HUL-branding strategy

TOPIC BRANDING STRATEGY OF HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LIMITED

SUBMITTED BY PRIYANKA S. TELANG

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF SAMADHAN KHAMKAR

IN THE FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI ACADEMIC YEAR 2009-2010

CHIKITSAK SAMUHA’S S.S & LS PATKAR VARDE COLLEGE OF ARTS COMMERCE & SCIENCE AND V.P VARDE COLLEGE OF COMMERCE & ECONOMICS,GOREGAON (W) MUMBAI -62

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CHIKITSAK SAMUHA’S PATKAR

–

VARDE

COLLEGE

OF

ARTS,

COMMERCE SCIENCE. GOREGAON (W), MUMBAI -400063

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that PRIYANKA SHASHIKANT TELANG OF T.Y.Bachelor of Management studies VI (2009-2010) has successfully completed the project on “BRANDING STRATEGY OF HUL” under the guidance of SAMADHAN SIR.

COURSE CO-ORDINATOR

PROJECT GUIDE/INTERNAL EXAMINAR

EXTERNAL EXAMINER

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CHIKITSAK SAMUHA’S PATKAR – VARDE COLLEGE OF ARTS, COMMERCE SCIENCE. GOREGAON (W), MUMBAI -400063

DECLARATION

I, PRIYANKA TELANG OF Patkar –Varde College of TYBMS (semester VI) hereby declare that I have completed this project on “BRANDING STRATEGY OF HUL” during the academic year 2009-2010. The information submitted is true and original to the best of my knowledge.

DATE: SIGNATURE OF STUDENT PLACE: MUMBAI

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to express my profound gratitude to PROF.SAMADHAN KHAMKAR for his kind support and valuable guidance for the completion of this project. I also express my sincere thanks to my principal and BMS co-coordinators who guided, instructed and encouraged me.

I would also like to acknowledge the assistance and encouragement of the various professionals and persons whom I visited for sharing their insight and experience with me and also sincere thanks to my family and friends for supporting me throughout the completion of this project.

Index 4

Hindustan Unilever limited

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All about Branding

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Strategies adopted by HUL

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Umbrella branding

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Branding procedure

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Branding in Rural Market

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Case study

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The Hindustan Unilever Limited INTRODUCTION: Hindustan Unilever Limited has traditionally been a company, which incorporates latest technology in all its operations. The Hindustan Unilever Research Centre (HURC) was set up in 1958, and now has facilities in Mumbai and Bangalore. HURC and the Global Technology Centers in India have over 200 highly qualified scientists and technologists, many with postdoctoral

experience

acquired

in

the

US

and

Europe.

Hindustan Unilever Limited is India’s largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods Company, touching the lives of two out of three Indians with over 20 distinct categories in Home & Personal Care Products and Foods & Beverages. Hindustan Unilever Limited is also one of the country’s largest exporters; it has been recognized as a Golden Super Star Trading House by the Government of India. The mission that inspires Hindustan Unilever Limited’s over 15,000 employees, including over 1,300 managers, is to “add vitality to life.” HUL meets everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene, and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. The products of Hindustan Unilever Limited are manufactured over 40 factories across India. The operations involve over 2,000 suppliers and associates. Hindustan Unilever Limited’s distribution network, comprising about 4,000 redistribution stockiest, covering 6.3 million retail outlets reaching the entire urban population, and about 250 million rural consumers. Some of the products manufactured by Hindustan Unilever Limited are: Lifebuoy, Lux, Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel, Fair & 6

Lovely, Pond’s, Sunsilk, Clinic Plus, Pepsodent, Close-up, Lakme, Brooke Bond, Kissan, Knorr-Annapurna, Kwality Wall’s. These products are popular in Indian as well as foreign markets.For achieving all the goals set, the company needs its employees and to get their support the company needs to motivate them. BRANDING STRATEGY Their main challenge was to reverse the down trading in the categories and re-establish the relevance of their brands in the mind of the consumer. In 2000, they had 110 brands, many undifferentiated and lacking scale. They chose to focus on 35 power brands covering all consumer appeal and price segments. They are already seeing the benefits. Six brands — Brooke Bond, Lifebuoy, Lux, Fair & Lovely, Rin and Wheel — have emerged as mega brands in the last five years, each with sales of more than Rs.500 crores. Meeting Everyday Needs of People Everywhere Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) is India's largest fast moving consumer goods company, with leadership in Home & Personal Care Products and Foods & Beverages. HLL's brands, spread across 20 distinct consumer categories, touch the lives of two out of three Indians. They endow the company with a scale of combined volumes of about 4 million tonnes and sales of Rs.10,000 crores.

The leading business magazine, Forbes Global, has rated Hindustan Lever as the best consumer household products company. Far Eastern Economic Review has rated HLL as India’s most respected company.

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The vision that inspires HLL's 32,400 employees (40,000 including Group Companies), including about 1,425 managers, is to “meet everyday needs of people everywhere - to anticipate the aspirations of our consumers and customers and to respond creatively and competitively with branded products and services which raise the quality of life.” This objective is achieved through the brands that the company markets. It is an ethos HLL shares with its parent company, Unilever, which holds 51.55% of the equity. A Fortune 500 transnational, Unilever sells Foods and Home and Personal Care brands through 300 subsidiary companies in about 100 countries worldwide with products on sale in a further 50. Business nature HLL is India's largest marketer of Soaps, Detergents and Home Care products. It has the country’s largest Personal Products business, leading in Shampoos, Skin Care Products, Colour Cosmetics, and Deodorants. HLL is also the market leader in Tea, Processed Coffee, branded Wheat Flour, Tomato Products, Ice cream, Soups, Jams and Squashes. HLL is also one of the country's biggest exporters and has been recognised as a Golden Super Star Trading House by the Government of India; it is a net foreign exchange earner. HLL is India's largest exporter of branded fast moving consumer goods.

Products, Basmati Rice, Castor Oil and its Derivatives. It is India's largest exporter of MarineProducts, and one of the largest global players in castor. Market leading brands 8

HLL’s brands have become household names. The company’s strategy is to concentrate its resources on 30 national power brands, and 10 other brands which are strong in certain regions. The top five brands together account for sales of over Rs.3000 crores. Each of these mega brand has a potential scale of Rs.1000 crores in the foreseeable future. Some of the big brands in Soaps and Detergents are Lifebuoy, Lux, Liril, Hamam, Breeze, Dove, (all soaps), Surf Excel, Surf, Rin, Wheel (the number one detergent brand in India, and HLL's largest), 501, Sunlight (all detergents). HLL also markets the Vim and Domex range of Home Care Products. In the Personal Products business, HLL's Hair Care franchises are Clinic, Sunsilk and Lux shampoos; the company markets Nihar oil. In Oral Care, the portfolio comprises Close-up and Pepsodent toothpastes and toothbrushes. In Skin Care, HLL markets Fair & Lovely Skin Cream and Lotion, the largest selling Skin Care Product in India; a brand developed in India, it is now exported to over 30 countries. It has been extended as an Ayurvedic cream, an under-eye cream, a soap and a talc, in line with the strategy to take brands across relevant categories. The other major Skin Care franchises are Pond’s, Vaseline, Lakme and Pears. In Colour Cosmetics, HLL markets the Lakme and Elle-18 ranges. In Deodorants, the key brands are Rexona, Axe, Denim and Pond's, while the

Talc brands are Pond's, Liril, Fair & Lovely, Vaseline and Lifebuoy. Axe and Denim are HLL’s franchises for Men’s toiletries. HLL has recently launched Lever Ayush Ayurvedic Health & Personal Care Products.

