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P&G may pay Lever back in the same coin

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Viveat Susan Pinto Mumbai

After Rin took on Tide in its ad campaign, Ariel is expected to do the same with Surf.

The first round in the detergents war may have gone to Hindustan Unilever (HUL), but Procter & Gamble (P&G) may hit back soon.

HUL fired the first salvo last week by taking on Tide in its latest advertising campaign for Rin. And sources familiar with the developments say Procter & Gamble is planning to pay HUL back in the same coin by launching an ad against Surf, HUL’s flagship detergents brand which competes directly with P&G’s Ariel.

P&G is also believed to have moved the Madras High Court and the case is due to come up for hearing on Friday. Sources however say HUL wouldn’t mind withdrawing the ad in case of an adverse court ruling as its purpose has already been served with the ad having a free run for almost a week.

 

The HUL commercial launched on February 26 said that Rin delivers superior whiteness in comparison to Tide Naturals. The ad voice-over states: Tide se kahin behatar safedi de Rin (Rin gives much better whiteness than Tide).

An HUL spokesperson indicates there was a need to do this in the wake of claims made by competing brands about superior whiteness. “It was our duty to inform consumers about which product was actually delivering superior whiteness. This claim is based on tests done at independent third-party laboratories,” he says.

HUL’s moves to take on P&G, say analysts who do not wish to be named, have been triggered by falling value share in the laundry segment — a result of both downtrading and price cuts. However, volume-wise, the company has gained in the last few months.

HUL has seen an increase of 150 basis points in volume share of its laundry portfolio in the six-month period from August 2009 to January 2010. It touched 28.9 per cent in January 2010 from 27.4 per cent in August. Washing powder, on the other hand, grew by 160 basis points, touching 33 per cent in January 2010 from 31.4 per cent in August 2009.

But P&G’s laundry business has been growing, too. For the October-December 2009 period, for instance, the volume share of its laundry business touched 16.5 per cent from 11.6 per cent in the April-June period, says Shirish Pardesi, senior analyst at brokerage firm Anand Rathi.

But the HUL ad doesn’t seem to have gone down well with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). The Council has received complaints from “two consumers” stating that HUL has made an unfair comparison between Rin and Tide Naturals. Allen Colaco, the Council’s secretary-general, says, “We have received complaints from two consumers highlighting these points. We have not received a formal complaint from Procter & Gamble though. We have forwarded the complaints to Hindustan Unilever asking them to respond to it.”

A P&G spokesperson says, “We are aware of the disparaging advertisement on air against Tide Naturals, but are truly encouraged by the huge and spontaneous response from our consumers (online and direct) in support of our brand. Tide is the leading mid-tier detergent brand and one of the fastest-growing laundry brands in India. Its promise to deliver ‘superior whiteness & great cleaning’ is backed by extensive research by P&G’s strong, scientific team”.

This is the second time in a month that HUL has taken potshots at its competitor's brands in its commercials. An ad for HUL’s Clinic All Clear shampoo, for instance, makes a muted reference to P&G’s Head & Shoulders brand. The ad, currently on air, features Bipasha Basu, who is hunting for a girl with zero dandruff, as part of a contest. “The portion where the girl with dandruff mentions the brand name of her shampoo is muted. But if you lip read carefully, she says Head & Shoulders,” says an agency source.

P&G did complain to ASCI about this ad about a week ago, says Colaco, prompting the body to write to HUL seeking an explanation from them. “HUL is yet to respond to it,” says Colaco. The company, however, chose not to launch a commercial in response to HUL’s missive then. But it may now take the step in view of its rival's growing assertiveness, say advertising industry sources.

High Court asks P&G to add disclaimer to Tide Naturals ad

From shopfloors to TV screens and finally to the Madras High Court, the HUL-P&G war is being fought on various fronts. HUL has managed to get an ad-interim injunction preventing P&G from airing its Tide Naturals commercial in the current format.

In the hearing on March 1, the court directed P&G to make modifications to the commercial. This involved the inclusion of the sentence – “It does not contain lemon and chandan” - prominently in the ad, whenever the two were found to be projected. HUL had moved the court on February 25 saying the use of the word 'natural' by P&G was incorrect, since there were no natural ingredients, namely lemon and chandan, in the detergent powder. Only fragrances of the same were added to the product.

An HUL spokesperson said "the recent launch and advertising of one of our competitors had sought to give the impression that theirs is a Natural detergent when in fact, by their own admission in court, it is a synthetic detergent. This has misled consumers at large.

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First Published: Mar 04 2010 | 12:32 AM IST

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