Surf Excel’s analysis based on product, price, promotion, and distribution

A group effort by:

A LOOK AT HOW INDIA’S K041 Nishita Kaur Pednekar

FAVOURITE DETERGENT K059 Uday Kumar Chandgothia

K060 Aditya Khandelwal

EVOLVED OVER THE

K061 Adhish Laddha
K234 Hritvik Patel
K236 Anmol Rajwani
 PRODUCT DEVELOPMENTS
https://www.indiatoday.in/pti-feed/ The company, which sells a range of brands such as Wheel, Rin, Surf
story/hul-pushes-innovation-to-drive-
laundry-segment- Excel and Comfort in the segment, sees a huge scope for
premiumisation-937935-2017-06-04
premiumisation with more consumers looking for products with
higher benefits driven by rising income.

There is a "huge scope for premiumisation" as "only one in ten

washes uses an HUL premium laundry powder", HUL CEO and MD
Sanjiv Mehta said in an investor presentation.

The company is aggressively driving premiumisation to strengthen

position in laundry. Its strategy revolves around "consumer centric
innovations”.

For instance, HUL said there has been "increasing instances of

drought" and on the other hand rinsing accounts for 30 per cent of
 PRODUCT DEVELOPMENTS
https:// Surf Excel, the detergent brand from Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL)
www.livemint.com/ stable, which advocated that soiling one's clothes is good if it is for a
Consumer/ good cause, is back with a fresh take on failure in its new campaign
‘Haar ko harao’. Made by advertising agency Lowe Lintas, the
minute-and-a-half-long film features a team of young cricket
players in conversation with their coach after losing their fifth
consecutive match.
Instead of lifting their spirits, the coach decides to quit.
Disheartened as he leaves the field, one of the young players named
Ayush decides to convince the coach to return and conveys that
giving up is not an option. The campaign refreshes and takes
forward the brand’s decade-old ‘dirt is good’ philosophy by telling
parents that if kids get dirty in learning to defeat failure, then dirt is
good.
 PRODUCT DEVELOPMENTS
https://livemint.com/ Does Surf Excel meet these challenges with its communication?
Consumer/ They are one of the early players to believe in a proposition and put
their energies and budgets behind it. Mostly, their creatives have
been well woven, with great insight. Which definitely makes the
creative product crisp and solid. Something that very few brands
have managed to do for longer, especially in this category.
 PRODUCT DEVELOPMENTS
https://www.businesstoday.in/ One of Priya Nair, Executive Director (Home Care), Hindustan
magazine/most-powerful-women/
premium-pays/story/379300.html Unilever's oft-quoted examples is the Rs 3 sachets of fabric
conditioner brand Comfort and the 200 ml pack of Surf Excel liquid
detergent, which she says are a hit in rural markets. A premium
product in a smaller pack and at an a"ordable price point does have
takers even in rural markets.
 PRODUCT DEVELOPMENTS
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/ Hindustan Unilever will soon launch the country’s first liquid laundry
articleshow/19979759.cms?
detergent, hoping that a#uent consumers will pay a premium for a
product that promises to make their laundry chore easier.

At Rs 230 for a litre, Surf Excel Liquid will be the most expensive
daily use detergent product. So far, liquids were sold only for
woollen clothes or as post-wash whiteners and conditioners within
the laundry category.
 PRODUCT INTRODUCTION
Surf

Type to enter text Excel was introduced as detergent powder and was projected as a
brand that guaranteed clean and whitest clothes. With time it
underwent several changes and introduced new variants with special
features. It is available in bars, liquid form and detergent powder.
Varieties have been launched for Front-Load and Top-load category
of washing machine. Surf Excel uses natural extracts and essential
oils to create products with amazing fragrances. Some of its popular
items in diversified product portfolio are as follows-
• Surf Excel Matic Front Load Detergent Powder
• Surf Excel Matic Liquid Front Load
• Surf Excel Matic Liquid Top Load
• Surf Excel Matic Top Load Detergent Powder
• Surf Excel Liquid Detergent
• Surf Excel Quickwash
• Surf Excel Easy Wash Detergent Powder
• Surf Excel Plus Detergent Powder
• Surf Excel Blue
 PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
http:// Hindustan Unilever has featured on the Forbes list of The World’s Most Innovative

