Table of Contents

Introduction Types of Brand Extension Need for Brand Extension Process of Brand Extension Strategies for Brand Extension Research Methodology -Questionnaire -Interviews Analysis Conclusion Case Study

BRANDING BASICS

The brand tells why products exists, where they come from and where they are going. It also sets their guidelines. A brand is not a fact set in stone. It must be able to adapt to the times and to changes in buyers behavior and technology. A brand is both memory and future of its products. A brand is built up from day to day; it is never set down once and for all of course its past must not determine its future too narrowly. But when a brand moves out in all direction, it can loose its meaning and become void of content.

Brands have been important ever since advertising for mass produced products began. As Sephen Kint said, A product is made in a factory. A brand is bought by a consumer. The consumer is constantly on the look out for a better product; even more for a better product at a more affordable price. Flop and success; hits and misses; blockbusters and mega flops is marketing becoming more like the movies? Or is the case of marketing imitating art? Whichever way you look at it, the fact remains that today marketing is an art that needs to be mastered to ensure that brands have a long and successful run at the box-office. Marketing, like the performing arts, has it all : action drama, conflict, climax. And like all good movies, there is a concerted team effort where professionals bring together a diverse range of expertise and competence under the creative direction of the leader, the director. Marketing like movie-making, is all about offering the right product at the right time. Hit movies, like brand successor, are all about creativity, execution and direction. On the creativity front, it all begins with a compelling story.

BRAND EXTENSIONS

A company may use its existing brand name to launch new products in other categories. Honda uses its company name to market such different products as automobiles, motorcycles, lawn mowers, and snowmobiles. This allows Honda to advertise that it can fit six Hondas in a two car Garage. Godrej now features its name on soap, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, l Brand extensions also involves risk. The new product might disappoint buyers & damage their respects for the companies other products.

The brand may lose its special positioning in the consumers mind due to dilution. Dilution occurs when consumers no longer associate a brand with a special power or highly similar products. Brand extension is not, however, a recent phenomenon (Gamble, 1967). It has long been prominent in the luxury goods sector. India has always had big business houses like Tatas , Godrejs and Birla who tend to push newer and varied products under one Brand Name. Tata From Steel to Cars , Godrej From locks to Farm fresh Chicken . The latest to join the bandwagon have the Ambanis who after decades of excellence in Industrial chemicals have now forayed into telecom and power . The major factor in brand extension is the cost of advertising. Brand reasoning proceeds on competitive lines., Gains in productivity must be sought, right down the line. This is only fully possible when it spreads the scope of its ambition form local to national markets, and then the world wide market. Sacking the widest market possible is the only means of supporting the increasing costs of research and development and industrial investment. The only way to achieve this wider market is through advertising. If your add to this the need to outgun the competition, at least matching their share of voice, it is easy to understand the trend towards increases in advertising expenditure. Advertising is one out come of permanent reinvestment in research, a quest for qualitative progress an better performance in the market. The high cost of Advertising makes it to impossible to support an excess of brands- there is no alternative but

concentrate one's means on just a few major brands. Most firms therefore evaluate their brand portfolio at a given time and select those few which are to be the subject of advertising expenditure. These will be the brands with diversified, innovative products. Brands extension therefore results from the concentration of efforts on a few brands. New products which would have been previously have been launched as new brands, under their own name, are now introduced under the aegis of an existing brand, but possessing the strategic company brand. full authority of a

TYPES OF BRAND EXTENSION :

