a) Core problem that the brand faces:

Hindustan Unilever’s Surf was the leading detergent in the Indian market with a market
share for several years since its launch. The brand targeted the premium segment of the
market. In this case, we see how Nirma, a Gujarat based brand dethroned Surf Limited and
gained a market share of 38%, leaving Surf with a highly reduced share of 31%.

The core problem we see in the case is the difficulty HUL faced retaining its market share
with competition from new brands. Everytime a new detergent brand was launched, HUL
lost a significant share of the market and at Surf lost its position as the market leader. Since
Surf catered only to the premium, urban upper class category, its penetration in rural areas
was low and also, even in urban not many could afford to get it. The premium section of the
society is comparatively very low in India, with more people belonging to the middle and
lower classes. As Nirma and Ghadi catered to these segments (the lower end of the market),
their target audience was much bigger than that of Surf and hence, it was easy for them to
gain market share as people switched to the cheaper and similar alternatives. Also, while
Surf is a premium brand, there is still some overlap from Rin and Wheel reducing Surf’s
individual market share. Realizing this, HUL positioned brands like Rin and Wheel at the
lower end of the market but Nirma and Wheel both lost to Ghadi. The brand also faced
competition from regional brands such as Woosh in North and East India. To counter that, in
2004, it revived HUL’s first brand in India that is Sunlight in a new avatar priced above Wheel
and below Rin. With time, HUL has regained its overall leading position in detergents with
the help of all these brands combined.

b) Target audiences for the brand

Unilever has changed its STP strategy over the years with evolution in the industry, the
market and most importantly the mindset of people.

When we talk about the target audience, Unilever initially launched Surf that catered to the
higher middle class in particular. Initially, they were doing well and had a large share in the
market but the introduction of Nirma in the market and their strategy to cater to the
masses, that is the lower middle class and middle class population forced Unilever to come
up with alternative strategies to stay relevant and maintain their dominance. They launched
Rin which acted as a competitor to Nirma and then eventually launched Sunlight. Through
the course of time, the brand has tried to cater to every kind of consumer with a variety of
product assortments in each category.

Detergents were predominantly targeted to housewives as it was a general notion that they
were the people who would use it.

The brand had come up with Sachet Packs as well as they aimed to target mass market
consumer, convenience and affordability. The brand had divided its consumers into 3 groups
- Rich, Aspirers and Strivers and accordingly their product launches have catered to these
different segments. Studies showed Strivers to be maximum in number, followed by
Aspirers and finally the rich people. This also indicates why they suffered heavily when
Nirma came into the market because their initial target audience was not actually catering
to the masses.

In a nutshell, Unilever decided to shift their target audience each time they launched a new
product as the brand felt they have a product for every consumer in the market. It started
with upper middle class people, then tried to appeal to the masses and eventually to all
households, with housewives remaining a constant point of focus.

Question 3: Reach or Frequency

Unilever’s Surf Excel ad “Daag Achhe Hain” and its various renditions have gained popularity
over the years. In the 80’s Surf launched the ad campaign with Lalita Ji who stood for value
for money and became a household name thereafter. This was done to counter Nirma’s
‘Hema, Rekha, Jaya and Sushma’ campaign. Since 2005, all of Surf’s ads have a child as their
protagonist and have a high brand recall.

In the case of Unilever, the brand should focus on increasing the number of exposures, i.e.,
frequency, especially for the consumer products segment. A product like detergent is
particularly low-involvement and needs to be top-of-mind for the consumer. HUL’s
detergent product was losing its market share due to a price competition and hence it
became important to bind the consumer’s brain to the content and messaging.
The advertising ratings by Nielsen says that digital ads need to be between 5 and 9
exposures to improve the branding and increase consumer acceptance. For TV, an
emotional connection is made after 1-2 viewings and a cognitive response is after 3 times.
89% of the TV ads are ignored because the consumers are fiddling with their phones. A
higher frequency of the TVC would be ideal to tackle avoidance.
(https://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/reach-frequency-advertising-and-
brands/#.YRQx-4gzZPZ)

Reach as a parameter can be used for smaller brands in the growth stages when they have a
considerably smaller market share as their primary focus would be brand awareness and
then driving sales. In a market where there are separate brands (Surf, Rin and Wheel) to
cater to each consumer segment, the brand should focus on Mind Share and reaching their
target audience multiple times.

P&G Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard’s stated that with message duplication between TV
and digital, cross platform measurement could drive out the waste. After a point, the
frequency of the ad would no longer assist in generating leads and the ad would have to be
rested or refreshed.

 One of the measures that HUL can adopt is “frequency capping”. This method is used
to purposely limit the number of times ads are exposed to consumers online and
increase their effectiveness in the long run. This can be used for most FMCG brands
since they hold the highest volume in TV advertising.
 In our opinion, it would be safer to target a higher frequency for HUL’s detergent
products since they are already competing with Nirma and Ghari which are priced
lower than Surf and cater to the masses. Focusing on reach would not be the right
approach as Nirma and Ghari combined reach a higher number of households than
Surf. A higher frequency would give them the advantage of Mind Share especially if
cross platform measurement technique is used.
 In the case of Sunlight, reach should be the short-term focus till the time the product
is in the introductory stage, post which a higher frequency in the growth stage would
help to capture a considerable market share.