Lux is a super brand that celebrated beauty across the world since 1925.

The soa
p which was endorsed by the beautiful film stars came to India in 1929.
Lux has been the largest selling personal wash brand in the country.
Lux has effectively managed its PLC through careful brand building and changing
the product in line with the changing consumer.
The brand is being positioned as the favorite soap of Film stars has been consis
tent interms of communication and positioning.
The brand is also the classic example of successful celebrity endorsement. The f
irst celebrity to endorse the brand was Leela Chitnis .
From Leela to Aishwarya , From Madhuri to Madhubala, Lux has been endorsed by mo
re than 50 film stars ( a sort of record isn't it).
But in all these communications, the celebrity never shadowed the brand.
Lux was always changing with the times. Whether it be interms of the product or
interms of promotions, the brand kept the consumers excited.
Lux has two basic extensions interms of segments. Lux beauty soap and Internatio
nal Lux.
Lux was initially a premium brand. Lux was being projected as an aspirational br
and and the endorsements by stars further reinforced the positioning.
The increasing competition in the soap category forced Lux to rethink on its tar
geting strategy. The brand had a choice either to compromise on
market share and uphold the premium positioning or to retain the market share an
d dilute the positioning. Lux wanted to ensure that the brand be positioned
as premium but also did not wanted to compromise on the share. Thus born Intern
ational Lux which is the premium variant and the affordable segment was catered
by Lux beauty soap.
Lux beauty soap is available in Four variants : Exotic Flower Petals,Fruit Extra
cts,Almond and Sandal. Lux has a common ingredient of Milk cream in all the vari
ants.
Although the brand enjoyed success and has sustained its leadership position, of
late this brand has been facing issues of stagnation. The stagnation is caused
by the plethora of brands competing for the market share and the scope for diff
erentiation has reduced to almost nil. Together with the rush for celebrities
to endorse anything from salt to cars, Lux is finding it difficult to sustain gr
owth in this cluttered market.
In 2005 Lux celebrated its 75th anniversary sparking of a controversy. Deviating
its tradition of roping in Bollywood Divas , this time none other than
Shah Rukh Khan endorsed Lux. The ads created instant controversy with marketers
discussing whether the brand has suddenly become MALE.Paul Newman also
has endorsed Lux soap which shows that Lux makes such stunts to excite the marke
t. Whatever be the controversy, the brand again succeeded in creating
excitement in the market. Some argue that HLL was testing a new positioning to a
ppeal to male users while others say that it was a one time endorsement to
break the clutter. For marking the 75th year Lux came out with a celebration ran
ge endorsed by Kareena Kapoor . The Celebration range too created news because
of its variant :Chocolate Seduction. These innovative products created lot of ex
citement that ensured that Lux remained in the top of mind of the consumers.
Another variant which I like personally is the Lux with Orchid which looked cool
in terms of packaging and looks.
Over these years, the positioning of Lux also evolved. Earlier the brand used th
e positioning " Beauty soap of Film stars" . But as the customer evolved,
the positioning lost its charm because customers began to doubt whether the film
stars actually used this brand. Taking a cue from the customers, Lux changed
the positioning appealing to the need for becoming a star. The new positioning i
s communicated with the tagline " Bring out the star in you".Although worldwide
the brand is being endorsed by film stars, the actual package usually contains p
icture of international models and not film stars.

While Lux beauty soap is sticking to the age old positioning, Lux international
has moved from being a soap brand to a skin care brand. Lux International has
the tagline " Not Just Soap, Its Skin Care". Under the Lux umbrella brand, HLL h
as introduced variety of personal wash products like body shampoo,hair shampoo e
tc.
Lux is the classic example of HLL's marketing genius. The brand will experiment
and explore more in the days to come....