Battle of Health drinks in India

  Indian consumers now are more conscious than ever about their health and dietary requirements. Various

reasons behind this growing inclination of Indian consumers towards healthier food and beverages are as follows

• High level of consumerism backed by risingincome levels (~$400 in 2001 to ~$1100 currently (Health accounted for ~10% of household expense & is rising)
• Exposure to wide product offerings in developed markets
• Higher rate of urbanization (27% in 2001 to 31% in 2011)
• Rising health issues owing to changing lifestyles
• Aggressive marketing by health food and beverages brands
• Rising concerns among Indian consumers about the efficacy of traditional foods in terms of quality, purity and benefits
• Two faced nutritional problems – one due to excess of nutrition and other from deficiency of nutrition

Health-food drinks form a major part of the health food industry. Below are certain points with respect to the HFD (health-food drinks) industry in India.

• HFDs are divided into two categories – White powders (Horlicks, Complan etc) and Brown powders (Bournvita, Boost etc) with a share of 65% and 35% respectively. Some other facts are –
• Health drink powders consumed as milk substitute & nutrient boosters
• India’s Health-drinks market pegged at around 4000 crores (90000 tonnes) and expected to reach approximately 8000 crores by 2016
• India is world’s largest malt-based drinks market with a share of almost 22% in the world’s total retail volume(Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as malting)

Major players in the HFD segment in India are as follows -

• GlaxoSmithKline
• Horlicks (With variants)
• Boost
• Maltova
• Viva
• Kraft-Cadbury (Mondelez International)
• Bournivita (With variants)
• Heinz
• Complan (With variants)
• Amul
• Nutramul
• Pro

Market Share in Indian HFDs Industry

Target Group and Positioning

Horlicks  - ‘The great family nourisher’ that offers pleasurable nourishment with a delicious range of flavors

All Health Food Drink’s generic TG : Middle income group and above, Metro/Urban/Semi-urban.

• Junior Horlicks 1-2-3
• Target Group : Toddlers (Consumption) Mothers (Communication)
• Positioning : An easy-to-digest drink for fussy toddlers providing them with essential nutrition value
• Junior Horlicks 4-5-6 with growth boosters
• Target Group : Preschoolers (Consumption) Mothers(Communication)
• Positioning – A nutrition packed health food for active preschoolers with who have a busy schedule and need to remain charged
• Mother’s Horlicks
• Tagline : Healthy mothers for healthy and smart babies!
• Target Group : Pregnant and Breast-feeding women
• Positioning : A superior nutritional supplement for pregnant and breast-feeding women to meet their daily nutritional requirements
• USP : DHA as ingredient and ability to provide 100% RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance) for the TG
• Horlicks Lite
• Target Group :  Adults
• Positioning – Especially designed to provide nutrition to adults and provide them with strength and stamina to keep going
• USP : Only HFD to be endorsed and certified by Diabetes India
• Horlicks
• Tagline : Proven for making kids taller, stronger and sharper
• Target Group : Kids aged 5-15 years and Mothers (Communication)
• Positioning : A nutritional supplement that positively enhances      physical and mental growth of kids
• USP : Huge emphasis on the “proven” efficacy for child’s mental & physical growth on the basis of results from a series of researches
• Boost
• Tagline : Boost is the secret of winning energy
• Target Group :  Children and adults looking for  an energy drink
• Positioning : Always  positioned as an energy drink hence the tagline. It is promoted as being the only HFD proven to increase stamina by  three times
• USP : Strong Sportsmen endorsements(Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni) leading to brand following by kids
• Bournvita
• Tagline : Tayyari  jeet ki (preparing to win)
• Target Group :  Children aged 5-15 years  & Mothers ( For Communication)
• Positioning : Help kids to grow faster and enhances goodness of milk(Calcium)
• USP : Strong advertising and taste appeals most in the category  to the TG
• Bournvita Li’l champs
• Target Group : Children aged 2-5 years & Mothers(For Communication)
• Positioning : Most effective for kids due to DHA and whey protein content
• USP : Packaging to attract kids and attached offers/gifts for kids
• o   Complan (COMplete PLANned)
• Tagline : Extra growing power with Complan
• Target Group :  Children aged 5-15 years  & Mothers ( For Communication)
• Positioning : Help kids to grow taller at twice the rate
• USP : Backs its ‘tall’ claims by multiple researches
• Complan with Memory Chargers
• Target Group : Children aged 5-15 years  & Mothers ( For Communication)
• Positioning : Improves memory and cognitive abilities in kids
• USP : First HFD to target memory and cognitive benefits. Backs claims by results of an independent research

Prospects of Indian HFD market

o   Indian HFD market is a growth market with 

tremendous opportunities (Check graph)

o   India has one of the youngest population in the 

world making it a long-term HFD market (TG)

o   Still considered as one of the growth markets in 

terms of rising income reinforcing the long-term 

prospects

o   Rising awareness among consumers due to 

exposure to developed markets (More people than 

ever travelling abroad, foreign TV channels, global

offerings) adds to TG everyday

o   Due to foreign origin of most of the HFD products

(mostly developed markets) which have stricter

laws related to food safety, the products don’t need much

tweaking(& expenses) in that aspect

Consumer Behaviour(HFD purchase)

• Consumers attitudes regarding HFD purchase is largely influenced by quality attributes of the product
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• No direct relation between brands and their sensory perception

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• Price, quality attributes and sensory perceptions are three major factors that makes a brand in the eyes of consumer better than other         

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• Value for money(Nourishment vs price), price and packaging are ranked in the same order for influencing purchase decision         

• Brand loyalty stands out as a very significant factor in HFD purchase

Age segment

• Biggest TG is the age group of 5-15 years in terms of products offered to each TG 
• Other segments have exactly same number of products offered for them (Of the  brands considered in this analysis).
• Horlicks is present in four out of five segments while Bournivita covers three segments by its offering. 
• Complan, Boost and Maltova covers one segment each.

Brand Benefits Segments

• HFD as Energy drinks and source of essential nutrients (specific to TG, eg. Toddlers, Mothers etc) is most common positioning adopted by brands(25%). 
• Equal number of products offer benefits related to physical and mental growth (19% each).
• Recently Horlciks and Bournivita in particular have also adopted a new proposition where they promise to enrich and strengthen the nutrient value of milk. With only 12% of considered brands adopting this positioning it holds the last position.

Key Success Factors in HFD Market

• Strong market and consumer behaviour understanding to gauge consumer expectations and market offerings ( Gap Analysis)
• Unique, clear and relevant brand proposition to the consumers
• Sensory appeal is very significant since end-consumers are kids who are fussy about taste and flavours
• Clear distinction between communication for kids and mothers since both are significant players in purchase decision and require different satisfaction points to finalize on a product and purchase
• Competitive pricing since price and value for money are important attributes in purchase decision for HFDs and it is very important to remain affordable yet attractive to consumers
• Backed by strong distributions system and feedback mechanism to ensure availability and a connect between brand and consumers

Cheers,

PS : For details regarding each brand's claims and their tryst with reality, TVC analysis and some more informaiton on this topic, you  can have a look at the presentation on slide share.- Link