Moving out of their niches

The world is going herbal, what about you? That’s the line Zinda Tilismath, the hoary old Hyderabadi brand of Unani medicine, will take as it begins a campaign to be seen and heard across the country. Herbal may be the way to go but modern is the avatar to take, especially as the young ’uns make up half the population. The company’s move into lozenges also brings into focus how traditional medicine brands are moving out of their niches and seeking a wider presence.

The 120-year-old Amrutanjan, most famous for its yellow balm despite its recent diversification into ready-to-eat foods and soft drinks, had similar beginnings. Journalist and social reformer K. Nageswara Rao Pantulu established the business in Mumbai in 1893 but shifted it to Chennai in 1914. Pantulu popularised it by distributing it free at music concerts.

Today, the Rs 115-crore Amrutanjan offers solutions to aches and pains and cold and other congestive ailments in various forms running the gamut from balms to body ache gel pads. It has also opened a pain management centre in Chennai. Not only that, it launched corn caps, hand sanitisers and sanitary napkins.

Zinda Tilismath has had only three products for decades – the liquid medicine of the same name, to be ingested or applied in just a few drops; Farooqui toothpowder, and a pain balm. Now it is going to enter the Rs 1,000-crore throat lozenges market with Zint, where it will slug it out with the mighty – Vicks, Strepsils and Halls. It is also planning a roll-on version of Zinda Tilismath, which is marketed as a product for quick relief from a variety of ailments including cold, cough, cholera, dysentery, diarrhoea, headache and body aches.

Modern avatars

Contemporising the brand is an important concern that is manifesting itself in newer forms of delivery and packaging. Says Harsh Aggarwal, Director, Emami, which acquired 100-year-old Ayurvedic brand Zandu a few years ago: “Consumers have become much more rational and aware and need clinical proof based on research and science that these products help. Their tastes too have changed.” Emami has changed the format of some products in its ethical drugs portfolio – some liquid medicines are now made in powder form, and some can be taken in a single dose rather than as two or three, says Aggarwal.

Zandu’s history goes back to mid-19th century Gujarat when Zandu Bhattji, an Ayurvedic doctor, was gifted a piece of land in Jamnagar to set up a factory for his medicines. His grandson Jugatram Vaidya started the Zandu Pharmaceutical Works in 1910. As the business grew, it needed more investment and was converted into a public limited company in 1919.

In Kerala is another brand that is keen to grow wings, but in no hurry. K. P. Namboodiris of Dantadhavanachoornam (Ayurvedic tooth powder) fame recently spiffed up its products to give the brand a new look and feel. Since 2007, the company has invested nearly Rs 10 crore in research and development and to get its packaging to match the best.

‘Back to nature’ is its war cry as it readies to counter the might of the FMCG brands as well as attract young India. K. Bhavadasan, Managing Director, says the focus is on using herbal products to appeal to the new generation. The company’s launch of herbal toothpaste gel is one such attempt and has opened up what Bhavadasan likes to call the ‘Ayurvedic oral care segment’. Other players in this segment are Dabur (Lal Dantmanjan, Meswak and Babool, to name a few), Vicco Vajradanti and Colgate Herbal. “We enjoy nearly 85 per cent of the market share in tooth powder in Kerala and nearly 10 per cent share in toothpastes,” claims Bhavadasan.

Zinda Tilismath also has a toothpaste in the pipeline. Like others of its ilk, its Farooqui tooth powder lost ground to slicker offerings, but sees hope in the relatively low use of oral care products in India. Statistics show that only 55 per cent of India uses toothpaste. Farooqui’s powder is a combination of 16 ingredients, and its paste would have the same mix, says Saad Farooqui, a member of the founding family.

Tilismath, though, does not want to “tinker with the packaging”, says Farooqui. This house of Unani medicine has been operating as a traditional family-run enterprise. Not only did it not change the logo or the packaging, the product has not changed in form or in delivery.