Brand extension is a leap away from the initial technology. Here again we must make the distinction between associated extension or continuity extension and discontinuous extension. A major optics brand may extend to photocopying : this happened with Cannon, Minolta, Kodak, and Agfa. A sports brand can embrace every sporting requirement (Adidas, Nike and Puma). Discontinuous extensions do away with technological affinities - the physical bridge between products. These are true diversification's. For example, Yamaha manufacture both motor cycles and classical pianos of repute. whole field of consumer products and even durables. Some extensions are therefore far removed from the brand's initial territory whilst other are in close proximity. This leads to brands with a narrow outlook-specialist brands - or brands with a wide spectrum (Philips, General Electric). Is it better to have a specialist or a broad approach? This question cannot be answered in general terms. We have to remember that the brand is arbitrary and can choose whichever path it desires. If Gillette decides to put is name on soaps, nothing can stop it. wide spectrum. Degree of product dissimilarity changes the meaning and status of the brand need to cover these products. Close extensions are compatible with formula brands Samsung can put its name on Televisions , DVD Players , LCD Monitors and Refrigerators without risking equity dilution since products are closely related. Extension one degree further corresponds to a 'know - how' brands. Palmolive ,for instance , adds hygiene to every thing it touches, be it personal hygiene (shower gels) or oral care(Colgate). T-series is the ultimate in economy and therefore sells the audio cassttes as good a bargain as their washing powder. When it first came on the scene, Sony was exclusively a high fidelity brands. In a few years it acquired a name in television and video and by the same token has seen its image and significance develop. Technology, If the company strategy is to give greater consideration to capitalizing on one name, thus saving on advertising, it will opt for a brand with a Retailer brands cover the

sensitivity and innovation, however, still remain its central values. The furthest degree relates to a brand define Donny by a deeper philosophy. In concrete terms ,brands having no depth, no identity apart from a physique(a product or formula), can not support wide ranging extension. If they extended, they decline and regress to the level of a port-brand-that of a factory brand worth only a guarantee of origin. They become diluted, with no more meaning . This is the case with Mitsubishi. Its name does not really relate to a unifying brand, capable of leaving its impairing. It is a corporate or factory name. It does not signify any meaning other than that of the generic image of Japan. Mitsubishi cars do not seem to manifest any particular ideal of design, nor do Mitsubishi television or machine tools, for example. It is also the case with Philips. In contrast brands given too great a dimension, some are under exploited. These only cover a narrow field of products but ,have an inner mystique which could impart a significance to a wide spread of products. A typical case of brand under exploitation is that of Nike.While Reebok continues to sell more and more pullovers and T-Shirts and Adidas makes its footing stronger in Personal hygiene market , Nike is just contend to sell shoes

BRAND EXTENSION : HOW ?

Before setting about any practical extension , there are two preparatory stages. The first -and exploratory stage-probes all the associations with the brand which are present in the collective public mind. This stage allows to decide as to which products would be compatible with the brand's meaning . once this has been established, we have to turn our eyes back to the market. This brings into play the second study phase- testing the new products ideas. A decision can not be made on the strength of this information alone. Brand extension is the result of strategic decision. It also involves factors linked with production , marketing , finance and human resources. Extension always involves a certain risk-no form of study can accurately predict the effect of extension on the brand itself over a period. How will its status, its meaning ,its equity be affected? It cannot be over-emphasised that extension can not be contemplated without complete knowledge of the brand's attributes: What are its attributes? What is its personality? What is the purpose? What is its heart? What contract does it offer to customers and consumers? What is its latent potential?

This questions can only be answered through both quantitative enquiry (to establish the popularity of the brand and its image)and qualitative approaches. The brand's latent potential and source of inspiration are not revealed by more image surveys. Access to its prism of identity and its motivating force requires qualitative investigation..The qualitative phase finally allows an under standing of the brand's function from the user angle. Is the brand one's own personal , or a symbol for the multitude?

If I said shaving system, after-shave and shaving gel and asked someone to name a brand, which is common across these categories, Gillette might come readily to mind. . The first question about Brand Extensions is: Why should one consider them at all? The most common would be that it will grow the Brand franchise. If it were only that simple! The reason why the effort could fail is that this strategy presupposes Assumption One. It one will help or get trial / more sell the assumptions. new product.

This need not be inevitable, even if it seems reasonable. Because the extension of the brand name will help to get trial only if it is seen to Add Value to the new product. Some years ago, Nirma introduced a toothpaste but the many consumers who saw a value in Nirma washing powder, did not find it in the toothpaste.

