Marico’s bond with consumers is blended with our purpose of adding value to their lives in ways that are novel and delightful. With uncompromising quality, trusted brands and product innovations, our endeavour is to provide superior value to our consumers.
Our Consumer Value Proposition
Innovation
We are constantly innovating and creating unique and differentiated product offerings across the portfolio to address the evolving needs of our consumers. Through our best-in-class research and development (R&D) facility at Mumbai, we ensure that every product we develop meets the highest standards of quality. Resources to the tune of `31.4 Crore were invested in R&D activities this year, supported by a dedicated team of 73 personnel.
R&D efforts and focus areas
Foray into hygiene segment
With personal and domestic hygiene gaining prominence we launched Mediker Hand Sanitizer with 70% v/v alcohol and an industry-first fruits and vegetables liquid cleaner- Veggie Clean made with 100% naturally derived ingredients.
Product development in Hair Care, Skin Care and Foods
With deeper and real consumer insights, we created new hair care formats for India as well as International geographies. We also entered the Baby Care category in Bangladesh, with our in-house researched products.
Male Grooming
Several new creations were launched under male grooming category with superior packaging and strong consumer benefits.
Functional Foods
Continued research on creating healthy solutions through innovative blends under edible oils. Also launched various lifestyle management formats under the brand Saffola FITTIFY.
Packaging through design thinking
Adopted new ways of packaging designs by making consumer a part of the process. Also incorporated 3R approach in current and new designs to support sustainable packaging.
Rooted in design thinking approach, several new creations were launched during 2020. This approach reinforces the faith Marico has in consumer centric innovations.
Parachute Advansed Body Oil
Tinted transparent bottle and label to convey beauty, modernity and purity codes for the brand.
Set Wet 2-in-1 Serum
Premium packaging cues by developing unique, off-centre neck bottle design and super transparent label.
Kaya Youth Hydro Range
Carton and tube decoration with matte effect, textured finish and foiling for enhanced aesthetics.
Enhancing consumer experience through campaigns
INDIA
Parachute Advansed ‘Mere Baal Meri Jaan’
Parachute Advansed launched its new, emotive TVC campaign – ‘Mere Baal, Meri Jaan’, this year. With an aim to forge a deeper connect with women, the campaign captures the importance of hair in every woman’s life and beautifully depicts this unique personification, which is core to a woman’s identity. The TVC builds on modern beauty imagery, while using real-life instances where hair is fundamental to the expression of a woman’s emotions and frame of mind. It goes on to depict several women for whom hair symbolises their resilience, love, freedom, determination, happiness, motivation, hope and optimism. The film ends with a voice-over that says, “Mere Baal, Meri Jaan Hai”, showcasing Parachute Advansed Gold. A brand that has been an ally of women since its inception truly understands the essence of hair in their lives, urges them to use nothing, but the best, to nourish it.
Parachute Advansed #ChampiBeats
Parachute Advansed launched #ChampiBeats campaign to encourage consumers to use the lockdown time to bond with their loved ones over a ‘musical’ champi. Roping in renowned TV celebrities and influencers, the brand ran the campaign on TikTok, garnering a whopping 10 billion views in the first six days alone.
The champi is a timeless Indian practice of giving a head massage with oil. Beyond being a hair nourishment ritual and a stress buster, the champi also reflects and reinforces the close bond between loved ones.
At Marico, we identified two broad themes arising out of the recent lockdowns – our consumers are getting more time to spend with the family and that they are dealing with a lot of anxiety and stress. In response, our Parachute Advansed brand decided to bring the champi back into the lives of consumers, at a time when it was needed most.
Prominent TV celebrities such as Bharti Singh, Anita Hassanandani, Hina Khan and Deepika Singh, as well as key TikTok influencers, took up the challenge and created champi videos with their family members and also encouraged their fans to do the same.
Parachute Kalpavriksha Foundation | The Tree Song
Through the Parachute Kalpavriksha Foundation, we strive to create a positive impact on the income and standard of living of coconut farmers and help them protect and care for what they love! The programme has enrolled 21,043 farmers till date, and the farms that have completed more than a year with Parachute Kalpavriksha, have delivered 15% increase in yields.
‘The Tree Song’ film beautifully captures a young boy’s dream of saving his grandfather’s farm come true with a little help from the Parachute Kalpavriksha team. The digital film resonated well with the audience, garnering over 2.1 Million views.
