NEW DELHI: Leading Indian pharmaceutical company Mankind Pharma is expanding its digital footprint to leverage the most out of the new consumer world, general manager - sales & marketing Joy Chatterjee told Indiantelevision.com. This will include a growth in its digital marketing activities and also a robust online sales strategy on its new d2c channel and leading e-commerce platforms.
“Currently, we are spending 20-25 per cent of our overall sales on digital marketing and we are planning to take it up to 30-35 per cent in 2021. The numbers will be re-evaluated after a year,” he shared.
As obvious, the move is a direct result of the new normal established by Covid2019, which has pushed more consumers to make online purchases. While some may doubt if people will buy products like pregnancy test kits and condoms online in India, Chatterjee noted that the trend is on a massive upswing for all the categories.
“After Covid2019, e-commerce buying capacity has increased for all categories. I feel that what would have come to India 10 years later has happened right now. We want to stay abreast of this changing world and have recently launched our d2c website,” he detailed. “Additionally, we are getting our presence registered across all the big e-c0mmerce platforms including Amazon, Flipkart, Big Basket, etc.”
Chatterjee added that they are going big on their marketing and advertising activities on digital platforms as well. “Our digital team is working extremely hard to increase our visibility on these digital sales channels. From static to video to blogs, we are extensively incorporating all the available options in our marketing plans. We have partnered with OTTs like Voot and Disney+ Hotstar too. We are also running big influencer campaigns for all our brands and have in the past partnered with a number of regional influencers.”
Mankind Pharma, in recent times, has worked with influencers like Shrenu Parikh, Ketaki Mategaonkar, Koushani, and Aashika Bhatia for Acne Star; Marathi theatre & film actor Bhau Kadam, and Bhojpuri singer-actor Anand Mohan for Gas-O-Fast, and has a long-standing association with actress Sunny Leone for Manforce condoms.
Not just via digital, the brand is heightening its focus on regional markets via ATL channels too.
“60 per cent of our television spends are directed towards various regional markets and 40 per cent on HSM (Hindi-speaking markets). Bengali, Punjabi, and Marathi have been some of the high-impact markets for us and we want to grow our popularity there further,” Chatterjee stated.
As far as print is concerned, the brand has taken the wait and watch approach – whether the circulation and popularity of the medium will grow back post the pandemic-induced slump. “We have reduced our print presence drastically over the past few years. As far as the magazines are concerned, we feel that most people are now preferring to consume the similar content on digital platforms, so we have moved there. But if in the next three-four months, print shows signs of good revival, we will consider our strategies once again.”
He is positive that all these efforts will definitely help the company in strengthening its market position across brands. Said he: “Manforce is the leading condom brand, yet it holds only 30-32 per cent of the market share. Why can’t it get as big as Prega News that holds 82 per cent share currently in the pregnancy testing kit market! So, this year, we are planning to grow our market share for all our products. We want Prega News to touch 90 per cent market share and Manforce, at least 40 per cent, this year. Gas-o-Fast is currently the second biggest brand in the category and we are working hard to take it to number one. There is a huge growth opportunity for AcneStar as well. While the market is highly unorganised, we are positive of double-digit growth for us this year.”
Chatterjee signed off saying that the year is quite big for them as they will soon be launching a new brand as well. The following months will also see some new brand campaigns coming up for Manforce and Prega News.