The most critical failing in many brand extention initiatives is that they start with the marketer, not the consumer Assumption Two. It will help to strengthen the existing product. A brand extension can achieve this, but only if the new product incorporates a truly New Idea. For example, the Apple computers brand was actually enhanced by the introduction of the iPod MP3 Player - but that happened only because the iPod is a sensationally new idea. The Apple brand could not have achieved this, if the iPod were just another MP3 player. Assumption Three. The brand equity will ensure ready acceptance in the new category. A common assumption is that the brand has enough Stretch to carry its strength into a new category. But Bournvita was unable to stretch its strength as a health

beverage to biscuits. Internationally, Xerox couldnt stretch the brand to computers. And consider the recent announcement that Amul will extend the brand into sugar. Will the brand stretch that far? What do you think? The most critical failing in many Brand extension initiatives, however, is that they start with the marketer, not the consumer. Because while the trademark may belong to the marketer, the brand finally exists in the mind and heart of the consumer. Brand Extensions will succeed only when they create a Consumer Connect. Here are some guidelines on looking for them.

Guideline One: Extend a strong Attribute / Performance Characteristic Association. This is the simplest level at which to begin. Amul stands for pure milk. Indeed it is likely that to many consumers, Amul is milk. Therefore, it is easy to extend the brand from wet milk, to butter, to cheese, to dairy whitener, and recently, to ice cream. However, with pizza, Amul may now be moving just a bit too far from the core milk association. Does the consumer think Pizza = cheese (=milk) or is Pizza = baked food? In a like manner, Sunsilk is a brand that stands for beautiful hair. So it seems legitimate to extend it beyond shampoo to hair colour.

Guideline

Two:

Extend

strong

Benefit

Association.

Fair & Lovely owns the skin fairness benefit strongly enough to extend the brand from the original fairness cream to a lotion to a soap to an under-eye cream. Lux is strongly linked to the beauty benefit. So it can extend from the toilet soap

to an entire range of beauty products such as Moisturing body wash and Sunprotection products.

Guideline Three: Extend an association with a Consumer Attitude or Belief. An intangible like this can actually be a very strong basis for extending a brand. Think of Body Shop. The brand represents an ethical, environment- friendly world view. For consumers who share this point of view, this is strong enough to prefer Body Shop products across a host of categories.

Guideline

Four:

Extend

the

brand

based

on

Brand

Essence.

Brand Essence is one of the most slippery aspects of branding. It is not the Brand benefit, it is not the Brand Differentiator, it is not the Brand Personality; it may incorporate aspects of all of these and yet be beyond them. The essence of the Ferrari brand is thrill and excitement. The essence of the Dunhill brand is old-world, refined, sophisticated luxury. Brands with such indelibly etched essences can carry the essence across a wide spectrum of products. So Ferrari is not just fast cars, it is also expensive clothes and fragrances. Dunhill is cigarettes; but it is also lighters, jewelry, watches, writing instruments, mens clothes and more. There are also several watch-outs to note before extending brands.

Watch-out One: Is your brand extension sending out contradictory signals? This could be happening in the case of Nivea, where after offering skin-care products for women for years, a range of mens toileteries was introduced under the same name. Bad idea. Another brand, Zodiac, avoided such a situation. Zodiac is formal, sober, mature. Not exactly the right associations for trendy clothes! Zodiac has created the Zod brand to enter this category, rather than extend Zodiac into potentially incompatible convenient, available name territory. thats being used? Watch-out Two: Is there any link to the brand extensions or is it merely a

Maggi came into India with 2-Minute noodles - a hearty, anytime snack. Since then the Maggi brand has been extended to sauces, soup cubes, even pickles. There is nothing that holds this set of products together. Is it surprising that the extensions are not resounding successes?

