LITERATURE REVIEW:

1) In India Dr. S. K. Laroiya conducted a comparative study on Indian detergent market.

They found that the satisfaction depends on the detergent quality of the product (Dr.S.K.
Laroiya,2004). Another research conducted by Ariel on the Indian laundry market indicates
that fragrance in detergents is an important factor of delight for the home-maker in her daily
laundry chore. There was a case about the Price Wars in the Indian detergent market was
developed. (T Phani Madhav, published in 2004).

2) P&G initiated the price wars by reducing the prices of its detergent products and other
players such as HLL and Henkel followed suit. P&Gs price cuts, at the time when the fast
moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry was going through a sluggish period, was seen as
an attempt to wrest advantage from HLL, which was grappling with decelerating growth.

3) Pranesh Shukla prepared a project report on Nirma Washing Powder in 1990.Her topic
was Marketing Research on Nirma and its Supply Chain Management. In her study she
found the following things:
For harried housewives, struggling to balance their monthly budgets, Nirma came as a boom.
It was much cheaper than Surf, which had already gone well out of their reach; and it washed
clothes nearly as well. Its cleansing power was far superior to that of the slabs of cheap
washing detergents that had been their sole alternative until then. By the early 1980s the
burgeoning sales of Nirma reached a rate of growth that was twice or thrice that of the
industry in general. Moreover, Nirma operated in the small-scale sector and, therefore saved
an enormous amount of excise duty that multinationals had to pay on every kilo of detergent
produced. The latter simply could not hope to bring the price down to a level that was
attractive enough for the middle and lower-middle classes, which were the bulks segments for
Nirma sales. The pricing policy adopted by Nirma for its Nirma washing powder i.e. adequate
Quality at an Affordable price has challenged the mighty HLLs Surf. Nirma Washing
Powder 1kg is Rs 18.00 and Nirma Washing Powder 500grams is Rs 9.00. Thus it is a well
known fact that Nirmas best Unique Selling Proposition is Price .
The result of there cost effective product offering is that though the industry has been growing
at the rate of 15 per cent annually, Nirmas growth has been at least 30-35 per cent a year for
the last few years. (Pranesh Shukla, 1990)

4) Nirma has been successful in keeping its prices at such affordable levels primarily due to
their strategy of backward integration projects. These projects had been undertaken with a
strategy to become the lowest cost detergent manufacturer in the world. Self sufficiency in
key raw materials will give protection against commoditycycles besides yielding substantial
savings in raw material cost. The company estimates a total cost saving of 25% in material
and handling costs due to the backward integration projects. The LAB plant has yielded about
12% cost savings and the company expects a similar cost saving of about 12-15% once the
soda ash plant stabilizes. Overall the backward integration has yielded a cost saving of Rs0.8-
1bn last year. Post completion of backward integration the company now plans to focus on
building large volumes and gain from economies of scale.
As brand name is the name of the distinctive product, services or concepts .Branding is the
process of creating or disseminating the brand name. Branding can be applied to the entire
corporate identity as well as to individual product and service names. Brands are usually
protected from use by others by securing a trademarks or service mark from an authorized
agency, (Shenin and Schmitt, 1994)

usually a government agency.
Before applying for a trademark or service mark, people need to establish the someone else
has not already obtained one for the name the company has proposed. Once the company
found that none else is using it, the company can begin to use this brand name as a trademark
simply by stating that it is a trademark simply by using TM symbol (Aaker and Keller,
1990)

where it first appears in a publication or web-site. After the company receives the
trademark then it can use the registered symbol after the trademark. Brands are often
expressed in the form of logos, graphic representations of the brand.

5) FRANCIES GNANASEKAR

(1997) in his study titled A study on brand positioning
of detergent soaps and powders in Thiruchirapalli District suggested that the manufacturers
of various brands should take necessary steps to ascertain the position of their brands.

6) RABIA JAHANI FARZANA

(2008), Study on sales promotion activities for toilet
soaps and their impact on purchase behavior in Thirichirapalli district explained the lifestyle
and attitude of consumers on their purchase behavior and various sales promotion activities
adopted by manufacturers for marketing their product.

7) THIRUMOORTHY P and KARTHIKEYAN P, in their study, A Study on retailer and
customer attitude towards P&G detergent powder in Coimbatore city found that the consumers
are influenced by major factors such as brand name, price, quality, availability, packaging,
advertisements,etc. during the purchase decision. The study also suggests advertisement pl a ys
an i mpor t ant r ol e f or s e l e c t i o n of a particular brand of detergent powder.
8) GIHAN WIJESUNDERA

(2010) in this article Factors influencing the demand of beauty
soap among female consumers in the greater Colombo region Purpose of this study is to
explore how the marketing mix & demographical factors influence the brand preference &
purchasing behavior of beauty soap among the female consumers in the greater Colombo
region. The results indicated that there were statistical relationships between price, product,
education, occupation and band preference a nd t he r e was no statistical r e l a t i ons hi p
Between place, promotion, age, income level, marital status, skin type, social factors, and
substitute product with the brand preference.