Description
This is a presentation explaining about the rexona brand building and repositioning.
BRAND MANAGEMENT
BRAND BUILDING
REXONA DEODORANTS
Submitted by: Abhimanyu Redhu (08101) Ajit Nafde (08102) Anisha Gopal (08108) Chaitra (08115) Tarun Mahendru (08160) Arvind Menon (08308)
Introduction Rexona deodorant originally created in Australia in 1900, is the largest deo brand in the world and the brand is estimated to be worth around Rs. 2000 crore and is available in 90 countries. Rexona is the brand that created the deodorant market in India. This brand is a classic case that proves the marketing ability of Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL). Deodorant market was virtually non-existent in India till 1995 except for a few international brands. Indian consumers were not conscious about their own odour and believed that body odour was the other person’s problem. So HLL had the task of building awareness of the need of the consumers to smell good. This Rexona achieved by educating the customers about the main source of odour. When the other brands like Baccarose talked in terms of aspirational features, Rexona talked about the rational benefits of the product. It was positioned along the baseline “har pal sath nibhaye”. Rexona was introduced initially in the form of Roll On and Stick and later moved on to aerosols. The sticks were priced smartly to induce the customers to try the products. The effective campaigns and smart pricing created a category of Deodorant market in India which zoomed to a Rs. 70 crore market in less than 3 year’s time. Rexona faced competition basically from grey market international brands like Brut. Rexona was perceived by Indian consumers as an Indian brand because of its presence in the soap category, which ironically, is available only in India. Because of the low pricing and its local association, Rexona faced the challenge of positioning itself as a premium deo. There are three types of deodorants: Body spray, alcohol based germ fighters and antiperspirants. Rexona falls into the third category. Rexona deodorant introduced lot of variants in order to create strategic pre-emption for the competition to enter the category. HLL also introduced AXE and Denim to further consolidate the position. Rexona Deodorant is now positioned as a unisex brand with the baseline “Won’t let you down”. It is highlighting the brand as world’s largest selling deo and the rational benefit of 24 hr protection.
Performance over the past years
1
In 2007, FMCG major Hindustan Lever (HLL) aimed at making Rexona deodorant a 30 million
(Rs 173 crore) brand over the next three years. Globally, Rexona is a 1 billion brand in 2007 and has a user base of 3.5 million people. The current domestic organized deodorant market in India is valued at Rs 178 crore and has been growing at close to 30 per cent. Of this, Rexona enjoys a 9 per cent of the market, while Axe, the other deo brand from HLL, is the market leader with 33 per cent share. Rexona brand is expected to grow at 72 per cent in the current year, largely backed by the new campaigns and strategies. Rexona has also signed on actor Preity Zinta as its brand ambassador. Unilever’s INR 55 billion ($1.36 billion) brand – Rexona, internationally spans across 90 markets worldwide commanding 14.5% share of the global deodorant market. In India, as one of the pioneer brands of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Rexona was worth INR 1.78 billion in 2006. With an annual growth rate of 28%, Rexona continued to compete as one of the core brands in HUL’s brand portfolio. Recent successful strategies Following are few of the strategies that have helped Rexona to establish itself as a brand in the past couple of years. February 2007: Preity Zinta is announced the brand ambassador for Rexona Deodorant The campaign with Preity called upon consumers to be ready and not risk body odour. Preity was associated with the roll on variants, Free spirit for women and Ice cool for men. Rexona being global market leader in deodorants category worldwide; selecting Preity Zinta as the brand ambassador for Rexona only enhanced its iconic status. According to executives at Rexona; ‘Preity embodies what Rexona Roll on stands for- confidence, passion and an active uninhibited lifestyle. A trendsetter and a versatile woman, she exhibits immense confidence in handling tricky situations effortlessly and makes the most of opportunities. Brand Rexona and Preity are a perfect fit given the complete synergies in attributes like confidence, achievement orientation and
1
Source:BS Reporter / Mumbai February 23, 2007
readiness to capitalize on unexpected opportunities. Preity Zinta as the brand ambassador was chosen for Rexona Roll with an aim to build salience for the brand Rexona and establish it as a top efficacy product that delivers on its promise of absolute dependability to fight body odour. 2008: Killing of Rexona Soap brand When they introduced Rexona Deo in the Indian market, the consumer had the tendency to always associate the Deodorant with the Soap (which was more down market). The down market feeling of a bathing soap had a severe effect on Rexona Deo, as people perceived it to be an ordinary Deo compared to other newly introduced Deodorants with exotic names. Rexona Deo was the first "made for mass" deodorant in the Indian market, but they couldn't really leverage it when other FMCG's introduced their Deodorants. Killing the soap brand helped Rexona deo give more focus as there is no soap variant. Sept 2009: Outdoor advertising as media for targeting women who love fragrances. With the creative support from Lowe Ginkgo, Montevideo, Rexona created a poster with samples of its fragrances. The poster invites women to remove a sample and keep it. Each week, the slips of paper were replaced with new perfumed ones. Task: The market segment of deodorants and antiperspirants for women had become stagnant lately, according to a research. Hence, Rexona decided to launch a campaign that would stimulate the product category in whole. Solution: A provocative campaign "Rexona for Women" that included a two-stage campaign about research in the world of "unpleasing smells" and offering an easy solution to the problem, so that one could recover confidence and attractiveness. A number of different communication channels were used, from distribution of press releases with research results to agents of influence in the Internet and virus distribution of a creative-charged video clip.
