4 As for Health Food Drinks

Affordability-

The purchasing power of rural consumers has been growing in recent

times due to growing investments, implementation of the NREGA Act,
growing population, etc. The income levels have also been on the rise,
with more than Rs.5 lacs as their annual household income on an average.
Also, their expenditure as a percentage of the income is 78%, with 5.6%
on Fast Moving Consumer Goods. The rural markets in India have grown
size, range and sophistication in recent times.
However, ensuring affordability is a challenge. With low disposable
incomes, products need to be affordable to the rural consumer, most of
whom are on daily wages. The pricing of the products should be done in
such a way that, it should match the needs of the customers, and must be
of value to the rural consumers. The products should be in their buying
capacity.

According to independent researches done in the rural markets of South

India, it is inferred that only 25% of the customers feel highly satisfied
with the current pricing of products in the Health Food Drinks category,
whereas 68% of the people feel somewhat satisfied, and the rest 7% are
dissatisfied with the pricing.
Also, in summary of the results of the research report, most of the
consumers, that is 80% verify the MRP of the products before buying a
product, thus maintaining price as the main factor in their purchase.
Most of the consumers, that is 72%, compare the price of Health Food
Drinks with other products in the same category before final purchase.

Keeping in mind these factors, GSK introduced a cheaper variant of

Horlicks to attract the price sensitive rural customers. In India, there is a
large population that falls in the not so rich class of people and they do
not have enough disposable income to spend on these extra supplements.
So, to attract this segment, Asha was introduced in the rural markets
which is priced at Rs. 85, being 40% lower than the Rs. 135 Horlicks for a
500gm pack. The target market is the semi urban and the rural market.
Also, smaller packaging has been introduced in the rural markets, like that
of a 200gm packet for Rs. 50.
A product which could meet the nutritional requirements of people in
these markets matching their disposable income was the main aim.

With the rising affordability of Rural consumers, it is always a good news

for the consumer product manufacturers as it leads to more consumption
in small towns and villages. There is likely to be more opportunity in the
rural markets in the long run. The only problem that this product may face
in the market is that people may consider it to be a Horlicks with lower
quality than its parent brand.

Acceptance-

The rural society is also urbanizing with the increase in literacy rates and
acceptance to global trends. It is showing interest in branded products
and services. The literacy rates in rural markets has grown to more than
60%. Most of the elders also can read newspapers and magazines and
understand the changing trends in the country. Also with the advent of
satellite television, the rural populace has been exposed to the rich
lifestyle of urban households. This has created awareness and induced an
attraction for branded products in the rural markets.
These changes in lifestyle trends and media explosion has the rural
population growing their acceptance towards the Health food drinks which
were earlier perceived to be an unnecessary expenditure for them. This
has led to companies like GSK capitalizing on this opportunity, offering
products specifically suited for rural markets. Asha is the first product from
the UK based MNC designed for rural consumers.

Nearly 80% households surveyed in a sample taken from 24 villages and

125 towns below a population of one million reported an increase in
spending on healthcare products.
A discovery during a qualitative and quantitative study done by rural
marketing agency MART recently, reflects two thingsthat rural
consumers are getting more conscious about health and that they have
the extra money to spend on such products.
Hence, milk food drink companies like Horlicks, Boost, Bournvita have
positioned themselves as Nutritious, or Energizing, or Building stamina
and growing intelligence and concentration to increase their acceptability
specially in the rural markets.

Because of media explosion, the role of advertisements has increased in

the rural markets.
According to independent researches in rural markets, it is inferred that
59% of the respondent population has strongly agreed that the
advertisements of health and nutritious drinks are effective in rural areas,
26% have agreed that they are effective, and 15% have disagreed that
advertisements of the companies are effective.
Hence, apart from the advertisements on radio and print advertisements
that were being used since several years by the milk food drinks
companies, they are now resorting and investing more and more on
Television as a medium of increasing their value and acceptability in the
rural markets.
The role of rural women and housewives is immense in preparing diets for
their families. For 18 months, GSKs team worked to create a product that
would be an alternative to consumers of local cereal mixes of uncertain
quality such as ragi or finger millet malt and satooa porridge mix of
oats, barley and millet, which is considered a staple nutritious diet in rural
areas. This has led to increasing the acceptability of Asha to a great
extent among rural households.

