Fore School of Management

Report on Launch of a bathing soap

Pristine by

Submitted on: 4th September, 2014

Fore School of Management

Report on Launch of a bathing soap
Pristine by

Submitted by: Group1

Acknowledgement

It gives us great pleasure to thank all the people who have been a real help in completing this
project, which is a part of Marketing Management course. We are really thankful to Prof.
Bhalender Singh Nayyar, FORE School of Management, New Delhi for giving us the
opportunity to work upon a project that connected us with some real life instances and their
applications.
We would like to express our gratitude to Mr. Pankaj Tyagi, Manager R&D, Reckitt Benckiser
for his co-operation in research and inspiration without which this project would never have been
possible.
We are also thankful to our friends for their constant support and encouragement to answer our
surveys and queries towards providing us deep insight on the topic and helping us in compiling
the report.

Industry Analysis
The Indian bathing soap market is estimated to be around 9,800crores holding around 700
companies. They constitute the following market share:

Others

Personal

70%

30%
FMCG Industry
(78,000 crores)

Out of this 30% (22,000 crores), nearly

42% (9,800 crores is contributed by
soaps)
1,100 crores is contributed by herbal

Soaps are available in India in around five million retail stores out of which nearly 75% are in
the rural areas. In this particular category, brand loyalty is not fixed, products are used atleast
once a month and consumers change their preferences based on various factors such as
increasing media campaign etc. Hence, the market becomes highly fragmented with the presence
of both large and small players.
The market can be divided into the following categories as per price:

The popular category (Hamam, Lux, Cinthol) drives the soap market.
Penetration has never been a major issue for bathing soaps in the Indian market. In rural areas
the penetration is 97% - with 50% of the products being sold in the rural market; and in urban
areas the penetration is 99%.
Major players being Unilever, Nirma, Godrej, Johnson & Johnson, Colgate - Palmolive.

Industry SWOT Analysis

Strengths

1) Well-established penetration in rural as well as urban areas

2) Presence of strong global as well as domestic brands
3) Low cost operations
Weakness
1) Low investment in technology and innovation
2) Low exports
Opportunities
1) Domestic market can be expanded
2) Exports
3) Higher disposable income
Threats
1) Imports
2) Better global value-added products
3) Use of new products such as shower gels, liquid soaps

Growth trends
The bathing industry has been showing a moderate CAGR of around 5% in the last five years
(2009 2013) and is expected to show a higher growth rate of around 8% in the coming 2 3
years.

Explained in the figures as follows:

Indian bathing soap market sales

(2009-13) & forecasts

7600

8000

8200

8500

7000

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Some of the major drivers for an expected growth of 8% are:

1) Consumers are becoming more hygiene conscious
2) Increase in disposable incomes in the rural areas
3) Launch of more value-added premium soaps has led to an increase in the demand of
cheaper (or the popular category) substitute products
4) Moving trend towards ayurvedic/herbal soaps due to increasing awareness about their
medicinal value, hence fast growth observed in this segment as well.
5) Growing population of women in the age group of 25-44
6) Growing demand of beauty soaps amongst men also
Organised/ Unorganised sector: The share of the unorganized market (Breeze, Dyne) last year
has been around 20%. The organized market continues to dominate the soap industry due to
presence of strong multi-national brands.
However, in the coming three years the rate is share is expected to decline a bit to around 1718% (lesser decline in rural areas) because of the following reasons:

1) Since penetration is high in the rural areas, and global brands are now targeting these
areas and hence launching cheaper SKUs (stock keeping units).
2) Increase in disposable income in the rural areas may result in increased sales of popular
products such as Hamam, Lifebuoy and lesser sales for the unorganized market.

Competitive Analysis

Present market share of competitors

30%
10%
Unilever (HUL)

9%
Wipro

14%
7%

4%
Nirma

3%
Others

HUL
Unilever is the market leader with over seven brands in the soap category: LUX, LIFEBUOY,
HAMAM, REXONA, BREEZE, DOVE and PEARS. Also, one of the major exporters to various
countries, Unilever produces different varieties of soap beauty, herbal, medicinal, glycerin and
premium.
The company has strong R&D capabilities and a strong reach within both rural and urban areas.
The companys target consumer segment for soaps has always been women, it promoted LUX as
a brand that meant beauty reflecting from a womans body, it used beautiful celebrities to build
its brand image.
Similarly, Dove has been promoted as moisturizing soap for woman who consider soap hard for
their skin and prefer a creamy soap for softer skin.
Breeze has been used to accomplish the aspirations of women in rural India at an affordable
price.
Hamam is a brand associated with therapeutic values promoting a balanced life while Lifebuoy
assures great health for the entire family.
Liril has always been promoted as a brand associated with freshness, energy and excitement.