www.forbesindia.com/ Companies twice before, and this year it breaks into the top 10. The FMCG giant—it
is India’s largest consumer packaged goods company (by sales), with a market
article/cross-border/
capitalisation of $50.1 billion—has innovated across product categories, by adding
five-indian-
enhanced features to existing products and by launching entirely new products as
companies-whose-
well.
mantra-is-innovation/
50637/1 For instance, with an eye on sustainability, and reducing the amount of water
required to wash clothes, it relaunched Rin (bar and powder) in 2017, with a ‘smart-
foam’ technology that saves up to half the amount of water required otherwise. A
similar strategy has been used to launch the new Surf Excel Quick Wash. Also in the
homecare category was the launch of Domex Toilet Cleaning Powder, targeted
towards rural and lower-income families, which traditionally use detergent powders
to clean toilets, since liquid toilet cleaners are more expensive. The new Domex
cleaner is in a familiar form—powder, sold in sachets—but is more e"ective, and also
costs less than half of other alternatives.
 PRICE INTRODUCTION
Type to enter text Surf Excel has targeted every household in India as its potential
customer. In order to meet various needs of consumers, the
company has launched sashes of di"erent sizes so that a person can
buy easily according to current requirement and a"ordability. For
example, half and one kg product are popular amongst upper and a
upper-middle class section of society whereas middle-class and
lower-middle class prefer 50 gm, 25gm and 115gm sashes. Surf
Excel is a premium brand with a high-end product.
 PROMOTION DEVELOPMENTS
http:// Surf Excel has launched a new campaign called ‘Mukto Hok
www.newagebd.net/ Shoishob’ aiming at raising awareness on importance of outdoor play
article/87188/surf- for children recently.
excel-campaigns-for- Three players from Bangladesh national cricket- Taskin Ahmed,
playgrounds Rubel Hossain and Afif Hossain – joined the initiative at a programme
on Manik Mia Avenue.
In support of the brand’s Mukto Hok Shoishob campaign, Rubel
Hossain talked about the ongoing trend of children being hooked to
electronic devices rather than participating in outdoor activities.
 PROMOTION DEVELOPMENTS
https:// One of the world’s largest consumer goods company is taking a firm
www.livemint.com/ stand on eliminating plastic usage over the next few years.
news/india/unilever-
announces-plans-to-  Unilever, that sells popular brands such as Lux, Axe, Surf Excel, and
reduce-plastic- Dove, among others, outlined its commitment to eliminate more
than 100,000 tonnes of plastic packaging, as well as collecting and
processing more plastic packaging than it sells by the year 2025.

