8/3/2019 Wheel is One of the Biggest Success Stories of Unilever India

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Wheel is one of the biggest success stories of Unilever India, formerly Hindustan

Lever Limited. When pushed to wall by the onslaught of the rising tide of Nirma,

the then HLL team delivered a splendid performance.

Initially, HLL was not giving a penny of thought about competing with Nirma. Theythought that Nirma is being used by only those people who don’t buy Surf, the

star brand of HLL. However, their non-competitive attitude towards Nirma gave it

much space and soon it began to threaten HLL. The survival of HLL was at stake

because of the staggering success of Nirma. HLL took notice of its loss and

decided to fight on Nirma’s own turf. 

Consumer Analysis

Analyzing customers was quite easy in this case. The area of concern before HLL

strategic team was to attract a section which was described by C K Prahlad as the

Bottom of the Pyramid in his famous book ‘The Fortune at the Bottom of the

Pyramid’. However, the HLL team was required to reorient its marketing strategy

to convince this section of consumers.

Product and Pricing

HLL was struck at the point of product pricing for this section of consumer.

Consumers were attracted towards Nirma because of its Low price. To compete

here they realized the importance of low price. Slashing the price of Surf was not

possible because of various reasons, and hence a brand new product was

required. HLL had found an interesting insight by its survey among targeted

consumers. That was the problem of burning hands because of Nirma. This was

due to high ash content in Nirma. HLL took a cue from this insight and asked its

R&D to take care of this issue. Low price with high quality of product was

necessary and the same was conveyed to the R&D team of the HLL. And thus, for

the first time a low cost detergent named Wheel was born from the house of HLL

to fight Nirma.

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Marketing Strategies

A different marketing strategy was needed by HLL for Wheel. Operation STING-

Strategy To Inhibit Nirma Growth - was started to make fitting strategies to

counter Nirma. Understanding the demand of targeted consumers and launchinga product accordingly was the first step in this direction. Marketing that product

was real challenge. Though, HLL was enjoying far much better distribution

network than Nirma, but something different was required.

HLL decided to set up a separate group to deal with this segment. Later the board

gave this group a free hand to strategize and market Wheel. The autonomy given

to this separate group has much to do with the success of Wheel.

HLL did something amazing. It decided to go for dynamic pricing for Wheel. Since

the fight was in low cost detergent segment hence dynamic price was required.

Wheel was to be priced according to various factors of each state.

The level of competition in this segment was not same in each state. Nirma was

yet to develop its strong distribution network outside Gujrat whereas HLL was

having a large distribution network in almost every state. HLL used this network

to take Wheel in every part of the country. Aggressive marketing was the main

theme of HLL to counter Nirma. To penetrate rural areas, HLL used someinnovative marketing strategies.

HLL showed its aggressiveness in its advertisement for Wheel. It was already

aware of the side effect of Nirma on hands due to high ash content. The

advertisement highlighted this fact. Distributors are asked to convey this message

to consumers. Soon, people began to realize that for good washing results the

burning of hands is not necessary. HLL successfully convinced people to try

Wheel.

The aggressive promotion coupled with strong distribution network gave quick

results and in quite a short time Wheel become a household name.

Reasons for the Success of Wheel

1.  Huge distribution network of HLL.

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2.  Aggressive marketing strategies from pricing to promotion.

3.  Convincing consumers about the side effects of Nirma.

4.  Successfully penetrated deeply in rural India.

5. Future:

Currently, Wheel is the no. 1 brand of India in its segment. Being a marketing

head of HLL, I would have to face some conundrums.

There is not an iota of doubt in the fact that Indian consumers are becoming more

demanding with every passing day. They don’t hesitate in paying more. The first

problem that I would face is the position of Wheel in these changing

circumstances. Retaining its low price and becoming the no. 1 choice for Indian

middle class would be my prime concerns. Though, Nirma is no more a threat but

still I will continue with aggressive marketing strategies because of the emergence

of other players including P&G.