Godrej Consumer Products Limited

Godrej was the first company to launch a soap with vegetable oils in 1930s.Some of its leading
brands are: CINTHOL, FAIRGLOW, GODREJ NO.1.
The brand is supposed to be generating maximum sales from Punjab (where celebrity Mona
Singh promotes Godrej no.1), and is now growing in the rural areas as well. The Godrej No.1
soap is the most selling soap for Godrej because of its low price and presence of variants such as
the ayurvedic herbal Godrej No.1 soap
After its disintegration with P&G, the company launched FAIRGLOWin 1999 promoting it as
Indias first soap that would make consumers fair. It adopted a strong ad campaign before
launching this product, with ad that showed how using the soap would block the sun UV rays
and hence bring fairness. This helped in increasing the sales of the brand by 17% that year.
Cinthol has always targeted youth again promoting freshness (ads showing consumers getting
fresh after a tired day when they used Cinthol), with tag lines such as Alive is awesome.

Wipro
Wipro, along with being a leader of IT solutions and services, has a strong presence in the toilet
soap industry as well. It has two main brands SANTOOR and CHANDRIKA.
Santoor
herbal soap holds a significant share in the popular category. Its past performance has further
been explained in the latter part of the project. It has been promoted as a herbal beauty soap
offering twin benefits of both Sandal and Turmeric. It comes in three variants and became widely
popular when it was promoted using the concept of mistaken identity. In one of the ads, a
dance trainer is mistaken as the heroine of a film by Saif Ali Khan, while in another ad, a mother
is mistaken as a college student. Thus, the idea that is built up in a consumers mind is that by
using the soap, skin becomes so healthy and beautiful, that it lies about your actual age.

4 Ps Analysis of 4 Major Competitors

Company/4Ps
HUL

Product
Lux, Dove, Lifebuoy
and Pears. Currently

Place
Both Urban and
Rural areas with
almost all retail
outlets and malls.

Price
Moderate to low,
in all ranges but
most revenue
comes from
moderately
priced soaps like
Lux.
Moderate

Reckitt Benckiser

Dettol(Hand wash
variant very popular)

Mostly Urban,
reach to rural
areas also

Wipro

Santoor

South India

Moderate

Godrej

Cinthol

Good reach in
Rural as well as
Urban areas, good
identification in
even interior
regions.

Low to
moderate,
affordable to
people of almost
all income
ranges.

Promotion
Extensive T.V. advertisements
and Hoardings

Mostly Television, Dettol

focuses on content rather than
brand ambassadors.
Promotion as an anti -germ
brand for entire family
Good reach through male
brand ambassadors and a
different idea of
advertisement. (Concept of
mistaken Identity)
Popular male brand
ambassadors like Shahrukh
Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Virat
Kohli, depicting strong male
centric image, promoting it as
a cool and energetic brand.

PESTLE Analysis (beauty herbal soap category)

Political

Setting up of manufacturing plant based on different locations, for eg Himachal Pradesh

is a tax free zone with minimal political issues
Focus more in rural areas as the political scenario in those areas can help with trade fairs
and events

Economic

Excise duty on soaps is presently lower than the previous years 8%

Disposable income in rural areas is increasing
Lower prices of palm oil etc ( that is used for herbal soaps) will lead to lower production
cost

Social

Target to improve hygiene along with making the skin soft and beautiful
Increased awareness about benefits of herbal and ayurvedic soaps
Consumers are moving towards value-added products, not just beauty soaps

Technological

Use better R&D scientists to keep the benefits of the herbs intact while developingan
innovative product
Make sure that the ingredients used adhere to the Grade 1,2 or 3 of the BIS standards
Develop a product of a fresh bright colour and a calm fragrance to assure consumers of
its herbal properties

Legal and Environmental

The manufacturing process should not harm the environment and abide by the legal
norms. No hazardous chemicals (as per the legal limit) can be used.

Segmentation
Geographic
South, North, East, West
City:
Tier 1 cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore,Pune
Tier 2 cities: Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, Bhopal, Dehradoon, Guwahati, Ahemedabad, Cochin
Tier 3 cities: All small towns
Rural Areas: All villages
Demographic
Age Group
Babies, Kids, Teenagers, Young Adults, Middle Aged
Gender: Males and Females
Income Groups
Lower Income Groups, Higher Income Groups, Middle Income Groups
Education
Illiterate (mostly in Rural), Educated and Informed
Occupation
Working class people, Students, Housewives

Lifestyle and Personality

Beauty focusing, Quality oriented, Herbal and medicinal requirement, Fragrance, Manly.

