Managing slowdown: Brands embrace innovative tactics to keep consumers happy

Two months ago if you had looked and weighed closely, you might have noticed a pack of Parle-G being lighter and a few short. That's because the biggest biscuit brand in the country, as well as the world, opted to bake smaller biscuits and pack in fewer, to hold the price. It was a move to counter rising input costs and a slowdown in consumption.

Brands much like people do what they must to survive, and if they can, thrive at a time when the wheels of the economy slow down a notch or four. And at every southward turn in a market's fortunes, the relationship between brand and consumer is strained further as companies resort to all sorts of tactics, price hikes, budget cuts and everything in between to stay in the black.