Will Pushing Horlicks into New Categories Destroy the Brand?
GlaxoSmithKline is a leading healthcare company resulting from the merger of two leading international organizations: Glaxo Wellcome and Smithkline Beecham. In India GSK operates as GSK Consumer Healthcare Ltd. Headquartered in Gurgaon, GSK began its journey with Horlicks in India. Zubair Ahmed's took over as MD, India Sub-continent region of GSK Consumer Healthcare in 2007. He introduced the Horlicks Foodles in August, 2010 which was a totally new and unrelated category for a health-beverage maker like GSK. It was a bold and risky step for GSK as they had already faced failure of Aquafresh toothpaste and Ribena, the black current drink. But with out of box thinking and able leadership of Mr Zubair Ahmed, they not only tapped the high potential of noodles market in India but were also able to grab 6% market share in south & east.
According to interview given to Business standard in March,2010 Shubhajit Sen GSK executive vice president (marketing) said that the company tackles the challenge at three levels – first, investing in new science on the original Horlicks and keeping the promise relevant and the imagery contemporary; second, expanding the brand‘s footprint into new health drink extensions to tap consumer segments who may not be using the category (eg Junior Horlicks, Women‘s Horlicks, Mother‘s Horlicks, Asha, Horlicks Lite etc) and third, expanding the brand to new categories like cereal bars (Horlicks NutriBar), ChillDoodh, biscuits and now instant noodles.
The FMCG major plans to increase retail reach by 30% as the distribution has always been their weak spot. Despite of strong hold in east and south, they still need to catch up a lot with other companies in north and west for newer categories like noodles, biscuits and toothpaste. They hope to accomplish this task with their project canvas. They also have big plans for the rural consumers which are expected to extend to 40-45% of market coverage increasing from 30% presently. Also for high end
According to interview given to Business standard in March,2010 Shubhajit Sen GSK executive vice president (marketing) said that the company tackles the challenge at three levels – first, investing in new science on the original Horlicks and keeping the promise relevant and the imagery contemporary; second, expanding the brand‘s footprint into new health drink extensions to tap consumer segments who may not be using the category (eg Junior Horlicks, Women‘s Horlicks, Mother‘s Horlicks, Asha, Horlicks Lite etc) and third, expanding the brand to new categories like cereal bars (Horlicks NutriBar), ChillDoodh, biscuits and now instant noodles.
The FMCG major plans to increase retail reach by 30% as the distribution has always been their weak spot. Despite of strong hold in east and south, they still need to catch up a lot with other companies in north and west for newer categories like noodles, biscuits and toothpaste. They hope to accomplish this task with their project canvas. They also have big plans for the rural consumers which are expected to extend to 40-45% of market coverage increasing from 30% presently. Also for high end