The only variable which remains constant is the price: the 200 gm bottle of ginger, garlic, and ginger-garlic flavours will continue to be priced at Rs 24 each, while the 200-gm pouch will cost Rs 20. The Hommade range was first launched in February 1997 and consists of: ginger, garlic, ginger-garlic, tamarind, mustard and onion cooking pastes, and coconut milk for the south market.

With the relaunch, Dabur Foods aims to triple its turnover from the Hommade brand, in the next one year.

Though the company claims to have amarketshare of about 60 per cent of the cooking paste market, its distributors say that the brand's sales were down by nearly half from the time of the launch in February 1997. According to Vijay Sachdeva of Mars Dairy, for example, a south-Delhi-based distributor for Dabur Foods: ``Initially, the sales would go up to even Rs 2 lakh per month, but now they are nearly half of that.''

The brand--which pioneered the concept of pastes in the country two years ago--was lately facing stiff competition from local brands such as Shudh and Smith & Jones. Packaging and product formulation are believed to be the main contentions, says another Delhi-based distributor, who did not wish to be quoted. ``Besides, it's a slow moving product,'' adds he.

While the product formulation has changed considerably, Dabur Foods has modified the packaging only marginally: a bright label had been added to the neck of the Hommade bottle which says: `More: Thick and fresh'. Says a company source: ``The new pastes have a better productformulation than the previous ones.''

Great news: There's a new positioning

Hommade's communication was based on a `convenience' platform earlier--the account was handled by McCann Erickson, at the time. Now, after extensive consumer research, the range has been relaunched on the `taste' bait. The catchphrase coined by Hommade's new agency, Chaitra Leo Burnett: `Dabur Hommade makes my everyday food taste great.'

The changeabout in positioning is based on the feedback from Hommade's existing consumer base--SEC A and B working and non-working women--which indicated that women looked upon cooking as a potential source of appreciation while chopping/peeling/shredding were seen as onerous chores.

Tactically, therefore, the company decided to associate the Hommade brand with a positive attribute: taste. ``We'd like to help the housewife without taking away the credit from her,'' says the source. The research, which was conducted nation-wide between March-June 1999, also asked housewives about thecore standards on which they evaluated cooking pastes. The silbatta--the common stone grinder used in most Indian homes--masala emerged as the unanimous benchmark. Consequently, as against the earlier communication of the `Good news' TVC, where the focus was on presenting Hommade as a relief from the drudgery of cutting and chopping, the relaunch communication--a 30-sec TVC--has a different focus. This time, the Hommade range tries to establish itself as offering a paste which is as thick and grainy as the paste ground on a silbatta. The TVC establishes Hommade's big idea as `Silbatte ka jadoo' (the magic of the stone-grinder) with the sign-off `Hommade ka masala...silbatte wala.'

To get enough share of voice for the relaunch, the company is currently investing in a media burst across all satellite channels. Its media strategy (handled by Carat): reach out to the largest cooking paste audience, through prime time and the afternoon band. Besides, it is also sponsoring the afternoon slot movies on Zee andSouthern channels such as Enadu and Sun.

The company plans to support the TVC with a press campaign to be released this week, POP and outdoor medium, all provided by Chaitra Leo Burnett. Besides, the company plans to reach out to housewives through mailers and build relationships with the customer, by holding activities such as recipe contests through its print ads.

Interestingly, while the market reports say that the brand has just been relaunched about 15 days ago, the company says that the product placement of the relaunched Hommade happened much earlier: in June 1999, when Dabur Foods had tied-up with ITC Sundrop for a sampling drive. Whatever the timing of the relaunch, the point is: will the brand get a pasting in its second avtaar too?

The new formula: Keep it grainy

The challenge for Dabur Foods Ltd was clear: to match the benchmark of grainy home-made pastes. Therefore, in order to get the product formulation of the Hommade range right and in sync with the traditional cooking pasteconsistency, Dabur Foods Ltd is believed to have gone to the extent of replacing its earlier machine for manufacturing pastes--a chopper-based food processor--with a stone grinder called Fryma Fixer. The new machine was imported from the USA, in June 1999.

``This machine works exactly as a silbatta and retains the graininess of the masalas,'' says the company source. The new formulation also does not contain vinegar, which was earlier used in Hommade range.