how to revive margo soap (sbm report)

STRATEGIC BRAND MANAGEMENT

Report Review on

Margo: Has it lost on Neem trees???

For

By

Amitha ScariaAnju S

Dona SajiMahalakshmi MSeethalakshmi H

Amrita School of BusinessAmrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

Cochin

Faculty Guide: Satheesh Krishnamurthy

AMRITA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, COCHIN


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Few things are done in this world without co-operation. This effort is also no exception.

At this moment of completion of our report review, we would like to thank our SBM professor

Mr. Satheesh Krishnamurthy for guiding us through the process by providing us with necessary

information when required.

In any report review the more one engages with the staff and co-students more information one

gets. We thank all our students and teachers who helped us during the moments when we

required guidance.

Finally, we thank the God Almighty with whose grace this review has been successfully

completed.

-Amitha S

-Anju S

-Dona S

-Mahalakshmi M

-Seethalakshmi H



CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT............................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................5

About Hamam............................................................................................................................5

About Margo..............................................................................................................................5

REASONS FOR SUCCESS OF HAMAM..................................................................................7

REASONS FOR MARGO’S FAILURE......................................................................................8

REVIVAL OF MARGO..............................................................................................................10

Repositioned Margo as a brand..............................................................................................10

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REVIVAL OF MARGO........................................................11

CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................13



REPORT INTRODUCTION

MARGO: Has it lost in the neem tress???

INTRODUCTION

About Hamam

Hamam is a brand of soap made in India and marketed by the Indian unit of Unilever. Launched

in 1931 as a ‘mild, family soap’, Hamam soon drew a large natural following long before it was

trendy or fashionable to use products with natural ingredients. Hamam has Neem, Tulsi and Aloe

Vera which give effective protection from 10 skin problems like rashes, pimples, prickly heat,

body odour etc.

Hamam soap comes in three different variations which include:



SampoornaSnaan Hamam Scrub Bath AbhyangaSnaan

Hamam is the most recommended soap by doctors in Tamil Nadu and has a long standing

heritage of use traditional ingredients to bring effective skin protection to its consumers. Key

facts are they are the market leaders in Tamil Nadu and it is a 300 crore herbal soap brand.

About Margo

Margo is a brand of soap manufactured in India.Margo represents a heritage which has been

passed on to generation after generation,The soap has neem as its main ingredients.The soap was

manufactured by Calcutta Chemicals and was launched in the year 1920. In 1988 the soap was

among the top five selling brands in India, with a market share of 8.9%. As of 2001, the brand

was worth 75 crores and belonged to Henkel-SPIC. As of 2003, the brand was relaunching new

products focused on the younger demographics and had a market share of close to 2% of the

premium soaps segment in India.

The product categories in Margo are:-

Margo original Neem

Margo Nutri Care

Margo Glycerine

Starting in 2009, Margo has done a revamp of the imagery of the toilet soaps, and has introduced

the product in a new pack and new shape. This change in packaging and shape has been done to

appeal to the preferences and aspirations of India’s dynamic and ever increasing young

population.



REASONS FOR SUCCESS OF HAMAM

Proper Brand Positioning

Hamam is one of the oldest soap brands in India. The brand came into

existence in 1934 and over this 73 years has successfully built a space

for itself in the consumer's mind.

Better FAB and Quality



The only Indian-made natural soap at the time, Hamam was embraced

by mothers and doctors alike, for its purity and safety on skin.

Only Hamam has Neem, Tulsi and Aloe Vera which give effective

protection from 10 skin problems like rashes, pimples, prickly heat,

body odour etc.

Hamam is the most recommended soap by doctors in Tamil Nadu and

has a long standing heritage of use traditional ingredients to bring

effective skin protection to its consumers.

Have good cleaning properties and they have a nice and fresh

fragrance

Value for Money

They are priced at very nominal market rates and hence are value for

money for customers

When HLL implemented the Power Brand strategy, Hamam survived

the axe because of the strong equity it had among the consumers.

Hence the axe fell on Rexona which was also a natural soap with the

same positioning as Hamam.

Better Implementation of Changed Positioning

Hamam was positioned initially as a complete natural family soap. The

brand was built on the Trust factor.

The earlier ads typically showed Mother and child with mother

explaining the meaning of Trust using the example of Hamam.The

brand may have acquired this quality from its original creators TATA.

HLL tried to position Hamam as a herbal soap by changing the

composition by adding Neem ingredient.

2005 saw HLL repositioning the brand by adding more ingredients. The

brand now talks about having a Perfect Balance of Neem, Tulsi and

Alovera Extracts.



Change in packaging and communication of the brand

The brand no longer talks about trust but now positioning itself as a

beauty enhancing soap.

The brand has now come out with a variant that contains green gram,

turmeric and sandal .The color of the soap also has changed to sandal

from the traditional green color.

This move is a marked deviation from the age old positioning of the

brand as a natural soap

Brand Loyal Customers

Hamam for years has been able to sustain its market position because

of the strong brand loyal customers.

REASONS FOR MARGO’S FAILURE

Failed to evolve with changing trends

Margo is a brand in the herbal soaps category, which is more than 85 years old. Margo as

a medicinal soap emphasized on the natural qualities of neem

Margo is a brand which never changed with the customer i.e, Margo failed in

understanding the changing customer preferences. The herbal base of the product had

been major deterrent. Over the years Margo lost its appeal because it failed to attract

users from the next generation who incidentally were flooded with an array of new

beauty soaps. Margo failed to identify the changing dynamics of the Indian customers,

with more and more brands unfolding before the customer.