Nihar Shanti Amla ‘Phone Uthao India Ko Padhao’
On the occasion of International Literacy Day on 8th September, Nihar Shanti Amla launched a national programme called ‘Phone Uthao India Ko Padhao’. With purpose at its heart and commitment towards social progress, the brand maintains that education is the core foundation for growth. The programme is aimed at providing basic English speaking skills to underprivileged children by connecting them to adult volunteers in urban centres simply through a phone call. In order to be a part of the programme, volunteers need to register online and take out 10 minutes of their time for a phone call every week to help these children practise spoken English remotely.
During the pandemic, as schools remained shut for months, Nihar Shanti Pathshala Funwala announced ‘Padhai Par Lockdown Nahi’ that ensured students continue to learn English through ‘Phone Uthao India ko Padhao’. The Paathshala Funwala app also made available free virtual classes for Grades 6-10, with modules offering complete school curriculum for CBSE, Uttar Pradesh State Board and The NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling).
Saffolalife ‘Heart Healthy India’
Saffolalife, a not-for-profit initiative by Saffola, has always championed the cause of heart health with a vision to create a ‘Heart Healthy India’. On 29th September, marking the World Heart Day, Saffolalife launched yet another impactful campaign, which aimed at driving awareness on lifestyle behaviours and habits that are often ignored, but can have a significant impact on one’s heart health.
This digital first campaign kick-started with a set of two digital films that portray very common lifestyle facets and depict them in a simple yet impactful manner. The campaign did not stop with just driving awareness. Consumers were encouraged to visit Saffolalife. com where they could understand the impact of their lifestyle behaviours and choices on their heart health, through an online tool called Heart Ka Exam, developed with the help of cardiologists. The website also provided important steps to be taken to protect the heart and enable consumers to lead a heart healthy lifestyle.
The initiative was supported by an exhaustive research, conducted in the top cities of India in partnership with Nielsen & SRL Labs, which highlighted interesting statistics on lifestyle behaviours and resultant impact on heart health. The study was launched by leading cardiologists and nutritionists, and was covered by major local and national publications.
The campaign reached over 10 Million consumers. The campaign was also trending in Twitter on World Heart Day.
Saffola Healthy Snackathon
As the nation stayed indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic, Saffolalife launched a new initiative ‘Saffolalife Healthy Snackathon’ to encourage healthier snacking amongst people. As part of this campaign, Saffolalife introduced multiple recipes curated by celebrity chef Kunal Kapur on the Fit Foodie website. Designed using readily available ingredients at home, the recipes included delicious and healthy savoury and sweet snacks, across cuisines.
A host of Instagram and Facebook influencers leveraged these multiple interesting formats showcasing ingredients used, explained recipes in snapshots, encouraging viewers to share their favorites too with a healthy twist. The select consumer recipes were also featured on the Fit Foodie site.
Livon India’s Top K-Pop Stars
The Korean Pop or K-Pop genre has created one of the biggest waves in the global entertainment circuit and gained immense popularity with gen-Z across the world.
Riding the K-Pop trend, Livon curated a unique property – Livon India’s Top K-Pop Stars in partnership with international music channel 9XO. With K-pop stars becoming major global fashion influencers and shaping fashion trends worldwide, styling has become critical for any emerging talent in the genre. Thus, Livon focused not only on hunting and honing the singing abilities but also groomed the contestants into getting ‘that awesome K-Pop look’. The K-Pop music video of the band of five chosen Indian girls was released on air by 9XO. To help choose this band and mentor them throughout the process, Livon partnered with popular musicians from the North East region – Alobo Naga, Alune Tetseo and Kuvelu Tetseo, while Livon itself played the role of primary styling guide to the participants.
Hair & Care ‘Khule Baal Befikar’
Staying true to its philosophy of being youthful and contemporary, Hair & Care’s new campaign #KhuleBaalBefikar celebrates the joy of ‘Khule Baal’ or open hair.
With a 360-degree integrated marketing communications approach, the campaign went live with a TV commercial in Hindi-speaking markets, featuring the iconic song ‘Ude Jab Jab Zulfein Teri’. The brand has also innovated with their OOH advertisements in the form of motion sensor boards at targeted locations including the Saki Naka Metro Station, Mumbai and the Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, Jaipur. The screens displayed the photo of a girl with open hair that was programmed to fly every time a train or a bus entered the station. A radio campaign was also a part of the mix where listeners were encouraged to share their ‘Khule Baal Befikar’ videos on social media pages of the radio jockeys.
A key element of this campaign was the TikTok challenge that went live with top influencers of the platform and crossed 2.8 Billion views within 3 days and by February, the number grew to 10.6 Billion. The TikTok influencers and users had to make their hair dance and upload videos of their best hair moves with the hashtag #KhuleBaalBefikar.
