Rewind 2020: How wellness brands turned crisis into opportunity this year

As we are set to bid adieu to 2020 – a year of major disruptions, global shutdowns, economic rollercoaster due to COVID-19 – there are several lessons and takeaways from this momentous year. Adgully brings its annual review of the year gone by, wherein industry experts analyse the most significant developments and trends of the year and their implications on the coming year as well.

Suman Varma, Chief Marketing Officer, Hamdard Laboratories (Medicine Division), speaks about the key developments in the wellness and healthcare sector and how this sector rose up to meet the massive challenge posed by the global crisis and turned it into a healthy business opportunity. 

Developments & disruption

The outbreak of COVID-19 disrupted businesses, leading to the emergence of multiple developments and new operating guidelines in the industry. Nationwide lockdown resulted in remote working conditions and business losses translating into job losses and salary cuts that shifted the HR strategies for all organisations. Such disruptions also led to shifts in consumer behaviour, where individuals started to opt for budget-friendly variations for household consumables or postponed their plans for bigger purchases. 

At Hamdard Laboratories, we did everything that was possible by adhering to all Government directives in order to fight the pandemic and ensuring the wellbeing of every individual. With the everyday spike in COVID-19 cases, interstate sales, transportation of goods, their distribution, and sales were impacted. However, we had begun with our operation in a phased manner. Ensuring the availability of Hamdard’s immunity booster products, we had made them available on various e-commerce sites – Amazon, and Healthmug.

Opportunity in Crisis

In the current scenario, everyone’s priority is health, wellness, and sanitization to avoid any infection and stay safe. Brands like us, who are into wellness and healthcare, have a vital role to meet consumer requirements and help them achieve a healthy and better life. The alternate medicine system, including Hamdard, is witnessing a shift as consumers becoming more conscious and open to alternative medicine systems, which includes the consumption of herbal and natural products. Ministry of Ayush and the Prime Minister’s focus on holistic wellness was widely accepted with kaadha and chyawanprash becoming the first to shake the category. 

We have over 600 medicines and our current focus was to revisit marketing strategy and relaunch them. The traditional medicine basket has some amazing products such as Joshina, Imyoton, Infuza, and Chyawanprash that came to the limelight and received a favorable response. Analysing the situation and emphasis on herbal formulations, we strengthened our product portfolio with the launch of newer drugs like Khulzum. It is a miracle essential oil, which is extremely beneficial for maintaining good respiratory health and has gone for trial along with Infuza to test its efficacy against COVID-19.

Leveraging Digital

The year 2020 was all about COVID-19, work from home and digital shift for industries across and Hamdard Laboratories had a similar impact. We started to leverage digital platforms, social media, and e-commerce extensively for our business. At Hamdard, we derived more consumer-centric strategies to stay relevant and worked around the same. The marketing-focused shifted to digital platforms and the majority of the brand communication was happening at that front. Apart from the digital medium, we had also leveraged radio, print, and electronic channels. For our select campaign, we had launched ‘Aapka Hamdard’, on-air programming in association with Radio Mirchi to amplify the reach and staying connected with our consumers in key North Indian markets. Since May 2020, we launched multiple campaigns on digital media that focused on prevention and immunity building for COVID-19 like #MainDarpokHoon and #StrongWithHamdard. Furthermore, the product campaign for our marquee product Safi – Sachai Andar, Acchai Bahar, and Cinkara’s breathless campaign was led digitally; Joshina with its “Sardi ka the End” has worked effectively for us. 

Outlook for 2021

For the year 2021, the new normal and trends of 2020 may change a wee bit, but the continued focus on digital, health, wellness, and marketers will go on with their consumer-centric approach. The on-going revival of demand will lead assist the rise of traditional advertising, with a heavy focus on digital and mobile marketing. Several brands and advertisers will choose OTT platforms to interact with their customer base with the medium’s increasing popularity. The emphasis on holistic wellness, immunity building, and staying safe will be the narrative even in the year 2021 as prevention is better than cure. The power of natural and herbal products will continue to be in limelight with more and more transitions to alternative and holistic wellness methodologies.