The Indian customer is becoming increasingly conscious and knowledgeable when it comes to embracing holistic living with clean, plant-based nutrition and wellness items. The current pandemic has catalyzed a visible social transition towards adopting healthier and cleaner plant-based lifestyles across the globe. Even in India, the focus on deriving nutrition from clean and green sources has grown significantly. In an exclusive conversation with TheSpuzz Online Aarti Gill, Co-founder and CEO of OZiva talked about the development of the nutraceutical marketplace in India, influence of Covid-19 and more. Excerpts:
What are your views on the nutraceutical marketplace and what is the influence of Covid-19 on this segment?
The Covid-19 pandemic has ushered a main paradigm shift in human behaviour, specially, when it comes to diet program and nutrition. The devastating effects of the pandemic have led persons across the world to embrace a healthier and plant-based life style that comprises consuming fresh green vegetables, seasonal fruits, entire grains, nuts and other superfoods to meet their everyday nutritional quota. There is also an raise in consumption of immunity boosting foods. Moreover, persons everywhere are awakening to the notion of adopting frequent workouts, physical workouts, yoga and meditation to alleviate tension and stay pressure-totally free and illness totally free in these testing instances. Also noticeable, is the increasing trend towards adopting one hundred% plant-based and clean nutritional items that are verified to aid persons with far better absorption of nutrients, straightforward digestion and a host of other advantages.
Given that the marketplace is flooded with fake supplements, what are your thoughts in this regard?
The Indian supplement marketplace is replete with a vast surfeit of dubious and fake items that are potentially detrimental for the body when consumed more than a lengthy period of time. As a conscious and conscious customer, it is one’s duty to procure supplements only right after conducting diligent investigation and brand enquiry. Majority of worldwide health-related nutritionists propose consuming only clean and plant-based supplements that carry zero side-effects on the body. OZiva is India’s initially certified clean nutrition brand that specialises in extending a wide array of plant-based supplements and nutraceuticals that can properly meet the numerous nutritional needs of various customer demographics such as fitness enthusiasts, pregnant females, children and the elderly.
There has been a big focus on plant-based foods in India for very some time. Do you think the pandemic has additional accentuated the demand for plant based diet program?
With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, persons are focusing increasingly on their diet program as nicely as nutritional intake to enhance their immunity & general overall health. Eating a wholesome and nicely-balanced diet program that is nicely-replete with all the critical nutrients is the essential to general overall health. While the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the worldwide plant-based & herbal items marketplace is poised to attain a jaw-dropping $13 trillion by 2025, and in India we are seeing accelerated development for the segment. While most of India has traditionally been vegetarians, now we are seeing even more persons adopting one hundred% clean and plant based diets for overall health and general wellbeing.
What kind of marketing strategies did you adopt during the pandemic?
We have been concentrating on introducing products that meet the need of the hour. Immunity being the biggest concern for consumers across the country, we introduced Immunity Multi (plant based multivitamins for immunity) and OZiva Bettr series of plant-based vitamins and minerals. Plant based vitamins and minerals provide better absorption as compared to synthetic ones and are highly recommended by experts across the globe. We all are going through difficult times and we believe it’s more important than ever to take charge of your health. Through our content, we are aiming to provide helpful and relevant information through experts (for eg: breathing exercises for better lung capacity, Yoga Asanas that can help strengthen our immune system, etc)”. Being in the digital age – technology plays a vital role at every operational sphere. It helps us reach out & engage with customers all across the globe. In fact, we are the world’s first connected omni-channel nutrition brand where people can pick-up a product from anywhere and consult a human expert digitally.
How do you foresee the growth of ‘women nutrition’ in India?
A majority of Indian women are unable to meet their daily nutritional needs on account of a poor and insufficient diet. Over a quarter of women in the country suffer from undernourishment and exhibit a body mass index (BMI) of less than 18.5 kg/m. Moreover, an undernourished mother inevitably gives birth to an undernourished baby, thus, perpetuating an intergenerational cycle of undernutrition. OZiva has introduced a specific class of superior products that focus exclusively on enhancing women’s health across the different stages of her life. Protein & Herbs for Women has been specially formulated for women and comes packed with clean ingredients and herbs that promote better metabolism, hormonal balance, skin and hair. We also offer specialised products like HerBalance for PCOS, HerBalance for Menopause, HerBones (bone health) etc., catering to the varying needs of women.
You are venturing into the personal care category and kids’ nutrition soon. Let us know how you want to promote and leverage this in the market. What are the kinds of products that will be included in the category?
OZiva already enjoys an unparalleled presence in the clean, plant based segment offering products for holistic health spanning across categories like health, nutrition, beauty and more.
OZiva Clean Beauty range will offer products that provide the goodness of phytonutrients and clinically proven activities, backed by botanical sciences. The range consists of a wide range of skin and hair care products that are safe and effective without any harmful chemicals. We currently have Phyto Cleanse range (anti-acne products), Inner Glo range (radiance and glow), Youth Elixir range (anti-ageing), Absolut Even range (anti-pigmentation) and Naturelle Infusion (for hair growth and nourishment). We have more products in the pipeline.
OZiva Kids is all set to go live in September. Under this category, we will have specialised products for growing kids providing holistic nutrition.
What is the core proposition of the brand?
We have always been driven by one question- how we enable people to be healthier & better. We believe that perfection is a myth. We all are trying to be a better version of ourselves every single day. And we want to ensure that on this journey of being better, you have clean, plant based products. This core thought has guided all the work that we have done so far. We believe holistic health is about achieving a balance of mind, body, soul! Right from what we eat to what we apply – really impacts our health & wellbeing.
You have recently roped in Deepika Padukone as your brand ambassador. Can you tell us why you chose her?
Deepika Padukone is the perfect embodiment of our values of striving to be better in every way and adopting a holistic approach towards overall health, physically and mentally. Our philosophy of ‘har tarah se a better you’ resonates well with Deepika who has been extremely vocal about balancing physical and mental health. It is important to have clean nutrition along with maintaining physical health and mental wellbeing. And this association is the next pivotal step in our efforts to spearhead a national health and wellness revolution.
What are your expansion plans?
As a brand, we want to empower people to adopt a clean & holistic lifestyle. We have ventured into newer categories like personal care and kids segments. We will also be increasing our offline footprint to strengthen our omni channel presence. We will continue to invest in people, products, technology and as far as the OZiva brand is considered it will continue to grow.