Watch-out Three: Check the interpretation of the link across extensions. Dettol was the ubiquitous antiseptic liquid (and then cream). When the brand was first extended to soaps, the antiseptic property was interpreted to mean care and Dettol was launched as The Love and Care Soap. It did not work. Today, many years later, Dettol soap offers protection a more realistic interpretation of the antiseptic property, and the soap is doing far better. In closing, Id like to state that brand extensions are certainly a valid strategic option for a brand manager. With the right basis of extension, they can offer advantages in terms of getting trade support, reducing barriers to trial, improved media-spend multiplier effects, and so on. The key issue is whether there is an underlying linkage binding and mutually strengthening the brand extensions.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INITIAL OR NULL HYPOTHESIS: Unrelated Brand Extension When Done With The Sole Purpose Of Boosting Sales and Capitalizing on existing equity Lead To Brand Equity Dilution . SAMPLE SIZE : 100 Respondents SAMPLE TYPE : 50 out of 100 respondents were solely shopkeepers , retailers and store managers . In their case , the certain open ended queries were also made apart from the structured questionnaire . During analysis , their response was given a better weightage . The remaining 5 respondents were from all types of backgrounds and walks of life Housewives , Salaried Professionals , Working women , Senior citizens etc. SELECTION OF BRANDS TO BE STUDIED : The selection of brands to be covered under the purview of this research was done with due care in order to cover all diversity of Branding . Nirma was selected as it belonged to Habitual Buying behavior, low involvement category with its majority customers being adult ladies . Cadbury , the other selected brand was chosen for exactly the opposite attributes high involvement variety seeking category with children and teenagers being principal buyers.

QUESTIONNAIRE - Nirma (Shopkeepers, Store Managers)

1. In what intervals does Nirma launches sub brands ? a. Semi-Annually b. Annually c. Bi-Annually

2. Was falling Sales a prime reason for Nirma to launch sub brands ? a. Yes b.No

3. How does the pattern of sales changes after brand extension ? a. New Sub-brands eat into the share of Original brands of Nirma b. New Sub-brands help cut into the share of rival brands while not affecting sales of original Nirma brands. c. Sales of Nirma and rival brands stay unaffected while brand extensions bring in new customers.

4. What was the pattern regarding prices of Extended Brands ? a. Prices were on par with old original Nirma brands. b. Prices were lower than the prices of original Nirma brands . c. Prices were higher than the prices of original Nirma brands .

5. What was the status of branding and promotional exercise undertaken for the new Nirma brands ? a. Intensive branding in all stages of product life cycles b. Intensive branding and promotional expenditure in early growth stages followed by reduced efforts in mature stages

c. Expenditure which is below par than that of original brand in all stages of product life cycle

6. How did the customers warm up to the new brands ? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

QUESTIONNAIRE (Customers)
1. What did you feel about the brand extension? Very good Good OK Bad

2. What do you think about the prices Very good Good OK Bad

3. Do you think the price is worth the quality? Yes No

4. Do you think that the brand extension is worth the original brand's reputation? Yes No

5. Do you think its a successful brand extension and it would prove the worth? Yes No

THANK YOU

NIRMA QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

Following is the question wise analysis of the questionnaire which the store managers and retailers were asked to fill :

1. In what intervals does Nirma launches sub brands ? a. Semi-Annually Responses out of 100 : a. Semi-Annuallyb. Annually c. Bi-Annually 10 46 44 b. Annually c. Bi-Annually

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Responses

Figure 1

Following are the salient features of the Responses : 1. 90% of respondents believe that Nirma extends its brands in long intervals , i.e. in an year or more . Nirma is in a comparatively stable product category where customer doesnt experiments much.

