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Case Study Horlicks

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Have you ever wondered why when you fall sick, or for any member of your house a medication is prescribed, there is definitely a big colorful bottle brought along. The bottle or the pack reads “Horlicks”. The bottle is purchased and in return, what you get is pack of assurance or what many call a jar of long sown trust. Welcome to the world of marketing and customer-based brand equity.

So where did the journey of trust start and what did is the product like?

Horlicks is a malted hot milk drink and it is was launched in India as part of the British Army that used it as a dietary supplement. Initially, the product was primarily used in eastern and southern India. Since then, the brand has grown to become one of leading health food drinks across …show more content…

In such cases, brand extension is a very feasible scenario where in both the parent and child product enjoy a symbiotic relationship.
Key take away from the Horlicks case marketing managers can be:

Brand extension works only when there is a strong association of the new product with parent product. Foodles was an unhealthy product and Horlicks was a symbol of health. The relationship was simple and brand association was a bad choice in this case.
Horlicks was consumed with milk and that association cannot be removed. This could be a clear hint as to why nutri bars and biscuits failed in India. Whereas, biscuits when used only for the purpose of taste, have been successful for other brands such as Britannia. In short, do not shift from your core value and dilute the customer based brand equity.
Too many variants only dilute the consumer’s decision making ability. Horlicks has even ventured into variants like Horlicks Gold. Indian consumer is a very price sensitive consumer and the reasoning for consumers to pay more doesn’t seem justified when plain Horlicks has been the parent and most trusted brand.

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