BRAND DOSSIER

ON

LIFEBUOY

SUBMITTED TO: Prof. Srinivas Govindrajan

PRESENTED BY:

Amzad Hussain (B13008)

Anirban Karmakar (B13010)

Manish Kumar Pandey (B13032)

Neha Singh (B13038)

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CONTENTS

Particulars Page no.

1. History2. Initial positioning3. Repositioning4. Advertising5. Sales promotion6. Segmentation strategy7. SWOT analysis8. Analysis of product9. Generic competition10. Prime market expansion11. Distribution strategy12. FUTURE OF THE BRAND 13. HYPOTHESIS 14. JUSTIFICATION OF TAKING THE HYPOTHESIS15. LIST OF INFORMATION REQURED TO BE COLLECTED FROM THE REASEARCH16. INSTRUMENT OF DATA COLLECTION17. QUESTIONS18. SAMPLE SIZE AND SAMPLING PLAN 19. METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS20. ANALYSIS OF PRIMARY RESEARCH 21. NET TAKEAWAY 22. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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PHASE 1

History

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British manufacturer William Hesketh Lever (1851-1925) and his brother, James Darcy Lever (1854-1910) founded Lifebuoy as a Brand.

William Lever and his brother James started the soap business in 1885 by buying a small soap works in Warrington. Lifebuoy launched by William Hesketh in 1894. Lifebuoy got launched in South Asia and South Africa in 1895.

In 1922 Lifebuoy began manufacturing in Calcutta, India. In India it was officially launched in 1935. In 1933 Lifebuoy toilet soap got launched in U.K. In 1939 Lifebuoy provided emerging washing facilities in Britain during the World War II.

In 1949 Lifebuoy got launched in Indonesia.

William Hesketh James James Darcy Lever

(1851-1925) (1854-1910)

In 1894 Lever Brothers, in their giant soap factory at Port Sunlight, across the river from Liverpool in England , launched a new soap called “Lifebuoy” This was the Household version which was a red carbolic soap and was introduced as an affordable product aimed at personal hygiene.

It is famous and distinctive brand of soap. It is the first soap to use carbolic acid, which gave it a red color and strong, medicinal scent. Lifebuoy is leading brand of soap in many developing countries. The addition of this ingredient to consumer products was considered a breakthrough in the early 1900s.

By 1911 overseas production had spread to the United States, Switzerland , Canada , Australia , Germany and elsewhere. In the United Kingdom and Ireland The Household Lifebuoy soap was the only version available until 1933 when the ‘toilet' bar was introduced, whereas the Household Lifebuoy was for washing clothes, floors and all the normal household duties, the ‘toilet' (or smaller) bars were for personal use for the whole body in the bathroom. At this time and up to 30 or so years ago, there was

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probably a bar of Lifebuoy soap in every house in the UK and Ireland.

Both Lifebuoy's were manufactured side by side in the UK until in 1987 when the production of the smaller Lifebuoy soap was discontinued and the soap was withdrawn from sale in the UK. Production of the smaller Red Lifebuoy Soap was transferred to Unilever PMT factory in Cyprus where it is still produced with it is recognizable healthy aroma and where JUPITER IMPORTS (UK) obtain their supplies.

The Lifebuoy Household soap, in 150g twin packs, continued to be produced until the 1st January 1999 when this was discontinued.

The Red Lifebuoy soap (85g), which we sell, passed through many varieties since it was first introduced in 1933, In 1962 a White Lifebuoy bar was launched with a very pleasant mild perfume, this was in production until 2002.

Lever brother and the Lifebuoy brand provided an affordable product that promoted personal health and hygiene. The original Lifebuoy soap, like sunlight soap, was primarily used for household chores such as washing clothing or cleaning the floors. This special bar soap was used for hand or body washing. The original Lifebuoy soap was manufactured in the UK until 1987 when the production and distribution was halted. This brand was shortly taken over by Unilever and is still in production today. Lifebuoy soap is still the leading brand of soap in several countries worldwide, especially in India and parts of southern Asia Unilever produces a wide range of products under the Lifebuoy umbrella such as body wash, liquid soaps. Lifebuoy has a history to help people maintain hygiene in times of natural disaster during 1940 blitz of London, the brand set up mobile, free washing facilities for public use. In 2004 after a Tsunami hit Asia, Lifebuoy bars were sent in relief packages to India, Srilanka and Indonesia to help prevent the spread of disease. Lifebuoy donated over 2,00,000 bars of soap to the international committee of the red cross to support the recovery effort.