2. The fact that Nirma decided to launch a beauty soap for everyday use deviated from its original market of detergents. With no core competency in this new product category, failure was bound to happen

2. Was falling Sales a prime reason for Nirma to launch sub brands ? a. Yes Responses out of 100 : a. Yes b. No 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 A B Responses

b.No

17 83

Figure 2

Following patterns were also observed : 1. An overwhelming number of people believed that Nirmas foray in other markets was ill advised simply because they were doing so well in their original washing powder market. A quick look at the sales records for the financial years 1999-2000 ,2000-2001 and 2001-2002 confirm that the sales were on a steady rise all through at a rate of around 8%. In the year 2002-2003 , profits took a beating because of Nirma beauty soap and extra power dishwashing bar .

2. Although extending from washing powder to dishwash powder seems a logical step , industry insiders believe that it is a highly fragmented market with each segment having its own leader. Dishwash brands like Pril are hard to dislodge from their position in an already saturated market.

3. How does the pattern of sales changes after brand extension ? a. New Sub-brands eat into the share of Original brands of Nirma b. New Sub-brands help cut into the share of rival brands while not affecting sales of original Nirma brands. c. Sales of Nirma and rival brands stay unaffected while brand extensions bring in new customers. Responses out of 100 : a. New Sub-brands eat into the share of Original brands of Nirma 62 b. New Sub-brands help cut into the share of rival brands while not affecting sales of original Nirma brands 23 c. Sales of Nirma and rival brands stay unaffected while brand extensions bring in new customers 15
70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 A B C Responses

Figure 3

Following patterns were also observed :

1. Nirma has always belonged to the economy class of washing powder market where it leads other brands like Wheel and Rin. When it tries to compete with premium brands like Surf and Ariel with sub brand like Nirma Super, it fails to deliver because it lacks the basic core competence. 2. The saturated nature of the market is the reason why Nirma, or for that matter any brand would fail to bring in new customers with a new sub-brand. This explains such a low response for option C .

4. What was the pattern regarding prices of Extended Brands ? a. Prices were on par with old original Nirma brands. b. Prices were lower than the prices of original Nirma brands . c. Prices were higher than the prices of original Nirma brands . Responses out of 100: a. Prices were on par with old original Nirma brands 23 b. Prices were lower than the prices of original Nirma brands - 16 c. Prices were higher than the prices of original Nirma brands 61
70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 A B C Responses

Figure 4

Following patterns were also noticed : 1. An overwhelming proportion of respondents suggesting that brand extensions are often expensive point towards the precise reason for their downfall ,i.e. high

prices . While the customer may like to experiment once , high prices will prevent him from becoming a regular buyer. 2. The lower end of washing powder market is any way extremely price sensitive. No brand enjoys any brand loyalty among customers as they switch brands on the price perimeter alone . Nirma thus flirted with danger by introducing expensive variants.

5. What was the status of branding and promotional exercise undertaken the new Nirma brands ? a. Intensive branding in all stages of product life cycles

for

b. Intensive branding and promotional expenditure in early growth stages followed by reduced efforts in mature stages c. Expenditure which is below par than that of original brand in all stages of product life cycle Response out of 100 : a. Intensive branding in all stages of product life cycles - 34 b. Intensive branding and promotional expenditure in early growth stages followed by reduced efforts in mature stages - 41 c. Expenditure which is below par than that of original brand in all stages of product life cycle - 25

45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 A B C Responses

Figure 5

Following patterns could also be noticed : 1. The results are equally staggered and dont point in any specific direction . However , we can draw a few conclusions from the one-to-one interactions with the dealers . Many dealers believed that whatever branding took place was at the customer level through television and print media. Nirma paid scant attention to dealer management and hardly ever listened to their feedbacks. The fact that Nirma had grown into a giant brand made it believe that whatever product they will introduce in the market will succeed . 2. With reduced margins it was a Catch 22 situation for Nirma. Large expenditure on branding and promotions would reduce the profits further while very low expenditure would not generate enough margins to break even . This was one company which would have been best advised to stick with their core product.

