HUL is looking forward to forging MoUs with the Governments of the BIMARU States (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) to build a franchise for its largest selling soap – Lifebuoy. After completing a pilot programmme in hand washing in Madhya Pradesh, it intends taking it to more rural markets in Bihar, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
“We have completed a pilot for our behaviour change programme towards hand washing in Madhya Pradesh after signing an MoU with the State Government. Since we want to achieve scale, partnerships with the State Government will help us in getting accessibility to villages and sharing costs. We want to sign more MoUs with these States and link it to our business objectives,” said Samir Singh, Lifebuoy’s Global Vice-President.
Lifebuoy has witnessed sales growth in excess of 10 per cent in the rural markets in the past three years. A new 3-minute film by Lowe Lintas has also been created to inspire viewers to pledge support for Lifebuoy’s hand washing programs on the ground.
“Through free samples and films, we expect rural consumers to buy bar soap replenishments for Lifebuoy and it is mostly the lower SKUs of Rs 5 and Rs 10 which are sold in rural markets,” Singh added.
The FMCG major said that growth in the saturated bar soaps category comes from rural markets. “Bar soaps are growing faster in the rural markets while the hand wash category is empowering urban sales,” said Singh. Instead of taking too many brands into rural India, HUL has chosen its leading brand to generate majority sales in these markets. “We do not want to confuse the rural consumer with too many brands. For the van and outreach programmes we have focussed on Lifebuoy as it is positioned on family hygiene,” he said.
In the urban markets, HUL claims its Lifebuoy hand wash has been growing faster on the back of new value propositions. “For Lifebuoy hand wash we are claiming to kill germs in 10 seconds and this has helped us in growing disproportionately compared to our competitors. Today, Lifebuoy hand wash is the second largest brand in the category,” said Singh. It continues to be the market leader in the bar soaps segment with an 18 per cent volume share while in hand wash it comes second after Reckitt’s Benckiser’s Dettol.
Purvita@thehindu.co.in