The brawny African it uses in its logo has become a symbol of trust, protection and solid health. “And these three hallmarks were the very essence of the product. We have stuck to it all these decades and the present generation of the family is also keen that there will be no change,” he adds. However, the bottles will now come with a dropper to make it easier for use. The formula, a mix of eucalyptus oil, camphor, thymol and alkanet root, has been a closely-guarded secret for three generations and the family intends to keep it that way.

For its lozenges, it is adding a unit at its Hyderabad facility at an initial cost of Rs 30 lakh. While plans for Zint’s marketing strategy are unclear now, it will be marketed as a cold, cough and headache relief solution, in keeping with its Tilismath heritage, says Sohail Farooqui, another family member. Some of its competition is also sold on the ‘cool and refreshing’ platform.

In no tearing hurry

Namboodiris, which is present in the South and Maharashtra, will look at the rest of India eventually. It expects to close this fiscal with a Rs 40-crore turnover and hopes to touch Rs 150 crore over the next three to four years. It has added hair care and skin care products. There are no plans for fresh funding. It has been receiving proposals for private equity investments but will look into such options at an appropriate time, says Bhavadasan. The firm has diversified into hospitality and launched a hotel project in Kerala’s pilgrim centre of Guruvayur.

Tilismath is planning an aggressive marketing drive, which will mainly be customer loyalty programmes aimed at the younger generations. The owner family’s current generation has many MBA graduates who are keen on giving the business a corporate touch to appeal to young customers. They intend to expand the business from its current level of Rs 12 crore; they do not want to mention goals for the future.

Though nothing has been firmed up, the family is not keen on raising PE funds. It may debut in the capital market in the next couple of years. Some of these plans are at an early stage, but the spokespersons say the company will not tweak the traditional image of its brand, whatever else it does.

Of founders and formulae

Hakim Mohammed Moizuddin Farooqui of Hyderabad first concocted Zinda Tilismath in the late 19th century, in the 1880s. The then Nizam was impressed, and as its efficacy became renowned, he even permitted the Hakim to use his cap (dastar) as the registered trade mark when he launched the company in 1920. It was then that it was commercially launched as Zinda Tilismath. The Nizam’s dastar still has its place in the product’s package.

Why is a sturdy African male armed with a bow and arrow seen on the packaging? The founder was then on the lookout for a suitable marketing logo. Being part of a traditional family, he did not want any women to be a part of his marketing campaign. At that time, the Nizam used to hire Africans not only as his personal bodyguard but for his entire family. The African became the symbol of trust, protection and solid health.

This liquid medicine is unusual in that it can be used externally and even be taken internally, by adding a few drops (depending on the ailment), to a cup of milk or other liquids.

K.P.Namboodiri’s toothpowder traces its beginning back to some eight decades, when its founder K. Pothayan Namboodiri obtained a unique formulation from ancient Ayurvedic texts by a royal physician,Kochukuttan Thampuran, at Kodungalloor Kovilakam, an erstwhile princely state in Kerala. Dantadhavanachoornam is still prepared according to this closely guarded secret formulas. It contains amla, pepper, clove and bhasma, among other things.

Zandu Bhattji, an Ayurvedic doctor whose father was a physician to Ranmal, a king of Jamnagar, was given a piece of land in Jamnagar by the king and established a factory to make the drugs in 1864. His grandson, Jugatram Vaidya, while working under Professor Lee in the Chemical Laboratory at Rajkot, dreamt of starting an Ayurvedic pharmaceutical industry to manufacture medicines strictly following standard texts such as those of Charak, Sushrut and Sarangadhar and Bhaishajya Ratnavali. He started Zandu Pharmaceutical Works in October 1910 as a private concern. In the year 1936, the company, which by then had gone public, started manufacturing Allopathic medicines on a large scale. In 1990, an associate company Zandu Chemical Ltd, was established in 1990 at Ankleshwar in Western India to manufacture bulk drugs and intermediates.

With inputs from V. Sajeev Kumar, Kochi

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