MxMIndia

Tag: Hindustan Unilever

  • Patanjali Ayurved injects new life into herbal market, helps rivals sell more personal care products

    Jai Patanjali! Jai Herbal!

     

    By Sagar Malviya & Neha Tyagi

     

    MUMBAI: In a short span of time, Patanjali Ayurved has not only made a name for itself among Indian consumers, but also fuelled expansion of the herbal products market and helped rivals sell more home and personal care products, grabbing share from MNCs.

     

    The Baba Ramdev-led company’s sales jumped 64 per cent to Rs 731 crore in the six months ended December and rivals Dabur and Himalaya grew in double digits in a consumer products market that expanded barely 6 per cent, according to IMRB data. The figures exclude commodity products such as ghee and atta.

     

    What’s helping these firms is a growing preference for Ayurvedic products known for natural ingredients and health benefits. In addition, herbal products are cheaper.

     

    “Patanjali has registered a near-80 per cent growth in penetration, which is about 5 per centage points on an absolute level, in one year,” said K Ramakrishnan, general manager, IMRB Kantar Worldpanel.

     

    “The first wave of growth came from personal care products only, but the recent growth has been driven by homecare and food and beverages, which still has a smaller base,” said Ramakrishnan.

     

    Patanjali started in 1997 as a small pharmacy in the holy town of Haridwar to make healthcare products and was incorporated in 2006 as a company to sell personal care, food and beverage products through its own outlets. The company expanded its reach from 200 Patanjali outlets in 2014 to 5,000 franchise stores currently and launched more than two dozen mainstream FMCG products as none of the existing herbal players catered to categories such as noodles, oats and detergents.

     

    In October last year, Patanjali formed a marketing partnership with Future Group, which will offer over 300 of its products in 77 categories through stores such as Big Bazaar in about 250 cities. Four months after partnering with Future Group, the country’s largest retailer, Patanjali products have cornered a 7-12 per cent share in categories such as detergents, toothpastes, soaps and shampoos at Big Bazaar stores. In food products including oats, noodles and honey, the share gains are 7-37 per cent, according to Dunnhumby, a UK-based research company that has tied up with Future Group for data science.

     

    Patanjali has grabbed share from non-Ayurvedic companies. While the growth of Ayurvedic brands in the face wash category increased to 50 per cent from 36 per cent earlier, the growth of non-Ayurvedic brands eased to 16 per cent from 21 per cent a year ago. The share of market leader Himalaya remained unchanged at 35 per cent as Patanjali gained 7 per cent share.

     

    In shampoos, sales of Ayurvedic brands more than doubled to 194 per cent, while for multinational companies, it declined to 15 per cent from 21 per cent earlier. Categories such as chyawanprash, amla and aloe vera juice saw growth double to 42 per cent, with Dabur retaining its 53 per cent market share.

     

    “This unusual phenomenon of consumer products market disruption is rare as brand erosion or loyalty for well-established brands generally doesn’t happen so quickly,” said Devendra Chawla, president, food and FMCG, at Future Group.

     

    Patanjali products were purchased by about 21 per cent of Future Group shoppers in January compared with 2 per cent in October. “While Ayurveda brands were always there, the entire category has now arrived with a bang, thanks to heightened awareness benefiting the overall ecosystem,” Chawla said.

     

    Patanjali attributes its success to consumer shift from non-Ayurvedic brands owned by multinationals to Indian herbal companies. Its products are on average 15-20 per cent cheaper than the competition and several rival companies have been running offers and promotions to compete with them.

     

    “Other Ayurvedic companies are coming up with good quality products at even cheaper prices, which is ultimately doing good. The country is huge and the FMCG market is so large that we may not be able to provide for everyone,” said Acharya Balkrishna, managing director at Patanjali Ayurved, adding that the company has almost met its sales target of  Rs 5,000 crore for the financial year ending March 2016, more than double the revenue of Rs 2,000 crore in 2014-15.

     

    Hindustan Unilever’s net sales increased 10 per cent to more than Rs 30,000 crore in the previous financial year and Colgate-Palmolive (India) sales rose 12 per cent to Rs  3,955 crore.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2016, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

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  • Indian Woman will launch food products, cleaning products and household items like mixer grinder and egg beaters

    Mosons Group in non-personal care initiative after selling Indulekha

    By Shramana Ganguly

     

    A month after selling its personal care brand Indulekha to Hindustan Unilever, Kerala-based Mosons Group is set to launch Indian Woman, a non-personal care brand. The first products under the brand would be launched by April, said managing director Fayas MP. “Indian Woman will launch products that will be manufactured across 1,000 village panchayats of Kerala,” he said, adding the initiative will be 100% not-for-profit.

