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MAKING a late entry into categories already tapped by competition, HLL has finally decided
to target men with a fairness cream and also extend its premium brand Surf Excel to a bar
form with intentions of replacing the Rin Supreme bar.

Speaking to ¦


, Mr Nitin Paranjpe, Vice-President, Laundry & Household, said,

"There is a migration happening for the bar brands." Rin Supreme bar, the most premium bar
in its category is being migrated as a Surf Excel bar. Considering Surf Excel is already a
premium brand in powders, this move makes sense, according to industry observers.

While Rin is positioned on the whiteness platform, the communication exercise for the `new'
surf Excel bar is expected to focus on both whiteness and stain removal, (earlier the USP of
Surf Excel was stain removal), according to officials at HLL.

Lowe, the agency handling the Surf excel brand, has already released a campaign to highlight
the `migration' exercise between the bar brands. In the commercial, a kid conveys the mixed
news (bad news since Supreme bar is no longer going to be available and good news since
Surf Excel bar is coming into the market). HLL officials said that the Rin Supreme bar is
already a top-end bar and it helps when it is being migrated to an already premium brand
such as Surf Excel.

In fact, HLL had mulled launching a Surf Excel bar for a while and its R&D department was
actively exploring the possibility even before the Tide bar made its appearance. When P&G
launched its Tide bar more than a year back, there was a strong possibility of HLL unveiling
its Surf Excel bar to combat its nearest rival. In fact, P&G has deliberately pegged its Tide
Bar (Rs 16.50 for 250 g), a notch lower than Rin Supreme bar (Rs 17 for 250 g) and both the
brands are positioned on the `whitening' platform.

Besides, HLL re-launched the Rin brand of powders as Rin Advanced in the recent past
(renaming its Rin Shakti brand) and discontinued with Rin Supreme powders, while its bars
continued at the premium end of the `almost' stagnant bar category. Recently, it also
introduced a jasmine variant under Rin Advanced and continues with a lesser priced bar
under the same franchise.

Meanwhile, HLL has finally decided to enter the men's category under its largest selling
skincare brand - Fair & Lovely. Mr Ashok Venkatramani, VP, Skincare, said, "We have a
new brand of men's cream and are presently test-marketing the product in the Southern
markets." Again, HLL is entering the men's fairness cream category at a time when players
such as Emami (Fair and Handsome) and Garnier have already forayed into the market.

Explaining the strategy behind HLL's late entry, an FMCG analyst says, "HLL does not care
if it comes in early or late. Its research for any brand is always a two-year process and after
launching the brand, it decides to spend much more than competition just to capture the
market."

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 2006 saw a unique marketing move from HLL. Rin Supreme bar is being migrated to
Surf Excel. Although the decision is made in 2006 , the ads are being aired more frequently
in 2007 ( I have only recently noticed this after one of my students pointed out this ).I was
wondering why HLL is messing up their successful detergent brand like Rin?
Indian Detergent market is valued at around 5100 crore ($1.2 bn).Detergent bar market
makes up for 43% of this market .HLL commands 38% of the fabric wash market.
The latest move comes in the wake of the high profile launch of Tide detergent bar. Tide and
Ariel always created problems for Surf and Rin. The migration of Rin Supreme bar to Surf
Excel bar is aimed at countering Tide.
While Rin is heavily positioned on th whiteness platform and Surf Excel on the Stain
Removal platform, the new Surf Excel detergent bar is aimed to take both these attributes.The
ad is already on air featuring kids conveying " Good News and Bad news" to their mothers.

It is true that the detergent bar market is important for HLL because in India, homemakers
use a combination of bar,detergent and whiteners on their clothes. Hence any move from
competitors should be seriously dealt with. But this migration initially did not make sense
with me. Why spent money migrating brands? Does HLL gain by migrating Rin to Surf
excel?

But I feel that the logic behind the migration is to protect Rin and its USP of whiteness .It is
true that Rin supreme can counter Tide bar because both have whiteness positioning. Had
HLL used Rin to counter any competition other than Tide, it will have to focus on the
Whiteness Platform alone and any additional attribute may affect the parent Rin detergent
powder brand. While having Surf Excel detergent bar will help HLL to counter competition
not only from Tide but other competitors since Surf is known for its stain removal property.
There will not be any dilution in the equity adding attribute of whiteness to Surf unlike Rin.
My conclusion is Surf Excel has the ability to be a generalist than Rin.( MyView).
Is it good news or bad news?