INTRODUCTION TO LEVER

BROTHERS PAKISTAN LIMITED

LBPL are the largest Consumer Products Company in Pakistan; LBPL belong to Unilever
Group of companies, which makes up one of the largest global companies in the world.

LBPL was incorporated in Pakistan in 1948 and work started on the present factory at
Rahim Yar Khan. In 1951 the Governor General of Pakistan formally inaugurated the
factory. Dalda Banaspati was the first product to come out of factory followed by Lux toilet
soap in 1954.

LBPL pioneered the business of processed animal and poultry feeds in Pakistan when they
began their production and marketing in 1960. However due to immense difficulties it was
not possible to keep this part of business viable therefore it was closed in 1980.

A soap and glycerin factory was established in Chitagong in the then East Pakistan in 1961.
However this factory is no longer a part of LBPL as a result of succession in 1971.

Surf, first of their non-soap detergent (nsd) powders was launched in 1963. It is produced
by arrangement with Futehally Chemicals (Pvt) limited.

The present Karachi Edible factory was acquired in 1965 from A&B Oil Industries Ltd.
Reconstruction and expansion of the factory was completed in 1994 making it one of the
most modern plant in Pakistan.

LBPL moved into Personal Products Business in 1981. Further diversification on the food
side of business has taken place with the introduction of margarine and cooking oils. In
1994 a state of the art factory of producing Ice Cream (WALL’S) was erected and began
production in a record time of 10 months.
 MISSION STATEMENT OF LBPL
We are the leading consumer products company in Pakistan, a multinational with deep
roots in the country.

We serve the every day need of all consumers everywhere for food, hygiene and beauty
through branded products and services that deliver the best quality and value.

We use our superior customer understanding to produce breakthrough innovations in

brands and channels.

Our brands capture the heart of consumers through outstanding communication.

Through managing a responsive supply chain, we maximize value from suppliers to

customers.

We are exemplary through our commitment to Business Ethics, Safety, Health,

Environment and involvement in the community.

WHAT THEY DO
At present they market a host of household products named under the following brand
names and product groups.

1. HOME & PERSONAL CARE:

Personal Wash (PW)
Toilet Soaps Lifebuoy
Lifebuoy Gold (2 variants)
Lux (in 5 variants)
Rexona (in 3 variants)
Breeze
Sunlight Bar
 Laundry Care: Surf Excel
Sunlight washing powder
Sunlight bar
Wheel washing powder

House Hold Caring: Vim dish wash bar

Vim scourers
Magic bar

Personal products:
Hair Care Sunsilk Shampoo (in 4 variants)
Lifebuoy Shampoo
Skin care Fair & Lovely skin cream
Ponds
Dental care Close up toothpaste (3 variants)
Pepsodent

2. SPREAD & COOKING PRODUCTS CATEGORY

Cooking products:
New Dalda
Dalda Cooking Oil
Dalda Sunflower Oil
Planta Cooking Oil
Crisp ‘N’ Dry
Dalda Lajawab
Spreads:
Blue Band
3. BEVERAGES
Lipton Brands Brooke Bond Brands

Leaf Teas
Yellow Label Supreme
Yellow Label-Danedar Red Label-Danedar
Richbru BB Tips
Top Star A-1
Taaza Leaf Tiger
Laojee

Dust Teas
Pearl Dust Red Rose
Kenya Mixture

4. ICE CREAM

WALL’S POLKA
Cornetto (3 variants) Pop Cone
Feast (3 variants) Choc Bar
Top Ten Ice Cream Stick
Star Cup (4 variants) Panda (2 variants)
Callipo Jetspot Orange
Big Split King Kulfa/Big Slice
Big Fruiti King Kulfa Cups
Max Rambo Half Litre(11 variants)
Max Kulfi Litre Pack(15variants)
Blue Berry 10 Litre Pack(14
variants)
 LAUNDRY MARKET
In Pakistan laundry market consists of two segments:

 Detergent Market.
 Soap Market.