     

    Indian Woman will launch food products, cleaning products and household items like mixer grinder and egg beaters. After five years, once Mosons’ non-compete clause with HUL expires, the brand would launch personal care products as well, Fayas said. The company formed self-help group Indian Women Charitable Trust last month even as HUL finalised the Indulekha takeover. Most of the earnings through the sale of the flagship personal care brand will be pumped into the new initiative, Fayas told ET.

     

    Indian Woman would set up one small-scale manufacturing unit in each of the 1,000 village panchayats, he said. “We are keen to employ local woman workforce in these units that would be run by woman entrepreneurs and manufacture products from locally sourced raw materials and are specific to the region,” said the 31-year-old, who would mentor the brand.

     

    “We need more than Kudumbasree (Kerala government’s woman empowerment project) units. Instead of limiting them to run mere Vanitha hotels and pickle-making units, they need to be raised to the next level by proper assistance in terms of technology and marketing,” Fayas said. “Indian Woman will sell products across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and the Gulf, to begin with. These village units can act as a centre of development for the villages,” he said.

     

    Mosons has received more than 1,500 inquiries for setting up of units and more than 3,000 inquiries for distribution from Kerala alone. “We are keen to send these proposals to the Ministry of Industries, Kerala, and seek their willingness to do the project. If not, we will directly attempt to initiate this,” he said.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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  • The government or a corporation can't do Swachh Bharat alone, says Hindustan Unilever CEO Sanjiv Mehta + Can Indian FMCGs do a #CleanIndia?

    Cleaning up India!

     

    By Ravi Balakrishnan & Ratna Bhushan

     

    The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has been announced a while back. Why did it take you so long to come on board?

    First off all, I don’t think it took a while for us to get involved for the simple reason that we were doing it even before it was announced as an initiative by the government. While infrastructure is very important and necessary, it’s not sufficient. There has to be a change in habit, behaviour and in some very deeply ingrained beliefs. That’s where we come in. We have been thinking over what we need to do to leverage our expertise and make a positive difference. That’s where the seeds of Swachh Aadat leading to Swachh Bharat were sown.

     

    The inspiration came when we met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February last year, when our global CEO Paul Polman was visiting. Mr Modi said you are doing so much work in rural India but what about urban India? Can you look at mass communication as a means of spreading the message? We went back to the drawing table, had a small team working intensively to understand this and came back with this urban behaviour change programme and mass media campaign. ‘Haath Munh aur Bum, Bimari Hogi Kum’ is something we want to see on everyone’s lips

     

    What sort of a role do you believe company like yours has in such an initiative

    Over 90% of households use one or more of our brands. Our reach is extensive and small actions make a big difference. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is not something the government or a corporate can do alone. A company like ours understands our role in society. A healthy society is imperative for business to succeed. And that is ingrained into our ethos of doing well by doing good. Whenever we get into an initiative, it’s always thought through on how we make a meaningful impact and scale it up. We have been doing this and will continue.

     

    We don’t have a CSR department. We have integrated social responsibility into the conduct of our business. Unilever Sustainable Living Plan provides us the blueprint for us to achieve our purpose of making sustainable living commonplace.

     

    All our brand managers ask themselves how they can reduce the environmental footprint and improve societal impact of our brands. And so, the activities are in sync with the essence of the brand and not something superimposed or done as an afterthought. That’s where purpose becomes important: if it’s not linked, it then depends on the whims and fancies of a CEO or marketing head.

     

    How long before we start to see an impact?

    Mass communication on a campaign similar to Swachh Bharat continued for two decades from the 60s and 70s to the early 80s in the US before they could bring a change. We need to stay invested in this cause to be able to bring change in India on a mass scale.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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    Can Indian FMCGs do a #CleanIndia?

     

    By Ravi Balakrishnan & Ratna Bhushan

     

     

    How FMCG companies are getting their hands dirty to keep India clean

     

    Building Loos

    Reckitt Benckiser (RB): 25,000 toilets in partnership with the Swades foundation; adopting 200 villages to make them “open defecation free”

     

    HUL: Domex Toilet Academy builds toilets across MP, UP, Maharashtra, Odisha and Bihar in association with the World Toilet Organisation and social enterprise eKutir

     

    Dabur: The Sanifresh 700 se 7 kadam programme will construct toilets and is adopting fi ve villages to make them “open defecation free.” Catching Em Young:

     

    Catching Em Young:

    HUL: A pilot campaign in association with municipal corporations in Mumbai and Delhi aimed at school children, and reaching their parents via community programmes in slums:200,000 people by end 2015. HUL intends scaling up and expanding the programme through 2016.