The company's announcement comes as consumers,

environmentalists, and governments world over are prompting large
companies to find sustainable solutions to doing business and limit
waste that ends up in oceans and landfills.
 PROMOTION DEVELOPMENTS
https:// A few days ago, popular detergent brand Surf Excel came up with a
www.indiatoday.in/ new advertisement for TV based on the theme of religious harmony.
technology/news/ Unexpectedly, the advertisement received a lot of flak from the
story/people-are- public, especially on social media platforms for allegedly promoting
trolling-microsoft- anti-Hindu sentiments.
excel-because-surf-
excel-made-ad-on-
hindu-muslim-
religious-
 PROMOTION DEVELOPMENTS
https:// Detergent brand Surf Excel, known for its heart-warming
www.indiatoday.in/ advertisements, recently faced flak over its latest advertisement-
trending-news/story/ cum-campaign ahead of Holi. On February 27, the brand released an
surf-excel- advertisement around the Hindu-Muslim harmony but instantly faced
advertisement-hindu- criticism for the concept.
muslim-harmony- Surf Excel’s one-minute Holi special ad Rang Laaye Sang’ (colours
theme- bring us together) features two kids a young Hindu girl and a Muslim
boy. The girl, dressed in a white t-shirt, chooses to get stained in
Holi colours to protect her Muslim friend who has to go to a nearby
mosque.
The advertisement ends with Surf Excel’s classic tagline, daag acche
hain’ (stains are good).
Agar kuch achha karne mein daag lag jaaye toh daag achhe
hain.’ (Stains that come as a part of a good deed are good stains),
goes the tagline.
 PROMOTION DEVELOPMENTS
https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/r- The "Daag ache hai" campaign for Hindustan Unilever's Surf Excel
balki-cheeni-kum-lowe-lintas-
ceo-334437-2016-08-10 detergent, where the brand urges users to celebrate dirt stains, was
Balki's brainchild.
 PROMOTION DEVELOPMENTS
https:// New Delhi, Jun 27 (PTI) Delhi State Consumer Commission has
www.indiatoday.in/pti- imposed a penalty of Rs 27 lakh on Hindustan Unilever Ltd for
feed/story/hindustan- "playing a fraud" on its customers by floating a "misleading and
unilever-ltd-to-pay- fraudulent advertisement" on its product Surf Excel.
rs-27-l-for- In a complaint filed before forum, Gupta had claimed that for
misleading- promoting the sales of Surf Excel, a scheme was introduced by the
company in which a scholarship of Rs five lakh was o"ered to the
children of a person finding piece of cloth (swatch) inside the
detergent packet and bearing the score of 10/10.
Gupta, who was one such winner, had contacted the firm and
submitted the swatch. However, he was later told by the firm that his
claim was repudiated. Thereafter, Gupta approached the district
forum, the complaint said.
 PROMOTION DEVELOPMENTS
https://www.indiatoday.in/mail-
today/story/watch-surf-excel-ad-is-
catching-social-media-fancy-in-both-
pakistan-and-
india-13683-2016-06-12
Surf Excel Pakistan has come up with a heart touching ad which is
making the crowd on both sides of the border go bonkers. The super
cute kid in the advertisement and his gesture of helping out the old
samosa and jalebi vendor is endearing on so many levels, that it
imparts a sense of prevailing goodwill and humanity in the people
watching the ad and we guess, that is the sole reason why this ad
has reached out to so many people.
 PROMOTION DEVELOPMENTS
Detergent brand Surf Excel, known for its heart-warming
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
articleshow/68343441.cms? advertisements, recently tried to do something similar with its latest
Holi special 'Rang Laaye Sang' (colours that brings us together)
campaign. Under this campaign, the brand released an
advertisement centred around the Hindu-Muslim unity theme and
instantly faced flak for the concept

Released on February 27, the video has already managed to gatnd

7,737,800 views on YouTube. On Twitter, however, the
camp ..campaign has faced the wrath of users who feel that the ad is
'Hindu phobic' and controversial and wants to showcase that Namaaz
is more important than Holi.
 PROMOTION DEVELOPMENTS
https://www.hul.co.in/ Surf Excel's Ramadan campaign #MadadEkIbadat has bagged Gold at
news/news-and- the WARC Prize for Asian Strategy 2017. #MadadEkIbadat brought
features/2017/surf- together the purpose of Surf Excel and the spirit of Ramadan. The
excels-campaign- campaign helped grow brand love with consumers at large, across
madadekibadat-wins- India and Pakistan.
gold.html
 PROMOTION DEVELOPMENTS
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/ Lalitaji may not have approved of the ‘dirt is good’ quip, but
articleshow/15392286.cms?
Hindustan Lever has succeeded in breaking through the clutter with
a fresh take on this campaign for Surf Excel, which propels the
humble detergent onto a pedestal.

Advertising for Surf Excel, Hindustan Unilever Ltd's (HUL’s) mass

market detergent, has come a long way since the mid-80s, when
Lalitaji, a know-all housewife, played by Kavita Chaudhary, hectored
Indian audiences about  ..
 PRICING DEVELOPMENTS
 https:// Hindustan Unilever Ltd. lowered prices in the range of 10-12 percent
for products in the home and personal care category, the distributors
said on the condition of anonymity out of business concerns.

Price of 250 gram Surf Excel detergent bar cut to Rs 25 from Rs 28.

