 "Nirma plays a new tune")
The bête noire of HUL is back with a fresh campaign. With its ad, playing on television screens across the country, targeted mostly at consumers in major towns and metros, Nirma is shooting for the premium detergents segment. It has also aligned its communications strategy closely with the 'daag acche hain' campaign that HUL has been running for the past several years now for its premium detergent brand, Surf Excel.
Nirma is tight-lipped about the campaign. But several brand and advertising experts agreed that this seems to signal the brand's renewed thrust for premiumisation. Sources indicated that work is already underway to launch a new campaign with a new face for Nirma's beauty soap which had last featured Telegu actress, Hansika Motwani, in its ads.
The latest television advertisement of Super Nirma, which has been shot in Bangkok and has a distinctive urban and contemporary tone, suggests that the detergent maker wants to reposition itself as a youthful urban and premium brand. The ad features a group of young kids playing with mud and soon older kids and adults join the fun. It is similar to HUL's communication stance that stains are good for children; for their clothes, there is Surf. For Nirma, this marks a shift from early campaigns that harped on the whiteness of the wash and the low price of the detergent.
A senior advertising industry veteran who did not wish to be named said that the message heavily borrows from that of Surf Excel's. He adds that Nirma's appeal lay mainly in rural pockets and small towns (the revenue break up is not known), and it is trying to emerge as a brand to reckon with in the major cities. Santosh Padhi, co-founder and chief creative officer of Taproot India said that Super Nirma ads would always be around children, and that in segments like detergents there is a need to have a top of the mind recall for the consumer, and hence one needs to keep changing the campaigns.
Apart from HUL, Nirma is also training its guns at Kanpur-based Ghari, which having taken a leaf out of Nirma's story, has beaten it at its own game. Ghari recently overtook multinational giants like P&G to claim the second spot in the detergents space. An industry source indicated that HUL roughly commands 34 per cent share of the market (FY2014-15), followed by Ghari at around 23 per cent and P&G at around 18 per cent, while Nirma's market share was less than 12 per cent. The rest belongs to players in the unorganised segment.
Ghari is sticking to its old positioning and communication platform. A mail sent to the company did not elicit any response. But Rohit Surfactants Private Ltd. (RSPL, the makers of Ghari detergent) is setting up a 1500 tonnes-per-day soda ash (ingredient for detergents) plant in Gujarat and seems set to challenge Nirma on its home turf.
With the recent advertisement, Nirma wants to counter the threat by connecting with urban consumers. The background tune is an acappella (music piece, group or solo, without much instrumental support) which is likely to catch the fancy of the young urban demographic. The latest ad has been developed by TapRoot. Gujarat-based Purnima Advertising Agency had worked on the earlier signature campaign and the now famous Nirma jingle "doodh si safedi Nirma se aaye, rangeen kapde bhi khil khil jaaye".
Taproot was signed in 2009, and the brand's communication focus also seems to have undergone a shift since then. The 2009 ad for Super Nirma featured an entire village that had gathered for their weekly movie viewing ritual. Unclear picture quality was associated with the poor wash that other detergents provide and the tagline, as always, was that none can wash as white as Nirma. Around 2011, the ads began focusing on children.
There was one where a group of young kids were playing football, when a grumpy neighbour refused to return their dirty ball. The kids don't give up, make a ball with pieces of their clothing and start playing in the mud. The neighbour eventually yields.
Today nearly 80 per cent of the Rs 14,000 crore detergent industry in the country is dominated by four organised sector players HUL, Procter and Gamble (P&G), Nirma and RSPL. But industry estimates put per capita consumption of detergents in India at around 2.7 kg, below countries like the US (around 10 kg). The detergent market has been clocking 14 per cent CAGR in the last four to five years, and is expected to grow to around Rs 24,000 crore in the next five years.
Nirma, the four decade old brand, which once sold at Rs 3 per kg and changed the widely held perception that detergent is a premium product (middle class households opting for laundry soap bars), would want to regain its hold over this market. And it is aiming at both old and new rivals by re-inventing itself one more time.
Nirma is tight-lipped about the campaign. But several brand and advertising experts agreed that this seems to signal the brand's renewed thrust for premiumisation. Sources indicated that work is already underway to launch a new campaign with a new face for Nirma's beauty soap which had last featured Telegu actress, Hansika Motwani, in its ads.
The latest television advertisement of Super Nirma, which has been shot in Bangkok and has a distinctive urban and contemporary tone, suggests that the detergent maker wants to reposition itself as a youthful urban and premium brand. The ad features a group of young kids playing with mud and soon older kids and adults join the fun. It is similar to HUL's communication stance that stains are good for children; for their clothes, there is Surf. For Nirma, this marks a shift from early campaigns that harped on the whiteness of the wash and the low price of the detergent.
A senior advertising industry veteran who did not wish to be named said that the message heavily borrows from that of Surf Excel's. He adds that Nirma's appeal lay mainly in rural pockets and small towns (the revenue break up is not known), and it is trying to emerge as a brand to reckon with in the major cities. Santosh Padhi, co-founder and chief creative officer of Taproot India said that Super Nirma ads would always be around children, and that in segments like detergents there is a need to have a top of the mind recall for the consumer, and hence one needs to keep changing the campaigns.
Apart from HUL, Nirma is also training its guns at Kanpur-based Ghari, which having taken a leaf out of Nirma's story, has beaten it at its own game. Ghari recently overtook multinational giants like P&G to claim the second spot in the detergents space. An industry source indicated that HUL roughly commands 34 per cent share of the market (FY2014-15), followed by Ghari at around 23 per cent and P&G at around 18 per cent, while Nirma's market share was less than 12 per cent. The rest belongs to players in the unorganised segment.
Ghari is sticking to its old positioning and communication platform. A mail sent to the company did not elicit any response. But Rohit Surfactants Private Ltd. (RSPL, the makers of Ghari detergent) is setting up a 1500 tonnes-per-day soda ash (ingredient for detergents) plant in Gujarat and seems set to challenge Nirma on its home turf.
With the recent advertisement, Nirma wants to counter the threat by connecting with urban consumers. The background tune is an acappella (music piece, group or solo, without much instrumental support) which is likely to catch the fancy of the young urban demographic. The latest ad has been developed by TapRoot. Gujarat-based Purnima Advertising Agency had worked on the earlier signature campaign and the now famous Nirma jingle "doodh si safedi Nirma se aaye, rangeen kapde bhi khil khil jaaye".
Taproot was signed in 2009, and the brand's communication focus also seems to have undergone a shift since then. The 2009 ad for Super Nirma featured an entire village that had gathered for their weekly movie viewing ritual. Unclear picture quality was associated with the poor wash that other detergents provide and the tagline, as always, was that none can wash as white as Nirma. Around 2011, the ads began focusing on children.
There was one where a group of young kids were playing football, when a grumpy neighbour refused to return their dirty ball. The kids don't give up, make a ball with pieces of their clothing and start playing in the mud. The neighbour eventually yields.
Today nearly 80 per cent of the Rs 14,000 crore detergent industry in the country is dominated by four organised sector players HUL, Procter and Gamble (P&G), Nirma and RSPL. But industry estimates put per capita consumption of detergents in India at around 2.7 kg, below countries like the US (around 10 kg). The detergent market has been clocking 14 per cent CAGR in the last four to five years, and is expected to grow to around Rs 24,000 crore in the next five years.
Nirma, the four decade old brand, which once sold at Rs 3 per kg and changed the widely held perception that detergent is a premium product (middle class households opting for laundry soap bars), would want to regain its hold over this market. And it is aiming at both old and new rivals by re-inventing itself one more time.