A Marketing Project Report On

HUL Pureit
----------------------------------------------------

Submitted to
Instructor: Prof. Himadri Roy Chaudhari

In partial fulfilment of the requirements of the course

Marketing Management – 1

By Group A6

Anjana Dharmani (FB19002)

Gaurav Vijay Nair(B19017)
Ivy Maji (B19021)
Nikhil Jindal (B19030)
Nikita Gulgule (B19031)
Ronit Ray (B19040)
Puja Shankar (B19034)
Nidhi Dwivedi (B19029)
Parikshit Garg (B19032)
Veni Gupta (B19058)
Sahil Gupta (B19041)

Video Submission link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XIeIbDb8qLRj14wBydHsTYNG8P7ORtsq

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Contents
1. Executive Summary………………………………………………………………...…3
2. Company Description……………………………………………………………….…4
3. Product Description……………………………………………………………………6
4. Situational Analysis………………………………………………………………...…7
i. Macro environment ………………………………………………………………7
ii. Micro environment……………………………………………………………..…7
iii. Competitive Analysis…………………………………………………………..…8
iv. SWOT Analysis………………………………………………………………..…9
5. Primary Research…………………………………………………………………….11
i. Consumer Insights…………………………………………………………….…11
ii. Retailer Insights……………………………………………………………….…13
iii. Online Reviews………………………………………………………………..…15
iv. Key Research Finding and Implications…………………………………………18
v. Consumer Needs Analysis……………………………………….………………18
vi. Consumer Decision Making Process………………………….…………………19
6. Critical Issues……………………………………………………….…………….….20

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 Executive Summary
The idea for Pureit was born from the water initiative of a global Unilever project, and India
was chosen to be the pilot country. HUL used its understanding about the various water
purification techniques to make a purifier that was independent of technological constraints
while simultaneously being affordable; mainly across the rural population.

Two significant areas were targeted to understand about the market penetration of Pureit:
one with rural and BoP households and retail stores.

In conversation with the retailers in market areas of Jamshedpur, we found the presence of
Pureit to be scarce. Kent Mineral RO was a major product for almost all sellers because of
its high consumer demand. Pureit falls in the lower price range, so there is some demand
in the surrounding areas of Chandil and Ghatsila. In Chaibasa, the sale is around 140 per
month while in the smaller regions of Nawamundi, the sale is 6-7 pieces per month.
Moreover, the demand for the offline model of Pureit continuously decreased over time
because of which it has been taken off the market since Jan 2019. Be it the villages or the
urban areas, the only electric model of Pureit is there at present.

About the bulk buyers, schools in Jamshedpur prefer Kent over other brands and the
hospitals prefer LG due to its stainless-steel water tank ensuring decreased chances of
infection. Only Tata Steel is a major bulk buyer of Pureit. While interacting with a sales
executive of Pureit, Mr. Manish Kumar Singh, we found that there is no franchise center
for Pureit and lack of the sufficient number of the salesperson, the reasons which he
attributed to its low sales. This is in clear contrast with the situation a decade ago wherein
a 10000 strong demonstrator team was being set up.

On the customer side, a survey conducted on 20 people in the interior slum area of
Bhuiyadih showed us that 55% of them collected water from JUSCO tap, 35% sourced
water from municipal taps, and 10% used groundwater. Very less of them used water
purifier, no one of them had heard of Pureit. They had heard of Kent because that brand
was associated with a celebrity. One more significant finding was that they associated water
purifiers to Aquaguard. This showed that even after significant brand outreach programs
and DTH networks, Pureit had lacked somewhere in spreading brand awareness.

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 Company Description

• Type Public
• Traded as BSE: 500696
NSE: HINDUNILVR
BSE SENSEX Constituent
• Industry Consumer goods
• Predecessor Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Company (1931–56)
Lever Brothers India Limited (1933–56)
United Traders Limited (1935–56)
Hindustan Lever Limited (1956–07)
• Founded 1933; 86 years ago
• Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
• Key people Harish Manwani (Chairman); Sanjiv Mehta (CEO & MD)
• Products Foods, cleaning agents personal care products and water
purifiers.
• Revenue ₹35,218 crore (US$5.0 billion) (2017-18)
• Number of employees 18,000 (2018)
• Parent Unilever

• Website www.hul.co.in

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It is the India’s largest FMCG company. It has following competitive advantages:

1. Being the largest FMCG company it has a strong presence in different consumer goods
segment.
2. With 35+ brands across 20 consumer products, it has a huge area in shelf, providing
immense brand visibility.
3. It has the support of its parent company Unilever, a global giant with a worth of US $58
billion.
4. It is a brand with products deep rooted in Indian society, products with strong legacy
which are all household names.
5. It has a strong retail network for its non-durable goods.
6. It also has various CSR initiatives like Project Shakti, which just add to the company’s
goodwill.

