Inside India Gate’s packaging-led reset for a changing staples market

In February 2025, India Gate rolled out a strategic, packaging-led transformation. At first glance, the refresh appears largely visual—an updated logo, more structured information, usage cues and the addition of a QR code. However, beneath the surface, the redesign reflects a deeper shift in how India’s largest basmati brand is responding to evolving consumer behaviour, nudging the category from loose to branded staples.

India Gate’s packaging had remained unchanged for over two decades. For a legacy brand with strong equity, that consistency was once a strength. Yet, in today’s omnichannel environment—where consumers encounter brands across shelves, apps and delivery platforms—packaging plays a far more decisive role in purchase decisions. Recognising this, the brand began its redesign journey in 2023.

Taking a category-first lens, India Gate set out to understand what consumers truly expect from rice packaging. Extensive research and consumer interactions revealed a key friction point: portfolio navigation.

Kunal Sharma, head of marketing and business head – modern trade & e-commerce at KRBL, explains, “This was not just a packaging revamp. It was a complete portfolio re-architecture, culminating in the refresh we rolled out in February 2025.” 

“While consumers had their own ways of choosing rice, there was significant confusion around what to buy. As the category leader, we felt it was our responsibility to help them choose the right rice for their needs." In the absence of clarity, price often became the default criterion—"which is a concern for any brand", Sharma adds.

Another challenge was the nature of the category itself. Staples are typically low-engagement purchases, yet the brand saw a clear opportunity—and responsibility—to educate and empower consumers.

From product attributes to consumer mindsets

Instead of adopting the traditional “inside-out” approach—segmenting by grain length, ageing or dish usage—India Gate chose an outside-in lens. Working with brand and design consultancy Landor, it reorganised its entire portfolio around consumer mindsets rather than product attributes.

The core insight was straightforward: Indian consumers are not merely price-conscious; they are value-seeking. Moreover, their definition of value shifts depending on occasion and mindset.

When hosting guests or making a special meal, consumers can become perfectionists. India Gate created a range specifically for those occasions. Another one focused on those who prioritise purity, sourcing, and organic credentials when buying for their families.

Then, there is the all-rounder mindset—rice that works every day across meals and use cases. Finally, the value-smart consumer, who demands quality but wants to make the right choice daily.

“This segmentation is the most strategic part of the exercise and forms the foundation of how we will take the portfolio forward,” says Sharma. “That said, a shift like this goes beyond packaging. It will extend into communication and other brand touchpoints over the next five to ten years.”

Design as a navigation tool

Each mindset is communicated through a combination of verbal cues and visual storytelling. Clear prefixes signal intent—for instance, the perfectionist range is qualified as Gold Standard, with a subtitle that reads for indulgent celebrations.

Alongside this, the brand has created an illustration-led visual language to represent each mindset. Visuals in the value-smart portfolio include a scooter rider with a tiffin box and a family watching TV for dinner. These relatable scenes simplify portfolio navigation by helping consumers intuitively understand product placement.

Beyond design, the brand focused on two more elements. First, providing clearer, more relevant pack information. For daily-use Rozana basmati consumers, cooking performance is most important, so softness and fluffiness are now highlighted on the pack.

Building purposeful engagement in a low-involvement category was second. QR codes were introduced initially to create launch buzz by animating the illustrations. Over time, they evolved into a more functional tool.

Today, the QR code leads to a microsite where consumers can take a short quiz, identify their mindset, and get product recommendations.

“Crucially, this education isn’t limited to the point of purchase,” Sharma notes. “We’re betting on post-purchase engagement to build understanding and influence future buying behaviour.”

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Early results

KRBL's business head Ayush Gupta said at the redesign launch that the company plans to increase its market share from 42% to 60% in 3-5 years. Close to a year after the redesign, the brand's market share within the packaged segment has strengthened. 

Sharma says this growth is from increased share in the brand's existing outlets, not distribution expansion.“On that metric, we’ve seen an increase of around 200 basis points over the last year,” he says.

According to the brand's research, 93% of consumers find the new design more visually appealing in the category and 95% find the pack information relevant. Because stronger shelf presence affects top-of-mind awareness, it has tracked brand performance at the point of sale. Its TOMA scores rose nearly 500 basis points after packaging changes.

KRBL is also increasingly being seen as more attractive, more innovative, and more transparent.

“Together, these signals give us confidence that the journey we’ve embarked on is beginning to yield results. That said, for a packaging transformation, especially for an established brand like ours, two years is really the right horizon to fully assess impact. Newer brands may see faster shifts, but for a legacy brand, this is a more measured progression."

Riding the shift from loose to branded

The redesign coincides with a staples restructuring. Unbranded, loose basmati rice accounts for nearly 65% of Indian consumption. However, industry studies suggest that by 2030, a significant share of consumption will shift to packaged products, accelerated by Covid and sustained by changing trust and quality expectations.

In basmati, four factors are driving this shift: assurance, ageing, consistency and aspiration.

FSSAI regulations require 'basmati' products to contain at least 85% basmati—an assurance absent in loose purchases. Basmati rice benefits from ageing, but loose formats cannot prove it. Another concern is consistency: loose rice cannot guarantee performance with every purchase.

“Our consumer interactions clearly show that packaged formats are increasingly seen as aspirational in India,” says Sharma. “That aspiration further strengthens the case for branded staples. On these pillars, we see a clear acceleration from loose to packaged formats over the next five to ten years—something brands like ours will need to actively drive.”

In this context, packaging becomes a key differentiator. Clear communication around ageing and usage helps consumers navigate choices more confidently, creating value beyond price and physical appearance—areas where loose rice traditionally competes.

Quick commerce: the unexpected catalyst

Quick commerce is reshaping the category faster than expected.

For India Gate, e-commerce and quick commerce account for nearly 20% of business—three times the FMCG average. Structure-wise, the brand's biggest competitor, unbranded basmati, doesn't exist online.

“While we are the number one player in nearly 75% of category markets, and the number two player varies by region, loose rice remains the primary alternative in most markets. In e-commerce and quick commerce, that competitor simply doesn’t exist. This gives us a significant advantage and allows us to play a much stronger role on these platforms, both in terms of revenue and market share,” explains Sharma.

For India Gate, quick commerce plays four distinct roles:

• Building top-of-mind visibility in a low-attention environment

• Enabling high-intent targeting, as nearly 90% of category searches are generic (“basmati rice”)

• Driving at-home engagement through sampling and trials

• Amplifying the funnel by retargeting category buyers on platforms like Meta during purchase cycles

Currently, digital and e-commerce account for 40–45% of the brand’s marketing spends, split roughly evenly between quick commerce platforms and Meta—underscoring the growing strategic importance of these channels in shaping the future of staples consumption.