HIMALAYA

The Himalaya Drug Company was founded in 1930 by Mr. M. Manal with a clear vision to bring Ayurveda to society in a contemporary form and to unravel the mystery behind the 5,000 year old system of medicine. The company in 1950 came out with the block buster product in the form of Live 52. Then nothing much happened until December 2001 when the brand went for a complete make over and emerged with a new identity.

The brand, the company analysed, is targeted at the modern Indian consumer who is willing to pay a premium for good medicine, and for those who believe in ayurveda but are not inclined to go traditional ayurveda clinics. This is a good example of effective concept development.

The company adopted a new logo to contemporise the brand image. It was designed with a distinct font size so that the consumers can easily identify Himalaya products. The labelling and the print is bold, which makes it easy for customers to read them, even when placed in displays at pharmacies.

The current Himalaya logo is a visual definition of the brand. The leaf that forms the crossbar of the letter H evokes the company's focus on herbal healthcare. The teal green represents proximity to nature, while the orange is evocative of warmth, vibrancy and commitment to caring, associating the Himalaya brand with the promise of good health and well-being.

Once product positioning was clear, it was important for the company to spread word to the consumers. Thus effective ad campaigns were designed in a manner  to serve objectives like 1) Dispel Myths 2) Spread information 3)Be interesting 4) Link Himalaya with ayurvedic concepts.

The company entered 3 broad segments i.e.

1)Pharmaceutical - health maintenance, eye, cardiac and skin care, immune booster and cough control

2)Personal Care - Health Care, Oral Care, Hair Care, Skin Care and Baby Care.

3)Naturals - Pure Herbs, Chavanprash, and Honey.

4)Animal Health – Livestock, Poultry, Aqua and companion

Now it is clear that the company thought it to be fit to extend the brand in all areas where the construct “ayurveda”, “Natural” etc. are relevant. Moreover the brand has a non-contemporary appeal which can come in handy in the extensions. However, while it is very good that the brand has extended itself into areas where the brand extensions lends credibility to both the brand and the category, it is also important to analyse how much of the constructs can be infused into individual categories. While it may be perfectly alright to heavily emphasize the concept in a category like pure herbs. It may not be too appropriate to do the same in a category like Chavanprash and skincare.

What I am trying to say is that though the brand has extended itself in the right categories it has not extended in the right manner. More appropriate would have been something on the lines of a Sub Brand Strategy. The benefit of such an approach would be that instead of the concept being applied uniformly to all product categories, the concept can be applied to the extent it is relevant for the category, The remaining space in communication and positioning thus could be used for adding category specific new concepts . This will provide the brand strategists the flexibility to maneuver their strategies effectively. This will also make the brand appeal more attractive to the category user.

For example : The skin care category is sold under the corporate brand Himalaya just like all other categories. Now skin care is a category where “ayurved” and “natural” may be less important than, lets say “beautiful” “White” “Soft” etc . So when the brand enters the cognitive faculties of the consumer through senses along with “ayurved” centric stimuli, chances are the user doesn’t find acceptance with the product. Now if the category had been branded in a way that some elements of “beautiful” “soft”etc are added along with the primary element “Ayurved” chances are that our customer who seeks to become/remain “beautiful” is attracted towards the new stimuli. Moreover category/segment specific sub-branding would result in strong categorizations in the customers cognition, this will eliminate brand specific  confusions.

Mr. Ravi Prasad are you listening….??