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UNILEVER IN INDIA“Rural Marketing Initiatives”
•
Abrar Kadvekar• Aditya Sable• Anam Mehmood•Neethi Menon•Rohit Seth
•Sahil Khusro
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Overview of HLL
• In 1885 lever brothers set up “ William Heskethlever” in England
• Lever entered in India in 1888 by exporting“sunlight”, its laundry soap
• In 1930 the company merged with “Margarine
Unie” to from Unilever
• In 1931, HLL set up its first Indian subsidiary,Hindustan vanaspati manufacturing company
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Products Year
Sunlight soap 1888
Lifebuoy 1895Pears 1902
Lux 1905
Vim 1913
Vanaspati 1918
Dalda 1937 Anik ghee 1964
Sunsilk shampoo 1964
Bru coffee 1969
Rin detergent bar 1969
Clinic shampoo 1971Liril bathing soap 1974
Close up 1975
Fair and lovely 1978
Breeze soaps 1987
Pepsodent 1980
Mentadent-G 1980
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Year Events
1990 Merged with Tata Oil Mills Company
1994 Formed Nepal lever limited
1994Formed a joint venture with Kimberley-Clark Corporation in that same year
1995Joint Venture with Tata Company,Lakme ltd.
1996Merged with Brooke Bond Lipton IndiaLtd
1998 Merged with Pond's India Ltd
2000
Acquired 74% stake in Mordern Food
Industries Ltd
Growth of HLL
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• 70% of the Indian population lived in the ruralareas
• The rural markets in India constituted of a wideand untapped market for many products andservices
• Rural income levels were largely dependent onthe monsoon and the demand is not easy topredict
Indian Rural Market
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• Untapped potential
• Growing demand of products
• Flat growth in the urban markets
• Rural markets are key drivers of revenue growth
• Increasing income and purchasing power
• Risk reduction (during recession the rural marketshelp to reduce risk)
Importance of Rural Market
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• Rural Income
• Products and Uses
• Strategic Align with the Industry
• Partnering
• Proper distribution networks
• Modes of transportation
• Creating Brand awareness
How to tap the Rural Market
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• Wheel vs. Nirma (1997)
• Liril vs. Nirma Lime- Introduced “jai lime” at a lowerprice segment to compete against Nirma lime
• Liril and Lux international and low priced breeze lostshare to Nima soap due to low pricing
• Close up and Pepsodent lost market share to Anchor andBabool due to low price
• Fair and lovely losing share to Fairever
Threat from Competition
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• Share in toilet soaps was down to 59.5% from62.7%
• For the same period, its share in tea fell to
37.6% from 39.1%
• Share in detergents went down to 45% from47.6%.
• As per research, five persons in a household, washed their hair once a week – Sachetstrategy
Continued
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• Non usage by buyers in rural areas
• Low purchasing power (Project Shakti)
• Lack of awareness for which campaigns werecarried on. Eg- Pepsodent and Indian Medical
Association joint initiative
Threat from Buyers
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• Shampoo vs. Soap - Breeze 2-in-1
• Neem, dantoon vs. toothpaste for which new category was launched
Threat from Substitute
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StrategiesTactics
Actions
Strengths
1. Strong distribution network primarily in urban areas
2. High brand value
3. Successful R&D programs
4. Variety of products
5. Market leader in urban areas
Weaknesses
1. Did not realizepotential of rural
market
2. Non availability of
distribution networks
in rural areas
Opportunities
1. Untapped rural market
2. Growing IT knowledge
3. Willingness to buy
branded products at a
comparatively low price
SO Strategy
1. Developed new products in
lower price category
2. I-Shakti
WO Strategy
1. Project Shakti to
encourage
entrepreneurship
2. Project Bharat to
create productawareness
Threats
1. Low prices of regional
players
2. Low purchasing power of
rural areas
ST Strategy
1. Ventures and collaborations
with local players
WT Strategy
1. Retrenchment of Aim
toothpaste
TOWS Analysis
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• To enhance control of the rural distribution
• Increase rural penetration to 100,000 outlets
• Aim was to cover 50 % of the rural population
• Sub stockist were appointed for distribution
•
Unconventional modes of transport were used
• The project was successful in attaining 37 % ruralpenetration
Project Streamline (Initial Penetration)
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• The main objective was to increase the frequency of purchase in rural households
• Low priced samples were distributed in villagesacross the country
• The project started with small villages and thenextended to bigger villages
