Soap industry in India

The product that I have been given by the faculty is beauty soap. I have named it as Shine.

Executive Summary

The soap industry in India is at the high growth rate and many new entrants are planning to launch their product in this category. The overall soap industry is worth at 60000 crores. Shine is a multinational company. It is a new entrant in the market and targets at unisex genders. I segmented Shine’s market according to geographical locations. It further differentiates these segments into Socio Economic Cluster (SEC) which takes into account the criteria of education and profession which ultimately measures the financial ability of consumers. The cluster is divided into five parts starting from A to E. Shine targets the urban and sub urban upper middle class and middle class segment of the population, who falls under A to C of SEC.

Tactical marketing tools, 4P‘s, are extensively used by the company to market Shine. Though Shine is produced in India, Unilever India maintains the same standard all around the globe. The product is available in six different fragrances under three different sizes. Since the demand for beauty soap market is to a great extent oligopolistic, variations in price lead to price war which can eventually break down the company‘s market share. Thus Unilever cannot provide a better price than its competitors. But the price is affordable by most of the people. Shine will outsource its distribution channel to third party distributors which allow them to distribute Shine in massive bulks amounting to around ten million pieces. It undertakes the largest promotional activities in the beauty soap industry.

The beauty soap industry has a few major producers of which Unilever holds market share of
slightly less than 50%. Other competing brands like Tibbet, Aromatic and Keya have started to have a strong consumer base, but Shine’s product features distribution and promotional activities will create high brand loyalty for which it will be the market leader soon after developing its IMC plan. Shine, with the aid of its heavy promotional activities, has been able to penetrate the market. But the other producers in the industry are posing a threat towards Shine‘s market share as they have moved towards the rural masses of the population. Therefore, I have undertaken many further steps such as moving towards the rural and/or poorer segment; attract children (by making a special product for kids) and other innovative promotional activities to retain its command in the industry.

Industry analysis

The toilet soaps market is estimated at 530,000 tpa including small imports. The market is littered over with several, leading national and global brands and a large number of small brands, which have limited markets. The popular and premium brands include Lifebuoy, Lux, Cinthol, Liril, Rexona, and Nirma.

Toilet soaps, despite their divergent brands, are not well differentiated by the consumers. It is,
therefore, not clear if it is the brand loyalty or experimentation lured by high volume media
campaign, which sustain them. A consequence is that the market is fragmented. It is obvious that this must lead to a highly competitive market. Toilet soap, once only an urban phenomenon, has now penetrated practically all areas including remote rural areas. The incremental demand flows from population increase and rise in usage norm impacted as it is by a greater concern for hygiene. Increased sales revenues would also expand from up gradation of quality or per unit value.

As the market is constituted now, it can be divided into four price segments: premium, popular, discount and economy soaps. Premium soaps are estimated to have a market volume of about 80,000 tonnes. This translates into a share of about 14 to 15%.

Soaps form the largest pie of the FMCG Market with bathing & toilet soaps accounting for around 30% of the soap market, by value. Currently, the soap industry is divided into three segments namely Premium, Popular and Economy/ Sub popular.

To fight competition, major players Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) and Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting are now drawing up fresh game plans. And the accent is clearly on innovation to gain mind share as well as market share in this overcrowded category.

Major Players

Hindustan Unilever Ltd.

With over seven brands — LUX, LIFEBUOY, HAMAM, REXONA, BREEZE, DOVE and PEARS — has 54.3% share of the overall soap market. HUL is India’s largest Fast Moving
Consumer Goods Company; its journey began 75 years ago, in 1933, when the company was first incorporated. The company stirring the lives of two out of three Indians with over 20
distinct categories in Home & Personal Care Products and Foods & Beverages and also one of the country’s largest exporters. HUL’s brands includes Lifebuoy, Lux, Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel, Fair & Lovely, Pond’s, Sunsilk, Clinic, Pepsodent, Close-up, Lakme, Brooke Bond, Kissan, Knorr-Annapurna, Kwality Wall’s – are household names across the country. They are manufactured in over 40 factories across India. In the Rs7,000 crore by sales soap market, HUL‘s market share has dropped to 54.3% in March 2008 from 55.9% in March 2006.