The company’s mission, vision and values are:

Vision: Our vision is to grow our business while decoupling our environmental footprint from
our growth and increasing our positive social impact.

Mission: Our mission is to add Vitality to life. We meet every day needs for nutrition, hygiene
and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life.

Values: Our Corporate Purpose states that to succeed requires "the highest standards of
corporate behaviour towards everyone we work with, the communities we touch, and the
environment on which we have an impact."

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 Product Description

Versions
Marvella
Advanced Advanced Max RO+UV with
Classic Nxt Pureit Copper+
Plus Mineral fruit &
RO + MF RO
RO+MF+MP RO+UV+MF+MP Vegetable
Purifier
Price 9,000 10,499 14,999 20,000 25,990

BoP Lower-middle Middle class Upper- middle High-end

Target
consumers class consumers consumers class consumers

• Launched in 2008, Pureit was HUL’s very first venture in the domain of Consumer Durables.
• Their first ‘Pureit’ water purifier ‘Classic’ which was available at a very low price of $44
quickly claiming market leadership, was aimed at BoP consumers.
• HUL Adopted DTH (Direct-to-home) strategy, accompanied by DPP (Doctor’s Partnership
Program).
• HUL marketed its product through retail channels by creating a market pull encouraging
retailers to take up their products despite lower margins
• HUL launched Pureit ‘Compact’ in 2010 priced at $22 to cater to the masses and provide them
with the facility of safe drinking water.
• Later, they also came up with a high-end model named ‘Marvella’ launched for $150.
• Recently launched Pureit Copper+ priced at $380, aimed at upper-class consumers, thus
diversifying its consumer portfolio.
• The major competitors of Pureit at present being Eureka Forbes, Kent and Philips.

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 Situational Analysis
Macro environment
In the developing world, most of all the diseases are of water-borne nature. According to
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), diarrhoea alone kills 2,195 children every
day which is more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. Safe drinking water is
fundamental to survival, health, growth and development. Unless people have access to safe
drinking water resources, deaths due to water-borne related diseases cannot be prevented. More
than billion people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water resources. World
Health Organization (WHO) had set the Millennium Development Goal 7 in 2005 in which
one of the targets was 50% reduction in proportion of people without sustainable access to safe
drinking water and basic sanitation. According to reports[1], some 2.6 billion people have
improved access to safe drinking water resources and the same was achieved by 2010 which
was five years ahead of its schedule. However, 663 million people across the world still do not
have access to safe drinking water. India also had met the target according to a census in 2011,
wherein 50% of the states had access to safe drinking water however, there is a stark difference
between the rural and urban population in terms of access to safe drinking water resources. [2]
Studies show that shallow groundwater resources pose a threat to safety of the drinking water
because of high arsenic and fluoride content.

In order to meet the MDG 7 goals, government of India had pushed to achieve it by starting
programmes like ‘National Rural Drinking Water Programme’ in 2009. According to report
[3], 89.9% of households had improved source of water. However, drinking water sources like
groundwater and untreated tap water are still considered to be ‘safe’. We will proceed below
to analysis of micro environment as to how people perceive water as safe based on their smell
and colour instead of following rational thought process.

Micro environment

Over the years, there was a growing awareness about the water-borne diseases. This resulted
in increasing in demand of water purifiers.

Introduction to RO based water purifier system: UV based purifiers were the common
purifier system around 1999. However, Dr. Mahesh Gupta founded KENT RO System Ltd.

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wherein he revolutionised the Reverse Osmosis Technology in India. However, water purifiers
were used mostly by people belonging to urban areas. As we have already discussed in the
macro analysis, Indians did not perceive bore-well water and groundwater as unsafe.

Moreover, high cost of RO systems and unavailability of electricity in rural villages inhibited
the use of RO system or any kind of water purifier system which used electricity.

Introduction of Pureit: HUL had targeted this segment of the population and therefore had
devised a low-cost gravity-based water purifier which requires no electricity and the product
was called ‘Pureit’. It addressed one of the biggest challenges in India in terms of access to
safe drinking water resources – that of making safe water accessible and affordable for
population belonging to every strata of society.

‘Pureit’ was a success and it caught the attention of the competitors who also came up with
cheaper and affordable water purifiers. Most notable examples were Tata Swachh, Phillips
India Ltd., Kent RO etc.

