- an HUL brand

Contents:
1) Statement by William Hesketh Lever 1
2) Unilever & HUL at a glance 2
3) List of HUL’s famous brands 3
4) Lux – an introduction 4
5) Origin of Lux 5
6) Advertising strategy 6
7) Brand ambassadors of Lux 7
8) Brand ambassadors of Lux of different countries 8
9) Product life cycle 9
10) Introduction stage 10
11) Growth stage 11
12) Maturity stage 12
13) Decline stage 13
14) Market captured by Lux & HUL 14
15) SWOT analysis 15-16
16) Competitors of Lux 17-18
17) Conclusion 19
To make cleanliness commonplace, to lessen
work for women, to foster health and contribute
to personal attractiveness, that life may be more
enjoyable and rewarding for the people who use
our products.
William Hesketh Lever

Doing well and doing good.

 Unilever & HUL at glance
 Hindustan Unilever Ltd. is a well-known and largest FMCG company in India.
HUL has always revamped its products to meet the changing needs of the
consumer without compromising on the quality.
 HUL leads the market in the toilet soap category with 54.3% market share. Lux
has inched up to be on par with Lifebuoy in HUL's soaps portfolio. The Lux brand
now has an almost equal market share as Hindustan Lever's largest selling soap
brand - Lifebuoy.
 Unilever is one of the world’s largest & leading MNCs in India. Unilever
commenced their activities on a large scale by setting up their first factory in
Netherlands in the year1872.
 The usage of Unilever products by over 90% of people in Bangladesh stands a
testimony to their successful operation.
 The FMCG category is always a battleground for all the competing firms and the
bathing soap category is no different. With more firms entering the market,
maintaining the customer base is not very easy. Within six months, ITC's soap
products have been able to capture 1.75% of the market share.
 Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), a 52%-owned subsidiary of Anglo-Dutch giant
Unilever, has been working its way into India since 1888. Formerly known as
Hindustan Lever Limited. The Group's principal activities are to manufacture and
market consumer products. Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), a subsidiary of
Unilever, is a fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company based in India. The
company focuses on efficient delivery to consumers with an improved supply
chain, brand building initiatives and innovation, which has helped the company
to sustain its leadership position in the overall FMCG category in India.
 HUL is also one of the country's largest exporters; it has been recognised as a
Golden Super Star Trading House by the Government of India.
 List of HUL’s famous brands:
 The array of products show that they produce household care, fabric cleaning, skin cleansing, skin care, oral
care, hair care, personal grooming & tea-based beverage product under following famous brands:

 Lux
 Wheel
 Lifebuoy
 Dove
 Pears
 Hamam
 Breeze
 Liril
 Vaseline
 Fair & Lovely
 Ayush
 Ponds
 Close Up
 Sunsilk
 Lipton
 Lipton Taaza
 Bru
 Pepsodent
 All Clear
 Vim
 Surf Excel
 Rexona
 Lakme
 Kissan
 Brooke Bond
 Knorr
 Kwality walls
 LUX- Introduction
 Lux stands for promise of beauty & glamour as one of India’s most
trusted personal care brands.
 Lux soap was launched in India in 1929.
 Lux is the largest personal wash brand in the country with a value
share of 15%.
 Three in every five Indian consumers enjoy the luxurious bathing
pleasure of Lux during the course of a year.
 It has been winning hearts of Indian consumers for last 80 years.
 It is considered as reliable & trustworthy.
 It ranks first in the list of India’s most trusted brands & the others
are Colgate, Rin, Thums Up, Dettol, Fair & Lovely, Surf, Coca Cola,
Pepsi, Horlicks in the order from second to tenth.
 Origin of Lux:
 Lux soap was launched in India in 1929. The name "Lux" was chosen as the Latin
word for "light" and because it was suggestive of "luxury.“
 Lux soap was first launched in the UK in 1899 as a flaked version of Sunlight soap.
Subsequently it was launched in the US in 1916, and marketed as a laundry soap targeted
specifically at 'delicates'. Lever Brothers encouraged women to home launder their clothes
without fear of satins and silks being turned yellow by harsh lyes that were often used in
soaps at the time. The flake-type soap allowed the manufacturer some leeway from lye
because it did not need to be shaped into traditional cake-shaped loaves as other soaps
were. The result was a gentler soap that dissolved more readily and was advertised as
suitable for home laundry use. Lux is currently a product of Unilever.
 Lux was first introduced as a toilet soap in 1925 in U.S.A. Produced by Lever
Brothers, it arrived in the UK in 1928, offering people a chance to pamper themselves for a
modest price.
 From the 1930s right through to the 1970s, Lux soap colours and packaging were altered
several times to reflect fashion trends. In 1958 five colours made up the range: pink,
white, blue, green and yellow. People enjoyed matching their soap with their bathroom
colours. This updation was because of establishment of HURC in Mumbai & Bangalore
   Lux toilet soap was introduced as a bathroom soap in the US in 1925, and in the UK
in 1928 as a brand extension of Lux soap flakes. Subsequently Lux soap has been
marketed in several forms, including handwash, shower gel and cream bath soap.
 In the early 1990s, Lux responded to the growing trend away from traditional soap bars by
launching its own range of shower gels, liquid soaps and moisturising bars. Lux beauty
facial wash, Lux beauty bath and Lux beauty shower were launched in 1992.
 In 2004, the entire Lux range was relaunched in the UK to include five shower gels,
three bath products and two new soap bars. 2005 saw the launch of three exciting new
variants with dreamy names such as “Wine & Roses” bath cream, “Glowing Touch” and
“Sparkling Morning” shower gels.
 Lux has recently launched its two fruit extract variants – New Lux Strawberry & Cream and
Lux Peach & Cream contain a blend of succulent fruits & luscious Chantilly cream. The most
recent addition in the brand is Lux Crystal Shine.
 Advertising Strategy:
 Lux star tradition started in 1934,with actress Leena Chitnis.
 Bollywood filmstars also promotes its beauty soap.
 Har star Lucky star offer.
 The beauty soap of film stars.
 Lux celebrating range.
 Chocolate seduction.
 Aromatic glow.
 Lux white star body wash.
 SRK-first Indian male brand ambassador.
 Win 22-carat gold coin.
 Win a lucky date with Aish.

