Marketing Plan: Lux Soap

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Lux Soap came into existence in 1964. Lux occupies a large market share in the Pakistani soap market as well as the international arena. The new Lux, with the sunscreen formula, is targeted towards a different market segment as compared previously to previous Lux. Lux is the first brand to bring the sunscreen concept in soap industry. Lux plans to cater to all these customers. “Beauty begins with Lux. “The strategy that is used by lever brother for their lux sunscreen is on specific “product Benefits strategy” as the lux sunscreen promotes “Sun Protection” benefit as well as “beauty” .Lux sunscreen revolves around the slogan that is:Lux Sunscreen is not considered as a new product. It is a re launch of the existing product Lux. This feature of the soap makes it different from the existing Lux soaps. Lux Sunscreen is being termed as a “Re launch of Lux Beauty Soap with a variant” by Lever brothers. Lux already has a strong position in the soap market. Lux’s sunscreen target market is upper and upper-middle class For sunscreen Lux is using skimming pricing strategy. Lux sunscreen was the re launch of a variant, hence it should be publicized differently than all other Lux beauty soaps

Introduction to Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited

Unilever Group of Companies

Lever Brothers is the largest consumer Products Company in Pakistan; it belongs to Unilever group of companies, which makes up one of the largest transnational in the world. Lever Brothers Pakistan Ltd. was incorporated in Pakistan in 1948. The company markets almost 50 well known household brands, like Lipton, Surf, Vim, Supreme, LifeBuoy, Lux etc. Which record approximately Rs. 20 billion in sales?

History

Founded in 1897, Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited has provided superior products for millions of people throughout the world. Generations after generation of satisfied customers have continued to maintain Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited’s reputation as an innovative manufacturer and marketer of family and health care products. Today it is a multibillion-dollar company whose products are distributed in 140 countries worldwide.

110 years ago there was a person known as Lever who was a retarded person, people at the time manufactured soap and sell the soap on the streets, the color which they produced in was red. But lever came up with an idea to produce soap in yellow color. This soap was named “Sunlight”. As U.K. has a rainy and cloudy weather the name sunlight was unique concept for them so Lever increased his production of soap and became household name throughout Europe.

Uni margarine was a company in Netherlands who saw the increase demand for Lever’s Soap in Europe so they merged with Lever. The new company which was formed was called “UNILEVER”. There are two head offices, one in Netherlands and the other in U.K.

The world has been divided into regions by “Unilever” company. The regions are LAKA region, CAME region, Europe region, Central America region and the U.S. region. Pakistan comes under Central Asia and Middle East (CAME) region.

Vision

Our purpose in Unilever is to meet the everyday needs of people everywhere – to anticipate the aspirations of our consumers and customers and to respond creatively and competitively with branded products and services, which raise the quality of life.

Our deep roots in local cultures and markets around the world are our unparalleled inheritance and the foundation for our future growth. We will bring our wealth of knowledge and international expertise to the services of local consumers – a truly multi-local multinational.

Our long-term success requires a total commitment to exceptional standards of performance and productivity, to working together effectively and to a willingness to embrace new ideas and learn continuously.

We believe that to succeed requires the highest standards of corporate behavior towards our employees, consumers and their societies and world in which we live.

This is Unilever’s road to sustainable, profitable growth for our business and long-term value creation for our shareholders and employees.

PRODUCT PROFILE

Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited manufactures and markets beverages, food and detergents and personal products. The beverages division manufactures and distributes tea and coffee under the brand names “Lipton” and “Brooke Bond”. The food division manufactures edible fats, cooking oils and ice cream under the brand names “Polka, “Wall’s”, “Blue Band”, “Planta” and “Dalda”. The detergents and personal products division manufactures and distributes soaps, shampoos and fabric and home care products under such brand names as “Surf”, “Vim”, “Lux” and “Clinic”. Its ultimate holding company is Unilever PLC, in United Kingdom. Beverages accounted for 40% of 1999 revenues; detergents and personal products, 30% and food, 30%.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Introduction to Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited

Unilever Group of Companies

History

Vision

We believe that to succeed requires the highest standards of corporate behavior towards our employees, consumers and their societies and world in which we live.