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HLL has started franchised Lakme Beauty Salons, offering standardised services, in line with the strategy to add a service dimension to relevant brands. HLL is one of the world’s largest packet Tea marketer. Its Tea brands – Taj Mahal, Red Label, Taaza, A1, 3Roses - are among the top brands in the country; it also markets Lipton Ice Tea. HLL and Pepsi have formed an alliance to distribute a full range of tea and coffee and softbeverages through vending machines; HLL already has a base of around 15000 such machines. Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) currently on a price discount include 150 gm Lifebuoy Gold (Rs 3 OFF) TRYING to match prices with the smaller players, large FMCG companies have been on a price-cutting spree. Of late, Hindustan Lever has announced ‘new’ prices for their various brands to beat sluggish sales, combined with the introduction of lower-sized packs to get volumes. HLL is also expected to follow suit with its Surf sachets with the obvious purpose of gaining volumes at the lower end of the market. HLL managers describe the exercise as that of dropping price barriers to induce growth for their brands rather than trying to beat the smaller players with their pricing. More than benchmarking competition, dropping prices is all about triggering growth and this has always been an integral part of their strategy. Straddling almost every price segment with its SKUs, HLL has also been trying to upgrade its consumers, even at the cost of cannibalizing its own brands. Besides, freebies and promotions have finally been replaced by direct price reductions to lure consumers. Observes Sujoy Mishra, an analyst 10

At Kotak Securities, “Promotions have shifted to the trade while freebies have been replaced by price cuts. “ Considering almost every FMCG brand was doling out a freebie, it was time for FMCG players to differentiate themselves. Observes A. Sundarajan, Managing Director of market research firm, Market Search, “The round of freebies has already been played out by the FMCG companies. They are now coming back to their core brands at a lower price.” HLL have deliberately introduced small pack sizes. PLACE PLANNING STRATEGY 70% of India’s population resides in villages. Penetrating the rural markets is, therefore, one of the key challenges for any marketer. While rural markets present a great opportunity to companies, they also impose major challenges. At HLL, they have been at the forefront of experimenting with innovative methods to reach the rural consumer SINGLE DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL For rural India, HLL has established a single distribution channel by consolidating categories. In a significant move, with long-term benefits, HLL has mounted an initiative, Project Streamline, to further increase its rural reach with the help of rural sub-stockists. It has already appointed 6000 such sub-stockists. As a result, the distribution network directly covers about

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50,000 villages, reaching about 250 million consumers corporate relationships which in turn prove beneficial for the functioning of the company. “The most important thing in life is not to capitalize on your successes - any fool can do that. The really important thing is to profit from your mistakes.”

ALL ABOUT BRANDING The term brand means different things to the different roles of buyer and seller, with buyers generally associating brand with a product or service, and merchants associating brand with identity. Brand can also identify the company behind the specific product -- that's not just a detergent, that's “Surf Excel detergent”. This use of brand puts a "face" behind the name, so to speak, even if the "face" is the result of advertising copy and television commercials. This use of brand also says nothing of quality, just the buyer's exposure to the brand's PR and media hype. For the typical merchant, branding is a way of taking everything that is good about the company -positive shopping experience, professionalism, superior service, product knowledge, whatever the company decides is important for a customer to believe about the company -- and wrapping these characteristics into a package that can be evoked by the brand as signifier.

Introduction to Branding

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The American Marketing Association defines a brand as “A name, term, sign, symbol or design or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group and to differentiate them to those for competitors”. A brand is thus a product or service that’s adds a Dimension that differentiates it in some way from other products or services designed to satisfy the same need. These differences may be functional, rational, or tangible- relate to product performance of the brand. Branding has been around for centuries as a means to distinguish the goods of one producer to those of another. The earliest signs of branding can be traced to Europe where the medieval guilds required that craftsmen put trademarks on their product to protect themselves and producer against inferior quality substitutes. Also in fine arts branding began with artists signing their works. Brands today play a number of important roles that improve the consumer’s lives and enhance the financial value of firms.

Brands identify the source or maker of the product and allow consumerseither individual or organizations- to assign responsibility to a particular manufacturer or distributor. Consumers may evaluate the identical product differently depending how it is branded. Consumers lean about the brand with its past experience and the marketing program. As consumers lives becomes more complicated, time starved the ability of brand to simplify decision making is invaluable. Brands also perform valuable functions for the firm. First they simplify the product handling and tracing. Brands help to organize inventory and accounting records. The brand name can be protected 13

registered trademarks. The intellectual property rights ensure that the firm can safely invest in the brand and can reap the benefits over a long period of time.

Brands can signal a certain level of quality so that satisfied buyers can easily choose the product again. Brand loyalty provides predictability and security of demand for the firm and creates barriers to entry that makes it difficult for other firms to enter the market. This brand loyalty can translate into willingness to pay higher price. In this sense branding can be seen as powerful means to secure a competitive advantage. Brands represent enormously valuable pieces of legal property that can influence consumer’s behavior. Strong brand results in better earnings and profit performance for firms, which in turn, creates greater value for shareholders. Hence many reputed company like P & G, Crompton Greaves, etc have adopted branding strategy as a tool for their sale of product. Also, HUL is no exception.