Present & future plan:

 Penetrate in rural segment.

 Increase in market share.

 Trap the untrapped category.

Brand Ambassadors of Lux
 Brand ambassadors of Lux for
different countries:
Hollywood Dorothy Lamour, Joan Crawford, Laurette Luez, Judy Garland, Cheryl Ladd,
Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Taylor, Demi Moore, Sarah Jessica Parker,
Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rachel Weisz, Anne Hathaway, Marilyn Monroe &
Paul Newman.

Bollywood Madhubala, Mala Sinha, Hema Malini, Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla,
Karisma Kapoor, Rani Mukerji, Aishwarya Rai, Amisha Patel, Kareena
Kapoor , Tabu, Priyanka Chopra, Shahrukh Khan.

Pakistan Reema Khan, Meera, Aaminah Haq, Babra sharif, Ali Zafar.

Nepal Jharana Bajracharya

Nigeria Genevieve Nnaji, Patti Boulaye.

Norway Iman Ali.

 Product life cycle
 The course of a products sales and profits over its lifetime is called the product life
cycle.

 PLC shows the stages that products go through from development to withdrawal
from the market.

 Product Life Cycle (PLC):

 Each product may have a different life cycle.

 PLC determines revenue earned.

 Contributes to strategic marketing planning

 To identify when a product needs support, redesign, renovating , withdrawal, etc.

 Introduction stage
 Lux launched the world’s first mass-market beauty soap in the US in 1925 & had been
launched in India in 1929.

 At that time there was only one competitor of Lux, which was from its own brand “LIFEBUOY”.

 In the initial stages Lux was introduced in the major cities of INDIA like Kolkata, Mumbai etc.

 MARKETING OBJECTIVES - was to create the product awareness and to attract the
customers towards the product.

 The Lux MARKETING STRATEGIES in the initial stages :

 Product = They offer only one product in the market. They did not come up with the
differentiated product.

 Price = In the initial stages of the product, they offer the relatively higher price than their
competitor (LIFEBUOY). Because, they want to recover their initial cost of making the product.

 Advertising = In the initial stages, they allocate more advertising budget so that more and
more customers could be attracted towards the product.
In ads they targeted the early adopters, who were readiest to buy the product.
The first ambassador, Leela Chitnis.

 Distribution = was selective and only covers the major cities of INDIA to get recognition in
those cities.
Their distribution channel was through: Manufacturer Wholesaler & Retailer
 Growth stage
 In the growth stage, their sales rapidly started rising.
 They have expanded their market to the other cities of INDIA.

 MARKETING OBJECTIVES = The marketing objectives of the Lux were to expand their
market to the other cities of INDIA.
 Another objective was to maximize more market share.
 
 In the growth stage, company had the following MARKETING STRATEGIES :

 Product = In the growth stage, the company had offered the same product in the
market.

