Lifebuoy in India: Product Life Cycle Strategies

Symbiosis Institute of
Management Studies
 Introduction

• In 1931, Unilever set up its first Indian

subsidiary, Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing
Company, followed by Lever Brothers India
Limited (1933) and United Traders Limited
(1935). These three companies merged to form
HUL in November 1956.

• Lifebuoy was introduced by Lever Brothers in

1895 in England. Originally a carbolic soap
containing phenol, different varieties were later
introduced without the medicinal carbolic smell,
such as the coral-colored Lifebuoy during the
late 1950s and Lifebuoy Minty Refresher in
1966.
 Introduction

• Lifebuoy, for long, has been associated with a big, red, chunky bar
of soap that keeps one healthy. The heritage brand, which has been
around for more than a 100 years now (the first container with
Lifebuoy soaps landed on Indian shores in 1895 at Bombay
Harbour), was once touted to be the soap that was everything male
and sporty. It has now become a family brand.

• Lord Lever Hume looked out of the window from his home & saw
the familiar life saver in port sunlight & the word LIFEBUOY flashed
through his mind & he named the soap thus.
 Current Scenario

• The Lifebuoy brand aims to change the hygiene behaviour of 1

Billion consumers across Asia, Africa and Latin America, by
promoting the benefits of handwashing with soap at key occasions,
thereby helping to reduce respiratory infections and diarrhoeal
disease, the world’s two biggest causes of child mortality.

• HUL's Lifebuoy became the first Indian brand to have a special

postal cover which was released on the occasion of the World
Health Day in recognition of the phenomenal work done by
Lifebuoy for initiating and assiduously implementing the socially
beneficial movement.

• SLOGAN : Healthy hoga Hindustan;

Lifebuoy hai jaha tandurusti hai waha
Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna
Advertisements
Product Life Cycle
 Introduction Stage (1895 - 1935)

PLC Stages
• Most expensive stage
• Introduction
• Small size of market
• Growth
• Low but increasing sales
• Maturity
• High customer acquisition
• Decline cost
• Innovation cost
• A little competition
 Introduction Stage (1895 - 1935)

• Unilever exported Lifebuoy in 1895

• Promised to kill germs and keep the body healthy
• Captured a huge market share in rural India
• Limited advertising efforts
• Advertising focused on hard working, savings minded and
economic class

Tandarusti ki Raksha karta hai Lifebuoy…

 Growth Stage (1935 - 1970)

PLC Stages • Strong growth in sales and

• Introduction profit
• Growth • Benefits from economies of
• Maturity scale of production
• Decline • More investment in
promotional activities
• Maximum take away from
the market
 Growth Stage (1935 - 1970)

• Contributing a major share in companies profit

• Line extension of ‘Lifebuoy Special’ failed due to its
preoccupied image of health care
• the company ranked one among the top five private sector
firms in terms of sales
• turnover of INR 932.8 million
• Illiterate rural market remembered the product as ‘Red Soap’
 Maturity Stage (1970 - 1990)

PLC Stage • Established product

• Introduction • Aim is to maintain the
market share
• Growth
• Highest competition
• Maturity
• Wise investment in
• Decline
marketing is required
• Product modification is
needed for competitive
advantage
 Maturity Stage (1970 - 1990)

• Growing sale but at slower pace, comparatively

• More choices in the market like P&G, Godrej and Nirma
• Introduction of colour TV – Revolution in advertising
• Nirma’s aggressive marketing strategies by 1977 made it the
second-largest volume seller and a potential rival to HLL
• more value prepositions in the market
• High growth rate in service sector changed consumer needs
• Higher income level – Preference to expensive soaps
 Decline (1990 - 2002)

PLC Stages
• Market start to shrink
• Introduction
• Saturation of market
• Growth
• Presence of substitution
• Maturity
• Profit can be made by
• Decline switching to less costly
production method
 Decline (1990 - 2002)

• Nirma Bath offered more value for money in rural markets

• Sales for carbolic soap start diminishing

• HLL fell from 69% in 1992 to 45% in 1996

 STP of Lifebuoy

• Segment
– Personal Care – Soap, Hand Sanitizer, Hand Wash,
bodywash
• Target Group
– All households to provide a 100% anti-bacterial soap
for complete protection
– Primarily Rural Public
• Positioning
– Lifebuoy's goal is to provide affordable and accessible
hygiene and health solutions
Competition of Lifebuoy
 Post decline: Extension in Lifecycle

• Comeback… post 2004

• Changed shape of bar soap : new curved shape |
easy grip and modern look
• Change in communication from 'You will be healthy
if you use Lifebuoy' to 'You will not fall ill if you use
Lifebuoy‘ or the ‘fast action germ kill soap’.
• Introduced new variants of product : Line extension
• Gradual shift towards personal care products
• Started targeting complete family instead of blue
collared man
• Started CSR activities and campaigns to promote
healthy habits
• Aggressive promotion
• Started targeting higher segment of Indian market
 Lifebuoy Products

Soaps: Handwash : Body wash:

Total 10 Total
Mildcare
Hand Total 10 Talcum
Mildcare Sanitizer:
Cool Fresh Mildcare Powder
Cool Fresh
Betel Leaf Lifebuoy Total Cool Fresh
Green Tea Health Talc
Vita Protect Lifebuoy Care Betel Leaf
Kitchen Fresh
Lemon Fresh Vita Protect
Moisture Color Lemon Fresh
plus Changing Moisture plus

Product Line
 Competitors of lifebuoy
• Major Competitors: Dettol and Nirma

LIFEBUOY DETTOL
•Introduced as •Introduced as antiseptic
disinfectant soap liquid
•King of rural market •Focused on urban market
•Aggressive marketing •Not so much aggressive
campaigns marketing campaign
•No such claim •India’s 3rd most trusted brand
•More durable •Less durable in comparison
•Multiple Taglines • 100% sure tagline
•Follower : share of •Leader -hand wash category:
29.1 %. * 53 per cent *

*Data of 2012
 Advertisements
Famous Advertisements:
• Old ad : showing man playing and
working hard
• Latest ads :
– Bunty washing hand
– Color changing Handwash
– 5 times Hand wash :'Lifebuoy-Way
of Life'
• CSR related ads :
– Chamki advertisement
– Thesgora Village Advertisement
– Save the child Campaign ads
 Promotional activities

• Introduced Global Handwash day campaigne

• Kumbh Mela Promotional activity (2013) ,
• Swasthya Chetna Program ,
• Promotion by Movie Krish and Hulk related ads
• Recently HUL comes on board Swacch Bharat, aims to
promote health & hygiene
Indian Soap Market 2015
Problems
 Problems

• Expansion of economy – increasing income levels- consumers

spending more on different avenues

• Decline in interest rates from 18% to 8% - consumers started

investing in consumer durables like automobiles, mobile
phones

• Profit growth of 22.42% to Rs 1310 crores in 2000 compared

to Rs 1070 crores in 1999 but marginal growth of 4.5% to Rs
10,604 crores as compared to Rs 10,142 crores in previous
year.
 Problems

• Evolving needs of consumers- Sony, Nestle, Dell etc did

well but not lifebuoy
 Problems

• Purchasing power of middle class increasing- tendency to buy

expensive ones

• India’s youth population around 65% of the total population-

lifebuoy failed to target them

• Sony has variants in its products catering for different age

groups- walkman for youth, home theatre for families
whereas lifebuoy failed to do

• Problems in Rural marketing- lack to mass media like TV’s,

radio
 Problems

• Easy duplicity of the Brand “Lifebuoy”

• Fake brands like “likeboy” and “lijabath” came into existence –

portrayed the same red color soap

• Money spent by Lifebuoy on wide range of products- profits

reaped low due to lack to effective promotions for those
products
Solutions
 Solutions

Increasing income level

increasing customer needs- lifebuoy increased its variants

In the type of soaps
 Solutions

• Appropriate Advertising techniques – instead of just advertising

as a red color soap – must work on packaging , designs and
shapes

• Must make more efforts to position itself as more than just a

‘health and hygiene’ category product using rigorous advertising

• To increase the purchase intent among youngsters, promote it

in association with a young brand ambassador like “Virat Kohli”

• Educating villagers against brand duplicity

 Strengths

• First soap to use Carbolic Acid – Gave it a red colour and strong,
medical scent

• Entered Indian stores in mid 1890s using plague with a promise to

keep one healthy

• Strong positioning in ‘health and hygiene’ platform with no

substitute product in that platform, enabled it to capture a huge
market share in the rural markets of India.

• Completed more than 110 years of life cycle. The brand still enjoys
a strong consumer faith in FMCG markets

• High consumer awareness for the brand of Lifebuoy

 Strong Brand Recall

• Any red soap was considered to be Lifebuoy (specific to rural

consumers)
• Most popular soap in rural markets (70% of sales came from rural
markets)
 Strengths

• Excellent brand visibility and distribution

• Excellent campaigns to enable positioning in ‘Health and

Hygiene’ platform

• Wide portfolio of Lifebuoy brand – Soaps, Sanitizers, Hand

Wash
 Weaknesses

• Lower market penetration (specifically soap)

in urban areas as compared to rural areas

• Initially positioned as a masculine soap, which

was eventually turned as a family soap

• Not been perceived as a beauty soap and is mainly

used just for hand washing – based on its
campaigns

• Wide range of products but not ample promotions

• Should resist doing bully advertisements

 Opportunities

• Increasing mass communication such as TV, Radio etc. in rural

areas to further increase reach of lifebuoy campaigns

• Product diversification for high-end customers

• Should focus on enhancing design and shape of the soap

• Packaging can be improved

• Should invest more in targeting the youth as well

Can put in more such efforts in innovation
 Threats
• Faced with strong competition- Dettol, Nirma, etc.

• Infringement : Easy to duplicate on the basis of color which is used for

brand recall. Eg : Likeboy

• Changing income patterns

• Campaigns maybe wrongly perceived

• Strong positioning of a ‘health and hygiene’ category soap

It is difficult to increase sales in other categories such as Lifebuoy moisture

plus, lemon fresh, mild care, cool fresh
Thank you!