Himalaya Herbal Case study

Introduction
 Himalaya is a brand that had herbal offerings in health supplement and personal care
products.
 Himalaya began its journey at a time when herbal products were regarded with
scepticism.
 USP- scientific rigor associated with the testing of its herbal offerings.
 In 2010 40% of Himalaya’s turnover was from consumer products.
 It had several outlets throughout the country and had shop on shop counters in modern
retail outlets.
 The brand did not advertise that much as compared to competitors.
 Its brand association was through word of mouth.
 Lead offering in toothpaste category was Himalaya Dental Cream with natural
ingredients with benefits like tightening and reducing swelling of gums, preventing
tooth ache and decay etc.
 Himalaya also launched a range of herbal prescription based oral care products, the
HiOra range which included toothpaste, mouthwashes, ulcer gel, gum astringent and a
whitening agent.
 HiOra competed against prescription oral care segment and not FMCG oral care
segment.
Overall evaluation
 Total involvement of consumers in toothpaste is just 41%, which is low.
 It can be attributed that consumers have habitual buying behaviour since there is low
involvement in purchasing and few difference in brands.
 Niche: problem solving segment has the highest involvement across all benefit
segments.
 Niche: problem solving segment consumers have strong brand attachment, strong
cognitive belief and strong cognitive belief.
 Consumers did not give much importance to oral care as they gave to hair care or skin
care.
 Most of the consumers showed regarded toothpaste as an essential category but were
indifferent in terms of benefits and propositions behaviour.
 Majority of the consumers do not have oral health problems but it does not mean that
they do not have oral health problems, it can also be due to negligence to go to a
dentist for regular check-ups.
 Herbal benefit segment has low involvement and low cognitive belief as well.
Evaluation Criteria
The evaluation criteria for the case in based upon the 4 benefit based segments:-
CATEGORY PROPOSITION
1. Freshness Built around the concept of Freshness
that fills with confidence.
2. Herbal Oral care with the help of natural/herbal
or ayurvedic ingredients.
3. Overall health Benefit Healthy teeth and strong gums for the
entire family by protecting from gums.
4. Niche-problem solving Specific solution to oral health problems
for consumers with higher involvement
in oral care.

Prove of evaluation
Oral care category
 Oral care category comprises of toothpaste, toothbrush, toothpowder, mouthwash,
dental floss and whitening products.
 Growth trend of toothpaste has been 11% since the past 3 years.
 68% of the Indian consumers believed that using the right toothpaste was more
important than using the right toothbrush.
 28% of the consumers brushed twice a day.
 68% of the consumers never visited a dentist.
 87% of the consumers would not consider visiting a dentist as a preventive measure.
 WHO reported that 98% of the Indians suffered from oral health problems.
 Hence there is significant scope for companies to enhance the involvement level
associated with the toothpaste category among consumers.
Toothpaste market in India
 Low penetration of 60%
 Urban penetration – 76%,rural penetration- 40%
 Average consumption of rural households lower than urban households.
 Top brands in the segment- Colgate Palmolive and HUL
 96% of Colgate’s sales was from toothpaste segment making it the market leader with
56% market share followed by HUL with 26% market share.
 Toothpaste category segmented into 3 price tiers:
 Economy Popular Premium

Less than ₹20 Between ₹25- Above ₹35

₹35

 Product variants- Gel based and Paste based

 Children’s segment was also present among Colgate and Pepsodent but do not hold
significant size.
Involvement levels with respect to toothpaste
 People do not consider toothpaste as invaluable or an unnecessary product.
 Majority of the respondents considered toothpaste as essential and valuable to them.
 There was a high involvement in gel based toothpaste.
 High involvement for specific problem such as preventing cavities, healthy gums,
good taste, sensitivity etc.
 Involvement in herbal, natural, ayurvedic ingredients was also high.

