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The client
ORSL has long been a trusted name in rehydration across India and is a staple in many households throughout the country. The brand’s impressive reputation has been built on its fast, effective rehydration drinks, which are used to help patients recover from diarrhoea and other acute illnesses. It also possesses a strong relationship with healthcare professionals (HCPs) and an extensive sales force.
But ORSL wasn’t content with their product being solely used for medical purposes. The brand recognised that its unique formulation of electrolytes and vitamins meant it could play a much broader role in consumers’ lives. With growing consumer interest in wellness and immunity, ORSL saw potential to become a wellness ally in everyday hydration, restoration, and immunity.
The need for change
By 2021, strong growth had proved the brand’s medical credentials, but the ORSL team knew their next chapter required thinking bigger. The wellness market was growing across India, and consumers were becoming increasingly proactive about their health.
Achieving this meant moving beyond their traditional medical positioning, but there was no clear path forward.
Which spaces could the brand credibly play in? How could it expand from medical recovery into everyday wellness without losing the clinical credibility that made it trusted? Which new spaces could ORSL credibly enter?
Bringing in STRAT7
The brand turned to STRAT7 to help set a new direction. From the outset, this was more than a positioning brief, it was a strategic transformation opportunity. The team needed a clear, consumer-centric roadmap that would see them reimagine what the brand could be.
This wasn’t a one-off project. Over five years, we’ve worked alongside ORSL through multiple phases of their evolution, adapting our approach as the brand grew and the market shifted.
Identifying opportunities
We began by mapping the wellness landscape in India, identifying unmet needs across both medical and lifestyle contexts. Through sprint-style workshops, we aligned cross-functional teams around a ‘strategy on a page’ – a sharp, consumer-centric growth plan that became ORSL’s long-term north star.
The breakthrough came from recognising opportunity spaces beyond functional hydration. We co-created strategic territories that pushed ORSL to think about proactive wellness, not just reactive recovery. This framework secured senior leadership buy-in, including endorsement from the Managing Director.
Implementing change
The strategy sparked immediate action and a wave of innovation. Working closely with healthcare professionals, we supported the team through concept development and refinement. One of these concepts led to ORSL’s first immunity-focused SKU – marking the brand’s entry into proactive wellness.
By 2024, we returned to help shape the next growth wave, developing a future-facing roadmap with prioritised spaces and commercial filters that would guide the brand’s continued evolution.
The transformation accelerated from there. Innovation cycles shortened dramatically, and the brand’s confidence grew. In 2024, ORSL launched a national hydration awareness campaign that culminated in a dedicated programme on NDTV, India’s largest news network – a powerful signal of their evolution from medical product to consumer lifestyle brand.
The numbers tell the story: as Sarvesh Sahni, Global Senior Marketing Director and ORSL Brand Lead, puts it: “We moved from a position where we only had one innovation in six years – to six innovations in one year.”
The future
ORSL’s journey from recovery aid to wellness ally demonstrates what’s possible when brands are willing to reimagine their role in consumers’ lives. What started as a medical rehydration drink has become a confident, innovation-driven lifestyle brand with clear territory in everyday health.
The strategic framework we built together continues to guide decisions across the business, from product development to marketing activation. Most importantly, it’s given ORSL the confidence and tools to keep evolving as consumer wellness needs change.
This five-year partnership shows how sustained strategic collaboration can transform not just positioning, but innovation pace and business growth – turning untapped potential into market-leading performance.
