Can Liril regain its equity?

Vishwadeep Kuila | Updated on January 07, 2014 Published on January 07, 2014

Liril campaign

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Liril campaign
Liril campaign

Liril campaign

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The soap market in India is highly penetrated (98 per cent) with a
multitude of brands. The market is estimated at Rs 10,000 crore in
value. Lifebuoy is the number one soap brand in terms of marketshare,
followed by Lux, Santoor, Dettol and Godrej No.1 in that order. (Ref
table: Leading the market)
The two major segments in the soap market are beauty and health.
Beauty is the bigger segment at Rs 5,000 crore but the health soap
market, valued at Rs 3,000 crore, is the faster growing segment. The
other segments are herbal/ayurvedic soaps and medicated soaps.
In terms of prices, the soap segments are:
Mass: Lifebuoy, Godrej No.1
Popular: Hamam, Medimix, Vivel, Lux
Premium: Dove, Fiama Di Wills, Mysore Sandal
Super Premium: Mysore Sandal Millennium Soap
Liril’s journey

Liril as a brand is still quite prominent in the minds of the consumers

in their 30s and 40s. The brand acquired celebrated status with
pathbreaking advertising and public relations campaigns.
Launched in 1975, in its earlier years the soap was positioned on the
platform of freshness from its lime ingredient. The visual cues of a
waterfall, a woman bathing under it and a signature tune, were used to
set the soap apart. Over the years, while the setting changed, the
positioning and the depiction of the protagonist playfully enjoying the
bathing experience, escaping reality and forgetting everything else has
been maintained. Consequently, Liril garnered 14 per cent of the
market at its peak and was among the top three soaps, along with
Lifebuoy and Lux.
Its journey since then has, however, been chequered and today, Liril
does not claim much consumer equity.
In 2005, as a result of the loss in its market share, Liril was re-
launched as Liril 2000, a skincare soap for the whole family. The
positioning was drawn from an international product in the Lever’s
stable Lever2000. The belief was that ‘freshness’ had by then become
a generic benefit in the soap category. The brand also experimented
with variants and forms, with a shower gel in 1994, a cologne variant
in 1996, Liril Rainfresh in 1999, and even Orange and Icy Blue
variants, followed by Aloe Vera and Lemon – all of which met with
little success. The brand continued to slide in both market share and
the minds of consumers. Price-wise, Liril continues to be in the
premium soap category and competes with the likes of Dove, Fiama
Di Wills and Lux International.
History of the brand

Liril was conceived by a group of young managers from HLL and

advertising agency Lintas was instructed to create a freshness soap in
the premium price segment. Their first attempt was a blue soap with
the promise of fresh mountain breeze. This idea did not work too well
in research. They then developed a green marbled soap with a lemon
fragrance. The brand was launched in 1975 as a response to research
which showed that the only private time available to the housewife
was during her bath, when she could be away from the family,
husband, mother-in-law and kids. The soap’s pitch was that she should
then use this time to relax and try and escape into a world of fantasy.
Concept development by Lintas

Lintas, the advertising agency that handled Liril, had to creatively

execute the image of a woman escaping into fantasy during her bath.
They came up with ‘a girl bathing under a waterfall’ concept.
Karen Lunel, an airhostess with Air India, was chosen as Liril’s first
model. The advertisement was very bold for its time but was a roaring
success. The Liril girl became an embodiment of an exciting life free
of the mundane and established the brand as an aspirational possession
for the Indian housewife. Liril, over the years, has come up with
multiple product innovations like the shower gel in the early 1990s, a
blue variant called Liril Rain Fresh in 1999, which was relaunched in
April 2002 as Liril Icy Cool Mint Fresh and in 2004 as Liril Orange
Splash.
Current Situation:

The brand’s market share today is negligible and the soap has tumbled
down from its number 3 position. In its latest avatar, Liril 2000 seems
to be aimed at men with the claim of soft and healthy skin. All the
launches in different product categories under the brand have failed.
Currently, it has a market share of less than one per cent in soaps.
However, Unilever understands that in the current fragmented and
highly competitive market of soaps, building a new brand is extremely
tough. In the last 20 years, no other new brand, besides Dove, has had
significant success in this category. The company would therefore like
to revive the brand to be a significant player even if not to the level of
its heyday.
The Task

You are the Head of the soaps business at Unilever and you have been
asked to either withdraw the brand, because of its poor market share,
or work out a strategy to revive the brand and its fortunes in the
market.
Analyse the brand’s current strategy and recommend to the business
head what Unilever should do with Liril. Write in your
recommendations to blcasestudies@thehindu.co.in in not more than
700 words. As this is a live brand, you can use secondary data
available to further add to case facts. ( Contest Rules)
The writer, an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, runs Brand Vectors, a
marketing consultancy. This case has been written purely for student
analysis and does not claim factual accuracy. The figures, drawn from
secondary research sources, are only inputs for respondents to devise
strategy. The writer does not claim to have any first-hand information
about the company mentioned here.