Targeting
North India and Mumbai region
Major Market lies in:
Urban and Semi-Urban: People in Urban areas are more conscious about value addition rather
than just beauty soaps. P&G is a brand known in the urban areas, not much popular in the rural
areas. Rural is not a good option as people either go for the extremely advertised brands or the
cheap established ones.
Age Group: Mostly females of age 25-40.
Gender: Females, more conscious of their skins health and texture along with the beauty.
Income Group: Middle and Upper-middle income group, willing to pay as much amount for the
soap as they pay for other existing products.
Lifestyle: Well informed customers: the people who are more sensitive about their skin and are
into buying soaps carefully and selectively as per its benefits.
Brand loyal customers: P&G is a known brand. It produces soaps outside India and people
already using P&G products in India would be willing to try a herbal soap by them if advertised
in the correct fashion. All the stores where P&G products are sold will attract customers.

Perceptual Mapping:

Attractive
Packaging
5
4
3
2

Low
Artificial
Ingredie
nts

VOI
-2.5

-2

-1.5

-1

-0.5

0.5

dove1

1.5

-1

High
Artificial
Ingredie
nts

-2
-3

Objective

Normal
Packaging

To launch a product that can help us over shadow the image build up by popular beauty
soaps like Lux and offer a herbal soap without compromising the quality
To occupy a market share of atleast 4-5% in the next six to seven years after launching
the product
Vigorous advertising and creating a fresh brand image about herbal soaps will be
our prime focus to achieve this objective

Sale of 30 crores units (after 7 years)

Turnover of 600 crores in 7-8 years.

Promotion cost 15-20 crores (Breakup given with respective channels of promotion)

3-4 SKUs in the first year of launch

Dov
e

Positioning Statement
P&G presents Indias first Aloe-vera as well as Cucumber soap for the Indian beauty
Product Name: Pristine
For: Women of 25-40 years of age who want to have beautiful, clean as well as healthy skin
initially in the North Indian market plus Bangalore and Mumbai
That: is a herbal beauty soap available in three variants namely cucumber, aloe vera and mint
with odour of its variant
Which Provides: Skin care in terms of health and beauty specific to skin requirements that is,
a) Aloe Vera variant for moisturizing your skin, treating skin acne and sunburn, fighting
skin ageing and making your skin more glowing.
b) Cucumber variant cools, invigorates refreshes and helps maintain the skins moisture
(for dry skin). It also keeps skin soft, has healing and soothing effects on damaged skin,
simultaneously acting as a sunscreen.
c) Mint Variant especially for skin that needs extra care and treatment like for severe acne
recommended by dermatologists.
Unlike:
a) LUX (HUL) Primarily a beauty soap with no herbal ingredients. Manufactured for
masses, both in urban as well as rural areas
b) Medimix(Cholayil), Hamam(HUL): that mainly focuses only on acne treatment but not
on freshness of skin separate variant for separate types of skin.
c) Santoor(of Wipro): does not have no specific variants for different types of skin, focus
mainly on young looking skin and not on the richness of herbs

Brand Positioning Bulls-eye

Marketing Strategy
P&G has been very passionately delivering personal care products in India over the last many
years. We plan to launch a herbal soap, initially in North India and Bangalore and Mumbai, as
most of the herbal soaps are popular only in South India which makes the North Indian market
lucrative. Following are the strategies that will be adopted to
Initially, before launch and promotion, trials will be conducted in 5 cities in North India to
understand the penetration of this herbal soap in these markets. The trials will be conducted after
around 5,000 sales representatives will personally endorse this product n these areas through fun
activities in cities of Ludhiana, Indora and Kanpur. Promotional activities in shopping malls etc.
Budget: 25 lakhs
Offensive Warfare strategy
This strategy is used to secure a competitive advantage. Herbal soaps like Hamam, Santoor have
been using herbs such as sandal thathave now become common, a new ingredient (such as aloe

vera and cucumber) would give a competitive edge P&G, plus the companys already strong
brand image would definitely help.

