National with a regional twist: FMCG majors tweak product line-up

Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in India are tweaking their products to serve consumers’ changing preferences across different geographies to take on local brands and increase market share.

One of the country’s largest FMCG firms — Hindustan Unilever (HUL) — told analysts at its meet on Friday that under its ‘Winning In Many Indias’ strategy, its tea brand Brooke Bond had different tastes across India and the perfume of Lux was also different across the country.

HUL also has different formulations of Surf Excel for different parts of the country as the water differs across regions. While it called this out to be the differentiating factor between itself and other companies, HUL is not the only one localising its products to suit changing consumer needs across geographies. 

Dabur India has also localised some of its offerings to cater to the needs of consumers based on location. It has ‘Project Rise’ under which the FMCG major has divided the country into 12 geographical clusters and rolled out products targeting regional needs. 

It launched Fem Fruit Bleach for Punjab, Herbal Bleach for Uttar Pradesh, FruitORS (a fruit juice-based oral rehydration solution) for Northeast under this initiative. The maker of Dabur Chyawanprash introduced the Honitus Adulsa Cough Syrup, containing the Adulsa herb, for West India.

“India cannot be viewed through a single lens. It’s an amalgamation of different clusters, each having distinct consumer preferences,” said Mohit Malhotra, chief executive officer, Dabur India.
 

He explained that the project entails capturing consumers, packaging, and media insights from different clusters, analysing them, and transforming them into products. The strategy helps in execution, investments, distribution initiatives, and consumer promotions, he said.

“Localisation of product offerings has worked in the favour of national players as this helps them compete with regional players,” said Sachin Bobade, vice-president, Dolat Capital. He said companies will continue to use this formula since it will help them increase market share.

Late last year, Tata Consumer Products had launched a tea blend for Mumbai to feed local preference of tea drinkers in the city. It had also launched different blends across the country last year to service local taste preferences.

“Indians tastes and preferences are different across various parts of India. With this in mind, many FMCG companies have been launching variants which cater to a particular region, so that they don’t lose out to regional competition,” observed Vishal Gutka, vice-president of research (consumer and retail sector), PhillipCapital India.

BIG BRANDS GO LOCAL

• HUL has variants of Lux soaps, Brooke Bond tea, and Surf Excel across geographies
• Dabur India has Fem Fruit Bleach for Punjab, Herbal Bleach for Uttar Pradesh, FruitORS for Northeast, Honitus Adulsa Cough Syrup for West India
• Tata Consumer Products has different blends of teas to cater to local tastes