 Price = In this stage, the company had changed their price to some extent because of
maximizing the market share. ( Slightly cut down the prices )

 Advertising = In the growth stage, they had increased their advertising budget as in the
initial stages because of attracting the new customers or to retain the existing customers.
Sharmila Tagore, Hema Malini, Zeenat Amaan, Juhi Chawla, Madhuri Dixit,
Sridevi.

 Distribution = In this stage, company had expanded their market to the other cities of
INDIA. Their distribution channel was the same as in the initial stages of the product.

 Promotion = In the growth stage, the company had also used the different proportioning
strategies to attract the new and the existing customers.
 Maturity stage
 They modified the product by adding some changes in the product.
 In this stage, few competitors enter into the market like ( CINTHOL, FAIRGLOW,
SANTOOR, CHANDRIKA, FIAMA DI WILLS and VIVEL ).
 The company has expanded their market to almost all the cities of INDIA.
 
 MARKETING OBJECTIVES = The marketing objective of Lux is to maximize more profit
while defending the market share and to expand the market to all the cities of INDIA.
 
 MARKETING STRATEGIES In this stage are based on:
 Product = The Lux has made the modification in the product by introducing:
Lux Almond, Lux Orchid , Lux Fruit, Lux Saffron, Lux Sandalwood, Lux
Rose, Lux International, Lux Chocolate, Lux Aromatic Extracts, Lux Oil and
Honey etc
 
 Price = The Lux products are now available at higher prices in the market, the reason
behind is that the company’s marketing objectives is to maximize more profit.

 Distribution = Now Lux products are available in almost all the cities of INDIA. Their
distribution channel is same as in the initial stage.

 Advertising = In this stage Lux advertising has been reduced to some extent because of
the more brand awareness in the minds of customers.
Recently, they have shown Aishwarya Rai , Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra &
Shah Rukh khan .

 PROMOTIONAL OFFERS :
Like buy 3 get 1 free.
 Decline stage
 Besides of all campaigns for the sales promotion of Lux .The reasons for its
decline are :

 1. Currency fluctuations: Unilever products are in over 100 countries

worldwide, As a result, it is exposed to adverse currency fluctuations.

 2. SLOWDOWN: In year 2008 - 09 due to hard economic conditions in INDIA

and other countries the sales were highly affected as the consumer started
looking for some alternate products with a cheaper price than Lux.

 3. Competition: Lux has been facing competition from HUL itself (Lifebuoy) &

from other companies like:-

 Godrej Consumer Products : GCPL, India’s second largest soap maker with
9.2% market share with leading brands such as CINTHOL, FAIRGLOW &
NIKHAR. Fairglow brand, India's first Fairness soap, has created marketing
history as one of the most successful innovations.

 Wipro : The presence of Wipro in the toilet soap industry can be seen through
their brands such as SANTOOR and CHANDRIKA. In the southern market of
India, it is a major market player in toilet soap.

 ITC : It entered the segment last year and has made a strong headway in a
short time by growing to 1.75% in just five months. With the brands like:
Superia, Fiama Di Wills and Vivel.
 Market captured globally by Lux
 Asia:33.40%
 Latin America:5.30%
 Africa:2%
 North America:22%
 East & Central Europe:2.30%
 Western Europe:31%
 Middle East:3%
 Australia& Pacific:1.10%
Market share of HUL
 SWOT Analysis of Lux
 STRENGTHS
 Strong Market Research (door to door sampling is done once a year in Urban and Rural
areas)
 Many variants (Almond Oil, Orchid Extracts, Milk Cream, Fruit Extracts, Saffron,
Sandalwood Oil, and Honey to name a few)
 Strong sales and distribution network backed by HUL.
 Strong brand image
 Positioning focuses on the attractive beauty segment
 Dynamically continuous innovation of the product and brand rejuvenation – new
variants (Aromatic Glow and Chocolate Seduction and Lux White Spa body wash) and
innovative promotions (22 carat gold coin promotion – ‘Chance Hai’)
 Perceived to have high value for money (strong brand promotion but relatively lower
price which is a winning combination in the popular segment)
 Though it is in popular segment, it is having mass appeal/market presence across all
segments (15% of the soap market captured by Lux (sales / volume).
 Unique advantage of having access to resources and assets of HUL.

