A PREMIUM GROWTH STORY

HUL is focusing on making its brands unmissable, growing competitively and investing in the future.

- AJITA SHASHIDHAR

HINDUSTAN UNILEVER’S (HUL’S) iconic brands Lifebuoy, Pears and Surf have been an integral part of the shopping basket of Indians for over a century. But few know that India had its first brush with branded FMCG products when crates of Sunlight soap bars were offloaded from a ship at the Kolkata harbour in 1888. The crates were embossed with the words ‘Made in England by Lever Brothers’. Today, the Indian subsidiary of the AngloDutch conglomerate is a ₹62,911-crore revenue mammoth with leadership in personal care, home care and beauty & well-being categories. Its brands are so ingrained in India’s consumption fabric that many consumers and retailers are surprised when told that Surf, Vim, Lifebuoy and Dove, which generations have grown up with, have an Anglo-Dutch origin. Remember the Lalitaji ad (Surf Ki Kharidari Mein Hi Samajhdari Hai) in the eighties? It was perhaps the first Indian ad showing a confident homemaker daring to think out of the box and saying it was ok to pay a premium for quality. That was the time HUL was fighting the homegrown Nirma, which was gaining market share with its competitive pricing. A 1-kg pack of Nirma was priced at ₹7 vis-a-vis 1 kg of Surf at ₹28. The bold and feisty Lalitaji told consumers that Surf was better value for money; she promised better wash with just a pinch of detergent and, more importantly, no side-effects. The campaign changed the fate of Surf.