keep introducing relevant products in India as and when the market is ready for them,” asserted Alamjit Singh Sekhon, Commercial Director, Bel.

“Our cheese recipe has been developed especially for India taking into consideration the nutrition requirements of Indian consumers and kids. The entire range is fortified and contains 5 essential vitamins, minerals, and proteins,” he further added.

Marketing Strategy

The cheese category is relatively small in India, and the brand wants to grow the cheese category. The Laughing Cow has an assortment of delicious and nutritious cheese – containing 5 essential nutrients. Hence, the brand has been positioned as a mother’s ally to make delicious and nutritious food for kids. 

“We wanted to generate trials for the brand and made a unique product – Creamy Cheese @ Rs 10 in a single-serve sachet form. We leveraged the sachet in sampling to consumers and giving them the great tasting experience of The Laughing Cow cheese. We tied up with the network of Breadwalas (bread vendors) to sample households across cities. We recruited, trained, and mobilized 1,000+ Breadwalas to get an entry for the brand into new households,” stated Sekhon.

“We also tied up with leading bread manufacturers to sample the sachet with bread and create a very relevant consumer offering.  We also create a unique brand and product experience for consumers in retail stores. We have our teams of promoters deployed in a stand-out brand avatar. Sampling in retail stores has led to very high conversions for the brand. Our iconic mascot is loved by consumers – kids and adults – and helps create great brand recall and memorability,” he further added.

Future Plans

Currently, the brand has a presence across all general and modern trade stores. It is available across all leading retail stores such as Reliance, Star Bazaar, Metro, Nature’s Basket, Spar, Haiko, More, WellnessForever. Consumers can also order it online from various e-commerce platforms such as BigBasket, Swiggy, Blinkit, Amazon, Flipkart, Dunzo, Zepto, and Jiomart amongst others. 

“The Laughing Cow cheese was launched in Mumbai and Bengaluru in October 2018. Since then, we have expanded into other cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune. Additionally, we are increasing our footprints in terms of reach to the number of stores we are present in existing cities,” he explained. 

“Since the time we launched in India, we have been getting a lot of positive responses from consumers. We would continue to reach more consumers in cities where we are present and expand our footprint in other cities soon,” he further added.