Mankind Pharma is going heavy on influencer marketing on its OTC (over-the-counter) brands in India. With an objective to stay ahead of its competitors, Mankind Pharma has curated engaging marketing strategies, since its inception in 2007.
Speaking about the marketing strategies for the OTC brands, Joy Chatterjee, General Manager, Sales & Marketing, Mankind Pharma said, “With the help of our consistent marketing efforts and strong distribution network, we have established Manforce as the No 1 condom brand in India with a unit-wise market share of 36% which is a long way ahead of its competitors at 2nd place. By consciously devising the right strategy we have created a presence in the market and always strive to reach out to all corners of PAN India. In near future, we are planning to launch more products under the sexual wellness category and we are also planning to introduce some interesting flavours for the youth which will be announced very soon. We have recently launched EPIC – A premium range of condoms from the house of Manforce.”
Elaborating on Prega News’ marketing strategies he said, “Prega news is the No. 1 Pregnancy Detection Test Kit in India and has a share of 82% in the market. By focusing on educating women and their families about pregnancy, the brand has always remained synonymous with the category itself. It is working intensely to break the stereotypical mindsets to address the myths existing in society. We keep coming up with campaigns, be it on digital or on TVC to spread awareness and take a firm stand on what we believe in as a brand. Understanding that vernacular content enhances the brand penetration into the regional market, recently we collaborated with Kajal Agarwal for a TVC as she is a well-known face in the south, helping us form better connectivity with the masses there. Also, we launched an influencer activity campaign where we roped in more than 21 regional mommy bloggers to spread the word. Moving forwards, we have launched a premium pack– Prega News Advanced which is a one-step, mid-stream pregnancy detection kit to provide accurate, hassle-free results.”
Gas-O-Fast personalizes its communication with the target audience by curating campaigns in regional languages. The brand has strengthened its visibility on digital platforms by roping in multiple regional influencers. The multivitamin portfolio-Under Health OK have plans to diversify their products in addition to the existing Health OK Multivitamin Tablets. The brand has also launched Health OK Gummies to tap the market for children where health will not be compromised while catering to the taste.
For AcneStar this year, the brand is all set to come up with more engaging campaigns and marketing strategies to reach out to its target audience. They are planning to rope in popular faces from the regional film and television industry for penetrating deeper into the regional market which will help the brand in establishing a direct connection with its audience.
“Our plan to expand our OTC category has been devised strategically as we constantly strive to provide solutions to our target consumers to better their lifestyle issues. In the near future, we have rigorous plans to strengthen the overall category along with existing brands, and additionally expand the products portfolio. Also, we have some more interesting launches lined up and will reveal them soon,” he added.
Mankind Pharma is actively investing in influencer engagement. How is it helping growth in your business?
The influencer engagement is focused more on increasing brand awareness amongst the right TG rather than generating direct sales. But this can indirectly influence sales as we tend to showcase situations that are common in everybody’s life and do a seamless product/brand integration. It creates an impact in the viewer’s mind as they are able to connect with the influencer towards whom they share their loyalty. The overall activation surely does create a positive impact, motivating people to try the product and increasing sales.
Last year, AcneStar launched two campaigns to create buzz on social media around problems faced by every individual. What research was done before launching this campaign and did it help in achieving the goals?
We have often come across people on the internet who hide their identities and offer unfiltered opinions and negative criticism. We decided to take the issue heads on for which we came up with the #ThankYouHaters campaign to literally thank the haters. We conducted IG polls on all our social media platforms for all social posts. We came up with the unique idea to combat the hate with music. We trolled the trolls musically and our video reached 65 million impressions with 16.5 M video views and 470k clicks.
Likewise, the ‘Skin ka Reset’ TVC campaign was aimed at every girl’s wish to ‘Reset Button so that she can start over from the baby skin days.’ The campaign featuring Pranitha Subhash has 2.9 million views on Youtube and 1.5 million views on Instagram.
Recently Manforce Condoms leveraged influencers to build awareness for recently launched ultra-feel condoms. What was your strategy behind this and how did it go and what are your upcoming plans?
The main idea behind Manforce Ultrafeel condoms was to introduce a new range of condoms giving a natural feel and ultra-sensational pleasure. The main USP is the thinness of the condoms which makes the user feel next to nothing to perfectly go with the moments of intimacy. The campaign was curated to keep up the level of excitement in the love life of the couple and give supreme sexual experience to heighten the lovemaking session.
Prega News has rolled out an influencer campaign with 21 content creators. Why does the brand think of associating with so many influencers altogether?
Looking at the unfortunate lockdown-like scenario during the 3rd wave, Prega News – no. 1 brand in the category thought it to be their responsibility to help the audience be safe during the unprecedented time. Our major aim was to create awareness amongst the audience to keep their outdoor movement as minimal as possible, for which we roped in 21 macro-influencers who could communicate the important RTBs of Prega News – Easy to Use kit at the comfort of your home, rapid and accurate results and then visit/consult the doctor for further advice. The idea was to create further awareness that the first step of pregnancy check can be done at home itself and exposure to the external environment can be avoided/reduced.
Hence, for a better reach, we leveraged macro-influencers – 21 of them across our focus markets – HSR, West and South regions with vernacular content in the attempt to generate a larger impact, especially during the 3rd wave. The selection and number of influencers were strategic – from a market perspective and to further reach out to the followers of mom-influencers/bloggers.
The recent campaign by Gas-O-Fast, India Ke Acidity Ka Indian Solution, highlights the typical habit of loosening belts before an individual begins to eat. How you came up with this campaign, throw some light.
As our country has a very diverse cultural background, we are blessed to have multi-cuisine options coming from various regions. Hence, people here take immense delight in trying new dishes and gorge on food until they are fully satisfied and the very first resort to making more room in the stomach is to loosen the belt before the individual begins to eat. Delving into this habit to create the campaign was a very conscious decision taken by the brand as it would be relatable to a wide range of audiences as they could connect themselves with this common practice. And to further strengthen our stance we came up with multilingual TVC in eight regional languages – Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada to amplify our impact further. Our marketing strategy of the brand is to drive penetration in the urban as well as the rural markets and that will help us reach out to every segment of our multilingual audiences.