Let us now see, certain branding strategies adopted by HUL:HLL has a large brand portfolio consisting of nearly 110 bands. In every product line, it has built a number of brands over a period of time. Quite a few brands have come to its fold from the parent company. It has also 14

acquired several ongoing brands from the market. HLL also vigorously pursues brand extension strategy. And concurrently, HLL undertakes line pruning and brand restructuring and consolidation, based on marketing compulsions. HLL is also playing the rejuvenation and re-launch game. With great benefit the corporate-level endeavors at business expansion and diversification are also throwing new challenges on the brand strategy front. HLL lends itself for a proper understanding of the complexity of the brand management task. We shall examine how HLL handles the complex demands in brand management. Such an array of brands is the outcome of a conscious corporate strategy by HLL. As a corporate, HLL wants to be a leader in every one of its businesses and the strategy is to fight on the strength of the competitive advantage arising from the possession of strong brands. It is this strategy that is getting reflected in the development of a multitude of strong brands. If we take the business of bathing soaps, as an example, HLL has the objective of being a national player (not a niche or a regional marketer) and the leader therein. HLL also wants about 30 per cent of the corporate income to come from this line. So, HLL opted for the strategy of developing quite a few strong brands in this line, and among them they cover different market segments and price points. Dove, Lux, Liril, Rexona, Pears and Lifebuoy are the outcome of such a well planned brand strategy implemented over time. Lifebuoy is 100 years old and Liril 15 years old. In fact, HLL has about 10 brands of toilet soaps each having good volume of sale to its credit. The point is that decisions on brand portfolio are a fundamental expression of the company’s objectives and strategy governing a given business. 15

HLL Locates Positioning Opportunities: HLL methodically goes about the task of developing a brand portfolio across a product category. It first identifies the various positioning opportunities across benefits, target groups and price points. Existing brads are mapped across these positioning opportunities, and gaps for possible new offers are explored. The company then estimates the likely volumes for each of the possible opportunity and the financial viability and sustainability of the propositions in the long term. If some of these gaps look promising, HLL goes ahead with the plans. It examines the existing set of brands with the company, the product technologies available, the benefits that can be provided and other considerations that have a bearing on the company’s long term interests in the business. Finally, if the company decides to go in for the new offer, a decision has to be taken as to whether new brands should be created or extensions if existing brands should be preferred or ongoing brands from the market acquired.

HLL hires brands to capture new opportunities: Towards the close of the 1990s, HLL found that the germicide segment of the soap market was growing fast, with RCI’s Dettol antiseptic soap leading it. HLL did not have suitable offer in its stable to capture a share of this segment. Lifebuoy was not strictly meeting the particular benefit. 16

HLL knew that launching and developing a new brand would take a lot of time and resources, and the company would miss the market if it chose this route. HLL did not have the product formula either to enter this segment. It was in this background that HLL decided to hire the Savlon brand from J&J. Savlon was a successful antiseptic lotion, a competitor to Dettol lotion. Just as the Dettol soap owed its origin to the success of the Dettol lotion, HLL assessed that a Savlon antiseptic soap could be successfully extended from the Savlon lotion. It entered into an agreement with J&J for the use of Savlon brand name and the product formula, and launched the Savlon antiseptic soap. HLL very deftly managed successfully new brand launch and merged as a challenger to Dettol soap. J&J secures a good royalty from HLL for lending the brand. It is a potentially win-win arrangement for both companies.

HUL Products You may have seen a variety of water purifier advertisements and so may be confused on which one to buy. This one is about Hindustan Unilever PureIt and is not a recommendation to buy but just a review on how it works and performs over others. 17

The main advantage of PureIT water purifier is that you don’t have to worry about either continuous water supply or electricity supply. Having said that, it may also be a disadvantage that you need to manually put in water every time the water level depletes to near zero. The bottom transparent bottom chamber can store up to a maximum of 9 litres of water and the top chamber another 9 litres. Hence if your family is a big one say consisting of at least 89 members, then you may have to fill the water chamber multiple times a day.

However, like most of the families if only 4 or 5 people exist, then you may have to add water every couple of days. The way this works is simple. We add water to the top chamber which is unfortunately not transparent and so have to be very careful when it is just about to fill completely. The moment you pour in the water, it goes through a ‘Microfibre Mesh‘ that removes any visible dirt. The next stage is to go through a Compact carbon Trap that further removes any dirt, if present besides removing any parasites or pesticides. The water will then be purified using the proprietary Germ kill battery that kills harmful bacteria and Viruses.

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Then the water reaches the lower part of the Unit where it goes through a polisher that adds taste to the water and makes it completely odorless. Then the water rises above the chamber and falls into the visible lower chamber from which a tap arises. The battery has a life indicator and normally lasts for nearly a year (for single family consisting of 4 members). The life is indicated by a bar, which when turns red should be immediately be replaced. The battery costs only Rs.350 and the entire unit cost just Rs.2000.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) is extending its OOH (Out of Home) business by setting up 'experiential kiosks' under the Lipton brand. Graduating from its existing vending machines, almost 50 such kiosks are planned this year which it would set up at corporate parks, railway stations and airports. According to HUL officials, "Unlike the vending machines where you just need to push a button, the new experiential kiosks would serve mock tails and heath oriented beverages made from HUL's beverage brands. Apart from beverages, the kiosks are also expected to serve ice-creams. Through the kiosks we want to give experiential bursts for our beverage brands." The kiosks would be run on a franchise model. “We would have a business partner on board and the kiosks will be run on 10 by 10 sq ft area,” added the official. Having done a pilot test in Delhi recently, HUL is

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now poised to roll out these kiosks nationally along the lines of its existing ice-cream parlour brand - Swirl’s which is also run through franchisees. In fact, ice-creams have become a profitable business for HUL within its foods portfolio which includes beverages and processed foods. Meanwhile within the foods business, HUL intends staying away from the ready-to-eat (RTE) business. “We have recently introduced the ready-tocook range under Knorr but we certainly would not be entering the RTE category in foods. In future, there would be more products under the Knorr franchise but these would be adapted from our international portfolio,” HUL officials stated. HUL's brands - like Lifebuoy, Lux, Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel, Fair & Lovely, Pond's, Sunsilk, Clinic, Pepsodent, Close-up, Lakme, Brooke Bond, Kissan, Knorr-Annapurna, Kwality Wall's – are household names across the country and span many categories - soaps, detergents, personal products, tea, coffee, branded staples, ice cream and culinary products. They are manufactured over 40 factories across India. The operations involve over 2,000 suppliers and associates. HUL's distribution

Umbrella Brands Rule! The 1980s witnessed a revolution in the understanding of the working of the brands. Marketers depict brands as a reflection of customers’ own personalities, so that they can relate to their products well. In fact the distinguishing aspect of the modern marketing has been its focus upon the

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creation of differentiated brands and using them as weapons for launching multi-level attacks on competition. Market research has been used to help identify and develop bases of brand differentiation. A brand identifies a product and its sources, but it does even more. Along came brand extension. Today brand extension strategies are widely employed because of beliefs that they build and communicate strong brand positioning, enhance awareness and increase profitability. Brands are often extended beyond their original categories to include new product categories. Research has proved that the success of brand extension depends on the transfer of parent brand awareness and associations to the extension. The transfer of these quality perceptions is the key in umbrella branding. An umbrella brand is a brand that covers diverse kinds of products which are more or less related. It applies also to any company that is identified only by its brand and history. It is contrasted with individual branding in which each product in a portfolio is given a unique identity and brand name. Hindustan Unilever Ltd’s (HUL) beverage brands have been amalgamated under two umbrella brands – Brooke Bond and Lipton and in the fabric wash category, the company has retained only Rin, Surf and Wheel, HUL has withdrawn brands such as Sunlight, 501, Dalda and Nihar; it plans to

withdraw some more brands and group them under a few umbrella brands. HUL is currently focusing on 35 power brands. Consumer goods major Hindustan Lever (HLL) has decided to develop Dalda as the umbrella brand for its cooking products. Consequently, it is planning to de-emphasise the Flora brand of sunflower edible oil. 21

