Introduction to HUL

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India's largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods Company with a heritage of over 75 years in India and touches the lives of two out of three Indians.

HUL works to create a better future every day and helps people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others. With over 35 brands spanning 20 distinct categories such as soaps, detergents, shampoos, skin care, toothpastes, deodorants, cosmetics, tea, coffee, packaged foods, ice cream, and water purifiers, the Company is a part of the everyday life of millions of consumers across India. Its portfolio includes leading household brands such as Lux, Lifebuoy, Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel, Fair & Lovely, Ponds, Vaseline, Lakm, Dove, Clinic Plus, Sunsilk, Pepsodent, Closeup, Axe, Brooke Bond, Bru, Knorr, Kissan, Kwality Walls and Pureit. The Company has over 16,000 employees and has an annual turnover of around Rs.19, 401 crores (financial year 2010 - 2011). HUL is a subsidiary of Unilever, one of the worlds leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods with strong local roots in more than 100 countries across the globe with annual sales of about 44 billion in 2011. Unilever has about 52% shareholding in HUL.

HUL at a glance
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India's largest fast moving consumer goods company, with leadership in Home & Personal Care Products and Foods & Beverages.

HUL's brands touch the lives of two out of three Indians. They endow the company with turnover of Rs.19, 401 crores (for the 12 month period April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011). The mission that inspires HUL's more than 16,000 employees, including over 1,500 managers, is to help people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others. It is a mission HUL shares with its parent company, Unilever, which holds about 52 % of the equity.

VISION Unilever products touch the lives of over 2 billion people every day whether that's through feeling great because they've got shiny hair and a brilliant smile, keeping their homes fresh and clean, or by enjoying a great cup of tea, satisfying meal or healthy snack. A clear direction The four pillars of our vision set out the long term direction for the company where we want to go and how we are going to get there:

We work to create a better future every day

We help people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others.

We will inspire people to take small everyday actions that can add up to a big difference for the world. We will develop new ways of doing business that will allow us to double the size of our company while reducing our environmental impact

LAKME Lakme is the Indian womans Beauty Sutra inspiring expression of her unique beauty and sensuality

Lakme brings expert products and services that are borne out of true understanding of the needs of the Indian woman. They help the Indian woman in expression of her best self sensual, original, expressive, alive and intuitive Lakme inspires her to unleash the potency of her femininity, beauty and sensuality

Key facts
Lakme was the first major beauty brand in India and takes pride in being the expert on Indian Beauty for over 50 years. It is complete beauty brand spanning colour cosmetics, skin care & hair styling products and extending to beauty services through the network of Lakme Beauty Salons.

 Its bond with beauty and fashion is manifested through the Lakme Fashion Week, which is now the largest fashion event of its kind in the country. Lakme has a foot print of over 1200 assisted sales outlets, which is the largest span of outlets with Beauty Advisors in the country. Below the line initiatives are extremely important in the cosmetic segment since the buying experience is as important as brand image and advertising. Significant focus is on sales counters, beauty advisors and dealer aids. We constantly integrate a lot of the above the line campaigns like 'Whose watching your lips' with below the line initiatives Anil C hopra, Business Head, Lakme Lever ''Lakm is at the forefront of product-innovation. Almost everyone has a Lakmsomething in their (cosmetics) collection ,'' said Mumbai-based fashion choreographer Lubna Adams . T he Indian cosmetics industry is in churn. Even as the premium segment is getting crowded, the rural market is turning out to be the stronghold of smaller, regional players. Although stif competition has emerged for Lakme Lever within the Rs 250-crore colour cosmetics market, it continues to lead. In the skincare market, estimated at Rs 700 crore, Lakme's market share averages 7-8 per cent. Catalyst spoke to Anil Chopra, Lakme Lever's Business Head

ABOUT TH BRAND Half a century ago, as India took her steps into freedom, Lakme, India's first beauty brand was born. At a time when the beauty industry in India was at a nascent stage, Lakme tapped into what would grow to be amongst the leading, high consumer interest segments in the Indian Industry - that of skincare and cosmetic products. Armed with a potent combination of foresight, research and constant innovation, Lakme has grown to be the market leader in the cosmetics industry. Lakme today has grown to have a wide variety of products and services that cover all facets of beauty care, and arm the consumer with products to pamper herself from head to toe. These include products for the lips, nails, eyes, face and skin, and services like the Lakme Beauty Salons.

A little bit of Lakm history:

In 1995, Lakm Ltd (a Tata Group company) and HLL formed a 50:50 venture Lakm Lever that would market and distribute Lakm's products. In 1998, Lakm sold its brands (and the 50 per cent it owned in the JV) to HLL, renamed itself Trent and entered a different business (retail). Only, the years between 1995 and 2000 saw HLL wrestling with several issues with a bearing on Lakm's future. A brand that has over 5 decades talked of beauty is none other than Lakm. Launched in 1952, it offered a range of cosmetics with nail polishes & lipsticks from the early 80s. Lakm also understands the importance of maintaining and accentuating a womens natural beauty, for this it has introduced a range of skincare products from 1987. These ranges have been constantly innovated to bring specialized beauty care and complete the range for the definitive women.