• Micro credit was initiated with this project
Project Bharat (Influencing Consumer Behavior)
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• Based on the Grameen Bank model of Bangladesh
• Initiated in 2001 in 50 villages of Andhra Pradesh
• SHG‟s were created that included rural women
• The purpose was to encourage the women to save a
rupee each day to create a fund
• Managed to create funds of 1500 crores with thehelp of 58lakh women
Project Shakti (Creation of Entrepreneurs)
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Continued
• SHG‟s were covered by 3 MACTS
• Women were selected to start their own ventures todistribute HLL products
• Lifebuoy, wheel, pepsodent clinic plus and Annapurna salt were sold
• The project covered 2800 women entrepreneurs in12000 villages
• Nippo, TVS motors and ICICI prudential were alsoencouraged to use shakti network to sell thereproducts
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• An IT – Based rural information service started in2003
• Provided key requirements in areas like education, vocational training, education and health
• Internet access to households of shakti dealers
• Provides information related to farming practices,rainfall, pest management etc
I–Shakti (Relationship Building)
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• "Project STING“ (Strategy to Inhibit Nirma Growth)▫ To tackle the growth of Nirma
• HLL was in delima.
• A new product was clearly a high risk, high returnstrategy.▫ It had to be of low-cost and high quality,
• Introduced the new NSD powder as "Wheel“ ▫ Packed in 30-gram plastic sachets▫ Nirma and Wheel were close competitors targeting the
rural consumers.
Product Development
C i d
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• The rural population was a large andpotentially attractive market.
• Low Unit Price (LUP) packs.
• Shampoo Market▫ Launched Chik shampoo in 50 paise
▫ Novel promotion
▫ Market leader in the southern rural markets with over 50% market share
Continued
C ti d
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• The success of Sachet Strategy
▫ 95% of total shampoo sales in rural India was
through sachets
▫ The growth rate of shampoos in rural markets became almost twice that in the urban areas
▫ HLL introduced sachets for itsshampoos
• In the early 2000‟s
▫ HLL products were launched in LUP packs▫ The strategy was also employed in the
deodorant market
Continued
C ti d
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• Investment in R&D
▫ "Breeze 2-in-l“ ▫ Combined soap and shampoo
• HLL launch a 75 gm cake of Lifebuoy for
price sensitive consumers
• Aimed at upgrading toothpowder users.
• Packaging
▫ Used plastic flow wraps
Continued
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• L ate 1990‟ and early 2000, HUL engagedOgilvy Outreach:
▫ Communication were made through: Colourful Flyers, entertaining jingles and travelling
Cinema Vans
▫ Local actors, magicians, dancers etc were hired to
perform at various fares (melas) and to spreadawareness about various products of HLL.
HUL Communication in Rural Markets
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• In August 1999 HLL launched a country widedental health plan
• To raise awareness on dental hygiene
• With this campaign HLL managed to increase itstoothpaste reach to 125000 villages
Pepsodent and IMA
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• HLL along with other companies like Parle, Colgateetc participated
• It was organized by Rural Communications &Marketing Pvt. Ltd., RC&M), an agency specializingin rural advertising and marketing
▫ First stage involved the publicity activities.
▫ Second stage involved the activities on the meladay.
▫ Final stage was the screening of a movie
Grameenon Ke Beech
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• To reposition Lifebuoy
• The company launched a direct rural contactprogram
• Generate awareness about good health andhygiene
• With this campaign HLL has been able to link theuse of soap to a promise of health as a means of creating behavioral change and thus increased
the sales
Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna
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• Objective was to educate the rural masses on theon-going „Vim Khar Khar Challenge‟ televisioncommercial by conducting live demonstrations
about vessel cleaning.
• 70 % of Indian population used unbrandedsourcing bars and liquid.
• Used shop fronts, walls, wells and other waterpoints to increase visibility.
Promoting Vim
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• HLL realised the potential of the rural market before any other major players
• The initiative taken by HLL resulted in hugegrowth and profits
• India is the only country where HLL is ahead of
P & G
• HLL has the biggest distribution network in Indiaeven today
Conclusion
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