Introduction To Lux
Introduction To Lux
Submitted By
Submitted To
Prof. Ramesh
EMPOWERING MINDS
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INTRODUCTION to LUX SOAP
Lux stands for the promise of beauty and glamour as one of India's most trusted personal care
brands. Since its launch in India in the year 1929, Lux has offered a range of soaps in different
colors and world class fragrances. Lux is a beauty soap of film stars. Lux soap was first
launched in 1916 as laundry soap targeted specifically at 'delicates'. Lever Brothers
encouraged women to home launder their clothes without fear of satins and silks being turned
yellow by harsh lyes that were often used in soaps at the time. The flake-type soap allowed
the manufacturer some leeway from lye because it did not need to be shaped into traditional
cake-shaped loaves as other soaps were. The result was a gentler soap that dissolved more
readily and was advertised as suitable for home laundry use.
Lux toilet soap was introduced in 1925 as bathroom soap. The name 'Lux' was chosen as a
play on the word "luxury." Lux has been marketed in several forms, including bar and flake
and liquid (hand wash, shower gel and cream bath soap). Lux in step with the changing trends
and evolving beauty needs of the consumers, offers an exciting range of soaps and Body
Washes with unique elements to make bathing time more pleasurable. One can choose from a
range of skincare benefits like firming, fairness and moisturizing. From the 1930s right
through to the 1970s, Lux soap colors and packaging were altered several times to reflect
fashion trends. In 1958 five colors made up the range: pink, white, blue, green and yellow.
People enjoyed matching their soap with their bathroom colors.
In the early 1990s, Lux responded to the growing trend away from traditional soap bars by
launching its own range of shower gels, liquid soaps and moisturizing bars. Lux beauty facial
wash, Lux beauty bath and Lux beauty shower were launched in 1992.
In 2004, the entire Lux range was re-launched in the UK to include five shower gels, three
bath products and two new soap bars. 2005 saw the launch of three exciting new variants with
dreamy names such as “Wine & Roses” bath cream, “Glowing Touch” and “Sparkling
Morning” shower gels.
HISTORY
Lux soap was first launched in the UK in 1899 as a flaked version of Sunlight soap.
Subsequently it was launched in the US in 1916, and marketed as laundry soap targeted
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specifically at 'delicates'. Lever Brothers encouraged women to home launder their clothes
without fear of satins and silks being turned yellow by harsh lyes that were often used in soaps
at the time. The flake-type soap allowed the manufacturer some leeway from lye because it
did not need to be shaped into traditional cake-shaped loaves as other soaps were. The result
was a gentler soap that dissolved more readily and was advertised as suitable for home
laundry use Lux is currently a product of Unilever. The name "Lux" was chosen as the Latin
word for "light" and because it was suggestive of "luxury." Lux soap was introduced as
bathroom soap in the US in 1925 and in the UK in 1928 as a brand extension of Lux soap
flakes. Subsequently Lux soap has been marketed in several forms, including hand wash,
shower gel and cream bath soap.
Lux soap was launched in India in 1929. The very first advertisement in 1929 featured Leela
Chitnis as its brand ambassador. It was branded in India as "the beauty soap of film stars'. As
of June 2009 Lux is sold in over 100 countries.
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India's largest fast moving consumer goods company,
touching the lives of two out of three Indians with over 20 distinct categories in home &
personal care products and food & beverages. They endow the company with a scale of
combined volumes of about 4 million tones and sales of over Rs. 13,000 crore. HUL is also
one of the country's largest exporters; it has been recognized as a Golden Super Star Trading
House by the Government of India.
HUL was formed in 1933 as Lever Brothers India Limited and came into being in 1956 as
Hindustan Lever Limited through a merger of Lever Brothers, Hindustan Vanaspati Mfg. Co.
Ltd. and United Traders Ltd. It is headquartered in Mumbai, India and has employee strength
of over 15,000 employees and contributes for indirect employment of over 52,000 people. The
company was renamed in June 2007 to “Hindustan Unilever Limited”.
