How listening to Kohinoor's audience shaped their brand messaging

Human Shaped Thinking

30 September 2026

Alex TaylorHead of Brand Marketing

Marketers can all too often be guilty of looking inwards and going with their own opinion rather than starting with the people who matter, their audience.

These are mistakes we have made in the past and, thankfully for our clients, we take a different approach now.

Take Kohinoor for example, by listening to their target audience we launched one of their most successful campaigns which lead to them outperforming sales in their category.

Here's how we did it, what we heard, and what we did with it.

The problem wasn't the product

Kohinoor's sauces are the only ones in their category made regionally in India, using locally sourced spices. But Patak's and Sharwood's have owned the aisle for decades.

As a challenger brand, you cannot go toe-to-toe spending with your categories Goliaths, instead you need to be smarter and outmanoeuvre them.

Start with understanding the people you are trying to sell to.

Finding where the value was

We started with industry data, which showed that the most valuable segment in the sauce category was the over-45s. They're not the audience food marketing usually gets excited about. They are, however, the ones buying the sauce.

That gave us focus. Instead of researching "everyone who eats curry," we could go deep with the people who spend the most.

Asking the right questions

We ran surveys and interviews with the over-45 demographic. We were looking for patterns in their preferences and habits, and in the language they used to describe what they wanted.

Three things came through clearly;

· They craved authentic flavours

· They wanted new taste experiences

· They wanted ingredients they could trust, with none of the nasties.

We noticed that to people who care about what they're cooking, most Indian cooking sauces feel like a shortcut, and not a very convincing one. They wanted something credible and culturally specific, something they'd be proud to put on the table.

The Insight that created the campaign

When we asked what they wanted from a curry sauce, one word popped up again and again: "Proper."

This was their way of expressing a desire for authenticity.

So we took it and made it into a campaign: Proper Indian.

Turning a word into a campaign

The audience wanted credibility, so we showed them where it came from. We made a suite of videos around Kohinoor's four most popular sauces, each telling the story of the region the recipe comes from, the spices that go into it and the traditions behind the dish.

We chose creators the same way. The question wasn't who had the biggest following. It was who genuinely fit the brand's ethos, and whose audience already trusted them.

And we went where the audience already were: YouTube, Google Display and paid social, backed up by recipes and cooking content that gave people a reason to stick around.

What you can take from it

First, identify your most valuable segment before you find your message. Knowing the this means every pound of research goes on the right people.

Second, listen for language, not just opinions. Preferences tell you what to say. The words people use tell you how to say it.

Third, let the insight make the decisions. When the message, the creative and the channels all come from the same research, they work together instead of pulling in different directions.

Turns out the audience are pretty good at marketing.

Back to All Articles