Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Brand Update : Horlicks Extends to Breakfast Segment

In pursuit of the stated objective of making Horlicks a megabrand, GSK announced the launch of Horlicks Oats. According to ET, packaged, ready-to-cook oats market is worth around Rs 200 crore and growing at 25% . Horlicks expects to leverage its equity in the new product category also.
From healthy malt drink, Horlicks has come a long way. Now  the brand has become so big and diversified, there is no point in criticizing these extension. ( one can only pray for its survival).
Regarding the brand extension towards oats, the existing health based brand association of Horlicks will be a huge advantage . According to academic researches, consumers evaluate brand extension on the basis of these parameters - 
Brand loyalty towards parent brand
Confidence of consumers about the competence of parent brand in the new category
Perceived quality 
Positive brand associations 
Perceived fit between parent brand and the extensions
Attitude of consumers towards the brand.

For Horlicks, because of its rich heritage and product performance, it scores well in most of the above parameters. Hence the chances of consumer trial will be high compared to any new brand.Brand dilution will happen for sure since the brand is trying to leverage its expertise in too many categories. 

There are also chances of the oats to be viewed as a Kid's product since Horlicks in India traditionally targeted kids. This kid's association may prevent many adults to switch to the brand. However Horlicks will be addressing this issue in the launch ad. My feeling is that Horlicks oats will be targeting the family as a unit rather than adults.

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6 comments:

  1. I already anticipate about this because of the product's performance.

    My brother loves Horlick.

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  2. Horlick oats are suitable of people of all ages without any prior concern of the gender, however and effective advertisement can clear this confusion pretty swiftly.

    ~Taxi Advertising

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  3. That has been very crucial approach in marketing. Creating brand in such way always helps business to grow. I have help[ed many of websites to create a niche brand in their industry through online marketing.

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  4. This is definitely a good move by Horlicks, though it probably could have happened earlier.
    Horlicks is already identifiable with breakfast in many household.But this also may be an indication of growing maturity of the breakfast cereal market in India.

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  5. Anonymous12:27 AM

    As you anticipated, the tagetting thing has been perfectly taken care of in the ad wherein the 3 way health advantage has been clearly emphasized - controls cholestrol, helps reduce weight & controls blood pressure.These 3 advantages are in fact mainly focussed towards the adult TG than the kids. However, the ad tries to target a very specicfic TG of the 35+ age working male, which is a very confining strategy and also a me-too targetting similar to that of a dozen other oats brands. Given the fact that Oats today is consumed by the entire family right from the kid to the oarents to the senior adults in the family, it makes more sense to emphasize the entire family as the TG as that would not just target a larger set of TG but also pave way for expanding the consumer base of this category through awareness creation. This onus actually lies with market leaders like Quaker but nevertheless a strong brand like Horlicks can definitely take the fist step towards building a category as prospective as this in days to come.

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  6. Anonymous4:21 PM

    I have used this product. I must say this is highly over priced compared to rival brands and low quality. It came and quickly disappeared from supermarket shelves.

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