This is Unilever’s road to sustainable, profitable growth for our business and long-term value creation for our shareholders and employees.

PRODUCT PROFILE

Lever Brothers and the Soap Business

Soapmakers are frothing in niche categories. Soap makers are busy slicing away traditional sub-popular, popular and premium categories to create new
and specialized niches within them. The last few months have seen a fresh onslaught of brands like Fairglow, Nikhar, Lux Sunscreen, Lux Moisturizing and Savlon respectively on the platforms of fairness, skin revitalizing, sunscreen, moisturizing and health

HISTORY OF LUX

Lux Soap came into existence in 1964. For the product’s advertising, the famous Hollywood Actress “Judy Garland” started as the very first model. She was starred as the lead role “Doroghty” in the famous kids’ movie “The Wizard of OZ”.

Lux was launched with a concept of Glamour. Till now, that tradition has been kept alive. Each new product of Lux is launched by taking a new actress as a model. The Lux team has kept it tradition alive all these years, and hence, the image of Lux is attributed to glamour and style. For this reason, Lux doesn’t diverge into informative advertising.

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

In soap and detergent industry surface tension is one of the most important parameters. To increase the washing power, the surface tension of the washing solution should be as low as possible. Accordingly, the concentration at CMC point should be as low as possible, in order to save soap, detergent material.

Lux occupies a large market share in the Pakistani soap market as well as the international arena. It is the most widely used soap in Pakistan as the chart indicates clearly.

It closest competitors in the soap industry are Lifebuoy and Safeguard but Lux leads them by quite a large percentage. Lux is the market leader due to the continuous innovations and changes to its product.

Lux has been introducing new variants to the existing products now and then to attain customer satisfaction and retention. Lux was one of the first beauty soaps in the Pakistani market so that is also another reason for its market leadership. Its quality is undeniably good which has helped it survive in the market while various other soaps have come and gone.

Lux is beauty soap and in that regards, Rexona, Palmolive, Tibet, Safeguard and Capri offer it competition. The new Lux, with the sunscreen formula, is targeted towards a different market segment as compared previously to previous Lux. It is a new product, as soap never had the sunscreen formula used previously and therefore, will help Lux remain on the top.

Lux has always used aggressive advertising to capture its customers and has associated film actresses with the soap. This gives it an edge as compared to other beauty soaps. Lux was the first to use this strategy of introducing film actresses in its ads that attracts its target market who see their ideals in the ad and prefer the soap.

Lux is one of the quality products offered by Lever Brothers and is one of the highest revenue earners for Lever Brothers.

In another survey conducted, males and females both were asked about their first choice regarding beauty and they pointed out “LUX” without any hesitation. Lifebuoy is next in number regarding sales but it does not have the image of a beauty. It is a carbolic soap although it has introduced Gold and other variations but they cannot change its image of a carbolic soap.

Safeguard is slowly creeping up in sales and nearing Lux but Lux is still on the top. Safeguard also does not have the pure beauty soap image due to the reason that it first came out as an “Anti-Bacterial” soap and that image is still present in the minds of the customers.

Capri is among the top 5 used beauty soaps but the main reason for its lagging behind Lux since a long period is due to their poor advertising. Capri has not been able to produce ads over time to attract its customers. Its advertising is very weak as compared to Lux and therefore it has not been able to get to the top.

Tibet was also a competitor to Lux sometimes back and had a price reduction also but quality is where Lux took away the game from Tibet. Tibet had also lack of good advertising. Lux made sure that Tibet gave them no tough time through its effective strategies.

