Unilever’s

Lifebuoy Submitted by:

in India Shreyas Venkatesh (19PGDM193)

Shubham Bansal (19PGDM194)
Shubham Khandelwal (19PGDM196)
Shubham Todi (19PGDM197)
Walid Ansar (19PGDM280)
 •Samir Singh as Lifebuoy’s global sales
increased by 17%p.a. and gross profit
by 22%p.a. from the period 2009-
2012.
1. How would you
evaluate Samir Singh’s •The key features of his role as VP in
first three years as the first 3 years were:
Global Brand VP for • To improve the health and hygiene
Lifebuoy soap? How of a billion people by 2015
difficult was the
• Unilever had an uneven
situation he inherited?
performance in the recent decades
How effective has he
been in dealing with • He managed to reverse the decline
those challenges? Where in market share that Lifebuoy was
has he fallen short?  experiencing
• Lifebuoy had to be the standard
bearer of the goals that the top
management wanted to achieve

The challenges faced by Singh were:
Unilever had an uneven performance in recent
decades
Competitors like Dettol were into price and
promotional competition
The new CEO wanted to make strategic and
organizational changes
Lifebuoy was into continued reinvention,
repositioning and launch
Singh dealing with the
concerns:
Integrating the social mission
Defining a global strategy to
reclaim Lifebuoy’s status
How to go about implementation
of plans in India among the
following
KKD Rural Outreach Campaign
MP Partnership Model
Urban Schools Liquid Initiative
2. What do you think Paul Polman’s strategy was to:
of Paul Polman’s USLP Halve the environmental
strategy? How realistic footprint of it’s products
is it to overlay USLP’s
Help 1 billion people improve
bold sustainability their health and well being
goals over financial
objectives? What Source 100% of it’s agricultural
raw materials sustainably
implications does it
have for middle He believed that growth at any
managers like Singh price is not viable
and frontline It was launched as a part of
managers like Unilever’s Sustainable Living
Sitapati? Plan
Rationale behind overlaying Implications on managers:
USLP:

Tackling sustainability challenges They set unrealistic targets

provides new opportunities for
sustainable growth
Constantly under pressure to perform
It creates preference for brands

Builds business with retail Even Unilever did not have all the
customers answers and was aiming to form
partnerships
Drives innovation

Grows potential markets They had too many parameters to

lay focus on, varying from finances to
Generates cost savings sustainability to sales to profit
margin

They had a limited time period to

show whether what they were doing
was translating into results
 The KKD Rural Outreach Initiative :
Risks –
3. As Sitapati, what • The reach to remote villages
decision would you becoming decreasingly cost effective.
make regarding the
• The Lifebuoy demonstrations to
three handwashing housewives is not resulting in
behavior change sustainable behavior change.
programs that have
Benefits –
been proposed? What
risks and benefits are • Ability to reach remote rural media
associated with dark areas.
each?  • Prominent Product Placements in the
village shops.
The MP Partnership The Urban School Liquids
Initiative Initiative:
Risks -
Risks –
Time Consuming with a long The total size of the liquid
payback period hand wash market -> 5% of
the total soap market.
The training and materials Distraction from the
could not be branded with organization attention
Lifebuoy’s name towards the behavior change.
Reach of only 1.5 million
Benefits - people.
Training children could
influence the family Benefits –
behavior.
High growth segment –
The scope of expansion to Growing at 40% annually. And
other Indian States. is also having high profit
margins.
Less payback period – 3.5
4. As Singh, what The option of the Urban schools Liquid Initiative
could be chosen
action, if any, It focusses solely on Lifebuoy, not on multiple
would you take to products
influence It targets children not housewives
Sitapati’s It is aimed at increasing the use of liquid hand
wash rather than the
decision? What Lifebuoy soap
would you do if he  
chooses not to So, to influence Sitapati’s decision one factor that
implement either could be brought to notice is that liquid handwash
market was only $65 million which is just 5% of
of your preferred total soap market, and expected to reach only 1.5
Jakarta models? million people, which won’t be helpful if the
company wants to achieve the USLP target of
changing lives of 1 billion people in the country