NIRMA QUALITATIVE FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Nirma is an over Rs. 17 billion brand with a leadership presence in Detergents, Soaps and Personal Care Products, offering employment to over 15,000 people. The Brand was introduced by Mr. K. K. Patel in 1969. Making phosphate free synthetic detergent powder by hand and selling it at Rs. 3/- per kg., when the lowest priced detergent brand was Rs. 13/-. This value-for-money plank revolutionised the industry and made fabric wash detergents available to the masses. Today, Nirma sells over 800,000 tonnes of it's detergent products annually, giving it a 35% share of the Indian market, which is the world's second largest fabric wash products market. This makes Nirma India's largest detergent marketer and one of the world's biggest detergent brands. Even though Nirma was a late entrant in 1990 in the highly competitive toilet soaps market, it is already the second largest manufacturer, selling close to 1,06,000 MT of bathing soaps in 1999-00. The brand has over the years introduced products in toiletries and personal care with soaps, shampoos and toothpaste, thus offering the consumer a complete product portfolio. Carrying on Nirma's mission of providing 'Better Products, Better Value, Better Living' to its over 300 million consumers through an efficient distribution network. Nirma's philosophy of providing quality products at the best prices has led to investment in the latest technologies for our multi-locational manufacturing facilities, with full-scale integrated complexes at Mandali Mehsana, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Bhavnagar, Kanpur and Indore. To have a greater control on the quality and price of its raw materials, Nirma has undertaken backward integration into manufacture of Industrial Products like Soda Ash, Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB), Alfa Olefin Sulphonates (AOS), Fatty Acid, Glycerine and Sulphuric Acid. Nirma's vision, based on it's Indian experience and aided by a professional management team, is to replicate it's leadership position internationally. Within the short span of a year, Nirma achieved commandable position in the leadership of detergent market in Bangladesh through it's joint venture there, M/s. Commerce Overseas Limited.

Nirma is aptly considered as a marketing miracle and this is reflected in the strength of the brand. Nirma has successfully challenged and changed the conventions of detergents marketing demystify and this today leading business core schools are analysing it's strategies to miracle. Nirma's marketing thrust revolves around prompting consumer trials by offering a good quality product retaining at most these competitive new price and by consumers

continuously offering the same 'Value For Money' equation. This is borne by the fact that today Nirma can boast of a strong brand loyalty from it's 400 million consumer base.

Nirma sells over 800,000

tonnes of detergent products every year and

commands a 35% share of the Indian detergent market, making it one of the world's biggest detergent brands. The brand promotion efforts are complemented by Nirma's distribution reach and market penetration, through a country wide network of 400 distributors and over 2 million retail outlets, making Nirma products available from the smallest rural village to the largest metro, in a continent sized country like India.

Based on the pragmatic concept of 'Umbrella Branding', Nirma has been increasingly successful in extending it's brand equity to other product categories like Premium Detergents, Premium Toilet Soaps, Shampoos, Tooth pastes and Iodized Salt, thus opening new vistas to the field of Brand building.

Nirma has followed up it's original marketing success in the economy segment of the detergent powder and cake market, with Nirma Super Cake and Nirma Super Powder in the premium segment. Nirma's entry into the soaps market was marked with the introduction of Nirma Bath, a carbolic soap, today an established brand in this segment. Close on the heels of this, was launched Nirma Beauty Soap in three variants, which in a matter of a few years has become the third largest toilet soap brand in India. This encouraging market reception has been kept going with the launch of Nirma Premium and Nirma Lime Fresh. In fact, 17 million packs of Nirma Lime Fresh were sold in the very first month of its launch and that too without any advertising support. That's the power of the Nirma Brand. Today Nirma has expanded into the personal care market with Nirma Shikakai, Nirma Beauty Shampoo and Nirma Toothpaste and into products like Iodised Salt, thus providing the consumer with a more complete product portfolio. Qualitative Research Study Objective: To determine the primary associations that consumers make with Nirma and its products, specifically Nirma washing powder & Nirma beauty bar in the middle and upper classes. Gauging Consumer Perception, both before and after the launch of Nirma Beauty Bar.