    RB: Hygiene curriculum for 2.5 million school children comprising of 45 lessons over three years in four languages, covering personal hygiene, hygiene at home, school, the neighbourhood and during illness.

     

    Cleaning Hands:

    HUL: The handwash campaign has impacted 60 million people since 2010. In the model village of Thesgora, HUL claims to have brought down deaths by diarrhoea from 36% to 5%.

    RB: Distributed hand sanitizers and liquid handwash during the Kumbh Mela.

     

    During a brief stint in advertising, I worked on an AV to publicise an initiative one of our clients, a FMCG, had run in rural Bihar. Agency and brand had hit on the idea of pushing hair oil on the back of a cleanliness drive: hook the consumers in with messages and suggestions for a healthier life, and then switch to hard selling product. And yes, rope in some of the youngsters to be “cleanliness ambassadors”, rewarding those who volunteered with a goodie bag. It was hoped that the freebies would motivate them to drive cleanliness in the village long after the company with its vans and hectoring promoters moved on. The activity wound down in the early months of monsoon. But as we cut the AV, we thought it would be a good idea to check back with the volunteers and see how they’d been doing. It wasn’t.

     

    Let’s just say the volunteers, mainly young women, were motivated more by a tote bag than by an abiding commitment to sanitation. Many of them never expected to be asked to give an account of themselves, especially on camera, some five months down the line, and their only response to our questions was to stare in blank horror. The problem was less with the youngsters and more with the structure of the programme: a mistake that more companies than just this FMCG made.

     

    For too long marketers dallied with causes. Cleanliness, especially in the rural context, was and remains a perennial favourite. But very few firms have either the budgets or the commitment to see it through to the end. Mainly because there really is no end; at least none that’s in plain sight.

     

    Starting off on a slightly gimmicky note, with its selfies with brooms and a pay it forward style campaign liberally inspired by the Ice Bucket Challenge, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has finally got champions in the FMCG industry. Reckitt Benckiser was the first off the bat. And more recently India’s largest FMCG Hindustan Unilever has come up with a massive campaign driving the clean agenda, as has homegrown FMCG major Dabur.

     

    There are some obvious places to start and pretty much every FMCG worth its salt is partnering in educating people, particularly children and in the building of toilets (See Being Swachh). Not just FMCG; the Confederation of Indian Industry committed to building 10,000 toilets. Oil and coal PSUs claimed they’d build one lakh toilets in schools across the country in a year. The Bharti Foundation and TCS pledged Rs 100 crore each.

     

    However, the problem is not only about infrastructure. On a rural visit, Sanjiv Mehta, MD and CEO at HUL discovered that while several households had toilets, they weren’t used regularly. He got flippant responses from people who claimed they liked the idea of going to the bog in the open with their mates, but a response that resonated was from a person who said he didn’t want his wife to clean a toilet and so avoided using the one he had at home. A study by the National Sample Survey Office published in November last year found only 46% of the 95 lakh toilets built in rural India were used for their intended purpose. The problems range from the infrastructural: toilets with no running water to the ideological.

     

    Which explains why HUL opted for the multimedia and on ground Haath Munh Aur Bum campaign, focusing on handwash, pure drinking water and clean toilets, in the hopes that the same behaviour change model that got people to shift from soaps to shampoos may persuade them to adopt healthier habits. HUL is gunning for a 3% shift in awareness post the activation. The branding is, by FMCG standards, subtle. HUL is not ending its activations with sampling and sale, claiming it would rather people adopt habits than specifically push brands via this initiative. To the point where at a recent event in a school in Mumbai, when a few kids began to sing the Dettol jingle as promoters spoke of handwash, no attempt was made to “correct” them or push Lifebuoy instead.

     

    It’s of course a little too much to expect brands to do this for purely social reasons. Branding, though covert, is present in all HUL’s initiatives. Reckitt Benckiser managing director Nitish Kapoor says: “Over the last one year, we have made a considerable progress in driving behaviour change towards hygiene and sanitation.” But Reckitt-Benckiser has seen an uptick in sales too following its linkage to Swachh Bharat.

     

    The cleaning industry is poised to experience 30% growth according to Ken Research’s India Toiletries. Praveen Khandelwal, director at Pranay Impex, says: “The home cleaning equipment industry stands at Rs 4,500 crore and has potential to scale up 20%-30% annually.”

