Soaps of

Nature
A comparative study of
Hamam and Dove

A017 Hetavi Shah

A019 Tanya Swaminathan
Table of contents

What is consumer behaviour?

Page no. 02

1
How does it effect purchasing decision?
Page no. 03

2
Unilever- The parent company
Page no. 05

3
Tabular comparision
Page no. 06

4
Comparative study
Page no. 07

5
6
Consumer research
Page no. 10

Re-design for Hamam soap

Page no. 13

7
Conclusion
Page no. 15

8
Questionnaire
Page no. 17

9
What is consumer
behaviour?
Understanding consumer behaviour is significant for any company
before propelling an item. Consumer behaviour is extremely
intricate as every shopper has distinctive personality and mentality
towards buy, utilization and transfer of item (Solomon, 2009).
Understanding the speculations and ideas of consumer behaviour
advertises the item effectively. As there is a steady change in the
expectations for everyday comforts, pattern, style and change in
innovation; consumer's mentality towards the buy of item shifts
(Kumar, 2004).

Consumer Behaviour is referred to the conduct that is shown by

them while they are purchasing, expending or arranging a specific
item. These practices can be influenced by various components. It
includes looking for an item, assessment of item, buy and
utilization of item (Solomon, 2009). The investigation of consumer
behaviour sees how the purchasing choice is made and what they
look like for an item. In addition, the understanding buyer conduct
likewise encourages advertisers to know the what, where, when,
how and why of the utilization of item utilization (Kumar, 2004).
The investigation of shopper practices helps business director,
sales rep and advertisers to plan the most ideal item or
administration that completely full fills shopper's needs and
requests.

Personal hygiene is a noteworthy piece of our regular daily

existence. It incorporates brushing teeth, scrubbing down,
applying antiperspirant, wearing clean garments, cooking food and
washing hands. There are various sorts of cleanliness and various
methods for doing them. The kinds of cleanliness are nourishment
and cooking cleanliness, therapeutic cleanliness, and individual
cleanliness, there is even such an unbelievable marvel as over the
top cleanliness. Unreasonable cleanliness may cause unfavorably
susceptible illnesses. Additionally, over the top utilization of
cleansers, creams, and treatments can antagonistically influence
sure of the body's normal procedures

02
How does it effect
purchasing decision?
We have already learnt what consumer behaviour is and how it
affects the status of a product in the market. Consumer behaviour
consists of two components, consumer satisfaction and consumer
dissatisfaction. The main factors that affect consumer satisfaction
are as follows–

Awareness/ Product Quality:

Consumers always want to use brands that make themselves
known in the market. They get a sense of satisfaction knowing
that they will not have any issues by trusting that brand.
Consumers are attracted to unique selling propositions of
products and services. They also want the products that they use
to deliver the quality that they promised.

Brand awareness is the level of consumer consciousness of a

company. It measures a potential customer’s ability to not only
recognize a brand image, but to also associate it with a certain
company’s product or service. When competition in an industry is
high, brand awareness can be one of a business’s greatest assets.
Entire marketing campaigns can be constructed around promoting
awareness of a brand. When consumers are aware of the product
a company offers, they will more likely go straight to that company
if they need that product, instead of researching other places that
they can acquire that product. Businesses with strong branding are
viewed as accepted by the market.

Brand Image/ Price:

The brand image also plays an important role in influencing the
consumer to purchase the product. A brand Image is the
perception of the brand in the mind of the customer. It is an
aggregate of beliefs, ideas, and impressions that a customer holds
regarding the brand. A brand can be perceived differently by
different customers. Every Company strives to build a strong
image as it helps in fulfilling their business motives. A strong brand

03
image has more profits as new customers are attracted towards
the brand and it is also easy to introduce new products under the
same strong brand. A good brand image also helps in maintaining
the loyalty of the customer.

Society

Economic Culture

Consumer
Behavior

Attitude Personality

Family

04
Unilever
The parent company
Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) is India’s largest fast-moving
consumer goods company. HUL operates in seven business
segments. Soaps and detergents include soaps, detergent
bars, detergent powders and scourers. HUL is a subsidiary of
Unilever, one of the world’s leading suppliers of Food, Home
Care, Personal Care and Refreshment products with sales in
over 190 countries and an annual sales turnover of 52.7
billion in 2016.

Hindustan Unilever limited has a clear purpose— to make

sustainable living commonplace. They believe that this is the
best way to deliver long-term sustainable growth. The
accomplishment of their practical living brands is driven by
the developing purchaser interest for brands that have
direction at their centre. The USLP likewise drives cost
productivity through decreased waste, vitality and bundling. It
brings down dangers in our inventory network by verifying a
reasonable progression of basic crude materials. It expands
trust in their business especially among purchasers, workers,
financial specialists and controllers. They work in association
with the Government and different associations to drive
transformational change crosswise over society with
activities to help understand the USLP objectives, in this way
making more open doors for ladies and upgrading
occupations, advancing wellbeing and prosperity, and
supporting maintainable horticulture. These are chances to
develop their business by tending to neglected difficulties
while mitigating significant social and ecological issues.

