Rooh Afza’s Heritage Brand Strategy in Changing Beverage Markets
Industry & Competitive Context
Rooh Afza is a herbal, rose-flavoured sharbat concentrate. It was created in 1907 by Hakim Hafiz Abdul Majeed, a Delhi-based Unani practitioner, as a way to beat heat and dehydration in North India’s summers. The brand has outlasted several waves of competition. ThePrint’s account says the 1980s brought Rasna, an affordable sharbat. The 1990s brought Coca-Cola’s return, Pepsi’s entry, rising refrigerator ownership and economic liberalisation, which opened the market to fizzy drinks. A Hamdard marketing executive quoted in that account described a sales drop in the late 1990s and early 2000s and a decline in “share of the throat.”
The category itself was small and slow-moving. In 2016, Business World reported that Rooh Afza held a 45 per cent share of the concentrated drink category, which was growing at 3–4 per cent. Hamdard’s own executive gave a different figure a year later: Rooh Afza led an Rs 850 crore concentrate segment with a 42 per cent share, while the ready-to-drink segment was estimated at Rs 7,000 crore. The two share figures differ, and no source reconciles them. The gap between the two segment sizes is central to the strategy described below.
A second feature of the brand’s context is its ownership structure. In 1948 the organisation became a waqf, and ThePrint reports that this obliges it to donate 85 per cent of profits to the Hamdard National Foundation, an educational charity. This is a structural fact about Hamdard that most listed FMCG competitors do not share. The sources reviewed do not document how it shapes marketing investment decisions.
Brand Situation Prior to Campaign
Hamdard’s own executives described the brand as strong but ageing. At the 2016 Fusion launch, Hamdard’s AGM said Rooh Afza had strong recall in certain consumer groups but missed the young generation, who felt less attachment to it. The brand’s usage format reinforced this. Hamdard’s chief sales and marketing officer said Rooh Afza was an in-home format that was slightly tedious to make, so young consumers drank it mainly at home.
Heritage was also fragile in 1947. After Partition, Hakeem Abdul Hameed stayed in India while his brother Hakim Mohammed Said moved to Pakistan, where he set up a separate Hamdard entity that also produced Rooh Afza. A third entity emerged in Bangladesh after 1971. The consequence for brand strategy is that one name and one product now exist under separately owned companies in three countries. This case examines only the Indian business.
Before the 2016 repositioning, Hamdard had already tried revival through conventional means. The marketing team said it started new campaigns, appointed actor Juhi Chawla as brand ambassador and built connections with resident welfare associations across north India. A separate trade report from around 2010 describes a push to make Rooh Afza a year-round brand and a kid-centric programme. It cited a 2009 Cartoon Network study saying 41 per cent of parents follow their children’s opinion when choosing a juice, nectar or sherbet. It also described plans for dispensers and promotion as a milk additive, and encouragement of milk-based consumption in the South. That report is undated in the retrieved text.
Strategic Objective
Hamdard stated the objective in several places, always in terms of reaching younger consumers without losing existing ones. Its chief sales and marketing officer said the task was to reach new consumers, the young and millennials, while retaining the loyalists. The commercial ambition behind this was also stated publicly. He said becoming relevant to young consumers and extending into ready-to-drink was crucial to becoming a Rs 1,000 crore company in two years. The same report says Hamdard aimed to cross Rs 1,000 crore in annual sales by March 2019, up from Rs 610 crore in the year ended March 2016. These are targets rather than results, and the sources reviewed do not report whether they were met.
The strategic logic has a clear shape. By moving from the Rs 850 crore concentrate segment into the larger ready-to-drink segment, the company said it could play in a much bigger market. Extension was therefore also an escape from the growth ceiling of a single category.
Campaign Architecture & Execution
Repositioning communication (2016). In March 2016 Hamdard launched what it described as its most ambitious brand campaign. The re-positioning work was created by Rediffusion Y&R and reworked the adage “laalach ek buri bala hai” into “laalach ek kala hai,” presenting greed as an art when exercised for others or for one’s own passions. The company’s executive framed the audience as youth with anti-stereotype attitudes who needed to see something that resonates with their lifestyles. Analytically, this is an attempt to shift the brand’s tone while leaving the product untouched.
Product extension: RoohAfza Fusion (2016–17). The product response followed. Fusion was a blend of pure fruit juice and Rooh Afza in a 200 ml pack at Rs 20, in five flavours, test-launched in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Hamdard planned to reach 30,000 outlets in Delhi and UP in the first phase, and Tetra Pak called it Hamdard’s first breakaway ready-to-drink product in its 100-year history. The 2017 rollout was backed by a TVC and a 360-degree campaign by Rediffusion Y&R, and the brand line was “Go Red.” Packaging was revamped after the test launch to connect better with the target audience.
Further format and portfolio moves. The retrieved reporting indicates Hamdard also added PET packaging. It launched its first RoohAfza PET bottles, at 250 ml for Rs 50, alongside Fusion. In June 2020 the company extended again. Hamdard Laboratories, Foods Division launched RoohAfza Fusion with real fruit juices and a RoohAfza Milkshake in aseptic Tetra Pak packs. Hamdard grounded the Milkshake in consumer behaviour: it said it had been receiving feedback that an overwhelming number of people drink RoohAfza with milk. That is the clearest example in the record of a line extension built from an observed usage habit rather than invented from scratch.
Brand protection. In December 2022 the Delhi High Court restrained manufacture and sale of “Dil Afza” pending a trademark suit by Hamdard. The court’s reasoning said Hamdard had used the mark for over a century and that it was prima facie a strong mark. The Supreme Court later dismissed an appeal against that order. The legal action is part of the strategy: a heritage name is only an asset if it can be defended against near-copies.