Distribution strategy
Products such as soaps are usually distributed through a single regional distributor. We will
follow this channel only with one distributor in one region. The product will be available in the
following markets and will be placed on the outermost shelves (highlighting the free Head &
Shoulders sachets offer) at eye level.
Retailers
Supermarkets
E-tailers
If the adoption through the trials seems to be more than 20%, then we go ahead with the launch.
The strategy will be to promote the brand by giving it a feel of beauty through herbs, for which
a famous Bollywood actress with a typically Indian look will be chosen as the brand ambassador.
The concept of forests can enrich your skin will be used to promote the product.
Also, we plan to target the economic class priced at Rs25/- (lower, middle and upper middle
class) in urban areas (rural areas through line extension). Target segment would be women 25
to 40 years.
An essential part of the strategy would be innovation. We plan to launch an Aloe-Vera soap as
presently there is not any soap completely of Aloe Vera or Cucumber. This will give P&G the
first mover advantage.

Line Extension
In order to focus on the category of bathing soaps and owing to the already existing long range of
P&G products, it is not feasible (as of now) to extend the product line of soap by going into Face
washes or face creams.
The soap will be primarily focusing the urban and semi-urban people in the beginning period
post the launch, as a completely new strategy will be required to promote the soap in rural areas.

Down Market Stretch

After gaining a foothold in urban and semi-urban areas, the soap can be introduced with
variants in the rural market in order to meet the requirements of people in the slightly
lower end and to attract the people conscious about a beautiful skin in rural areas.

It can/will have to present good offers to set a foot into rural market, given that this
market already has a number of soaps like Lifebuoy and Lux dominating the rural market
scene.
Therefore, our product can be named Pristine, a word meaning fresh and clean, which
not only justifies the function of a soap but will also relate to both rural as well as urban
buyers. The word also describes purity in ingredients of the soap suggesting that it is a
herbal product and not full of fairness enhancing chemicals.

Packaging:
Packaging should be simple yet attractive, in a hard cover, showing a leaf, signifying the herbal
and freshness component of soap.

Labelling:
The soap will carry a tagline of Pristine, Freshness your skin deserves!
The taglines of the soap variations will be given below the names and the image on front.

The labeling section at the back will carry explicit details of the reason why the particular
variant added to the soap is good for skin and its health.
The backside of the cover will also carry the composition of soap highlighting what
important components the soap carries not in explicit details but the relevant ones.
The price, Rs 25 for a 100 grams soap, manufacturing date and address of unit
manufacturing the soap will be mentioned on the sides of soap cover.
Chemical composition will cover 1/4th of the back side, highlighting the components. It
should clearly show how much amount of the component, which the company is claiming
to be the main ingredient, is present inside.
As like other P&G products, Re.1 on purchase of each soap will be contributed to the
building of schools and it will be mentioned on one of the sides of soap cover as well as
in the advertisements.
Warranties/Guarantee

The soap will not promise any fairness level but will offer a guarantee of acne removal
(recommended by dermatologists), treating sunburn and making the skin fresh and
healthy.

 It will give an exchange offer over buying a complete packet of 4 soaps, in case a person
wants to replace it after using a soap of a particular variation. Money back guarantee will
not be offered.
Design of Communication
As our product targets the consumer belonging to both the lower and middle class, it is essential
to communicate the launch of the product in a proper manner. We need to make sure that the
product is given its due importance in all markets.

The soap should be strategically placed in all the leading supermarkets and departmental
stores which would make it stand out from the other products, and bring it into the notice
of the people in the front rows and at eye level.
Salesmen should be given field jobs in order to ensure that the product reaches even the
smallest of the shops and accessibility does not become an issue in the growth of our
product.
A good advertising team should be engaged in order to create a commercial that is both
creative and innovative, and creates an emotional and mental connect with the audience.
Ad gurus like Prasoon Joshi, PiyushPandey, etc. can be relied upon to work in
accordance with the needs of P&G and create such an advertisement.

The shape of the soap should be new compared to other existing soaps. As, we have the soaps of
rectangular and oval shapes, the new shape can be circular and it cannot be square or triangle
since circular shape covers maximum area.
Face to face marketing in different areas of major cities.
Offering free samples with a majorly circulated magazine in minimum of 5 cities on the day of
the launch.
Providing YouTube advertisements before the video commence.
To increase the reliability among customers, later the advertising campaign can be made by
bringing up the new real women who used the soap unlike the movie stars.
By direct way communication with different beauty experts and dermatologists, will make our
soap as a major suggestion by them will result in a great impact in the beauty concerned market.

Promotional Strategy
Procter & Gamble being a huge company with a wide range of products stands proud as one of
the top companies maintaining their position in India. This gives it the advantage of abundant
funds which can be used to market the product in an extensive manner.