Initial Positioning

Initially Lifebuoy was targeted at males and positioned as the health and value platform. In year 2002 company changed its positioning strategy, as a family brand. The Indian soap market is huge, diverse and constantly evolving. The market was divided into four market segments health, naturals, beauty and freshness. Lifebuoy is been positioned by its uses and applications. It is been positioned as a complete family health soap.

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1894-1910 1910-1930 1940-1960

Repositioning

Lifebuoy along with the advertisement has improved its quality and fragrance, most of the people had shifted from Lifebuoy because it was low quality and it smelled terribly. Lifebuoy got several changes and incarnations throughout the brand’s history. A white version of soap was launched in 1962 and contained a light perfume scent. Lifebuoy improved a lot in its quality and fragrance. They did advertisement campaign to get the customer attention. At this time Lifebuoy is everywhere in television, radio, newspapers and billboards, Lifebuoy is running a huge campaign to promote itself which is very necessary in case of repositioning the brand with the help of marketing department and advertisement. Lifebuoy has successfully repositioned itself as a quality antibacterial soap with better fragrance and quality.

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Advertisement

As the world’s leading soap, Lifebuoy aims to make a difference by creating accessible hygiene products (soap) and promoting health hygiene habits. The advertisement team of Lifebuoy came up with excellent theme “Healthy Hogan Hindustan”. It was attracting parents which is their target market, Lifebuoy made very effective add and it also used fear strategy. This has enabled Lifebuoy to get more and more customers. Lifebuoy re-launched in 2002, 2004 and again in 2006 have been turning point in its history. In 2004, Lifebuoy product offering was revamped with contemporary packaging and an up market look. While that went down well with existing users, new users were still elusive; they continued to perceive the product as a cheap soap for poor people.

Sales promotion

If a firm wishes to expand and maximize its growth potential it must analyze what markets they are currently in and which ones they have yet to enter. They should then determine which markets show the most promise for profitability and identify these as their emerging markets. Emerging markets are new market structure arising from digitalization, deregulation, globalization and open-standards that are shifting the balance of economic power from the sellers to the buyers. For Lifebuoy, emerging market are India, Pakistan, etc. Lifebuoy is India’s largest selling soap brand by volume from Hindustan Unilever limited (HUL). In 2009, Lifebuoy, in partnership with the govt. of Tamilnadu got 15,000 children to wash their hands with soap in Chennai. This feat got the team a Guinness record. It didn’t make only strong partnership between Lifebuoy and the govt. of Tamilnadu. But also helped build excitement and fun around the act of hand washing. Lifebuoy has been promoting hand hygiene awareness among children on global hand washing day every year since 2008. In 2010, the pledge campaign was to remember to wash hands with soap before eating. In 2011, 4500 children in India were educated on hand hygiene on the occasion of global hand washing day.

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Khushiyon ki doli (kkd) is a multi-brand rural outreach program run by Hindustan unilever in India. Through KKD, Lifebuoy has reached nearly 30 million people in rural India over 2010 and 2011, and plans to continue its activity through to 2015. Lifebuoy launched a tag line “Haath dhoya kiya”. It was very famous and it main focus was on every restaurant, family, school etc. in 2009 one add came that buy a Lifebuoy hand wash and get Rs. 10 off. In 2009 Lifebuoy biggest ever global re-launch based on an unprecedented real life clinical trial that focused on practicing the “Lifebuoy way”.

Segmentation strategy

Basis for Market Segmentation of Lifebuoy:

Gender

Initially Lifebuoy targeted male consumers but after repositioning, it targeted women also by adding the fragrance factor in the product , which helped Lifebuoy to become a family brand. It’s a rare case when a soap won the attention of women keep its male –oriented product status intact.

Age Group

0 to 10 years-

This age group needs hygiene the most. And Lifebuoy addressed this effectively. Parents are concerned about the hygiene of their children. Lifebuoy projected itself as a soap whose main purpose of providing hygiene solutions to concerned parents.

10 to 20 years-

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Children who imbibe the habit of using Lifebuoy continue to view it as a soap which provides them complete hygiene. As a result Lifebuoy established itself as a soap for effective hand wash.

