BRANDING THE GRAIN: EMERGING BRANDING TECHNIQUES AND TRENDS IN RICE PROCESSING INDUSTRY

Abstract

Rice is a staple diet in India and rice processing industry is a 25,000 crore industry in the country. Rice is grown in the form of paddy, processed in mills and sold in the open market through brokers, traders, wholesalers and finally retailers. There is a plethora of variety that is grown but still it is quite a homogeneous market. What differentiates each grain is nothing but the branding. Branding makes each grain unique and distinct. The paper attempts to find out what are the increasing trends in branding rice and how it helps sail through competition. This project studies the latest trends in the industry, the marketing techniques and what needs to done to maintain a particular brand name. A process of descriptive research has been adopted and primary data was collected through a questionnaire survey and extensive interviews of millers, traders and other relevant members of the supply chain. The paper finds out that those catering to domestic market and having self financed businesses focus heavily on branding which has become a major tool to survive the cut throat competition.