consumer needs.
It has, for instance, entire markets in directions they hadn't thought
Market
In millions of homes frosted glass jars with blue
caps sit perched on kitchen shelves. These are
Horlicks bottles – the ubiquitous health drink
since the 1930s – now serving the purpose of
kitchen containers. In their original avatar, the
bottles contained Horlicks, a spoon of which
stirred in a glass of hot milk or water was the
great nourisher.
The basics have not changed since; except
Horlicks is now an extended family of health
drinks reaching out to more people, under
more circumstances and using enhanced
formulations.
Before Operation Flood, India was a
perennially milk shortage land. It was from
brands like Horlicks that people received the
nourishment that milk would have otherwise
provided.
Today, the malted milk market is estimated at
Rs. 1070 crore (US$ 211.90 million) serving the
nutrition and energy supplement needs of
children and adults alike. With the impact
Operation Flood has had the market for Milk
Food Drinks (MFD) should have actually
declined. But Horlicks – and several other
brands in this space – has
been able to re-invent itself
and create positioning
strategies in sync with
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created new segments aimed at specific
consumers: Mothers Horlicks is
targeted specifically at pregnant and
lactating women; Junior Horlicks has
been especially formulated for little
children; Woman's Horlicks is for
the contemporary woman with a
proposition of blood and bone health;
Horlicks Lite is for the 40+ adult
promising strength and stamina and the
base brand Horlicks now has a
clinically-backed claim of making kids
taller, stronger and sharper. Not only
has this strategy grown the market and
brought new users into its fold, it has actually
rolled back the effects of increased milk supply
and competition from other health food brands.
Horlicks' success has also been in great
measure due to the continuous market track it
does. It was possibly the first brand to discern
that consumers were veering towards products
that could deliver on the promise of health
without compromising on taste. This explains
the wide range of flavours Horlicks now offers
and why despite increased competition it
continues to be the brand-of-choice for millions
of people.
Achievements
Left to themselves most brands would die a
natural death. It is the ability of a brand to re-
invent itself that keeps it youthful and in tune
with market needs. Horlicks has done a
remarkable job of catering to evolving
requirements – and, where necessary, pointing
of. If Horlicks, today, enjoys the trust of many
generations of Indian mothers it is in great
measure due to this ability.
Along its extensive journey Horlicks has been
subjected to several changes. In 1998, Horlicks
was fortified with Smart Nutrients – a unique
combination of vitamins and minerals –
intended to imbibe growing children with
mental agility and physical fitness. Junior Horlicks
was re-launched with extra nutrients to build
the immunity of little children. Today, this sub-
brand contributes a stunning 11% to Horlicks'
total sales and has been one of the fastest
growing product extensions to the
Horlicks brand.
In growing from children to adolescence, kids
take a giant leap. The metabolic activity
promotes dramatic changes. Solutions that
worked at one stage are no longer relevant
later. To better understand this natural
phenomenon, Horlicks undertook a large-scale
clinical trial lasting fourteen months to develop
and deliver a rational consumer claim. The claim
of taller, stronger and sharper emerged from this
study and has since become the bedrock of the
base brands' communications strategy.
As a corollary, to various other research
initiatives impacting the product offering,
Horlicks has introduced a slew of sub-brands,
flavour options and packaging alternatives. Its
5-in-1 pack for the variety-seeking child is a fine
example of the nutritional halo and the livewire
spirit of Horlicks.
Its packaging options – designed to induce
trial and create renewed interest in the market
– have included jars, refill packs and sachets.
Horlicks was the first brand in India to
introduce a refill pack option and also the first
to shrink-wrap bottles. In many ways there's a
Horlicks pack for every occasion and mood.
 On the more expansive platform, Horlicks is
committed to nutrition and continues to build
expertise in this area.
It has set up a body
called the Horlicks
Nutrition Academy
(HNA). HNA is as
much about the high
science of nutrition
as it is about
understanding the nutritional needs of various
consumers and delivering products, solutions
and advice.
History
Some malted barley, pinches of wheat flour and
a dash of evaporated milk. This is the simplified
formula for Horlicks.
James Horlicks, after whom the brand is
named, was a chemist who worked for a
company which produced dried infant food. He
became ambitious after inventing some recipes
of his own. So along with his brother William,
they launched J and W Horlicks of Chicago.
In the 1870s, babies often fell sick as fresh
milk soured quickly without refrigeration. It was
this recipe, invented by James and William that
saved the day. From then on, their business grew
rapidly. In 1906 James returned to Britain and
opened the Horlicks Malted Milk Company.
Later, their sons sold the brand to SmithKline
Beecham, now known as Glaxo SmithKline
(GSK) for £20 million (Rs. 156 crore at
current prices).
Up until the 1960s Horlicks was positioned as
an adult restorative drink that gave extra energy,
especially during convalescence.
The 1970s saw its position shift to 'The Great
Nourisher'. It was in this phase that the brand
saliency shot up. Suchitra, the protagonist,
epitomised the modern housewife of those
days. She was the gatekeeper of her family's
health. The medical credentials, so important in
health solutions, were reinforced through the
depiction of a doctor as the rational voice.