Godrej Consumer Products

GCPL, India‘s second largest soap maker after Hindustan Unilever Ltd, has nearly 9.2% market share. With 11% market share in value terms, it is the second largest soap maker after Hindustan Unilever. Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) is a major player in the Indian FMCG market with leadership in personal, hair, household and fabric care segments. The company is one among the largest marketer of toilet soaps in the country with leading brands such as CINTHOL, FAIRGLOW, NIKHAR, & ALLCARE. Fairglow brand, India’s first Fairness soap, has created marketing history as one of the most successful innovations. It is also the preferred supplier for contract manufacturing of toilet soaps, some of which are the most well-known brands in the country.

Wipro

In the Indian market, Wipro is a leader in providing IT solutions and services for the corporate segment in India. Wipro also has a profitable presence in niche market segments of infrastructure engineering, and consumer products & lighting.Wipro has made a large acquisition in the Consumer Care business. The presence of Wipro in the toilet soap industry can be seen through their brands such as SANTOOR and CHANDRIKA. With industry leading organic growth rates and the acquisition, Consumer care business has reached a Revenue run rate in excess of $100 million per quarter.

Procter & Gamble India

Procter & Gamble India (PGHHCL) was incorporated in 1964 after Procter & Gamble, US, acquired Richardson Vicks, US. Formerly known as Richardson Hindustan (the Indian Subsidiary), it was later named as P&G. It changed its name again in 1998 to Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care in order to reflect the nature and character of the business of the company. During 2004-05 the company has increased its installed capacity of Soaps & Detergents and Toilet Preparations etc by 36500 Tonnes and 263 Tonnes respectively. With this expansion the total installed capacity of Soaps & Detergents and Toilet Preparations etc has increased to 108500 Tonnes and 5875 Tonnes respectively.

Nirma

Incorporated as a private limited company, Nirma was converted into a deemed public company and then to a public limited one in Nov.’93. Nirma has a leadership presence in Detergents, Soaps and Personal Care Products. To have a greater control on the quality and price of its raw materials, Nirma undertook backward integration into manufacture of Industrial Products like Soda Ash, Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB), Alfa Olefin Sulphonates (AOS), Fatty Acid, Glycerine and Sulphuric Acid. During 1996-97, Nilnita Chemicals, Nirma Detergents, Nirma Soaps and Detergents, and Shiva Soaps and Detergents were amalgamated with the company. The company created ‘Nirma Consumer Care Ltd.’ – a wholly owned subsidiary on 22nd Aug.’97, which is the sole licensee of the brand name ‘Nirma’ within India. Nirma enjoys a share of 6.74% in soaps.

ITC

ITC, the country‘s largest cigarette maker, entered the segment last year and has made a strong headway in a short time. According to AC Nielsen, its share has grown to 1.75% in just five months despite the fact that many of its brands such as Superia, Fiama Di Wills and Vivel are currently sold in only six states.

Competitor analysis

Santoor:

Santoor is the flagship brand in the Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting stable and the 2nd largest brand of soap in India in the popular segment of the category. The brand enjoys two decades of trust since its launch in 1986 and has grown to be counted amongst the top brands in the Country in an intensively competitive market. Millions of women across the country have discovered the secret of younger looking skin with Santoor. It is a truly unique soap that combines the goodness of natural ingredients – Sandal, Turmeric and natural Skin Softeners. Sandal provides a cooling and soothing effect that softens skin, while turmeric controls formation of skin darkening pigments like melanin, to give skin a radiant glow. Natural Skin Softeners make skin soft and supple. The end result, skin that is so healthy and beautiful, it lies about your actual age.

Amongst the first brands in the Country to launch an offering with the twin ingredient benefits of Sandal and Turmeric, Santoor has over the years moved from a purely natural ingredient based appeal, to one of the most preferred beauty soaps of the day. Today, Santoor is one of the fastest growing soap brands in India. Santoor is available in three variants – Santoor (Sandal & Turmeric), Santoor White (Sandal & Almond milk) and Santoor Chandan which is a premium soap manufactured with extracts of Sandalwood oil – a favourite of discerning consumers.