     

    Which is why marketing consultants like Market Gate’s Shripad Nadkarni believe the association with Swachh Bharat stands to benefit the brands to a greater extent: “Unless you are committing huge amounts of money that you’d normally put aside for CSR it becomes tactical. I think the issue with Swachh Bharat is more social than personal.”

     

    For years, marketing has laboured under the bad rap of being an industry that convinces people to “buy things they don’t need.” Which is a little disingenuous because people obviously need the products they buy for reasons that go past the merely functional. Beyond profit motives and good intentions, it boils down to this: do Indians believe they need cleanliness, hygiene and a Swachh Bharat as much as they need a new toothpaste? The behaviour change model touted by companies has succeeded since the changes were relatively easy to make. And setting aside the HUL catchphrase of Swachh Aadat leading to Swachh Bharat, there’s a yawning chasm between personal hygiene and a clean country, where our rivers and outdoors are not choked with trash. It remains an area where no brand, however intent it is on a Swachh Bharat, has dared to tread so far. Any takers?

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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  • This six-member band will be called Brooke Bond Red Label 6-Pack band that will make six songs

    Mindshare Fulcrum gets HUL & YRF for India’s first transgender band

    By Pritha Dasgupta

     

    Hindustan Unilever’s tea brand Brooke Bond Red Label and Yash Raj Films (YRF) have come together to launch India’s first transgender music band as a part of cobranded association. Conceptualised by Mindshare Fulcrum, the idea was pitched to HUL by YRF on Content Day in June last year.

     

    This six-member band will be called Brooke Bond Red Label 6-Pack band that will make six songs. YRF will make six music videos featuring Sonu Nigam and the band. Brooke Bond Red Label spokesperson Shiva Krishnamurthy said, “Brooke Bond Red Label believes in making the world a more welcoming place and we encourage people to live those little moments that bring us all closer by breaking barriers over a cup of tea. This time we chose the medium of music to spread this message.”

     

    Ashish Patil, business & creative head, VP: Youth Films, Brand Partnerships, Talent Management at Yash Raj Films India, said, “It takes huge conviction and belief for a brand to do something so risky. We pitched the idea to HUL on Content Day and now after all these months it is materialising.”

     

     

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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  • Managing Director Fayas MP could find a foothold for his premium brand in Kerala on the proposition that hair fall and hair loss cuts across demographic lines and hence the price should not matter

    Indulekha: Common man’s premium product

    By Shramana Ganguly

     

    The Kerala-based Mosons Group, established in 1976, was a manufacturer and supplier of coconut oil extractions before Fayas MP, 30, took it in a new direction. A psychologist by qualification, the third-generation businessman and managing director of the company, successfully experimented with premium coconut oil under the personal care brand Indulekha, now being acquired by Hindustan Unilever.

     

    “Fayas wanted to challenge himself by launching a premium hair oil in the Kerala market that was already flush with coconut hair oil,” said Anant Narayan, branch head of Carat Media, the advertising agency that’s been handling the accounts for Indulekha Bringha Oil, Indulekha Satapatri Skin Cream, Indulekha Akrot Face Pack and Indulekha White Soap since 2012.

     

    Indulekha Skin Care Oil was launched in 2008-9, followed by Indulekha Gold Hair Oil, which was renamed and relaunched in 2010-11 as Indulekha Bringha Oil, now the group’s flagship. The fine-tuning helped. “We marketed the brand as a 100% ayurvedic and medicinal brand rather than a cosmetic product and stressed on its main content, bringha,” Narayan said. Today, the brand has 10 products in the hair and skin care segments.

     

    “Indulekha is the common man’s premium product,” said Alex Thomas, brand head, who was part of the launch team and works closely with Fayas. He was handling the account when associated with the Fertile Isle agency before joining as brand head.

     

    Fayas could find a foothold for his premium brand in Kerala on the proposition that hair fall and hair loss cuts across demographic lines and hence the price should not matter. A 100 ml bottle of Indulekha Bringha Oil costs Rs 432. By 2012, the company had roped in Carat Media as it expanded to other areas including Maharashtra and the Middle East. In 2014, Fayas brainstormed with Thomas and Narayan over possible innovations and introducing a product differentiator. “That is when the selfie comb bottle happened,” said Narayan.

     

    The bottle with a patented comb-shaped cap has been popular since its launch in 2014, with sales rising at a 30% pace since then. The company had drawn up plans for expansion to other Indian cities when it caught HUL’s attention, said a person associated with the brand.

