COHESIVE MARKETING

My today's post introduces you to the concept of cohesive marketing whereby a group of companies or brands get together to promote their product under one common umbrella. The term may also be used when a company ventures to promote its different departments or different products/brands under its wings as one integral representation of the company's policy, credibility & character. The example I am going to enumerate today falls in the previous category where we talk about Indian Pharma Companies resorting to cohesive marketing, an article I found in Brandchannel.

The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) is boosting the nation's vast pharmaceutical industry by moving toward cohesive branding.

By next February, the AIOCD plans to bring 20,000 retail pharmacies across India under one common brand. With the sector growing over 15% per year, the group says its target is 300,000 or more, to be brought under the common brand within several years.

While "branding" often brrings to mind massive global brands like Ford and Coca-Cola, the benefits of imposing a brand can be equally dramatic on local or regional enterprises. Under one brand, India's pharmacies will gain name recognition and a sense of service assurance, just as often-local pharmacy brands in the US like Walgreens and New York's Duane Reade stand as recognizable guarantees of service and product.

Undoubtedly, AIOCD's locations will offer scaled-up competition for India's existing retail pharmacy brands like as Apollo Pharmacy, which operates over 1,000 outlets across the country. While these brands may feel swamped by the sheer size of the new AIOCD alliance, they have a head start in profiting from brand-building. Apollo and Guardian Lifecare have taken the lead in developing private labels, with Bangalore-based Trust Pharmacy, Hyderabad-based MedPlus Pharmacy and Religare Wellness not far behind.