Unilever Unplugged Case Study – PureIt Why Water Purification?

1. A billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water - 80% belong to the D&E countries

2. 80% of all diseases in D&E countries are waterborne 3. An estimated 2.5 billion cases of diarrhea occur among children under five years of age – this

has remained stable over the past two decades. 4. Diarrhea remains the second leading cause of death among children under five globally.

Nearly, one in five child deaths – about 1.5 million each year.

Today, the consumers are concerned but forced to make various compromises with known and existing solutions.

1. Boiling: Widely prevalent habit of boiling water, but it is expensive, time consuming, poor tasting & energy intensive.

2. Standalone filters: Do not deliver adequate germ kill (vis-à-vis viruses, bacteria, parasites). 3. Bottled Water is expensive; not really sustainable 4. Premium purifiers (ultraviolet, reverse osmosis technologies) - Dependent on electricity &

piped water; expensive 5. Water liquids/tablets: Cumbersome, often ineffective, poor taste

PureIt – Mission:

A Break through Innovation:

Way back in 1998, PureIt started as a project in Port Sunlight with a clear brief of ‘no electricity’, ‘no running water’, give World class Safety standards (USEPA - 643) under a cost of Rs 1 (30 ps per litre * daily avg consumption of 2-3 Litre per day) for an adult everyday. The project moved to India in 2000 and was test marketed in Chennai in 2004. In 2005, it was extended to the Rest of TN followed by AP & Karnataka in 2006. We went national in 2007 with our Classic 23 Litre device which was then priced @ Rs. 1600.

Unilever Pureit’s product portfolio has been designed so as to provide safe water in all parts of the world

1. Complete protection from all harmful germs – viruses, bacteria and parasites [ As safe as boiled water]

2. Meets the stringent germ kill criteria of the Environmental Protection Agency of the U.S.A 3. Key skus can be used in all urban and rural areas because they don’t depend on electricity

and pressurised tap water 4. Assured / uncompromising safety for consumers because of Unambiguous ‘end-of-life

indicator’ & ‘auto-switch off’ system 5. 90% lower carbon footprint compared to consumer alternatives of boiling water, or using

bottled water

Business Model: Rapidly acquire consumers with purifier & secure ongoing revenue from each consumer with periodic sale of consumable germ kill kits. As the consumer base expands, the germ kill kit revenue stream builds up.

First line of Gravity Purifiers:

Communication Journey in India:

Market Context (2007-08)

Purifier penetration (All India (AI) Urban): < 2%

Current Methods: Do nothing (40%+) followed by Boiling, Simple Filtration & candle filters made up 90% of AI Urban.

Competitive landscape: Low Heat o -Aquaguard: Heritage brand since 1982

o -Aquasure :Eureka Forbe’s recently launched NE (non electric) purifier to counter Pureit

o -Kent, Purocom, Whirlpool, Philips, Zero B: Other electric purifiers present in market but with minimal media spends

In 2007, PureIt’s Marketing Task was to convince non-owners of purifiers to convert to Pureit (Market Development) and communication Task was to Peg Pureit to the Gold standard of water safety (As safe as ‘Boiled water’) while being superior on convenience and costs. We sold over 1 Mn Purifiers in 2008 & category penetration went up to 5% & competitive heat began emerging.

2007: Boiler (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6K64imdtYs)

2008: Yellow Eyes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwkGg8Rqcqc) & Doctor (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXZlI2dyLOI)

Market Context (2009-12)

Category heat increased & low priced SKU’s powered category penetration. However Pureit ran the risk of being viewed as ‘One Amongst the Crowd’. In these years, our marketing Task was to convince consumers to prefer Pureit over other purifiers (Share Gain) & communication Task was to convince intenders about Pureit’s superior safety delivery (1 crore challenge / 1 Crore viruses)

2009: Home Demo – 1 Crore (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej2hn33uRtA & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn5d9BW7JZQ)

2010 saw the launch of 1000 rupee purifier to preempt the threat of Tata Swach 1000 Rs Purifier (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irXaMM0MKnk). In 2010 category penetration went to 14% and Pureit had 60% share on non electric segment on Volume.

2011: We continued to build on the powerful and popular 1 Cr Challenge (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xZeXzlgiGo, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RJkeleUSB8 & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfHECg4klJs). But as we were establishing superiority, there also began a slow down on market growth in 2011.

2012: Paani Paani (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3_MCEvxadc). The slowdown began accelerating significantly and the category penetration reached 1/5th of the country households.

Since 2013, the core (non-electric) purifier market has been largely dormant:

Category penetration has been falling and Pureit being the market leader with over half of the market had to revive this segment out of slowdown. This segment saw decline on volumes since the consumers at the lower end of the price-tier were not finding the category relevant. This had 2 implications:

New consumers not purchasing or delating purchase of the device.

Existing consumers not buying the germ-kill kit for continuous device usage.

Reviving the growth in the core purifier market is at the heart of Pureit Brand and is also critical to unlocking the future growth dynamics at the marketplace since this segment contributes over 60% of market volume.

In 2013, since cost was seen as the biggest barrier for the Purchase (since there was a burden of inflation on the consumers), Pureit decided to communicate the ‘Value’ proposition of owning a purifier. This was done through the popular 3 cylinder campaign [3 Cylinder Ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LZgpvljORA]

In 2014, the brand embarked on the journey to talk to consumers who are not just fence sitters delaying the purchase, but to those consumers who did not appreciate the need for owning a water purifier. This required serious education and behavior change to enable people to see beyond their usual prejudices like a) my water is alright, been drinking it for ages and b) it’s too expensive to own a water purifier and It’s not worth it. The following relevance building communication was developed to aid market development. [New Age Contaminants - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9g4i2Y75wA].

In 2015, we have gone a step ahead and pushed the envelope more strongly amongst consumers who are not adopting the category due to having an existing proxy of purification to fall back on - ‘boiling the water’ [Ad link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCkhMQNZWZQ]

What should you do?

Identify the consumer Insight on which this communication is built. Use the insight and the Ad to develop an integrated marketing plan across the right and effective consumer touch points (Activation, Radio, Consumer education, digital, etc …). Create innovative and creative ways to bring to life Insight, message and benefit claimed in the TVC to your Target consumers.

What should you not do?

1. Avoid the pitfall of wanting to make another new Ad. 2. Please don't wear a consultant’s hat - No Strategy Slides with Jargons / Matrix / Framework /

Paradigm / Models. 3. Marketing is about doing things as much as planning them. Think like a brand manager and

put yourselves into the consumer shoes to create ideas which would not just make the consumer notice you, but also get delighted with what you have to say.

4. Avoid spending time on ‘what(s)’ (like radio / prime time / Digital / sponsoring) and spend time on the ‘how’ (what exactly would you do on Radio and how would you leverage the Ad and its message when it travels to mediums like print / Digital / Sponsorship / Games / Outdoors and Activations).

5. Max: 8 Slides – 7 Mins to present – 3 Mins to Question / Answer 6. Judging Criteria: a) True to the Brand b) Creativity c) Feasibility d) Clarity (in no specific

order). 7. This is a group presentation. Max 6 groups in the campus and Max 8 people per group.