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‡ Surf Excel was launched in 1954 and has been present in the Indian
Market for over last 50 years.
‡ It has managed to create a strong brand name over the past 5
decades.
‡ With punch lines like µdhoondhte reh jaoge¶ and µjaise bhi daag
ho,surf excel hai na¶ Surf excel has managed to create a place for
itself in the Indian market.
‡ Bringing out innovative products at alternate intervals has been Surf
Excel¶s strength.
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6 Oirma
6 P&G ( Tide,Arial)
6 Henkel India (Mir, persil, porwall, vernel, purex)
6 Reckitt Benckiser ( Vanish)
6 Local Detergents (for e.g. Oational Soap Depot,etc.)
 




‡ Strong Brand Portfolio

‡ Innovation (Strong R & D)
‡ Distribution Oetwork
‡ CSR
‡ High Quality Manpower
‡ Good Will in the market
‡ Abundant Financial Resources
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‡ Pricing Strategy
‡ Huge Inventory Stocks of Raw Materials
‡ Highly Competitive Segment
‡ Substitute Products
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‡ Growing demand for detergents

‡ Rural Market
‡ Diversification
‡ Increasing Usage Frequency
‡ Increasing the Brand Image





‡ Competition
‡ Local Products
‡ Environment Effects
‡ Low Profit Margins
‡ Increase in Prices due to rise in fuel price
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The Buyers of Surf Excel are divided in two groups
EOD USER RET I ERS
‡ Detergent is a low involvement ‡ HU uses GTM (Go To
product with small fragmented Market) to reach their retailers
customer base. via Mahindra ogistics.
‡ Weak and do not possess much
bargaining power.
‡ But, they possess the power of
choice.
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The suppliers of Surf Excel can be broadly classified as :
1. Sodium Tri Phosphate Supplier (STPP)
2. Packaging Paper Supplier
3. Manufacturers

Surf Excel purchases raw material, STPP from Tata Chemicals Limited.
HUL holds a 2.14% stake in TCL thus exerting some influence directly
in the decision making process.
Additionally TCL at present doesn¶t seem likely to enter the detergent
market, thus risk of forward integration is mitigated.
Moreover there are other suppliers for STPP like Bond Impex Pvt.
Ltd, Saral Chemicals, etc. thus HUL can have a supplier of choice.
All raw materials and packaging materials are provided by HUL to
Vashisti Detergents Limited, for which VDL is given
conversion/processing charge.

Thus, we see that the suppliers of HUL do not possess much

bargaining power and HUL doesn¶t have any potential threat from the
suppliers.




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Threat from liquid detergents and detergent bars.

Expert believes that liquid detergent give better washing quality than
detergent powders because liquid detergents are better when it comes to
retaining the brightness of the clothes.
Liquid detergents are used for specific type of clothes like woolen or
delicate ones.
So if a liquid detergent comes out in market which can appeal to a large
segment (with price and quality) for all types of clothes then it may give
a serious competition to Surf Excel.




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Detergent Market is an innovative market where many variations of

detergent powders exist and many more can come.

Likewise a new product which can cater to other changing needs of

customer can pose strong competition to Surf Excel.
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‡ Surf Excel faces intense competition from Ariel in Premium Market
Segment.
‡ While Surf Excel is preferred in the Oorthern and Eastern states, Ariel
is preferred in Western and Southern part of the country.
‡ Ariel is also available in various variants and thereby gives intense
competition to Surf Excel.
‡ 95% of Indian consumers use a combination of detergent powder and
detergent bar.Detergent Bars occupy 43% of the total detergent
markets.
‡ Oirma occupies 55-60% of rural market share whereas, Surf Excel has
10-15% of market share (rural).
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Surf Excel should keep an eye for any changes the Government
might make to its tax policies.
For example,
‡ if the Government introduces new policy, then Surf Excel might
have to increase its prices which might have a negative impact on
sales.
‡ Also, the chemicals used for producing the product may harm the
environment and the human body. In future, if the Government
introduces any mandatory legislation against such chemicals, it may
prove to be a huge hurdle for Surf Excel.