A source said this is following HLL’s decision to focus on power brands across categories. “Flora does not fall in the list. It is not paying due attention to build the brand image.” Also, following competition from international and domestic players in refined edible oils, such as Sweekar and Saffola from Marico, Sundrop from Agro Tech Foods (formerly ITC Agrotech), among others, has compounded HLL’s woes, analysts said. Dalda has a market share of about 29 per cent in the consumer packs vanaspati market, while Flora’s share has dropped to 3 per cent, analysts said. HLL is now focusing on innovation and differentiate products. The company has begun test-marketing Dalda Classic, a cooking product with butter aroma in Tamil Nadu. It has Dalda vanaspati, Dalda refined groundnut oil and Dalda Activ. The 7-lakh tonne branded oil market is dominated by Marico brands Sweekar and Saffola, having a combined market share of 15 per cent each, followed by Sundrop at 13 per cent. Even regional brands have become popular in several markets. The slippages in the branded oils market is owing to two factors—the sharp increase in selling prices, which has made consumers look for cheaper alternatives in regional and local offerings, and a change in the price equation of soya bean oil vis-a-vis sunflower oil, industry sources said. According to analysts, pricing is critical in the branded cooking oil market

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where consumption of low priced loose oil is huge. Also, consumers are shifting towards groundnut oil and soyabean oil from sunflower oil.

Remember the ‘Is it love? No it’s Dove’ ads? In the 1990s, when everything had to be low priced, consumer goods major Hindustan Unilever launched a brand of soap that was considered expensive, frightfully expensive , for the times we lived in. For about Rs 30 for a bar, it was nearly twice as expensive as any toilet soap brand that was then sold in India. This was a time when hanging out for coffee was at the neighborhood Udupi restaurant that charged Rs 6 for a serving and not the Barista where a mug of coffee cost Rs 50. To get consumers living with that mindset to graduate to a brand like Dove was a big leap. Certainly the well-traveled Indian consumer who had seen and touched the brand abroad were the first set that moved towards the brand for its superior and “gentle on skin” properties. Others who sampled the brand had mixed opinions. Occasionally you heard the sob story from a neighbour , on how a Dove bar got over in just four days, when the Rs 10 soap lasted for a month, giving rise to rather unkind remarks that Dove was ¼ moisturiser and ¾ love. This set of consumers used the bar for washing the face while a less costly soap would be used for the rest of the body, a value-for-money approach. From those use-for-special occasion days, Dove has come a long way. Last year, HUL executives claim that Dove has grown by 100% in shampoos and

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by 42% in soaps. “Dove is the largest premium brand in the Hindustan Unilever portfolio,” says Rajaram Narayanan, vice president, hair care and Lakme, HUL. Now the Dove portfolio delivers Rs 400 crore in sales. Of this, the soap, or cleansing bar, as HUL executives would call it accounts for only Rs 200 crore. The rest comes from hair care, a category that Dove entered in India about two years back. The rise of modern trade formats and an evolving consumer has also ensured that even emerging categories like body washes and hair conditioners get more buyers. Dove has capitalised on this trend. Apart from distribution in modern format stores, where Dove claims to be one of the leading brands with 11.54% share, the brand has also entered adjacent categories. In body washes, Dove claims to be nearly 19% of the market, while hair conditioners get the brand sales of around Rs 40 crore. All this has been a result of carefully managing the umbrella brand according to Rajaram, who says that the company was careful enough to not tamper with the core values right from the word go. Dove did what it does best all over the world – not use supermodels to endorse the brand. Rather it got real women who used the product to give testimonials of their experience with the brand. In India, Dove’s brand team in the 1990s, led by Harish Manwani, now Unilever’s president , Asia, Africa, Central & Eastern Europe, decided to adopt the same line of thought for the Indian market too. “In some ways the brand was the opposite of Lux, the beauty bar of film stars. Dove showed beauty in ordinary people,” says cinematographer and film director, Rajiv Menon, who was involved in making the earliest ads for Dove.

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Branding procedures: How do you “BRAND” a product? Although HUL provides the impetus to brand creation through marketing programs and other activities, ultimately a brand is something that resides in the mind of the consumers. A brand is a perpetual identity that is rooted in reality but reflects the perceptions and perhaps even the ultimate choice of the consumers. Branding is endowing products and services with the power of brands. To brand a product, it is necessary to teach the consumers “who” the product-by giving a name. Branding involves creating mental structures and helping consumers organize their knowledge about products and services in a way that clarifies their decision making and in process provides value to the firm

Branding can be applied virtually anywhere a consumer has a choice. It is possible to brand: A physical good (Knorr soup, clinic plus shampoo or Fair & lovely), A service, A store, A place, A person(Shusmita sen,Aishwarya Rai) , An organization Brand is the proprietary visual, emotional, rational, and cultural image that consumer has associated with HUL and its product. When you think of

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Lifebouy, you think of hygiene. When you think of Lux, you think of Aishwarya Rai . When you think of IBM, you think of ‘Big Blue’. The fact that you remember the brand name and have positive associations with that brand makes your product selection easier and enhances the value and satisfaction you get from product. While Brand X or even Cornetto ice -creams may win blind taste tests over choclate fudge, the fact is that more people buy cornetto than any other ice cream. The fond memories of childhood and refreshment that people have when they eat Cornetto is often more important than a little bit better icecream taste. It I this emotional relationship with brands that make them so powerful.

Purpose of Branding It is very important to identify the purpose behind Branding.The purpose of branding is to create a powerful and lasting emotional connection with customers and other audiences. A brand is a set of elements or “brand assets” that in combination create a unique, memorable, unmistakable, and valuable relationship between an organization and its customers. The brand is carried by a set of compelling visual, written and vocal tools to represent the business plan and intentions of an organization.

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Branding is the voice and image that represents your business plan to the outside world. What your company, products and services stand for should all be captured in your branding strategy, and represented consistently throughout all your brand assets and in your daily marketing activities The brand image that carries this emotional connection consists of the many manageable elements of branding system, including both visual image assets and language assets. The process of managing the brand to the business plan is important not only in “big change situation” where the brand redefinition is required, but also in the management of routine marketing variables and tactics. This does not have to be a “ground-up” situation where there are wholesale changes to the business. Rather it is more common that specific changes to the changes to the business plan are incremental and the work of the brand strategist and designer is to interpret these changes and revise the branding strategy and resulting brand assets and define their use in the full range of marketing variables. Brand Identity Brand Identity includes brand names, logos, positioning, brand associations, and brand personality, brand toons etc. A good brand name gives a good first impression and evokes positive associations with the brand. A positioning statement tells what business the company is in, what benefits it provides and why it is better than the completion? Brand personality adds emotion, culture and myth to brand identity by the use of a famous personality

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(Aishwarya Rai), a character (Pilsbury doughbouy), an animal (the Merrill lynch bull) etc. How do we determine our Brand Identity? Brand has been called the most powerful idea in commercial world, yet few companies create a brand identity. Do you want your company’s brand identity created for you by competitors and unhappy customers? Of course not. Our advice to executives is to research their customers and find the top ranked reasons that the customers buy their product rather than their competitors. Then, pound that message in every ad, in every news release, in communications with employees and in every sales call or media interview. By continuous repetition of messages customer will think of your product and then buy it.

