Brand Branding

Management
NIRMAL
Developing a hygiene soap brand targeted
towards the bottom of the pyramid.
 Submitted to

Professor Syed Ferhat Anwar

Course Instructor

Brand Management

Submitted by

Group 4

Omaer Ahmad (ZR- 09)

Shaik Mahmood (ZR-18)

Kawsar Ahmad (ZR-50)

Rafaat Wasik Ahmed (ZR-53)

Rashed Al Ahmad Tarique (ZR-61)

BBA 16th

Institute of Business Administration

University of Dhaka
Contents
1. Problem recognition ........................................................................................................................ 4

2. Solution ........................................................................................................................................... 4

3. Business development strategy ....................................................................................................... 5

Branding strategy ................................................................................................................................ 6

Marketing strategy .............................................................................................................................. 7

Pricing strategy:................................................................................................................................... 8

ANNEX: CHALLENGES TO FACE ................................................................................................................ 9

Hygiene practices and behavioral processes ........................................................................................ 9

Price and perception about the soap ................................................................................................... 9

ANNEX: Public –Private Participants and their roles ............................................................................... 10

ANNEX: PRODUCT MIX .......................................................................................................................... 11

Product ............................................................................................................................................. 11

Price .................................................................................................................................................. 11

Place.................................................................................................................................................. 11
 1. Problem recognition

In the category of infectious diseases only acute respiratory infections and AIDS kill more people than
Diarrhea, which accounts for more than 2.2 million deaths worldwide annually. When it comes to
Bangladesh every year, a rural child suffers on average from 4.6 episodes of diarrhea, from which about
230,000 children die.1 In the category of food and water contaminated diseases bacterial and protozoal
diarrhea comes first causing severe health issues mostly in rural area2. So in the recent years Acute
Respiratory Infections (ARI) are on the rising. Now there are some vital reasons that cause this water
contaminated diseases and ARIs. These are given below:

 Lack of adequate sanitation facilities is a vital reason for diarrheal disease.

 Lack of clean water supply and occasional flood also plays a vital role in rainy season for causing
diarrhea.
 In rural Bangladesh, poor hygiene practices are one of the primary reasons for diarrhea. People
use hands for preparing foods, feeding children and most importantly they eat with their hands.
Hence, hands are the main vectors of diarrheal and in some cases ARI pathogens, transferring
them from surface to surface and person to person.

2. Solution

To address the current problem we come up with the hand washing solution, the hygiene soap
“NIRMAL”. This soap brand is tailored to meet the hygiene requirements of lower income segment of
the rural portion of the country. The brand attributes and benefits of “NIRMAL” are given below:
 Cheap hygiene product (100 grams of soap for only taka 5).
 Hygiene product with anti bacterial component.
 Hard soap produced through the milled process that lasts longer.
 Soap bar, dedicated towards sterilization/ hygiene only.

1
DIARRHEA AND ARI IN RURAL AREAS OF BANGLADESH : Helga Piechulek, Ahmed Al-Sabbir,
Jorge Mendoza-Aldana, 2003.
2
CIA WORLD FACTBOOK, March, 2010.
 3. Business development strategy

The whole business strategy for “NIRMAL” soap will be based on Public –Private Partnership between
the government, department of Public Health Engineering and the business entity. The business model
integrates government health and awareness program targeted towards sanitation and hygiene quality
improvement and the product “NIRMAL” being the solution to the poor hygiene condition of the
targeted segment. The participants of the PPP are given below:

 Government through Health Ministry.

 Department of Public Health Engineering.
 Business entity.

Probable participants are:

 UNICEF.
 World Health Organization.
 Other foreign advisors who are experts in this sector.

