Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Women's Horlicks is India's first health drink designed specifically for women's
nutritional needs. It targets a hitherto untapped segment as identified by GSKCH
(GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare), namely, health conscious urban working
women, in metros and mini-metros, leading hectic lives balancing career and family.
Women's Horlicks seemed to have all the elements necessary for success. And yet, at
present, sales appear to be flagging, a seeming contradiction that presents an intriguing
case for analysis.
To many of us, the name 'Horlicks' is entwined with memories of childhood - of getting
up in the mornings and gulping down a glass before running to school, or coming back
exhausted from a hard evening's play only to be rejuvenated by it. Since its creation by
the Horlicks brothers in 1873 (originally intended as an artificial infant food), it has
undergone numerous transformations. Though the first factory in India was built only in
1960, it soon became the biggest market for Horlicks1. Despite its popularity however,
GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Health Care (GSKCH), which manufactures Horlicks, has
taken care to ensure that the product does not stagnate.
It underwent a revamp in 2003 with the introduction of flavours like Vanilla, Toffee,
Elaichi and Chocolate to satisfy the discerning palate. What is perhaps more interesting,
however, is GSKCH's strategy to segment the Indian market and to produce variants to
satisfy each segment's unique needs. This is exemplified by products like Junior Horlicks,
for pre-schoolers, Horlicks Lite, for health conscious adults and diabetics, and Mother's
Horlicks, for pregnant and breast feeding women. In each case, GSKCH has striven to
create a distinct and appealing image.
In order to highlight its nutritional aspect, GSKCH is promoting the product both through
traditional print and TV media, and also by enlisting the support of professionals in the
medical field. In a brilliant casting choice, eschewing the current glamour dolls of
Bollywood, Konkana Sen Sharma was selected as the face of the urban Indian woman of
today, balancing career and home, a choice sure to resonate with most women. This,
combined with the baseline, "Because your body needs you too!", starkly elegant in its
very simplicity, captures the essence of the brand image GSK is trying to build.
GSKCH also introduced a Doctor Engagement Program wherein the company reaches
out to physicians, dieticians and nutritionists to educate them about the product. This in
turn, would hopefully lead to an official or at the very least, unofficial, product
endorsement by these professionals. Their core strategy lies in grabbing the mind space
of the consumers, rather than following the more traditional hard-sell route.
Price
Packaging
Moreover, one of the most important facts discovered through the primary research was
that when customers opened the container for the first time after purchase, they were
disappointed with the amount (volume) of Women's Horlicks in the container. They felt
cheated and swindled. In other words, the container for the product was
disproportionately large for its actual content. This only served to add to the existing
perception that the product is over-priced and deterred future purchases of the product.
Taste
Finally, the primary research also brought to light another revealing fact4. Women place
an enormous amount of emphasis on taste even for health product as can be seen in
Exhibit 3. Now, Women's Horlicks and regular Horlicks are fairly similar in taste;
therefore, women inadvertently do not perceive a difference between the two products
and hence do not find any justification to buy the more expensive product.
Exhibit 3 Most Important Feature of Health Drinks
Place
The combined effect of all these factors has led to sales figures significantly lower than
predicted and with no signs of improvement in the near future. Possibly due to this lack
of demand, Women's Horlicks is not easily available in all supermarkets and retail stores,
further exacerbating the situation. Even where available, it is usually relegated to the
bottom shelf, resulting in minimal visibility.
Sales are low, especially in comparison with other Horlicks products. Thus, despite its
high retailer margins, retailers are not enthusiastic to carry the product at their stores,
implying that lost sales aren't significant enough i.e. they don't expect sales to increase
significantly.
Price Rationalization
The sales of Women's Horlicks are lower compared to that of regular Horlicks and Junior
Horlicks and consequently retailers hardly have an incentive to push the product. This is
despite the fact that retailer margins on Women's Horlicks are higher than the industry
average. Since our study indicates that there is a general perception about the product
being pricey, GSKCH should consider reducing retailer margin in order to bring down
the MRP slightly and thus boost sales.
Alternate Packaging
One of the striking revelations of our study is that people perceive a mismatch between
the size of the container and the volume of Women's Horlicks actually contained. This
adds to the existing perception that the product is expensive and deters future purchases
of the product. A change in packaging is therefore recommended, more specifically,
reducing the container size to make it better aligned with the actual quantity inside it.
Alternatively, GSK could consider increasing the volume contained in each jar. This
would improve people's perceptions of the product's value-for-money, though at a cost of
reduced profits per container.
GSK did a fantastic job of TV advertisements to promote the Women's Horlicks brand.
As a result brand awareness and brand recognition among the sample target population is
fairly high. However, a very small percentage of this has translated into actual sales. This
calls for an aggressive push strategy, because although awareness is already very high
due to extensive TV communications, potential consumers have not experienced the
product.
GSK being the market leader in the health drinks industry could pursue an aggressive
promotional strategy to give a free small trial pack of Women's Horlicks (approx. 50
Gms) with two large jars of any other GSK product line health drink. Such a lucrative
offer will stimulate purchases on the part of the consumers and would increase the
probability of it entering their consideration set the next time they make a purchase.
Revamp Taste
Moutusi Maity was a faculty member in the Marketing Area at Indian Institute of
Management, Bangalore. She holds a Phd. in Business Administration from Terry
College of Business and a Masters of Business Administration from IISWBM, University
of Calcutta.
Arunava Saha Dalal (PGP 2008-10) holds a B. Tech. in Computer Engineering from
Institute of Technology - Banaras Hindu University (ITBHU) and can be reached at
arunavasd08@iimb.ernet.in
Giridhar Rao B.G. (PGP 2008-10) holds a B. Tech. in Computer Science & Engineering
from NIT Trichy and can be reached at giridhar.rao08@iimb.ernet.in
Navneet Chahal (PGP 2008-10) holds a B. Tech. in Computer Science & Engineering
from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorke and can be reached at
navneet.chahal08@iimb.ernet.in
Suraj Holla Byndoor (PGP 2008-10) holds a B.E. in Computer Science & Engineering
from SJCE Mysore and can be reached at suraj.holla08@iimb.ernet.in
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