NEW DELHI: Medimix, a wordplay on medicine and mixture, is a legacy soap brand boasting over 50-years of credible services in its kitty. As the name suggests, the brand was founded as a medicinal cure for skin ailments. However, as the world evolved and consumer demands shaped up, it metamorphosed into a skincare brand, though still rooted in its Ayurvedic legacy. It was in 2005 that the brand underwent a complete revamp, ditching its red and black packaging to adopt a green look to attract the youth of that time, increasing its relevance. 

Now, a decade-and-a-half later, the brand has come full circle – trying to gain the attention of millennials. Albeit, this time, the competition is stiffer and the consumer much more aware and discerning. 

Medimix head of marketing Ashish Ohlyan identifies with the challenge and tells Indiantelevision.com, “Indian soap market is worth over Rs 22,000 crore right now and is an evolving space. Especially for the category that Medimix had pioneered half-a-decade ago; the herbal one. Newer brands are popping up each day, interacting directly with consumers, cluttering the category.”  

According to a Nielsen survey, the natural segment in India was estimated to be worth $3 billion in 2019, contributing to 41 per cent of the overall personal care market. The pandemic gave a major push to the sector, industry reports indicate, and it’s expected to grow immensely in the coming years. 

While Medimix as a legacy brand is among the top sellers (it made Rs 200 crore in FY20) in the country, Ohlyan recognises the path ahead is not going to be easy. Therefore the brand has amped up its marketing activities in the past few quarters. 

Without sharing the financial details, he elaborates, “We did consumer research in 2019 and found out that most people still used Medimix as an occasional item when they were facing some skin ailments. There were very few who were regular, loyal users. That’s when we decided to work even harder to chuck that image. We have started to position ourselves in the market as a brand that can keep your skin fit. We also roped in actress Parineeti Chopra as the face of our brand.” 

According to Ohlyan, the initiative helped them considerably grow their average consumption and purchase occasions. “While it is still not as big a story as we want it to be, we are continuously investing in revamping our brand image.” 

Medimix now spends around 14-15 per cent of overall sales on marketing. “We are going big on television and digital. On TV, we are running our campaign across GECs, movies, music, and news channels that we added just last year to the mix. We have a 60:40 ratio of prime-time to non-prime-time placements of ads,” he elaborated. 

The brand had also sponsored Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2020 and had a placement on the team trousers. 

They’re banking on digital marketing too. Ohlyan shares, “We are investing heavily in SEO and programmatic advertising. We have roped in multiple influencers to promote our products, that has a nice mix of macro and micro names. We are investing heavily in e-commerce platforms that amount to four to five per cent of our overall sales right now. Amazon is enjoying the biggest share of that pie as it is amounting to 55-60 per cent of our overall digital sales.” 

The brand has also created a strong d2c presence with its own website, which offers some exclusive products that are not available on retail outlets.

One of the focus products for Ohlyan right now is the Medimix range of glycerine soaps that they have started promoting with a new approach. 

“If you look at the glycerine soap category, there are just one or two brands like Pears that are really popular. While we understand that it is going to be a tough task to replace them from the shopping lists of their loyal customers, we are seeing this category as a big opportunity too. Because there is minimal competition there and the category is not as cluttered. In fact, we are possibly the only Ayurvedic brand that is tapping into this category in a big way,” he details. 

Apart from that, the brand recently entered the body wash, hand wash, and face wash category as well. These products are also going to enjoy a high-decibel promotional advantage in the new financial year. The brand is also set to launch a new range of facewashes in March-April. 

“2021 is going to be a big year for us. We are planning to launch a number of new products across categories, some of which are going to be exclusive to our website. We are going to strengthen our momentum in the soap business as well. We will be building strongly on the narrative that our products offer a functional benefit. We are expecting a 20 per cent growth in the year,” he signs off.