Chai Mein Dooba Biscuit………!

The title of this post when translated to English means, a biscuit drowned in tea! The translation is intended for the international audience of this blog J

Well there are many who muffle the crunch of their biscuit by dipping it into tea!

But many a time the biscuit would have gone down to the opaque abysmal bottom of tea cup/glass, may be because it was dipped for too long or because it could not take the heat. Let’s stay away from the blame game J but the truth of the matter is once the biscuit is lost in the depths of the tea cup, the tea takes the flavor of biscuit, depending upon whether the biscuit was sweet or salt.

Over time we align ourselves to specific brands of biscuits and have the mental partitions of what biscuits can be eaten crisp and dry, and what biscuits make for a good dip.

Every time my biscuit touches and settles as an amorphous mass into the bottom of my hot beverage tumbler, there are flurry of questions that cross my mind:

Is there a marketing opportunity to this simple truth?

Will someone buy a brand of biscuit whose advertising copy reads…..Yes and it is perfectly safe to dip it into your hot cuppa* or This lasts longer inside the cuppa compared to other brands of the same class* and followed by the oh so famous star* disclaimer that dotes all advertising copy from autos to magical potions developed by cosmetics industry.

*Only when dipped for up to a minute and the temperature of the beverage not exceeding70 degree Celsius.

There could be design innovation where the size of the biscuit is such that it’s compatible with the rim size of cups…for a seamless dip!

Dilemma of the brand owner….?

“May be it’s a great idea but what if consumer rights group are instigated by the competition to bring down the claim and hold public demonstrations showing the biscuit going down the cup, what if it is picked by the networks and becomes a breaking news! Will the consumer get the perception that biscuit is too hard and good for feeding the pets or they may just shrug it off as oh so uncouth?”

But before you rubbish all that is said above, it will be good to recall that there is actually a biscuit brand targeting the kids that tells them and their parents subtly about the right way to eat this particular biscuit…does it light a bulb…if not, here’s the youtube switch!

Even if the brand owner promotes dippability, is it an admission of a socially unacceptable behavior…? If at all!

Let’s have a show of hands, how many of us indulge in the luxury of dipping the biscuits in the presence of people whom we are meeting for the first time or especially instances where we would be at our best behavior….say a celebrity guest on a TV talk show dipping biscuit into tea…I have not come across such footage! If research singularly establishes that folks abstain from dipping biscuit into tea due to the fear of losing the biscuit to tea.., then it’s manna for the marketer and the modified advertising copy would read:

“For moments that don’t melt away”, an advertisement showing a happy family dipping biscuits into tea and smiling at each other!

Or

“For those moments of power”, an advertisement shows a group of executives in a meeting and the lead anchor dipping biscuit into tea!

The world of advertising is quite creative and one never knows when something trivial such as the act of dipping biscuit into tea becomes mainstream. Maybe we’ll soon have magic biscuits that taste different each time depending upon how you consume them, with tea, with coffee, with milk or just the way they are traditionally advertised – “crisp and crunchy!”

Ciao. It’s time for me to have a hot cuppa..........with some biscuits!