20 & above-

Lifebuoy positioned itself as a family brand. people above 20 are the people who take decision in a family. Women who are the locus of the family, concerned about hygiene factor the most, got attracted towards lifebuoy. Lifebuoy won the trust of this segment also.

Income Group-

Lower income group-Lifebuoy targeted this income group the most. Around whole rural market is covered by lifebuoy. And lower income group of urban areas.

Mid income group-Lifebuoy is the first choice for hand wash in this income group. either soap or hand wash, it is the most preferred brand because it is easily available and effective.

Types of Segmentation

Segmentation is the process of dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers who might require separate product, i.e. goods or services. It is mainly of three types:-

1) Geographic segmentation: - it is a PAN with high popularity in countries like: - India, Pakistan. It was first launched in UK. In India it target everywhere like urban, semi urban and rural. But its main focus is in rural area.

2) Demographic segmentation: - it has dividing consumer groups according to characteristics such as gender, age, income, occupation, education, and ethnicity. It also focuses on stage in the family life cycle. Their main target areas are lower income group. Target of above 5000 income holder.

3) Psychographic segmentation: - Lifebuoy focused on social class like middle and lower class person. It focuses on outdoor-oriented and sports-oriented person.

4) Behaviouralistic Segmentation :- Consumer loyalty is the factor responsible for success of lifebuoy. In rural areas consumers are highly loyal to lifebuoy because of its distribution.In urban areas also its reach is impressive, so consumers are using it frequently.

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SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTH1. Wide portfolio for the Lifebuoy brand ranging which includes soap, hand sanitizer and hand wash.2.High consumer awareness for the brand of Lifebuoy3. Most popular soap brand especially in rural market.4. Excellent brand visibility and extensive distribution.

WEAKNESS1. Lower market penetration in urban areas as compared to rural areas.2. Initially positioned as a masculine soap, which was eventually turned as a family soap.3. Not been perceived as a beauty soap and is mainly used for Just hand washing which leads lower usage of soap.

OPPORTUNITIES

1.Untapped urban market

2. Imparting education about importance of hand washing to prevent spread of germs..

THREAT

1. Competitor brands offering similar levels of protection.2. Considered to be a low-end and may find it difficult to move-up in the segment.

Product Analysis

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LIFEBUOY PORTFOLIO: Today, the Lifebuoy brand is more than the quintessential bar of red soap, and provides hygiene and health for the entire family through a range of products like liquid hand wash and specially designed body wash. Beyond ensuring daily hygiene and freshness, Lifebuoy products also address special needs like anti-acne and skin fortification for an all around cleansing experience.

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.

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Generic Competition Generic competitions of Lifebuoy are traditional kitchen items which are multani mitti, haldi and besan. Indian women still use haldi besan to clean face and hand. They believe that Haldi, Besan is healthier for skin than soap.

Other Competition

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Prime Market ExpansionLifebuoy is a global brand and it lost its original moorings in between 1950 and 1960 in many market, except in India. First it targeted men and masculine health. Approach of Lifebuoy was to attract men by sporty Advertisements. Now, the brand targets women, especially mothers. Lifebuoy realized that between late 1990 and early 2000 the consumer has changed a lot. Then the appearance of the soap too underwent a change. Hand wash, an extension of the brand is one of their fastest growing categories.

Most of the customers in the target segment are not frequent user of soap and use soap only for bathing purpose and after using toilet. Lifebuoy has made many steps in educating the customers on the importance of using soap at five key occasions-

1. Before Breakfast.2. Before lunch.3. Before dinner.4. During daily bath.5. Immediately after visiting the toilet.

Lifebuoy has been involved in many awareness programs. Through such initiatives Lifebuoy has been able to bring in new customers as well as increase the usage among existing customers.

Distribution StrategyWith About 18% of the total soap market share, Lifebuoy definitely the market leader in this industry. The brand has been a pioneer in the rural market and is also the price leader. Following is the Distribution structure followed by Lifebuoy to reach customers.

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Rural Marketing-since its repositioning Lifebuoy has focused on the rural market and built a strategy to spread brand awareness through TV and print media. Not only this lifebuoy also use vans to distribute soap in rural areas. It has been able to reach 70 million people already.

It also conducts global ‘Hand washing day’ to target the world’s attention towards importance of hand washing. In these activities they distribute soaps to enhance their reach.

Through Gurudwara promotional program Lifebuoy has been able to create awareness among rural population of Punjab.

