STRATEGIC BRAND MANAGEMENT

Report Review on Margo: Has it lost on Neem trees??? For

By Amitha Scaria Anju S Dona Saji Mahalakshmi M Seethalakshmi H

Amrita School of Business Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Cochin

Faculty Guide: Satheesh Krishnamurthy

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Few things are done in this world without co-operation. This effort is also no exception. At this moment of completion of our report review, we would like to thank our SBM professor Mr. Satheesh Krishnamurthy for guiding us through the process by providing us with necessary information when required. In any report review the more one engages with the staff and co-students more information one gets. We thank all our students and teachers who helped us during the moments when we required guidance. Finally, we thank the God Almighty with whose grace this review has been successfully completed.

-Amitha S
-Anju S -Dona S -Mahalakshmi M -Seethalakshmi H

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CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................................ 2 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 4 About Hamam ........................................................................................................................... 5 About Margo ............................................................................................................................. 5 REASONS FOR SUCCESS OF HAMAM ................................................................................. 7 REASONS FOR MARGOS FAILURE ..................................................................................... 8 REVIVAL OF MARGO ............................................................................................................. 10 Repositioned Margo as a brand ............................................................................................. 10 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REVIVAL OF MARGO ....................................................... 11 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 13

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REPORT INTRODUCTION MARGO: Has it lost in the neem tress???

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INTRODUCTION
About Hamam
Hamam is a brand of soap made in India and marketed by the Indian unit of Unilever. Launched in 1931 as a mild, family soap, Hamam soon drew a large natural following long before it was trendy or fashionable to use products with natural ingredients. Hamam has Neem, Tulsi and Aloe Vera which give effective protection from 10 skin problems like rashes, pimples, prickly heat, body odour etc. Hamam soap comes in three different variations which include:

SampoornaSnaan Hamam Scrub Bath AbhyangaSnaan

Hamam is the most recommended soap by doctors in Tamil Nadu and has a long standing heritage of use traditional ingredients to bring effective skin protection to its consumers. Key facts are they are the market leaders in Tamil Nadu and it is a 300 crore herbal soap brand.

About Margo
Margo is a brand of soap manufactured in India.Margo represents a heritage which has been passed on to generation after generation,The soap has neem as its main ingredients.The soap was manufactured by Calcutta Chemicals and was launched in the year 1920. In 1988 the soap was among the top five selling brands in India, with a market share of 8.9%. As of 2001, the brand was worth 75 crores and belonged to Henkel-SPIC. As of 2003, the brand was relaunching new products focused on the younger demographics and had a market share of close to 2% of the premium soaps segment in India. The product categories in Margo are:

Margo original Neem Margo Nutri Care Margo Glycerine

Starting in 2009, Margo has done a revamp of the imagery of the toilet soaps, and has introduced the product in a new pack and new shape. This change in packaging and shape has been done to AMRITA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, COCHIN Page 5

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appeal to the preferences and aspirations of Indias dynamic and ever increasing young population.

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REASONS FOR SUCCESS OF HAMAM
Proper Brand Positioning Hamam is one of the oldest soap brands in India. The brand came into existence in 1934 and over this 73 years has successfully built a space for itself in the consumer's mind. Better FAB and Quality The only Indian-made natural soap at the time, Hamam was embraced by mothers and doctors alike, for its purity and safety on skin. Only Hamam has Neem, Tulsi and Aloe Vera which give effective protection from 10 skin problems like rashes, pimples, prickly heat, body odour etc. Hamam is the most recommended soap by doctors in Tamil Nadu and has a long standing heritage of use traditional ingredients to bring effective skin protection to its consumers. Have good cleaning properties and they have a nice and fresh fragrance

Value for Money They are priced at very nominal market rates and hence are value for money for customers When HLL implemented the Power Brand strategy, Hamam survived the axe because of the strong equity it had among the consumers. Hence the axe fell on Rexona which was also a natural soap with the same positioning as Hamam.

Better Implementation of Changed Positioning Hamam was positioned initially as a complete natural family soap. The brand was built on the Trust factor. The earlier ads typically showed Mother and child with mother explaining the meaning of Trust using the example of Hamam.The brand may have acquired this quality from its original creators TATA. HLL tried to position Hamam as a herbal soap by changing the composition by adding Neem ingredient. AMRITA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, COCHIN Page 7

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2005 saw HLL repositioning the brand by adding more ingredients. The brand now talks about having a Perfect Balance of Neem, Tulsi and Alovera Extracts. Change in packaging and communication of the brand The brand no longer talks about trust but now positioning itself as a beauty enhancing soap. The brand has now come out with a variant that contains green gram, turmeric and sandal .The color of the soap also has changed to sandal from the traditional green color. This move is a marked deviation from the age old positioning of the brand as a natural soap Brand Loyal Customers Hamam for years has been able to sustain its market position because of the strong brand loyal customers.