Tools for Building Brand Identity Brand builders use a set of tools to strengthen and project the brand image; Strong brands typically exhibit an owned word, a slogan, a color, a symbol, and set of stories.

Owned Word

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A strong brand name should trigger another word, a favorable one. Here is the list of brands that own a word: Slogan HUL has successfully added a slogan or tagline to its brand name which is repeated in every ad they use. Here are some well-known brands slogans, which people on the street may easily recall or recognize: Lifebouy

“ab kitanuon ke liye saare raaste bandh!”

Liril

“La La lala La”

Knorr

“Restaurant jaisa ghar ka khanna”

Taj Mahal Tea

“Wah taj”

Colors It helps HUL to brand, by use of a consistent set of color to a product as it helps in brand recognition. Ponds paint all its cosmetics pink. Yellowish green is the color of Liril.

Symbols and Logos

Company

Word

Liril

“Hygiene”

Fair and lovely

“Skin care”

Rexona

“Freshness”

Knorr

“Food” 29

Companies would be wise to adapt a symbol or logo to use in their communications. HUL hired a well-known personality, hoping that her quality transfer to the brand. HUL uses Aishwarya Rai who has worldwide recognition and likableness, to advertise its soap. HUL has sign contracts with top personalities to serve as their symbols, even naming the product after them.

Cartoons and Animations A less expensive approach is to develop a character, animated, to etch the brand’s image into customer’s mind. The advertising agency Leo Burnett has successfully created a number of memorable animated characters. Here are some well known brand cartoons which people may recognize:

Objects Company

Cartoon or Animation

Pillsbury

Doughboy

7 Up

Fido Dido

Still another approach is to choose an object to represent a company or brand. Dabur has joined hands with Walt Disney to put Mickey Mouse on 200ml Real-Mickey juice packs. Companies have developed many logos or

30

abstracts, which are easily remembered by people. Even the way the brand name is written makes a brand recognizable and memorable.

Brand Effectiveness With an increase in global competition, branding has become a source of competitive advantage. In rapidly evolving market for consumer, and industrial products and services, the source of next generation competency will be branding. In this briefing we demonstrate how to calculate the brand strength, the price premium associated with the products categories, and type of customers attracted to the “Premium Products”. Marketers who match their brand with customers needs will have a sustainable competitive advantage.

Measuring Brand Effectiveness There are many metrics to measure the potential of and actual effectiveness of brands. The simplest way is to apply the concept of what we call the 4 D’s of Branding; differentiation, distinctiveness, defendable, digit-able. Distinctiveness: Our brand should be distinct when compared to our competitors and to all spoken and visual communications to which your target audiences will be exposed. The more unique and distinct your communications, the wider the filed of effective competitive strength it will have. There are simple means to apply to test the distinctiveness of your brand.

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Differentiation: the brand strategy and brand assets must set you’re offering apart and clearly articulate the specific positioning intent of your offering. Defendable: you will be investing in creating your brand assets and in all cases your brand must have proprietary strength to keep others from using close approximations. This applies to your trade names and other proprietary words as well as to your logos, symbols and other visual assets.

Digit-able: in most businesses there is strong and growing element of electronic communications and commerce that dictate all brand assets be leveraged effectively in tactile and electronics form. This goes for all brand assets. Much of the brand manager’s work is to build a brand image. But its job doesn’t stop there. The brand manager needs to make sure that brand experience matches the brand image. Much can go wrong. A fine brand of canned soup described in a full page color ad may be found in dented and dusty condition in the bottom shelf of a supermarket. The ad describing a gracious hotel chain is belied by the behavior of a surly concierge. Building brand therefore calls for more than brand image building. It calls for managing every brand contact that customer might have with brand. Since all the employees, distributors and dealers can affect brand experience.

The Brand 32

To any individual a brand (in his mind) is a complex combination of experiences, beliefs, perceptions and associations that have grown up over time. For example Coca-Cola is a company brand, a product brand, a service brand and a brand with a long history. It is a brand which may represent (to any one individual) diversity, internationality, technical excellence, financial strength etc. etc. It may also mean insensitivity, environmental pollution, abuse of power and other negative perceptions.

Perceiving the brand: An individual builds up his perceptions of a brand via a wide range of communications channels. They are as follows:

Experience: The most powerful influence is experiential. This is when the individual actually has a "Brand experience". The most obvious are: -

•

He buys Kwality wall’s branded product or service.

•

He uses a dove shampoo.

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•

He visits a corporate website.

•

He attends an interview at the company.

•

He contacts the company office for information.

•

He meets an employee of the company.

•

He buys a share in the company, etc.

Advertising: Over time an individual who lives in a country in which the company/brand is active, or travels to one on business or vacation, will be exposed to their advertising. This advertising may be in a wide range of media: •

TV commercials for products and services

•

Recruitment ads inviting employment applications

•

"Corporate" TV commercials promoting the company's "reputation"

•

Web based advertising

•

An ad for the company’s branded products or services in a wide variety of print media.

•

Billboards on highways 34

•

Radio

•

Point of sale etc.

Media reports and stories: Individuals will be exposed to a wide variety of reports about companies in the media (print and broadcast) where the editorial content is only partly influence able by the company (in some cases) or not at all (in most cases). These stories will come from a variety of primary and secondary sources: •

Press releases

•

Press conferences

•

Reporting of "events"

•

Investigative journalism

•

Stories passed to the media by third parties (Non governmental organizations etc.)

Professional/business

interest:

For

some

individuals

to

interface

professionally, or from a specific business need, with famous companies (or to observe them) is part of their job. They will usually procure their information from a variety of sources and via a variety of channels of

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communication. These individuals have a special interest in the companies and they include: -

Financial analysts and journalists with an interest in share performance Existing or potential suppliers of products and services Existing or potential industrial/commercial customers

Building the Brand The art of marketing is largely art of brand building. When something is not a brand, it will probably be viewed as a commodity. Then price is the thing that counts. When price is the only thing that counts then the low cost producer wins. But just having a brand is not enough. What does the brand name mean? What associations, performances and expectations does it evoke? What degree of preferences does it create? Choosing a Brand Name A brand name first must be chosen then its various meanings and promises must be built up through brand identity work. In choosing a brand name, it must be consistent with the value positioning of the brand. In naming a product or service the company may face many possibilities: it could choose name of the person , location, quality, or an artificial name.