Price of 1-litre Surf Excel easy liquid wash lowered to Rs 150 from Rs
170.
 PRICING DEVELOPMENTS
The company has slashed the price of its detergent soap Rin bar of
https://www.indiatoday.in/pti-feed/
story/hul-cuts-prices-of-select- 250 gm to Rs 15 from Rs 18 and increased weight (grammage) of its
products-post-
gst-991028-2017-07-02 Surf Excel bar costing Rs 10 to 105 gm from 95 gm at the same
price.
 PRICING DEVELOPMENTS
https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/
economy/story/20040412-detergent-
shampoo-brands-cut-prices-to-boost-
sales-consumers-
gain-790603-2004-04-12
 PRICING DEVELOPMENTS
https://www.dnaindia.com/business/
report-hindustan-unilever-hikes-prices- FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) leader Hindustan Unilever
on-rupee-and-crude-woes-1888124
(HUL), owner of brands like Dove, Lux and Surf Excel, has e"ected a
2-12% price hike across its product range (that includes soaps and
detergents, oral care and personal care), in response to the 7% rupee
depreciation and 10% rise in oil prices since July.
 DISTRIBUTION DEVELOPMENTS
https://hbr.org/ Years ago, HUL pioneered the use of low-cost, single-use packets to
2016/12/how- make its products a"ordable for lower-income consumers who often
unilever-reaches- shop daily for necessities (think of a ketchup packet, but filled with
rural-consumers-in- soap). Now these packets are ubiquitous in developing countries
emerging-markets around the world. HUL itself sells 27 billion sachets a year.

2016
 DISTRIBUTION DEVELOPMENTS
// Consumption in rural India, which accounts for about a third of the
market, has been been under stress over the past few quarters even
its rate of expansion is faster compared to cities. Over the past two
years, rural growth rates were nearly double of those in urban areas,
which have moderated to about 1.1 times last quarter.

The company has been pushing smaller and lower price products,
especially in the rural hinterland, home to more than 800 million. In
fact, HUL said half its revenues comes from low unit packs with
price-points at Rs10 and below.
 PROMOTION INTRODUCTION 1
Type to enter text Surf Excel has adopted both ATL and BTL marketing policy to create
brand awareness in the consumer market. Its commercials are shown
via electronic and print media in popular channels of television,
radio, newspapers, magazines, sides and backs of several vehicles
like bus and trams and on billboards at populated places to gain
maximum exposure. Surf Excel has launched aggressive ad
campaigns that have successfully attracted the interest of masses.
One of its commercial encourages children to go out and play
without the tension of getting dirty because the brand has their back
by assuring a super-clean wash. Its tagline Stains are Good has
created a huge rapport amongst housewives.
In the year 2005 and 2006, Surf Excel launched promotional
activities for children to communicate the thought Dirt is good.
Brand realises the impact of star power and has roped in popular
television actor Divyanka to act in its commercials.
 PROMOTION INTRODUCTION 2
Type to enter text Famous personalities like Mini Mathur and Sonali Bendre are also
associated in its promotional campaigns.
 DISTRIBUTION DEVELOPMENT
https:// Strong Distribution: Surf Excel is driven by the distribution of
www.marketing91.com/ Unilever and thus it has the wide reach and good support of
swot-analysis-of-surf-
distributors. Surf Excel is targeted towards the urban population and
excel/
thus is not penetrated in the rural market, but it has a strong
presence in the urban cities.
 PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
https:// Recently, Hindustan Unilever has introduced some new products in
www.marketing91.com/ the consumer market like Easywash from Surf Excel, Eyeconic range
marketing-mix- from Lakme, Anti-Germ bar from Vim and Hair fall rescue treatment
hindustan-unilever/ from Dove.
 DISTRIBUTION DEVELOPMENT
http://
pramtekemarketingdiary.blogspot.com/
2013/10/distribution-decisions.html
HUL‟s distribution strategy has changed over time. Earlier wholesalers and large
retailers used to place orders directly to the company. The company salesmen used
to collect these orders and then deliver the goods to the concerned customers. This
simple system was good enough in the beginning. But then HUL changed things in
order to provide quality service to its customers. They appointed one wholesaler in
each market as a Registered Wholesaler. This wholesaler was then the guy to whom
all the salesmen went with the orders that they have taken. He handed over the
products to the salesmen who then distributed them to the customers. This strategy
helped HUL to reach more customers. As time went by and the competition got
tougher, HUL had to make its distribution network leaner and meaner than ever
before. Also, Surf Excel being a detergent powder is a FMCG. So HUL had to make
sure that the retailers‟ shelves were replenished in time. To do that, they had depots
all over the country. These depots or warehouses stocked finished products and
acted as bu"ers in case of an increase in demand. Earlier the registered wholesalers
used to get the goods direct from the company. Now the company sent the goods to
the depots from where the Redistribution Stockiest got them. This made their
distribution system a much more e%cient and well-oiled machine.
 DISTRIBUTION DEVELOPMENT
http://
Consumers have easy access as it is widely available in
surfexcelmarketing.blogspot.com/
search?updated-