The area where JUSCO catered to had access to filtered water, quality of which was the best
in Jamshedpur. Hence, people living in these areas really did not need to purify the water before
drinking it. When we had surveyed the slum areas outside JUSCO, we have observed that
people still do not prefer using a water purifier for drinking water. Purchasing a water purifier
is still a luxury good for them and also, they perceive ground water and untreated tap water as
safe. They would prefer boiling water over using a purifier system for drinking water. Also,
people believed the water to be safe for drinking if it smelled right and looked clear! So, it can
be inferred that although more than 14 years have passed since MDG 7 guidelines were
adopted, perceptions of people belonging to rural areas with respect to water purification have
not changed. This can be attributed to the financial conditions of the people in the rural areas.
Hence, even if the price of Pureit was low, consumers perceived it as a luxury item. Awareness
of people have improved but there is a long way to go.

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Competitive Analysis

Based on retailer surveys we have carried out, we have analysed and found the following major
competitors of HUL ‘Pureit’.

a) Kent RO Limited – Kent RO had revolutionised the RO water purification system in

India when it had launched its first Kent RO water purifier way back in 1995. It was a
better product than the existing UV based purifiers. Also, as per the retailer surveys
carried out, it is understood that KENT RO has an excellent marketing strategy and has
been able to penetrate and overtake HUL in terms of market share of water purifiers.
Moreover, presence of franchises made even stronger impact on the sales of Kent RO
among urban and rural population vis-à-vis HUL products.
b) Eureka Forbes Ltd. – Eureka Forbes Limited (EFL) was the first company to launch
water purifier way back in 1984 and hence gained on the first mover advantage.
Recently, EFL had overtaken Kent RO in terms of market shares.
c) Philips India Ltd. – It entered the UV purifier market in 2007. It also has a vast
distribution network deeply integrated in the Indian market.

Ion Exchange, Nasaka, Whirlpool and LG are some of the other major players in the market
which gives stiff competition to HUL.

Also, it is to be mentioned that Pureit Classic model, the non-electric gravity-based water
purifier, had been discontinued from Jan ’19 in Jamshedpur area as per retailer feedback. The
purifiers are still available in metro cities like Kolkata but in limited amount. Electric version
of the water purifier is available but it is costlier and does not serve the purpose in rural villages
as there is less availability of electricity.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), with a revenue of 5 Bn USD and net profit of 368 M USD,
has been consistently on top of the market. It is the largest FMCG company in India. Below
listed are significant strengths of HUL:

a) Visibility – It has over 20 consumer categories ranging from soaps to mineral water
and directly impacts the population of 1.3 Bn people in India in some way or the other.

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 b) High Market Share – Over the years, HUL has a high penetration in the market which
enabled them to be the market leaders in the FMCG sector in India.
c) Extensive distribution system – HUL had adopted various strategies to maximise its
distribution network. It already had a huge retail network. Apart from that, it adopted
Direct-to-Home Demonstration Strategy for the ‘PureIt’ case wherein they had a team
who educated the customer about the water purifier and later installed it in their
households.
d) Project Shakti – HUL targeted small villages and tapped into the already existing
women self-help groups. It enabled HUL to segment the market based on their market
accessibility and business potential.
e) Partnership Channel - HUL has great ties with various NGOs and leveraged their
partnership for creating awareness and imparting product knowledge.
f) Selective Targeting – Through product differentiation for different income groups,
HUL successfully tapped into every wallet share of a consumer.

Weakness

Although HUL has considerably been one of the most successful companies operating in the
FMCG sector in India, it has some weaknesses as well which are listed below –

a) Power of Buyers – Due to competition from various other companies in FMCG sector
and presence of highly diversified consumers who can switch brands easily based on
their preferences for product pricing or availability, it limits the market share of HUL.
b) Strong Competitors – HUL faces stiff competition from other FMCG companies like
Marico, Procter and Gamble, etc. which limits the growth in market share year-on-year
basis. In the water purifier sector: Kent, LG, Whirlpool, Eureka Forbes provide stiff
competition to HUL.

Opportunities

Below listed are some of the opportunities which HUL can leverage to gain market share:

a) Purchasing power of buyers: India is one of the fastest growing nations in the world
in terms of GDP. Hence, the purchasing power of buyer has also increased thereby
increase in demand.
b) Rural Markets: Increasing penetration in rural as well as urban areas can lead to
increase in sales and gain in market share.