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Among the desirable qualities of a brand name. Some are: 

It should suggest something about the product benefits.



It should suggest product qualities such action or color



It should be easy to pronounce, recognize and remember; short names help a lot to recognize the product to the customers.



It should be distinctive.



It should not carry poor meanings in other countries and languages etc.

Attributes: A strong brand should trigger in buyers mind certain attributes. Thus attributes a picture of well-engineered car that is durable, rugged and expensive. If a car brand does not trigger any attribute, then it would be a weak brand. Benefits: A strong brand should suggest benefits, not just features. Thus Mercedes triggers the idea of well performing car that is enjoyable to drive and prestigious to own. Company Values: A strong brand should connote values that the company holds. Thus Mercedes is proud of its engineers and engineering innovations and is very organized and efficient in its operations. The fact that it is a German company adds more pictures in the mind of the buyers about the character and the culture of the brand.

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Personality: A strong brand should exhibit some personality traits. Thus if Mercedes were a person we would think of someone who is middle age, serious, well-organized and somewhat authoritarian. If Mercedes were an animal we might think of lion or its implied personality. Users: A strong brand should suggest the type of people who buy the brand. Thus we would expect Mercedes to draw buyers who are older, affluent and professional. In summary, brands when their very name connotes positive attributes, benefits, company values, personality and users in the buyer’s mind. The brand builder’s job is to create a brand identity that builds on those dimensions.

Choosing Brand Elements Brand elements are those trademarks devices that serve to identify and differentiate the brand. Most strong brands employ multiple brand elements. DOVE has distinctive “dove” logo. Brand element can be chosen to build as much as brand equity as possible. The test of the brand building ability of these elements is what consumers think or feel about the product if they only knew about the brand element. A brand element provides positive contribution to brand equity.

Brand Element Choice Criteria

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There are six criteria in choosing brand element. The first three can be characterized by brand building in terms of how brand equity can be build through judicious choice of brand element. The latter three are more defensive and are concerned with how the brand equity contained in the brand element can be leveraged and preserved in the face of various opportunities and constraints.

Memorable: How easily is the brand element recalled? How easily recognized? Is this true at both purchase and consumption? Short brand name like tide, Nike can help. Meaningful: To what extent is brand element credible and suggestive of the corresponding category? Does it suggest something about a product ingredient or a type of person who might use the brand? Likeability: How aesthetically appealing does consumers find the brand element? Is it inherently likeable visually, verbally, and in other ways? Concrete brand names such as Wheel, Sunsilk etc evoke much imagery.

Transferable: Can a brand element be used to introduce new products in the same or different categories? To what extent does the brand element add to brand equity across geographic boundaries and market segments? Adaptable: How adaptable and updatable is the brand element? Betty corker received 8 makeovers through the years-although she is 75 yrs old, she doesn’t look a day over 35.

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Brand elements can play a number of roles. If consumers do not examine much information in making their product decisions, brand elements should be easily recognized and recalled and inherently descriptive and persuasive. Memorable or meaningful brand elements can reduce the burden on marketing communications to build awareness and link brand associations. The different associations that arise from likeability and appeal of the brand elements may also play a critical role in the equity of brand.

Cartoon help: “Toon illustrations create excitement, and also serve as a memory hook to pick a particular brand from clutter”. Kellogg’s animated kid and bear are intertwined in people’s minds. Nike also used “swoosh” logo sign to bring immediate recall value, while the Claymation characters Of Amaron, an O&M creative, pick on sleeping politicians to get their value across. O&M’s Piyush Pandey says his firm encourages the idea of breaking form. “Creative people have to look at different ways to get message across, and if that means exploring other forms of art, then why not?” HLL’s Annapoorna uses Flintstone like characters to drive its USP. Industry officials say animation could be used as creative idea to express a particular value, or it could be a sacrosanct image, almost becoming part of the logo of the brand – like A-I am Maharaja or Amul Girl.

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First it was retro advertising, and then there was the trend of using real kids. The ad world’s latest obsession is with animation. Be it Bollywood actress, an animated poodle talking to Rani Mukherjee and her gang of friends in the Fanta commercial- they’ve all got the cool punch with animation.

With a string of animated commercials such as Pepsodent (Bhoot Police) “Animation is no kid stuff anymore. One sees a fair number of youth and adult targeted content happening in the form of animation in films and TV shows these days,” says Rahul Welde, general manager, media. Hindustan Unilever Limited. Mr.Welde claims to have used animation where it could add to the creative quotient of the commercial which give something unexpected to the audience. “Gross thinks at time look cute in animation rather than the real thing, say in case of a fat man. With Claymation (clay + animation), it broke the clutter and became likeable in a very non-financial advertising style,” The contribution to the sales of pension schemes of the group rose 30% after the campaign. The popularity of cartoons among youngsters- a gradual transformation over the past few years. “However a real character interacting with an animated character is not a novelty. It is a style and a lot of people are catching on it but this is not the

41

end of it,” points Ashish Chakravarty, head creative, Contract Advertising. There are other viewpoints too. “It’s a nice way of doing a boring script. Besides the advantage of visual appeal, many complex issues, such as stunts, can be done away with, with the use of animation- for instance the stunt in the Lux Commercial couldn’t be done so perfectly by the real character (here Aishwarya Rai) vis-à-vis the animated character. Animation ad also helps keep costs down. Industry sources say a simple animation ad is less expensive than an ad with decent production quality that costs around Rs. 70-80 Lakh. Animated ones cost around Rs. 30-40 lakh on an average. However, what creative director’s hate about animation is the fact that it takes a lot more time “For Amul girl itself, we need to work for three weeks to get it absolutely right,”says Chauhan JWT.

Branding strategy in rural Market. Promotion of brands in rural markets requires the special measures. Due to the social and backward condition the personal selling efforts have a challenging role to play in this regard. The word of mouth is an important message carrier in rural areas. Infect the opinion leaders are the most influencing part of promotion strategy of rural promotion efforts. The experience of agricultural input industry can act as a guideline for the marketing efforts of consumer durable and non-durable companies. Relevance of Mass Media is also a very important factor.

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The Indian established Industries have the advantages, which MNC don't enjoy in this regard. The strong Indian brands have strong brand equity, consumer demand-pull and efficient and dedicated dealer network which have been created over a period of time. The rural market has a grip of strong country shops, which affect the sale of various products in rural market. The companies are trying to trigger growth in rural areas. They are identifying the fact that rural people are now in the better position with disposable income. The low rate finance availability has also increased the affordability of purchasing the costly products by the rural people. Marketer should understand the price sensitivity of a consumer in a rural area. This paper is therefore an attempt to promote the brand image in the rural market. Introduction Indian Marketers on rural marketing have two understanding (I) The urban metro products and marketing products can be implemented in rural markets with some or no change. (ii) The rural marketing required the separate skills and techniques from its urban counter part. The Marketers have following facilities to make them believe in accepting the truth that rural markets are different in so many terms. (i) The rural market has the opportunity for. (ii) Low priced products can be more successful in rural markets because the low purchasing, purchasing powers in rural markets.

