GSKCH drives 'Cold Consumption' with its summer campaign

Glaxo SmithKline Consumer Healthcare comes out with another edition of its summer specific campaign to drive sales in this lean period

Summer is considered to be a lean period for the health drinks category – a time when the sales plummet across companies. At a time when consumers prefer taking cold drinks over a hot malted milk drink, Glaxo SmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSKCH) thought of transforming its hot drinks, Horlicks and Boost, into cold ones. To promote the concept, the company came out with a campaign called Cold Consumption to work up the numbers.

Adityea Kapoor, general manager, CSD and modern trade, says, “The health drinks take a major dip during summers. Our marketing team came out with this idea of changing the positioning of our malted hot drinks during this period to drive sales.”

GSKCH drives 'Cold Consumption' with its summer campaign

The campaign, first launched in 2006, uses only on-ground activation this year to carry forward the message. The two month long campaign will see GSKCH going to 416 modern retail outlets across eight cities to quench the thirst of its consumers. Along with special promotional offers and sampling activities driving the sales, the company is making extensive use of the in-store media to connect with its target group.

“The typical modern retail shopper is always on the lookout for a delightful shopping experience, besides convenience. This gives us a perfect platform to conduct this drive in the modern retail environment,” adds Kapoor.

While last year Horlicks was the only brand available under this campaign, this year, Cold Consumption will see Boost giving cold company to Horlicks. In 2007, GSKCH had also launched two Horlicks variants, Pistachio and Butterscotch, to woo its consumers. Both the flavours are limited edition packs which are available only during summer. “These are two of the most in-demand flavours during summer, and both the variants had good sales in the records.”

The first year of the campaign gave Horlicks a 20 per cent incremental growth as compared to the 2005 figures for the summer season.

The company did a market research on the consumer behaviour and preferences during the summer months and came out with the insight that most of them prefer having milk shakes in summer. The insight acted as the groundwork for the launch of the Cold Consumption campaign in 2006.

While the initial two years of the campaign saw a mix of mass media and on-ground activities to promote the concept, this year, the company will focus only on activations. The outlets which will host the promotions include Big Bazaar, Spencer’s Hypermart, Reliance Mega Mart, Vishal Mega Mart, Shoprite, Magnet, Hypercity, Dmart and Metro.

GSKCH claims that Horlicks commands a market share of 51 per cent, while Boost commands 13.9 per cent in the health drinks category.

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