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Wipro officials say they have taken a number of initiatives in the past few years to expand Santoor’s franchise and appeal. In a competitive market such as personal wash, this is clearly not easy since rival brands are also deploying strategies to woo traders as well as consumers. Yet, Wipro has made some bold moves such as moving beyond its core markets of the south and west as well as pushing its presence aggressively into rural areas — in short doing everything to position Santoor as a national brand.
Anil Chugh, senior vice-president, WCCL, says the company today has 30 depots (where it stocks the product before shipping it to wholesalers) across the country and a retail reach of over a million and a half outlets. A few years ago, the number was far lower. It continues to add consumers especially in rural areas where the brand’s promise of younger-looking skin appears to have caught on. While Santoor’s overall market share (urban and rural put together) is almost nine per cent in soaps, after Hindustan Unilever’s Lifebuoy and Lux whose shares are 15 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively, its share in rural areas is higher than in urban areas. Chugh does not give specific numbers, but says Santoor’s rural market share is almost two times its urban market share.
Analysts say that Wipro’s strategy of expanding into rural areas is well thought out given the clutter of personal care brands in urban India is higher than in the countryside. In the past few years, the number third, fourth and fifth-ranked soap brands, that is, Santoor, Dettol and Godrej No 1, have all turned their attention to the hinterland, as urban shop shelves get increasingly crowded with an array of products from local and international players. Of these, Santoor and Godrej No 1 have been most aggressive in their quest to expand their rural presence using the platform of beauty to make inroads into rural households.
The beauty segment at 50 per cent is the largest in the Rs 10,000-crore soaps market in India, followed by health at about 25 per cent. While health as a category has grown faster than beauty in the past few years, the latter still has a decent pace of growth at about 10-15 per cent per annum, say industry experts. Santoor, say Wipro officials, has been consistent with its promise of delivering younger looking skin over the last 25 years (it celebrated its silver jubilee last year). “Santoor has never deviated from this promise best epitomised by the mistaken identity ads where a mom is mistaken to be a college girl thanks to her youthful skin,” says an official from a rival personal care company.
Besides driving home this brand promise, Wipro has also attempted to personalise the experience for consumers especially in rural India with on-ground events, trial runs and community initiatives.
In urban areas, in contrast, Wipro’s strategy has been slightly different, using emerging categories such as face wash, handwash, deodorants, hand and body lotions, night and day creams, sun screen lotions etc to drive penetration.
“Growth rates in each of these segments is over 15-20 per cent per annum and as hygiene habits change, these categories will be the ones to watch out for,” says Pinakiranjan Miishra, partner & national leader, retail & consumer products, Ernst & Young. Wipro is also using categories such as deodorants, creams, hand and body lotions, sun-screen lotions etc to position itself as a skincare brand, an attempt to widen its base of consumers. Experts say beauty and skincare are attributes that complement each other well and Santoor has taken good advantage of this by packaging its products with the goodness of natural ingredients such as sandalwood, turmeric, almond and honey to attract the attention of consumers who are tired of products packed with chemicals perceived as being harmful for the skin.
“The original Santoor bar soap is all about the goodness of turmeric and sandalwood and how these ingredients can enhance one's beauty,” says Chugh. “Over the years, there have been variants to the original bar soap as well as extensions into other categories using natural ingredients as a base,” he says.
Wipro is now readying itself to take Santoor into shampoos - something it has been test-marketing in Andhra Pradesh. While Wipro will use its existing distribution network to push Santoor shampoos, the road ahead is not likely to be easy given the stiff competition from HUL, Procter & Gamble and players such as CavinCare, who’ve been around for a long time and built strong positions in the category.
In shampoos, HUL has a 45-46 per cent market share to P&G’s over 25 per cent market share. CavinCare, on the other hand, has a 11 per cent share in shampoos.