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(iii) Rural consumers have mostly homogeneous group with similar needs, economic conditions and problems. (iv) The rural markets can be worked with the different media environment as opposed to press, film, radio and other urban centric media exposure. How reality does affects the planning of marketers? Do villagers have same attitude like urban consumers? The question arises for the management of rural marketing effects in a significant manner so than companies can enter in the rural market with the definite goals and targets but not for a short term period but for longer duration. The Research paper will discuss the role of regard. The strategy, which will be presented in the paper, can be either specific or universally applicable.

Project Shakti Empowering womenfolk through a wired network for linkage activities or connecting the rural with urban world is the new mantra adopted by many FMCGs to sell their products as well as improve the lot of rural women. Indeed, a win-win partnership for both womenfolk and the company. This has been made possible due to the initiatives taken up by Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) for an exclusive project called Shakti through which women in a remote village can access happenings around the world. As part of this commitment, HLL is leveraging on Self-Help Groups (SHGs)

44

as they become direct-to-home (DTH) dealers in line with other micro credit models

To be implemented initially as a pilot project in the Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh, Shakti is expected to spread its roots across all the districts

of Andhra Pradesh. It will be integrated with its Project Shakti programme, which is a linkage of women SHGs with private sector companies. There are about 300 Shakti dealers in the state with about 40 dealers in Nalgonda. Working on a cluster approach, the Shakti programme operates through Shakti dealers who market HLL products and use their services for stocking their produce. Besides health education, there is also an option of ‘e-learning’ to prepare home foods like pickles and curry powders among other things. i-Shakti will also help women to know about crop protection, weather forecasting, soil conditions, cropping patterns in different weather besides integrated pest management practice.The whole operation is primarily through SHGs who act as direct dealers in the rural markets of HLL. The Project Shakti programme is facilitated by the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) of Nalgonda district. From the time HLL's new distribution model, named Project Shakti, was piloted in Nalgonda district in 2001, it has been scaled up and extended to over 5,000 villages in 52 districts in AP, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh with around 1,000 women entrepreneurs in its fold. The vision is

45

ambitious: to create by 2010 about 11,000 Shakti entrepreneurs covering one lakh villages and touching the lives of 100 million rural consumers.

Realities before the Marketers 70% of India's population lives in 627000 villages in rural areas. 90% of the rural population us concentrated in villages with a population of less than 2000, with agriculture being the main business. This simply shows the great potentiality rural India has to bring the much - needed volume- driven growth. This brings a boon in disguise for the FMCG Company who has already reached the plateau of their business urban India. As per the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) study, there are as many 'middle income and above' households in the rural areas as there are in the urban areas. There are almost twice as many' lower middle income' households in rural areas as in the urban areas. At the highest income level there are 2.3 million urban households as against 1.6 million households in rural areas. According to the NCAER projections, the number of middle and high-income households in rural India is expected to grow from 80 million to 111 million by 2007. In urban India, the same is expected to grow from 46 million to 59 million. Thus, the absolute size India is expected to be doubles that of urban India. HLL chairman MS Banga Says, "This exercise may not pay in the immediate future, but will definitely give long-term dividends. Incidentally, over 50 percent of the sales of HLL's fabric wash, personal wash and

46

beverages are in rural areas. And we see a future in going rural in a major way". The improved agricultural growth is expected to boost rural demand, through not at too sizzling a rate. Moreover, the price drop in personal products, after the recent excise duty reductions, in also expected to drive Consumption. "Better agricultural yields will give farmers more spending power, making the rural markets bullish," says an analyst.

As a result, HLL has planned a rural marketing program that is expected to result in a marked growth in the consumption of the company's products in the rural market. HLL will adopt three-pronged marketing strategy- new price points, sizes and awareness campaigns for its detergents and soaps segment to augment rural growth. The Indian established Industries have the advantages, which MNC don't enjoy in this regard. The strong Indian brands have strong brand equity, consumer demand-pull and efficient and dedicated dealer network which have been created over a period of time. The rural market has a grip of strong country shops, which affect the sale of various products in rural market. The companies are trying to trigger growth in rural areas. They are identifying the fact that rural people are now in the better position with disposable income. The low rate finance availability has also increased the affordability of purchasing the costly products by the rural people. Marketer should understand the price sensitivity of a consumer in a rural area. The

47

small sachet packs are the examples of price sensitivity. Colgate has done this experiment with launching of sachet packs for rural markets. Lifebuoy When we talk about HLL the first name that comes to our mind is Lifebuoy. It is the world’s largest selling soap and offers a stronger health benefit to the entire family Launched in the year 1895, Lifebuoy, for over a 100 years, has been synonymous with health and value. The brick red soap, with its perfume and popular Lifebuoy jingle have carried the Lifebuoy message of health across the length and breadth of the country, making it the largest selling soap brand in the world. In 2002 Lifebuoy was relaunced, marking a new turning point in its history. The new mix includes a new formulation and a repositioning of the brand to make it more relevant to both new and existing consumers. PROMOTION Media's strategy for Lifebuoy soap's re-launch: Lifebuoy contributed 30 per cent to the Hindustan Lever detergent business turnover and hadn't undergone a major restructuring and repositioning in 107 years. However, the sales were declining as the consumers were moving away from the carbolic based soaps to beauty soaps - perceived to be superior; with better fragrance and lather; aspirational image.

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The agency devised a strategy to ensure that it advocated family health rather than personal hygiene. There were large chunks of the users who were in "unreachable areas" - rural markets. Through TV and print campaigns, the agency team focused attention on the family health themes, conducted consumer education exercise using "Germ tests" through multimedia; and established the brand's credentials as an authority in a credible manner. The agency also explored the communication options during important days such as World Health Day. For rural markets, it created the Lifebuoy Swashthya Chetana project wherein 450 teams of health officers tapped 8000 villages in 11 states. Nearly 40 million people

in rural areas were covered. The brand registered a 30 per cent increase in volumes and the share of contribution to HLL's detergent division turnover increased to 55 per cent. HLL was also offering cross company product mixes - a 200 gm Bru packet comes with one Cadbury's Dairy Milk; Red Label tea packet comes with Cadbury's Five Star depending on the size; 100 gm Lifebuoy comes with a small Amrutanjan. HLL used Mahakumbh mela as an opportunity to change hand-washing and bathing habits in rural India. "The Mahakumbh” at Allahabad is the biggest mela in India and, with its focus on `cleansing' is a good fit for the

49

`Lifebuoy for health' message of the brand". Innovative communication tools were used at the mela to communicate the importance of health and hygiene. “The company 14 stalls at various points in the mela grounds. Some hand-carts have also been deployed for increasing access. The numbers of both was increased based on response. ``The activity aims to build awareness in the target audience about hygiene and health through product demonstrations". People in Mela were asked to put there hands below some special camera where the7y could see the germs on their hands and were asked to wash their hands with lifebuoy and then see the difference. These type of promotional activities worked in these melas. Cinema van operations These are typically funded by the Redistribution Stockiest. Cinema Van Operations have films and audio cassettes with song and dance sequences from popular films, also comprising advertisements of HLL products. Operation Harvest The reach of conventional media and, therefore, awareness of different products in rural markets is weak. It was also not always feasible for the Redistribution Stockiest to cover all these markets due to high costs involved. Yet, these markets are important since growth opportunities are high.

