SETTING THE STAGE

Wellness is a niche space in India, but it is growing exponentially. With increased global exposure, millennials and experience-seekers are migrating towards it. Considering this market scenario, Holland & Barrett, UK’s leading health and wellness retailer, partnered with Apollo Pharmacy, India’s trusted chain of medical experts, to enter the Indian market.
H&B was looking towards instilling its brand philosophy of choosing the good life.

With the launch of their exclusive store in Hyderabad, the ask was to increase brand awareness, share creative design inputs for internal branding and drive the launch campaign in the initial phase of our association. Post a successful launch, our mandate’s focus was to journey with the brand on a pan India approach, designing and driving marketing activities for all the states where H&B is present.

WHAT’S THE CHALLENGE?

Our challenge was to introduce the idea of everyday wellness with a range of organic products like supplements, sports nutrition, beauty, and more into a market that had pre-set misconceptions about the segment.

Driving people to a store which has products they are unaware of, was another major challenge. The whole experience at the store needed to be educational, interactive and build curiosity in the minds of the customers.

We had to also make sure that the brand values, persona and legacy were translated with respect to the Indian audience in a way that the brand becomes easily accepted as a thought leader in the space of health and wellness.

HOW WE APPROACHED IT

This is a brand which has had a global presence for decades now, and is widely celebrated in the UK, Europe and the USA with its loyal set of audience. So our prime focus was to find the right community in India to reach out to and engage it with the right communication. We aimed to build a unique tone of voice that captures the attention of the target group and positions H&B as a wellness partner than just a wellness products retailer in India.

H&B deals in four major categories: Sports Nutrition, Beauty, VHMS (Supplements) and Foods & Drinks. We focused on people who appreciate products under these categories for day-to-day needs in their wellness journey.

The TG is today’s smart, observant & research-oriented individual who knows where they can find the right quality and wouldn’t mind paying a little premium for the same. This group of people are open to being educated about the right usage and importance of these unique products. This gave H&B an advantage of positioning itself as a thought leader in the wellness industry.

DIGGING A LITTLE DEEPER…

We identified target communities that are unique for each category H&B operates in.
Let’s take a detailed look at them below:

Sports Nutrition – The community is highly differentiated; from people who are new and unaware to the ones who are extremely knowledgeable and experienced in the field. The prerequisite that we had was that this category performs well in North India, comparatively.

The communication for this category needs to highlight why H&B products can make workouts better and how the audience can reach their fitness goals smoothly. These motivated individuals are always on the lookout for workout tips, quick and easy meal preps, so the more informative and helpful our communication is, the more they trust the brand.

Natural Beauty – The TG here are majorly divided into two: those who use both conventional and natural cosmetic products, and those who only use natural cosmetic products. Both these groups look for products that are preservative free, organic, sometimes vegan and free of harmful substances for the skin.

The communication for this community needs to be transparent, which highlights the key advantages of the beauty products and also emphasises that they are made responsibly without harming our environment.

VHMS (Vitamins & Supplements) – H&B offers an array of these products under their own brand umbrella which are highly acclaimed in other countries. This category has a long way to go in the minds and lifestyle of the Indian audience. So, the communication for this community had to be more educational and insightful to bring about a behaviour change.

The overall communication route we chose for the brand was modern and smart, being a little quirky to appeal to a younger audience as well. While the brand is present in India’s 7 major cities, the customer profile and attributes remain the same because of the unique offerings. Overtime, we’d want to see a huge community formation which acknowledges the need for wellness and fitness in today’s world where Holland & Barrett will be the perfect partner!

OUR SOLUTION

We understand the curious Indian consumers’ outlook on health and nutrition, so we conveyed our brand promise of being a wellness partner with a communication plan that extends beyond advertising product offerings. Our conversations with consumers emphasised that H&B understands a person’s fitness journey is challenging and that the brand is right there to help. By taking a fun yet informative personality, H & B carved a space in the consumers’ minds and lives.

We launched Holland & Barrett in Hyderabad with our fresh take on wellness through extensive social media interaction, activations, BTL communication, blogs and more, to reach out to a larger audience and helped grow the community.

AND, THE RESULT…

In the process, we successfully crafted a unique tone of communication for Holland & Barrett that is conversational yet insightful, informative yet fun. Every day, the brand sees a consistent growth of followers, increased impressions and reach along with engagement. Holland & Barrett is continuing to steadily grow its community of health-conscious denizens who are eager to ‘choose the good life’.