Results: Even the first wave of the "shocking" campaign aroused an active reaction. It was discussed in various interactive media like radio and at websites. In print and online media there appeared more than 30 publications about Rexona. Agents of influence on the web initiated discussions and the spam flash video that was launched at the final stage of the project brought out an unprecedented reaction of the audience and gathered more than 3.6 thousand references and 95 thousand pages where the brand was mentioned. It covered the audience of more than 2 million people and resulted in rocketing growth of Rexona deodorants and its market share. Rexona: Brand Elements Benefits: The primary benefit of the product is protection of the user from body odour and the secondary benefit is the good smell aura around the user which is generally helpful in improving the quality of your presence. Another benefit is that it comes in 2 forms, one being the sleek can and the second being the small and easy to carry roll on stick. Features: On the aspect of internal features the main ingredient of the deodorant is Aluminium Zirconium Tetrachlorohydrex Gly. This is the core ingredient for most of the popular deodorants. The product has many features which a lot of their competitors have not been able to perfect. Studies show that there are two types of sweat generate different chemicals and odors from different glands in the body. Cooling sweat is created all over the body, but sweat from emotional strain is created in fewer, more specific sites, including under the arms. Rexona has a formula to address both types of sweat. Some of the other features include: a. b. c. d. e. A good aroma while not being too strong Long lasting effects Reduction of sweat and body odour Reasonable price Ability to blend with and not clash with other perfumes that may be used along with the
product
Process: With regards to the functioning and way of use this product comes in 2 forms which are the spray can and the deodorant stick. These are generally the only two forms in which deodorants are available in the market and Rexona has its presence in both the segments Package: Rexona does not go for fancy or flashy packaging formats and just like their ad campaigns they focus purely on being a down to earth product that just prevents body odour and makes you smell good. The base color generally used in packaging is white with either blue or pink writing for womens deodorant while for mens deodorant they use a grey base color with writing and designs in metallic colors of black blue and green Accessories: So far they have not used any free accessories for pushing their sales Brand name: The brand is under the Anglo-Saxon conglomerate of Unilever and it is known as “Sure” in countries like UK implying that you can be sure you will not reek of body odour. Rexona the brand name is synonymous with a standard product that does its job and lets you smell good unlike most other deodorants who try to position themselves as being irresistible to members of the opposite sex Rexona just focuses on letting you smell good. It is also considered to be a reasonably priced product which will not over-charge you so an element of honesty is present in the “Rexona” brand name. Logo: synonymous with its other name “sure” the logo is a tick symbol surrounded by a clock implying you surety of smelling good around the clock Character: Positioned as a satisfactory product with an inexpensive price tag Slogan: “Har pal saath nibhaye”: which translated means that every second it is there with you which is in line with its positioning and logo. Loyal Customers Rexona is one of the most popular deodorants amongst the youngsters. Since it has variety of products and is tailored in such a way to meet the demands of both gender, Youngster ( College going) and also young professionals who spend their entire day at work ( office, factory ) are the ones who are regular user of the Rexona. Rexona are targeting millions of people in low-income markets, such as Asia, to enjoy the brand's benefits via affordable mini-sticks, mini-roll-ons and
sachets of deodorant lotions, and they are spreading awareness of hygiene and body odour through various programs hence this has increased their demands in tropical places where the people sweat a lot and require deodorants to get rid of body odour. People who travel a lot also are loyal customers of Rexona. As they are available in mini sticks/rolls, it becomes handy for the customer to carry it wherever they travel. Single most Compelling factor The single most compelling factor for buying the Rexona deodorant is that it is” safe” for the skin , that is the does not cause any irritation or blackening of the underarm pit and as Rexona is rightly positioned as a deodorant which lasts longer than the other deodorants. Rexona’s current positioning: Positioning Statement: “Rexona with its unique active ingredients provides 24-hours protection against body odor and underarm wetness to help keep one physically fresh and mentally confident, even in the toughest moments.” The positioning highlights: 1. Presence of Rexona's unique body-responsive technology, which releases extra protection. 2. Long lasting deodorant, will not let down its customers. 3. Only deodorant tailored to the needs of both sexes, with separate product ranges for each. It is positioned with the following sets of benefits for the consumers: Core benefit: provides a good body odor. Actual Product: flavor (ice cool, mini free spirit, active reserve), brand name (Rexona), styles (body spray & roll on). Augmented product: 24- hours’ freshness guarantee.
Content analysis of the latest advertisement of this brand: The last campaign had 2 advertisements released by Rexona, one for the male segment and another for the female segment: Male segment: The popular hunk of the college who is everybody’s hero is walking through a college corridor waving to people after he has passed by a group of girls stop, giggle and say “now the hero has become zero” because of body odour and also that this makes him smell like a goat. Then they go onto explain that body odour is caused due to sweat and bacteria mixing together and Rexona protects you from this around the clock. This is followed by the scene again switching to the girls saying that even if you are a hero body odour makes you a zero. This is predominantly targeted at the college going youth segment and focuses on everybody’s desire to be popular. Female segment: This is an ad with a star focus on Preity Zinta and shows her walking outdoors with a fishbowl and bumping into a guy after whom the fishbowl flies up due to impact. Then she goes on to say that you can’t be prepared for everything but you can be prepared for body odour by using Rexona. This is also followed by an unusual element of them showing the price of the product hence focusing on the value for money aspect of it. Traditionally Rexona advertisements in India have always focused on the long lasting effect of Rexona roll on and spray deodorants. When the other brands talked in terms of aspirational features, Rexona talked about the rational benefits of the product such as relief from body odour and so on. It was positioned along the baseline “Har pal sath nibhaye”. Rexona was introduced initially in the form of Roll On and Stick and later to aerosols. The roll on stick was priced cheap to induce people into the habit of using deodorants and the early ad focused on Rexona deodorant as a utility product.
