AI Search Visibility for FMCG Brands in India
FMCG buyers now ask an AI engine which product to buy, how it compares and whether it suits them. A brand can rank well in those answers and still appear in few of them. Our scans of three FMCG brands show the same pattern: the problem is absence, and absence traces back to what the brand has published on its own domain.
What our FMCG scans found
We scanned three FMCG brands as independent research. These are public brands and the scans are not client work.
| Brand | Category | Prompts | Coverage | Owned-citation share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boost | Health drinks | 30 | 53% | 0.2% |
| Imperial Blue | Whisky | 25 | 28% | 0% |
| Dabur Red | Ayurvedic oral care | 20 | 15% | 11% |
Coverage is the share of scanned prompts in which the brand appeared in the answer. Owned-citation share is the share of citations that came from the brand's own domain. Source: Velivo One AEO scan output, ibs Fulcro AI search analysts. The Boost scan ran on six engines with seven runs per prompt. The Dabur Red and Imperial Blue scans ran on ChatGPT only, one response per prompt.
Boost: present in half the answers, named after its sibling
Boost appeared in 111 of 210 scanned responses, which is 53%. Its average position when named was 3.05. Horlicks, a fellow HUL brand, held 1.62. In 104 of Boost's 111 appearances Horlicks was named alongside it.
Only 2 of 1,172 citations came from a Boost-owned site. Horlicks.in alone supplied 29. The engines also disagreed: Google AI Mode named Boost in 80% of its responses and Perplexity in 30%. Thirteen mentions carried negative sentiment, and they clustered on sugar-content comparisons, where Boost also held its weakest position at 5.0.
Dabur Red and Imperial Blue: good rank, thin presence
Dabur Red averaged position 1.67 and every mention was positive. It still appeared in 3 of 20 prompts, while Patanjali appeared in 8 of 20. Questions about dentist recommendations, tooth sensitivity and clinical evidence were answered from PubMed, WHO and NHS sources. None carried a citable Dabur claim.
Imperial Blue averaged 1.86 when it appeared, ahead of Blenders Pride at 2.08. Its owned-citation share was 0%. Royal Stag led the category at 56% coverage. Read all five scans in the Owned-Citation Gap study.
How FMCG buyers ask AI
The prompts in these scans fall into four kinds. These examples are in the style of the scans.
| Kind of prompt | Example in the style of the scans |
|---|---|
| Comparison | Boost vs Horlicks for children |
| Value and price | Which whisky is best value for money |
| Trust and clinical | Is an ayurvedic toothpaste good for sensitive teeth |
| Category discovery | Best ayurvedic toothpaste brands in India |
Trust and clinical questions are the ones where FMCG brands most often hand the answer to a third party. If your own site has no page that states the claim and its source, the engine cites someone else.
What we do for an FMCG brand
- Build a prompt universe by buyer intent: category discovery, comparison, value, usage and trust.
- Scan six engines and report unprompted mention rate against named competitors.
- Audit owned-citation share against the category leader and against sibling brands in your own portfolio.
- Build pages an engine can quote: a direct answer near the top, the ingredient or claim stated plainly with its source, schema that matches the page, and FAQs.
- Work the off-page sources the engines already cite for your category, including listicles, original research, LinkedIn, YouTube and Reddit.
- Re-run the same prompts and report the change, whether it is good or not.
Every claim on a page comes from copy your team has approved. We do not write health or performance claims that your regulatory team has not signed off.
FMCG experience
ibs Fulcro has named campaign work for Old Spice, Gillette, Pepsi and P&G Shiksha. See the FMCG social media guide for that record. For AI search, our published evidence is the three scans above and the JK Tyre audit for method. Ongoing AEO work runs from ₹75,000 a month, scoped by the time we assign to the account. There is no prompt limit.
Frequently asked questions
Ask any agency for an FMCG owned-citation share and a sibling-brand check as well as a mention count. We publish both for Boost, Dabur Red and Imperial Blue. See our ranked list of AEO agencies in India. Use the same four checks on each: sample size, engines, unprompted mention rate and a client reference.
Engines name the brand with the most citable content. In the Boost scan, Horlicks.in supplied 29 citations and the Boost site supplied 2. When one brand in a portfolio has the content, the engine uses it and names the other brand beside it.
Only claims your brand has approved and can source. We write from approved copy, state the source on the page and make sure the schema matches what a visitor can read. We do not invent claims to fill an answer.
A properly run baseline reads out in weeks. The date depends on prompt count and engine coverage, and we agree it when we scope the work.
From ₹75,000 a month, scoped by the time we assign to the account. There is no prompt limit. We scope the account time on a call. We also say if a smaller engagement is the right answer.
Want your FMCG brand's own owned-citation share?
Talk to us for a no-obligation assessmentPage last updated October 20, 2026.