BUSINESS COMMUNICATION A CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR REPORT ON BATHING SOAP INDUSTRY

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GROUP C 03

MBA 1

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NAME

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11202142 11202143 11202144 11202145

SANJANA MOHANTY SHALINI SOUMYA MIHIR BHATTACHARYA SAKSHI MISHRA

Faculty Guide: Prof. Surbhi Kapur

School of Management, KIIT University

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY........................................................................................................................................................ 3 INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................................................................... 4 OBJECTIVES .............................................................................................................................................................................. 5 UNCOVERING THE CONCEPT BEHIND LIRIL ADVERTISEMENTS ................................................................. 5 LIRILS SUDDEN DOWNFALL AND SUBSEQUENT MARKETING STRATEGIES ......................................... 5 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE ......................................................................................................................................... 6 COMPANY PROFILE OF HUL .......................................................................................................................................... 6 METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................................................................................... 7 RESEARCH APPROACH .................................................................................................................................................... 7 PRIMARY DATA SOURCES.......................................................................................................................................... 7 SECONDARY SOURCES ................................................................................................................................................ 7 RESEARCH DESIGN ............................................................................................................................................................... 8 SURVEY ................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 SECONDARY DATA STUDIES ......................................................................................................................................... 8 OBSERVATION TECHNIQUES ........................................................................................................................................ 8 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION............................................................................................................................... 9 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................................................... 11 LIMITATIONS ......................................................................................................................................................................... 11 RECOMMENDATIONS & SUGGESTIONS ................................................................................................................... 12 BIBLIOGRAPH ....................................................................................................................................................................... 13 ANNEXURE .............................................................................................................................................................................. 14 QUESTIONNAIRE .............................................................................................................................................................. 14

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The main objective of the project is to get the full knowledge of LIRIL, a HUL product, and what are they doing to get the customer loyalty, to maintain their market. This is also to find the preferences of customer and there market knowledge and product information, information about the presence of the rivals of HUL and all the other options they have in the market.

A questionnaire was prepared and there were 40 respondents. The market research work was divided into two stages i.e. to collect & analyze the various the factors that would help in knowing the consumer buying behavior.

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INTRODUCTION

The Indian Soap Industry includes about 700 companies with combined annual revenue of about $17 billion. Major companies in this industry include divisions of P&G, Unilever, and Dial. The Indian Soap Industry is highly concentrated with the top 50 companies holding almost 90% of the market. The market size of global soap and detergent market size was estimated to be around 31M tonne in 2004, which is estimated to grow to 33M tonne in the coming years. Toilet soaps account for more than 10% of the total market of soap and detergents. In Asia, the countries like China and India are showing rapid growth in the toilet soap section. Market share of body wash was estimated to be around 2% in 2004 and is showing signs of healthy growth in these markets. Indias soap market is Rs 41.75 billion.

Liril is a popular brand of soaps owned by FMCG major Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL). It basically caters to a premium market where customers prefer a high quality bathing soap providing freshness. LIRIL is a popular soap brand sold, to a large degree, in India, and Asia, as well as few places in Europe. The soap was launched in India, in 1975. The well known HUL brand captures 2.5% of the market share. The brand was a runaway success and the Liril girl became the talk of the town. The brand has been consistent with its communication and the effective use of brand imagery. But after a 25 year long run, Liril hit a roadblock due to poor marketing strategies. The company even changed agencies handling the brand, from Lowe to McCann Erickson before going back to Lowe. Liril has been having a static market share for quite some time now. Majority of their sales happen during summer.

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OBJECTIVES

UNCOVERING THE CONCEPT BEHIND LIRIL ADVERTISEMENTS

Liril was positioned on the freshness platform right from its birth. The advertisements featuring a girl and the waterfall with a unique jingle ensured that the freshness is experienced by the audience. Liril can be called as an experiential brand and the communication perfectly supported that. Since decades anybody watching the advertisement for Liril soap could see only a girl romancing with water which was considered to be a sign of freshness. That was how Liril has being positioned since ages in the minds of the consumers.

