Acti Life : Daily Nutrition for Adults

Brand : Acti Life

Company : Zydus Wellness

Brand Analysis Count : # 487

Acti Life is a new brand in the Rs 2000 crore Indian Nutriceautical market. The brand is trying to create a new category of Adult Nutritional Drink in India. It is a bold step on the part of Zydilla to create a new segment in the highly cluttered health drink market. Acti Life is a new brand in the Rs 2000 crore Indian Nutriceautical market. The brand is trying to create a new category of Adult Nutritional Drink in India. It is a bold step on the part of Zydilla to create a new segment in the highly cluttered health drink market.

The health drink market in India is dominated by brands focusing on child nutrition. The mega brands like Horlicks, Bournvita, Complan all have spent huge amounts of money in developing the health drink market in India. The competition in this market is huge and often has lead to all out war between the brands.Horlicks, the market leader, was the first brand to understand the potential for a brand for adults. That resulted in the launch of Horlicks Lite and later Women's Horlicks. These were product-line extensions and the brand's primary focus was on the kid's segment.

It is in this context that the launch of Acti Life becomes significant. Acti Life is targeting adults ( age 18 and above) and is harping on an impressive list of nutritional benefits as its USP. The brand is trying to educate customers that different age group has different nutritional needs and hence need specialized brands like Acti Life.The brand is now running a campaign telling people to switch to specialist brand like Acti Life

Watch the TVC here : Acti Life

The brand has done basic homework on the segment and the brand's microsite is full of educational literature on the need for such a dietary supplement. The challenge is to convince the consumers to buy and that too regularly. The brand is very optimistic in telling the consumers that it has to be taken two times daily .Acti Life comes in two flavors - Chocolate and Coffee. The main differentiator for the brand is the presence of  Prebiotic Actifibres which enhances digestion and reduces cholesterol levels. 

The brand has adapted a rational positioning platform and the initial campaigns are focused on taking about the rational benefits.The brand has the tagline " Daily Nutrition for Adults " which is a basic tagline which doesn't inspire much analysis.

The challenge for the brand is to bring in the habit of taking such a product. I think that Indian adults are little hesitant to purchase a health drink for themselves. There is an inertia in choosing such a product and most consumers will shrug away from admitting that they could need a health drink . Also there is a perception that health drinks are for kids. These are the two issues that Acti Life needs to address if it wants to break into this demographic segment. 

Brand Update : Sugar Free Natura - Expanding Brand Usage

Sugar Free Natura , the sugar substitute brand from Zydus has been slowly and consistently expanding the scope of the brand. In marketing theory , different ways to grow a brand is to expand the usage situations and finding new uses for the brand and through new variants. Sugar Free has been trying exactly that.

Sugar Free launched itself as a sugar substitute for beverages. So instead of using sugar in beverages like tea, coffee, cool drinks etc, the brand tried to position itself as a healthy sugar substitute.

Rather than specifically focusing on diabetic patients ( who obviously needs such a product), Sugar Free concentrated on a larger consumer base by positioning itself as healthy alternative to sugar.

But the brand realized that focusing just on beverages severely limits the usage of the product. Hence the brand launched a campaign expanding the usage of the brand by telling the consumers to use Sugar Free not only for beverages but also for all other delicacies which require sugar like home made sweets. The brand also roped in the popular Chef Sanjeev Kapoor as the brand ambassador.

The brand has now moved into the next level of value addition by launching flavor sachets for tea. The new product is Sugar Free sachets which contains flavors like Ginger, Lime along with the sugar substitute. The new variant gives another reason to buy the brand.

Sugar Free is a brand that has realized the potential for a healthy alternative to sugar. India has an exploding diabetic population and such a product hold tremendous scope in future. The only factor that limits the growth of Sugar Free is the higher price. The price severely limits the repeat purchase and regular use of this product. The category will grow only if the brand is able to break the price barrier.

