Lux Soap Marketing Project Essay

Executive SummaryUnilever is a international consumer intersection point manufacturing giant operating in oer hundred countries each(prenominal) around the globe. Unilever Bangladesh is the Bangladesh chapter of Unilever, where the go with holds 60.75% sh ar whereas the Government of Peoples Republic of Bangladesh holds 39.25% make out.Unilevers sensation of the or so popular brand is lux. They components sixty.s food grocery jibe to geographical locations. It further antitheticiates these segments into Socio Economic Cluster (SEC) which takes into account the criteria of education and profession which at last measures the financial ability of consumers. The cluster is divided into five parts get-go from A to E. Unilever targets the urban and hoagie urban f number berth mall var. and middle class segment of the universe, who f boths under A to C of SEC.Tactical trade tools, 4Ps, argon ex tensively used by the club to commercialize lx. Though sixty is prod uced in Bangladesh, Unilever Bangladesh maintains the a identical standard all around the globe. The harvest-home is available in 6 incompatible fragrances under three polar sizes. Since the demand for yellowish pink guck market is to a great extent oligopolistic, variations in determine lead to scathe fight which mass eventually break down the attach tos market share. Thus Unilever can non let a bump price than its competitors. But the price is affordable by most of the citizenry. Unilever Bangladesh has outsourced its distri moreoverion channels to third society distri exactlyors which allow them to distribute lux in massive bulks amounting to around ten million pieces. It accepts the largest promotional activities in the bang exclusive industriousness.The ravisher clean industry has a few major producers of which Unilever holds market share of approximately less than 50%. Other competing brands manage Tibbet, remindful and Keya arrive at started to hav e a strong consumer base, but sixty.s product features distribution and promotional activities have created eminent brand loyalty for which it is still the market leader.Unilever, with the facilitate of its heavy promotional activities, has been able to penetrate the market. But the opposite producers in the industry are posing a panic towards Unilevers market share as they have moved towards the rural masses of the population. Therefore, Unilever Bangladesh should undertake further steps such as moving towards the rural and/or poorer segment string children (by making a special product for kids) and other innovative promotional activities to retain its command in the industry.Chapter 1Introduction1.1 Unilever at a GlanceUnilever is one of the initiations largest and leading multinational companies Unilever commenced their assembly line activities on a larger scale by setting up their first factory in Netherlands, in the year of 1872. Operating in Bangladesh for over the las t four decades the follow is trying to satisfyingly reach towards the augmentation of the standard of living by bringing world class gritty gear quality products at the door step of their customers. The usage of Unilever products by over 90% of the people in Bangladesh stands a testimony to their successful operation. . Their vagabond of products show that they produce mansion care, fabric cleaning, skin cleansing, skin care, ad-lib care, hair care, personal grooming, and tea based beverage products under oecumenic noted brand identifys Wheel, LUX, Lifebuoy, Fair & Lovely, Ponds, Close Up, Sunsilk, Lipton, Lipton Taaza, Pepsodent, tout ensemble Clear, Vim, Surf Excel, and Rexona.1.2 Objective of this reportThis report is an outcome of an analytic thinking of market strategies used by Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. The main purpose of the report is to find what strategies the phoner uses to market its world famous dish aerial soap, LUX, in Bangladesh the positive and cast out aspects of those strategies. The report further analyzes the blot of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. in the toiletry industry in comparison to its competitors. The report discusses the assist of using market segmentation, target marketing, the product, determine, promotional and distribution strategies and a competitive analysis.1.3 Methodology of this reportFor accessibility and handiness of information we have chosen to work on the strategies of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. As the company operates in the market with a gigantic number of products in polar industries, we have decided to focus on one of their world greatsuccessful brands, LUX. Most of the information used in this report is from essential sources. The main source of information was the focus group discussion. In sum total information was also collected from websites.Chapter 2Product Category, grocery Segmentation, Target Marketing and PositioningThis chapter describes the kinsperson of the selected product. The ch apter is organized into four sections. Section 1 states under which family line the product waterfall. Section 2 describes how Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. differentiates the population and categorizes them into different segments. Section 3 analyzes which segment the company targets and why they target that specific segment. Finally section 4 describes the process by dint of which the company tries to capture a place in the defileers headland i.e. the product targeting method.2.1 Product CategoryLUX falls under the category of