EXAMPLE 1 HINDUSTAN LEVER LIMITED Hindustan Lever Ltd is a leading FMCG conglome

rated in India whose success in

management policies and strategies are taken as an example by many Indian
companies and emulated. The decade of 1980 must have been a memorable one for
Hindustan Levers Ltd (HLL) .For, in a typical David and Goliath war, the giant a
nd an
undisputed market leader in consumer non-durables in India suffered a humiliatin
g
defeat at the hands of a new and small firm, Nirma Chemicals .
Nirma Washing Powder became a national brand soon after 1982, when the Indian Te
levision went commercial and started color telecast. The product immediately cau
ght
the fancy of the middle-income customers; who was finding it difficult to make b
oth ends
meet with a limited monthly income. Nirma was the lowest priced branded washing
powder available in the grocery and co-operative stores .The middle class housew
ife
was more than satisfied, as she could now choose a lower priced washing powder
rather than the high priced Surf detergent powder from HLL.
Nirma also had an impact on upper middle income and higher income families where
it
was used for washing their inexpensive clothes and linen. Initially, HLL respond
ed by
launching sales promotion campaigns on Surf by offering a bucket at subsidized pri
ce
for every 1 kg of Surf, or by trading premium brands of toilet soap with every k
ilogram of
Surf. These schemes, however, could not stop the decline in the popularity of Su
rf. HLL
then launched a head-on attack on Nirma .Without naming it (though it was obviou
s)
they came up with an advertising commercial comparing 1 kg of surf with 1 kg of
low-
priced yellow washing powder and showed that Surf washed more clothes than the l
ow-
priced yellow washing powder and hence it was economical to buy Surf.
The commercial did not bring in any substantial results. It was at this time (ar
ound 1984)
that HLL decided to take a fresh look at the market. Research was conducted
throughout the country which revealed that different income groups of the consum
ers
had varying expectations from detergents and washing powder, it also showed that
different colors of washing or detergent powders were associated with different
types of
fabrics.
For example, yellow colored washing or detergent powders were mainly bought by
middle and lower middle or lower income group people. They washed all their fabr
ics
and associated whiteness in clothes to a yellow colored powder .Also, middle cla
ss
families used the blue colored Rin bar or the white colored Lux flakes for washi
ng their
expensive clothes. The research further indicated that blue or white colored det
ergent
powders were bought by middle to higher income group people, and these colors we
re
also associated with washing clothes clean.
In fact, the housewife was known to add blue to her laundry to give that extra
whiteness to the white clothes. Interestingly, green was also a color that was p
erceived
to clean extra-dirty clothes.
Armed with this research on color perceptions and income groups, HLL launched th
e following : ?Sunlight (yellow)
?Wheel(green)
?Rin (blue)
?Surf Ultra(white)
Detergents powders for different market segments. This strategy of segmenting th
e markets, understanding its needs and then evolving marketing mix to suit separ
ate segment needs helped HLL win back its lost market
In fact Nirma made all other consumer product companies sit up and take a fresh
look
at their markets It announced ,for many, a beginning of an era of low priced pro
ducts for
a highly price sensitive Indian Market , and, to others ,an end of a mass market
ing era.