CASE STUDY CHALLENGE. Can Liril regain its equity?

The soap market in India is highly penetrated (98 per cent) with a multitude of brands. The market is estimated at Rs 10,000 crore in value. Lifebuoy is the number one soap brand in terms of marketshare, followed by Lux, Santoor, Dettol and Godrej No.1 in that order. (Ref table: Leading the market)

The two major segments in the soap market are beauty and health. Beauty is the bigger segment at Rs 5,000 crore but the health soap market, valued at Rs 3,000 crore, is the faster growing segment. The other segments are herbal/ayurvedic soaps and medicated soaps.

In terms of prices, the soap segments are:

Mass: Lifebuoy, Godrej No.1

Popular: Hamam, Medimix, Vivel, Lux

Premium: Dove, Fiama Di Wills, Mysore Sandal

Super Premium: Mysore Sandal Millennium Soap

Liril’s journey Liril as a brand is still quite prominent in the minds of the consumers in their 30s and 40s. The brand acquired celebrated status with pathbreaking advertising and public relations campaigns.

Launched in 1975, in its earlier years the soap was positioned on the platform of freshness from its lime ingredient. The visual cues of a waterfall, a woman bathing under it and a signature tune, were used to set the soap apart. Over the years, while the setting changed, the positioning and the depiction of the protagonist playfully enjoying the bathing experience, escaping reality and forgetting everything else has been maintained. Consequently, Liril garnered 14 per cent of the market at its peak and was among the top three soaps, along with Lifebuoy and Lux.

Its journey since then has, however, been chequered and today, Liril does not claim much consumer equity.

In 2005, as a result of the loss in its market share, Liril was re-launched as Liril 2000, a skincare soap for the whole family. The positioning was drawn from an international product in the Lever’s stable Lever2000. The belief was that ‘freshness’ had by then become a generic benefit in the soap category. The brand also experimented with variants and forms, with a shower gel in 1994, a cologne variant in 1996, Liril Rainfresh in 1999, and even Orange and Icy Blue variants, followed by Aloe Vera and Lemon – all of which met with little success. The brand continued to slide in both market share and the minds of consumers. Price-wise, Liril continues to be in the premium soap category and competes with the likes of Dove, Fiama Di Wills and Lux International.

History of the brand Liril was conceived by a group of young managers from HLL and advertising agency Lintas was instructed to create a freshness soap in the premium price segment. Their first attempt was a blue soap with the promise of fresh mountain breeze. This idea did not work too well in research. They then developed a green marbled soap with a lemon fragrance. The brand was launched in 1975 as a response to research which showed that the only private time available to the housewife was during her bath, when she could be away from the family, husband, mother-in-law and kids. The soap’s pitch was that she should then use this time to relax and try and escape into a world of fantasy.

Concept development by Lintas Lintas, the advertising agency that handled Liril, had to creatively execute the image of a woman escaping into fantasy during her bath. They came up with ‘a girl bathing under a waterfall’ concept.

Karen Lunel, an airhostess with Air India, was chosen as Liril’s first model. The advertisement was very bold for its time but was a roaring success. The Liril girl became an embodiment of an exciting life free of the mundane and established the brand as an aspirational possession for the Indian housewife. Liril, over the years, has come up with multiple product innovations like the shower gel in the early 1990s, a blue variant called Liril Rain Fresh in 1999, which was relaunched in April 2002 as Liril Icy Cool Mint Fresh and in 2004 as Liril Orange Splash.

Current Situation: The brand’s market share today is negligible and the soap has tumbled down from its number 3 position. In its latest avatar, Liril 2000 seems to be aimed at men with the claim of soft and healthy skin. All the launches in different product categories under the brand have failed. Currently, it has a market share of less than one per cent in soaps.

However, Unilever understands that in the current fragmented and highly competitive market of soaps, building a new brand is extremely tough. In the last 20 years, no other new brand, besides Dove, has had significant success in this category. The company would therefore like to revive the brand to be a significant player even if not to the level of its heyday.

The Task You are the Head of the soaps business at Unilever and you have been asked to either withdraw the brand, because of its poor market share, or work out a strategy to revive the brand and its fortunes in the market.

Analyse the brand’s current strategy and recommend to the business head what Unilever should do with Liril. Write in your recommendations to blcasestudies@thehindu.co.in in not more than 700 words. As this is a live brand, you can use secondary data available to further add to case facts. ( Contest Rules )

The writer, an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, runs Brand Vectors, a marketing consultancy. This case has been written purely for student analysis and does not claim factual accuracy. The figures, drawn from secondary research sources, are only inputs for respondents to devise strategy. The writer does not claim to have any first-hand information about the company mentioned here.