By Team Ayurved Sutra
Posted on
Emami leans on Zandu’s legacy
With more than 200 products in its portfolio, the 147-year-old Zandu brand is going in for an image makeover. Emami, which acquired the brand in 2009 from the Mumbai-based family of founder Jugatram Vaidya, has decided to go in for a new logo, tagline tagline and revamped packaging
to better capture the contemporary sensibilities of its target consumers. Currently Zandu is Emami’s number two brand in terms of sales turnover. Its current best-seller is the personal care brand, Navratna Oil. However, Zandu ranks higher when it comes to the number of products that it lends its name. For Emami, this is perhaps the potential it wants to exploit. The brand’s expansive portfolio gives it a wide reach across categories and age groups, which makes it the perfect vehicle for riding the ayurvedic wave.
Emami is currently test marketing two products, which it hopes to add to the Zandu portfolio by end-FY2017. The Zandu brand currently accounts for 25 per cent of Emami’s Rs 2,031 crore turnover, but the expectation is that it could do much more, given the Rs 5,000-crore empire that Baba Ramdev has built on the back of ayurvedic-herbal products. Patanjali Ayurveda’s growth has been phenomenal. It is today two-and-a-half times the size of old ayurvedic stalwarts like Emami in India. It is the success of Patanjali that is driving companies such as Emami to focus on unlocking the value of brands like Zandu in their portfolio. Ever since Emami acquired Zandu it has introduced new product lines under the brand, the most recent one being Zandu Honey. The company says that its commitment to make ayurvedic formulations accessible and affordable to the common man is undisputed and it seeks a larger role for itself as ayurvedic brands find greater acceptance among urban consumers who are willing to pay a premium.
