It is in the last decades of the nineteenth century that the unassuming Ayurveda practitioner gained an immense fame whose significance would be felt even after a century had passed. His name is Karunashankar Bhatt, yet everybody knew him as Zandu Bhatt — a man who was associated with healing, wisdom, and the timeless knowledge of life. Coming from a line of Vaidyas, Karunashankar Bhatt took the tradition as his way of life. He read classic books, prepared medicinal herbs by himself, and made medicines that took into account the health of not only the body but also mind and soul. Whenever there was fever among children, pain in laborers' backs from hard days at work, or a woman complaining about tiredness, people came to Zandu Bhatt. Yet Zandu Bhatt wanted to give everyone the chance to access the medicine regardless of whether he had his own Vaidya in the house.
Zandu Pharmaceuticals was formally founded by Zandu Bhatt in Bombay in 1910 . This was a small company that was built on big ideas. As Western medicine began to assert its supremacy in the colonies at this time, he made his choice differently. He decided to invest in Ayurvedic practices, improve the old recipes of healers and give the new world medicine that could rely on. The name was simple but symbolic. It was his own name and identity, but at the same time, he promised something more. Every medicine with a Zandu label came with an implicit guarantee of a man devoted to serving others his entire life. In the beginning, Zandu did not have much money or resources. He was faced with the huge task of overcoming the competition of colonial pharmaceutical enterprises. But it worked, and that was all that mattered in the medical world.
Of all the products created by Zandu, there was one that stood out and managed to carve its way into the very essence of Indian life forevermore: Zandu Balm. The little yellow tin, shaped like a compact disc, was packed full of a pale balm with a distinctly menthol smell; it was the solution to everything from headaches to muscle strains to colds and joint pains. The ingredients were selected following the rules of Ayurveda; it was a blend of menthol, camphor, eucalyptus oil, and various extracts of herbal origin. These were not complex, rare chemicals; they were recognizable, known quantities, and they came from the same plants that Indian grandmothers have been using for generations. All that Zandu Balm did was create a standardized version of those recipes and place them on every drugstore shelf across India. No prescription was needed, no diagnosis was required; all you needed was the problem, and the Zandu Balm would take care of the rest.
The tale behind the Zandu Balm brand can be said to have always been a tale of trust – a trust built over decades, guarded with great caution, and then passed on across the years. As India became independent, the country started seeing the emergence of an urban middle class, and so did Zandu Balm. It was not a product of luxury. It was a requirement in almost every Indian home. It was as essential as salt and oil in every household. From grandma massaging it in her grandchild’s hands who were aching because of the night's chill, father applying it to his temples after hours of commuting to work, and mother rubbing it in her kid's body to relieve him/her of their body pain, decades have passed since the product first appeared. All this while the product has become more than a product to consumers; rather, it has come to represent a cultural heritage, an emotion. The aroma of menthol and camphor that the product exuded meant caring. Brand loyalty in such cases was not a result of advertisements; it came inherited.
As India entered the era of modernization in the second half of the twentieth century, so did Zandu Pharmaceutical Works. The company developed more products, undertook research activities, and attempted at integrating ancient Ayurvedic wisdom into modern-day processes of manufacturing. However, in 2008, a turning point came when one of the leading FMCG brands in India, Emami Limited, took control over the ownership of Zandu Pharmaceutical Works. In most cases, acquisition means the death of the unique brand identity. For Zandu Balm, this process meant a whole new level. Emami Limited possessed powerful networks, extensive knowledge about marketing, and resources to bring Zandu Balm from local chemists to every store in India. What is more, the company preserved the iconic yellow tin container, kept the original formula of the remedy and retained the unique voice that had been built around trust and authenticity over decades. What changed was just the availability of the product.
Zandu Balm, despite its age, continues to flourish due to its effective brand-building practices which have been followed diligently for more than a century now. Here are a few of them: First, be consistent because change does not always result in progress. The formula, the packaging, the essence of Zandu Balm has not undergone many changes since it first came into existence. In an era when people try hard to capitalize on trends by making changes every once in a while, it became an important asset for the company to maintain its stability. Secondly, be accessible as products that are easily available to everyone tend to build strong brand equity for themselves over time. By offering the product at a reasonable price point, Zandu Balm has made sure that people do not treat the product as some kind of luxury. Lastly, tap into the culture. It is often said that a successful campaign builds brand equity through marketing, but the reality is far different as nothing beats the feeling of nostalgia.
From the hands of a Gujarati Vaidya in 1910 to the homes of over a billion Indians — Zandu Balm is proof that the greatest legacies are built not through grand gestures, but through quiet, consistent service to the everyday needs of ordinary people. A tiny bottle. A massive legacy.
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