Later on Rexona introduced several product variants in the spray category and continued the focus on the long lasting fragrance of the deodorant. The recent ad of Rexona • • • • Focuses on cool breezy fragrance of the spray deodorant Makes use of light colours in the ad like blue and pink to give a feeling of freshness Highlights packaging of the deodorant – done to give a soft, light product effect Targets teenagers with youngsters dominating the ads rather than working professional • Emphasizes on the freshness of fragrance
Even in the case of Rexona For Men, it has gone for a soft and gentle product packaging and made use of pink & blue colours for product packaging and advertising. This may be one of the reasons why the brand did not gain much popularity in that segment and more sporty brands like Adidas or stylish brands like Axe are much more popular.
Apart from this, the latest ad, like all other ads carries the ‘check mark’ logo of Rexona prominently and symbolizes the fresh check for fragrance of the deodorant. Weakness/problems of Rexona Of the current Indian deodorant market, HUL claims a huge 70 percent market share with a bevy of deodorant brands under its umbrella including Axe, Rexona, Denim and Impulse. Yet, even though HUL brought the concept of deodorant in India with the popular global brand ‘Rexona’ in 1995, Rexona currently enjoys a meager 9 percent of the market, while Axe, the other deodorant brand from HLL, is the market leader with 33 per cent share. It is evident that Rexona, as a brand has not achieved a significant market share in the deodorant segment and newer brands like Axe have over-taken Rexona. During the late 90s, one of the biggest problems Rexona faced was competition from grey market - international brands like Brut and Adidas. While the culture of deodorant and body spray as an essential lifestyle commodity was yet picking up in the semi-urban India, popular international brands of deodorant were easily available in up-market stores in the larger cities. They were even priced competitively and ate up a major share of the market.
Even after more than a decade of shelf presence in the retail stores, Rexona remains a somewhat under-penetrated product and the major reason behind it is the shift of focus of HUL from Rexona to Axe. HUL went for a major publicity and promotional campaign for Axe looking at its gaining popularity and as a result Rexona lost visibility and consumer attention. The brand also lacked a celebrity endorsement and needed a boost of advertising to increase its market share. Yet another problem faced by the brand Rexona was the fact that it was perceived by Indian consumers as an Indian brand because of its presence in the soap category. Ironically, the Rexona soap is available only in India. Because of the low pricing and its local association, Rexona could not be positioned as a premium deodorant and thus the urban self-conscious consumers had the tendency to go after popular international brands. From the product perspective, sprays are the popular format as more than one person in the household can use them; contact sticks and roll-ons, popular abroad, are seen as very personal and hence, haven’t done well. They are also perceived to be sticky. However, HUL is attempting to build this category.
Rexona – Brand Repositioning Factor Analysis: We conducted three focus group discussions to discuss various attributes that is important for deodorants users. Based on the FGD’s we shortlisted 14 factors. We asked respondents to fill the survey based on these 14 factors. The data collected was used for factor analysis using SPSS. The results are shown below:
As shown from scree plot above, there are 5 factors that have Eigen value greater than 1. Therefore using factor analysis we have reduced the number of factors to 5 from existing fifteen factors.
The above matrix shows the fifteen factors and the reduced 5 factors obtained as a result of factor analysis. The factors which are shown with bubbles are the attributes considered for the respective factor. The five factors obtained are: 1. Branding: This factor is a combination of Brand Image of the deodorant, Packaging of deodorant and the advertising and promotion of the deodorant. 2. Past Experience: This factor is based upon the past experience of the user for deodorants. 3. Product Quality: The third factor is a combination of two factors i.e., Deodorant Skin Friendly attribute and Type of Application for the deodorant.
4. Performance: The fourth factor is a combination of fragrance of the deodorant and the long lasting attribute of a deodorant. 5. Price: The fifth factor is based on the price of the deodorant. Perceptual Mapping A perceptual map is the output to multidimensional scaling. Perceptual mapping helps you find out how your brand is positioned as compared to your competitors. Perceptual mapping is a process by which consumers' perceptions of an existing product are mapped. Consumers based on their experience of the product tell how the product should be. The responses are plotted on a graph, and the results are used to modify the product or even develop a new product. Perceptual maps may be used for market segmentation, concept development and evaluation, and tracking changes in marketplace perceptions among other uses. The brands considered in our case were Axe, Rexona, Nivea, Fa, Zatak and Wildstone. The attributes considered were Branding, Performance, Product Quality, Price and Past Experience. The rating of these attributes was to be done on Likert scale of 1-7. The data was then anaysed using SPSS and discriminant analysis was done. The output for the canonical discriminant function is shown below.
According to the output of attribute based perceptual mapping, the following factors are placed along the x-axis and y-axis. Now relative to the position of brand on the given axis and the corresponding factor, it is understood that whether a given brand is perceived good or bad. The findings of this graph suggests following key points: Brand Axe is rated or perceived as the best brand in terms of branding. As mentioned the factor branding is composed of three attributes i.e. promotion, packaging, etc. Thus it can be concluded that brand Axe is able to create an impact on the consumer with an effective communication strategy. The same can not be said about brand Rexona, as it has failed to break through the clutter and create a position for itself among the competitors.
-
Brand Rexona is rated or perceived highly in terms of its pricing. The consumers of this brand consider it as value for money product. On the flip side, factor price is not that important for consumers while making the purchase decision. ( although this finding is limited to our research sample i.e. TAPMI students)
-
As revealed during the survey, most of the customers had a very good past experience associated with brand Axe. This is very important in inducing repeat purchase and thus creating loyal customers while the trend is not favorable for brand Rexona.