Cinthol

Cinthol the popular and much-loved brand of Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) have been a favourite of people for many years. All different soaps in its range are having feel-fresh fragrance and high TFM index. Cinthol‘s range covers an economic Lime-fresh, the medium deo-soaps (spice, lime,cologne and the new ‘sport‘) and a slightly expensive ―Cinthol-Original. For decades, Cinthol-Original is one of the best soaps made in India. It had a simple red-cover which attracts none! But was still able to sustain itself in the market . Godrej has now launched the improved Cinthol range. Cinthol now offers a deo-range of soaps, talc and deo-sprays in three exciting fragrances – Classic, Cologne and Sport in a trendy new packaging. It also offers Cinthol fresh soap and Cinthol Regular soap with new exciting packaging. The eye-catching and vibrant packaging symbolizes a sense of adventure, zest and action. The new Cinthol range brings 24-Hour Confidence through Active Deo Formula, which controls body odour, Powerful DryShield that absorbs sweat, UltraScent Technology for long lasting fragrance and Freshness that revitalises you 24×7.The new range will be available across the country at modern retail and other outlets and will be supported by high-impact advertising on television, print, out-door, on-line and radio.

Vivel and Superia

The Vivel Di Wills range is available in two variants. Its unique carton pack has been developed by ITC’s design team to provide a novel consumer experience. Vivel Di Wills Sheer Radiance is enriched with Olive Oil, to provide skin lustre to make it radiant. Vivel Di Wills Sheer Crème is enriched with Shea Butter, to moisturize skin to make it soft and supple.

The Vivel range of soaps is available in four variants:-

1) Vivel Young Glow is enriched with Vitamin E and Fruit Infusions which help in providing youthful glow to the skin.

2) Satin Soft is enriched with Vitamin E and Aloe Vera which help the skin feel Vivel beautifully soft.

3) Vivel Sandal Sparkle is enriched with Sandalwood Oil and Active Clay which helps in providing clear skin.

IMC PLANNING

Mission

Shine’s mission is to add Vitality to life. They meet everyday needs for nutrition; hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. Their deep roots in local cultures and markets around the world give them strong relationship with consumers and are the foundation for their future growth. A key requirement is building in the quality expectations of their consumers into their products.

PRODUCT PROFILE

Shine soap is introduced as bathroom soap. Shine in step with the changing trends and evolving beauty needs of the consumers, offers an exciting range of soaps and Body Washes with unique elements to make bathing time more pleasurable. One can choose from a range of skincare benefits like firming, fairness and moisturising.

Shine stands for the promise of beauty and glamour as one of India’s most trusted personal care brands. Shine offers a range of soaps in different colours and world class fragrances. Shine is a beauty soap of film stars. Shine recognized the need for a compelling message about beauty that would resonate with women of today.

Product Category, Market Segmentation, Target Marketing and Positioning

This section describes the category of the selected product. The chapter is organized into four sections. Section 1 states under which category the product falls. Section 2 describes how Shine differentiates the population and categorizes them into different segments. Section 3 analyzes which segment the company targets and why they target that specific segment. Finally section 4 describes the process through which the company tries to capture a place in the buyers mind i.e. the product positioning method.

Product Category

Shine falls under the category of toiletry product as a beauty soap.

Market Segmentation

Shine segments their market according to geographical areas. The population of the country is segmented into three parts which are urban, sub urban and rural area consumers. Though Shine is the highest selling beauty soap in Bangladesh, it does not go for traditional mass marketing. Moreover as a beauty soap LUX does not even segment its market according to gender.

Target Market

Shine is not a highly expensive but an affordable product. That is why the company targets urban and sub urban upper middle and middle class people who are the second highest population of segment of the country. From the segmentation of customer according to SEC they target category A, B and C, because they are assumed to be financially well-off and can afford to buy Shine.

Product Positioning

Shine obtained a good position in the buyers‘mind through better product attributes, price and quality, offering the product in a different way than the competitors do. The company offers improved quality of products in the industry at an affordable price with high branding, which ultimately helps to position the product in the buyers‘mind as the best quality beauty soap.

The market share of the company in the beauty soap industry is somewhere around 43%.Since in the beauty soap industry all products are of same price Unilever cannot provide its consumers with better price but it is in a great position in reference with its packaging, fragrances and product designing.

Tactical Marketing Tools

This chapter describes the Way Company will use the tactical marketing tools for marketing Shine in India. The chapter comprises of four sections. This section includes a table that shows the location of the company‘s warehouses all around the country. Finally a section discusses the promotional activities that the company undertakes for Shine.

Product:

Shine is an internationally renowned beauty soap brand. Though manufactured in India for the local market by Unilever India ltd, as an international brand, it maintains an international quality for the product. Formula given by Research and Development departments in foreign countries, Shine is produced in India from imported raw materials like sodium soap, glycerol and different extracts according to flavours, coming from Unilever plants situated abroad.