toiletry product as a knockout soap.2.2 Market SegmentationThe company claims that LUX is the highest selling beauty soap in Bangladesh. further some survey reports also reveal the same result.Though LUX is the highest selling beauty soap in Bangladesh, it does not go for traditional mass marketing. Moreover as a beauty soap LUX does not even segment its market according to gender.The population of the plain is segmented into three parts which are urban, chock urban and rural area consumers.The company further differentiate the geographical segments according to Socio Economic Cluster (SEC) i.e. education and Income.The SEC divides the population in five segments starting from A to E, where A categorizes the highly educated and high income earners holders, and sequentially in descending order E categorizes the opposite.2.3 Target Marketurban and sub urban middle class, and rural poor people are the largest part of Bangladesh population. A research carried out by Unilever Bangladesh reveals that urban rich people are more likely to buy merchandise and expensive products. Moreover rural poor people tend to buy cheap products even without evaluating its quality. However urban and sub urban upper middle and middle class people tend to buy affordable and quality products.LUX is not a highly expensive but an affordable product. That is why the company targets urban and sub urban upper middle and middle class people who are the second hi ghest population of segment of the country. From the segmentation of customer according to SEC they target category A, B and C, because they are assumed to be financially well-off and can afford to buy LUX.2.4 Product PositioningUnilever Bangladesh Ltd obtained a good position in the buyers mind through better product attributes, price and quality, fling the product in a different way than the competitors do. The company offers change quality of products in the industry at an affordable price with high branding, which ultimately helps to position the product in the buyers mind as the dress hat quality beauty soap.The market share of the company in the beauty soap industry is somewhere around 43%.Since in the beauty soap industry all products are of same price Unilever cannot provide its consumers with better price but it is in a great position in reference with its packaging, fragrances and product designing.A stead map of the company is shown Figure 2.2 (P-10) to describe LUXs p osition in the consumers mind on two dimensions, price and quality.It states that though in comparison to its competitors the pricing of LUX is same but consumers rate it as the product which gives them the highest quality. This positioning created a strong customer loyalty for LUX, for which it the market leader in the industry.Chapter 3Using the Tactical Marketing ToolsThis chapter describes the way Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. use the tactical marketing tools for marketing LUX in Bangladesh. The chapter comprises of four sections.3.1 ProductLUX is an internationally celebrated beauty soap brand of Unilever. Though manufactured in Bangladesh for the local anaesthetic market by Unilever Bangladesh Ltd, as an international brand, it maintains an international quality for the product. rule given by Research and Development departments in foreign countries, LUX is produced in Bangladesh from imported raw materials like sodium soap, glycerol and different extracts according to flavors, coming from Unilever plants situated abroad.LUX is offered in Bangladesh in six different flavors which are LUX Energizing Honey, LUX Golden Glow, LUX Nature Pure, LUX Orchid Touch, LUX Almond Delight and LUX Aqua Sparkle. Taking into account the convenience of its customers, the company manufactures all flavors of LUX in three different sizes, 40gm, 80gm and 120gm.3.2 PriceThough Unilever Bangladesh gives its LUX customers a lot in terms of the product itself, it cannot provide a better pricing. This is due to some constraints in the beauty soap industry. Beauty soap is a product with a insecure demand in Bangladesh. A change in price has a high risk of creating price war among the rivals which will eventually cause a loss of profit. Its prices are almost equal to its competitor. Company carries out research on competitors price and brand loyalty when it feels extreme necessaity of chaging price. The brand loyalty test is an exploratory research which is kat oncen as Brand Health Check-Up (BHCU).3.3 PlaceUnilever Bangladesh Ltd. has a huge distribution channel for LUX all over the country as its sales reach more than 10 million pieces a year. The company has six huge warehouses, one in each department of Bangladesh, where the product goes after they are manufactured at Kalurghat factory.The company does not use its own fleet of transport for distributing its product. However, it has outsourced its distribution process to non-homogeneousthird party distributors, exclusively dedicated to Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. These distributors then supply the product all over Bangladesh to a huge number of retailers. Even though LUX targets the urban and sub urban middle and upper middle class people they are distributing their products all over Bangladesh because of a recent sum up in demand of its product to all segments of the population.3.4 PromotionUnilever Bangladesh undertakes huge promotional activities to agitate LUX which has topped the beauty soap industr y of Bangladesh. It spends almost 20% to 25% of its Net Proceeds from Sales (NPC) of LUX for