Sleeplessness is so common and yet there is not enough awareness about it in India. For instance, 60 percent of Indians suffer from
occasional sleeplessness with only 15 percent, on average, getting good sleep at night, according to a study by Kantar in association
with P&G Health. To help address the issue, P&G Health announced the launch of Vicks ZzzQuil Natura – a melatonin sleep supplement suitable for occasional sleeplessness.
The ZzzQuil India National Sleep Survey covered 2236 respondents from across seven Indian cities to understand sleeping issues, levels of awareness, and approaches towards these. The company has also rolled out a campaign to promote the product among consumers. The film features a young man going about his day with full concentration and agility because of the good quality of sleep.
Speaking to Storyboard18, Sahil Sethi, senior marketing director, P&G Health says that the launch is backed by strong consumer research done by Kantar on how Indians are sleep deprived. Even for those who do not experience extreme sleeplessness, the quality of their sleep is poor. This is backed by data which states that close to 60 percent reported when they have poor sleep, it interfered with their daily activities. 40 percent of employed individuals agree strongly that lack of sleep caused job stresses to be much harder to handle and it also distracted them from enjoying work.
“In the last couple of years post-pandemic, there has been a sort of pandemic-induced occasional sleeplessness. Our research states that 60 percent of Indians experience occasional sleeplessness. And that’s why we believe that this is the right time to launch the product because consumers are facing this issue and they are seeking solutions,” he notes.
The company is targeting consumers between 25 and 55 years of age who may be experiencing sleeplessness but are not aware of it or are not taking action to resolve it.
Noting that this is a new category that the company is entering, Sethi emphasises that there is a clear need of driving awareness because not a lot of people are not acting upon the issue of sleeplessness and there are sort of a lot of misconceptions around it.
“I think the biggest objective is to humanize this issue. The idea is to ensure that people understand this is something that most of us experience and it is okay to experience but there are solutions available to tackle this issue as well. I think that is going to be one big thing in terms of the challenge that we have in front of us. And most of our activities that we have played planned in future is
around tackling that challenge,” he adds.
Sethi also says that only 15 percent of Indians feel that they are getting good quality sleep. That means 85 percent are not getting it and, 60 percent of those 85 percent are suffering from occasional sleeplessness.
“So definitely there is a need to drive awareness. The idea is to highlight how sleeplessness could impact your health and its repercussions. What is the real impact of the lack of good quality sleep on one daily life? Secondly, we are also looking at enabling or
empowering our consumers by providing the right solution which is through data and providing the right education about what they can do
and how they can tackle this particular problem. And lastly, I would say that we also will try to share other people’s experiences so that people can learn from it,” he adds.
In terms of media platforms, the company is looking to leverage both traditional and digital platforms to create awareness about the
product. “The top three to four touch points that we are looking at definitely comprises digital which includes YouTube and the social media platforms. We are also looking at connected TV as well as real-life voices of consumers who have used the product which will increase the believability of the messaging. Having said that, I do think it will continue to evolve as we learn based on the first few weeks or months of execution, and we will definitely be agile in terms of changing the media mix if consumers tell us differently based on the effectiveness of different touchpoints,” he shares.
It is to be noted that India’s nutraceutical market is growing at a rapid pace, especially post-pandemic. According to a 2022 EY report,
the dietary supplements market In India grew at a double-digit compound annual growth rate of 15 percent to reach Rs. 331 billion in
FY21.
In the sleep supplement category, Vicks will compete with a range of D2C players such as Wellbeing Nutrition (plant-based melatonin
products), Carbamide Forte (melatonin gummies), and PLIX (vegan sleep products) along with legacy firms such as Himalaya Wellness (Tagara tablets).