LIRILS SUDDEN DOWNFALL AND SUBSEQUENT MARKETING STRATEGIES

The lime concept of Liril had made home in the minds of the consumers. More or less everybody felt that this soap was mainly for the ladies and that too the working segment. The main theme of the advertisement was freshness which revolved around lime. HLL wanted to launch new fragrance in Liril however it was very difficult for the company to break this image in the minds of the consumers. The lime concept of Liril was strongly built in the minds of the consumers and changing this brand image was something that was really changeling for HLL when it thought of venturing into other areas. Liril is now offered to the consumers in Orange, another containing Aloe vela and the shape of the soap also has been modified, which is much similar to that of the Dove.

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THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

COMPANY PROFILE OF HUL

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India's largest fast moving consumer goods company owned by the European company Unilever. The Anglo-Dutch company Unilever owns a 52% majority stake.

HUL was formed in 1933 as Lever Brothers India Limited and came into being in 1956 as Hindustan Lever Limited through a merger of Lever Brothers, Hindustan Vanaspati Mfg. Co. Ltd. and United Traders Ltd. It is headquartered in Mumbai, India and has an employee strength of over 15,000 employees and contributes to indirect employment of over 52,000 people. The company was renamed in June 2007 as Hindustan Unilever Limited. Hindustan Unilever's distribution covers over 1 million retail outlets across India directly and its products are available in over 6.3 million outlets in the country, nearly 80% of all retail outlets in India. The company claims that two out of three Indians use its many home and personal care products, food and beverages.

HUL is the market leader in Indian consumer products with presence in over 20 consumer categories such as soaps, tea, detergents and shampoos amongst others with over 700 million Indian consumers using its products. The company has a distribution channel of 6.3 million outlets and owns 35 major Indian brands. Its brands include Kwality Wall's ice cream, Knorr soups & meal makers, Lifebuoy, Lux, Pears, Breeze, Liril, Rexona, Hamam and Moti soaps, Pureit water purifier, Lipton tea, Brooke Bond tea, Bru coffee, Pepsodent and Close Up toothpaste and brushes, and Surf, Rin and Wheel laundry detergents, Kissan squashes and jams, Annapurna salt and atta, Pond's talcs and creams, Vaseline lotions, Fair and Lovely creams, Lakm beauty products, Clear, Clinic Plus, Clinic All Clear, Sunsilk and Dove shampoos, Vim dish wash, Ala bleach, Domex disinfectant, Modern Bread, Axe deosprays and Comfort fabric softeners.

LIRIL CAPTURES 2.5% OF THE MARKET SHARE.

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METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH APPROACH The research is primarily both exploratory and descriptive in nature. The sources of information are both primary and secondary. A well structured questionnaire was prepared for the primary research and personal interviews were conducted to collect the responses of the target population. The secondary data has been taken by referring to various magazines, newspapers, internal sources and internet to get the figures required for the research purposes. PRIMARY DATA SOURCES The primary sources of data collection were through questioning to the working professionals and household members. We also tried to cover some of the students. Questionnaires helped us to know about their consumption pattern of different detergents. SECONDARY DATA SOURCES Apart from the primary data sources, we referred some of the secondary sources and a comprehensive report was generated. The sources include internet, friends working in other companies, faculty members, books. It is the data which has already been collected by someone or an organization for some other purpose or research study. Some of the secondary data sources include: Books & Journals Internet sources

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RESEARCH DESIGN

SURVEY
This is common method of generating primary data. Here we choose to contact the respondents using a questionnaire that comprises with the question that needed to be answered by the respondent which would help us to analyze.

SECONDARY DATA STUDIES

As information here cannot be interchangeable, but helps in collecting information about the usage of detergents.

OBSERVATION TECHNIQUES
Here the objective is to know why the speculation can be better in detergents. As using the survey & our secondary data it records the perception of people towards Surf Excel.