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Operation Harvest endeavored to supplement the role of conventional media in rural India and, in the process, forge relationships and loyalty with rural consumers. Operation Harvest also involved conducting of product awareness programmers on vans. Project Shakti is working for HLL to be a great promotional Project and work in both terms that is Promotion as well as Distribution with socal welfare as it gives employment to rual women and increase their income.

Research Objectives The research paper consists of following objectives: (i) To analyze the present promotion strategy of few brands in rural markets. (ii) To measure the success of rural marketing campaign of few brands in Terms of consumer appreciation. (iii) To study the determinants of specification factors which can decide the success the rural promotion strategy?

(iv) To evaluate the effects of adopting the specific brand ambassadors in the rural marketing context. 51

(v) To present suffocate on above-mentioned objectives. Review of Literature The Marketing Mastermind (2003), Hindustan Lever rural marketing Initiatives by "A Mukund" Marketing Mastermind has given the perspectives in which HLL has approached towards rural markets. The Economic Times (2003), "The rural market likes it strong" the strength of rural markets for Indian companies. Financial express, June 19, 2000 has published the strategy about FMCG majors, HLL, Marico Industries, Colgate Palmolive have formula had for rural markets.

Conceptual Framework Given the Literacy scenario in to consideration the promotion of Brands in rural markets requires the special measures. Due to the social and backward condition the personal selling efforts have a challenging role to play in this regard. The word of mouth is an important message carrier in rural areas. Infect the opinion leaders are the most influencing part of promotion strategy of rural promotion efforts. The experience of agricultural input industry can act as a guideline for the marketing efforts of consumer durable and nondurable companies. Relevance of Mass Media is also a very important factor. Door Darshan had already acquired high penetration in rural households. Now the cable and other Channels have also penetrated in rural households. The newspapers and other printed Media are also gaining strategy but their role is still secondary in this regard. 52

Results and Discussions The field exercise has given the various inputs about the rural consumers. This experience was unique from a marketer's point of view that the companies must have a proper understanding of rural marketing environment at a region wise basis. The data has tabulated in following manner. Advertisement of “Fanta”(Acceptability pattern)

Contents Favor Language and content of Ad. 72% Back ground effect of Ad. 50% expressions and communication styles of 85%

Non-Favor 20% 20% 15%

No Comment 8% 30% -

Rani Mukerji The Ad plays an important role for giving boost to rural consumers feeling. The feeling plays very important role. The Language and content (72%) and expression style of Rani Mukerji (85%) play significant role. BPL advertisement Contents Favor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as a 75%

Non-Favor 20%

No Comment 5%

brand Ambassador of LUX The Action style of Aishwarya 65%

30%

5%

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Rai Bachchan The language of Ad.

62%

20%

18%

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is a leading player in the ad feature. The Action style of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is a very delighted factor for rural Consumers.

Contents Style of Presentation The concept of ad. Interesting and delightful Ad.

Favor 77% 65% 63%

Non-Favor 20% 20% 17%

No Comment 3% 15% 20%

Style of presentation plays an important role. 77% is a high figure as this affects the whole creativity aspect of any ad. The total concept and delight fulness is a strong factor for this ad. Different Modes of promotions in rural market.

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Modes Favor Non-Favor No Comment Hats 65% 30% 5% Wall Paintings 40% 53% 7% Melas 65% 20% 15% Hats and Melas play a very important role in this regard. The 65% response in favor of this is an indicator of this.

Suggestions 1) Rural consumer environment must be understood before the creation of ad. 2) Rural mindset accepts the brands easily, which are close to their culture. This point must be reflected in ad for rural markets. 3) Sponsorships to the Melas and Hats must be considered in a significant manner. 4) Selection of brand ambassadors, lyrics must not be ignored in this regard.

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They have a special liking for folk culture so this can be taken in an effective utilization of brand promotions.

Conclusions 1) The Language and content must be according to the suitability of rural environment. 2) Background figures are also a deterministic factor. 3) Admissibility of brand ambassadors plays an important role in this regard. 4) Special promotion measures are the strong applicable factors in this regard. BRAND LUX CASE STUDY (Born: 1929, in India, as a bathing soap) History: Owned by global consumer products giant Unilever Plc., the parent company of Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) Status: Enjoys more than 17% market share in the premium soaps market valued at Rs 6,000 crore Brand story: What is the common seductive link between Hollywood actor Paul Newman,Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai 56

Bachchan and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J. Jayalalithaa? They have all tried selling a soap at some point or the other. And the soap is Lux, the premium beauty soap from consumer products company HUL. “Lux has been the epitome of beauty for the Indian woman and inspires all women in India to enjoy the process of beautifying without any constraints,” says Srikanth Srinivasamadhavan, category head, personal wash,

HUL.

Lux—derived from the word luxury— was launched in 1899 as a laundry soap in the UK. In 1925, the brand was extended to the toilet soap category. It was positioned as a beauty soap in India, and HUL has since used successful film actors of the time—such as Leela Chitnis, Madhubala, Hema

Malini and Kareena Kapoor—to endorse the product. Lux’s secret of longevity has been its consistent evolution—be it the soap colour, packaging or new variants, the brand has banked on innovation to keep its youthful image intact. Extending the soap cake to a range of shower gels, liquid soaps and moisturizing bars has helped the brand keep consumers

excited

and

the

competition

at

bay.

What has not changed is the consistency in its communication and its positioning. Its tag lines—If it’s good enough for a film star, then it’s good for you too to Play with beauty—have conveyed the same message over the years. “Lux is a brand like Mills & Boon. While the packaging and content could change, 57

the romance angle doesn’t. It taps into an emotion very close to humanity’s basic need—social interaction. The brand has always hired celebrities when they have reached a certain height rather than using them at the start of their careers. This avoids the issue of celebrities overshadowing the brand,” says Agnello Dias, national creative director, JWT, which handles the account.

CONCLUSION: Therefore the motto of Hindustan Unilever Ltd is to encourage their employees irrespective of success and failure. They combine the efforts on building strong

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