Imperial Leather soap is also high-quality soap but because of a premium price, it did not get much customer attention. It is still present in the market but not preferred by much who go for Lux due to the adequate price and good quality in one soap.

Lux has been able to attract the women successfully as compared to the other soaps. It shows only film actresses in its ads worldwide and women are attracted towards it and as women are the decision makers when FMCG is bought for the household, therefore they prefer Lux for the household.

In a survey conducted 1 year back, people were asked about their favorite ads regarding FMCG’s and in the soaps category, people pointed out “Lux” with the Reema ad. This goes to show the successful advertising by Lux.

Lux has been there since a long time although much other soap like Le Sancy etc. shimmered away with time.

Lever Brothers has a large number of quality products and Lux is surely among the best. Lever Brothers has made sure that wherever they work, be it in Pakistan or India or internationally, the Lux image is always present and they don’t seem to lose their way due to this. They adjust their ads and promotion according to the country served.

Other soaps like Rexona and Safeguard etc. did not show much variations in their product and Lux introduced soaps for dry, oily and normal skins and now the Sunscreen formula, which has helped it live up to the customer’s expectations. Soaps like Rexona made changes but they were not much considered by customers because they did not seem too different, while Lux kept on introducing completely different soaps as it passed along the years.

Lux has also shown that to introduce new variants in its soaps, price is not much important. The prices for the Lux introduced over time were same and this shows the consistency in the product. The other soaps kept on increasing and decreasing their prices but their quality changed accordingly. Lux has stuck on the same price since a long time and therefore has been attractive to users.

This industry profile shows that Lux clearly is the market leader and is here to stay at the top and tackle its competitors effectively with quality promotion means and a quality product.

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS

i.Sunscreen Concept In Soap Industry

Lux is the first brand to bring the sunscreen concept in soap industry. Consumers have previously used sun blocks and lotions to protect their complexion and skin from the scorching heat and UV rays of sun. But incorporating sunscreen in soap has been a very innovative idea on part of lever brothers.

ii.First Movers Advantage

Lux sunscreen also has the first mover advantage since it s the first brand to come up with the idea of incorporating sunscreen in a soap. Previously soaps had cleanser and moisturizers but this one is an entirely new area to enter into with respective to the soap industry.

iii.Established Brand

Lux besides having the first mover’s advantage also have its goodwill to fall back on and to give immense support to any new product it introduces in the market. Its reputation being very strong asset consumers would believe each new idea introduced by Lux as of good quality.

iv.Vast Market Experience

Lux also has competitive advantage in the sense that it has been in the soap market for years. The customer knows the brands and the company knows and recognizes the customer’s need. Besides it has huge marketing experience of attracting customer to a new product it launches.

v.Convenience

Sunscreen also has the advantage of convenience since a large segment of its target market would like to and needs to use sunscreen but the extra and expense and the hassle of putting it every time they go out keeps them from using it. With the advent of sunscreen in soap. Lux plans to cater to all these customers.

WEAKNESS

i.Lack Of Awareness

First thing Lux needs to cater to is awareness. Most of the people in the middle and esp. lower middle concept are unaware of the concept of sunscreen and how is it going to affect them.

ii.Acceptability

A lot of people would find it difficult to digest that a sunscreen would actually be of some effect if offered within soap. For this, Lux needs aggressive advertising and awareness campaigns to let people know how this new variant will help them out.

iii.Targeting The High Market

Right now Lux is only targeting the upper end of the market. The reason being lack of awareness and the premium image it wants to build among its customers. But this could actually emerge as a weakness since these higher segments only a small niche and to actually make profits out of a product Lux has to cater to a large market. (For making good profits out of small niche thee has to be an aggressive skimming strategy, which Lux isn’t following).