Positioning & Consumer Insight
The documented positioning has two layers that pull in different directions.
The first is natural and herbal credentials. In 2016 Hamdard’s executive linked demand to a consumer shift: he said there was a perceptible shift towards natural and herbal products, evident in Rooh Afza growing its share in modern and general trade. That is a company statement. The retrieved sources contain no independent verification of the share gain.
The second is youth relevance and convenience. Fusion was described as targeting youth who aspire for convenience, ‘cool’ and on-the-go formats. In 2020 Hamdard’s sales and marketing head said the goal was to bring Rooh Afza into a convenient ‘out of home’ consumption format. The same article says the 2020 digital campaigns carried the line “Freshness and Taste Ka Double Dose.”
Strategically, the two layers are not equally easy to hold together. Herbal heritage signals authenticity to loyalists. Convenience and “cool” speak to people who have never made a glass of it at home. Fusion tried to bridge the two with a hybrid, since the pack carried 10 natural herbs fused with fruit juice. No verified public information is available on whether younger consumers in fact bought Fusion because of the herbal cue or in spite of it.
Media & Channel Strategy
The public record on media is partial. Verified items:
A 360-degree campaign with a TVC supported the 2017 Fusion launch.
The 2020 RTD campaigns were launched on digital media.
Distribution for Fusion’s first phase covered general trade, modern trade and paan shops in Delhi.
Hamdard said it would create campaigns in local languages for wider reach.
FCB Ulka held the Hamdard portfolio account as of 2019.
Business & Brand Outcomes
The outcomes below are those with a published source. All come from press reports or company statements, and no annual report or investor presentation was found.
Volumes. By 2012–13, Rooh Afza sales had recovered to 20 million bottles a year, according to ThePrint, which cites The Economic Times. Business World’s 2016 report put sales at 2.5 crore (25 million) bottles a year. The two figures are from different years and different reports, and the sources do not say whether they use the same measurement basis.
Company turnover. Hamdard Laboratories posted a turnover of over Rs 700 crore in the year ending March 2017. The Rs 610 crore figure for the year ended March 2016 is from the Business World report above. Both are company-level figures, not Rooh Afza figures.
Brand share of Hamdard’s business. Reports give different numbers. The company’s sales head told the Economic Times in 2016 that Rooh Afza had a 40% share of the portfolio. A PTI report reproduced elsewhere gave a similar figure of about 40 per cent of the FMCG topline, but the basis of the “close to Rs 700 crore” figure alongside it is unclear in the retrieved text.
Fusion launch result. The company reported approximately 9 lakh units of primary sales in Fusion’s launch month during the Delhi/UP test, and feedback from about 50,000 consumers and trade partners. This is a company-reported figure for a test market. Subsequent national sales of Fusion, Milkshake or any other extension are not available in the sources reviewed.
Supply disruption. In 2019 Rooh Afza became hard to find at the start of Ramzan. Hamdard’s official statement attributed this to supply constraints of certain herbal ingredients. Hamdard also described unprecedented demand as Ramzan and peak summer coincided. ThePrint reported that a family dispute over control “is believed” to be behind the problem, while the company called such claims baseless. Because the cause is contested, this case does not attribute it to either explanation.
Reputation event. The Delhi High Court directed Patanjali to take down advertisements that allegedly described Rooh Afza as part of a “sharbat jihad,” in a case brought by Hamdard National Foundation for trademark infringement, defamation and disparagement. The same report says Hamdard sought a permanent injunction, Rs 2 crore in damages and an apology. A later report says Hamdard put out newspaper ads saying it had been “overwhelmed” by support from Indians. The retrieved sources do not report sales or brand-health effects of the episode.
Strategic Implications
Heritage works as a moat only if it is legally and commercially defended. The Dil Afza litigation shows the value of a century-old name, since the court treated it as a strong source identifier. The same case shows that competitors will approach it.
Extension was a response to a category ceiling. Hamdard’s own figures describe a roughly Rs 850 crore concentrate segment against an RTD segment estimated at Rs 7,000 crore. The strategic choice to enter RTD under the same brand name carries risk, because the parent brand’s equity is tied to a different usage occasion. The public record shows the move and the stated rationale, but not whether the extension grew the franchise.
Consumer behaviour guided at least one extension. The Milkshake launch was justified by existing consumer practice of mixing the concentrate with milk. A heritage brand can find its next product in the way loyalists already use it.
Supply reliability is part of brand strategy. The 2019 episode happened at peak demand for a drink associated with Ramzan iftar. Whatever its cause, it shows how a seasonal heritage brand is exposed to availability risk at the point when demand is highest.
Brand meaning can be contested by outside parties. The Patanjali case shows that a heritage brand’s identity may be attacked from outside the category. Hamdard responded through the courts and through its own advertising. The documented response is a case in reputation management as much as marketing.
Discussion Questions
Hamdard cited a concentrate segment of about Rs 850 crore against a ready-to-drink segment estimated at Rs 7,000 crore. Evaluate whether extending Rooh Afza into RTD was a defensible growth strategy, and identify what evidence would be needed to judge it.
The 2016 repositioning reframed an old saying to speak to young consumers, while Fusion’s pack emphasised herbal ingredients. Does a heritage brand gain or lose by running “cool” and “natural” cues together?
The Milkshake extension was justified by existing consumer behaviour. How should a brand manager decide between extensions that follow current usage and extensions designed to create new usage?
The 2019 supply shortage had a company-stated cause and a contested alternative explanation. How should a brand communicate during a shortage when the cause is disputed, and what does the episode imply for seasonal brands?
Rooh Afza’s name and identity were defended in court and through advertising after external attacks and near-copy trademarks. Develop a framework for protecting a heritage brand’s equity, distinguishing legal, communication and portfolio tools.
Comments