     

    When Fayas joined the company, started by AC Moosa and then continued by his son Anwer MP, it had diversified beyond coconut oils and coconut shell powder manufacturing and introduced extra virgin coconut oil into the market. The family also ventured into making machines for coconut-based products.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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  • The former Unilever Country Manager Marketing in Sri Lanka has taken charge of a position left vacant after Ronita Mitra exited the telecom major in July 2015

    Siddharth Banerjee to head marketing at Vodafone

    By A Correspondent

     

    Former Unilever Country Manager Marketing in Sri Lanka Siddharth Banerjee has taken charge as head of brand marketing and consumer insights at Vodafone.

     

    The position was lying vacant after the exit of Ronita Mitra who left the telecom major in July this year.

     

    His position will also look at activitation and digital media.

     

    In his 15 years of FMCG / CPG experience, including the last 13-odd years in Unilever, Banerjee  has worked across Country P&L roles and Global / Regional Brand Marketing roles, with rich exposure across Developing and Emerging Markets.

     

  • Hindustan Unilever picks ad created by Lowe to relaunch its soap brand Liril

    La la la la, la la la la. HUL brings back bikini-clad girl under a waterfall for Liril

    By Sagar Malviya

     

    A bikini-clad girl dancing under a waterfall in the middle of a secluded, lush green valley, frolicking to a catchy tune would surely evoke nostalgia for most folks, except maybe those born in the 21st century.

     

    Now, Hindustan Unilever has gone down memory lane to choose one of the hottest Indian ads ever to relaunch its soap brand Liril – more than a decade after it went off-air but perhaps, never forgotten. The Liril girl is back!

     

    “These are the roots of Liril. They don’t change. And what we’re doing is paying homage to the Liril that we all know, bringing alive the very same elements that have been part of our popular culture through time,” said George Koshy, general manager for personal wash category at HUL.

     

    The marble green soap brand made waves 40 years ago when model and Air India air-hostess Karen Lunel wore a swimsuit and danced under a cascade to the catchy jingle.

     

    “It is an iconic ad in Indian memory and even newer people are interested in history if there is a back story as interesting as that of Liril. In a low-involvement category like soaps, Liril will stand out and surely gain share now,” said Alpana Parida, president at brand consultancy firm DY Works.

     

    After 1985, the brand was defined by models Pooja Batra, Preity Zinta and Deepika Padukone — each seen playing in the water and swimming under the waterfall. But they were merely shadows of the original ad.

     

    Also, it wasn’t the same after the 90s, when the lemon product was diluted with variants such as orange and icy blue, followed by a name change to Liril 2000 a decade ago.

     

    So what does Alyque Padamsee, former CEO of Lintas and the creator of the ‘Liril girl’ have to say about the modern rendition of the ad?

     

    “I feel vindicated because there are some appeals that are timeless. Freshness in a tropical country has an eternal appeal which is now being revived,” said Padamsee, adding that Liril promised a few minutes of freedom from the daily grind of the Indian housewife.

     

    The new campaign, featuring Brazilian model Anabelle and created by Lowe, was launched on social media last week.

     

    “‘Must have taken a lot of guts to go back’, was one particular response and that sums up our approach – stick to the core,” said Koshy.

     

    While the image of the lime and lemony zest soap brand and its ad may not have faded away, its market share did — falling from a high of over 14 per cent three decades ago to less than 2 per cent now — in the Rs 16,000-crore soap category.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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  • KKT goes to villages that cannot be reached via traditional media like TV, radio and print, but where at least one member of the household is a mobile phone owner

    HUL plans to let other firms use its mobile marketing channel Kan Khajura Tesan

    By Delshad Irani

     

    One of the country’s biggest FMCG companies, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), plans to open its mobile-based marketing platform Kan Khajura Tesan (KKT) to external advertisers. KKT, the fully advertiser-funded, entertainment-on-demand initiative helps HUL brands like Lux and Fair & Lovely engage with rural consumers in media-dark areas.

     

    These are villages that cannot be reached via traditional media like TV, radio and print, but where at least one member of the household is a mobile phone owner. “These consumers are still significant (more than 200 million in total) contributors to the sales of FMCG brands. They also happen to be key growth markets for Unilever. Reaching out to these consumers with our brand communications and offerings remains a big challenge,” an HUL spokesperson said.

     

    The KKT initiative was first piloted in Bihar, followed by Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The mobile-radio channel, which is telecom-company agnostic, has since been extended across India.

     

    In fact, KKT is the most popular radio station in the northern state of Bihar. Here’s how it works. Callers give a missed call on 1800-30-000-123 (the call disconnects automatically after two rings) and in return the caller receives capsules of entertainment that includes primarily local and Bollywood music, with a strong preference for 90s movie hits, and comedy shows.