The total of laundry market consists of 500000 tones among which soap market has a share
of 400000 tones and only 100000 tones of share is of detergent market. The graph of
detergent market also shows the same:

LAUNDRY MARKET OF
PAKISTAN

20%

SOAP MARKET

DETERGENT
MARKET
80%

20% share is of detergent market and among that branded products has a share of 91%
and unbranded has a share of 9%. Among the branded products economical detergents has
39% overall share is distributed as ‘WHEEL’ has a share of 21% and the competitors i.e.
Bonus Power has 12% and BONUS Tri Star has a share of 6% rest of the share is with of
Top Gain segment i.e. with Surf Excel, Aerial, Express. So ‘WHEEL’ is the market leader
among all branded washing products of its category i.e. SENSIBLE CHOICE SEGMENT
which are targeted towards lower end of the consumers. Top Gain segment has a share of
52% among which Surf Excel has 23% market share, Ariel with 19% and Express with
only 10%. So Surf Excel is the overall market leader in the Top Gain segment.

SURF EXCEL
Surf Excel who brought with himself “complete cleaning and care” was launched 8 years
back in 1995. Surf Excel is a laundry detergent that has a different kind of consumer
perception as compared to the competing ones. From the day it was launched, has been met
with a persistent success and growth.

Lever Brothers Pakistan limited started ‘Surf Excel’ with 6 different sizes i.e. what they
call SKU’s (Stock Keeping Unit).

‘Surf Excel’ is an elegant product. Just as other products launched by LBPL are
renowned for various purposes (e.g. Lifebuoy relates to health, Liril relates to freshness,
Lux relates to beauty, Wheel relates to economical washing and cleanliness) Surf Excel is
reknown due to its ability of stain removing, bright washing and color guard.

PRODUCT IDEA
The idea arose in the mind of management when they saw that the customer wants a
premium quality washing powder with something extra in it. That something to know
about was a challenge for LBPL, which they accepted and came up with such a product,
which was not even visualized by anyone i.e. “Surf Excel”.

In 1995 when its launch was under the product development stage another study was going
on inside the LBPL so as to merge the existing brands of Super Active Surf and Ultra

Surf which were loosing the market at that time in one single brand or to merge them into
Excel. Although it seems to be a very big gamble on the part of the project team but the
risk was taken. Both the brands were merged with the formula of Surf Excel. It was
launched and fortunately met with success because it got some extra strength in the shape
of two more formulas of the previous Surf’s. This is all about past what the reality is that it
is one of the most successful washing powder of LBPL right now because it is bought by
everyone even the lower class people can enjoy the wash of Surf Excel because it is meant
to be made for the upper and middle class people but as we said it has 6 SKU’s and of
different prices starting from Rs. 5 to maximum Rs. 125. So the detergent won the heart of
people in every social class and is now in front of you.

PRICING OF SURF EXCEL

Pricing is the most important element of product mix. If prices were set too high no one
even give a damn look to your product because there will be other products available. So
while setting price one should be very considerate and remain practical to the cause.
Surf Excel prices we think are OK. Anyone can buy it without any hassle.
SKU’s PRICE
30 Gms Rs. 5
80 Gms Rs. 13
160 Gms Rs. 20
400 Gms Rs. 55
750 Gms Rs. 75
1 Kg Rs. 125
If you compare the price of Brite and Ariel, they are priced as follows:
SKU’s PRICE OF ARIEL PRICE OF BRITE
30 Gms Rs. 5
80 Gms Rs. 12 Rs. 8
125 Gms Rs. 17
400 Gms Rs. 50 Rs. 36
750 Gms Rs. 85
1 Kg Rs. 80
SEGMENTATION OF TARGET
MARKET

GEOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION

Country Pakistan
Density Urban, Sub-urban, Rural
Population 140 million
Climate All weather
 DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION

Age 20 and above

Sex Female
Occupation One earning member usually the male
Family size Nuclear family size
Family income A & B class

PSYCHOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION

Social class Upper and Middle class

Opinions They are aware that they have to look
good and socially conscious
Personality Authoritarian
Lifestyle Strivers and Achievers

BEHAVIOURAL SEGMENTATION

Purchase Occasion All occasion

Benefit sought Cleanliness and brightness
User status Regular user, Non user, Potential user
Usage rate Heavy user
Loyalty status Strong loyalty
Readiness stage Aware, Interested and Intending to buy
Attitude towards product Positive

TARGET MARKET
As Surf Excel is targeted towards the upper class of consumers basically of A & B
category housewives but would be made available everywhere through out the country
that’s why LBPL followed ‘UNDIFFRENTIATED’ marketing. As the product is marketed
towards a particular segment despite the fact that it uses the mass marketing approach
because lower class consumers are also using it as it is under their reach that’s why they
advertise keeping in mind all the possibilities.
In short the whole lot of customers using Surf Excel could be summarized according to
their use of different variants in a matrix which seems to appear like this:
CONSUMER SURF EXCEL SKU’s UNDER USE
CLASS 5 GMS 30 GMS 100 GMS 500 GMS 1 KG
UPPER CLASS *** ********** **********
MIDDLE CLASS ******* ********** *******
LOWER CLASS ********** ******** ****

