40 YEARS AGO...

AND NOW

Not just germs, Dettol

fights rivals unabated
If earlier the germicide had to battle home remedies, now it is other brands
PHOTOS: RB

It is worth mulling over whether the brand, if named PCMX, would have been as popular by dint of its marketing drive

VIVEAT SUSAN PINTO

Mumbai, 12 March

ow does washing
your wound with
PCMX sound? It is
worth wondering how
much the stern name
would have taken away
from the appeal of the
brand in question.
The then-Reckitt & Sons (now RB,
and earlier known as Reckitt
Benckiser) had almost decided to call
the best-known antiseptic liquid
PCMX. The English parent of Dettol
had decided to market it in the 1930s
with the forbidding name because it
was short for parachlorometaxylenol,
the aromatic compound that gives
Dettol its germ-fighting ability.
The management wanted the
products name to reflect its medical
history and rigour. RB had been testing Dettol for years, in hospitals and
maternity homes, and zeroed in on
the term PCMX due to the uniqueness of the compound.
It constituted just 4.8 per cent of

Dettols total admixture,

but was powerful enough
to lend its germicide properties to the solution, without irritating human skin
as much as the antiseptic
liquids back then.
History, perhaps, would
not have remembered
PCMX as well as it did
Dettol. Even though Dettol
gave no indication of the formulation,
it had an unmistakable medical association. The packaging was a clean,
no-nonsense, slim bottle with round
edges with a large cap that could be
opened easily.
The bottle resembled medicine
bottles of the thirties and the use of
white on green (Dettol was embossed
in those colours) was reminiscent of
hospitals and nursing homes. Dettols
white sword further referenced the
doctors cross).
Later, RB cleverly used this as the
sword of trust, along with the
clouding action, characteristic of
Dettol when dissolved in water, in
advertising across the world. Dettol

came to India the very year it rolled

out of RBs factory in England, in
1932; multi-country launches were
unheard of then.
RB wanted to reach as many markets as it could and India being a
British colony was convenient.
Dettol found acceptance in local
hospitals for first-aid, cleaning of
wards, washing of linen etc. But it
remained out of homes because
Indians believed in using home remedies such as haldi (turmeric) as a germicide. The brand had miles to cover
before becoming the household name
it is today.
RB, say brand historians, was
amongst the earliest users of doctor
referrals. This was a medium trusted by consumers.

The bottle design,

symbols and the colours
used for the product
were reminiscent of
hospitals and steeped
in medical associations.
This increased the trust
among home users

Allopathic doctors would keep an

antiseptic liquid for cleaning wounds
or for usage after minor procedures.
RB had to ensure that they
reached out for Dettol on such occasions. Patients got to see how Dettol
was used, followed the doctor recommending Dettol for home usage.
Kiran
Khalap,
founder,
Chlorophyll communication consultancy, says, Dettol represented the
new thinking about germs, which was
what allopathy propagated that disease was caused by germs, while traditional thinking said disease was
caused by an imbalance of the body. It
helped that the social milieu was
accepting modern science then. It was
not uncommon to be told that if you
stepped out in the heat and dust then
you should bathe in Dettol water or
that you should clean your toilets with
Dettol, besides using it to heal
wounds. Dettol was positioned as an
invisible protection against germs.
RB backed its ground-level effort
with cinema ads in the 1960s using
the mother-child relationship as the
fulcrum to drive home the message of
germ-protection. This continued over
the decades. By 1981, Dettol had
expanded into soaps, taking its germprotection property into the competitive personal care space.
By the 1990s, it added plasters, liquid soap and shaving cream to its
portfolio, and followed up by adding
bodywash, kitchen gel, hygiene liquids and wet wipes in the 21st century. Nitish Kapoor, MD, RB India, says,
Dettol is considered a gold standard
in germ protection. Over the years, it
has evolved, but has remained consistent to its core in every way it
engages with users.
Dettols broad health care and personal hygiene canvas has meant that
it has increasingly found itself fighting Hindustan Unilevers Lifebuoy,
also positioned on the same plank.
At times, it has waged acrimonious ad and legal battles with the
latter. But it refuses to cower, taking
the battle for share right to the
doorstep of rivals.
In antiseptic liquids, Dettol
enjoys over 85 per cent share of
the market. In soaps, it oscillates
between the number three and
four, after HULs Lifebuoy and Lux,
and at times, Wipros Santoor. In
liquid soaps, it claims an over 50
per cent share, ahead of rivals.
Dettol is clearly not done protecting its turf while continuing with
its germ-protection plank.