     

    Besides entertainment, HUL has also added a devotional section. Of course, item numbers and devotional content are interspersed with brand communication from HUL. In the coming months, however, the channel will also air brand messages from other advertisers. But the company is keeping under wraps advertiser profiles, the exact nature of media deals and just how it’ll affect programming, if at all, in the future.

     

    “In the journey of taking Kan Khajura Tesan forward as an ever growing marketing platform we are now opening it up for brands beyond HUL’s own. This will allow the platform to grow and help marketers reach out to media dark consumers who were difficult to reach before,” the company spokesperson said.

     

    “The nature of the tieups will be on a case-to-case basis as per the requirement of the partnering brands. We have had a similar approach internally through which we have helped our brands like Lux, Closeup, Fair & Lovely use Kan Khajura Tesan to connect with consumers and make a positive impact on their equity.”

     

    The campaign, if you can call a veritable radio channel that, was conceptualised and executed in collaboration with media agency PHD India and creative agency Lowe Lintas.

     

    KKT now has the capability to push personalised content as per the user preference in addition to voice recording and voice recognition technology. HUL’s decision to throw open up the marketing medium to brands other than its own could spell the beginning of a new era for the FMCG behemoth — one that takes it from big-ticket advertiser to a media owner.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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  • Defensive driving is one of the mandatory courses for employees at most companies like Hindustan Unilever and the Tata Group which extend beyond work hours

    RIL’s Janhavi Gadkar row: Companies warn staff against code of conduct violations after office too!

    By Namrata Singh, Piyush Pandey & Reeba Zachariah

     

    If you are employed with a reputed organization, adhering to the company’s code of conduct now extends beyond work hours. Companies are becoming strict with any transgressions, even if it is committed in the personal space of an employee, and driving under the influence of alcohol is no exception to the rule.

     

    The Janhavi Gadkar drunk driving case has put the spotlight on whether the code of conduct extends beyond office hours. Most companies we contacted responded in the affirmative. In some companies like Vodafone, the code extends to their channel partners and associates as well. Companies have in the past parted ways with erring employees on this count.

     

    RIL, where Gadkar works as VP (legal), issued an advisory to its employees, reminding them about its policy on personal conduct and this includes “drunk“ driving and an employee’s behaviour in their personal capacity . “In official as well as personal capacity , employees at no times should indulge in any action behaviour that violates any law; or is indicative of personal indiscretion; or is socially unacceptable,“ the RIL note stated.

     

    Companies like Indiabulls Housing Finance and Vedanta have already issued advisories to employees on the perils of drunk driving. In Vodafone India’s health safety and wellness policy , five out of eight ‘absolute safety rules’ are on road safety . “Since 2012, we have parted ways with 30 employees and over 600 vendorsoff-rolls individuals for not following the policy . Of these, seven (four employees and three off-rolls) were drink-and-drive cases. Mostly drink-and-drive is beyond working hours,“ said a Vodafone spokesperson. Vodafone India has introduced the concept of a ‘safety passport’, a unique licence that certifies that its employees have cleared the screening processes and adhere to all safety standards and practices set out.<br />

     

    According to Santrupt Misra, director (HR), Aditya Birla Group, an organization has a right to take action if the behaviour of an employee vi olates its code of conduct.“Our general code of conduct governs many aspects of public behaviour that may have implication for the organization. Driving while drunk is against the law of the land and is covered by our code of conduct,“ said Misra.

     

    Defensive driving is one of the mandatory courses for employees at most companies like Hindustan Unilever and the Tata Group which extend beyond work hours. “Even if any of the group employees are caught flouting traffic rules, we make an effort to counsel such offenders while sending an informal message across the line that violations will not be accepted,“ a Tata Group executive said.

     

    A few have different rules.S Ramesh Shankar, executive VP (HR), Siemens, said, while the organization takes a lot of preventive steps including continual education, “we cannot take action on any misconduct by our employees beyond our work premises and after office hours when they are not on official duties“.

     

    RPG Enterprises highlights the importance of socially responsible behaviour. “In the era of social media, the employer brand is highly suscep tible to the reputation loss by an inadvertent act by any employee,“ said Harsh Goenka, chairman, RPG Enterprises.

