The country's largest consumer goods company Hindustan Unilever has embarked on a new strategy — Winning in Many Indias — to become the market leader in most of the categories it is present.
Speaking at the company's 82 Annual General Meeting here today, HUL's Chairman Harish Manwani said that his company has developed an operating framework called "Winning in Many Indias", under which the FMCG major has segmented the market into 14 consumer clusters that are homogeneous and added a fifth branch in the Central India, which is considered to be an underpenetrated but highly potential region.
He further added that this model has brought the company closer to the consumers and helped it to strategise its marketing in a more differentiated and relevant manner across the country.
“This has driven us to involve in innovative marketing initiatives to engage with our consumers in the remotest corners of the country," Manwani said, citing an example that while beauty products sold more in West Bengal, fabric conditioners are sold more in Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile, the company during a recent analyst meet had said that the new strategy has helped the company gain market share in 90 per cent of its portfolio.
In a report by Société Générale, its senior analyst Nitin Mathur said that the 14 clusters strategy was to focus on increasing the quality of distribution and increase be-spoke products and strategies to counter local competition.
In the report, Mathur had added that Pepsodent clove oil and salt toothpaste for South India and small pack tea and unique sampling trade offers in coastal Andhra Pradesh did well.
Similarly, the company manoeuvred at price points in laundry to shift consumers from local brands to Rin brand in Uttar Pradesh, while promoting small refrigerators to push ice-cream sales.