Advertising being a major portion of the marketing strategy of any product would help in
creating a solid structure for it, even before the actual launch.
Investments in TV commercials, newspaper ads, etc. would go a long way and a known
Indian face can be roped in to act as Brand Ambassador for our product. For example,
Parineeti Chopra would capture the essence of a typical Indian girl, and have a stronger
connect with the audience rather than a foreign origin model. Since she is a new and
popular face in the industry,it represents freshness of the product.
A limited period offer for the initial promotion could boost the sales, in which some other
established product from P&G can be given along with our soap in order to create a
reputation. For example, Head & Shoulders is one of the best products of P&G with a
huge database of loyal customers, so giving a small sachet as a complimentary product
with each soap would increase sales and credibility of our soap at the same time.
Advertising on the internet is yet another step, which would allow increased visibility for
our product on Google searches, YouTube, etc.
Providing a television advertisement and radio advertisement with the jingles .
By the new way of advertising campaign we can put up counters with different events in
malls where the faces of the participants in the events are washed and the photographs of
their faces are gifted to them.
The campaign can be taken up as early walk in the morning during Sundays in parks or
public places.

Channel and Media Mix

The following channels would be used for promotion:
1) Television Advertisements
The advertisement will feature a normal average looking lady of 30-35 years of age going
into a forest, passing through herbs all around. She comes out as a young lady, Parineeti
Chopra who has a healthy and better skin with extreme freshness.
She is a fresh and well accepted face, mostly popular for not just looks but also for her talent
and skills. Similarly, the soap will not be just a beauty soap but will also be identified for its
herbal traits.
Target segment being mostly females, the best time to advertise on television would be when
most of the daily soaps are aired i.e. between 8-11 PM. It is primetime, when TV viewership
is highest and the advertisement would make the greatest impact. The cost of a 10 second slot
at this time, for different channels is given below
Star Plus

54390

Sony Entertainment Channel

16730

Colors

10487

Zee TV

36814

Now, for maximum visibility, ads for our soap need to be run for at least 4 shows on 3
channels. Considering the prices given above, a 20 second ad on Star Plus would cost
Rs.1,10,000 approximately. That results to a daily expenditure of Rs.4,40,000 on Star Plus.
Similarly, the daily cost would be 1,35,000 and 85,000 for Sony and Colors respectively.
That gives us a total expenditure of around 6.5 lakhs on a daily basis, and 2 crores for the
entire month. Considering the need for heavy publicity required in the initial phase, this
should prove to be a good investment
Parineeti Chopras endorsement fee according to the current market demand by her for other
brands is Rs. 50 lakh a day, which will turn out to Rs. 1.5 crore . Other expenses of
advertisements will be approximately 1 crore, hence total cost for making of advt. will be 2.5
crores.
2) Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites are a major attraction, and an official page of the soap will cost
nothing and will appear in news feed of people, will reach out to young audience. It will be
promoted on Facebook through advertisements on the side bars on Facebook, solely for the
purpose to reach out to the audience that uses internet more than watching television (The
youth).
3) Hoardings by roadside
Hoardings of size 18*20 feet on roadside, the budget will be Rs 3 crores, which will be
divided in different cities as per the requirement of hoardings, per unit costs and the area of
the hoardings.
A hoarding at roadside in Haji Ali area will cost approx.. 10 -12 lakhs for 30 days.
10 such hoardings at places like Vile Parle, Santa Cruz, etc, costing total of approx.. 1 crore.
The same goes for Delhi.
For tier two cities, namely Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Dehradun and Bhopal.
The hoardings cost at the most popular 10 places in these cities will be approx. Rs. 50000 in
areas of moderate footfalls per hoarding and a lakh for the ones with high footfalls.
Hence, the overall budget for one city will be around 15 lakhs, which sums up to atleast 1.2
crores for all tier two cities mentioned. Hence total cost for hoardings will be Rs. 7 crores in
2 months.

4) YouTube Advertisements : It costs approximately Rs.15 for a 30 seconds advertisement per

view, and inserting it in youtube videos of movie trailers for 2 lakh clicks will cost Rs. 30
lakh. This will increase reach to people who are more online than watching television.
Therefore total cost for YouTube advertisements for a month will be, assuming 10 lakh hits,
is 1.5 crores. For two months, it will be 3 crores.
5) Magazines: (GrehShobha, Vineeta, Meri Saheli): The magazines received at homes still have
some reach to women who have subscribed them and have more access to them than
newspapers. Advertisement can be printed on full length pages of cover. Total budget will be
approximately2 crores for 2 months.

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