Zydus beats the drums for the Heinz band
Over a year since the company acquired Complan, Glucon-d and Nycil, it is redrawing the marketing formula around its newly acquired brands
When Zydus Wellness chairman, Sharvil Patel, sealed the final deal with Heinz India in January last year, he knew he was bringing home much more than a portfolio of consumer products. His new acquisitions, Complan, Nycil and Glucon D had a relationship with consumers going back over 50 years and a legacy that cast a shadow well beyond the confines of their categories.
Now as the company draws up the roadmap for the brands under its banner, it is looking to leverage the synergies in its portfolio to create a wider and deeper distribution network and also unlock the star power of Complan’s brand ambassador, Sourav Ganguly.
The company said it would soon release a nationwide campaign with Ganguly that would talk up the all-new parentage of Complan while driving home its core benefits. At the same time, it has put in place a large web of consumer touch points for the brand.
The acquisition of t he Heinz brands came about in 2018, with the final deal being signed in January 2019 and since then, the company said that the reach of the brands in the portfolio has nearly doubled. There are nearly 500,000 sales touch points now.
How did this come about? By pooling in the advantages of the Zydus Wellness portfolio with the new brands. “We have increased touch points and reduced costs. We are now also looking at improving the quality of distribution. For example, pre-acquisition we were strong with chemists and cosmetics retailers and also with modern trade and ecommerce. The acquired business had a strong presence in the grocery chain. We have been able to work with each of the segments now,” says Tarun Arora, CEO, Zydus Wellness, a wholly owned subsidiary of Zydus Cadila.
He explains that Nycil was largely present in grocery and medical stores. “But being a talc brand, we thought it could also be there at cosmetics outlets, where Everyuth already has presence,” Arora says. Zydus wants to draw these synergies in tighter. For instance, Sugar Free that is strong within the chemists and e-commerce network and an old Zydus brand has found new wings with Complan’s grocery chain connections.
Will the company reposition and refresh the new brands too? Arora does not foresee a revamp in the near future. Nycil, he claims, has gained 2.5 per cent in terms of market share in its category last year on account of a larger distribution network. Currently it has 34.5 per cent share of the ~767 crore category of functional talcs. The company is looking at new variants. Arora says that Nycil Aloe Vera, already tested out in some towns in the South, will soon roll out nationally.
For Complan, the company has an advertising push in mind with Ganguly. It has also been working with studios to partner with popular movie franchises such as Disney for Frozen 2 and with toy companies such as Mattel, for Barbie and Hot Wheels. In 2021, Zydus is likely to bring in more variants of Complan and explore sub categories such as adult health drinks. The company is also leveraging its relationships with the doctor community to push Complan as a health drink. For Glucon D that currently has 59 per cent share of the market, the company is looking at brand extensions to increase the frequency of its purchase.
It is not just the newly acquired brands that are under focus at Zydus Wellness, old staples such as Sugar Free are too. With a closer grasp of the consumer mindset with its new portfolio, the company has cut prices for a Sugar Free Green variant. It is also pitching the brand as more than a sugar substitute for diabetics, hoping to expand its scope since Sugar Free is already the largest player in the category.
“The biggest challenge we face is the myth around sugar substitutes. Even after authorities say that these are safe, we are still fighting perceptions,” Arora says. The company currently spends around 15 per cent of its revenues for advertising and marketing, which is likely to stay unchanged.