New flavours of the season

Chyawanprash makers have lined up fruity variants for a wider reach.

In many ways, chyawanprash is like an old aunt. It’s there in many households, everyone knows it’s good for them, but not many have much patience with it. Little surprise, then, that in a world that speaks increasingly in chat lingo, chyawanprash is in need of much catching-up.

That is precisely what its makers hope to accomplish, as they line up new variants and target new customer groups.

They have chosen their time carefully. Winter is when many people like to reach out for a spoonful of the dark, tangy, viscous paste to keep away seasonal sniffles.

 

The chyawanprash market is estimated at Rs 400 crore a year. Dabur rules it with 65 per cent share. The other significant players are Emami with Sona Chandi (7-8 per cent) and the eponymous products of Baidyanath (11-12 per cent) and Zandu (5-6 per cent).

The market has not been showing much growth of late – single-digit, at most, though Dabur claims to have grown 13-14 per cent last year. The children and young people do not take readily to its spicy and sour taste.

Dabur, in response, has launched fruity variants in Orange and Mango flavours. “People below 13 years and above 30 are our regular consumers because they need to develop immunity to fight diseases. Those in the 13-30 age group are usually in the pink of their health and don’t take chyawanprash as a routine. We are targeting this segment with our new variants,” says Praveen Jaipuriar, the company’s marketing head for health supplements.

The company sees the new variants bridging the divide between health and taste. “We have maintained the spicy flavour of the original and added a hint of fruity flavor to it. It has hardly been two weeks since the launch but it is already contributing 5 per cent to our total chyawanprash sales, which is a good sign,” says Jaipuriar. With the new flavours, he expects the company’s chyawanprash sales to grow 17 per cent next year.

That will provide a boost to the companies’ enthusiasm in experimenting with taste. Emami was the first to try out a new flavour with Chocoprash, which, as the name suggests, tasted like chocolate. However, it had to be taken off the shelves due to poor response.

Anand Ramanathan of KPMG Advisory believes that it was not a great idea to mix chocolate with chyawanprash because chocolates are not seen as healthy and many believe them to be a cause of tooth decay.

Says Emami brand manager Amit Lal Shrivastava: “Being a health tonic, our competition has grown, not only within the category but also in other health supplements like health drinks which are tastier and preferred by children. People in urban India are still unaware of chyawanprash’s benefits. It’s a more popular product in the rural and semi-urban areas.”

Now, Emami is thinking flavours again. Says Shrivastava: “We are waiting for the response to Dabur’s fruity variants. If it finds good acceptance, we might plan to come up with such variants next year. As we have acquired two flagship brands of Zandu, Kesari Jeevan and Chayawanprash, we are aiming at 15 per cent growth.”

The company has already raised its advertising spend on chyawanprash, targeting housewives, children, family and working couples.

Ramanathan remains optimistic about the future of chyawanprash, as he already sees the product being aligned with the modern times, thanks in part to the rising awareness of the goodness of all things natural and herbal.

“This category surely has a future since there is a growing trend towards natural, ayurvedic remedies instead of allopathic treatments. The growth might not be in terms of volume, but it has risen in terms of value.”

The key would be to expand its reach. So far it is seen mainly as a north India product, with some presence in the east. “The players should try to communicate regional audiences specifically and make it a pan-India product,” says Ramanathan.

Dabur is already at it. “About 40 per cent of our business comes from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, so we have launched the new variants first in Patna. We have also roped in Bhojpuri film actor Ravi Kissen to endorse Chyawanprash exclusively for localised promotion through direct interaction with consumers and dealers,” says Jaipuriar.