This study starts from one brand. The questions come from Chitale Bandhu's own product lines, bakarwadi and namkeen, Maharashtrian snacks and faral, and traditional sweets, and none of them names a brand. Every sweet shop or snack maker an assistant recommends competes on the same answer.
What we asked
Forty questions, ten for each of four buyers: a homemaker planning for festivals, a manager buying corporate gifts, a non-resident Indian who misses the food from home, and a health-conscious buyer of premium snacks. Two examples: where to buy authentic bakarwadi online in Pune, and how to choose healthy namkeen snacks that don't compromise on taste.
ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Overviews answered from an Indian connection and then from a US connection. Claude answered through its API with no live search, told the buyer is in India and then in the US, so its answers and the links in them come from what the model learned. Both runs took place on 09 Sep 2026, 400 answers in all. A judge model recorded which brands on Chitale Bandhu's competitor list each answer named.
The brands the assistants named
| Brand | India | US |
|---|---|---|
| Chitale Bandhu | 105 | 89 |
| Haldiram's | 85 | 72 |
| Bikanervala | 54 | 32 |
| Kaka Halwai | 31 | 13 |
| Dadu's | 22 | 11 |
Chitale Bandhu led in both markets, with Haldiram's second in each: 20 answers behind in India and 17 behind in the US.
Where the brand is named, by product line
| Product line | India | US |
|---|---|---|
| Bakarwadi and namkeen | 41 of 60 | 40 of 60 |
| Maharashtrian snacks and faral | 25 of 40 | 22 of 40 |
| Traditional sweets | 39 of 100 | 27 of 100 |
Six questions named Chitale Bandhu in all ten answers across both markets, and all six are about bakarwadi or faral, among them best bakarwadi quality for corporate client gifts and best faral items to send to family in India during festivals. Two questions never named it: where to buy authentic homemade mithai for family celebrations and how to choose healthy namkeen snacks that don't compromise on taste.
The buyer abroad hears the name most
The NRI buyer heard Chitale Bandhu in 39 of 50 answers in India and 41 of 50 in the US, the highest of the four buyers in both markets, and the health-conscious buyer the least, in 16 of 50 and 12 of 50. Moving from India to the US cost the brand most with the festival homemaker, from 27 of 50 to 18 of 50; the corporate gifting manager went from 23 to 18.
Each assistant moves differently between markets
| Assistant | India | US |
|---|---|---|
| Claude | 35 | 22 |
| Google AI Overviews | 22 | 15 |
| Gemini | 18 | 14 |
| ChatGPT | 17 | 21 |
| Copilot | 13 | 17 |
Claude named Chitale Bandhu in 35 of 40 answers for an Indian buyer and 22 of 40 for a US buyer; asked the same questions with no market at all, it named the brand in 28 of 40. ChatGPT and Copilot named it more often for the US buyer than for the Indian one. We ran the four web assistants from the US a second time: they named the brand in 71 of 160 answers, against 67 of 160 in the first run.
Two websites split the US answers
In India, 86 of 200 answers cited at least one website, and chitalebandhu.in was cited in 51 of them, 32 from Claude and 19 from the web assistants. In the US the brand has two sites and the assistants divided between them: chitalebandhu.in in 23 answers, 17 of them from Claude, and chitaleamericas.com in 23, all from the web assistants. The other US citations went to online Indian food stores and marketplaces, led by pushmycart.com and freshmangoes.us at 9 answers each.
What this does not establish
- One run per market on one day, apart from the repeat of the four web assistants in the US. A single answer can turn on chance; the pattern across 400 is the finding.
- The questions come from Chitale Bandhu's product lines, so the table ranks brands on its ground, not across all Indian sweets and snacks.
- Brands outside Chitale Bandhu's competitor list are under counted.
- English questions only, and being named measures who is considered; orders would need their own data.
- A repeat run in another month, near a festival or away from one, would show whether this order holds.
Anand Mahajan, founder of BrandCrux