MUMBAI: When a candy meant for grown-ups causes a social media frenzy and movie stars post about it for free, you know you’ve struck marketing gold. That’s precisely what DS Group sr. vice president of corporate marketing Rajeev Jain laid out in his eye-opening session at Goa Fest 2025 titled ‘Cultural Marketing Can Be a Winner: Pulse Candy a Case Study’.
Jain opened with a powerful quote from CK Prahalad, “While it is true that multinationals will change emerging markets forever, the reverse is also true.” And Pulse, it turns out, is a case of the latter, an unapologetically Indian brand that rewrote the rules of candy marketing.
The secret sauce? Culture. Not just flavours, but deep-seated values and norms. Jain drew parallels from around the globe: how Coca-Cola supported Saudi women driving under its “Keys of Change” campaign, or how Nescafé cracked Japan by first selling coffee-flavoured toffees to build a taste habit among kids who grew into coffee-loving adults.
Pulse did something equally audacious back home.
Backed by two years of intense R&D, Pulse launched a centre-filled candy that catered to Indian palates think tang, spice, and chatpata chaos. It wasn’t your average sweet treat. It was a nostalgia bomb, a street-side snack, and a meme-worthy munch all rolled into one.
The brand boldly went where few dare: marketing candy to adults. “Why should kids have all the fun?” wasn’t just a slogan, it was a war cry. And consumers responded with their thumbs generating a flood of user-generated content without a rupee spent on influencer tie-ups.
Case in point? Disha Patani posting about Pulse on her own. “That’s when we knew we weren’t just in the candy business,” said Jain. “We were in the cultural relevance business.”
The talk underscored a central truth: great cultural marketing isn’t loud, it’s resonant. Pulse didn’t follow trends; it tapped into India’s taste DNA. The result? A product that felt tailor-made for the local market yet had the swagger of a global disruptor.
In a world flooded with algorithm-driven campaigns and AI-generated creatives, Pulse’s story is refreshingly analogue, it’s about listening before selling, and tapping into what people crave emotionally, not just gastronomically.
At a fest packed with tech talk and future-forward buzzwords, Jain’s candy-coated case study reminded everyone that flavour still wins when it hits the culture nerve just right.
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