-
The brand Axe is the highest rated brand for attribute performance which includes factors like long lasting effect, quality & effectiveness of fragrance, etc. As the consumer is becoming more aware and conscious about his choices, this factor, being associated with utility aspect of deodorant, plays a major role in consumer purchase decision. Brand Rexona is neither rated highly nor rated low on this factor.
Conjoint Analysis Conjoint Analysis is a multivariate technique that is used to captures the utility that an individual customer puts on various attributes of the product offering. After knowing utility levels for each attribute, we can find the best combination of attributes that gives the customer the highest utility, the second best combination that gives the second highest utility, and so on. For conducting the Factor Analysis we initially considered 15 initial attributes which were grouped into 5 factors after the analysis. The 5 factors were namely Branding, Past Experience, Product Quality, Performance and Price. For our conjoint analysis we considered 3 factors through our qualitative judgment and logical reasoning which are Price, Range and Type of Application. Different levels were considered for the 3 attributes are given below 1. Price comprised of Less than Rs 150 (Low range) Rs 150 – Rs 300 (Medium range) Greater than Rs 300 (Premium range) 2. Range (Based on availability of deodorants in different variants like fresh, cool etc) comprised of Fresh & Active
Style (Cool) Sports 3. Type of Application Spray Roll On Taking into account 3 attributes two with 3 sub-ranges and 1 with 2 sub-ranges, a total of 3x3x2=18 combinations are formed. But we have considered only 6 practical combinations. Thus the respondents were given questionnaire were they were supposed to rank the 6 combinations on the basis of their preference and liking. (Please refer to the questionnaire in the appendix) Result of Conjoint Analysis For our analysis the conjoint analysis was run as a Regression Model. Different codes were assumed for various levels of attributes for a regression run. The coding of attribute levels for this purpose is known as ‘effects coding’. The 3 levels of Price are coded as follows: Less than Rs. 150 Between Rs. 150 to 300 Above Rs. 300 0 -1 1 -1 1 0
The 3 levels of Range are coded as follows: Low range Medium range High range 1 0 -1 0 1 -1
The 2 levels of Type of Application are coded as follows: Spray Roll On 1 0 0 1
Combined Utility Value: After the survey these following combinations had the highest utility value among the respondents.
Price Option 1 Option 2 Between Rs. 150-300 Less than Rs. 150
Range
Type of Application
Value
Sports
Spray
4.2131
Sports
Roll – On
3.8735
•
Based on the above result, we can say that the best combination is the Sports range which is priced between Rs. 150-300 and the type of application is Spray. The utility value for the best option is 4.2131
•
The second option is the deodorant in Sports range with roll on technology priced at below Rs. 150. The utility value for this option is 3.8735.
Modified Target Segment: New target segment identified for Rexona would be same for the original range of products. But for India; young sports enthusiasts and fitness freaks from the age group of 16-34 years have been identified as the addition to the description of the current target segment. This target segment has been long ignored by current players like Wildstone, Axe, Vanesa etc in India. Current brands targeting these segments are Adidas, Nike etc. who are not branding intensively.
Modified Positioning: Rexona has proved its success in the current available Rexona deo ranges available in India. Though Rexona Sports has been branded heavily in Western countries, especially in Australia with Ricky Ponting as the brand ambassador, it has immense potential in the Indian context, especially, for its price and lack of brands targeting this segment. Rexona has been a successful and proven deodorant brand with long-lasting properties and available at economical prices. Leveraging on its brand reliability, the new positioning "A sporty deodorant for the self conscious male" aims at targeting the untapped market of Indian males who are sporty, adventurous, health conscious and fitness freaks (rational need for protection from body odour from excessive outdoor physical activities like sporting, exercising etc.) but at the same time are self-conscious (hedonistic need to be accepted in the society). The new brand positioning would be aligned to the campaign in Australia, so as to encourage Indian men to play more sports, so that the more sports they play, the more they sweat and the more they buy and use Rexona Sports Deo.,
Modified Ad content The new advertising campaign for Rexona will be more sporty and active in look and feel. The product packaging as well as the ad concept will be more sport and youth driven. Even celebrity endorsement will be by a popular sportsman instead of Bollywood celelebrity or popular fashion models. The product will be positioned as a sporty deodorant for the self-conscious youth of today who take the business of staying fit seriously and body odour being a part of personal grooming becomes a part of overall fitness for them. The product packaging will be attractive and flashy with the use of sporty metallic colours of yellow, silver and orange. The ad itself is very dynamic and visually appealing with a popular sports-man like Sachin Tendulkar featuring in the ad. The copy of the ad will also be something catchy and bold like “Are you Game?” as opposed to “Har pal saath nibhaye”
Modified Product Brief The product brief and brand elements remain the same, except for the introduction of a new range of the product. The new range of product is targets at the Indian male who are sporty, adventurous, health conscious and fitness freaks. Package: The packaging of the new product range will be different from the regular Rexona. The product will have a “Sporty” look, appealing to the Indian male. The colours used are mainly yellow and black to give a tough look rather than the pink /blue. Accessories: To promote the new product, Rexona sweat-o-meter is given free along with the Rexona deodorants. Brand name: The basic feature of the Rexona of long lasting will still be the one of the main features of the new product range but along with it, the product focuses on the freshness. The Rexona will be now being presented as “Rexona Sport”.
Logo: synonymous with its other name “sure” the logo is a tick symbol surrounded by a clock implying you surety of smelling good around the clock Character: Positioned as a satisfactory product with an inexpensive price tag Slogan: “Are you Game”
doc_444547810.pdf
This is a presentation explaining about the rexona brand building and repositioning.