Related Brand

Sugar Free

Brand Update : Sugar Free Gold

Sugar Free Gold now running an aggressive marketing campaign. It has roped in two celebrities . Now Sugarfree is endorsed by the Tamil actress Simran in the South and Bipasha Basu in the North.

Watch the TVC here : Sugarfree

The new campaign is interesting because of two factors.

As discussed in my earlier post, Sugarfree has been positioned as an healthy alternative for Sugar. Now the new campaign takes a slight variation in the positioning from health to fitness. While both health and fitness are in the same level , fitness platform is more appealing to a broader set of younger consumers than health.
Health is defensive while fitness is proactive.

Another interesting factor is that the new campaign tends to associate the unique shape of the Sugarfree with body shape. I think its a smart move by the agency to link the shape of the bottle and a perfect body shape.

But there is something for the brand to worry about.
Recently I was talking to a doctor friend of mine and the subject of this brand came into the conversation. He mentioned that these products contain Aspartame which is bad for the health.

Sugarfree has different variants which have different ingredients. Sugar Free Gold have aspartame while Sugar Free Natura have sucralose which is a healthy substitute to sugar than aspartame.

I think that its the price that is not making this product category to expand. Although I am health conscious and a tea lover, I have a perception that Sugar Free will burn a big hole in my pocket. So unless the prices of these products come down, this product will not be accessible to a large mass of potential customers.

Nutralite : Better than Butter

Brand : Nutralite
Company : Zydus Cadilla
Agency : Mudra
Brand Analysis Count : 325

Zydus Cadilla is a bold marketer. First it fought with the sugar by launching the sugar alternative - Sugarfree Natura and now its fighting with butter by relaunching the brand Nutralite.

Nutralite is table margarine. World over margarine are used as a substitute for butter. Margarines are fat derived from either animal products or vegetable oils. The veggie margarines are used as a healthy alternative for butter.

Nutralite was acquired by Zydus in 2006. The brand was then relaunched with a controversial positioning " Better than Butter ". The slogan prompted Amul to take the issue to ASCI which directed Zydus to substantiate the claims in their future campaigns.

The organized branded butter market in India is estimated to be around Rs800 crore ( source : Moneycontrol). The market is dominated by Amul.

Nutralite brand achieves relevance owing to the changing lifestyles of urban Indian consumer. The affluent laid back lifestyle has created lot of lifestyle diseases and prompted the urban Indian consumer to be health conscious. The increasing incidence of heart problems and diabetes has paved the way for the emergence of health foods. Zydus is trying to cash in on this health wave.

Nutralite is positioned directly as a healthy alternative to butter. Like the SugarFree Natura,

Nutralite also wants the health conscious consumer to choose it to the ordinary butter. The logic behind the positioning is that Nutrilite has less cholesterol and does not contain hydrogenated fats compared to butter. It also has PUFA ( poly unsaturated fatty acid ) and MUFA (monounsaturated fatty acids ) which are known cholesterol fighters.

The brand was relaunched with television commercial showing the husband indulging in Aalu Paratha without being worried about health.

Watch the T VC here : Nutralite First ad

The controversy over the slogan - better than butter has prompted the brand to slightly alter the positioning to :Healthier than Butter.

The brand is now running a high decibel campaign featuring Sathish Shah. The message of the ad is to encourage the consumers to indulge in food without worrying about health. The brand is targeting the ladies in the households who are worried about their husband's health.

Watch the Tvc here : No Excuses

Nutralite aims to corner 8-10% of the butter market. The direct attack on butter will definitely catch the attention of the consumer. But whether this attention will be translated to sales is something to watch for. Convincing the consumer to opt for Nutralite instead of butter is not an easy task. Firstly the brand has to convince the customer that the good old Amul Butter is unhealthy. Second it has to achieve parity ( Points of parity) with butter. Then it has to convince the customer that Nutralite is indeed healthy. Hence the brand has no other alternative but to directly attack butter.

Margarines are not popular in India and the category is non-existent. The high profile launch of Nutralite may also see an emergence of margarines as a new product category.