OPPORTUNITIES

i.Cashing In The Brand Name

Lux here has a big edge since it can cash in its brand name, which would only support all the new products, it launch in the market.

ii.Climate

Climate in Pakistan is another opportunity for Lux to exploit. The sunny weather most of the year and other conditions only support the product. Another thing, esp. in Karachi is a beach that again is an opportunity plus even in another cities the entertainment habits of people support the newly launched product.

iii.Consciousness

There is a natural consciousness in yellow race and eastern countries to have fairness or atlas retention of complexion. People here fell scary and cautious with the sun as compared to western countries that enjoy sunbathing.

THREATS

i.New Entrants

The concept being very innovative and entry barriers being low there is a threat and big probability of followers who might even come up with additional feature and take away the market share Lux sunscreen has already established as soap.

ii.Substitutes

Here substitutes are another threat because a lot of people might not even accept the idea of sunscreen in soap and due to informative advertising of Lux become conscious of using sunscreen. But start using substitutes like lotion, which have this variant in it.

TARGET MARKET

The major target market of Lux sunscreen are the women of the age group of 15-40 basically working women with upper middle segment of the market.

MARKET SEGMENTATAION:

Lever brothers by making lux, lifebouy, lifebouygold, fair`n`lovely fall in the category of segment market Lever brother has made different soaps for different income and age group.

Lever brother market to a variety of segments…housewives, working women, teenage girls, beauty conscious ladies, players, boys fond of footballs.

Through lux Unilever has targeted beauty conscious ladies, teenage girls, actresses, housewives, working ladies and families. When ladies think of beauty the first thing click to their mind is lux.

Lux has several types:-

*Green lux contains herb extracts and this segment includes those ladies who have oily skin.

*Blue lux contains Almond oil and this segment includes those ladies who have dry skin.

*Pink lux contains natural moisturizer and this segment includes those ladies who have normal skin.

*Black lux contains wild flower essence and this segment includes those persons who have combination skin.

SEGEMENTATAION LEVEL:

LUX sunscreen is using niche marketing it does not view the whole population of Pakistan as one market neither does it cater the needs of a broad segment. Infect it caters the need of a specific segment who are complex conscious and want protection against ultra violet rays , thus falling in the category of niche marketing .

SEGMENTATION BASIS:

GEOGRAPHIC:

COUNTRY:

PAKISTAN

CITIES:

Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, faisalabad, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Dera Ismail Khan, Peshawar, Quetta, Hub, Hyderabad, Jacobabad, Sahiwaal, Murree, Sargodha.

DENSITY:

All the major cities and sub- urban areas.

CLIMATE:

The climate of Pakistan is a mixture of hot and cold weather. Therefore, it can be categorized as Tropical climate.

DEMOGRAPHIC:

*Age: 15-40 years

*Gender: female

*FAMILY SIZE:

3 – 4, 5 – 6.

*Family life cycle includes all the young girls and women between the ages of 16 – 30. They might be single, married with/without children

*Income: 10000-above

*Occupation: working women

*EDUCATION:

This product is basically targeted for teenagers and females in their late 20’s, so this category may include from high school graduates to professional levels.

PSYCHOGRAPHIC:

*Personality:

Sense of skin care

Likes traveling

Fun loving

Independent and free

*SOCIAL CLASS:

The product’s potential buyer classes are middle class, upper middles and lower uppers.

*LIFESTYLES:

This product is promoting beauty and glamour and keeping this in mind, the Lever Brothers have targeted the teenagers and young women, as this class is more beauty conscious. In other case, it can be a need as well for the women working outdoors or in the field. Therefore, it cannot be categorized in just one category as its different users have different lifestyles.

BEHAVIOURAL:

OCCASIONS: Lux sunscreen is not made for any special season so the customer should buy this through out the year but of course the sales will be high in summers because of its ability of protection from the sun.

BENEFITS:

LUX has already proved its quality by providing benefits such as cleansing, deodorizing and moisturizing, which softens the skin and gives a more refreshing feeling.

This product now provides cosmetic benefit with the added value of Sunscreen Formula.