BRAND MANAGEMENT
BRAND BUILDING
REXONA DEODORANTS
Submitted by: Abhimanyu Redhu (08101) Ajit Nafde (08102) Anisha Gopal (08108) Chaitra (08115) Tarun Mahendru (08160) Arvind Menon (08308)
Introduction Rexona deodorant originally created in Australia in 1900, is the largest deo brand in the world and the brand is estimated to be worth around Rs. 2000 crore and is available in 90 countries. Rexona is the brand that created the deodorant market in India. This brand is a classic case that proves the marketing ability of Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL). Deodorant market was virtually non-existent in India till 1995 except for a few international brands. Indian consumers were not conscious about their own odour and believed that body odour was the other person’s problem. So HLL had the task of building awareness of the need of the consumers to smell good. This Rexona achieved by educating the customers about the main source of odour. When the other brands like Baccarose talked in terms of aspirational features, Rexona talked about the rational benefits of the product. It was positioned along the baseline “har pal sath nibhaye”. Rexona was introduced initially in the form of Roll On and Stick and later moved on to aerosols. The sticks were priced smartly to induce the customers to try the products. The effective campaigns and smart pricing created a category of Deodorant market in India which zoomed to a Rs. 70 crore market in less than 3 year’s time. Rexona faced competition basically from grey market international brands like Brut. Rexona was perceived by Indian consumers as an Indian brand because of its presence in the soap category, which ironically, is available only in India. Because of the low pricing and its local association, Rexona faced the challenge of positioning itself as a premium deo. There are three types of deodorants: Body spray, alcohol based germ fighters and antiperspirants. Rexona falls into the third category. Rexona deodorant introduced lot of variants in order to create strategic pre-emption for the competition to enter the category. HLL also introduced AXE and Denim to further consolidate the position. Rexona Deodorant is now positioned as a unisex brand with the baseline “Won’t let you down”. It is highlighting the brand as world’s largest selling deo and the rational benefit of 24 hr protection.
Performance over the past years
1
In 2007, FMCG major Hindustan Lever (HLL) aimed at making Rexona deodorant a 30 million
(Rs 173 crore) brand over the next three years. Globally, Rexona is a 1 billion brand in 2007 and has a user base of 3.5 million people. The current domestic organized deodorant market in India is valued at Rs 178 crore and has been growing at close to 30 per cent. Of this, Rexona enjoys a 9 per cent of the market, while Axe, the other deo brand from HLL, is the market leader with 33 per cent share. Rexona brand is expected to grow at 72 per cent in the current year, largely backed by the new campaigns and strategies. Rexona has also signed on actor Preity Zinta as its brand ambassador. Unilever’s INR 55 billion ($1.36 billion) brand – Rexona, internationally spans across 90 markets worldwide commanding 14.5% share of the global deodorant market. In India, as one of the pioneer brands of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Rexona was worth INR 1.78 billion in 2006. With an annual growth rate of 28%, Rexona continued to compete as one of the core brands in HUL’s brand portfolio. Recent successful strategies Following are few of the strategies that have helped Rexona to establish itself as a brand in the past couple of years. February 2007: Preity Zinta is announced the brand ambassador for Rexona Deodorant The campaign with Preity called upon consumers to be ready and not risk body odour. Preity was associated with the roll on variants, Free spirit for women and Ice cool for men. Rexona being global market leader in deodorants category worldwide; selecting Preity Zinta as the brand ambassador for Rexona only enhanced its iconic status. According to executives at Rexona; ‘Preity embodies what Rexona Roll on stands for- confidence, passion and an active uninhibited lifestyle. A trendsetter and a versatile woman, she exhibits immense confidence in handling tricky situations effortlessly and makes the most of opportunities. Brand Rexona and Preity are a perfect fit given the complete synergies in attributes like confidence, achievement orientation and
1
Source:BS Reporter / Mumbai February 23, 2007
readiness to capitalize on unexpected opportunities. Preity Zinta as the brand ambassador was chosen for Rexona Roll with an aim to build salience for the brand Rexona and establish it as a top efficacy product that delivers on its promise of absolute dependability to fight body odour. 2008: Killing of Rexona Soap brand When they introduced Rexona Deo in the Indian market, the consumer had the tendency to always associate the Deodorant with the Soap (which was more down market). The down market feeling of a bathing soap had a severe effect on Rexona Deo, as people perceived it to be an ordinary Deo compared to other newly introduced Deodorants with exotic names. Rexona Deo was the first "made for mass" deodorant in the Indian market, but they couldn't really leverage it when other FMCG's introduced their Deodorants. Killing the soap brand helped Rexona deo give more focus as there is no soap variant. Sept 2009: Outdoor advertising as media for targeting women who love fragrances. With the creative support from Lowe Ginkgo, Montevideo, Rexona created a poster with samples of its fragrances. The poster invites women to remove a sample and keep it. Each week, the slips of paper were replaced with new perfumed ones. Task: The market segment of deodorants and antiperspirants for women had become stagnant lately, according to a research. Hence, Rexona decided to launch a campaign that would stimulate the product category in whole. Solution: A provocative campaign "Rexona for Women" that included a two-stage campaign about research in the world of "unpleasing smells" and offering an easy solution to the problem, so that one could recover confidence and attractiveness. A number of different communication channels were used, from distribution of press releases with research results to agents of influence in the Internet and virus distribution of a creative-charged video clip.
