2002 Repositioning

• Targeted Lifebuoy as a soap that brought good health to

the entire family
• It had smart TV ad campaign, children are shown
cleaning a street.
• The message put across is that since these children are
secure from ailments that are caused by a lack of proper
sanitation and hygiene, thanks to the fact that they use
Lifebuoy, they are in a position to ensure cleanliness and
hygiene for the entire community.
• Thus, Lifebuoy not only ensures good health and
cleanliness for individuals, but healthy and productive
communities as well.
Market segmentation and targeting
• The targeting market for lifebuoy is all
households who can afford buying soap and
who want to fulfill everyday need that provides
them and their family with a 100 anti bacterial
solution and complete protection from all germs
bacteria and cleanliness from dirt
• Lifebuoy belief that children are the potential
agent for change and imparting education on the
importance of hand washing with soap will
enable them to adopt early habit in life
• Lifebuoy positioned itself on price it
became low price antibacterial soap.
• This strategy may have boosted short
term sales of Lifebuoy but it lost its brand
value and credibility in the minds of
customers.
• Lifebuoy needed to reposition itself on
quality rather than price.
 Repositioning
• In the year 2002, the company changed this positioning
decision, and the brand was no longer a masculine
brand.
• The brand was repositioned as a ‘family’ brand.
• The brand was no more carbolic, the perfume changed
and a new ingredient ‘Active B’, that eliminated harmful
germs, was introduced.
• The campaign now portrayed a pretty girl, who was
teased for having a pimple, but didn’t care after using
Lifebuoy Gold, was an instant hit.
• The company maintained the health platform but
targeted at the family so that the brand usage goes up.
 Strategy
• Lifebuoy's “Swasthya Chetna” (LSC) was a five-year health and
hygiene education program initiated by Hindustan Lever Limited
(HLL), the Indian arm of the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG)
major, Unilever.
• The program was formally launched in 2002, in eight states across
India.

• The objective of this program was to educate around 200 million

people in rural and urban areas about the importance of adopting
good 'health and hygiene' practices.
• The program spread awareness about germs and their adverse
effects on health, and how proper 'health and hygiene‘ practices,
such as bathing and washing hands with soap could prevent
diseases like diarrhea.
• According to HLL, LSC was not a philanthropic
activity, but a marketing program with a social
benefit.
• HLL sought to grow the Lifebuoy brand in India
by attracting those consumers who never used
soap.
• In the process, the company sought to bring
about a behavioral change by convincing people
to use soaps more frequently, thus creating
more users for its brand.
• This program was also seen as a successful
case for public-private partnership
 Market scope strategy
• Although Unilever itself is a part of a Multi
market,
• We can say that Lifebuoy is using a multi
market strategy
• It has both soap and shampoo, not these
two only but they have others antibacterial
liquid baths as well opening a way for
Lifebuoy to be a multiple product.
 Market geographic strategy
• Lifebuoy being available in almost every
continent of the world.
• It is a worldwide brand of Unilever available in
India, China, Indonesia, Cyprus, UK, and USA
along with Pakistan.
• It has made it available in Asia and Africa where
it is used by those people who have a daily
income of less than 1 $.
• It’s goals and objectives of providing hygiene
and health solutions that enable people to lead a
life without fear of hygiene anxieties and health
consequences in any corner of the country
 Market entry strategy
• Lifebuoy is one of the old products of
Unilever which has more than 100 years of
successful journey,
• Lifebuoy is the early entrants
internationally and in India it is the first-in
in its kind of soaps.
 Market commitment strategy
• Being the first-in the market Unilever has shown strong
commitment with its brand of life time i.e. Lifebuoy and
that commitment to its brand has really foster the growth
of Unilever as well as its brand of Lifebuoy.
• But from the recent decade Unilever is no more showing
the strong commitment to Lifebuoy because over the
period of time many of the competitors came in the
market with new innovative product, better market
strategies and stronger commitment.
• In the present scenario, Unilever is just showing an
average commitment its brand of Lifebuoy which has
really put its brand on the back foot.
 Distribution strategies
• Unilever uses an intensive distribution strategy
for lifebuoy soap while at the same brand but in
shampoos category it introduces only extensive
strategy.
• Unilever did not fight for the better shelf space
for lifebuoy soap.
• Lifebuoy is targeting middle and low income
consumers so shelf space is not important our
main focus is on intensive distribution and ideal
price with some innovation.
 Pricing
• Market penetration is the name given to a growth strategy where the
business focuses on selling existing products into existing markets.
Market penetration seeks to achieve four main objectives:
– Maintain or increase the market share of current products, this can be
achieved by a combination of competitive pricing strategies, advertising,
sales promotion and perhaps more resources dedicated to personal
selling
– Secure dominance of growth markets.
– Restructure a mature market by driving out competitors
– Increase usage by existing customers
• In penetrating the market through price, Lifebuoy has to compete
with brands of P&G, Reckitt Benckiser and Colgate-Palmolive which
are a good name of quality, so accordingly Lifebuoy has to adjust its
prices at that level where it creates dominance among the existing
brands