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Threats

a) Increase in competition: There is a strong presence of other competitors in FMCG

sector like Marico, P&G, Dabur, L’Oréal who provide a stiff competition to HUL. In
the water purifier market, Kent, Eureka Forbes, Tata, Whirlpool, Ion Exchange are the
main competitors.
b) Lack of awareness and indifference among consumers about standards for drinking
water e.g. BIS IS 10500:2012 leads to many local products dominating the local
markets with cheaper sub-standard products. i

Primary Research

Consumer Insights
Non-user of Pureit: While conducting our survey, we found quite a large number of users who
either didn’t use the product or weren’t aware of it at all. We showed them 3 ads of Pureit:

• Ad 1: The one crore safety challenge which claimed to remove 1 crore viruses from 1
Litre of water. If any other purifier was found with more advanced features at the same
price point, the customer would be given a chance to win 1 crore.
• Ad 2: Pureit Marvella which featured celebrities like Farhan Akhtar and Prachi Desai.
This was above their price point.
• Ad 3: The recently launched Pureit copper tank RO water purifier.

We asked them the following questions to gauge their reactions to these ads. The answers are
summarized as follows:

1) Have they seen this ad?

Consumers reported having seen this ad but it was so old that they had forgotten it and
the impact of the ad had been lost. They remember Kent ads as the celebrity associated
with it is popular.
2) Do they understand the meaning?
The reactions were vague with water purity being an enigma to most of them as they
assumed water collected from the rivers and taps to be pure enough. On probing further,
they commented that Pureit offered water that was as pure as boiled water and that did

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 not make a difference to them as some of them do boil water before consumption. No
issues were reported in the process of boiling water.

3) Do they consider purchasing it?

Most non-users replied negatively to the above question. They reported that the water
they used did not make them ill so there was no question of paying the extra “price” for
water. Most of them were also hopeful of getting JUSCO’s supply in the future.
4) Do they feel that the ads were made for them?
Ad nos. 2 and 3 were not targeted at the particular segment that we targeted. On ad
no. 1, they commented that it wasn’t clear whether the ad was made for them as it
showed a city fair.

Consumer Survey
On our visit to Bhuyiadih and slums of Sakchi we had some great interactions with the people
living there. We surveyed a total of 20 people from different households to gain a first-hand
understanding of the issues relating to the water supply and consumption in the area. We have
documented some of questions asked -
1. Do you use Jamshedpur Utility and Services Company (JUSCO) supplied water?
After talking to people, a majority of people travel large distances to get water from the JUSCO
tap. The rest use the Municipality water and only a handful use groundwater.

2. If yes, do you still use a water purifier?

No, only a handful of families who are well off have installed water purifiers, that too because
they were provided to them by the government at a subsidized rate.

3. If No, How do you purify water? Do you boil the water or use a purifier?
Only 1 person in our survey who did not take JUSCO water had a water purifier. Others
believed that the water is pure if it looks, smells and tastes good, They boil water only for the
use of infants.

4. Are you aware of Water Purifier brands like Aquaguard, Kent, Etc?

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The people are mostly unaware of water purifier brands. Some have heard about Aquaguard as
they find it synonymous to water purifier. Also, Kent RO has some visibility because of the
brand image portrayed by Hema Malini.

Summary of our observations:

• Despite the availability of water from the JUSCO taps/ Water tankers from the past two
years some villagers still, take water from the ponds and use it for drinking purpose.
• In the slum area few households have come together to set up borewells which is used
to draw groundwater. This water is stored in overhead tanks.
• For the houses that have water supply through borewells, the water is directly stored in
the overhead tanks and hence no physical effort is needed to carry water. The water
from the tanks is directly obtained through taps.
• According to the discussions we had with the villagers, we observed that the portable
water is stored in the same container in which it is brought in and the consumption also
is through the very same vessel. There is no scope to install the pressure-based water
filters here. Only the storage ones can work.

Retailer Insights
1) Market share of Pureit and other competitors

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2) Market share of Variants of Pureit

3) Major region of sales of Pureit?

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 4) Which brand has the most effective sales presence OR which brand sales
executive have maximum visits to them?

Online Reviews

Costumer’s Reviews on Popular Websites

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Key Research Finding and Implications

• Market Share of Pureit in comparison to other competitors is just 5%. Kent at 45% and
Eureka Forbes 30% are the market leaders. The brand of pureit has declined in past few
years.
• Pureit advanced RO is the most popular variant of pureit while pureit classic RO is the
least popular. The sales of Pureit has been uneven among its various segments.
• Pureit sales are higher in regions with lower socio-economic status like Chaibasa
(30%), Ghatsila (13%), Chandil (12%) etc. Low price of Pureit is attractive to lower
income strata customers.
• According to the online reviews of Pureit 14L Gravity Water Purifier, 18% of the
consumers were unsatisfied with the water quality because of the odour and taste and
preferred to use it only for cooking purpose and not drinking.
• They found the product affordable and durable, but few complained about the build
quality. Overall, many customers did not seem satisfied with the product.