Results: Even the first wave of the "shocking" campaign aroused an active reaction. It was discussed in various interactive media like radio and at websites. In print and online media there appeared more than 30 publications about Rexona. Agents of influence on the web initiated discussions and the spam flash video that was launched at the final stage of the project brought out an unprecedented reaction of the audience and gathered more than 3.6 thousand references and 95 thousand pages where the brand was mentioned. It covered the audience of more than 2 million people and resulted in rocketing growth of Rexona deodorants and its market share. Rexona: Brand Elements Benefits: The primary benefit of the product is protection of the user from body odour and the secondary benefit is the good smell aura around the user which is generally helpful in improving the quality of your presence. Another benefit is that it comes in 2 forms, one being the sleek can and the second being the small and easy to carry roll on stick. Features: On the aspect of internal features the main ingredient of the deodorant is Aluminium Zirconium Tetrachlorohydrex Gly. This is the core ingredient for most of the popular deodorants. The product has many features which a lot of their competitors have not been able to perfect. Studies show that there are two types of sweat generate different chemicals and odors from different glands in the body. Cooling sweat is created all over the body, but sweat from emotional strain is created in fewer, more specific sites, including under the arms. Rexona has a formula to address both types of sweat. Some of the other features include: a. b. c. d. e. A good aroma while not being too strong Long lasting effects Reduction of sweat and body odour Reasonable price Ability to blend with and not clash with other perfumes that may be used along with the
product
Process: With regards to the functioning and way of use this product comes in 2 forms which are the spray can and the deodorant stick. These are generally the only two forms in which deodorants are available in the market and Rexona has its presence in both the segments Package: Rexona does not go for fancy or flashy packaging formats and just like their ad campaigns they focus purely on being a down to earth product that just prevents body odour and makes you smell good. The base color generally used in packaging is white with either blue or pink writing for womens deodorant while for mens deodorant they use a grey base color with writing and designs in metallic colors of black blue and green Accessories: So far they have not used any free accessories for pushing their sales Brand name: The brand is under the Anglo-Saxon conglomerate of Unilever and it is known as “Sure” in countries like UK implying that you can be sure you will not reek of body odour. Rexona the brand name is synonymous with a standard product that does its job and lets you smell good unlike most other deodorants who try to position themselves as being irresistible to members of the opposite sex Rexona just focuses on letting you smell good. It is also considered to be a reasonably priced product which will not over-charge you so an element of honesty is present in the “Rexona” brand name. Logo: synonymous with its other name “sure” the logo is a tick symbol surrounded by a clock implying you surety of smelling good around the clock Character: Positioned as a satisfactory product with an inexpensive price tag Slogan: “Har pal saath nibhaye”: which translated means that every second it is there with you which is in line with its positioning and logo. Loyal Customers Rexona is one of the most popular deodorants amongst the youngsters. Since it has variety of products and is tailored in such a way to meet the demands of both gender, Youngster ( College going) and also young professionals who spend their entire day at work ( office, factory ) are the ones who are regular user of the Rexona. Rexona are targeting millions of people in low-income markets, such as Asia, to enjoy the brand's benefits via affordable mini-sticks, mini-roll-ons and
sachets of deodorant lotions, and they are spreading awareness of hygiene and body odour through various programs hence this has increased their demands in tropical places where the people sweat a lot and require deodorants to get rid of body odour. People who travel a lot also are loyal customers of Rexona. As they are available in mini sticks/rolls, it becomes handy for the customer to carry it wherever they travel. Single most Compelling factor The single most compelling factor for buying the Rexona deodorant is that it is” safe” for the skin , that is the does not cause any irritation or blackening of the underarm pit and as Rexona is rightly positioned as a deodorant which lasts longer than the other deodorants. Rexona’s current positioning: Positioning Statement: “Rexona with its unique active ingredients provides 24-hours protection against body odor and underarm wetness to help keep one physically fresh and mentally confident, even in the toughest moments.” The positioning highlights: 1. Presence of Rexona's unique body-responsive technology, which releases extra protection. 2. Long lasting deodorant, will not let down its customers. 3. Only deodorant tailored to the needs of both sexes, with separate product ranges for each. It is positioned with the following sets of benefits for the consumers: Core benefit: provides a good body odor. Actual Product: flavor (ice cool, mini free spirit, active reserve), brand name (Rexona), styles (body spray & roll on). Augmented product: 24- hours’ freshness guarantee.
Content analysis of the latest advertisement of this brand: The last campaign had 2 advertisements released by Rexona, one for the male segment and another for the female segment: Male segment: The popular hunk of the college who is everybody’s hero is walking through a college corridor waving to people after he has passed by a group of girls stop, giggle and say “now the hero has become zero” because of body odour and also that this makes him smell like a goat. Then they go onto explain that body odour is caused due to sweat and bacteria mixing together and Rexona protects you from this around the clock. This is followed by the scene again switching to the girls saying that even if you are a hero body odour makes you a zero. This is predominantly targeted at the college going youth segment and focuses on everybody’s desire to be popular. Female segment: This is an ad with a star focus on Preity Zinta and shows her walking outdoors with a fishbowl and bumping into a guy after whom the fishbowl flies up due to impact. Then she goes on to say that you can’t be prepared for everything but you can be prepared for body odour by using Rexona. This is also followed by an unusual element of them showing the price of the product hence focusing on the value for money aspect of it. Traditionally Rexona advertisements in India have always focused on the long lasting effect of Rexona roll on and spray deodorants. When the other brands talked in terms of aspirational features, Rexona talked about the rational benefits of the product such as relief from body odour and so on. It was positioned along the baseline “Har pal sath nibhaye”. Rexona was introduced initially in the form of Roll On and Stick and later to aerosols. The roll on stick was priced cheap to induce people into the habit of using deodorants and the early ad focused on Rexona deodorant as a utility product.
