Himalaya - Herbal Health Care

The need for an international appeal with a contempory look led to a brand revamp of Himalya Drug's personal care product range. Himalaya's personal care range underwent a dramatic brand rejig in December 2003 - its second in two years. Why this change? "Just old wine in a new bottle" is the typical reaction one would expect at Himalaya Drug's move to rechristen its personal care range Himalaya Ayurvedic Concepts to Himalaya Herbals in December 2003. The brand rejig has also been accompanied by a packaging makeover towards an international look. This is the second time that Himalaya has undertaken a brand readjustment exercise. Himalaya's personal care range was introduced in 1999 under the brand name Ayurvedic Concepts. In December 2001, in a move to leverage Himalaya's brand equity, the company brought the Ayurvedic Concepts brand name under the Himalaya umbrella. And now, barely two years after the previous renaming, the latest move has raised questions as to why the company is making such a conscious effort to reinvent its personal care brand? "We could have switched directly from Ayurvedic Concepts to Himalaya Herbals in 2001 itself", said Soumitro Banerji, Executive Vice President, Consumer Products, Himalaya. "However, it was a transitional 'handholding' phase where it was necessary for consumers to associate the Ayurvedic Concepts range with the Himalaya brand name". He insists that the umbrella branding remains and this time around, the aim is to create a unique "head to toe" brand. The personal care range has 40 products spanning hair care, skin care, body care, health care and oral care.

Expansion plans
Following the success of the personal care range, which accounts for 25 per cent of the company's total turnover of Rs.300 crore, it had big plans to expand its market share in India and abroad, especially in the Asia Pacific region and the Middle East. But before its turn to conquer the world, it was time for a facelift. Market research found that the packaging of Ayurvedic Concepts did not convey an international look and feel. It was also perceived as having a serious look, so much so that often it proved difficult to convince kirana shops to stock Ayurvedic Concepts. Also, the name Ayurvedic Concepts did not connect well internationally since many customers were not familiar with the term Ayurveda. There seemed to be better acceptance of herbal products than ayurvedic products.

The Design challenge

The company decided to go in for a major makeover so that it would appeal internationally and make for better display on shelves. Bangalore-based design outfit Ray & Keshavan was roped in for this purpose with a clear brief. The packaging had to be attractive, contemporary, not overly glamorous and reflect values that Himalaya Herbals stood for efficacious herbal products created with cutting-edge research and technology. Sujatha Keshavan Guha, Partner, Ray and Keshavan talked about the challenges of the redesigning project. "We worked on this (Himalaya Herbals redesign) for one year. It was quite complex because we had to have one common look for the different products in the range". The new design tried to redress problems with the old packaging such as volume perception, leakage, failure to convey the high quality of products and difficulty in distinguishing one product from the other. "With over 30 products in the range with similar packaging, customers often mistook hair oil for shampoo," said Guha. To convey the message that Himalaya's personal care products were "serious herbal products that worked" the company went in for a white look with cleaner looking fonts and graphics. The design team also paid attention to the shapes of bottles. For example, the shampoo bottles and caps were flat compared to lotions, which had a rounder look. For further clarity, colour coding was introduced. Every Himalaya product now incorporates a "100 per cent Herbal Actives" logo, which is seal of assurance from Himalaya. "The seal guarantees that our products are natural, highly effective and 100 per cent safe, said Soumitro Banerji.

Marketing
"Our brand positioning that Himalaya's products are scientifically tested, efficacious products remains the same," said Banerji. Targeted at the urban audience, the refurbished range has new products such as protein shampoos in the three variants- Normal, Dry and Oily hair; fruit packs, mud packs; dental cream and a nourishing skin cream. The last, the company claims, is a one-of-its-kind product in the market. To induce trials of their new protein shampoo variants, the company is renewing its thrust on sachets. Also, Himalaya brought out a 40 ml bottle with the idea that a consumer would try a shampoo 2-3 times before deciding whether to go for it. Himalaya is trying to grow its personal care division from Rs.60 crore to Rs.100 crore by the end of 2004 fiscal year. "We are trying to get our personal care products to account for 50 percent of the total turnover in 5-6 years," said Banerji. In keeping with its expansion plans the company has improved on its marketing strategies. Himalaya is retailing its personal care range in multibrand outlets with shop-in-shops. The company aims to reach 250,000 outlets by March 2004.

Advertising
Advertising has been focused on the modern, urban woman who needs to feel confident and in charge of her life. Outdoor campaigns and television ads feature shampoos and lotions, which are the fast movers in the Himalaya stable. The newly introduced nourishing skin cream is being featured in glossy magazines. What stands out in the advertisements in both print and television is the deliberate underplay of Himalaya's "Herbal" properties. This seems strange at a time when many other cosmetic companies are trying to cash in on the growing popularity and demand for herbal and natural products. Himalaya's logic is that since the company is already known as a herbal products manufacturer, the need to restate the point does not arise. The question remains whether the younger generation that is unaware of Himalaya's USP would favour the brand. Marketing expert Harish Bijoor had this take on the matter. "The cosmetics market is very sensitive territory and one needs to tread it with care and sensitivity. Himalaya understands this, and is possibly adopting different stances that complement one another. One stance in the advertising and another in the packaging. Through ads, one needs to address the large market audience with a story that seeks to build awareness, adopting the lowest common denominator of understanding and appeal. Packaging is something that will be viewed by a subset of the audience that the brand is advertised to."

He added, "Isolating benefits is a strategy that many marketers use. You can isolate the benefit of beauty in your advertising stance and the benefit of herbal in the packaging. The fact is that the herbal market is still a niche in India. But beauty is not a niche. It has been mass for as long as I remember!." Two months into Himalaya's latest design transformation, it is still premature to guage the outcome of the brand revamp. But company sources claim that feedback in terms of sales and design appreciation has been great. We may have to wait for some more times to understand if consumers will accept cosmetic's changes for real.