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British consumer goods maker RB (earlier Reckitt Benckiser) is in a sweet spot. India, one of its key emerging markets, is in the midst of a nation-wide cleanliness drive and the brand, having aligned itself to the Swachh Bharat campaign early on is hoping the association will deepen its rural footprint and cement its position in the urban markets.
According to IMRB's recently released Global Brand Footprint Report for 2015, Dettol added 13 million shoppers worldwide last year, with Asia growing the most and India contributing significantly to the numbers. Dettol, for the record, is the leader in the anti-septic liquid category with almost 80-85 per cent of the market in the country. In soaps, however, it oscillates between number 3 and 4 after HUL's Lifebuoy and Lux and at times Wipro's Santoor. In newer categories such as handwash, hand sanitisers and kitchen gels, it wages a stiff battle with HUL's Lifebuoy, which has also ventured into these spaces in recent years.
Swachh Bharat has been billed as the country's biggest cleanliness initiative in recent years. And RB has predictably wasted no time in taking advantage of this. Last year it launched the Dettol Banega Swachh India, a five-year hygiene progamme, with Amitabh Bachchan. And last week, it roped in Bollywood actress Vidya Balan as campaign ambassador for a new initiative under this programme. The new initiative, RB says, aims to make 200 villages in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar open defecation free, the company will do this along with respective state governments and non-governmental organisations such as Pehel. While the initiative is noble indeed, given that India has more mobile phones than toilets, there is no denying that RB is also plugging into its own need to build its consumer base through the programme.
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At close to Rs 2,000-crore in turnover, Dettol is easily RB's biggest brand in India. It is also a heritage brand having made its way to India 83 years ago, the same time it was launched in its home market, the United Kingdom. But much of this growth has come from urban India where the brand has successfully tapped into the need for hygiene and cleanliness amongst its consumers. In many respects, Swachh Bharat will help RB take Dettol to the villages, something it has been moving towards in the last few years, experts say.
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When launching Dettol Banega Swachh India last year, RB India's MD Nitish Kapoor said that the company would spend Rs 100 crore in the next five years, creating awareness about the importance of hygiene and sanitation, reaching out to 2,000 villages in a year. 'Both Harpic and Dettol would be part of this campaign where our endeavour would be to bring about behaviour change. We are doing this with multiple partners,' Kapoor had said.
From then to now, the company appears to have made some headway, if market research agency IMRB's recently released Global Brand Footprint Report is anything to go by. The 13 million additional shoppers the brand gained last year, experts say, have come from urban and rural areas. However, RB's emphasis on rural is growing with the launch of affordable packs of Dettol soaps, liquid handwash and anti-septic liquids in markets such as India.
Consider this: RB five months ago launched Dettol Squeezy, which is priced at less than half that of its regular pump bottle of liquid hand wash (available for Rs 69-70 for a 215 ml pack). The company also offers ph-balanced hand washes priced at Rs 78-80 for 250 ml pack. In liquid handwash, the company also has an eye on the urban markets, since it is a small category, not more than Rs 500 crore in size, according to market experts.
But clearly, RB is making that big leap from urban to rural markets as cleanliness takes centre-stage. 'FMCG companies such as Hindustan Unilever and RB have been quick to spot the opportunity of penetration that Swachh Bharat has given them. They will only take it forward aggressively,' Abneesh Roy, associate director, institutional equities, Edelweiss, says. HUL already has its handwash programme under Lifebuoy that targets school children aggressively, among other user groups. In 2013, HUL announced that it would set up 24,000 toilets under the Domex Toilet Academy. The Swachh Bharat campaign has given the initiative a further boost, company executives said.
Currently, the size of the organised hygiene market, according to industry estimates, is around Rs 3,000-4,000 crore. But, analysts say, it has the potential to double, provided branded products are used even more by urban and rural households. At the moment that is not the case with many households counting on plain water for their cleaning needs. Companies such as RB and HUL will hope that the new national thrust on cleanliness will finally bring about a breakthrough and translate into rising market shares.