promotional activities for LUX 1Its certain annual promotional campaigns like LUX Channel i Superstar and LUX Channel i Annual Cinema Awards has made the product a part of the enrapture world. Since the 1930s, over 400 of the worlds most stunning and aesthetic women have been proudly associated with Lux advertisements. They do not only promote LUX in Bangladesh for the beauty conscious fe masculines, it also promotes the brand for males and the company proved that, by including world famous male celebrity Shahrukh caravansary for their advertising campaign.Unilever Bangladesh Ltd spends a huge amount of money for promoting LUX through TV commercials, newspaper advertisements and billboards. Moreover it also undertakes small promotional campaigns at different schools, colleges, universities and recreational parks with winners of its Zonal Beauty Contests. Till now promotional activities of LUX has always been successful which has made it a household common name and helped it reach almost one billion taka sale value in the year 2004 2.Chapter 4Analyzing the Market for LUXFor better comprehension of Unilever Bangladesh, its marketing strategy, product quality, positioning and placement, we present here a comparative analysis of its competitors. This part of the report illustrates the market share of different companies in the beauty soap industry.4.1 Market ShareThe beauty soap industry in Bangladesh consists of only seven major producers. Unilever Bangladesh Ltd is operating in the industrywith its world famous brand LUX. Out of these giant companies Unilever Bangladesh Ltd is the market leader with a share of around 43%.market share of all the companies in the sector. Unilever Bangladesh Ltd is leading the market. The other competitors are very competitive among themselves but they cannot sick a intense competition with Unilever Bangladesh Ltd, as they have market sh are much less than Unilever Bangladesh Ltd.Other companies in the industry are not as big as Unilever Bangladesh Ltd but they are posing threat to the company by a tendency of a gradual step-up in their market share. Kohinoor Chemicals which is operating with the brand name Tibet is an extremely famous brand to the rural segment of the population and possess a significant share in that segment which is the largest population group in Bangladesh. Moreover Keya Cosmetics Ltd operating with the brand name Keya and Marks & Allys Ltd operating with the brand name Aromatic are also uprising brands to both the rural and sub urban segment of the population.Moreover a recent takeover of Aromatic by multinational consumer product giant MARICO who operates with famous brands in other industries like Parachute Coconut Oil is posing to be a threat to Unilever Bangladeshs market share.Chapter 5ConclusionThe beauty soap industry of Bangladesh consists of a few producers in the industry. The deman d for this product is very much vulnerable in terms of pricing. Unilever Bangladesh is providing LUX. at a price which is affordable to most of the people in the country. Beauty soap is an uprising product in Bangladesh as a greater member of the population, both male and female, are now getting more beauty conscious. As a multinational company Unilever Bangladesh with heavy promotional activities, has been able to penetrate the market.With six different fragrances, three different sizes, international standard and high quality design, as a product, LUX has been highly successful overthe years. Its distribution process is highly efficient. Its promotional activities, like the beauty contest has been a milepost in attracting a huge number of customers. Overall with its marketing activities LUX has been a successful brand.The only place where rival companies are progressing is in giving customers redemption offers. Research revealed that Bangladeshi customers are highly attracted to this soma of offers. These offers are not sustainable in the long run but still it takes away a considerable part of LUXs sale in the short run.Chapter 6RecommendationIn this chapter the team would suggest some recommendations to Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. to contract more successful operation in Bangladesh. Since a huge portion of the rural poor people is demanding LUX in recent days, Unilever Bangladesh Ltd should expound their target market also towards the rural people. They should also conduct different promotional activities in rural fairs and socially responsible promotional activities to attract rural consumers and social awareness .Because Lux has different skin character soap so now if they provide different types of beauty soaps for male and female soapunder the same brand name i.e. LUX it might increase their sales. Lastly, as Bangladeshi culture children have a huge ordain in shopping so they should also promote the product to children like their another brand Dove. These are the recommendations suggested by teem members to Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. to view for a more successful operation in Bangladesh with large market share.Bibliography1.www.unilever.comhttp//www.unileverea.com/ourbrands/personalcare/lux.asphttp//www.unilever.co.uk/ourbrands/personalcare/lux.asp2.www.unileverbd.com3.Report on Competition Scenario in Bangladesh, page 18, prepared by Bangladesh green light Institute, July 2005.)4.http//www.gfk.be/ProductsAndServices/ConsumerDiagnosticTools/SpecialAnalyses/BrandHealthCheckUp5.http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilever6.http//ladytobaby.com/show.php?item=155