Shine is offered in India in six different flavours which are: Shine Energizing Honey, Shine Golden Glow, Shine Nature Pure, Shine Orchid Touch, Shine Almond Delight and Shine Aqua Sparkle. Taking into account the convenience of its customers, the company manufactures all variants of Shine in three different sizes, 40gm, 80gm and 120gm.

Price:

Though Shine gives its customers a lot in terms of the product itself, it cannot provide a better pricing. This is due to some constraints in the beauty soap industry. Beauty soap is a product with a vulnerable demand in India. A change in price has a high risk of creating price war among the rivals which will eventually cause a loss of profit. Its prices are almost equal to its competitor. Shine price with its major competitor. Company carries out research on competitors‘price and brand loyalty when it feels extreme necessity of changing price. The brand loyalty test is an exploratory research which is known as Brand Health Check-
Up (BHCU).

Place:

Shine has a huge distribution channel all over the country as its sales reach more than 10 million pieces a year. The company has six huge warehouses, one in each division of India, where the product goes after they are manufactured at Uttaranchal factory.

The company will not use its own fleet of transport for distributing its product. However, it will outsource its distribution process to various third party distributors. These distributors will then supply the product all over India to a huge number of retailers. Even though Shine targets the urban and sub urban middle and upper middle class people they are distributing their products all over India because of a recent increase in demand of its product to all segments of the population.

Promotion:

Shine will undertake a huge promotional activity to promote itself. I will spend almost 20% to 25% of its Net Proceeds from Sales (NPC) of Shine for promotional activities.

It will include certain annual promotional campaigns like Shine Channel i Superstar and Shine Channel i Annual Cinema Awards, which will made the product a part of the glamour world. Since our Indian audiences are emotionally attached to its root culture and gets easily attached or relate themselves to celebrities, so I will promote Shine by endorsing famous bollywood celebrities like Hema Malini, Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachan etc. I will not promote Shine in India for the beauty conscious females only, but it will also be promoted as the brand for males by including world famous male celebrity Shahrukh Khan for the advertising campaign.

Shine will spend a huge amount of money for promotion through TV commercials, newspaper advertisements and billboards. Moreover I will also undertake small promotional campaigns at different colleges, universities and recreational parks with winners of its Zonal Beauty Contests.

INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION

A) Sales Promotion

Sales promotion, a key ingredient in marketing campaigns, consists of a collection of incentive tools, mostly short term, designed to stimulate quicker or greater purchase of particular products or services by consumers or the trade. Whereas advertising offers a reason to buy, sales promotion offers an incentive to buy.

Prominent Promotional schemes that will be used by Shine

1. Sales Promotion to Consumers:

Consumers are extremely complex human beings, motivated by several factors. Hence it is important to understand a consumer’s motivation given a certain product and product category. Consumer promotions are those that are directed to the consumer. The objective of consumer promotions is to offer the consumer some added benefit to entice him to buy the product. There are several possible tools that I will use to promote Shine:

Sampling: As my product is new to the market, so this promotional tool is generally used when one is introducing a product for the first time. In this case, a small quantity of the product will be given as a sample. These samples will be distributed either at the residence of the consumer or even at the retail outlet provided by a condition.

Quantity Deals: Here the company will offer more quantity of the same product for the same price or a marginally increased price. For example, most of the FMCG companies bundle 3 or 4 soaps in a pack priced at the cost of 3 soaps. The purpose is to induce the consumer to buy more and more products at less cost. This will benefit both the customers and company. Customers can have 4 soaps at the cost of 3 whereas company can slightly decrease their profit but after selling their products at large quantity their profit will rise (Economies of Sales).

In-Product gift: In this case the gift item is attached to the product from outside. E.g.: once Lux presented 30 gm gold each to the first three winners of the Lux Gold Star offer from
Delhi. According to the promotional offer that Lux unveiled in October 2000, a consumer
finding a 22-carat gold coin in his or her soap bar got an opportunity to win an additional
30 gm gold. The first 10 callers every week got a 30 gm gold each. This offer helped lux to increase its sales rapidly. I will also use this type of tool to promote my product and hence increase the sales of SHINE.

2. Sales promotion to Traders:

Trade promotions are those that a company runs to elicit a better and quicker response from the trade. Some of the trade promotional tools that I will be using are:

On-Consignment Sales: This tool is normally used by companies that are new entrants and are not known in the marketplace. Here companies encourage traders to stock their products on an “on-consignment” basis and pay only when the product moves off the shelves. My company will use this tool to encourage the new retailers to sell my product and pay after the product moves off the shelves.