BANGLADESH
‘Studio X’ launches international quality male grooming product line for style-conscious men
International male grooming brand Studio X, launched in Bangladesh in January 2020, with a full range of products for men, who are style conscious and are aware of trends in grooming and impression. Studio X is the first international male grooming product line of Marico Bangladesh Limited. The Studio X range comprises shampoo, face wash, hair gel, soap and deodorant for men. Apart from this, the brand also launched a website www.studioxstyle.com for the style-conscious men of Bangladesh. The website has been designed with information on grooming and styling for men. With a younger and more connected generation, today’s male consumer segment is more aware than ever of their appearance and have specific and differentiated grooming needs. Studio X aims to cater to these needs of the target audience.
Style is a reflection of one’s personality. It’s not just about beauty or looks, but more about making a statement. Studio X products focus on providing consumers with international quality grooming and styling products with a specific focus on men.
To know more about the Studio X male-grooming product line in Bangladesh and get grooming and styling information, visit the official website of Studio X at www.studioxstyle.com/
Parachute SkinPure – an exciting new range of skin care products
Parachute Bangladesh has launched SkinPure with a promise to provide healthy and beautiful skin, harnessing the goodness of natural ingredients. Its differentiated value proposition – ‘Beauty through goodness of nature’ was delivered through a TVC, besides print and digital media, with the intent of communicating with the consumers all year round. This built a solid foundation for Marico, as we entered the skin category with SkinPure.
Mediker SafeLife handwash and hand sanitizer
Mediker SafeLife - a brand of hygiene was launched in April 2020 in response to the immediate need of hygiene products in the market. With the pandemic having entered the country then, most brands operating in the hygiene space had run out of market. The Mediker SafeLife range of products were thus introduced to aid a social cause, by providing safety with its category products and promising to donate all profits from the same to the honorable Prime Minister’s Relief Fund to support the COVID-19 affected victims. With quick-acting sanitiser and handwash assuring safety, the brand has been very well-received in the very first month of launch and has created a space for itself in the category.
VIETNAM
Thuan Phat Black Anchovies Fish Sauce/ Thuan Phat Ca Com Than: A healthy gift from nature
Thuan Phat has lived with its brand purpose ‘Improving Vietnamese people’s lives with daily nutritious meals’, since it was founded in 1982. In 2019, we launched new Black Anchovies Fish Sauce with 16 nutrients, made from high-protein black anchovies in Phu Quoc barrelhouse.
We introduced Thuan Phat into the mass fish sauce segment, on the back of sharp consumer insights and consequent product conceptualisation, and an effective launch campaign on digital and large-scale wet market activation (reach of 65,000 people, 58% conversion rate. Further, it contributed to a 41%+ category growth in the fish sauce segment in FY20.
Offering nutritional choice to consumers
Nutrition has become a topmost priority among today’s contemporary consumers. It is also recognised as a global goal under the United Nations Sustainable Developmental Goals (UN SDGs). It requires several inter-sectoral policies and interventions to address the distinct, yet interrelated, aspects of nutritional security.
Taking cognisance of this, Marico has curated products for individuals to indulge in nutritional intake, while balancing the taste. This includes adding more fibre, vital proteins, vitamins and minerals into the products, while combining them with healthy taste solutions. This addresses the twin objectives of catering to the changing consumer preferences and delivering healthy nutrition.
Coco Soul Virgin Coconut Oil
Our Coco Soul Virgin Coconut Oil is a superfood that is 100% natural and pure. Specifically prepared from fresh raw coconuts through a meticulous ‘No Heat’ process, it comes with nature’s goodness, fully preserved.
Key benefits
(As per Coconut Board of India website www.coconutboard.nic.in/)
Saffola Edible Oil
Saffola offers a range of heart-healthy oils, which are a carefully crafted blend of two oils, which help deliver balanced nutrition. This ensures a good balance of Mono-unsaturated Fatty Acid (MUFA) and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid (PUFA), as advised by the National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR), in comparison to single seed oils. The oil also provides several other benefits including a special combination of anti-oxidants and oryzanol that helps keep the heart healthy. With the patented LoSorb technology, food fried in Saffola oils absorbs lesser oil. It is also fortified with Vitamin A and D, for better nutrition.
Saffola Masala Oats
Designed as a healthy grain made tasty, Saffola Masala Oats provides a delicious snack solution without compromising on health. With the right balance of spices, real vegetables and wholesome goodness of fiber rich oats, Saffola Masala Oats is the perfect solution for any time snacking, ensuring both convenience and healthy nutrition in one go.
Saffola Masala Oats – Innovation Journey
Offering new concept of oats vending machine, so that a healthy snack is always available during working hours.
