It's Dhoni, honey!

Dhoni has been brought on board as brand endorser by Dabur to give its products a more youthful touch

With truckloads of brand endorsements pouring in, it's all about money for MS Dhoni. Now, it's even about honey – or at least, Dabur Honey. The young cricketer has been roped in by Dabur to endorse two of its products, Dabur Honey and Dabur Chyawanprash.

Dhoni, the cricket sensation, has things moving for him in the brand endorsement space thanks to his real life story of making it to the top in cricket with sheer grit and hard work. As a Diwali bonus to his endorsement earnings, he was announced the brand ambassador for Maha Choco.

His kitty includes brands such as Big Bazaar, Brylcreem (Godrej Sara Lee), Boost (Glaxo SmithKline Beecham), Dainik Bhaskar, Exide Industries, Godrej-Hershey's, Lafarge Cement, NDTV, Orient PSPO, Parle, Pepsi, Reebok, Royal Stage, Sonata, Siyaram's, TVS and Videocon.

For Dabur, Dhoni will share screen space with long time endorser and famous Hindi film actor Amitabh Bachchan. Bachchan has been endorsing Dabur Chyawanprash for five years. He has been brand ambassador for Dabur Honey, too, for the past three and a half years.

Talking about bringing Dhoni on board, Praveen Jaipuriar, senior marketing manager, Dabur, tells afaqs!, “Bachchan has endorsed the brand and has successfully imparted the benefit of immunity through various campaigns. However, the youth did not connect with the brand and still think that it is either for kids or for old people. To connect better with the youth, we are doing two things this year – we are making the pack more contemporary and we have signed Dhoni to endorse the brand.”

“Dhoni fits in very well with the brand. He is rooted and, at the same time, connects very well with the youth. He is one of the very few who epitomise inner strength, which is the brand promise of Dabur Chyawanprash,” says Jaipuriar.

A campaign for Dabur Chyawanprash with the new face is in place and slated for release within a week. It has been created by McCann and produced by Pradeep Sarkar. The campaign for Dabur Honey featuring Dhoni will be released before the year ends, says Jaipuriar. The creative agency for the latter is Lowe.

Elaborating on the campaign thought, Jaipuriar says, “Dabur Chyawanprash gives you 'androoni shakti' (immunity), which keeps the body fit and the mind active. The campaign is basically taking forward this thought with Dhoni. Bachchan will continue to impart the age old benefit of immunity for the brand.”

Dabur Chyawanprash, an old brand in the space, has a market share of around 65 per cent, states Jaipuriar. Other market players include Baidyanath (10 per cent), Sona Chandi (8-9 per cent) and Zandu (5 per cent).

Dabur is the biggest player in the branded honey market and holds a share of around 80 per cent. The remaining 20 per cent is taken up by small cooperatives and shops such as Fabindia, which sell cottage industry products.

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