Dealer gifts: Personal motivation is very necessary in order to boost the sales because if the retailer is happy that the company cares for him, so the retailer will work hard to sell the product of the company by telling the customers that it is the best product that will benefit them. I will use this tool by giving dealers/retailers gifts on the occasions of EID, Diwali, New Year so that they get more loyal to our product and maintain good relations with them.

Point-of-sale Material: Traders will be given attractive point-of-sale material for displaying Shine. We will provide shelf stickers, streamers, attractive stands to hold the soap etc.

Online contests:

Example:

Shine

Please enter your name and email to play the game.

Play the supercharged version of the hit puzzle game, Bejeweled. Create rows of 3 or more identical stones and you could win a trip for two to a five-star Resort in Goa.

B) Advertisements:

There are number of sources available for passing the product message. These are as follows:

1) Television

2) Outdoor (Billboards)

3) Magazines

4) Newspapers

5) Internet

My company will use various advertising appeal to attract customers. These will include affective emotional, seductive, comparative appeals in the videos, newspapers and on the internet. The advertisements will be endorsed by famous bollywood celebrities like Priyanka chopra, Aishwarya rai, Asin etc. to target the youth and mid age group. However there will be also a male advertisement where Shahrukh khan may endorse the Shine.

Advertising Campaign:

The advertisements will run in a campaign where a complete program of advertisements will be aired by parts from time to time. The first base of the advertising campaign will be advertising strategy, where a plan will be devised to maintain a viable fit between my organization’s objectives and resources and changing market opportunities. Advertising strategy is the ‘message’ that a company gives to solve a communication-related problem. My company’s advertising strategy is to create awareness and brand equity of the shine. The next step is to create a ‘Big idea’ where an advertiser selects an idea for communicating the strategic message in a creative way. It is a link between strategy and creative execution. It may be also called a central theme. The central theme of my advertising campaign will be how men are magnetically attracted towards women using Shine soap. Once the big idea is finalized, then it follows its creative execution. Creative execution deals with the physical form of an advertisement- story, script, copy, art, music, overall production. The creative execution of Shine’s ad will include creative tagline, elements of wit and humour, role of glamorous actress and models using shine soap while bathing and then the media will be asking them what is their beauty’s secret and like that.

Choice of Strategic Approaches:

Unique Selling Proposition: A brand may have a true and distinctive competitive advantage called the Unique Selling Proposition (USP). The USP is a distinctive advantage that is both valuable to the brand’s customers and is unexploited by its competitors. The USP of Shine will be a guaranteed effect of fairness of the skin, and its ingredients that are made of no chemicals.

C) Creative Execution on Radio:

The most creative advertisement can be made on Radio, if its script is written creatively. The power of radio in country like India is much more than TV. We always notice that during cricket matches, a number of companies promote their products on radio, like sound of the whistle which a person might think of Hawkins Pressure Cooker. It is because Hawkins advertisement on radio has been created well that is why people still remember the sound of Hawkins. Another example is of jingle of titan, which can be easily recalled by a person who have heard it on radio. In the same way, I will promote my product on radio by writing a creative script and then executing it on radio with the help of sounds, voices and jingles.

D) Communication through Internet:

Internet is the most advanced medium that a company can use effectively to boost its sales and create a distinctive image or brand equity. Many companies have started to give online advertisements. It can be on e-mails ( yahoo, Gmail etc.), networking sites ( orkut, facebook, hi5 etc.) or may be any form possible on the Internet.

The message in these types of ads will be same as the company have made to produce an integrated marketing communication. The advertisement of Shine on Internet will take these forms:

a) Translucent Float banner advertisements:

These types of advertisement are displayed mostly on the opening up of e-mail ids. Like in the above picture, Shine will also use translucent float banner advertisement because this type of advertisement will have a good impact on the audience that they remember the product when they use their e-mails. In this advertisement, a screen would appear before a person prompting him/her to fill a form of feedback or to enrol in an online contest.

b) Virals:

Like traditional viral marketing, Internet virals also rely on spreading the buzz online. Viral advertising refers to people passing on interesting and entertaining promotional content, generally sponsored by a brand to create awareness, build equity or get publicity. Shine will use the viral advertisement by using advergames ( using video games to advertise a product), flash games, messenger messages ( on yahoo).