It also provides health benefit by providing protection against Ultra Violet Rays.

USER STATUS:

As the brand LUX was already there, people were using it regularly as well as occasionally, but with the introduction of LUX SUNSCREEN, the non-users and the fist time users also came forward along with the regular/occasional users.

USAGE RATE:

Medium

LOYALTY STATUS:

Medium

READINESS STAGE:

Aware and interested

ATTITUDE TOWARDS PRODUCT:

Positive

TARGET MARKET

The major target market of Lux sunscreen are the women of the age group of 15-40 basically working women with upper middle segment of the market.

MARKET COVERAGE STRATEGY:

To segment its market, the firm is using “CONCENTRATED MAKETING”. It is going after a large share of one or few segments or niches of upper income group as well middle income group and is mainly targeting towards it.

MARKET POSITIONING:

Lever has positioned lux in its consumers’ mind as a sign of beauty, as a choice of film star and as a cause of their beauty. They have created an image that film actresses are most beautiful ladies because they use lux so if people want to be beautiful they should use lux.

“Beauty begins with Lux.”

For their sunscreen variant the lux team has positioned lux sunscreen in the consumer mind as a protective skin on your natural skin. They have also used a film star “sana” as the sunscreen girl as they have done in their previous lux variants to encourage the user to buy sunscreen as their famous film stars are also using and keeping their complexion fair and beautiful (as they also work in the sun).

POSITIONING STRATEGIES

The strategy that is used by lever brother for their lux sunscreen is on specific “product Benefits strategy” as the lux sunscreen promotes “Sun Protection” benefit as well as “beauty”.

According to Naheed Choudry Brand Manager at Lux,

“Lux is unique in having drawn customer from non traditional segments. At present no soap in the market offers sunscreen benefits despite the fact that these benefits have been identified as some thing wanted by all soap users”

Unique Selling proposition

The new variant lux sunscreen as the name suggests has its USP in the promise of protecting the skin from the darkening affects of sunlight. Considering the importance the Pakistani psyche attaches to fairness, the soap is bound to make waves in the local market, as we all know that Pakistani’s are the most complexion conscious people.

Slogan

Slogans are easy to remember. It is used by copywriters continuously for the sake of establishing it. It creates an impact of repetition. It gives an identity to the company or to its products. Slogan is a part of an advertisement copy .It is a concise but effective way of telling an idea they can be charged with emotions and become psychological movers. Slogan’s value depends on what it makes the readers to understand. Good slogans are idea-centered, rather than word-centered.

Lux sunscreen revolves around the slogan that is:

“Who’s afraid of the sun?”

PRODUCT IN THE LIGHT OF BCG MATRIX:

If we consider the BCG matrix the product can be classified as a STAR. This is because lux sunscreen holds a high market share in its industry that is 89% and the industry is stile growing. The population of the Karachi City is increasing rapidly which in turn increases the growth in this industry.

MARKETING MIX

PRODUCT

Lux Sunscreen is not considered as a new product. It is a re launch of the existing product Lux. A new variant “Sunscreen” has been added to the existing product and that is the reason, for it to be known as a Re launch of Lux. Lux Sunscreen as the additional feature of protecting the skin from Sun rays compared to the previous Lux soaps. This feature of the soap makes it different from the existing Lux soaps. None of the previous Lux soaps offered protection from the Sun but they offered features like “good for oily skin” etc. so this makes Lux Sunscreen a premium soap from the rest. It is the first soap of its kind. Previously, no soap offered this feature of protection from the Sun. It can be called “The Best” at the present time.

PACKAGING:

We suggest that, to be more communicative with the consumers, the packaging of Lux sunscreen soap should have usage instructions and a few words describing the sunscreen formula, so that the people using the product find it more interesting to be well aware of its significance. This strategy is known as informative marketing, which the Lux team should adhere to capture more consumers.

