IMC – The Lever experience

Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) is one of the companies that successfully made inroads into the rural heartland of India. However, it has been a long and tedious journey for the company. The company continuously innovates to make new breakthroughs. HLL, according to an insightful media study, has used the increasing media reach and penetration to its advantage to reach places where the media has a presence. It has come out with low unit price packs of products such as premium stain removing detergent Surf Excel, beauty soap Lux, talcum powder Pond's, toothpaste Pepsodent, and skin cream Fair and Lovely. Like HLL, other companies have also developed rural-specific products or pack sizes. In 1998- 99, HLL launched a major direct consumer contact titled P.roject Bharat, which covered 2.2 crore households. Each house was given a box priced at Rs 15 which contained a low-unit price pack of shampoo, talcum powder, tooth paste, and skin cream, along with educational literature and audiovisual demonstration. According to company sources, the project has helped 'eliminate barriers to trials and protect product category and brands'. In 1998, the company launched Project Streamline to further extend its network by identifying sub stockiest in large villages, connected by motorable roads to a small town. These substockiest are expected to use various kinds of transportation like scooters, cycles, and bullockcarts to sky connected with nearby smaller villages. This strategy has paid the company richly, as it has been able to cover 46% of the rural population.

During the last five years, the company has strengthened its network through mutually beneficial alliances with rural self-help groups (SHGs). Government offices, NGOs, financial institutions, etc., are aligning together to establish SHGs to alleviate poverty through sustainable incomegenerating activities. HLL launched a project called Shakti in 2001, under which SHGs were given the option of distributing the company's products as a sustainable income-generating activity. There has been a tremendous response from the SHGs. As the women were already grouped together for micro credit operations, they saved money from their daily wages or crop sales and pitched in with HLL for what seemed to be an interesting proposition-buying HLL
products through some of their savings and then selling them to their friends and neighbours. Amway, Oriflame, and Avon have already ventured into middle-class urban India with a similar strategy with resounding success in various places. For HLL, the direct sale model was a departure from its stratified distribution channels and trained sales staff. Started with 50 SHGs in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh, the project has already been extended to 400 groups in five districts in the state. The company is planning to start such pilot projects in other states also. The success of Shakti is yet to be gauged fully. According to industry analysts, in some villages of Andhra Pradesh, women who bought sachets of shampoo and soap  bars are struggling to sell them to make a margin, while in other villages the women have made quite a success of the venture. In 2002, HLL launched another project with largescale direct contact called Lifebuoy swasthya chetna (Lifebuoy health awareness), which was slated to cover about five crore people in 15,000
villages in ten states. The project, according to HLL, was intended at generating awareness about good health and hygiene practices and how the simple habit of washing hands with soap was essential to maintaining good health. Handled by O&M Outreach, the integrated communication used multiple contacts, which included child to child contacts, mother to child contancts, and contacting students at schools. Four 450 health development assistants were involved in I bringing the message to the target audience. They would conduct the glow-germ test to show respondents the unseen germs on their hands and how they vanished after their hands were washed with Lifebuoy. The agency involved both senior citizens and children in carrying forward the campaign: Swachch rahenge-swasth rahange (If you are clean, you will remain
healthy). At the Kumbh congregation in Allahabad in 2002, HLL executives were seen waving an ultra-violet light wand over attendees' hands to show them where germs and dirt resided. To promote Unilever's 106-year-old product Lifebuoy as a mass-market brand of soap in India, the company has used interpersonal communication to pitch in the rural heartland. Performers including magicians, singers, and dancers get on to a make. shift stage and offer a bit of local news. In one of the simulated scenes, performers take on the role of rural labourers. When one of the labourers says that he is worried that he is not well enough to work, the other retorts that when his body is covered with dirt and mud, how can he expect to breathe and feel strong? And if he is not strong, he cannot even sup. port his family. Variations of this message are rendered to the assembled audience in a catchy tune accompanied by music. In the backdrop is a banner of Lifebuoy soap.
 