05
 Tabular comparision
Hamam Dove

Formed in– Formed in–

1931 1957

Target audience Target audience

Vision- Safety Vision- Female

empowerment

Customer Customer
review review

Advertising Advertising
medium medium

06
Comparative study

Evolution and advertising:

Advertisements were focused on targeting the entire family in

the state of Tamil Nadu. Promotion through organizing games
such as “wheel of fortune”, puzzles etc and prize distributions
in cities. Earlier, the brand was built on the “trust” factor. The
ads typically showed a mother and child accompanying her,
wherein the mother explains the meaning of trust using the
example of Hamam. (Sakhare, 2011) After which and till date,
Hamam continues to emphasize on the emotional bonding
again between a mother and child to highlight the
“protection” aspect. A characteristic and natural picture was
worked by including fixings like Neem, Tulsi, Mint and Lime to
its constituents. With the battle #GoSafeOutside, Hamam
turned into a boss for ladies’ security. The brand has kept on
utilizing indistinguishable idea in its most recent battle from
well. (Nair, 2018)

Dove has always been changing its advertisements,

campaigns and strategies. They first started emphasising on
their “1/4 cleansing cream” key feature, which encouraged
women to experiment once with dove and see the results for
themselves. This made people give a single chance to the
soap to change their choice which Dove managed to do. They
also advertised themselves as a brand that is
“different” and “revolutionary” because of the shape of the
soap. Dove aimed on selling the experience of using the soap
and not just the product. They used the images of beautiful
women with makeup on, lathering their skin with the cream of
the soap in a pampering way. They also use real people and
not actor/actresses in their advertisement which evokes a
sense of trust.

07
Logo and products:

Some time before Ayurveda turned into the popular

expression for India’s corrective and excellence items
industry, one cleanser brand was at that point selling the USPs
of Neem and Tulsi to Indian shoppers for a considerable
length of time. Propelled as a mild, family soap in 1931,
Hamam has a heritage that traverses over 80 years in the
nation. (Nair, 2018) Hence, the logo depicts the tulsi leaf
which makes the cross bar of the letter “H”. Not only does the
font of Hamam give across a pure vibe but also the indulgence
of the tulsi leaf adds on to earthy, natural vibe.

On the other hand, Dove’s logo is a silhouette profile of the

brand’s bird itself. This was used as dove, the bird is an
emblem of peace, love, gentleness and purity which
compliments the brand’s products very well. Dove has a wide
range of products like deodorants, body washes, beauty bars,
lotions/moisturizers, hair care, and facial care products. In
some countries, Dove is derived from tallow, and for this
reason it is not considered vegan, unlike vegetable oil-based
soaps.

Social factors:

Hamam gives across an earthy, natural aura, the elders of the

family tend to use it. They have the trust in the brand as it has
an Ayurvedic side to it which satisfies their needs. As a result,
everyone uses it. Whereas, Dove’s branding was done
differently to put across the message of every women having
confidence and Dove helping them raise their self-esteem.
Hence, using it is more of a personal choice.

08
Motivation:

People were willing to use Dove because of the honest

reviews from the non-celebrity faces. They could connect
more with the audience and in turn people wanted to try it
out as well. So the outsiders were the influencers and their
non-scripted reviews persuaded the target audience to
purchase Dove.

Whereas, Hamam had poor advertising along with no

celebrity endorsement which made it a little difficult for the
buyers to put their faith in the brand and purchase the soap.

09
Consumer research

To know the user’s exact emotions, we used few design

research tools. In our primary research, we carried out a
camera study, empathy interviews and a short google survey.

The google survey

The google survey that was conducted gave us a major
response from 18-25-year olds and 40 years and above
individuals. It was seen that a large number
of individuals wanted their soaps to have an People who
don’t prioritise
all-round approach to cleanliness, for packaging

example, they wanted the soap to have

medicinal/ herbal values as well as be used 44%

for beauty and skin care. Most of the people 56%

also claimed that the packaging of the soap

bar affects their decision of purchase, People who
prioritise
whereas, while interviewing them, they did packaging

not seem to care about it that much. Almost

90% of the individuals disliked the green colour on the
packaging of the Hamam soap but wanted their soap to have
herbal values too. This shows that the user does not want the
soap to seem very ayurvedic because of a certain belief, that
is, Ayurveda seems very old school and does not fit in with the
modern society.

Empathy interviews
Students-
Most of the students claimed to prefer shower gels over soap
bars as they are much more convenient than the later. On
being asked if they consider the packaging of a soap as a
factor that influences their purchasing decision, they said yes
but were not confident with their answers. They did not
seemto have a clear idea of what kind of packaging appeals to

10
them the most. This brings us to a conclusion that the
packaging influences the user on a subconscious level. In the
interview, we also found out that the brand awareness and
quality plays the most important role in the purchasing
decisions. Due to this, most of them used Dove soap.

Adults
Almost all the adults confessed that they preferred using a
soap priced a little higher because the price ensured the
quality of the soap. Also, if given a choice between Hamam
and Dove, they would use Dove because the fragrance played
an important role and so did the shape. Also, Dove has been
advertised frequently which helps them gain trust from their
brand. Moreover, they claimed that the packaging of Dove
was subtle and gave a little elite vibe in comparison with
Hamam.