LABELLING:

The label of lux sunscreens identifies the product as well as the brand .it also describes several thing about the product for example it is made by lever brother Pakistan, its net weight, consumer price, sales tax and its benefits.

BRANDING STRATEGIES:

The branding strategy which lever brother is following is LINE EXTENTION because lever has introduces an additional item with different variant in a given product category under the same brand name.

PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE

Lux Sunscreen is being termed as a “Re launch of Lux Beauty Soap with a variant” by Lever brothers. Lux already has a strong position in the soap market. The launch of this variant “Sunscreen” will help Lux strengthen its position and enlarge its customer base. New innovations have always attracted experimenting consumers. In an industry of soap and detergents, the percentage of experimenting customers is the highest. Hence, to capture more consumers, and reduce customer churn to a zilch value, Lux has introduced a new technology, which will help increase sales and augment customer loyalty.

Lux is in the growth stage of the product life cycle because every year they experience, a 10% growth rate. The Lux Sunscreen is at the introduction stage in the product life cycle having just been launched and presently trying to create awareness in the market.

BRANDING STRATEGIES:

The branding strategy which lever brother is following is LINE EXTENTION because lever has introduces an additional item with different variant in a given product category under the same brand name.

PRICE:

Lux sunscreen is being positioned by lever brother as a premium brand catering to the upper end of the market. Price mechanisms are very important in especially the launch of a product since for a new product, the effect of price will be very high. If priced very high customer might not buy the product because they have not experienced it and they might think of the perceived quality to be lower than the price.

Lux’s sunscreen target market is upper and upper-middle class. The reason for this target market is mainly awareness. The lower middle class is not aware of the sunscreen concept and even if they are they consider it a luxury.

PRICING STRATEGY:

For sunscreen Lux is using skimming pricing strategy. Though Lux consider this product as one of its premium brands but still the price of the product has only incremented to Rs. 1, which cannot be considered as a premium price. Though they do believe that their product is going to do well in future but the reason for this pricing is introducing this concept at the soap level, the average price of a soap bar being around 14.5 rupees. But looking at the point of view of Lux Normal they do consider it a premium pricing strategy. Overall, however, it will be considered a value added product, which is providing an entire package to its consumer from skincare to sunscreen 24 hours a day at a price which is being offered at the industry level by firms offering the product of the same quality.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRICE AND PERCEIVED QUALITY

The relationship between price and perceived quality would be considered positive since the perceived quality of a sun block even in some sub-segments of upper middle class is still considered a luxury but Lux did manage to catch a weakness here, since the Asian countries are very conscious of complexion so providing a sun block at a price of a soap only came as an advantage to the initial soap sales since the perceived quality of sun block is very high.

DISTRIBUTION:

In large supermarkets and stores like Agha’s and Tes-Mart, Lux Sunscreen would be given an extra rack, which will be just for this product. They will be kept on the front racks so as to attract the customers more and grab their attention. In the relatively smaller shops and the retailers, consumer attention will be caught through buntings and posters placed in a large number so that when the customer eyes the poster, the soap as a quality product comes to his mind immediately and he purchases without any hesitation. The retailers will also be given some extra space for shelves for Lux Sunscreen.

DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL:

For Lux sunscreen the customers are buying from the retail shops super markets departmental stores and utility stores because Lux has a strong distribution channel that is why Lux sunscreen is available every where.

NUMBER OF CHANNEL LEVEL:

Lux is being manufactured at Rahim Yaar Khan Factory. From there they have their own distributors who would take the soap to Karachi. These distributors then pass these soaps to retailers and they sell it to the end user. So price breakup also encompasses the respective profit each of these people in the selling chains make. At levers they have their set strategies for different kinds of retailers. For example we interviewed few superstores and few small shops, which revealed that Lux gives discounts in a variety of ranges starting from one free bar a carton to 6% discount on a dozen soaps. But generally retailers make around 1.5 to 1.3 paisa on large bars and 90 paisa on small bars. Distributors make around 3.5% on each bar.