 WEAKNESSES
 Lux is mainly positioned as beauty soap targeted towards women, hence it lacks unisex
appeal.
 Usage rate/ wear rate is high and is generally mushy and soggy.
 Some variants like the sunscreen, International variant did not do well in the market .
 Certain advertisements like the recent one with Shah Rukh Khan resulted in
controversial interpretations of the message of the advertisement and lead to some loss
of focus (of message of the advertisements).
 Stock out problems - replenishment time is high in semi-urban/rural areas.
 Earlier positioning as the “soap of the stars” has somewhat alienated the brand from a
portion of the consumers especially in rural areas.
 OPPORTUNITIES
 Soap industry growing by 10% in India.
 Beauty segment’s Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is very high. An
indication of this is that Fair and Lovely’s segment is increasing at a fast rate - Lux
must reinforce its presence in the beauty segment.
 More promotions like price-offs and samples.
 Retentive strategy required as the soap segment is in the mature stage of its product
life cycle.
 Line extension – probably with more variants catering to the beauty segment like
natural, herbal soap etc.
 Liquid body wash is currently in the growth stage – Lux should come out with more
variants in this segment.
 Level of servicing is high during sales promotion schemes – this could be brought
down.
 It has a large market share and hence has a strong hold over the market.

 THREATS
 New entrants/local competitors/ MNCs would increase the competition (Camay, P&G).
 High internal competition – Pears also catering the beauty segment (also from HLL
stable).
 Excessive dependence on beauty segment makes Lux vulnerable to changing
customer tastes.
 Technological change makes the existing products obsolete – Lux should focus on
technological innovations like Body Wash.
 Its in the maturity stage in the Product Life Cycle and has a threat of slipping down to
decline stage if constant reinvention of the brand is not carried out.
 Competitors of Lux

 Godrej Consumer Products

GCPL, India’s second largest soap maker after Hindustan Unilever Ltd, has nearly
9.2% market share. With 11% market share in value terms, it is the second
largest soap maker after Hindustan Unilever. Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) is
a major player in the Indian FMCG market with leadership in personal, hair,
household and fabric care segments. The company is one among the largest
marketer of toilet soaps in the country with leading brands such as CINTHOL,
FAIRGLOW, NIKHAR, & ALLCARE. Fairglow brand, India's first Fairness soap,
has created marketing history as one of the most successful innovations. It is also
the preferred supplier for contract manufacturing of toilet soaps, some of which
are the most well-known brands in the country.

 Wipro
In the Indian market, Wipro is a leader in providing IT solutions and services for
the corporate segment in India. Wipro also has a profitable presence in niche
market segments of infrastructure engineering, and consumer products &
lighting.Wipro has made a large acquisition in the Consumer Care business. The
presence of Wipro in the toilet soap industry can be seen through their brands
such as SANTOOR and CHANDRIKA. With industry leading organic growth
rates and the acquisition, Consumer care business has reached a Revenue run
rate in excess of $100 million per quarter.
 Procter & Gamble India
Procter & Gamble India (PGHHCL) was incorporated in 1964 after Procter &
Gamble, US, acquired Richardson Vicks, US. Formerly known as Richardson
Hindustan (the Indian subsidiary), it was later named as P&G. It changed its name
again in 1998 to Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care in order to reflect the
nature and character of the business of the company. During 2004-05 the
company has increased its installed capacity of Soaps & Detergents and Toilet
Preparations etc by 36500 Tonnes and 263 Tonnes respectively. With this
expansion the total installed capacity of Soaps & Detergents and Toilet
Preparations etc has increased to 108500 Tonnes and 5875 Tonnes respectively.

 Nirma
Incorporated as a private limited company, Nirma was converted into a deemed
public company and then to a public limited one in Nov.'93. Nirma has a leadership
presence in Detergents, Soaps and Personal Care Products. To have a greater
control on the quality and price of its raw materials, Nirma undertook backward
integration into manufacture of Industrial Products like Soda Ash, Linear Alkyl
Benzene (LAB), Alfa Olefin Sulphonates (AOS), Fatty Acid, Glycerine and Sulphuric
Acid. During 1996-97, Nilnita Chemicals, Nirma Detergents, Nirma Soaps
and Detergents, and Shiva Soaps and Detergents were amalgamated with
the company. The company created 'Nirma Consumer Care Ltd.' - a wholly owned
subsidiary on 22nd Aug.'97, which is the sole licensee of the brand name 'Nirma'
within India. Nirma enjoys a share of 6.74% in soaps.

 ITC
ITC, the country’s largest cigarette maker, entered the segment last year and has
made a strong headway in a short time. According to AC Nielsen, its share has
grown to 1.75% in just five months despite the fact that many of its brands such
as Superia, Fiama Di Wills and Vivel are currently sold in only six states.
Conclusion:
 Today, HUL is one of India’s Largest exporters of branded Fast Moving Consumer
Goods. It has been recognized by the Government of India as a Golden Super Star
Trading House.
 It must follow its current strategy in future too.
 Lux has high penetration in urban & semi-urban areas. However, it has only 19.8%
penetration in rural areas.
 It enjoys sound financial position & high profits from this sector.
 Customers have 100% faith on this product.