New tonic for Revital

Yuvraj bats for Ranbaxy’s healthcare brand

Yuvraj Singh has just told us the secret of his power-packed performances. It’s Revital, a combination of vitamin, mineral and the Chinese wonder herb Ginseng.

The flamboyant cricketer is the first ever brand ambassador of the flagship brand of Ranbaxy, the country’s biggest pharmaceutical company. There is a near consensus among brand experts about the choice of Singh, as the Revital brand carries the promise of Jiyo Jee Bhar Ke (live life to the fullest), a message that gels well with the public image of the cricketer.

Ranbaxy executives say Revital is among the most preferred ‘daily health supplements’ and one of the largest selling brands in the Indian healthcare market due to its positioning as a solution to everyday stress and fatigue.

The sales pitch seems to have worked well, as according to ORG IMS, Revital today is a Rs 140 crore brand, which is almost three times that of the figure four years back.

Analysts agree. Ranjit Kapadia, VP, institutional research, HDFC Securities, says “Revital is positioned as a perfect mix of product, promotion and price. The company has been able to promote the product very well through visual and print advertisements.”

It was certainly not roses all the way. In 2005, when Revital's sales growth declined, the Ranbaxy brass figured out that a course correction was needed. Research showed that the brand was identified too much with metro or urban consumers and needed to connect with Bharat. Result: the brand promotion shifted to Doordarshan channels with the masses as the target consumer.

What also helped was the consumer healthcare division’s strong sales and distribution system spread over 865 towns through over 1,000 distributors.

Brijesh Kapil, director, Ranbaxy Global Consumer Healthcare, says “We had a sampling campaign which saw 12 million sample capsules being distributed through magazines in six months time. Simultaneous was a media plan which announced a 21-day money back challenge campaign.”

The brand promotion exercise was also location-specific with a ‘Rural van initiative’ seeing the company running 100 vans each day in select rural pockets of the country.

Result: Revital made a successful transition from the prescription to the OTC markets by leveraging the scientific edge into a functional benefit. Direct consumer promotion was done in vegetable markets, chemist outlets and high traffic areas. The product distribution is now being expanded from chemist outlets to general stores to make it a part of the monthly grocery purchase.

It is no surprise therefore that Revital enjoys 87 per cent market share in its comparable health supplement segment and has continuously moved up the rank among the top 10 brands in India (ORG-IMS). It has also appeared among the top five brands in the Indian OTC market (Nicholas Hall yearbook 2009). Other competitors are Bio-vital, More-Vitaland Super Active.

Ranbaxy officials say the brand has succeeded despite the presence of 30 copycat brands in the domestic market.