REGIONAL OR NANTIONAL DISTRIBUTION

SALES FORCE AND CUSTOMER SERVICE:

Lever’s beauty shop – The idea of a shop selling only Lever’s skin and personal care products will be quite beneficial. Following the footsteps of “The Body shop”, being the pioneers of the concept of mentors, who provide assistance to the consumers while selecting the products that match their skin tones, hair texture, etc. Lever’s can devise such a formula to publicize its huge number of personal care products. Levers should position its’ shops near shopping malls and convenience stores, where the women buyers are greater in number.

PROMOTION

Marketing promotion can be defined as “persuasive communication designed to send marketing – related messages to a selected target audience”. Advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations constitute the area called “promotion”, or marketing communication. Sales promotions are the short term marketing tools.

PROMOTION BUDGET:

The promotion budget is determined mainly by using “OBJECTIVE AND TASK METHOD”. This is because

1. This method gives the most accurate budget one can estimate proactively, and

2.It starts from setting the budget and leads to target increases in sales, then it was the other way around. However it is carefully observed that the promotion cost doses not exceed 10-12% of the cost of the product for which the promotion is targeted. Thus we can seed an underline concept of %of sales method as well.

PROMOTION MIX STRATEGIES:

Lever brother is using both the PUSH and PULL strategies.

*PUSH STRATEGY: Levers gives an incentive of commission to its sales force and thus motivates its sales persons to push the product towards the customer’s .the greater the push situation created, the greater will be the firms sales and greater would be the effort of sales people to communicate the product to final consumer.

*PULL STRATEGY: Levers provide several sales promotion incentives to its consumers who inurn pull the product from the firm directly or through its sales people.

*ADVERTISING:

Though Lever’s acquired a very in aggressive advertising approach towards the launch of the new variant in the soap market, we propose that Lever’s should exercise aggressive advertising by:

ADVERTISING OBJECTIVE

Informative Advertising: Using electronic and print media to promote the basic technological aspect of the Lux sunscreen soap. Despite the fact that Lux sunscreen is treated as beauty soap in the soap market, but it differs from all others due the technological background. Lux sunscreen was the re launch of a variant, hence it should be publicized differently than all other Lux beauty soaps.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

LUX sunscreen main target audience are the women of the families .this is mainly because in our country the buying decision of connivance product are made by the women of the family, who are mostly beauty and complex conscious .

ADVERTISING MEDIA:

*Hoardings: Place hoardings of the product on the most busy signals and stop points in the city. For example, the Schon Circle, Tariq Road’s Allah Walla Chowk, etc. Basically focus upon areas where Shopping malls are closely located.

*Emphasis on print media advertising to the fullest. Though Levers is focusing on the subject, but we suggest that it should print informative ads in fashion magazines, which are demanded by women of all ages, mostly.

We suggest the following print plan for Lux sunscreen ads:

We have chosen the newspapers according to the segmented market and income levels.

Print Plan for Lux Sunscreen

ActivityPublicationSizesPosition

Ads

Lux Sunscreen AdJang Sunday MagazineFull pageCover page

“Jang Sunday MagazineFull pageInside cover

“The News InstepHalf page (27×8)Front page

“The News InstepHalf page (27×8)Page-3

“MAGFull pageCover page

“MAGFull pageInside cover

The agency hopes to reach more than 82 customers with their one spot and onwards. According to the consultant, they have been able to reach their target according to this graph.

They use PTV and PTV world as their advertising channels. Up till now, the total cost for advertising for Lux sunscreen is Rs. 2 million.

SALES PROMOTION:

The main sales promotion tools used by lever brothers are following.