     

    A lot of companies ensure that at events where alcohol is served, alternate arrangements are made for employees to reach home safely . Gadkar, who played a lead legal role in divestment of RIL’s stake from one of the US shale assets for $1 billion, was celebrating the success of the deal at a party , before the unfortunate accident. Being a criminal case, RIL would not initiate any action against Gadkar till pendency of investigations and judicial process, said sources.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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  • Hindustan Unilever is partnering with companies like Star, YRF, Facebook, Google to weave its brands into their creations

    HUL partners Star, YRF, Facebook, Google etc to weave its brands into their creations

    By Pritha Mitra Dasgupta & Sagar Malviya

     

    Toiletries-to-food giant Hindustan Unilever (HUL) is partnering over a dozen content creators — from Star Network and Yash Raj Films to Facebook and Google — to produce content across channels where HUL brands can participate, perhaps subtly, as part of the conversation.

     

    Last Friday, the maker of Dove and Rin invited 13 producers including broadcasters, radio channels, film producers and top-notch digital companies to its campus to ideate how they can seamlessly weave HUL brands in their content, messages and shows, instead of just product placement and brand plugs.

     

    “As media is changing, there is a skill that needs to get evolved — as content explodes, how to tell compelling brand stories and really cut through to consumers by making sure the brand is able to tell a story that consumer can relate to,” said Gaurav Jeet Singh, HUL’s head of media services in South Asia.

     

    While the latest move of HUL, the country’s largest advertiser, won’t replace advertisements, the company is trying to partner media channels beyond obvious marketing. “Through popular culture, how can we ride on content that is designed to entertain, engage and connect? Something that is not force fit. But something that naturally fits into the content and can carry the brand story seamlessly,” explained Singh.

     

    HUL’s media agency, Mindshare, is a partner in the initiative. “As the consumer’s media consumption habits change, we understand the need to create and curate differentiated communication platforms, to build lasting brands with an engaged audience,” said Prasanth Kumar, chief executive of Mindshare.

     

    “The consumer is no longer a passive viewer, but an active participant in the brand’s story-telling journey. Brand ideas and content that resonate with the audience are further seeded by them into their own circle of influence that has a far more powerful effect,” Kumar said.

     

    With over 35 brands across food, personal care and home care portfolios, cutting through structures and processes to execute an idea quickly becomes an issue. Hence, the company through ‘Content Day’ encourages brand team members to share ideas which can be approved or perfected quickly so as to become scalable.

     

    It wasn’t easy. In the last six months, HUL has been working on the novel concept — from identifying nearly a dozen brands to sending briefs to 35 content creators for ideas. The company that initially received around 300 ideas, narrowed it to 40 with 13 companies meeting individual brand teams on Content Day for possible brand integration.

     

    Two ideas from Star Network and one each from YRF and Disney made it to the top four, which were presented to the top management and the entire marketing team of HUL. “We want to create a strong ecosystem of for branded content as that is crucial to the future of marketing,” said Samir Singh, HUL’s executive director-personal care.

     

    Sample this. In the latest blockbuster Piku, while there were several brand integration, there were two that particularly stood out: Amul milk and Red Label tea. Both these products were placed on the dining table when the protagonists in the film were having breakfast and they effortlessly became part of the movie scene.

     

    “But they can be part of song lyrics, movie title, we can co-create product with the company and integrate the brand in several other ways depending on the marketing objective,”  said Ashish Patil, business & creative head and vice president at YRF. “The unique thing about Content Day is that it is not a random one off project, but HUL wants to make it an annual event. And, it’s a cultural shift for them. It is about looking at content differently, as an important marketing tool. And it is about infusing new thinking which they or their ad agency may not be geared to do,” he said.

     

    While executing ideas into branded content could be challenging, media partners are hopeful that HUL’s move will break the clutter. “There was no strict brief and it was unstructured and gave us a lot of freedom to do as we thought. It was a proactive and innovative idea. This is an opportunity that is more open about possibilities of collaborating across brands,” said Myleeta Aga Williams, MD of BBC Worldwide.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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  • Hindustan Unilever has instructed television channels and other media houses to stop advertisements of the brand from next week

    HUL takes Knorr instant noodle TVCs off the air

    By Pritha Mitra Dasgupta

     

    The entire noodle category advertising in India stares at a complete blackout. Following Hindustan Unilever’s (HUL) decision to stop the production and sale of Knorr Chinese instant noodles, the company has now instructed television channels and other media houses to stop advertisements of the brand from next week.

     

    On Wednesday, HUL said it would withdraw the product, which it introduced in February. “On June 11, the company informed its media agency and media partners to withdraw the Knorr Chinese instant noodle commercial from Sunday,” a senior executive at a broadcast company said on the condition of anonymity.