All of these points shows the distribution strategy of Lifebuoy in different markets. whether it is the global market, rural market ,states or a a whole India.

Future of the Brand

By 2015, brand Lifebuoy aims to change the hygiene behavior of 1 billion consumers across Asia, Africa and Latin America by promoting the benefits of hand washing with soap at key times. 48 million people were reached since 2010 of which 34.5 million people were reached in 2011. Lifebuoy is an old company; it has no dearth of money. So they have all the bases well covered. It is going to grow. It might take time, but they are here to stay.

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PHASE- 2

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Hypothesis

1. Factor of “hygiene” is the key factor for consumer buying lifebuoy.2. Lifebuoy handwash is more popular in urban area than lifebuoy soap.3. Advertisement play a significent role in consumer buying behavior in lifebuoy.

Justification of taking the hypothesis1. Lifebuoy as mentioned in the literature review is inclined towards “Hygiene factor”. Lifebuoy

products personal health and hygiene in an affordable price. We would like to understand that is hygiene is the most important factor for consumers buy a soap. Does customer really keep hygiene in mind when he or she a soap?

2. As mentioned in the literature review hand, was extention of brand lifebuoy is one of their fastest growing categories.we would like to know whether lifebuoy hand wash is replacing the previous product soap in order to keep the consumer loyality intact.

3. Advertisement is the factor by which brand keep their customer engage and intact. Lifebuoy’s innovative sessional advertisement asure customer that using lifebuoy daily is a good habit and it will keep them healthy. We would like to understand- to what extent advertisement really work.

List of information required to be collected from the research1. Altrnatives available to the customers.2. Consumer’s perception about the product.3. Effect of advertisement on the consumers.

Instrument of data collection1. Face to face interview :- An interview is a purposeful discussion between two or more people

that can help you gather valid andreliable data that is relevant to yourresearch objectives. Face to face interviews allow for personal communication and make it possible to gather more information for you study.

2. Online survey :- An online survey is a questionnaire that the targetaudience can complete over the internet. Online surveys are usually created as web forms with a database to store the answers and statistical software to provide analytics. In this we obtain information by mair or through social networking site.I used face to face interview.

Questions

1. When you think of soap which brand comes to your mind ?2. Which other brands of soap are you aware of ?

DettolSavlonMargoLifebuoyMedimix

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3. Rank out of five the following features you look for in a soap ( 5 for most preferred and 1 for least preferred )

Softness on skin Hygiene Lather Long lasting fragrance

Dettol

Lifebuoy

Savlon

Medimix

Margo

4. Rate the following attributes which will help you in deciding which brand to buy? (5 for the most prefered and 1 for the least prefered)

Price Hygiene Fragrance Availability Softness on skin

Dettol

Lifebuoy

Savlon

Medimix

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Margo

5. What do you prefer for hand washing?A) Soap B) Hand wash C) Multani soil D) Detergent

6. Please rate the brand with given parameters (5 for most preferred and 1 for least preferred)

Lifebuoy Dettol Savlon Medimix Margo

Hygiene

Advertisement

Availability

Price

7. Associate the following taglines with the corresponding brands.

Lifebuoy Medimix Dettol Margo

Sachayi aur suraksha

Cool protection that refreshes

Healthy hoga hindustan

Complete skin care from nature

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8. To what extent the advertisement affectes your buying behaviour of soap?

Not influenced

Partially influenced

Influenced

9. Name :-10. Age :- 11. Gender:-12. Email:-

Sample size and sampling plan

Sample size

The number of entities in a subset of a population selected for analysis.

The number respondents consumer: 60. This numer of consumer consist of different set of consumer who have different choices and different perception about soap so therefore it will cover all the goals which are stated in the project.

Sampling plan

A simple random sampling among 120 praxis student and friends from outside is done.Those who were in 20-30 age group SEC A,B sampling plan is a detailed outline of which measurements will be taken on which materials, in what manner, and by whom, sampling plan is designed in such a way that the resulting data will contain a representative sample of the parameters of interest and all questions, as stated in the goals, will be answered.

Method of data analysis

Likert scale:- It is the most widely used scale in research survey. It is developedon the principal of measuring attitudes by asking people to respond to a series of statements about a topic, in terms of the extent to which they agree with them. It provides a right image of the product.

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Rating scale:- A scale that rates some attribute from “poor” to “excellent”. Itgives an idea where exactly the product stands.

