"Consumers want proof of efficacy"

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Related Articles

‘People still prefer piracy to paying for world ci...

: When Dabur India announced that it was entering the malted food drinks (MFD) market in October last year, it took many by surprise. For one, Dabur’s healthcare portfolio comprised products that were mainly Ayurvedic in nature and MFD was a more ‘modern’ format. For another, the company was hoping to take on multinational rivals such as GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, Cadbury India, HJ Heinz Co and Nestle India that had a firm foothold in the market besides being hard nuts to crack. But then, Dabur is no pushover and has already set sights on capturing 10% share of the Rs 1,900-crore MFD market in the next two years with Dabur Chyawan Junior, that went national late in December 2008. And spearheading the campaign is KK Rajesh, executive vice-president, marketing (healthcare). In this interview to Alokananda Chakraborty of FE, he talks about the demands of the new Indian consumer and lays down the company’s plans to negotiate the tricky waters of healthcare products marketing. Excerpts:

What was the reason behind segmenting the Chyawanprash market on the basis of age? What is the key differentiator for Dabur Chyawan Junior and what kind of brands is it pitted against?

Dabur is not segmenting the Chyawanprash market on the basis of age. Our effort is to make Chyawanprash relevant for all age groups and our campaigns have always been aimed at establishing this universal relevance of Dabur Chyawanprash. For ages it has been believed that Chyawanprash is used either by the old aged or by kids; so we are trying to make it more relevant across age groups by bringing in teenagers into the fold.

Chyawanprash has always been known as the health giver and the elixir of life. Consumers see Chyawanprash as a problem solving product and an age-old Ayurvedic remedy that improves immunity. While mothers feed their kids Chyawanprash, the kids—once they grow up and reach their teens—generally move away from the product, and come back into the fold once they cross the thirties. While they know that Chyawanprash helps in overall development and building immunity, there was a perceptible disconnect with the product in their teens, and we have tried to address that in two ways.