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‡ In the current economic slowdown, people tend to spend

conservatively. In such a situation, relatively expensive products
like Surf Excel may not be preferred despite its high quality.
‡ Therefore, Surf Excel should keep this in mind while evaluating its
pricing and sales promotion strategies.
‡ Surf Excel should focus on imports and exports. By doing so, it can
capitalize on the low cost production opportunity by importing as
well as enter new markets by exporting its products.
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‡ As the lifestyle of the consumers change, customer expectations also

keep changing.
‡ Surf Excel should concentrate on the dynamic needs of the customer
and come up with variants that satisfy their needs. The customer
tastes and preferences change with the changing fashions as well as
changes in the weather.
‡ Keeping this in mind, Surf Excel should keep modifying its product
to suit the change in the material being used.


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‡ One of the strengths of Surf Excel has been the innovations it

brings about in its products from time to time.
‡ In order to improve the quality of its product and to lower its cost
of production, Surf Excel can focus on further innovations and
technological development.
‡ It should focus on Research and Development and come up with
new technologies to make the Surf Excel brand even more
environment friendly, thereby improving its image.
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In product some elements are involved which are Variety, Quality,

Size, Features, Brand Oame, Packaging and Services.
4 
Surf Excel is at present situation available in two varieties
· Surf Excel
· Surf Excel Matic



Surf has continued to change according to consumer needs. Since
the brand has undergone numerous product quality improvements
to offer best cleaning results.
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Surf Excel is using the following methods for price setting.

 !"# $% !&$ !'($% &
The company provides products to the distributors for the prices
decided keeping in view the cost, the target revenue and competitors
prices. All distributors are being equally treated.
 !"#& )*+ ,#- '. !&$ !'($% & $% #$+!/# &
Unilever gives margin of certain percentage to distributors so in this
way prices to be charged by distributors to retailers are fixed.
 !"#& )*+ ,#- '. #$+!/# & $% /$!0+$# )%1&(0# &
Company influences prices charged by retailers. So retailers are
bound to charge fix price to ultimate consumer.
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Surf Excel is one of the top brands of HUL, and hence it is available
right from the big retail chains to the local panwallah shop on the
street.

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Surf Excel gets prominent shelf space at any retail outlet, due to its
strong brand image in the market.



As Surf Excel is a convenient product, huge amounts of inventories
are to be maintained. 
  




 
 
 

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‡ Regular education and awareness-building campaigns
‡ Stock availability in relevant outlets
‡ Moreover, as consumers become more aware it is important to build
credibility of an offering like Surf Excel Matic
‡ Using TV advertising and radio as well as news papers and
billboards
‡ Regular advertising will be used which will transcend any
communication barriers
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ðourney of surf excel:

1. 1996:
Surf excel was launched in 1996 offering µcomplete cleaning and
care¶ . This was communicated through the campaign µðaisa bhi
daag ho, Surf Excel hai Oa¶.
This type of positioning is based on the concept of Functional
positioning (solve problem).
2. 2003:
In 2003 Surf excel was positioned to address a key concern of the
country: shortage of water. The brand was tied up with eminent
celebrity Shabana Azmi to propagate the concept of saving two
buckets of water along with getting stain free cleaning.
This campaigning was based on the combination of two positioning
concepts, namely,
symbolic positioning (social meaningfulness) and functional
positioning (Provide benefits to customers).
3. 2003:
Later on it was re- launched as surf excel blue with a tagline µðayega
nahin ðayega¶. This variant would remove tough stains without fading
color.
4. 2005:
In 2005 surf excel came up with the concept of vice is nice by
using the tagline µAgar daag lagne se kuch acha hota hai to daag
ache hain¶. To hold their market share surf excel adopt this
philosophy to propagate the concept that if a child learns
something and gets stained in the process then those stains are
good. To make µDirt is good¶ a meaningful campaign stains are
linked with learning of values. This type of positioning is based on
the concept of Experiential positioning (provide cognitive
stimulation).
 

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The pricing strategy of Surf Excel is such that it projects itself as a
premium brand and thus is priced at a price on the higher side of the
market. Thus it is losing some of its market share to the low cost
competitive products like Tide from P&G which is actively involved in
promoting its product.

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 The zero inventory
initiative by HUL is in this direction but is still in its nascent stages and
needs to be implemented across the country to become cost effective.