Data collection approach: Non structured In-depth interviews. Output: Associations with Nirma & its products and how well these support the hyothesis. Importance Ranking as well as Rating of specific attributes, relevant to the product portfolio and performance of Nirma and its products on these attributes. Brand Image of Nirma and Brand recall Type of Study: Exploratory study. Research Matrix

Research Problem What are the specific associations that consumers make when they think of Nirma-the Nirma brand, Nirma detergent and Nirma soap? What has been the impact of the extension on the core brand?

Hypotheses/ Research Question Nirma soap has intangible benefit, customer benefit and relative price type associations

Information needs

Associations that consumers make w.r.t. -Nirma brand -Nirma detergent -Nirma soap

Nirma Soap has Perception of enhanced the brand image of Nirma Nirma detergent and Nirma Soap in the mind of the consumer Perception of the Nirma brand

-before the brand extension -after the brand How has Nirmas extension into toilet soaps impacted the directions and possibilities for future extensions? Extension of a brand into notso-near product becomes easier brand extensions i.e., Nirma will now (after its extension into soaps) find it easier to extend into more diverse product categories. extension Consumers perception of viable future extensions for the

after intervening Nirma brand

Data Analysis Plan The data analysis after the pre-testing was over, was carried for both the sets of questionnaires separately first and inferences from them were later clubbed to arrive at the overall perspective. We will now illustrate the specific input derived from each question for each information need as per the requirements stated in the research matrix.

Associations that consumers make w.r.t.

o o o

Nirma Brand Nirma Washing Powder Nirma Beauty Bar

The eleven categories in the Brand specific association model were used to categorise the responses to the above questions, in the form of frequency tables. These would provide input to validate the hypothesis about the associations related to Nirma products.Perception of Nirma, Nirma detergent and Nirma Soap in the mind of the consumer, especially after the launch of Nirma beauty bar. This information need required multiple questions, involving ranking of relevant attributes for the brand and the two product categories and then rating of Nirma and its products on those attributes. Information regarding the possible future extensions was gathered through an open-ended question in both the questionnaires (Qn 7 in 1 and 2). The responses are later classified in broad product categories, where required. Results The results from the data analysis are presented in this section. The top of the mind brands in the Washing powder category were:

Surf Ariel Nirma Lux Dove Rexona

The top of the mind brands in the beauty soap category were:

Thus, it was observed that Nirma Beauty Bar did not feature in the top of the mind recall (unaided) in this segment. The respondents personified Nirma in the following manner: Nirma is a middle-aged, average-looking housewife, dressed in a saree, traditional and competent by nature. The relevant attributes, in order of decreasing importance, in the choice of any brand as a whole were found to be:

Quality Performance

Value for money

The attribute of price was also considered to be important but it was reflected more in the respondents preference for value for money products. The respondents were also asked to rate Nirma on the same attributes as above. The ratings revealed that Nirma was perceived to be a brand that was strong on the aspects of availability, value for money and price. However, the respondents felt that Nirma was not a very high quality or high performance product. The associations that the respondents have with the Nirma brand are as follows:

Customer Benefits:(Clean, Whiteness, Value for Money) Product Attributes:(Yellow) Celebrity: (Advertisements of Nirma)

The association of relative price also came out very clearly but the emphasis was clearly on Nirma being a value for money brand. The 3 most important attributes in importance ranking for the category of washing powder were as follows:

Performance Mild on hands Lathers well

The attributes of price, availability and good for hand washing were also considered to be important. To a certain extent, the attribute of lathers well indicates good performance in the mind of the consumer. The rating of Nirma washing powder on these attributes is as follows: The respondents considered Nirma washing powder to be very strong in the areas availability, price, good for hand-washing and Lathers well. However, Nirma does not fare too well on the aspect of Mild on hands and performance. The associations of the respondents with Nirma washing powder is as follows:

Customer Benefits Use/Application Price Celebrity

The attribute importance ranking for the category of beauty soap is as follows:

