When you talk of iconic Indian brands, one name which features in any conversation is Liril.

Launched in 1975, this

was the ad, and the brand, which revolutionised the world of Indian advertising.

Liril has always had an association with freshness. The image of Karen Lunel in a lime green swimsuit under the
waterfall, accompanied by the jingle ‘La la la…..’ is one which resonates with the idea of freshness, and is still deeply
entrenched in the minds of the public even today. Her carefree cavorting under the water was seen as a powerful
symbol synonymous with women’s liberation taking place at that time. Moreover, the bikini scandalised the nation,
which meant that nobody would be able to forget the ad in a hurry. Lunel reigned as the Liril girl for a long time, and
established a precedent which was hard to replace.  The Liril girl became one of the brand’s strongest advertising
properties, and try as they might; HLL and Lowe were not able to remove the Liril girl from her position.

Liril was an experiential brand, and the communication fully supported that. Indian women took to it straight away. For
the average Indian woman who was surrounded by chaos, in-laws, husband, and children, the ten minutes in the
shower were her own, where she could day dream. Seeing Lunel under the waterfall was akin to seeing that dream
come true, and every one of them could relate to it. That’s one reason the brand became a category leader within a
year of its launch.

It’s also a testimony to the genius of Ad Guru Alyque Padamsee, whose career took off after the Liril campaign. In
fact, he relates an interesting anecdote leading up to the launch in his book, ‘A double Life’:

“The name Liril had been registered by Hindustan Lever from a list sent to them by Unilever in London. Levers were
very keen that the soap have striations, wiggly stripes of different colours running across the tablet. I recommended
the tablet be blue -- because waterfall is blue with white striations. Hindustan Lever was very excited and produced
1,000 tablets for testing. At this point Derk Wooller, the Marketing Controller of Hindustan Lever’s soaps division,
stepped in and suggested we add the freshness of lime to our story. He felt that though the waterfall had tremendous
emotional appeal, Liril needed a rational ingredient to clinch the deal. I was not averse to this but suggested that we
do an `As marketed’ test: Blue Liril versus Green Liril with limes. I was wrong and Wooller was right. The rest is
history.”
Although the Liril girl changed with time, the brand imagery remained the same for 25 years, which is a testament to
the power which this brand exuded. Even after going through various phase of repositioning, this image is still not
forgotten. The brand has now been withdrawn and launched in a new avtaar of Liril 2000 targeting families; the Liril
Girl still persists in the memory of Indian consumers though!

http://www.themarketers.in/?p=17

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HUL kiss Liril Girls goodbye as it turns family way

By PTI Sep 15 2009 , New Delhi
Tags: FMCG, HUL, Liril, Advertising
FMCG major HUL, known for launching starlets popularly known as 'Liril Girls' through advertisements 
 RELATED ARTICLES for its lemon soap, is now charting a different strategy to tap family audience,
FMCG Q1 sales to keeping in tune with changing times.
be volume-driven, margins
crimped
Liril soap, which was recently relaunched, is now targeting a wider audience with the
brand tailored to appeal to the entire family — a change from the earlier times, when the likes of Karen Lunel, Preity
Zinta, Tara Sharma and Deepika Padukone were made the face of the brand focusing on the youth segment.

While HUL did not respond to queries, the firm's advertising agency Lowe Lintas said the change in strategy was
prompted by the evolution that the market has undergone.

"In the last decade or so, freshness has become generic to the personal wash category and, lime and lemony
fragrances are being used by any and all brands. Clearly, the consumer and te market has moved on," Lowe Lintas
Executive Director Joseph George told PTI.

"We also decided that in order to broad base its appeal (and fortunately our proposition allowed us to do so), we
should make the brand appeal to the entire family," he added.

The idea was to leverage Liril's premium heritage and find a new consumer benefit in skin cleansing to make the
brand relevance to its audience once again, he added.

http://www.mydigitalfc.com/advertising/hul-kiss-liril-girls-goodbye-it-turns-family-way-077

Case Study - Brand Lifebuoy

Born: 1895

History: Owned by Unilever Plc., the parent company of Hindustan Unilever Ltd

Status: Has 18% market share in the bathing soaps category, worth Rs6,000 crore.

Brand story: Lifebuoy landed on Indian shores in 1895, when the country was in the grip of a plague epidemic.

With its positioning as a powerful germicidal and disinfectant, and with a strong carbolic smell, it was
what the nation was looking for. But the health advantage waned over time as competitors came out
with soaps that promised both health and beauty.

The 1970s were challenging times for the brand, especially in the rural markets, its mainstay. “The
biggest challenge was to break the mould and do clutter-breaking advertising,” says Manoj Tapadia,
creative director at Lowe India, the ad vertising agency for Lifebuoy.

It was around 2002 that the product moved from being a hard soap to a mild soap that delivered a
significantly superior bathing experience. The new soap had a refreshing fragrance and its overall
positioning changed, painting its promise of health in softer, more versatile and responsible hues—for
the entire family.
The packaging was also changed: The rugged looking packs were soon replaced with a softer pinkish
cover. This was followed by a series of ads highlighting the soap’s germfighting benefits.

Lifebuoy had become a family soap with hygiene as its core promise. “For a soap that had been
relegated to toilets, Lifebuoy has gathered new adherents in an age where more consumers are getting
concerned about germs and cleanliness,” says Arvind Sahay, professor of marketing at the Indian
Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

“Lifebuoy has 112 years of existence in India and has constantly reinvigorated itself.

In the last five years, it has touched nearly 100 million Indians across 44,000 villages,” says Srikanth
Srinivasamadhavan, category head, personal wash, HUL.

Right from the early days, the brand has preferred effective communication to celebrities. An exception
is its recent, limited exposure campaign with cricketer Yuvraj Singh.

http://drypen.in/case-studies/case-study-brand-lifebuoy.html