Government run programs like “SOBUJ CHATA” or programs like “SHEWA-B” are conducted throughout
the country to build awareness and improve the hygiene practices of the people of the bottom of the
pyramid to reduce insurgence of diarrhea and other diseases. Most of these programs or interventions
include teaching people hygienic practices like washing hands with soaps before and after eating or after
defecation. But one of the vital problems remains unattended and that is the products or services
needed to address those hygiene practices which are affordable for the targeted segment, in this case
cheap soap. So the brand “NIRMAL” will be launched with the establishment of PPP to address this issue
by making low profit margin making the product affordable for the people from bottom of the pyramid.

As for the business entity, the profit margin will be lowest in the market. But as the target segment is
the bottom of the pyramid, the target segment will be the largest untapped segment in the market. So
with establishing economies of scale and by selling large volume of products there will be cost reduction
and enough profit to earn.

Currently majority of the consumers who are in the bottom of the pyramid do not use toilet soap for
washing their hands to prevent diseases for two basic reasons and they are:
 Perception of the soap as a beauty enhancing component.
 High price which means not for everyday usage.
Considering these two reasons we have defined marketing, branding strategies for “NIRMAL” soap
which are discussed below.

Branding strategy

The ultimate goal for branding and marketing strategies for the soap “NIRMAL” would be establish it as
a brand with unique selling proposition and standout in its own product category.

Defining category

The product category for the brand “NIRMAL” unlike other soaps would be hygiene product. There are
soap brands in this category like Dettol, Savlon, Lifebuoy etc but none of these are targeted towards the
bottom of the pyramid. So for this target market, this will be the first in this product category. Also,
most of the consumers perceive soap as a beauty product. So defining the product category with distinct
marketing strategies and brand elements is a must.

Positioning

The key brand promise for “NIRMAL” would be:

“Everyday hygiene at the lowest cost”

The positioning statement of the brand “NIRMAL” is given below:

“NIRMAL is an everyday hygiene product for the people from lower income segment which will ensure a
healthy life by making their hands germ free.”

Brand elements

Brand name:

The name of the brand is going to be ‘নির্মল’. This name has been chosen because the word has a
connotation of cleanliness and health. Hearing the name the customers are expected to associate the
product with health and hygiene.

Packaging:

The package of the product is going to emphasize on the color green. One of the ways the product is
going to be promoted is through the health workers. Villagers of Bangladesh are likely to associate the
color green with health and hygiene as well because they receive health advice from health workers
working under the ‘সবুজ ছাতা’ banner the logo of which is a green umbrella. Inside the package there
are going to be two 50 gram soaps. The name of the brand, the slogan and instructions on how to wash
hands properly are going to appear on the package.

Slogan:

There are a few slogans that can be used in the marketing campaign of the soap:

 নির্মল সাবাি বযবহার করুি, অল্প খরচে সুস্থ থাকুি

 সপ্ন িয় সনতয, অল্প খরচে ররাগর্ুনি
 অল্প খরচে প্রনতনিি রহাক নির্মল ও নিচরাগ

These slogans will appear on the packaging, the promotional flyers and posters.

Marketing strategy

The following activities are going to be taken as parts of the marketing strategy:

 Children are proved to be one of the vital touch points when it comes to the bottom of the
pyramid. Sessions will be held in schools to teach the children how important it is to have the
hands clean before eating, feeding a baby, cooking and other such vital times. Then they will be
told about the low price of “NIRMAL” soap and its ability to help consumers to clean their hands
properly. Children being energetic will spontaneously spread the word about ‘NIRMAL’ soap
through word of mouth to their parents and other children.
 To capture the bottom of the pyramid of rural Bangladesh as the customers of ‘NIRMAL’ soap
they have to be made aware of the importance of clean hands. There are numerous health
workers currently active in different villages. Their primary purpose is to give the villagers health
advice regarding family planning, vaccination, health and hygiene, maternal care etc. These
health workers will be one of the main promotional channels for the product. They will inform
the villagers the importance of washing hand properly with soap before and after certain
activities. They will also recommend ‘NIRMAL’ soap as a cheap means to get germ-free hands.
 Flyers will be distributed in the ‘haats’ to catch the attention of large numbers of villagers. These
flyers will emphasize on the importance of clean hands and ‘NIRMAL’ as a cheap product that
will help the consumer to sanitize their hands properly. The flyers will also have the slogan of
the brand.
 Radio commercials will also be launched. These commercials will have catchy jingles so that
both the project and the product have the exposure to the rural people.
Pricing strategy:

The soaps that are currently available in the market for the purpose of washing hands are brands like
Lux, Lifebuoy, Keya, Meril etc. These bars are available in reduced sizes of 50 grams and cost around 6-8
taka. The chief components that are required to make soap are oil extracted from animal fat or
vegetable oil and lye or caustic soda chemically known as sodium hydroxide. Some other additives are
used later for fragrance, color, moisturizing and other purposes. For the fragrance and other attributes
of these soaps they are perceived primarily as beauty products by the rural people belonging to bottom
of the pyramid. For the brand “NIRMAL”, it is going to be promoted as a hygiene product and cleansing
ability of the soap is going to be the focus. So cost reduction strategy will be cutting cost by getting rid of
the additives such as fragrance, color etc. Moreover we will use a less sophisticated blend of oil than
those present in the soaps available in the market so that we can achieve the basic function of
cleanliness for a reduced cost. These cost cutting measures will enable us to supply the soaps to our
target customer at a price of 5 taka for two 50 gram bars.

Brands available in Market Sizes Prices

LUX 50gm 8 tk
Meril 60gm 6 tk
Keya 60gm 6 tk

“NIRMAL” 50gm 2.5 tk

ANNEX: CHALLENGES TO FACE

Hygiene practices and behavioral processes

The existing hand washing practices of the people in rural Bangladesh is nowhere near to the proper
hygiene practices. Studies have been conducted by different organizations in the past regarding the
hand washing behavior of these people and they have found that many of them think that rinsing the
hand with water alone suffices3. One such research found out that although 47% of caregivers reported
and 51% demonstrated washing both hands with soap after defecation, in structured observation, only
33% of caregivers and 14% of all persons observed washed both hands with soap after defecation. Less
than 1% used soap and water for hand washing before eating and/or feeding a child. More commonly
people washed their hands only with water, 23% after defecation and 5% before eating. Spot checks
during the cross sectional survey classified 930 caregivers (55%) and 453 children (28%) as having clean
appearing hands. This shows that these people need to be taught the importance of washing hand with
soap to sterilize it properly.

Price and perception about the soap

Almost 40% people in Bangladesh lives below poverty line4 and their main concern for the basic
requirements like food, clothing, shelter comes very first, even education is perceived as not so
necessary to many. In this scenario spending 6-8 taka for a mini bar of soap just to maintain proper
hygiene practices is a long shot for most of them. As this market segment is very price sensitive when it
comes to products other than bare minimums, price should be fixed considering the affordability of the
segment.

3
Handwashing behavior in rural Bangladesh: BMC Public Health.
4
CIA FACTBOOK, March, 2010
 ANNEX: Public –Private Participants and their roles

Government roles

 Health Infrastructure
 Welfare infrastructure
 Educational infrastructure.

Private Sector Development Agencies

 Financial resources to
 Expertise in product drive the program.
and service design  Helping with past
 Optimizing resources experiences.
& profits.
ANNEX: PRODUCT MIX

Product
“NIRMAL” is hard soap that is going to be available in the shape of bars. Its primary function is going to
be to act as a basic hygiene product that the customers are going to use primarily to sterilize their hands
before activities such as eating, feeding children; and after activities such as defecating, returning home
from work, cleaning up a child after defecation etc. There are not going to be any attributes such as
fragrance, color that have nothing to do with sterilization.

Price
By adopting cost cutting strategy “NIRMAL” the consumers will be provided two bars of 50 gram soap to
our customers at a very convenient price of 5 taka which is in the affordable range of the target
segment.

Place
“NIRMAL” is going to be available in dispensaries and rural medicine stores and daily commodity stores
from where the villagers purchase their necessary items.