Consumer Needs Analysis

• Concerning consumer need analysis for water purifiers, we had different perceptions
from different segments of consumers. Some people in rural areas drank water directly
from the source; others tend to boil water for drinking purpose and are less motivated
to buy water treatment products. They also don’t care about the safety or taste of the
water they drink.
• There was another segment of customers who did not want to rely totally on boiling
water for drinking purpose, who were influenced by media and advertising and found
water purifiers easy and reliable to use. Their need was safety and clear water.
• Another segment of consumers in urban area was highly motivated by brand and high
technology for which they were willing to pay more, trusted advice from friends and
put health of family at priority. They were willing to pay more to incorporate advanced
technologies like RO, UV and MF. They were also concerned about the expiration of
their RO filters and kept track of the same.

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Consumer Decision Making Process

1) Problem Recognition
Consumers in rural areas/BoP households were rarely aware of the importance of
healthy drinking water. Non users of Pureit were Non-users of the health issues
associated with unsafe drinking water and knew that water purifiers were essential to
survival.
2) Information Search
Rural households depended on word of mouth and were ignorant of the necessity of
information search. As for urban households (non-users), they used the internet and
retailers to search for water purifiers available in the market.
3) Alternatives evaluation
Alternatives for rural households included boiling water or consuming directly from the
source. As for other users of water purifiers, they took the conscious decision after
deliberating on all brands possible in the market.
4) Purchase decision
The decision that users arrived at was mostly by word of mouth or by careful evaluation
of alternatives.
5) Post-purchase evaluation
Post-purchase, few people actually followed up about the expiration of the germ kill
pack. The few urban level users surveyed regularly followed up about the state of their
filters. Since these water purifiers lasted long, we couldn’t collect data about how they
felt if the products didn’t function properly.

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Critical Issues

i. How initial market plans have performed?

Due to PureIt’s intensive field activity, HUL was able to expand its base to 1500 towns and
cities and had a sale of 3.7 million units across Classic, Auto-fill, and Compact, targeted
roughly 15 million people. HUL developed a regulatory framework for purification of water,
work with government’s Bureau of Indian Standards.

ii. To what extent Pureit has been able to bridge the designed need gaps

People’s perception of the impure water has still not been changed. They still consider if the
water looks clean, smell clean it is fit for drinking. Atmax, they will boil the water and drink it
as it is. This has acted as a major hurdle between bridging the gap.

iii. What are the deviations from the original plan?

Original Plan: HUL had designed a great marketing strategy for Pureit. It adopted the DTH
(Direct-to-home) strategy by engaging a team of 10,000 demonstrators to create an immersive
brand experience. This strategy was accompanied by DPP (Doctor’s Partnership Program),
which involved creating awareness and conviction among doctors regarding the efficacy of
Pureit. HUL marketed its product through retail channels by creating a market pull encouraging
retailers to take up their products despite lower margins. To promote product sales in the rural
areas, HUL partnered with Team Shakti comprising of underprivileged rural women and with
NGOs, Banks, and Government Agencies.

Deviations: Following are the deviations in the plan that lead to the decreased market share of
PureIt in Water Purification Products:

1. Poor Sales Distribution Channel: The marketing plan of using sales channels, such
as Shakti and other partner agents was not as successful as expected.
2. Franchise Problem: The number of franchise outlets that HUL had for PureIt was less
compared to Eureka Forbes’ outlets. This hampered the sales of PureIt to a great extent,
making it a lesser viable option.

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 3. Door-to-Door Marketing: HUL reduced the door to door marketing strategy in 2009,
which resulted in poor brand promotion for its PureIt Brand. Also, at the same time,
Eureka Forbes highly used this way of Marketing, that lead to its Brand Promotion,
surpassing PureIt by a huge number in its Market share.

iv. How are the challenger brands doing?

Challenger’s brand like Kent and Aquaguard are fairly doing good as compared to PureIt.
Kent’s alone market share is approximately 35%. Due to intensive market strategy and
organized market channels of Kent and legacy of Aquaguard they are still progression ahead
of their competitors.

References
1. “MEETING THE MDG DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION THE URBAN AND RURAL CHALLENGE
OF THE DECADE”

2.” Drinking water sources in India: how safe is safe?”

3. Millennium Development Goals – Final Country Report of India”,

4. “Global Diarrhoea Burden : https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/global/diarrhea-burden.html”

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