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Urban Indian consumers are used to liquid vaporisers that take about 25 minutes to get into action mode. Imagine a product that can kill mosquitoes in half the time. The Rs 6,391-crore consumer goods arm of the Godrej Group will soon launch a liquid vaporiser that claims it can rid consumers of mosquitoes in nine minutes.
Here's how: A unique dual technology - an intelligent heater system and a dual-wick system - will create an express blast of release, which will work on mosquitoes in the room, where the vaporiser is plugged. This blast will eventually subside so that consumers are not subjected to the release for long.
Called Good Knight Xpress, a combination (or combi pack) including the liquid vaporiser and the machine to which it will be attached, will be priced at Rs 108, marginally higher than the Rs 99 price point at which regular combi packs are available, says Sunil Kataria, chief operating officer, sales & marketing, Godrej Consumer (GCPL). Refill packs are even more competitively priced at Rs 66, just Rs 3 more than average refill packs, he says.
This will be the third product innovation in a year in household insecticides from GCPL, which gets 45 per cent of its revenues from the Rs 3,600-crore category. In February last year, the company rolled out an anti-roach gel for Rs 125, targeting mainly urban consumers wanting an effective solution to cockroaches. It was followed by Good Knight Fast Card, a paper-based mosquito repellent for Re 1 in October. The latter is being pushed mainly in rural areas where the penetration of household insecticides remains low.
As far as the new product goes, GCPL is expected to push it mainly in tier I and II cities to begin with. Depending on the response, the company may take it to more markets in a bid to tap new consumers. While the product was developed in-house, GCPL did reach out to experts in markets such as Germany, where the intelligent heater system was procured.
The innovation thrust comes at a time when GCPL is aggressively looking at revenue growth from new products. In a recent conversation with Business Standard, GCPL MD Vivek Gambhir said that over a third of the company's incremental revenues today came from new products across categories including hair colour, personal wash and household insecticides.
The effort on new product development, in particular, is expected to be galvanised with the formation of a global innovation council under GCPL executive director, Nisaba Godrej. The Wharton-and-Harvard educated second daughter of Adi Godrej will spearhead the council consisting of seven other top executives including Gambhir, Kataria, Sundar Mahadevan, executive vice-president, R&D and the country heads of Indonesia, Latin America, Africa and UK.
The council, which will meet every quarter, is expected to chart out an innovation roadmap for the future. "It will accelerate cross-pollination and look at learnings and insights that can be taken to different markets," Gambhir said.
GCPL, for instance, launched its creme hair colour in sachets of Rs 30 in 2012 taking insights from its Argentinian business. Similarly, its air freshner called Aer, also launched in 2012, took insights from its Indonesian business prior to launch. GCPL, meanwhile, has taken its Good Knight range of products to Africa in a bid to tap into consumers there.
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