Leveraging the OTC potential of India’’s 350 million ‘Kidsumers’

Sreedevi Yallamrazu

Children play an important role in advertising and marketing campaigns, by either adding a ‘cute quotient’ to the brand or by creating an emotional appeal to the brand’s proposition. Apart from being brand ambassadors, the millennial generation seems to be maturing much faster and has assumed a greater role today as consumers, in adopting new products targeted at them. Moreover, they are influencing brand choices even for regular household products as well as durables such as cars and electronics, emerging as one of the key drivers of consumption. ‘Kidsumers’, which defines our children consumers, is thus a little kingdom by itself, comprising a sizeable proportion (close to 30 per cent) of India’s total population.

Sad but true, lifestyle changes are impacting children, with long-term health implications on the country’s future generation. The emerging need gaps will soon become an inevitable necessity, considering the alarming rise in health concerns in children. Although FMCG companies have entrenched themselves in the health supplements market, consumer healthcare companies have the potential to shape the nascent children’s OTC market in India.

Children as healthcare consumers – The potential

Children’s health is a major challenge and stress factor for parents. Despite the fact that erratic eating habits of children can be quite tricky for parents, packaged foods and mushrooming fast food joints, complemented with sedentary lifestyles and lack of adequate support systems in nuclear families, are creating a huge impact on children’s food habits and overall development. The worrying aspect is that almost 50 per cent of children refused to cut down their intake of colas and sweetened juices and said that they would continue to buy fast food shown in commercials, according to a study, Trends in Childhood Nutrition and Lifestyle Practices in India. Erratic habits in children can have profound effects in their growing years and in adult life as well.

Another rampant trend among children is spending hours glued to TV, computer, phones and video games, turning them into ‘screenagers’. A study conducted by McAfee found that 70 per cent of children (aged eight to 12 years) in leading metros in India use PC or laptop and 42 per cent of them use mobile devices for Internet access.1 Furthermore, parents’ urge to raise a celebrity in the tiny tots, who also have to meet the mandatory schooling requisites, can become a stress factor for children. Nonetheless, with growing awareness about health and fitness, overall well-being of a child has become an enhanced concern among parents. With over a 100 million kidsumers residing in urban areas, the potential consumer base is quite high to be ignored.

Health concerns in children – Catching up with adults

The health concerns in children can be divided into illness and wellness needs. While nutritional deficiencies and respiratory infections are frequently observed in children and childhood obesity has become a commonplace in recent times, it was only matter of time that adult health concerns like heart burn and eye strain would become predators on children too.

As per media reports, approximately 10 per cent of children have been found to battle heart burn, acidity and digestive discomfort. In addition, extended use of screens has increased eye strain and fatigue among children and about half the children’s population suffers from short-sightedness, indicating that eye care in children is a growing need in India. Complain of pain in the wrists and backache too has become common among children using smartphones. Today’s children are finding it difficult to compete in sports as they lack flexibility and strength for rigorous physical activities.

Behavioural issues too are taking a toll on children as a result of lack of emotional security from time-pressed working parents. According to an Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) study conducted in 2011, prevalence of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in India has gone up from four per cent to 11 per cent in six years’ time among children aged three to 17 years.

Children’s OTC market in India – Untapped opportunities to be explored

Children’s OTC market in India has been valued at $409 million in 2012 (Source: Nicholas Hall’s DB6 Global OTC Database), contributing less than one-fifth of the total sales of the Indian OTC market.

In the illness segment, OTC sales largely come from repeat purchases. Respiratory illness, being a major concern in children due to environmental as well as intrinsic health factors, presents the largest need in the children’s illness segment. Widespread warnings on the Internet featuring safety concerns of OTC drugs on children could create a flutter among parents who might consider self-prescribing such products. Thus, this segment can be built by gaining the trust of parents and by educating them about the products.

