Comment: The Rs.818 crs Chyawanprash market is dominated by Dabur with other strong players like Baidyanath, Emami, Zandu and Hamdard. Most of them have targeted immunity as a key benefit. Dabur stands out amongst them by targeting the right note of recent weather change and thereby promoting the product, as done in the past too by depicting the rainy season when Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the brand ambassador.

Comment: The latest ad of Neurobion Forte positions the brand as a health partner under the tagline, "Saathi Asli Heroes Ka". The brand promises to aid in overcoming daily fatigue and stress, so that one can lead a more fulfilling life, especially with one's family. Both, functional as well as emotional benefits of the brand have been highlighted. The previous ad, launched earlier in the year, also communicated similar benefits - using the doctor as the protagonist, leveraging the brand's loyalty among doctors.

Possibly, various situations where the brand can enhance the quality of life as well as be an integral part in experiencing the richness of life can be showcased to highlight the potential of the brand. This could also help the brand to stand out in the intensely competitive OTC VMS market.

Comment: The health food drink market in India is estimated to be of Rs.5, 500 crore of which GSKCH India’s Horlicks leads by a hefty margin. In a health drink market mainly targeting children population, ProtineX stands out by focusing on the adult population category. With a credible heritage of 57 years and now taking an aggressive OTC promotional route with Danone's backing, ProtineX should surely stand to gain while addressing this opportunity.

Comment: Digene is slowly moving its creative approach from a more functional context of being the doctor's preferred antacid to the emotional route as seen in this ad. Not really clutter breaking especially when compared with a few others like ENO ,Gelusil and other in the same category.

Comment: Managing abdominal pain management using the imagery of a knotted rope is Buscopan's global strategy for many years. It is interesting to note how BI has further engaged with consumers in US by creating a mobile game ‘Untie the Knots’ which had 10000 downloads in a week. The tagline was ‘No pain, just fun’ thereby reminding the user about Buscopan each time the user lost the game

Comment: Capitalizing on the tagline of the recently launched Bollywood movie Piku — 'motion se hi emotion' — the Bhavnagar-based company had tied up with the producers of the film for brand placement, which gave Sheth Brothers an opportunity to promote its popular product 'Kayam Churna'. Such a product placement boosts brand familiarity amongst the viewer’s thereby banking profits in the most recently trending unconventional way

Comment: Starts action within 6 seconds’ has been ENO's consistent positioning for the last many years which has worked brilliantly for the brand. As per the recent DB6 2015 India database, ENO grew by a healthy 17% which is almost twice the antacid category growth. ENO's current campaign aims to further build its stronghold against competition and that is why the comparison with the popular tablet or syrup antacids.

Comment: After using celebrity cricketers, Nasivion has released its new ad with the formulaic OTC approach of faster action and No. 1 doctor prescribed claims. So while Otrivin changes hands from Novartis to GSK , its possible that Nasivion will try getting maxim

Comment: Benadryl has taken some major steps in moving from its old, time tested imagery to a more vibrant youthful brand while retaining its trusted & dependable core. So much in sync with our very favorite Big B. So this association with megastar Amitabh Bachchan will surely add significant value to its image to further move the needle to where the brand aspires to be in future

Comment: Dettol is considered as the gold standard in germ protection and a leader in the hygiene and health care segment. With the increasing focus on personal hygiene, the launch of Dettol Multi-Use Wipes marks the expansion of the brand portfolio into a new segment of wet wipes. Wet wipes as a segment is pegged at Rs 100 crore with rapid adoption by urban consumers

Comment: The OTC business division of Mankind Pharma marks an entry of ‘Heal-o-Kind- First Aid ka all-rounder’, a four-in-one gel to treat multiple injuries like wounds, burns and cuts to its OTC product portfolio. Mankind heavily advertises the OTC products on TV and these products contribute about 8% to its overall revenue. Till date, this massive investment has certainly taken the brand awareness and brand recognition to a different level and has also done a paradigm shift in altering the perception level of company and its products. With its previous TV snippets shaking some rules of the pharma industry, it will be interesting to see how Heal-O-Kind captures the attention of the audience.

Comment: Candid was one of the potential brands which was evaluated in detail in CubeX's Report on Discover the Hidden OTC Gems of the Pharma Market, where we have evaluated almost 30 potential brands in detail. Its interesting to see the same pattern repeated where companies take support of the white coat to leverage the existing HCP trust before they transition full fledged to emotional advertising. Candid is promoting the dusting powder through the OTC route, which surely should have a major impact on its main SKU's for fungal infections

Comment: Volini has repositioned its spray specifically targeting sports persons. With the World Cup fever roaring high, Volini has played the shot perfectly on time targeting the right audience. Combining the TVC with simple quizzes on social media platforms, Volini seems to be hitting the perfect chord for promotion.