Shopkeepers:
They claimed that the sales differed from area to area. This
was because of the people who purchased the respective
soaps and from which strata of society did they belong to. In
most of the areas, Dove had a higher sales because of the
constant social media advertising and Hamam was seen less
because they hadn't changed the packaging nor did they
come up with new products to support the sales of Hamam.

11
Camera Study

In the colourful isle with

dark coloured packages of
the soaps, it is difficult to
identify the short stack of
Hamam. Hence, it loses its
importance straight away.

The collective white stack

of Dove makes it prominent
also, it stands out because
of the neutral coloured
packaging it has.

A rare occasion where a

person from the lower
strata of society purchases
Hamam, while passing
through the shop.

12
Re-design

While maintaining the essence of the brand, the following

changes were made to the product’s packaging.
The packaging is changed from a plastic box to a thick paper
with a thin string covering the package. This was done to keep
the earthy effect of the soap brand intact and to show that it
is a gift to unwrap, and take advantage of the special natural
ingredients of the Earth. The new campaign that Hamam has
started, the #GoSafeOutside talks about the safety and via
the string we showcase the safety and trust factor of the
product. The target audience earlier did not have the
advantage to see the shape and size of the soap, hence to
give more clarity to the customer the top right section of the
package is left transparent with only leaves to give a natural
and fresh vibe. The white leaves on the transparent sheet
make it easier for the customer to see the soap, this enhances
the brand identity. To do justice to the price and address a few
of the grievances of our target audience with respect to
fragrance, we incorporated a green litmus paper. This litmus
paper when lit with a match stick, gives out the smell of the
soap and lets the customer know exactly what they are
investing in. We changed the colour palette to go with the
natural theme and made the box package a shade of brown in
order to represent Earth. It is not very catchy or in the face
and gives out an herbal feel to the consumer.

Hamam
NEEM
TULSI AND ALOE VERA

100%
PURE
NEEM OIL

13
 String to
Scented litmus pack the box
Transparent
paper that can be for safety
plastic sheet to
ignited to release view the product
fragrance

Eco friendly box

that is made up of
recycled paper

Sliding boxes to
give a feeling of
a gift wrap

14
Conclusion

Consumer preference is one of the significant components of a

product. FMCG organizations must discover customers needs
what's more, than make an interpretation of these wants in to
significant specialized language. Information of purchasing
conduct of various market portions help advertisers to recognize
purchaser who backing the organization. In the case of soaps,
showcase by and large purchasers are of low or sensible cost
disapproved, anticipating unconditional presents, quality and
adjustment, the organization should take up certain progressions
in their item to cover more market zone and draw in additional
clients and to finish their rivals. FMCG organizations should focus
their inventive systems and conveyance channels to pull in the
new clients and hold the current clients.

15
References

•https://www.bartleby.com/essay/The-History-and-Impor-
tance-of-Personal-Hygiene-P3TGRYZVJ
•(NPCS), N. P. (n.d.). Soap, Detergents, Surfactants, Cleaners,
Cleaning Powder, Laundry Care, fabric
care and wash, Household and Industrial Detergents, Washing
and Toilet, Liquid Soaps,
•(2019). Retrieved from Dove: https://www.dove.com/in/sto-
ries/about-dove/our-vision.html
•Competitiors, S. (n.d.). Thinking hats Hamam. https://www.slide-
share.net/SimComp/thinking-hats- hamam.
•Foltiko, L. (2014, January 18). Retrieved from https://www.slide-
share.net/laurafalotico/dove-brand-
evolution
•Hamam. (n.d.). HUL, https://www.hul.co.in/brands/person-
al-care/hamam.html.
•Hamam. (2019). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamam_(soap).
•Hind. Unilever. (n.d.). IIFL, https://www.indiainfoline.com/com-
pany/hindustan-unilever- ltd/summary/255.
•Hindustan Unilever, ANNUAL REPORT. (2017-2018). Making
Sustainable living commonplace.
•Information about Soaps and Detergents. (2019). Healthy
Cleaning 101.
•Megan J. DiGiorgio MSN, R. C. (2018). Soap: the science behind
it.
•Nair, R. (2018). How 80-year-old Hamam is taking on new-age
ayurveda-centric soap brands. Best Media Info.

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Questionairre

• Name, Age, occupation or a student?

• Which soap do you often use?
• What do you use the soap for?
• How often do you use the soap?
• What requirements do you want your soap to fulfil?
• Does the soap you use, satisfy your requirements of a
soap?
• How much do you wish on spending for a soap?
• How much do you actually spend?
• How much does the packaging of a soap affect your
buying decisions?
• Have you ever heard of the soap Hamam? If yes, what was
your experience using it and how do you find the packaging
of it?
• Which of the packaging of the soap do you find attractive?
(5 options)
• Would you use Hamam soap in the future, if the packaging
is improved?
• In the future, would you give Hamam soap a try to find out
whether you actually like it or not?
• What do you think, according to you, is the most important
aspect of a product?
• If a soap turns out to not be what you think it was, do you
give your feedback to the company?

17