On the other hand, the potential of the wellness segment is huge due to new opportunity areas such as preventive remedies for common ailments as well as lifestyle concerns such as gastric ailments and obesity. Mental health supplements that support the treatment of ADHD would also be needed.

The children’s OTC market in India comprises largely of brands like Dabur Chyawanprash, Vicks, Dettol whose usage is skewed towards children. There are very few brands, like Calcium Sandoz in the Indian OTC market, which are exclusively positioned for children. In addition, there are deemed OTC brands like Dexorange, Liv. 52, Vi-Syneral, which can also expand the children’s OTC market by building further on their exiting equity and offering variants that cater to the specific needs of children.

Global trends in children’s consumer healthcare – An inspiration for innovation

Global marketers have introduced innovative products addressing new delivery mechanisms, increased palatability and convenient packaging as well as innovative ways of engaging with parents and children.

Since compliance is a major issue with children, popular flavours (P&G’s Children Pepto antacid in bubble gum flavour), gummy formats (IronKids gummies) and even effervescent tablets (gastrolyte for electrolyte replenishment in diarrhoea) have been introduced as they resemble carbonated drinks, which are enjoyed by children. Children’s Zyrtec is available as a grape-flavoured chewable tablet for efficacy and convenience for young allergy sufferers. In the US, one of the leading children’s multivitamin is Flintstones (Bayer), based on the famous cartoon.

AccuDial (AccuDial Pharma) promotes weight-based dosing as a safer and accurate way of drawing the correct dose for a child, addressing a key concern among parents.

Marketers like Johnson & Johnson and Novartis focus on ‘safety’ as one of the key aspects in their brand communication (Tylenol and Triaminic respectively), assuring parents that safety concerns in children have been borne in mind while formulating the product.

Calpol’s website plays a dual role of providing brand information as well as connecting emotionally with parents’ concerns on various aspects. Mumsnet, an UK-based website engages with parents by inviting them to test products, providing incentives such as vouchers in exchange.

Marketing cues – Varying approach to managing children’s health

Marketers will have to take into account that parents react differently to health concerns in children, with emotional and rational factors involved during illness and wellness. Due to the tender age of a child, when it comes to illness, doctors’ advice is relied upon for the right diagnosis and treatment to ensure the child is normal again soon. It has been observed that parents tend to have less faith in OTC products, as the perception is that information given about them is incomplete and hence they might harm the child. Hence parent education is of utmost importance, providing rational reasons on brand efficacy and emotional reasons that assure parents that children’s safety and well-being are equally prime concerns for marketers too.

For overall wellness needs, mothers are looking for something ‘extra’ to fulfill their children’s nutritional needs. It is also one of the reasons for overweight in children which often gets misconstrued for good health and tends to get ignored. Health foods, herbal supplements and tonics are administered without concerns on side-effects. Parents do tread with caution in case of allopathic supplements, being more comfortable with giving supplements based on recommendations from friends and family. Furthermore, if the products do not have a medicinal appearance, they are readily accepted by parents and children alike, malted foods drinks being a classic example.

An advisory role may be needed to promote the use of vaccines, especially in older children as the relative importance to given to vaccination declines with increasing age of the child and parents are also apprehensive about new vaccines.

More importantly, healthcare in children has to be child’s play too! Children are well-updated and aware of many aspects and hence engaging them with healthy habits will also be equally important. Point-of-contact programmes in schools and places of recreational activity can be an excellent way to reach the target audience – parents as well as children.

Franklin D Roosevelt’s statement, “We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can at least prepare our children for the future,” reflects the sentiments of parents and marketers may just have to follow this mantra while creating innovative products for children and communicating to parents.

Reference:
1. Source: http://www.indiantelevision.com/digital/y2k13/nov/novdig69.php

(CubeX is the Strategic Consulting and Business Intelligence division of Sorento Healthcare Communications with expertise in the Consumer Healthcare and Wellness domain. To know more about reports from CubeX, you can write to [email protected].)