Later on Rexona introduced several product variants in the spray category and continued the focus on the long lasting fragrance of the deodorant. The recent ad of Rexona • • • • Focuses on cool breezy fragrance of the spray deodorant Makes use of light colours in the ad like blue and pink to give a feeling of freshness Highlights packaging of the deodorant – done to give a soft, light product effect Targets teenagers with youngsters dominating the ads rather than working professional • Emphasizes on the freshness of fragrance
Even in the case of Rexona For Men, it has gone for a soft and gentle product packaging and made use of pink & blue colours for product packaging and advertising. This may be one of the reasons why the brand did not gain much popularity in that segment and more sporty brands like Adidas or stylish brands like Axe are much more popular.
Apart from this, the latest ad, like all other ads carries the ‘check mark’ logo of Rexona prominently and symbolizes the fresh check for fragrance of the deodorant. Weakness/problems of Rexona Of the current Indian deodorant market, HUL claims a huge 70 percent market share with a bevy of deodorant brands under its umbrella including Axe, Rexona, Denim and Impulse. Yet, even though HUL brought the concept of deodorant in India with the popular global brand ‘Rexona’ in 1995, Rexona currently enjoys a meager 9 percent of the market, while Axe, the other deodorant brand from HLL, is the market leader with 33 per cent share. It is evident that Rexona, as a brand has not achieved a significant market share in the deodorant segment and newer brands like Axe have over-taken Rexona. During the late 90s, one of the biggest problems Rexona faced was competition from grey market - international brands like Brut and Adidas. While the culture of deodorant and body spray as an essential lifestyle commodity was yet picking up in the semi-urban India, popular international brands of deodorant were easily available in up-market stores in the larger cities. They were even priced competitively and ate up a major share of the market.
Even after more than a decade of shelf presence in the retail stores, Rexona remains a somewhat under-penetrated product and the major reason behind it is the shift of focus of HUL from Rexona to Axe. HUL went for a major publicity and promotional campaign for Axe looking at its gaining popularity and as a result Rexona lost visibility and consumer attention. The brand also lacked a celebrity endorsement and needed a boost of advertising to increase its market share. Yet another problem faced by the brand Rexona was the fact that it was perceived by Indian consumers as an Indian brand because of its presence in the soap category. Ironically, the Rexona soap is available only in India. Because of the low pricing and its local association, Rexona could not be positioned as a premium deodorant and thus the urban self-conscious consumers had the tendency to go after popular international brands. From the product perspective, sprays are the popular format as more than one person in the household can use them; contact sticks and roll-ons, popular abroad, are seen as very personal and hence, haven’t done well. They are also perceived to be sticky. However, HUL is attempting to build this category.
Rexona – Brand Repositioning Factor Analysis: We conducted three focus group discussions to discuss various attributes that is important for deodorants users. Based on the FGD’s we shortlisted 14 factors. We asked respondents to fill the survey based on these 14 factors. The data collected was used for factor analysis using SPSS. The results are shown below:
As shown from scree plot above, there are 5 factors that have Eigen value greater than 1. Therefore using factor analysis we have reduced the number of factors to 5 from existing fifteen factors.
The above matrix shows the fifteen factors and the reduced 5 factors obtained as a result of factor analysis. The factors which are shown with bubbles are the attributes considered for the respective factor. The five factors obtained are: 1. Branding: This factor is a combination of Brand Image of the deodorant, Packaging of deodorant and the advertising and promotion of the deodorant. 2. Past Experience: This factor is based upon the past experience of the user for deodorants. 3. Product Quality: The third factor is a combination of two factors i.e., Deodorant Skin Friendly attribute and Type of Application for the deodorant.
4. Performance: The fourth factor is a combination of fragrance of the deodorant and the long lasting attribute of a deodorant. 5. Price: The fifth factor is based on the price of the deodorant. Perceptual Mapping A perceptual map is the output to multidimensional scaling. Perceptual mapping helps you find out how your brand is positioned as compared to your competitors. Perceptual mapping is a process by which consumers' perceptions of an existing product are mapped. Consumers based on their experience of the product tell how the product should be. The responses are plotted on a graph, and the results are used to modify the product or even develop a new product. Perceptual maps may be used for market segmentation, concept development and evaluation, and tracking changes in marketplace perceptions among other uses. The brands considered in our case were Axe, Rexona, Nivea, Fa, Zatak and Wildstone. The attributes considered were Branding, Performance, Product Quality, Price and Past Experience. The rating of these attributes was to be done on Likert scale of 1-7. The data was then anaysed using SPSS and discriminant analysis was done. The output for the canonical discriminant function is shown below.
According to the output of attribute based perceptual mapping, the following factors are placed along the x-axis and y-axis. Now relative to the position of brand on the given axis and the corresponding factor, it is understood that whether a given brand is perceived good or bad. The findings of this graph suggests following key points: Brand Axe is rated or perceived as the best brand in terms of branding. As mentioned the factor branding is composed of three attributes i.e. promotion, packaging, etc. Thus it can be concluded that brand Axe is able to create an impact on the consumer with an effective communication strategy. The same can not be said about brand Rexona, as it has failed to break through the clutter and create a position for itself among the competitors.
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Brand Rexona is rated or perceived highly in terms of its pricing. The consumers of this brand consider it as value for money product. On the flip side, factor price is not that important for consumers while making the purchase decision. ( although this finding is limited to our research sample i.e. TAPMI students)
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As revealed during the survey, most of the customers had a very good past experience associated with brand Axe. This is very important in inducing repeat purchase and thus creating loyal customers while the trend is not favorable for brand Rexona.