Saffola Perfect Nashta
Modern lifestyle leaves not enough time to prepare or consume nutritious breakfast to begin the day, leading to imbalanced nutrition intake. Saffola, through its brand Saffola Perfect Nashta, provides a smart solution to this challenge. Created using Saffola’s health expertise, its ‘Ready to Cook’ breakfast mixes contain five pillars of nutrition, be it from the ingredients or as fortification to the overall formulation. Further, the products are also designed to resemble home-cooked meals, by using authentic Indian tadkas.
With maximum nutrition and maximum taste, in minimum time, Saffola Perfect Nashta offers a healthier and modern solution for daily breakfast.
Saffola FITTIFY Gourmet
Saffola FITTIFY Gourmet, is the reflection of our belief in adding more nutrition to your food and more flavour to your life. Under this brand, our product range consists of Meal Shake, Green Coffee, Superfood Moringa Green Tea and Hi-Protein Soup, all of which have been carefully created by nutritionists and curated by Chef Kunal Kapur.
HI-PROTEIN SLIM MEAL SHAKE
GREEN COFFEE INSTANT
BEVERAGE MIX
SUPERFOOD MORINGA GREEN TEA
HI-PROTEIN SOUP
* V/s regular coffee
# Contains 50% CGA (chlorogenic acid), a powerful antioxidant known to give several health benefits
^ When consumed without milk and sugar, as part of balanced diet and active lifestyle
Inspiring the public to lead a healthy lifestyle
Marico is a keen proponent of healthy and active lifestyle. We not only reach out to consumers with our healthy products, but also engage with the government and industry associations to influence children and the larger population to bring a behavioural change towards making the right choice in eating and healthy living.
Heart Health
Under the Saffolalife programme, Marico has supported a plethora of initiatives along with FSSAI
Nutritious Food
To educate school children on safe and healthy eating habits, Marico, along with FSSAI, has initiated a campaign titled ‘Safe and Nutritious Food’
Eat Right India
Marico is associated with the ‘Eat Right India’ movement, a collective effort by FSSAI and other key stakeholders, to spread the message of food hygiene to India’s masses
* Details of the above initiatives and the impact created are described in ‘Community’.
Offering safe and high quality products
Product safety and quality assume the topmost priority at Marico. Not only do we have established well-defined systems to ensure compliance to regulatory requirements, but have also developed a clear assessment of quality and safety aspects of our products, at each stage in the value chain. All our products are tested in accordance with the applicable regulations at laboratories conforming to ISO/IEC 17025 and are certified by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration (NABL).
Raw materials
Meticulously select the best quality raw materials and packaging essentials. We make sure that they are of the finest quality and are in-line with consumer expectations. We follow a rigorous safety process to analyse every ingredient before we consider it for our products.
Suppliers/vendors
Perform exhaustive suppliers quality audits and maintain strict controls with respect to reliability and traceability. It enables us to ensure the quality of raw materials and packaging essentials.
Manufacturing
Our manufacturing units are USFDA, Halal, FSSC-22000 ver 4, HACCP certified, which ensures that robust systems and processes are in place to deliver high quality output
Packaging
Strict controls on the quality of the final packaging to ensure a pleasant consumer experience.
Finished products
Our teams make sure that the formula is compatible with its packaging throughout the shelf life duration mentioned on our products.
Our responsibility to use safe ingredients
We carefully choose our ingredients, which are considered safe for human use. We participate as well as represent safe ingredient usage on various national and international regulatory fora to understand and provide inputs for framing regulations for ingredient safety. While choosing our ingredients, we consider the national and international regulations, current and upcoming, to comply with the dynamic regulatory information on ingredient safety.
Marico participates and represents safe ingredient usage on various national and international regulatory fora to understand and provide inputs for framing regulations for ingredient safety.
We have developed an in-house database for approval and monitoring of ingredients. Our ingredient assessments are in line with the requirement set for its usage as per the law of the land. We further strive to have all our ingredient specifications and requirements aligned to the European Union, US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), and CODEX standards. Even though we primarily operate in the ASEAN, Middle East and African markets, we are committed to meeting the global recommendations and requirements for Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) and Substitute It Now (SIN) list. It is our continuous commitment to minimise the chemicals highlighted in the list and find suitable alternatives.
Consumer connect
We constantly look for ways to explore the unmet needs, insights and innovative offerings that can cement our bond further with our consumers. To facilitate feedback from them, we have a dedicated Consumer Service Cell (CSC), which is ISO 10002 certified. The CSC plays a key role in interfacing with consumers.
All consumer complaints are addressed within 48 hours
Leverage social media, digital technologies to improve consumer engagement
Contact mechanisms are mentioned on all our product packs
'Consumer Connect: Dawn to Dusk' implemented to capture voice of consumers