• Grocery shops: Every round-the-corner shops keep mostly all

sizes of Surf Excel.
• Hypermarkets: Hypercity, BigBazaar, StarBazaar, Best Price etc
• Online: indiamart.com , aaramshop.com , bigbasket.com etc.
 PRICING DEVELOPMENT
http:// Since Surf Excel was the first detergent and had monopoly it used
surfexcelmarketing.blogspot.com/
search?updated- "Maximum Market Skimming" as its first strategy. HUL first kept the
price of Surf Excel high and communicated to the consumers that it
is worth paying a little extra for the benefits that it provides.

As the Detergent market evolved and competitors entered the

market it had to reduce its prices and it has now adopted "Maximum
Market Share" strategy. Though it targets middle to upper segment
only but because of the high reach and aggressive promotion it is
the top seller in the category.
 PROMOTION
Surf Excel adopts 360-degree promotion for its products. The company has based all its
campaign on the baseline of “Dirt is Good”. HUL has adopted both above the line (ATL) and
below the line (BTL) promotion strategy for the brand. In ATL, the company focuses heavily
on e"ective TV advertisements. To establish emotional connect with the customers, Surf
Excel has featured children in its ad campaign using various themes. The company has used
various TV and movie celebrities for its ad campaigns. The company has also used
billboards, posters, print media such as newspaper, magazines, and major radio channels.
In its BTL campaigns the company has organised various competitions like hand painting
competition. It has launched initiatives like “Surf Excel and You” to suggest mothers to
inculcate the habit of active learning in their children. On this forum, mothers can share
their pride stories and special moments with their children. Surf Excel has also used social
media platform like Facebook and Twitter to build the community relationship. Hence this
concludes the marketing mix of Surf Excel.
 PRICE
Surf Excel targets premium and mid-tier consumer with maximum market share pricing
strategy. All its products are priced lower than the rival P&G brand Ariel. This is due to
price sensitivity of Indian consumers across the market segment. Surf Excel deploys
product line pricing by pricing its products line targeting premium segment higher than
the price of products targeting mid-rise segment. The company sells its product in
di"erent packet sizes based on weight to capture the customers who want to spend less in
one time. Surf Excel follows product-bundling price strategy for the selected line of
products which it wants to promote. Surf excel o"ers periodic price discounts and revises
its prices quite often in response to market changes. The discounts o"ered are broadly of
two types, one is quantity discount available on bulk purchase as it wants to inculcate the
habit of bulk purchase in Indian consumers to achieve e%ciency in its operations and
second it gives seasonal discounts.
 PRODUCT
The product strategy and mix in Surf Excel marketing strategy can be explained as follows:
Surf Excel is a leading detergent & soap brand which is synonymous with cleaning clothes &
apparel. Surf Excel categorises its product o"erings as a part of its marketing mix into Hand
wash and Machine wash sub segments. The hand wash category is targeted at mid-rise
population who cannot a"ord to have washing machine or because of preferences. Surf
Excel products in the category include Surf Excel liquid detergent, Surf Excel bar and
detergent powders such as Surf Excel Quick Wash and Surf Excel Easy Wash. For machine
wash, Surf Excel has launched its product under the sub-brand name of Matic. Matic line of
products are specially manufactured for the front load and top load washing machines. Its
products include Surf Excel Matic Liquid front load, Surf Excel Matic Liquid top load, Surf
Excel Matic front load detergent powder and Surf Excel Matic top load detergent powder.
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