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The brand Axe is the highest rated brand for attribute performance which includes factors like long lasting effect, quality & effectiveness of fragrance, etc. As the consumer is becoming more aware and conscious about his choices, this factor, being associated with utility aspect of deodorant, plays a major role in consumer purchase decision. Brand Rexona is neither rated highly nor rated low on this factor.
Conjoint Analysis Conjoint Analysis is a multivariate technique that is used to captures the utility that an individual customer puts on various attributes of the product offering. After knowing utility levels for each attribute, we can find the best combination of attributes that gives the customer the highest utility, the second best combination that gives the second highest utility, and so on. For conducting the Factor Analysis we initially considered 15 initial attributes which were grouped into 5 factors after the analysis. The 5 factors were namely Branding, Past Experience, Product Quality, Performance and Price. For our conjoint analysis we considered 3 factors through our qualitative judgment and logical reasoning which are Price, Range and Type of Application. Different levels were considered for the 3 attributes are given below 1. Price comprised of Less than Rs 150 (Low range) Rs 150 – Rs 300 (Medium range) Greater than Rs 300 (Premium range) 2. Range (Based on availability of deodorants in different variants like fresh, cool etc) comprised of Fresh & Active
Style (Cool) Sports 3. Type of Application Spray Roll On Taking into account 3 attributes two with 3 sub-ranges and 1 with 2 sub-ranges, a total of 3x3x2=18 combinations are formed. But we have considered only 6 practical combinations. Thus the respondents were given questionnaire were they were supposed to rank the 6 combinations on the basis of their preference and liking. (Please refer to the questionnaire in the appendix) Result of Conjoint Analysis For our analysis the conjoint analysis was run as a Regression Model. Different codes were assumed for various levels of attributes for a regression run. The coding of attribute levels for this purpose is known as ‘effects coding’. The 3 levels of Price are coded as follows: Less than Rs. 150 Between Rs. 150 to 300 Above Rs. 300 0 -1 1 -1 1 0
The 3 levels of Range are coded as follows: Low range Medium range High range 1 0 -1 0 1 -1
The 2 levels of Type of Application are coded as follows: Spray Roll On 1 0 0 1
Combined Utility Value: After the survey these following combinations had the highest utility value among the respondents.
Price Option 1 Option 2 Between Rs. 150-300 Less than Rs. 150
Range
Type of Application
Value
Sports
Spray
4.2131
Sports
Roll – On
3.8735
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Based on the above result, we can say that the best combination is the Sports range which is priced between Rs. 150-300 and the type of application is Spray. The utility value for the best option is 4.2131
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The second option is the deodorant in Sports range with roll on technology priced at below Rs. 150. The utility value for this option is 3.8735.
Modified Target Segment: New target segment identified for Rexona would be same for the original range of products. But for India; young sports enthusiasts and fitness freaks from the age group of 16-34 years have been identified as the addition to the description of the current target segment. This target segment has been long ignored by current players like Wildstone, Axe, Vanesa etc in India. Current brands targeting these segments are Adidas, Nike etc. who are not branding intensively.
Modified Positioning: Rexona has proved its success in the current available Rexona deo ranges available in India. Though Rexona Sports has been branded heavily in Western countries, especially in Australia with Ricky Ponting as the brand ambassador, it has immense potential in the Indian context, especially, for its price and lack of brands targeting this segment. Rexona has been a successful and proven deodorant brand with long-lasting properties and available at economical prices. Leveraging on its brand reliability, the new positioning "A sporty deodorant for the self conscious male" aims at targeting the untapped market of Indian males who are sporty, adventurous, health conscious and fitness freaks (rational need for protection from body odour from excessive outdoor physical activities like sporting, exercising etc.) but at the same time are self-conscious (hedonistic need to be accepted in the society). The new brand positioning would be aligned to the campaign in Australia, so as to encourage Indian men to play more sports, so that the more sports they play, the more they sweat and the more they buy and use Rexona Sports Deo.,
Modified Ad content The new advertising campaign for Rexona will be more sporty and active in look and feel. The product packaging as well as the ad concept will be more sport and youth driven. Even celebrity endorsement will be by a popular sportsman instead of Bollywood celelebrity or popular fashion models. The product will be positioned as a sporty deodorant for the self-conscious youth of today who take the business of staying fit seriously and body odour being a part of personal grooming becomes a part of overall fitness for them. The product packaging will be attractive and flashy with the use of sporty metallic colours of yellow, silver and orange. The ad itself is very dynamic and visually appealing with a popular sports-man like Sachin Tendulkar featuring in the ad. The copy of the ad will also be something catchy and bold like “Are you Game?” as opposed to “Har pal saath nibhaye”
Modified Product Brief The product brief and brand elements remain the same, except for the introduction of a new range of the product. The new range of product is targets at the Indian male who are sporty, adventurous, health conscious and fitness freaks. Package: The packaging of the new product range will be different from the regular Rexona. The product will have a “Sporty” look, appealing to the Indian male. The colours used are mainly yellow and black to give a tough look rather than the pink /blue. Accessories: To promote the new product, Rexona sweat-o-meter is given free along with the Rexona deodorants. Brand name: The basic feature of the Rexona of long lasting will still be the one of the main features of the new product range but along with it, the product focuses on the freshness. The Rexona will be now being presented as “Rexona Sport”.
Logo: synonymous with its other name “sure” the logo is a tick symbol surrounded by a clock implying you surety of smelling good around the clock Character: Positioned as a satisfactory product with an inexpensive price tag Slogan: “Are you Game”
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