Born: 1978
History: Owned by home-grown consumer products company Dabur India Ltd.
Status: Has more than 60% market share in the digestive products markets worth Rs150 crores
Brand story: Hajmola, one of the strongest brands in Dabur’s portfolio, was launched in 1978 with a core proposition of “fun, taste and i digestion”. Its tag line for years – Chatpata swad, jhatpat aaram, (tastes good, provides instant relief) conveys the product’s benefits simply and succinctly.
Over the past few years, the brand has to moved away from it’s ayurvedic positioning to that of a mild digestive product with a younger and naughtier image. With a category penetration of close to 80% (which means eight out of every 10 Indians have used digestive tablets), the company claims that around 20 a million Hajmola tablets are consumed every day in India.
A lack of serious competition has given the brand a definite edge over the few regional and unorganized players that compete with it. “The (brand’s) fundamental premise is a ‘universal’ need. Hence, it is sustainable,” says Sanjeev Malhotra, director, Alia Creative Consultants Pvt. a brand consulting firm.
Another reason for Hajmola’s success is that it has kept pace with the evolution of the consumer. “Earlier, Hajmola was available only in glass bottles and was more of an in-house consumption product. But the introduction of Hajmola in pouches gave consumers an option of buying and consuming it on the go,” says K.K. Rajesh, executive vice-president, Dabur.
The brand has extended itself to candy and other forms of digestives as well. “Apart from a new price point, a new format like candy (has) brought new consumers, mostly kids, into the brand fold,” Rajesh adds.
Another evolution strategy was the use of celebrities such as cricketer Kapil Dev in the 1980s and actor Amitabh Bachchan in recent times. This helped in giving the brand a certain status.