Herbal was equated with tradition and considered outdated

Improper Positioning

Margo was becoming a niche brand. Then Margo was positioned as “complete skin care

soap”

When market became fragmented with lot of products positioning at different attributes,

Margo was sidelined as a medicinal soap



Margo became irregular that was demanded only when there was a need for medicinal

soap

Margo soap comes under Dogs in BCG Matrix. The marketing strategy and positioning was poor. It could not change with the changing needs of the customers. Growth rate and Market rate was too low. It could not survive the competition

Failure in focusing on youth

In case of Margo, the herbal base of the product became a major deterrent to younger

users. A deeper look at society reveals lack of respect for tradition among youngsters

Herbal was equated with tradition and considered back-dated

The younger generations were more interested in using beauty soaps, which provided

good fragrance, with much lather and in a ‘easy to handle’ shape rather than medicinal

ones. This was the major reason why this brand failed

No change in FAB and lesser variants

Margo was replaced by its competitive brands as it lacked fragrance, shape, and lather

content, and medicinal herbs

Hamam changed the shape and design, has better moisturizing ability and was successful

in positioning them as herbal soap from a family soap. Margo, on the other hand failed in

their positioning as trendy because they did not change the FAB of the soap accordingly.

Margo had tried to bring their image as a trendy soap by coming up with ads of young

girls using the soap. They even had Genelia D’Souza, a famous celebrity figure in India



to popularize their brand image among youth. However, even when using Genelia the

FAB of the soap (even shape, color and packaging remained same) remained same. They

failed to position the soap effectively as a trendy soap as the soap still looked the same as

the earlier version.

Spend less on promotion when compared to other brands

Somewhere along the line, not only did Calcutta Chemicals stop spending on

communication, but creative advertising also failed to take up the challenge of turning the

traditional into trendy

The packaging too did not change

Not enough attention was paid to consumer and trade promotions that now hold sway

over most of the soap market. As a result, the brand started losing its relevance to

youngsters

REVIVAL OF MARGO

Margo tried by itself to revive in the market but could not revive entirely. Margo had done the

following to revive them.

Repositioned Margo as a brand

When, the wheel had turned a full circle, the demand for the herbal and the personal care

products are back in the markets. So, a repositioning and revival of Margo was possible.

But, the owner of the brand, Calcutta Chemicals failed to change the traditional theme

into a trendy one, which other new coming competitive brands boldly used. But later

when the ownership of the brand was handed over to Henkel Spic, they gave the brand a

facelift. Henkel gave it a new look, a milder herbal fragrance and more lather. Thus

Margo was no longer a medicinal soap. Henkel positioned it as a regular soap, but this

only helped in low revival of Margo in the market.

The new positioning is "Margo skin clear skin" (from the earlier positioning as

complete skin care soap). The brand had a following in AP, Tamilnadu and West Bengal.

The single mistake the brand made was to miss the new generation. It failed to attract the

young users. In 2003, Margo re-launched with new fragrance and shape. It targeted a



younger age group aged between 20-25 years. It generated more lather and stuck to neem

as the core ingredient. The marketers wanted to change the mindset of the customers by

positioning it as a regular brand. The promotional campaign depicted a young woman

communicating that the secret of her good looks is using Margo regularly. The tagline

changed from “Complete Skincare” to “Margo skin, clear skin.” It still failed to regain

the image

In 2008, it used a popular celebrity, bollywood actress, Rani Mukherjee, to endorse its

product. According to the marketers, the use of celebrity helps the brand to reach greater

heights. But still, Margo was considered as an irregular product and thus, was unable to

capture the major Indian market, though it is a strong player in certain regions

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REVIVAL OF MARGO

Margo has to be properly positioned as a regular use brand in order to break the mindset that Margo is a medicinal brand and can't be used regularly

It also indicated that the strong herbal fragrance of the Margo should tone down in order to shed the medicinal image and to be more youthful and trendy

The brand should also target a younger age group between 20 and 25. So in order to appeal to this segment the company should have ensured that the soap generates more lather while it retains its core ingredient, neem.

A series of promotion in the audio-visual media can gain attention for the product. We know that now a days the impact of FM radios play an important role in the promotion of products. So by having a radio partner they can improve the sales promotions.

The new package of the Margo contains green and yellow colors, so green color will be representing the neem extract in the soap. When we consider yellow color, people always



relate yellow color on the soap package with the extract of turmeric. The package indicates that the soap contains almond and olive oil. The images of both the ingredients are given in the cover. But yellow color always represents the extract of turmeric. So the color of the package should be changed according to the ingredients.

When we are considering the Tamil Nadu region, we know that most of the products sold out on the bases of political bases or celebrity bases. The customers of this region are more on the traditional. The company can focus on introducing a celebrity who is favourable for customers of all age groups. (Now they have the Genelia D’Souza, she is familiar more for the youth).

Margo can introduce more variants in different packages, shapes and colors. (Currently it has variants such as with lime, with glycerine)

They are currently spending a bit on promotions, but if they spend it more effectively they can penetrate the market more easily

The change in FAB of the soap has to be done to appeal to the preferences and aspirations of India’s dynamic and ever increasing young population. Margo has to keep itself updated about the market trends and change accordingly



CONCLUSION

Margo as such needs to concentrate more on the positioning of the product and should also

concentrate the younger age groups which can uplift the product from its current situation. It is

also necessary to improve in the product quality. Margo can could also work on its promotion’s

as it gives an easy penetration in to the market and can also attract various consumers. Different

kinds of packages attract consumers therefore they can try different kinds of attractive packages.


how to revive margo soap (sbm report)

Documents

brand of soap

hamam soap

recommended soap

family soap

crore herbal soap brand

oldest soap brands

neem trees

neem tress