Cleaning Fragrance Moisturisation Celebrity Association Product attributes Customer Benefits Intangibles

The associations of the respondents with Nirma Beauty Bar is as follows:

Nirma Beauty bar has been personified as: Nirma beauty bar is a young glamourous woman in her early twenties, dressed in Western or Indian casuals, trendy and modern in her outlook towards life. The broad product categories in which Nirma could launch extensions, according to consumer perception are as follows:

Clothes Whiteners Starch Liquid soaps Skin care products Dishwashing liquids and other cleaning liquids Nirma beauty soap does not enjoy top of the mind recall in spite of it being the third largest selling soap in the Indian market. This is because of the availability of Nirma beauty soap. Although availability is not one of the important attributes in the mind of the consumer, in this low involvement product buying behaviour is very significantly influenced by shelfpresence.

Inferences

Nirma as a brand is more associated with the core product of washing powder rather than the beauty soap. This was reflected in the similar associations for Nirma as a brand and Nirma washing powder.

The common associations between Nirma brand, Nirma washing powder and Nirma beauty soap is that of Customer Benefits, specifically Value for money. The secondary research also revealed that initially Nirma was

perceived as a cheap, medium quality product, in the period of time before the launch of Nirma beauty soap. However, Nirma then moved towards a Value for money product, which was reinforced through the successful launch of Nirma beauty bar.

The attribute rating of Nirma washing powder clearly indicates the consumer perception that Nirma washing powder delivers medium quality at a very reasonable price thereby proving to be a Value for Money product.

The attribute rating of Nirma soap, on the other hand indicates very good performance on all the relevant attributes. Therefore, based on a better performance plank combined with the reasonable price, allowed it to develop the Value for money image.

The options suggested by the respondents for future expansions clearly place Nirma as a company that is linked with superior cleaning abilities. The associations of Nirma with the washing powder category and the Use category of Clothes indicate that Nirma is very strongly associated with this particular aspect of cleaning. The success of Nirma in the beauty soaps category further strengthens this observation, because cleaning is considered a very important attribute for beauty soaps also. The fact that most of the future extension possibilities are linked with cleaning or clothes, Nirma cannot immediately consider diverse brand extensions.

The consumers therefore have three very strong associations with Nirma. The first of these continues to be its cleaning ability. The aspect of Value for money follows closely. Then there is the Celebrity association. The success of Nirma soap can be explained on the basis of the first and the third factors and based on these two factors it also managed to impart the attribute of Value for money to the parent brand to a large extent.

The difference in the personification of Nirma washing powder and Nirma beauty soap also corroborates the shift in the perception of consumers.

Conclusions The hypothesis the group started with was that Nirma Beauty bar has the following associations in the minds of the consumers:

Intangible benefits Customer benefits Relative price

After our study, we have found that though the first two associations hold, the last one i.e. Relative price, does not come through. Instead the primary customer benefit of Value for Money partly reflects the relative price association. The price of Nirma bar is comparable (slightly lower) to that of Lux, and it performs well on most of the important aspects of a beauty soap. This has given it the connotation of a Value for Money product. This has also been the extensions major contribution to the parent brands equity. Nirma as a whole is now associated with Value for Money products and this has been borne out in our study. Nirma beauty soap has drawn upon and extended the positive association from the parent brand but has also developed unique associations for itself like the Celebrity association. Thus, the model helps us to explain the Nirmas brand extension into soap category and the resultant effect on consumer perception about the brand. However, the extension into the soap category is still related to the parent, in so much that it continues with the cleanliness attribute as one of the primary functional benefits. As we have seen, cleanliness and application for clothes are the primary associations for the parent brand (the same as for Nirma washing powder) and thus, for the time being at least the future extensions will have to be in related categories. Over time, if the extensions are successful in developing new, stronger associations like Nirma beauty bar has done, they may lend a broader meaning to the core brand and thus, facilitate its foray into more diverse product categories.