Atti tude towards Brands

3.8
3.7
3.6
3.5
3.4
3.3
3.2
3.1
3
2.9
Freshness Herbal Overall health Niche-problem
benefit solving

 Attitude towards niche-problem solving benefit since these consumers buy more
specifically according to what suits them.
 Herbal benefit has also shown high involvement attitude towards brands since people
consider herbal benefit to be authentic.
 Brand Att achment
3.5
3.45
3.4
3.35
3.3
3.25
3.2
3.15
3.1
3.05
Freshness Herbal Overall health Niche-Problem Total
benefit solving

Column2

 Brands serving Niche-problem solving benefits have more attachment by consumers

since these are conscious buyers.
 Average rating by consumers is 3.3 which shows medium to high brand attachment.
 Herbal benefit showed the least brand attachment, there can be reasons like
consumers only cared about herbal benefit and are not brand specific.
Responses regarding Habits and Practices:

Frequency of daily brushing

25

20

15

10

0
Freshness Herbal Overall health Niche

Once Column1

 Herbal benefit seeking consumers mostly brush once in a day followed by freshness
benefit seeking consumers.
 However majority of niche benefit consumers brush twice.
 Frequency of visits to the denti st
25

20

15

10

0
Freshness Herbal Overall Niche

once in 6 months once in a yr

once in 2 or more yrs never

 Important to note that majority of the consumers have never visited a dentist.
 Even majority of the niche benefit seeking consumers have not went to a dentist.

Oral health problems

25

20

15

10

0
Freshness Herbal Overall Niche

Yes Column1

 Interesting to note that majority of the respondents do not have any oral health
problems.
 Herbal benefit seeking consumers lead in this, this can be attributed that because they
use natural/herbal ingredients in their toothpastes therefore they have less oral health
issues.
Category involvement
SEGMENT High Involvement Consumers
Freshness 28%
Herbal 40%
Overall care 32%
Niche 64%
Total 41%

 Clearly niche segment has the most involved consumers followed by herbal.
 Niche segment consumers buy according to their specific needs.
Brand communication across segments
 BENEFIT SEGMENT BRAND Communication
Freshness Close-up Familiarized with “paas aao” jingle in
the advertisement, describing active
mouth wash present in close-up that
“makes one want to kiss”
Overall health Colgate The advertisement stated that the
toothpaste offered the benefit of “all
round protection from decay” and closed
with the claim that “Colgate is the
number one brand recommended by
dentists”
Herbal Dabur- red Explaining ayurvedic ingredients in the
toothpaste ad and ending with a punch line “let’s
drive away dental problems”
Niche Colgate-Active Familiarized with the punch line “Kya
Salt aapke toothpaste mei namak hai”,
targeted people with sensitivity issue
HERBAL HIMALAYA Key line in the advertisement “if you
want to indulge like a child, first brush
like and adult”, also stated exclusive
ingredients only present in Himalaya
toothpaste

Attitude towards category: Cognitive and affective belief strength for key brands
 Cognitive belief in line with brand communication was most with niche segment,
leading brand- Colgate active salt’
 This can be due to information and knowledge seeking behaviour by consumers who
seek problem solving benefits
 For freshness segment 80% of the consumers showed strong cognitive belief. This can
be attributed to more concern for good breath as well as attractive jingle by the brand
Close-up targeting youth.
 For Herbal segment the cognitive belief is the lowest. This can be attributed to
cognitive dissonance/contrary beliefs when it came to herbal products.
 The herbal segment also lacked behind in strong affective beliefs i.e. only 38%

Major contingency
 Most of the respondents were neutral and did not express strong disagreement which
indicates that they were moderately-to-low involvement consumers rather than
strongly low involvement consumers.
 Since majority of Indian population belongs to the rural areas so no behaviour of the
rural segment is covered since rural consumers behave differently.
 All respondents are females belonging to South India, so cannot fully rely on the
evaluation.
Recommendation
 Since Himalaya is not the market leader in herbal segment and Dabur being the
market leader could not create effective brand communication to strengthen
consumer’s cognitive and effective belief so it should communicate a strong message
to increase the same.
 Himalaya should include niche: problem solving benefit keeping herbal segment as its
USP, since niche customers are highly involved and have more brand attachment.
 Aware customers to increase brushing frequency to twice a day which will increase
the consumption rate thereby creating more demand.
 Launching economy tier herbal toothpaste for rural sector.
 Communicate the message: A Healthy Mouth Is Good for Your Body. This is because
unhealthy mouth, especially have gum disease, may increase risk of serious health
problems such as heart attack, stroke, and poorly controlled diabetes.
 Focus on HiOra range since its already into niche segment.