The next decade saw Horlicks face an
immense external challenge. Thanks to
Operation Flood, there was availability of milk
and the raison d'être for buying the brand
became weaker. Horlicks fought back. In 1984,
Horlicks veered around to the belief that the
brand could be sustained only by growing the
consumer base. By 1994, it had created Ideal
Horlicks – an improved product formulation
that also brought back the taste people
reminisced about. Eight years later, Horlicks was
re-launched on the immunity platform.
In the following three years, Horlicks
repositioned itself by shifting its focus to kids as
the core target group. Through its tonality it
created a strong emotional connect with them.
However, it continued to talk to mothers – the
primary drivers – using a campaign that
focussed on ingredients and their role in
building health.
By 2007, several alternative beverages had
gained a foothold in the market. While they
were not necessarily direct competitors to
Horlicks their slant towards health was
unmistakable. The brand is once again
fighting back.
Product
Horlicks is a natural product. Some warm water
or milk added to a couple of tablespoons of
Horlicks makes a tasty and nourishing beverage.
A few ice cubes converts it into a chilled one
that is a delicious, thirst quencher on a hot
afternoon. That's the magic of Horlicks and
that's why it is considered the great nourisher
for the entire family.
The medical credentials and heritage of the
brand have continued to reinforce its image
over the years, while its brand extensions and
flavours have allowed consumers to enjoy the
nourishing goodness of Horlicks, in a variety of
delicious ways.
Recent Developments
The new century has seen the Horlicks brand
successfully battle the quirks of a fickle market.
In fact, during 2001/02, it overcame grave
challenges. The process invigorated and
reinforced all the traditional virtues of the
Horlicks brand and created the basis on which
it could confidently look to its future.
The initial years of the new millennium were
turbulent for Horlicks. While the brand stayed
ahead of its rivals and retained market
leadership, it showed a decline in absolute sales
growth. Analysis revealed that the brand was
suffering on three counts: usage by medium and
heavy users had declined; the brand was not
being perceived as modern and contemporary
and there was a loss in brand relevance
among children.
A complete brand re-launch was initiated in
July 2003; this involved improving the product,
introducing new flavours, new packaging and a
new communications campaign. For the first
time in the brand's history, it was decided to
target children directly. Consumer research
revealed that children perceived the brand to
be old fashioned – something that their
grandparents drank. This increased their
resistance to the brand. Moreover, mothers too,
were reluctant to force their children since they
wanted to be seen as friends rather than as
figures of authority.
So, better taste was the only way to make
Horlicks the preferred choice among children.
This led to the term 'pleasurable nourishment'
to be coined and paved the way for the
introduction of new variants – including
chocolate, vanilla and honey. The taste of the
regular variant, too, was improved. To put it all
together the packaging was made smarter and
more attractive. The new, improved Horlicks
was advertised through the Pran Chonchol
campaign, which established the Horlicks
experience as integral to the lives of
spirited children.
In this period the brand's personality changed
dramatically – the serious, do-good, earnest
personality was replaced by a spirited, engaging,
fun-loving character. This was Horlicks in its new
filigree, reincarnated as the 21st century drink.
Promotion
Horlicks released its first Indian press ad
campaign way back in the 1930s, positioning
itself as the family nourisher.
Horlicks was amongst the first to recognise
that by the 1970s much had changed. This led
the brand to create the character of Suchitra,
the modern housewife, fretful of her family's
health. During the 1980s, Horlicks created one
of the most popular TV campaigns with its 'Why
do I drink Horlicks?' commercial. It was one of
the early instances of slice-of-life advertising that
showcased the wide acceptance of the brand
among people from different walks of life.
Since then, the brand has been endorsed by
celebrities such as Amitabh Bachchan who
featured in a series of radio ads in the 1960s
and 1970s; and Moon Moon Sen and her
daughters, Riya and Raima in the 1980s. World
chess champion, Vishwanathan Anand, too, has
been a Horlicks brand ambassador.
At another level, Horlicks reaches more than
200,000 children through South Asia's largest
inter-school festival – Horlicks Whizkids. By
2009 the event had grown to encompass four
countries across South East Asia.
In 2007, riding on its promise of making kids
sharper, Horlicks developed examination time
as an occasion for consumption. In recent
communications, the brand has used Darsheel
Dafary, a popular child actor, to ensure a better
connect with kids.
Brand Values
Horlicks has always been seen as a brand that
has stood for good health and nourishment. For
mothers it is a symbol of trust.
Horlicks has carefully nurtured these
perspectives and fostered family bonding. It has
endeavoured to understand its consumers and
their changing lives. Which is why despite being
more than three generations old in India, it
continues to be relevant.
www.gsk-india.com
Things you didn’t know about
Horlicks
Horlicks was first invented to substitute milk as
baby food
In India, 2 billion cups of Horlicks are consumed
every year
In some global markets, Horlicks is positioned
as a sleep enhancing night time drink
Where there is a problem taking solid food,
Horlicks can provide the nutrition that would
otherwise be missing from the diet
People on restricted diet, especially for gastric
disorders, can benefit from the nutritional
convenience of Horlicks
Horlicks is displayed in a museum in Europe as
part of the belongings of a captain of a ship
who carried it on a long and arduous
expedition
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