According to the news story, after having produced more than 7,000 such live shows across the length and breadth of the rural heartland promoting Lifebuoy, HLL is still not sure what the best method of connecting with consumers is. Ogilvy Outreach, the rural marketing arm of advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather (O&M), which is in charge of more than 30 HLL brands, is said to have recruited local magicians, dancers, and actors to build various brands in the rural heartland of India. Fifty teams of 13 per. formers have been recruited to serve as a link between the brands and rural residents. Distribution of products in the rural areas pose peculiar problems, as referred to earlier. Only those companies that are able to strengthen this aspect of marketing can be successful. HLL, over the years, has been able to establish about 33 lakh outlets. As a strategy, the company began by opening outlets in villages adjacent to small' towns. The company's stockists in these places were made to use their infrastructure to distribute products to retailers in these villages. Until 1995, only those villages that had motorable roads were covered.

HLL's media strategy to promote its various projects
HLL, for decades, has used non-conventional media such as wall writings, cinema vans (video in wheels), weekly markets/haats, fairs, and festivals. Cinema vans have been trudging the hinterland with popular movies that are interspersed with product promise. The sales force also gives demos on the use of the product. The weekly haats allow them opportunity to address consumers spread over many tiny hamlets at one location. The occasion is utilized to interface with consumers and give them product demonstrations. This has been successfully used for detergents and soaps. The demonstrators explain to the consumers how to clean dirt and also how 'visible' clean is not necessarily hygienic. They also tell people how using soap is essential to prevent infection.

At HLL, every management trainee begins his career by spending six to eight weeks in a village, understanding the market, the people's psyche, etc. Marketing executives make frequent visits to low-income rural areas. Managers are trained on how to talk to and listen to consumers. According to HLL sources, their R&D laboratories work full time to make low-cost products for rural consumers. A constant effort to understand the behavior of the people has helped HLL to gather some interesting consumer insights, which have resulted in innovative product development.
 

One such insight gathered by the company was that rural women in some regions use the same soap for cleaning clothes and for bathing. As the chemical used in detergent bars is harsh, HLL developed a lightweight soap to double as a personal soap. In order to cut down on costs, HLL has changed the traditional process of making soap from liquid to tablet to bar to altering the machinery to cast soap immediately in the required shape, which is then packaged in a plastic cover. For yet another low-end beauty soap, Breeze, the information gathered from small towns and rural areas was that many women were using the soap both ,for their body and hair. The company experimented with the ingredients in their lab and came out with the right formula called Breeze 2-in 1. Despite some scope for the cannibalization of the company's other products, HLL feels that consumers were buying a value added product.

In some areas, the company found that women were wary of using shampoo as they felt it would be harsh on their hair. The company immediately came out with an advertising campaign that showed a straw broom (what happens to hair when washed with soap) alongside soft tresses (the benefit of shampoo). The company developed a sachet for Lux shampoo that sold at 50 paise compared to the prevailing rate of Rs 2.00 per sachet. The visual cues and the price, according to analysts, were so compelling that in the test state of Andhra Pradesh, the volume sale of shampoo jumped by 50% in three months.

A combination of consumer insights, product development, and an effective communication package has positioned HLL at the number one position in the shampoo segment in rural India. Banking on their pioneering work in the Indian rural market, both HLL and parent company Unilever are now exporting ideas and techniques to other parts of the world. The company has successfully transplanted the shampoo sachet success story to Indonesia where 63% of the population resides in rural areas. In the Philippines, which has 7,000 islands, Unilever has taken on Procter & Gamble's 'Tide' by marketing 'Surf detergent in sachets which are packed for retailers in jute bags and not in cardboard boxes. This has made the packs much more flexible and less space consuming, making it easier to transport them on bicycles. This has been very cost effective and convenient for the company. HLL's philosophy can be summed up in Mr Keki Dadiseth, the ex - HLL chief's words: 'Everybody wants brands. And there are a lot more poor people in the world than rich people. To be a global business... You have to participate in all segments'
 

Questions:
 

1. Draw up an alternative 'Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna' contact programme using women as the change agents instead of children and old people.
2. Assuming you are a rural communication expert suggest non-conventional media, apart from the ones currently in use by HLL. While doing so, keep implementation issues/hazards in mind.