Pie Chart:- A circular chart that is cut into slices that represent the frequency of the collected data. The bigger the slice, the higher the number or percentage. Pie charts best represent discrete data.

Bar Chart:-A widely used qualitative data graphical technique which contains two or more categories along one axis and a series of bars, one for each category.

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PHASE 3

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PRIMARY RESEARCH

1) When you think of a soap which brand comes to your mind?By this question we get to know about the market share of Lifebuoy soap. The first soap which comes to the mind of the consumer will be the one he/she is using. So this is going to give us a rough idea about the sale of Lifebuoy among the end users.

From this graph we can infer that Lifebuoy has a market share of only 12%. It’s quite less as compared to others which is 75%. 2) Which other brands of soap are you aware of ?

By this question we get to know about the awareness among people about Lifebuoy soap. Also this will show us how much the product is visible to people in the market. Then we can see that even if the customers are aware of the brand are they really willing to buy it or not.

From the graph we found that people are aware of Lifebuoy and it is less preferred brand thyan Dettol. But since its value is 91% so we can say that people are using it. Whereas in case of both Lifebuoy and

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Dettol people are aware of them, they are a preferred brand and are used by the consumers as their value are above 91%.3) Rank out of five the following features you look for in a soap ( 5 for most preferred and 1 for least preferred )

This is related to our 1st hypothesis. This question will help us to identify the features of Lifebuoy soap whether it is Hygiene or something else. We can also compare Lifebuoy with the other four brands. We will also be aware about the factor which is makes a consumer to use it. Effect of advertisement of Lifebuoy on consumers can be found from here.

From this we can easily infer the features of lifebuoy which is hygiene Also the people are satisfied with the lather that they are looking in a soap. lifebuoy has a less effect than Dettol on people through its features.4)Rate the following attributes which help you to decide which brand to buy ( 5 for most preferred and 1 for least preferred )This is related to our 3rd hypothesis. This question will help us to identify the key driver of Lifebuoy whether it is hygiene or something else. We can also compare lifebuoy with the other four brands. We will also be aware about the factor which is makes a consumer to use it. Effect of hygiene and availability of lifebuoy on consumers can be found from here.

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From the above graph we can conclude that Lifebuoy has availability and hygiene as its key driver. So the consumers are buying Lifebuoy because of its availability and rather than its other attributes. Next important factor is its hygiene.5)What do you prefer for hand wash ?

1. This is related to our 2nd hypothesis. This question will help us to identify that Lifebuoy handwash is more popular in urban area than lifebuoy soap.

6)Please rate the brand with given parameters ( 5 for the most preferred and 1 for the least preferred )This question will help us to identify the key driver of Lifebuoy which is making it as a popular brand. We can also compare Lifebuoy with the other brands. We will also be aware about the factor which is makes a consumer to use it.

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The graph shows us that Lifebuoy is famous for its avability. Its effect is much more than its other attributes. Though advertisement has an effect on consumers but it is quite less compared to availability. Soavailability is the key driver for Lifebuoy.

7)Associate the following taglines with the corresponding brands.This is related to our 3rd hypothesis. This question will help us to identify the how many people seen lifebuoy advertisement last week and from this graph we are finding 65.62% people seen advertisement of lifebuoy last week.

8) To what extent advertisesement influence your buying behavior for soap

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This is related to our 3rd hypothesis. This question will help us to know how many people influenced by lifebuoy advertisement Effect. of advertisement of lifebuoy on consumers can be found from here.

NET TAKEAWAY

Hypothesis 1- Factor of “hygiene” is the key factor for consumer buying lifebuoy.

Hypothesis 2- Lifebuoy handwash is more popular in urban area than lifebuoy soap.

Hypothesis 3- Advertisement play a significent role in consumer buying behavior in lifebuoy

Hypothesis 1 is being answered by question 3, 4 6. The hypothesis is partially correct as Hygiene has a great effect on people’s mind for buying the soap .

Hypothesis 2 is being answered by question 5 . This is totally correct that that lifebuoy handwash is more popular in urban area than rural area.

Hypothesis 3 is being answered by question 2, 7 and 8. The hypothesis is partially correct as advertisement has a great effect on people’s mind for buying the soap

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.lifebuoy.com/about-us/history-of-health/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifebuoy_(soap)

http://www.hul.co.in/brands-in-action/detail/Lifebuoy/303984/

http://www.slideshare.net/ashishpsrt/final-ppt-14290355

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