Comment: To celebrate International Women’s day, Ranbaxy had launched a multimedia campaign on Facebook for Volini, its flagship brand in 2014 called ‘Volini pat on the back’. After receiving almost 6000 pats on Facebook, it continued the campaign yet again in 2015.  This is an excellent attempt made by Ranbaxy to bridge the gap between the brands and the consumers emotionally. This digital campaign has been a huge hit in a phase where Digital marketing using social media is growing by leaps and bounds

Comment: Volini, the leading pain reliever brand seems to be putting its best foot forward in owning this category with the launch of a 360 degree spray with Sania Mirza and Sunil Chhetri as brand ambassadors symbolizing the trend of active lifestyle and public interest in non-cricket sports in India. Volini is estimated to record more than 30% growth for every new variant since it always brings innovation along with technology. Along with furthering its ethos of innovation, Volini has also moved across a number of brand ambassadors such as Tisca Chopra to Sonali Bendre to Shilpa Shetty. It will be interesting to see how these series of changing endorsers and innovations bring glory to the brand

Comment: It is clearly important that OTC brands like most FMCG brands ,have to invest and develop strong claims to win in the market. Moov's latest commercial captures that sentiment staking the 2X active ingredient claim ,which in mere scientific terms is not significant bust possibly will be a good consumer attention grabber

Comment: This is indeed a clever and cost effective way to cash in on celebrity endorsement for your brand . But what is interesting is how Dr. Reddy's is making it into a more well rounded integrated strategy for Nise Gel using digital tools. Following strong social media presence, contests on Facebook and famous celebrity endorsements, Nise gel is giving stiff competition to players such as Volini, which occupies a lion’s share in the topical analgesic category, to rise to the top

Comment: The launch of a child friendly pain balm to manage the stress and strain of modern life surely seems to be a differentiator in the rubs & balms category. But intuitively it seems a stretch ,as often childhood headaches are not common place , unless it is a cluster symptom with cough and cold .Or maybe this could be the winning formula for Zandu Balm to compete with Vicks Vaporub which is so cold and congestion centric in the kids market. 

Comment: In the topical analgesic category, Zandu balm is considered to be a pioneer and a legacy brand for over 100 years. The brand has been however keeping up with the new trends and has been launching variants addressing different need states in pain. Zandu here is seen promoting a full and active lifestyle by offering multiple brands for various specific pain conditions. 

Comment: With an annual sale of around Rs 10.3 crore, Crocin Advance is currently the fifth-largest brand among top Paracetamol-based products. Keeping the flu season in mind, the latest Crocin Advance TVC focuses on its claim of starting action within 5 mins. It will be worth noting how the brand fares by turning an adversity into an opportunity 

Comment: Hitting a sale of Rs 35 crore in 2014 with a strong retail distribution channel, Cipla seems to have definitely gone big with its product Nicotex, a chewing gum designed to provide partial substitution for nicotine. If this did not seem enough, it is now going all out using television to reach out to the masses with intent of standing out from its competitiors J&J and ITC which share products in the same space.

Comment: In a market that is dominated by Ayurvedic sex stimulants, Zandu has played it safe to position Vigorex as a rejuvenator and energy booster for men. And once again used the white coat endorser to bring credibility to the brand.Hopefully this should work in favour of the brand

Comment: VWash Plus which has already established itself in the female hygiene category has now introduced easy on-the-go wipes. Firstly entering this new territory and now with these user friendly wipes, Glenmark is trying its best to own this category and stand out from the others.

Comment: Along with offering a bevy of natural products, Ayurwin has now launched Nutrislim powder and capsules. The market for Ayurvedic products seems to have been accelerated recently and Ayurwin has taken hold of this opportunity. It will be worthwhile to note how Nutrilslim conquers the market in an age where lifestyle disorders leading to obesity primarily have spread like an epidemic. 

Comment: While the area of urinary incontinence is rarely discussed or addressed, AG Herbs has come up with a 100% organic solution, URhalt. In a market focusing on diapers and bladder control pads, this product breaks through using its unique dosage form – phytomedicinal oil which is known to contract the blood vessels of the bladder. Keeping the marketing trends in mind, this product is highly promoted through social media platforms such as Facebook and has taken to eCommerce portals such as Amazon as well. It will be interesting to note how this unusual product captures the market’s attention through its unique product and marketing strategies

Comment: The Indian OTC market seems to be flooded with Ayurvedic products which are usually backed by regularly advertising using the print platform