CONSUMER PROMTIONS TOOLS:

POINT OF PURCAHES(POP)

The best opportunity for Lever’s to capture the target market is to catch their attention at exhibitions, skincare shows and other events organized for women held at PC, Gymkhana, Creek club and various other organizations. Though, Levers has never practiced such exercises, but in order to broaden the customer base, and to create awareness about the launch a new variant, Lever’s should put up “Lux Sunscreen Stalls”, where the attendants, also serving as advisors inform the consumer’s about the benefits and main core difference of Lux sunscreen from other soaps. Free distribution of sample Lux sunscreen bars should be practiced to escalate promotional activities.

*SAMPLE:

For a limited time frame, special schemes should be devised to offer free samples of Lux sunscreen with its co-branded products.

*PREMIUM:

Get one-Lux Sunscreen FREE, with 4 Large Lux Bars. Such type of offers will help the consumer experience the product cost free.

PRICE PACK:

To capture the customer awareness, we should sell Lux sunscreen’s large and small bars at a discounted price. After capturing an acceptable amount of customer bonding in a certain time, revise the premium price, at which the product was launched. This strategy will give us enough benefit to penetrate into the targeted segments.

Discount Offer for 1 month: Lux Sunscreen’s large bar Available in Rs. 20 only

*GIFTS

It is generally observed that when a new product is launched, whose target market basically focuses on the female segment of the customer base, such promotions are practiced that will help cater to their emotional and sentimental values. For such purposes, Gifts play the major role in capturing the market.

Proposing Special schemes, like lucky draws, to give out gifts and coupons to the customers.

TRADE PROMOTION TOOL

DISCOUNT

The manufacturer may offer a straight discount off the list price on each case purchased during a stated period of time. The offer encourages the dealers to buy in quantity or to carry a new item.

ALLOWANCE

Manufacturers may offer an allowance in return for the retailer’s agreement to feature the manufacturer’s products in some way. A discount allowance compensates them for using special displays.

PERSONAL SELLING

Levers should practice new means to reach its target market’s acceptability level. For such purposes, the concept of Sales women distributing Lux sunscreen soaps from door to door seems as an excellent idea. Belonging to the same gender as the target market gives them an immense amount of advantage, like they can well-understand the psychology of women and explain them the advantages and benefits of a product much effectively than salesmen.

COMPETETIVE STRATEGIES:

“Competitor is the producer of the product which is competing for the same dollar value as your product is. In other words competitor wants the same share of the wallet of the customer as you for your product want.”

The fair and lovely with a sun block benefit is the major competitor of Lux sunscreen. Banana boat is also available in the market which also has a sunscreen variant in it all the herbs and the lotions which have sunscreen variant in it is the competitor of Lux sun screen.

The basic competitive strategy used by lever brothers in case of LUX sunscreen is the FOCUS strategy .According to this strategy lever focuses its effort on serving a few market segments well rather than going after the whale market.

COMPETETIVE POSITION:

Almost every industry includes companies that specialize in serving market niches and Lever brother is one of them. Instead of perusing the whole market or even large segments it targets subbasements.

Lever brother has chosen nicher strategy because they believe that the market nicher ends up knowing the target customer group so well that it meets their need better than other firms that casually sell to this niche.

As a result lever brother can charge a substantial markup over costs because of the added value. Where as the mass marketer achieves high volume, lever achieves high margin.

*CUSTOMER: Lever brother has specialized in serving a small customer size group who are complexion conscious and are neglected by the other major soap companies.

*QUALITY PRICE: Levers operates at the high end of the market .it specializes in the high quality and high price.

RECOMMENDADTIONS:

*Lever brother should be aware of the main objectives of all the main competitors of Lux sunscreen.

*Lever brother in case of Lux sunscreen should increase the promotions and ads it means more marketing of the product.

References

DataMonitor, (2004), Company Profile Report

DataMonitor, (2004), Lux Profile

Unilever Offcial Website, retrieved on 12 Feb, 2005 from the link unilever.com

Marketing Plan: Lux Soap

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