S-Group Insights: Surf Excel Blue, Rin, Wheel and Sunlight dominated laundry

exchange4media.com and Strategy Group, the Analytical Arm of TAM Media Research, jointly bring you a weekly column 'S-Group Insights' on Advertising Trends of different Product Categories. This column aims to aid advertisers and media agencies understand changes in Media Consumption patterns leading to Scientific Advertising Investments. In the current column, we take a look at Laundry Care Products as a category.

Laundry care product category in India is expected to achieve a value CAGR of 3% at constant 2015 prices over the forecast period, and reach Rs 216.3 billion in 2020. New launches in laundry care category were skewed towards high-priced powder detergents, targeting urban consumers in 2015. Increased demand for automatic detergents and high-quality hand wash detergents has boosted value growth for laundry care.

 Fabric softeners, laundry aids and liquid detergents remained slow-moving categories, while powder detergents remained the most dynamic in 2015. Hindustan Lever Ltd. with its popular brands, Surf Excel Blue, Rin, Wheel and Sunlight, continued to dominate laundry care category in 2015. The company leads due to its strong distribution network and range of products for customers of all incomes. Let's look at the advertisement investment in the laundry care industry across all platforms:

Television

Over the years, from 2012 till 2015, ad duration of laundry care products witnessed steady growth and increased from 6633 Hrs to 9797 Hrs.      

Top 4 advertisers in this category included; Hindustan Lever (58%), Procter & Gamble (21%), Rohit Surfactants Pvt. Ltd (6%) and Reckitt Benckiser(4%).

Among these top 4 advertisers, only Hindustan Lever Ltd. increased their advertisement duration from 2012 till 2015.

From 2012 till 2015, Hindustan Lever Ltd. has increased their focus advertisement of only two product groups i.e. Washing Powders/Liquids & Pre-Post Wash Products. Brands which are promoted majorly by Hindustan Lever Ltd. include Surf Excel Easy Wash, Wheel Active, Rin (New Flavor), Surf Excelmatic & Comfort Fabric Conditioner. Among the Television channels preferred by Hindustan Lever are South regional channels with 33% of the advertisement duration.

Procter & Gamble home products reduced their ad duration by 27% in 2015 as compared to 2014. In 2015, P&G reduced the promotion of product groups-- Washing Powders/ Liquids & Detergent Cakes & Bars. Though the promotions were reduced by P&G, advertisement duration of Tide Plus brand was increased in 2015, while the duration of Tide Naturals brand got reduced. Drop in advertisement duration was observed among channels across South region, Hindi Movie Genre as well as Hindi GEC’s.

Rohit Surfactants Pvt. Ltd, which owns the flagship brand—Ghadi, sustained the promotions in 2015 as compared to 2014. In 2015, ad duration of Ghadi Detergent Powder was increased, whereas duration of Ghadi Detergent Cake was reduced. Rohit Surfactants is the only advertiser in the laundry category that has preferred Hindi News Channels over the years, unlike other top advertisers that preferred the South regional channels.

Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd. also reduced their ad duration by 32% in 2015 as compared to 2014. Brand Vanish Stain Remover, under the Pre-Post Wash product group, is the only promoted brand of Reckitt Benckiser over the years. In 2015, ad duration of this brand was decreased by 32%. Drop in ad duration was observed in South region, Hindi GECs, Bangla regional and Kids’ channels.

Radio

 Advertisement duration of laundry care product category on Radio has increased tremendously since 2012. This is majorly because the number of Radio stations used for advertisement promotions have increased in numbers in 2014 & 2015.

  Since 2012, it can be observed that the advertisement contribution of Washing Materials range has increased over the years, whereas Detergent Cake/Bars & Washing Powder/ Liquids product groups witnessed lesser promotion over the years.

Similar to the Television platform, on Radio the top advertiser was Hindustan Lever Ltd., which held 39% share of the ad duration followed by Rohit Surfactants (30% share). Hindustan Lever Ltd. has increased their ad duration exponentially over the years. On the other hand, ad duration of Rohit Surfactants has remained constant in 2015 as compared to 2014.

Hindustan Lever Ltd. primarily focused on the advertisement of two product groups i.e. Washing Material Range & Washing Powders/Liquids. Advertisement duration of Washing Materials Range increased significantly in 2015, whereas the ad duration of Washing Powder/Liquids has slightly decreased in 2015.

 Among Washing Materials range product group, Vim range of products & Wheel Detergent Cake/Powder were promoted heavily in 2015, and in the Washing Powder/Liquid category, primary focus was on the Sunlight brand.

Over the years Hindustan Lever preferred Radio channels across the East Zone, but in 2015 ad durations increased across West Zone along with East Zone. This increase in ad duration in the West Zone included states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh & Maharashtra.

Another major advertiser on Radio was Rohit Surfactants, which primarily focused on advertisement of product group Washing Materials range under the brand Ghadi Detergent Cake/Powder in 2015. Preferred Radio stations for Rohit Surfactants were majorly in the North Zone & West Zone in 2015. Gujarat is the only state in which advertisement duration has increased unlike other states.

Print

                Over the years i.e. from 2012 till 2015, advertisement volume of laundry care category witnessed steady growth of 31% every year---from 3.30 million SQC to 7.41 million SQC.

Like the Radio platform, Washing Powders/ Liquids (63%) & Washing Material range (22%) are the only two product groups which were majorly promoted in Print.

Similar to Television & Radio platforms, Hindustan Lever Ltd. & Rohit Surfactants Ltd were the major advertisers. Over the years advertisement volumes of Hindustan Lever Ltd. increased exponentially in Print, whereas Rohit Surfactants increased its advertisement volumes steadily.

In year 2015, Hindustan Lever Ltd. focused their promotions on Surf Excel brand & Variants of Surf Excel i.e. Surf Excel Easy Wash, Surf Excelmatic, Surf Excel Quick Wash, Surf Excel Liquid and Surf Excel Stain Eraser. Moreover, HLL also increased promotions in all zones across the country.

In 2015, Rohit surfactants increased its focus on product group of Washing Material range and of brand Ghadi Detergent Cake/Powder in all zones across the country.

Source: TAM Media Research, analysis conducted by S group, an analytical arm of TAM Media Research

Data Sources: TAM AdEX

Period: Jan 2012 to Dec-2015

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