Developing a Marketing Plan for Jyothy Labs Jyothy Labs, a family-run business, plans to induct a professional management team

to handle the newly merged business. The new management is to consist of a new CEO and three category managers for fabric-care, laundry-care and personal-care in order to focus on consumer preferences. The company has 21 manufacturing units at 14 locations across India. It has 6 business divisions namely Fabric [5] Care, Household Insecticide, Utensil Cleaners, Fragrances, Personal Care and Fabric Care Service . Ujala, Maxo, Exo, Jeeva and Maya are some of the brands it owns under these divisions . Ujala is the biggest brand in the company portfolio and contributing up to 48% of the company revenues. The company is the largest player in the fabric whitener space in India with a market share of 72%. It is also different from other consumer goods manufacturers as the business is vertically integrated: from plastic bottles to the liquid dye, all are made in-house. Synergies to play out in FY13. The acquisition of Henkel India in 1QFY12 has given Jyothy a range of fabric-care brands across price points and geographies (urban and rural, north and south India).

A post-wash liquid fabric enhancer, Ujala Stiff & Shine helps provide the stiffness for that crisp look without the white patches and bad odour commonly associated with starch. Ujala Stiff & Shine is available in 20gm sachets, 100ml and 200ml bottles. Ujala Techno Bright has a unique 3 Power System with Nano Enzymes that penetrates deep into the fibres and cleans out the toughest stains. Even bacteria and bad odour are Clean Out!

Jyothy Labs has been insistently investing in Ujala Technobright detergents (via adspend and inducting celebrities as Sachin Tendulkar) to create the new brand. Henkel India too had been investing and building its three detergent brands: Henko, Mr. White and Chek. Jyothy and Henkel had been competing in detergents and dishwashing segments, increasing adspend to gain market share. Both the companies had smaller distribution networks and lower penetration

Developing an array of products around Ujala The companys flagship brand is still Ujala, the market leader in liquid blue. Apart from this, the company has introduced detergents, fabric whiteners and fabric conditioners. The detergents wars have mellowed in the past 2-3 quarters. P&G reported losses of `3.3bn, equal to profits accumulated in the six years prior to FY11. The companys sales contribution from 27-year-old flagship liquid fabric care brand, Ujala, has been dropping in the last 4-5 years, newer segments such as

dishwashing and mosquito repellents have been growing strongly at 20-25%, Kamath said. Despite this, Kamath said, there was potential for Ujala to gain market share rapidly. Ujalas current value market share pan-India is 72%, while in Kerala is 99.9% as on March 2010. We are not too far from achieving 100% market share all over India for Ujala, he said. This penetration and market share has helped Ujala edge out biggies like Tide, Ariel, Wheel and competition Robin Blue to rise to third position within the fabric care category. It has added two products in the recent years Ujala Stiff & Shine and Ujala washing powder. While Stiff & Shine is national, the washing powder will be rolled out nationally in the current year. In addition, the company is also looking at brand extensions under Ujala. The firm is also looking at taking its dishwashing brand Exo to a million outlets this year from the current 3.5 lakh outlets, giving the market leader Vim, sold by Hindustan Unilever, stiff competition. The product efficacy of Exo is superior to competition which gives the brand a significant advantage regarding consumer perception. We recall that Hindustan Unilever had launched a me-too product Vim anti-bacterial after Exo was launched on this new differentiated platform. Until October 2009, Exo was limited to Southern India market. Exos value market share has risen significantly from 8.4% in 2004 to 24.1% In an attempt to strengthen its mosquito repellent brand Maxo, the company has bought the DEPA technology (a repellent formulation for all blood sucking insects and mosquitoes) from Defence Research & Development Organisation, Ministry of Defence. This will help them manufacture and market products such as wet wipes, sprays and creams. Jyothy will also be permitted to export the same under the exclusive rights it has obtained from the government. The company will focus on launching liquid and aerosol products in this segment. Jyothys value market share in the mosquito repellent segment is 22% The jingle perhaps had more resonance than the product over the last two decades. But today, 'aaya naya Ujala, char boondo wala...' could well symbolise the coming of age forJyothy Laboratories as a company to reckon with in the Indian FMCG space. And leading the thrust is the Rs 400 crore flagship brand, Ujala, that over the years has also jumped into washing powder, starching products with more in the offing in the fabric care space.

Consumers: "Ujala as a company has always been present in consumer minds, but when we recently brought over Henkel for Rs 800-crore, people suddenly realised we are a big company," says Kamath about the company's recent acquisition. According to the survey, cities in East and South are strongholds for Ujala, with the brand finding a place in the Top 10 list in Trivandrum its best performance among the 13 cities that it was surveyed in. The brand also predictably does well with female respondents, housewives and adult females, the TG for the brand. And in the SEC comparison, Ujala's best performance is No. 52 position among SEC B respondents, followed by No. 72 among SEC C respondents and No. 85 among SEC A respondents. Nothing surprising here either as this performance is in sync with Ujala's strategy, "Our product is used by SEC B,C,D,E customers and they are happy with the product if it does the job. Some people in this segment may own only 1-2 white shirt or white garments, so the importance of maintaining the whiteness of the product is high for them. We are not looking at SEC A or A++ customers anyways," explains Kamath. The whitewash within the fabric care category by Ujala will certainly be heartening for founder, M P Ramachandran. The man known for his penchant for wearing white (even his shoes are a pristine white) knows that a few drops of blue has turned into an ocean that now threatens to overwhelm competition.