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Purvita Chatterjee

Mumbai , Aug. 30

HINDUSTAN Lever intends embarking on a co-branded certification programme with top hospitals across the country for its Domex brand of cleaning disinfectant. Appointing its media planning and buying agency, Mindshare Fulcrum's division Local Area Marketing (LAM) to execute the project, HLL is still in the process of working out an arrangement with key hospitals it would help in keeping clean with its Domex brand.

The hospitals would carry the signage `Domex Clean.' This certification programme is expected to get rolled out in a phased manner across the country's hospitals within a few months and will get kick-started by Mr Ashok Ganpathy, Marketing Manager of Household Care, at HLL.

According to officials at Mindshare Fulcrum, the branding exercise through hospitals is expected to persuade people to use the brand in their homes as well.

While the hospital certification programme is expected to be treated as below-the-line communication initiative for the brand, in the recent past Domex released a new commercial devised by its agency Lowe to highlight the benefits of germ eradication associated with the brand.

Highlighting the strategy behind its latest commercial, an HLL spokesperson said: "The Indian consumer believes that `visible clean is safe clean.' She is moderately aware of the need for disinfection to maintain complete hygiene and needs to increase her hygiene-consciousness. The advertising for Domex focuses on these aspects - by communicating the need for hygiene assurance, especially for mothers with young children and by communicating the core benefit of 100 per cent germ kill, when used undiluted."

The launch of the commercial also coincides with the re-launch of the brand in a thicker formulation with a germ-kill proposition along with increased pricing at Rs 22 for a 500 ml bottle.

At the time Domex was launched as an all-purpose cleaning brand in 1997, it was pegged at Rs 32 for 500 ml. In 2000, HLL decided to drop its price to Rs 20 and now this June it has re-launched the brand as Domex Thick.

Adds the HLL spokesperson: "The branded cleaners segment, led by Domex and Harpic, has been growing over the last three years. Factors that drive adoption of the surface cleaners category are consumer demographics (socio-economic status, income), urbanisation and type of flooring. The continuing change in these macro factors will positively impact growth of the category in India." Analysts tracking the branded cleaners segment observe that Domex has been perceived to be more of a toilet cleaner when it can be used as an all-purpose, multi-surface agent. The new formulation has a combination of sodium hypochlorite, alkali and detergents.

Domex also sports a premium variant, Domex Phenolic, pegged at Rs 35 for 500 ml.

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