Research
Marketing
Home Assignment
Topic – Is Saffola a niche brand? What is the competitive profile of Marico in this product category/line?
Name: Eshita Sharma
Introduction on Saffola
Saffola is a heart care brand in the foods category in India. It has several products in its portfolio which include edible oils, functional foods, rice and salt. Saffola is known to be a brand which is good for heart and recommended by doctors. For the last 10 years, Saffolalife has been educating Indians on preventive heart care through the year. Saffola has over the years built an ecosystem which works actively towards adopting a healthier lifestyle. It’s a brand running on a philosophy to help people get the most out of life.
Much before organic food and healthy living caught the fancy of Indians, the Bombay Oil Industries launched Saffola, healthy cooking oil, in the early 1960s. Positioned explicitly as being good for the heart, Saffola grabbed consumer attention with its dramatic communication. Clarion Advertising launched the brand and the early ads created a rather terrifying scenario of a man being wheeled into a hospital on a stretcher with the wailing of ambulance sirens in the background. A distressed wife looking on sought to reinforce the message that food cooked in Saffola could save your life - and your family. Later in the 90s the consumer products division of Bombay Oil was spun off into Marico.
The cooking oil market in the 1960s was largely disorganized, with a very large loose oil segment. It was against this backdrop that Saffola was launched on the platform of being 'Healthy for the Heart'. There was no other brand offering this benefit and hence there was no direct competition from within the category. While this message clearly connected with people who had heart trouble - or those who feared it - it also alienated those who were confident they could never have a heart attack. The big challenge was to carve out a niche among the
Home Assignment
Topic – Is Saffola a niche brand? What is the competitive profile of Marico in this product category/line?
Name: Eshita Sharma
Introduction on Saffola
Saffola is a heart care brand in the foods category in India. It has several products in its portfolio which include edible oils, functional foods, rice and salt. Saffola is known to be a brand which is good for heart and recommended by doctors. For the last 10 years, Saffolalife has been educating Indians on preventive heart care through the year. Saffola has over the years built an ecosystem which works actively towards adopting a healthier lifestyle. It’s a brand running on a philosophy to help people get the most out of life.
Much before organic food and healthy living caught the fancy of Indians, the Bombay Oil Industries launched Saffola, healthy cooking oil, in the early 1960s. Positioned explicitly as being good for the heart, Saffola grabbed consumer attention with its dramatic communication. Clarion Advertising launched the brand and the early ads created a rather terrifying scenario of a man being wheeled into a hospital on a stretcher with the wailing of ambulance sirens in the background. A distressed wife looking on sought to reinforce the message that food cooked in Saffola could save your life - and your family. Later in the 90s the consumer products division of Bombay Oil was spun off into Marico.
The cooking oil market in the 1960s was largely disorganized, with a very large loose oil segment. It was against this backdrop that Saffola was launched on the platform of being 'Healthy for the Heart'. There was no other brand offering this benefit and hence there was no direct competition from within the category. While this message clearly connected with people who had heart trouble - or those who feared it - it also alienated those who were confident they could never have a heart attack. The big challenge was to carve out a niche among the