Any meaningful and successful transition has to be calibrated. And the brand transition of the Himalaya group best testifies this. From a change in the name and logo to a further modification in its name and a new look and feel, the Bangalore-based Himalaya Drug Company has done all this and more in a span of six years. Contrary to popular belief, Himalaya has been around since 1930 but only with a serious Ayurvedic Pharma profile. The great transition took place in 1998 when it branched out into the personal and consumer care segments. Began as Ayurvedic Concepts, this went on to be renamed as Himalaya Ayurvedic Concepts, then to re-christening as Himalaya Herbals.

The Ayurvedic Concepts campaign that hit the market in 1998 gave Ayurveda a scientific and modern face for the first time. Sumitro Bannerjee, Business Head, Personal Care, Himalaya, says the positioning was conscious and deliberate. "Our research showed that while there is a lot of good things associated with Ayurveda, it also bears a number of negative connotations like an outdated product / field or as something that's lacking in a knowledge based to compete as a contemporary form of medicine". So we decided that the campaign would not be preachy and there wouldn't be any sage-banyan tree-waterfall routine, which had been the most popular route used by Ayurvedic brands till that date.

THE DADIMA WITH A TWIST

When confronted with a task of communicating with the company's USP of promoting Ayurveda backed with modern R&D, Contract, the agency that continues to hold the creative account, hit upon the 'dadima with a twist' concept. "She personified Himalaya's brand of Ayurveda that's very old and respected, and had all the unquestioning love and warmth that a grandmother embodied - thus brought forth the traditional path of the brand. The twist was in the fact that the very dadima was a PhD in molecular biology! She was extremely knowledgeable, up-to-date, could speak the lingo of the modern techniques and knew about all the modern gadgets and inventions - thus focused on the modern, scientific base of our brand," elucidates Bannerjee.

This led to three creatives; the most popular was the dadima with the busy laptop tapping an executive on a flight. While, he was initially dismissive of her and her views on the need for a daily health capsule in the form of an Ayurvedic product, the twist cropped up when the old lady casually told him: "you know, you ought to get a faster processor." Ditto was the case with a bunch of teenagers at their favorite hangout where the dadima managed to convey the need for a digestive capsule even as she bowled them over with her "Fundoo" lingo. The same pattern was applied when the company went on to add a foot cream, an anti-dandruff shampoo and other items to its portfolio kitty.

By 2001, Himalaya decided to bring its global operations under the mother brand. While the company was known as Himalaya Herbals abroad, the domestic transition needed a pit stop in the form of Himalaya Ayurvedic Concepts. Bannerjee says, by that time, the plans were already a foot to modify the look and packaging of the products but a lot of research was still in the process. A shift to the final Himalaya Herbals did not make sense without a change in packaging and thus the transition name was used. Despite the Ayurvedic Concepts brand name achieved a high recall, a short child-and-dadima-in-the-supermarket ad ensured that this transition was cushioned properly. The shift to the Himalaya name also meant a change in the logo. The new logo was a simple one with a teal H joint with an orange swoosh-styled leaf. "We looked at a number of options. There're many others at that where a more stylish, but we opted for the current logo, as it's easy to read. The most appealing part in the logo was the orange swoosh that joined the legs of the H alphabet, adding an element of color to the logo, making it over lively," he says.

By this time Himalaya was on an expansion spree of its personal care portfolio in the form of skin and hair products. While earlier campaigns had established both the modernity and contemporariness of our products, the consumer had to be earnestly assured that along with the greatness of the product, its quick action was also assured. The launch of the 'problem solution' products like the Acne-pimple Cream, foot cream or anti-dandruff shampoo had the tagline "Active Ayurveda". A specific time line was also provided for each of the solution products: Anti-Dandruff Shampoo bragged of an effect in eight days, while the foot cream promised to deliver in three days. This was also the time when dadima bid adieu to the brand. "We had then decided that we would gradually move away from the dadima and make the brand the only focal point, that relying on a single persona. Sure, the persona had great advantages as you could use it to establish a very easy connection with the brand. But it had its own limitations too, one of them was all your creatives needed to be designed around the persona", he says.

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HIMALAYA HERBALS

With the new packaging and design in place we finished the left over transition of Himalaya Herbals. Believing that the greatness of the product alone wouldn't get consumers, we replaced its original yellow and brown packaging to the present teal orange and white. The different colors used in labeling various skin and hair care items also served as a mnemonic. Two sets of creatives are currently on air for the personal care products. While the anti-dandruff shampoo introduces Himalaya's new look, the lotion and protein shampoos extend the product values. He says the previous campaigns and the product itself have reinforced the association between Himalaya and Ayurveda. And so there isn't any need to express on the connection today. The latest creatives like the shampoo ad, where a girl is looking for a lift or the model who gets a fresh start with Himalaya's Moisturizing lotion, go to show that the brand has gone beyond harping on the greatness of Ayurveda itself and has started focusing more on the value proposition of the brand.

When Ayurvedic concepts first hit the market, it was the wellness products in the form of health capsules that were promoted through various campaigns. A look at the company's creatives today shows a complete focus on the personal care range with its skin and hair care products taking the center stage. We opted to promote an Ayurvedic Concepts products that could serve as a bridge between its better known pharma image at one end and the personal care identity at the other, says Bannerjee, adding at that time, it was a daily health capsule and not a shampoo.

"If we choose shampoo the whole identity of Ayurvedic Concepts would have become a cosmetic one which at that time we weren't brave enough to do. There's also a great chance that doctors would be upset with such an identity and the whole value equity of Himalaya as a hardcore well-researched Ayurvedic therapeutic brand would get diluted. The product that came closest to representing the entire brand was the health capsules and it was promoted, too" says Bannerjee. With positive response from doctors, Himalaya has over the time replaced health capsules with personal care products as its ad focus. With all its changes and transitions, Himalaya has long left behind its newcomer image. With an evolving ad strategy reinforced with today's display and packaging, the brand has surged forward with the belief that while scientifically tested Ayurveda continues to be its USP, modernity and contemporariness needs to be incorporated in more areas than just R&D.