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In 2007, Hindustan Unilever was rated as the most respected company in India for the past 25
years by Business World, one of India’s leading business magazines [1]. The rating was based
on a compilation of the magazine’s annual survey of India’s Most Reputed Companies over
the past 25 years. HUL is the market leader in Indian consumer products with presence in over
20 consumer categories such as soaps, tea, detergents and shampoos amongst others with over
700 million Indian consumers using its products. It has over 35 brands. Sixteen of HUL’s
brands featured in the ACNielsen Brand Equity list of 100 Most Trusted Brands Annual
[2]
Survey (2008) . According to Brand Equity, HUL has the largest number of brands in the
Most Trusted Brands List. It’s a company that has consistently had the largest number of
brands in the Top 50 and in the Top 10 (with 4 brands).
Hindustan Unilever's distribution covers over 1 million retails outlets across India directly and
its products are available in over 6.3 million outlets in India, i.e., nearly 80% of the retail
outlets in India. It has 39 factories in the country. Two out of three Indians use the company’s
products and HUL products have the largest consumer reach being available in over 80 per
cent of consumer homes across India.
The Anglo-Dutch company Unilever owns a majority stake (52%) in Hindustan Unilever
Limited. HUL was one of the eight Indian companies to be featured on the Forbes list of
World’s Most Reputed companies in 2007.
PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES
Sale Promotion
Sales promotion, a key ingredient in marketing campaigns, consists of a collection of
incentive tools, mostly short term, designed to stimulate quicker or greater purchase of
particular products or services by consumers or the trade.
Whereas advertising offers a reason to buy, sales promotion offers an incentive to buy.
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Online Contests:
Play the supercharged version of the hit puzzle game, Bejeweled. Create rows of 3 or more
identical stones and you could win a trip for two to a five-star Resort in Goa.
Promotion:
Hindustan Unilever undertakes huge promotional activities to promote LUX which has topped
the beauty soap industry of India. Since the 1930s, over 400 of the world’s most stunning and
sensuous women have been proudly associated with LUX advertisements. They do not only
promote LUX in India for the beauty conscious females, it also promotes the brand for males
and the company proved that, by including world famous male celebrity Shahrukh Khan for
their advertising campaign. Hindustan Unilever Ltd spends a huge amount of money for
promoting LUX through TV commercials, newspaper advertisements and billboards. Till now
promotional activities of LUX has always been successful which has made it a household
common name and helped it reach almost one billion take a sale value in the year 2004.
Point of Purchases:
The LUX is not given a notable placement on the shelves of different retail shops &
departmental stores for its sales promotion. Usually the company goes for wide display in the
stores where it potential for its product. Different eye-catching decorations are made inside
the store and in the showcase for outside display. These arrangements are made with the
assistance of the sales people of the company.
Advertisements:
The message that the product reflects in its advertisements is the one that is usually narrated
by the corporate itself
Selection of Media:
There are number of Sources available for passing the product message. These are as follows;
Television
Outdoor (Billboards)
Magazines
Newspapers
Brochures
Internet
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Impact on Sales:
The company believes that ads do have adequate impact on sales. In order to meet the company
policy of maintaining and strengthening the corporate image, the ads are shown on television.
There is a long-term strategy in the books of Unilever to disturb the loose Soap market. They
usually show documentary from time to time regarding the flaws in loose Soap quality. It is
usually shown without any discrimination, i.e., without mentioning any Soap name or company
name in the documentary.
Conclusion
The beauty soap industry of India consists of a few producers in the industry. The
Demand for this product is very much vulnerable in terms of pricing. Hindustan Unilever is
providing LUX at a price which is affordable to most of the people in the country. Beauty soap is
an uprising product in India as a greater portion of the population, both male and female, are now
getting more beauty conscious. As a multinational company Hindustan Unilever with heavy
promotional activities, has been able to penetrate the market. With six different fragrances, three
different sizes, international standard and high quality design, as a product, LUX has been highly
successful over the years. Its distribution process is highly efficient. Its promotional activities,
like the beauty contest has been a milestone in attracting a huge number of customers. Overall
with its marketing activities LUX has been a successful brand.
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