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ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

WHO ACTUALLY BUYS THE PRODUCT IN THE FAMILY? WORKING WOMEN YOUTH (MEN AND WOMEN) FEW MEN

POPULATION IN %
ONLY MEN YOUTH WORKING WOMEN 0 10 20 30 40 50 POPULATION IN %

WHO MAKES THE DECISION FOR THE PURCHASE? SELF DECISION IS MADE

WHO INFLUENCES THE DECISION FOR THE PURCHASE? THE LIME CONCEPT OF LIRIL ADVERTISEMENTS FEEDBACK FORM EXISTING USERS

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PERCENTAGE
FEEDBACK FORM EXISTING USERS ADVERTISEMENTS THE LIME CONCEPT OF LIRIL 0 20 40 60 80 PERCENTAGE

WHERE IS INFORMATION SEARCHED FOR? INFORMATION GATHERED IS BASED ON FEEDBACK AND ADVERTISEMENTS

WHAT INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE? THE INTRIGUING LIME CONCEPT OF LIRIL FRESHNESS QUOTIENT

WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES? CINTHOL, IN THE LIME CATEGORY DOVE LUX PARK AVENUE

WHAT IS THE EVALUATION PROCEDURE? TO EVALUATE THE OPTIONS AVAILABLE IN THE LIME CATEGORY, ALSO TO CONTEST THAT LIRIL IS MEANT FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY, AND NOT ONLY FOR WOMEN

WHAT IS THE LEVEL OF INVOLVEMENT OF THE CONSUMER WITH THE PRODUCT AND THE PURCHASE PROCESS? POOR 10 | G R O U P - 3 / S E C T I O N - C

CONCLUSION

During the project we tried our best to understand each & every aspect which would enhance or affect the business of bathing soap industry. We come up with the finding that LIRIL as a whole has not been able to retain the same market share as it used to a decade back. LIRIL is embedded in the consumer minds as THE LIME SOAP, and hence all efforts for expansion by LIRIL to other fragrances and variants failed.

LIMITATIONS

1. Limited Time: The time available to conduct the study was only 15 days. It being a wide topic vast research is required. 2. Limited Resources: Limited resources are available to collect the information. 3. Volatility: Bathing soap industry is very volatile. 4. Research was limited within Bhubaneswar & its adjacent places. 5. People were not providing real information/data some times as per the questionnaire (reluctant to give information), which can possibly can leads outputs which may not be real/ appropriate.

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RECOMMENDATIONS & SU GGESTIONS

After getting observations we would like to recommend some important points, upon which LIRIL should focus and try to grow its business by tapping the market through making new customers. Some of the recommendations are as follow:

First thing which we would like to suggest is LIRIL should focus on its promotional forces, so that it would be able to convey the features to the common people. Once the features will be exposed then only it can make new customers.

LIRIL initially targeted : WOMEN SEGMENT

But after a decade long great run in the market, its shares dipped, as an image was created in the minds of the consumers that the soap is only meant for women, that too in the working segment.

WHAT DID LIRIL DO TO CHECK THIS THREAT?

LIRIL changed its agencies from LOWE to MC-ERICKSON before coming back to LOWE again. In its advertisements, instead of showing only a woman bathing under a waterfall, it included a family, wanting to showcase that the soap was meant not only for women, but for the entire family.

LIRIL should change its image in the minds of the consumers as being the LIME CATEGORY SOAP.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS REFERRED

1. William G. Zikmund , Business Research Method 7th Edition 2. Richard I. Levin and David S. Rubin, Statistics for Management 7th edition

REPORTS
1. Report of HUL 2010. 2. Market Research Project on Bathing Soaps.

WEBSITES
1. www.indiacatalog.com 2. www.hul.co.in 3. www.google.com 4. www.wikipedia.org

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ANNEXURE

QUESTIONNAIRE

WHAT DO YOU PREFER AMONGST BATHING SOAP & BODY WASH? DOES FRESHNESS PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE? WHICH SOAP ARE YOU USING? WHAT WERE OTHER OPTIONS AVAILABLE? WHY HAVE YOU CHOSEN YOUR CURRENT BATHING SOAP? ANY EXPECTATTIONS FROM YOUR CURRENT BRAND? ANY COMPLAINTS WITH YOUR CURRENT BRAND? WOULD YOU LIKE TO SWITCH OVER TO ANOTHER BRAND? WOULD YOU RECOMMEND YOUR BRAND TO ANYONE? WOULD YOU CONSIDER TRING LIRIL? WHY? IS LIRIL APPEALING TO YOU? DOES THE ADVERTISEMENTS INFLUENCE YOU TO BUY LIRIL SOAPS? WHY? RATE YOUR CURRENT BRAND OUT OF 10 RATE LIRIL OUT OF 10

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