Dabur to do away with umbrella brand plan

Separate Businesses to have separate brands

Dabur India, the New Delhi-based herbal consumer goods company, is moving away from its umbrella brand structure.

Till now, Dabur has been the umbrella brand for nearly all the company's products. Now separate businesses will have separate brands.

Five mega brands have been identified "" Dabur, Vatika, Real, Hajmola and Anmol. The brand strategy is expected to be unveiled next month.

According to Sunil Duggal, chief executive officer of Dabur India, Dabur will be the umbrella brand for all the company's healthcare initiatives; Vatika a standalone brand for cosmetic and personal products; Real for juices; Hajmola for digestives and confectionery; and Anmol for low priced personal care products.

Some of the brands like Dabur Amla hair oil would continue under the Dabur fold, as they still require the support of the main brand. Coolers, its nectar based drink, will migrate to Real.

Duggal said: "Our research showed that consumers found it difficult to distinguish Dabur as a corporate brand and as a master brand. The positioning was unclear to the public. So, we decided to embark on a brand recast to identify brands based on their product properties. This essentially means that Dabur is shedding its age-old umbrella brand strategy, where its entire product portfolio was under one roof."

At the same time, the company is looking at getting into new categories like soaps and body wash under the Vatika brand. The company is also getting into the white toothpaste segment under the Dabur brand.

The segment is so far dominated by Colgate and Pepsodent from the stables of Colgate Palmolive and Hindustan Lever, respectively.

"The company is working on reducing its huge dependence on the consumer care division which contributes 80 per cent to its sales," he said.

Currently, the company has four separate business units (SBUs), namely, consumer care, consumer health care, foods and beverages and international businesses.

In the consumer care division, the company is getting into cough and cold, pain relief and women's health care products.

FMCG major Hindustan Lever had undertaken a brand restructuring exercise wherein it identified over 30 power brands and merged some of its smaller brands with the big ones.

Helping Dabur designing its brand architecture is DMA, a part of the Alia group.