The Hindu Business Line : Will it make a splash?

The name Liril had been registered by Hindustan Lever from a list sent to them by Unilever in London. Levers were very keen that the soap have striations, wiggly stripes of different colours running across the tablet. I recommended the tablet be blue - because waterfall is blue with white striations. Hindustan Lever was very excited and produced 1,000 tablets for testing.

At this point Derk Wooller, the Marketing Controller of Hindustan Lever's soaps division, stepped in and suggested we add the freshness of lime to our story. He felt that though the waterfall had tremendous emotional appeal, Liril needed a rational ingredient to clinch the deal. I was not averse to this but suggested that we do an `As marketed' test: Blue Liril versus Green Liril with limes. I was wrong and Wooller was right. The rest is history."

— Alyque Padamsee in his book A Double Life.

THIS summer Liril will be pushing its luck in the soap market. The brand expects consumers to beat the heat with a new Liril Orange Splash variant. Trying to lift its `static' market shares, Orange Splash is the third variant for the brand, which is hoping to get some incremental volumes this season.

Admits Sanjay Dube, Head (Market & Consumer Development), HLL, "Liril brand shares have been static since last year. This is probably because there has been no news on the brand for a couple of years."

In fact, the last time something `new' happened to Liril was when it launched its Icy Cool Mint variant in the summer of 2002. Although the company claims that this brand did help the Liril franchise grow, it was not enough to change its fortunes.

Being the largest brand in HLL's premium soaps portfolio, Liril shares stand today at a value share of 1.9 per cent as per ORG-Marg AC Nielsen. Lack of growth has resulted in stagnant market share, leading HLL to consider yet another variant to protect its shares in the category.

However, analysts tracking the company are not entirely sure whether a new variant is going to help Liril. Claims Yasmin Shah, Research Analyst at ASK Raymond James, "HLL is trying to create some excitement for Liril so that the others don't eat into its market share. It cannot sit quiet, especially after Godrej has launched its Cinthol Deo variant this summer. It is looking for incremental volumes for Liril, but consumers won't necessarily buy its new offering."

Besides, there are different colours suited for different categories. In the soaps category, `edible coloured' perfumes have not really worked in the Indian market. While bright colours might work for children's soaps, a flashy variant may not appeal to the average Indian adult. For instance, a year ago, Godrej introduced an orange Cinthol Skin-Fresh variant, which it was forced to withdraw within a year. "We did have an Orange Cinthol which did not do well. Perfume-based edible colours per se have not worked in India, says Hoshi Press, Executive Director & President, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd.

HLL insists that orange is not a colour but an ingredient, which the new Liril Orange Splash is all about. Says Dube, "It is not a colour but an ingredient that we have chosen. Liril is all about freshness and whatever we choose has to be consistent with the central thought of freshness and orange fits in with that."

Liril may have started the `freshness' category in personal wash many years ago but today there are more brands occupying this platform. Besides, lime has also become a `commoditised' ingredient across product categories. To move away from the saturated lime connotations for Liril, it did try out other green-blue variants such as Rain Fresh and Active Deo in the past.

With its new Orange Splash variant, HLL believes it is also launching a new category within freshness. Claims Pranesh Misra, President & COO, Lowe, the ad agency handling the brand, "Liril has always been an experiential brand. Through this new orange fragrance, it would be the first brand to address a new freshness need of consumers."

But whether Orange is the right ingredient for the brand remains debatable. Observes Alyque Padamsee, the ad man responsible for launching the brand in 1975, "Orange is the opposite of blue and green. It represents heat while blue and green connote cool and fresh. At the same time, orange is the colour between red and green in traffic lights. It depends on whether the brand will stop at red or go forward with green."

New advertising for the brand is being developed at its agency, Lowe, with a fresh face (the model happens to be the daughter of badminton champion Prakash Padukone). The new Orange Splash is expected to have a new exclamatory baseline - Oofyumma! (in sync with Liril's brand values of exuberance and vitality).

Adds Misra, "The new variant will also have the basic proposition of freshness with orange symbolism. It will be promoted with a fresh face and carry an updated jingle to convey the enjoyable freshness associated with the brand."

Meanwhile, the ongoing challenge for HLL remains the same - that of getting higher growth. HLL is hopeful about its new Liril Orange Splash. "We expect some significant growth from Liril this year," states Dube.

Rejuvenating the brand always works, temporarily that is. As Jagdeep Kapoor, Managing Director, Samsika Marketing Consultants, says, "Liril had reached a plateau and there was some excitement needed to rejuvenate the brand. The brand was already needed by consumers and now an attempt is being made to reconsider it." Is this going to be Liril's big summer?

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