Chopra accepts that distribution has been the company's Achilles heel for some time: ''The supply-chain hasn't been as robust as it should have been, but that has been the result of our efforts to reposition and reintroduce the brand.'' The positioning bit, although complex, is clear: Ponds is Lever's primary skincare brand; Lakm, its aspirational colour cosmetics brand, which also has a presence in skincare. The 'aspirational' qualification would mean Lakm would compete at what the company terms the 'upper-mass' (premium) end of the colour cosmetics spectrum (products priced between Rs 85 and Rs 250) where a slew of competitors, ranging from Revlon (through Modi Revlon) to Chambor, are already slugging it out. Says Meghna Modi, 26, Executive Director, Modi Revlon: ''The numbers say it all. According to ORG-MARG's retail audit, we have an 84 per cent share of the premium end of the colour cosmetics market.'' Chopra is quick to rubbish this claim; he says ORG-MARG does not have a representative sample of the 60,000 outlets through which colour cosmetics are sold in India. Still, it is conceivable that Lakm's new-found aspirational strategy could have been brought about by competitors like Revlon and Maybelline, which targeted

this segment. Indeed, the company's non-transfer lip-colour range follows in the wake of Maybelline's launch of a similar range, and its new nail-enamel colours come soon after Maybelline and Revlon launched their nail-enamel range. The company's defense is that it takes at least 15 months from the conceptualization to the actual launch of products. And fashion consultants like Meher Castelino believe the brand commands an edge at the high-end: ''By appropriating the fashion platform for itself, Lakm has entrenched itself at the glamour-end.''

Lakme products
Colours
From the spicy shades to the flattering look, Lakme offers a range of products in the face, lips, eyes and nail segment for the beauty aficionados.

Face
Lakm Daily Wear Souffl ,Lakm Perfecting liquid Foundation - Lakm Radiance Compact , Lakm Flawless Matte Complexion Compact

Lips
Lakm Enrich Lipcolor - . Perfecting Definition Lip Pencil - Starshine Lipgloss Glosses in lustrous shades available in 14 shades.

Eyes
From dramatic to natural look- a wide range of products are on offer to create the perfect eyes. 1. Lakm Kajal: 2. Lame Insta Eyeliner eyelids 3. Lakme Lakm Shimmer Eye Cube:

Nails
True Wear Nail Enamel -Nail Enamel with Lacquer-like finish. Contains resins and silicone with colour lock technology that gives brilliant long lasting shine

Skin
For radiant skin Lakm is there to pamper your skin with specialized products for the diva in you.(lakme fruit blast facewashes,lakme perfect radiance)

Cleansing
Strawberry Silk Splash Face Wash , Lakm Fundamental Deep Pore Cleansing Milk -

Moisturizing
1. Lakm Fundamental Peach Milk Moisturiser skin. 2. Lakm Fundamental Winter Care Lotion 3. Lakme fruit moisturizer

Sun Protection
The range comprises of lotions to keep your skin healthy and younger looking.

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieve that objective. The technique is credited to Albert Humphrey, who led a convention at Stanford University in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies. A SWOT analysis must first start with defining a desired end state or objective. A SWOT analysis may be incorporated into the strategic planning model. Strategic Planning has been the subject of much research.[citation needed] Strengths: characteristics of the business or team that give it an advantage over others in the industry. Weaknesses: are characteristics that place the firm at a disadvantage relative to others. Opportunities: external chances to make greater sales or profits in the environment. Threats: external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business. Identification of SWOTs is essential because subsequent steps in the process of planning for achievement of the selected objective may be derived from the SWOTs. First, the decision makers have to determine whether the objective is attainable, given the SWOTs. If the objective is NOT attainable a different objective must be selected and the process repeated. The SWOT analysis is often used in academia to highlight and identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.[citation needed] It is particularly helpful in identifying areas for development.[citation needed]

SWOT ANALYSIS OF LAKME

Strengths :
1. local brand of specific relevance to India. 2. Strong R&D capability, well linked with business. 3. Integrated supply chain and well spread manufacturing units. 4. Ability to deliver Cost Savings. 5. Access to Unilever global technology capability and sharing of practices from other Unilever best

Weaknesses :
1. Price positioning in some categories allows for low price competition. 2. Varying quality range in its products. 3. Falling Quality of Lame salons

Opportunities :
1. Brand growth through increased consumption depth and frequency of usage across all categories. 2. Upgrading consumers through innovation to new levels of quality and performance. 3. Building brand image by collaborating with top designers in Lakme Fashion week

Threats :
1. Aggressive price competition from local and multinational players. 2. Spurious/counterfeit products in rural areas and small towns. 3. Non Existence of brand image in long Run

Everything a girl wants

Lakm has a wide range of products in color cosmetics that bring visible results. To add to this vast repertoire is a range of specialized skin care products for the discerning women. Keeping skin looking healthy and glowing is also a part of looking great. Lakm provide the complete package with the skin care range and the wide range of colors to spice up the look.

 Promotions beyond fashion week  The brand should not lose its focus away from cosmetics. It can proved to very detrimental.  For vast reach unlikely, in the short-term. Some sort of an alliance or co-branding with the salons that already exist may, perhaps, have been a better strategy.  The general perception is that company-owned salons are expensive. Though Lakme beauty salons are reasonably priced, it has not been communicated well enough.

Strengths
Cost advantage High R&D Innovation Loyal customers Market share leadership Strong brand equity Supply chain Pricing Reputation management Unique products

Weaknesses
No online presence Weak management team

Opportunities
Online Product and services expansion

Threats

Competition Lower cost competitors or imports Price wars Product substitution