•Aishwarya Lahiri, Bikash Jyoti Borah, Divya Sarin, Joy Chakravarty, Anubhav Khandelwal, Harsha Jagasia, Daniel Fernandes, Ananya Mohanty

One of the oldest players Result of merger between William

Hesketh Lever- England, Margarine Unie- Netherlands and Lever Brothers- India 

Total size of HLL’s detergent business: Rs. 2000 crores (nearly 40% of the 5000 crores market)

Three key brands- Surf, Rin and Wheel, and smaller brands like Sunlight and 501,  and Rin ALA

Started with door to door delivery- reached up to 200kgs a day

Was sold in poly bags, as compared to surf ‘s significantly expensive cartons

Positioned as a cheaper alternative to Surf and as a superior product compared to inferior washing soaps

Became a symbol of a low priced, good quality detergent

sales grew at a rate of 49% Aimed at the unorganized laundry soap

market in the urban and rural areas launched Nirma detergent bar, to counter

Rin, selling at one third of the price of Rin.

Course of action

1. Aggressive advertising

• Creating a jingle that connects to the market

• A new fresh advertising campaign

• Concentrating on cost

• Guerilla advertising

• IMC

• New agency: new ideas, new creative

2. Decreasing price of existing product

Nirma consumers received “acceptable” quality in lieu of low price

HLL COULD possibly follow this way.

Launch a new cost competitive product as compared to Nirma

This is what HLL did

They launched “Wheel”

Tap markets which were unexplored by Nirma

Nirma was popular in Gujarat in 1980s

Was gaining on markets as yet unexplored by Surf (middle to lower classes, rural)

Surf could have adopted various measures like price decrease to appeal to rural markets

3. New Promotion tactics along with advertising

Some amount extra with pack

Free items (buckets etc)

Produce sachets

Stick sachets in magazines and newspapers

1. Cost Reduction: decided to sell Surf in polybags as against its previous expensive cartons

2. Revamped its advertising Earlier, Surf’s campaign ads were

always used to establish ‘Surf washes whiter’.

In 1985, HLL created a character called Lalitaji, potrayed by TV artist Kavitha Chowdhary. Lalithaji represented a smart housewife who knew that good value always comes at a price.

3. Launch of Sunlight

Then launched a white detergent powder called Sunlight in 1985

priced to match Nirma

targeted the eastern and southern markets where Nirma was not very strong

4. Launch of Wheel R&D department of HLL was given the

responsibilty of producing a low-cost detergent, which gave better performance, at the same time, without any side-effects like ones caused by high soda-ash content in Nirma.

1986: developed a NSD(non-soap detergent): Wheel

launched as a detergent bar too to counter Swastik’s Super 777

5. Easy access to raw materials carefully selected the locations for

new plants in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Pondicherry

HLL supplied the raw materials, the contractors hired their own labour and produced the detergent.

provided HLL with greater flexibility to start new units faster, thus gaining concessions and significant cost savings.

6. Packaging in 30 grams plastic sachets

Wheel Detergents powder was packed in 30-gram plastic sachets, instead of usual one-kg packs. It was priced at Rs. 5.50 as against Nirma’s Rs. 5.25.

7. Advertising strategy

campaigns emphasized that Wheel provided “extra power, extra lather and was safe on hands and clothes.”

aimed at creating dissonance in the minds of Nirma buyers about the safety aspects and the benefits of switching over to Wheel.