REASONS FOR MARGOS FAILURE

Failed to evolve with changing trends Margo is a brand in the herbal soaps category, which is more than 85 years old. Margo as a medicinal soap emphasized on the natural qualities of neem Margo is a brand which never changed with the customer i.e, Margo failed in understanding the changing customer preferences. The herbal base of the product had been major deterrent. Over the years Margo lost its appeal because it failed to attract users from the next generation who incidentally were flooded with an array of new beauty soaps. Margo failed to identify the changing dynamics of the Indian customers, with more and more brands unfolding before the customer. Herbal was equated with tradition and considered outdated

Improper Positioning Margo was becoming a niche brand. Then Margo was positioned as complete skin care soap

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When market became fragmented with lot of products positioning at different attributes, Margo was sidelined as a medicinal soap Margo became irregular that was demanded only when there was a need for medicinal soap Margo soap comes under Dogs in BCG Matrix. The marketing strategy and positioning was poor. It could not change with the changing needs of the customers. Growth rate and Market rate was too low. It could not survive the competition

Failure in focusing on youth In case of Margo, the herbal base of the product became a major deterrent to younger users. A deeper look at society reveals lack of respect for tradition among youngsters Herbal was equated with tradition and considered back-dated The younger generations were more interested in using beauty soaps, which provided good fragrance, with much lather and in a easy to handle shape rather than medicinal ones. This was the major reason why this brand failed No change in FAB and lesser variants Margo was replaced by its competitive brands as it lacked fragrance, shape, and lather content, and medicinal herbs Hamam changed the shape and design, has better moisturizing ability and was successful in positioning them as herbal soap from a family soap. Margo, on the other hand failed in their positioning as trendy because they did not change the FAB of the soap accordingly. AMRITA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, COCHIN Page 9

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Margo had tried to bring their image as a trendy soap by coming up with ads of young girls using the soap. They even had Genelia DSouza, a famous celebrity figure in India to popularize their brand image among youth. However, even when using Genelia the FAB of the soap (even shape, color and packaging remained same) remained same. They failed to position the soap effectively as a trendy soap as the soap still looked the same as the earlier version. Spend less on promotion when compared to other brands Somewhere along the line, not only did Calcutta Chemicals stop spending on communication, but creative advertising also failed to take up the challenge of turning the traditional into trendy The packaging too did not change Not enough attention was paid to consumer and trade promotions that now hold sway over most of the soap market. As a result, the brand started losing its relevance to youngsters

REVIVAL OF MARGO
Margo tried by itself to revive in the market but could not revive entirely. Margo had done the following to revive them.

Repositioned Margo as a brand

When, the wheel had turned a full circle, the demand for the herbal and the personal care products are back in the markets. So, a repositioning and revival of Margo was possible. But, the owner of the brand, Calcutta Chemicals failed to change the traditional theme into a trendy one, which other new coming competitive brands boldly used. But later when the ownership of the brand was handed over to Henkel Spic, they gave the brand a facelift. Henkel gave it a new look, a milder herbal fragrance and more lather. Thus Margo was no longer a medicinal soap. Henkel positioned it as a regular soap, but this only helped in low revival of Margo in the market.

The new positioning is "Margo skin clear skin" (from the earlier positioning as complete skin care soap). The brand had a following in AP, Tamilnadu and West Bengal.

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The single mistake the brand made was to miss the new generation. It failed to attract the young users. In 2003, Margo re-launched with new fragrance and shape. It targeted a younger age group aged between 20-25 years. It generated more lather and stuck to neem as the core ingredient. The marketers wanted to change the mindset of the customers by positioning it as a regular brand. The promotional campaign depicted a young woman communicating that the secret of her good looks is using Margo regularly. The tagline changed from Complete Skincare to Margo skin, clear skin. It still failed to regain the image In 2008, it used a popular celebrity, bollywood actress, Rani Mukherjee, to endorse its product. According to the marketers, the use of celebrity helps the brand to reach greater heights. But still, Margo was considered as an irregular product and thus, was unable to capture the major Indian market, though it is a strong player in certain regions

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REVIVAL OF MARGO

Margo has to be properly positioned as a regular use brand in order to break the mindset that Margo is a medicinal brand and can't be used regularly It also indicated that the strong herbal fragrance of the Margo should tone down in order to shed the medicinal image and to be more youthful and trendy The brand should also target a younger age group between 20 and 25. So in order to appeal to this segment the company should have ensured that the soap generates more lather while it retains its core ingredient, neem. A series of promotion in the audio-visual media can gain attention for the product. We know that now a days the impact of FM radios play an important role in the promotion of products. So by having a radio partner they can improve the sales promotions.

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The new package of the Margo contains green and yellow colors, so green color will be representing the neem extract in the soap. When we consider yellow color, people always relate yellow color on the soap package with the extract of turmeric. The package indicates that the soap contains almond and olive oil. The images of both the ingredients are given in the cover. But yellow color always represents the extract of turmeric. So the color of the package should be changed according to the ingredients. When we are considering the Tamil Nadu region, we know that most of the products sold out on the bases of political bases or celebrity bases. The customers of this region are more on the traditional. The company can focus on introducing a celebrity who is favourable for customers of all age groups. (Now they have the Genelia DSouza, she is familiar more for the youth).

Margo can introduce more variants in different packages, shapes and colors. (Currently it has variants such as with lime, with glycerine) They are currently spending a bit on promotions, but if they spend it more effectively they can penetrate the market more easily The change in FAB of the soap has to be done to appeal to the preferences and aspirations of Indias dynamic and ever increasing young population. Margo has to keep itself updated about the market trends and change accordingly

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CONCLUSION
Margo as such needs to concentrate more on the positioning of the product and should also concentrate the younger age groups which can uplift the product from its current situation. It is also necessary to improve in the product quality. Margo can could also work on its promoti ons as it gives an easy penetration in to the market and can also attract various consumers. Different kinds of packages attract consumers therefore they can try different kinds of attractive packages.

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