     

    Knorr is currently running two noodle television commercials — Chinese noodles and Soupy noodles — featuring master chef Pankaj Bhadouria. “But it is only the Chinese noodle commercial that will go off air and will be replaced by other HUL brand commercials,” the executive added.

     

    While Lowe Lintas is the creative agency, GroupM is the media agency of Knorr noodles. HUL’s spokesperson, however, said it has taken the ads off air with effect Thursday. This is because it has decided to stop production and sale of the Knorr Chinese range of instant noodles till its product approval application is cleared by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the spokesperson said. Last week, Nestle directed broadcasters and other media companies to stop its Maggi brand’s advertising from June 7, after it decided to pull the product from the market following findings by authorities that some packets contained excess lead.

     

    Media planners said with HUL deciding to withdraw the Knorr commercial, the number of noodle advertising will reduce by half. The other two prominent brands in this category are ITC’s Yippee noodle and Capital Food’s Chings. According to media planners, the instant noodles category spends about Rs 200-220 crore on advertising and most companies spend 10-12% of their total sales on advertising.

     

    “Maggi alone spends nearlyRs 150 crore and Knorr will be another Rs 15-20 crore. So, with these two brands ads disappearing, the noodle sector ads will go down significantly,” said a senior media planner.

     

    Instant noodle brand ads are mostly skewed towards television advertising and use general entertainment channels, kids channels and music channels. “The other brands like Yippee and Chings will cut down on the advertising and lie low for a while. They definitely don’t want to grab the attention for the wrong reasons,” said another media planner.

     

    However, an ITC spokesperson said the company will continue with the current marketing plans around Yippee. “There are no adverse reports on ITC’s Yippee noodles from any state and therefore marketing plans for this category remain unchanged,” said the spokesperson.

     

    While Ogilvy & Mather is Yipee’s creative agency, Madison World is its media agency. Another aggressive advertiser in this category is Chings, which is endorsed by actor Ranveer Singh. On May 27, the brand launched an ad film featuring the actor to fight hunger among school children in India, with the ‘India Ke Hunger Ki Bajao’ campaign.

     

    The campaign, conceptualised by Yash Raj Films (YRF), is a global fundraising drive initiated by Ching’s Secret (and YRF) with not-for-profit organisation Akshaya Patra.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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  • The company will bring together data, analytics, technology solutions and consumer-insight capabilities to help marketers simplify the sheer volume of data they are currently receiving

    With Bengaluru as a hub, WPP to form global analytics firm ‘Gain Theory’

    By Pritha Dasgupta

     

    WPP, the world’s largest advertising company, is merging two of its existing companies to float a new global analytics company called Gain Theory with three key hubs in New York, London and Bengaluru.

     

    It will help marketers analyse the maze of big data at a much quicker pace and help them incorporate and use the information in their business plan. The company will bring together data, analytics, technology solutions and consumer-insight capabilities to help marketers simplify the sheer volume of data they are currently receiving. It combines WPP’s expertise in media, marketing, data and technology to create a consultancy that will help brands make smarter, faster, predictive business decisions.

     

    “Gain Theory is the coming together of a select set of entities driving marketing RoI (return on investment) analytics and practices within the WPP group and will be a separate P&L (profit and loss). Acquisitions and partnerships as appropriate will be part of our road map.

     

    The new entity will focus on marketing analytics and help clients navigate the big data-driven consumer engagement and maximise RoI from these activates”, said Sunder Muthuraman, CEO, Gain Theory APAC.

     

    In India, Hindustan Unilever is by far the biggest client of Gain Theory. “We believe that when it comes to innovation in analytics and analytical technology, India, particularly Bengaluru, will lead the way. Meritus — one of the founding members of Gain Theory — is headquartered in Bengaluru and has a rich heritage in innovation, which is a strength that will be leveraged under Gain Theory,” said Muthuraman.

     

    While, globally, Gain Theory is led by Jason Harrison as the chief executive officer, Sunder Muthuraman will be the India lead and the CEO of APAC. The global operations will also include Manjiry Tamhane as the chief operating Officer and CEO, EMEA.

     

    “There’s no denying that technology today offers us more access to data than ever before, but in doing so it can also create paralysis for companies that need to act quickly,” said Harrison.

     

    The company is starting off with 200 employees worldwide that include professionals like data scientists, statistical experts, big data technology experts and various domain experts in the field of marketing, media and consumer engagement. It will soon expand to Latin America and China.

     

    Gain Theory will work with both existing and non-WPP clients. It will also draw expertise from other WPP companies like GroupM, KBM and Kantar.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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