Hul

Intro
Hul or Hindustan uni lever ltd, is a FMCG company which traces it roots back to preindependence era, ie. 1933 was the year when lever brothers was founded and in
1956 was merged with Hindustan vansapati, which was recently in 2006-07 was named
HUL.

Indian Research Giant NIELSEN says that every two out of three Indians use a HUL
product for their daily needs. HULs revenue is over Rs.200 billion with a profit of about
Rs.30 billion.

Uniliver a English-dutch company owns 70% shares of HUL and is the controlling
partner. HUL in total employs over 20,000 employees in india and supports far more
people indirectly employing about 1,00,000 people.

With access to over 20,00,000 retail marketing outlets with penetration upto 64,00,000
small and big customer touchpoints in retail all over india, HUL has a massive
distribution and supply chain, across all over india.

Inside the umbrella of HUL, many brands are available for the FMCG consumer, some
of them are
1. Food and nutrition brooke bond, lipton, knorr, kwality etc
2. Homecare Wheel, surf, vim, rin etc
3. Personal care and grooming axe, hamam, lakme, sunsilk, peposdent, vaseline
etc
4. Water purifier pureit

In a nutshell, HUL is recognized as a reputed and leading company which

consistently ranks number one in customer surveys for the past 30 years or so.

Analysis
HUL follows a brand extension and management strategy and targets the same
consumer with a variety of different offerings in the same segmentation and marginal
pricing variations thus employing the push of marketing and the pull of aspirational
advertising to the maximum.
HUL follows systematic exploration of the Target market and checks always for scope of
new brands to work in a given setting. HUL positioning and pricing reflects the solution
of complexity of handling such a diverse brand portfolio.

The breakthrough formula of creating VALUE and VIABILITY for a brand is determined
by extensions of brands, variants and PACK sizes etc along with its Enrichment to add
VALUE to the CUSTOMER.
The PROCESS of TURNING A CONSUMER TO A CUSTOMER IS WELL KNOWN TO
HUL.

HUL operates with umbrella branding to cover all verticals of its servicing policy. Along
with trimming down of its brand tree to help focus on only powerful brands such as
LIFEBUOY, CLINIC, AXE, REXONA, DOVE, LIRIL, BROOKEBOND, PEARS ETC

Regional Segmentation is also a branding method followed by HUL in case of HAMAM

in TAMILNADU to counter MEDIMIX.

QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS

1. ANALYZE THE CASE
The case is a study in the management techniques, problems faced,
solutions and positioning, targeting and VALUE CREATION methods used
by HUL for maintaining its hold in the indian market, which it has done so well for
last 5 decades.
Also, the case brings into perspective the diversity of separate handling of brand
extensions from its parent brand, thus benefiting both.
Thus follows a more open way of portfolio management, which is flexible
enough to maintain current brands while ensuring new category entrances
and substitutions.

2. Comment on STP on any one product line like Soaps/Detergents/Toothpastes

etc. of HUL.
Lets take a detergent product line and comment on its STP via an example.
SURF EXCEL
Tagline washes whitest / DAAG AACHE HAIN / STAINS ARE GOOD
HUL has divided the market of consumers and categorized them with
similar needs and wants.
Since, STP is variable and continues process, HUL needs to keep cpming with
new and newer consumer taglines and value promotion ideas which ring a bell
with customers to maintain a TOMA top of the mind awareness, during
purchasing.
SURF EXCEL
Segementatiion INDIAs first detergent powder / colour protecting
detergent
Target premium brand for SEC A1, A2 / various global spin offs OMO /
PERSIL /
Positioning - designed for washing machines / low foam formula / protects
clothes fibre

3. Explain the role and significance of brand by taking any one product of HUL.
Calculation and quantification of BRAND value and its contribution to
PRODUCT VALUE Is a major step in ROI calculation.
Ex of FAIR and LOVELY
Parent HUL
Category skin care / beauty product
Sector fmcg
Tagline more than fairness / forget marks / power of beauty

In a very cramped crowded and competititve sector of female beauty enhancers,

FAIR and Lovely has managed to carve a niche out of itself only due to the brand
of HUL maintain the following points which the customer understands and relates
to
a. high levels of Consumer Awareness for the brand
b. Excellent branding, top-of-the-mind name, and good distribution
c. Fair & Lovely Foundation which aims at empowerment of women
d. Fair & Lovely Scholarship for underprivileged girls

Thus we see HUL has crafted a BRAND EXPERIENCE instead of a BRAND

IMAGE for fair and lovely.

4. State main tasks involved in managing brands.

The main task of any branding exercise is too boost sales by cueing marketing to
align with brand communication. Thus IMC concepts play a strong part here.
Some of the main tasks of brand management is
1. Knowing your target group
2. Tweaking product design
3. Development of IMC hypothesis for targeting the BRAND WHEEL.
4. Market Research and testing of theory
5. Final draft of branding methods and Communication Channels.
6. PR & Feedback
7. Repetition of above steps.
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