Availability-
The greatest problem in the rural market is to reach the customer or the
retailer. Most of the products are promoted well, but by the time it reaches
the customer, it gets late. So reaching the market should be considered.
Indias rural market is very scattered, spread over 3 million sq. km. A
strong distribution system is hence needed to help brands reach the
interiors of the rural market.

The milk food product companies have well-oiled machinery, comprising stockists,
distributors and company salesmen, to ensure that the product reaches the end user.
From the manufacturing and packaging plants, products are transferred to
the super distributor, who in turn feeds 10-15 sub distributors which are
transported to small towns via base town distributors and later they are
transferred to various corners by making use of transport like cycle, auto,
hand-cart, camel-cart etc.

According to independent researches, results show that 31% of rural

respondents feel that the Health food drink brands are always available,
42% feel that they are mostly available, 24% feel that they are rarely
available, and 3% feel that they are not available in at least one shop in
their village.

To interact with rural women, GSK used the platform of microfinance

groups to break the initial barriers and these microfinance units are used
to distribute the trial packs of Asha to the rural women. Hyderabad-based
SKS Microfinance, the largest microfinance institution (MFI) in India,
distributed about 75,000 Asha from Horlicks samples via 16 of its
branches across Andhra Pradesh. Consumer goods companies have of late
been approaching MFIs, established primarily to lend small sums to poor
women, as a rural distribution avenue because of their reach.

Awareness-
Creating brand awareness through appropriate media is very important for
the companies to gain acceptability among rural folks.
Mass media is able to reach only to 57% of the rural population. Creating
awareness then, means utilizing targeted, unconventional media including
ambient media. For generating awareness, events like fairs and festivals,
Haats, etc., are used as occasions for brand communication. Cinema vans,
shop-fronts, walls and wells are other media vehicles that have been
utilized to increase brand and pack visibility.

Research shows that rural population up to 45 years age group of

consumers (38%) have high level of awareness of Health food drinks.
Consumers in the age group of 46-55 years (31%) have moderately aware
of HFDs and consumers of high age group above (30%) have low-level of
awareness of HFD.

Research shows the level of awareness about the product details among
the consumers of Health Food Drinks.
28% of the rural consumers are highly unaware of the manufacturer
of the product. However, 25% of them are aware and 19% of the
consumers are of highly aware of.
On the price of product, 37% and 35% consumers are aware and
highly aware respectively. On Ingredients of the product 30% of the
consumers are neither aware nor unaware.
On the colour of product, 30%, 24% are aware and highly aware
respectively.
On vitamins included 50% of them are on the aware category.
On flavour of the product, the rural consumers are equally divided
on both unaware and aware.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has used street plays and cinema screenings to get
villagers to taste the product. The firm, which also sells health drinks
Boost and Maltova, participated in about 60 village fairs across Andhra
Pradesh to generate awareness about the brand.

Horlicks has a 53% share of the Rs2,000 crore milk food beverage market
in India, with Cadburys Bournvita coming second with 16%, according to
research group Nielsen Co. Horlicks dominates the south while Bournvitas
strongholds are in the north and west. For GSK, the idea is to get rural
consumers to buy Horlicks on special occasions, say four times a year,
and to buy Asha at least six to eight times a year.

References-
https://www.ijahs.com/view/a-study-on-the-awareness-of-consumption-of-
health-food-drinks-by-children-adolescents-and-young-adults-with-special-
reference-to-woriyur.pdf
http://ijcrme.rdmodernresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/142.pdf

http://www.allresearchjournal.com/archives/2016/vol2issue4/PartC/2-2-
40.pdf