POSITIONING

“AISEY DAAGH,
WAISEY DAAGH,
JAISEY BHI
DAAGH HOON
SURF EXCEL HAI
NAAAAA”
The above statement is right now the positioning of Surf Excel, which is for sure giving
more focus to stain removal than any thing else and also is the main function of the
detergent but they use various other strategies to deliver the customer the message that
Surf Excel also cares for the colour of their clothes as well as brightness.

As being recently recommended by Gul Ahmed Textile Mills for the best fabric care
detergent of the present decade is not prejudiced as Surf Excel is fully tested by them on
cloth in their laboratories before they recommend it to public on T.V commercials which
somewhat appears to be like this:

“SIRFSURFEXCEL
HEEEEEEDEYAAP
KEYKAPROOON
KOKARRRI
 DHULAAIAUR
BEHTAREEN
SAFAI”

While positioning Surf Excel it was kept in mind that all the benefits should be
communicated to the consumers in a way that they could relate to easily.

Initially when it was launched in 1995 the positioning of the Super Active Surf and Micro
Surf was modified as:

“SURF EXCEL KI
EK DHULLAI DEY
KAPROON KEY
BEHTAREEN
SAFAEE.SURF
EXCEL HI NAA”

Similarly when it was relaunched in 1998 with an improved formula of cleansing the
clothes which the team of Surf Excel thought will blew off the competitors as it contains
the more advanced chemicals which give your clothes extraordinary care and brightness
it’s positioning was changed to:

“SURF EXCEL AB
NAEEY QOOWAT
KEY SAATH JO
AAP KEY
KAPROON KO
RAKHEY SAAF
 AUR
CHAMAKDAR”

They want that customer feels very pleased when they use Surf Excel which leads to the
new idea of Smart Powerwash System which is the latest campaign started LBPL by giving
a Magic Care which requires less effort and make user free of using brushes, bleach and
bar soap, is economical and saves a lot of time of the user. Infact in Pakistan they started
this trend of smart wash by devising a new cleaning system for white and coloured clothes.

UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION

The USP for Surf Excel is “Com
Compl ete cl eani ng
and care ”. Protection against dirt and to use when stains get in deep. A
Tough cleaner with color protection formula. Containing Stain pretreatment and removal
activity. The company was trying to make the point that although other brands were
providing protection against dirt or anything, Surf Excel is the detergent for all
temperatures for all occasions.

SWOT ANALYSIS
SWOT analysis is done to know what is the strength and weaknesses of the brand are and
what are the opportunities and threats that company has to face from the environment. So
here we go:

STRENGTH
 LBPL is a big multinational.
 Sound and experienced management.
 Excellent marketing department assisted by a highly regarded marketing research
unit.
 R&D and financial support from parent company i.e. Unilever.
 Management of product is familiar with the psychographics and demographic of the
consumers.
  Strong brand image and brand awareness of ‘Surf Excel’.
 Market leader as it has a 23% share in its respective segment among branded
detergents.
 Large sales force.
 Strong and healthy relationships with distributors and retailers.

WEAKNESSES
 Low market share in N.W.F.P.
 Loss of market share to ARIEL.

OPPORTUNITIES
 High rate of population growth.
 Rising literacy.
 Market opportunity for ‘Surf Excel’ to penetrate in the new segments and market
discussion coming in after few pages.

THREATS
 Possible increase of market share of Brite and Ariel.
 Rising inflation, which reduces personal disposable income of consumers.
 Profit margin is exposed to rupee devaluation.

Apart from all this one major advantage they have is there own forecasting software
named ABACUS, which is used for Variance Reporting, Forecasting, Drill down Analysis
and Graphing. It helps in maintaining financial data consistency across the company. This
is an added strength of LBPL which none of its competitors have in any of the competing
segment.

MARKET ATTRACTIVENESS
This analysis is based on how every person who purchase Surf Excel give precedence to
which attribute and the result is somewhat like this:

CUSTOMERS
FEATURES
UPPER CLASS MIDDLE CLASS LOWER CLASS
PRICE 2 5 9
QUALITY 10 9 5
STAIN REMOVAL 10 8 6
BRIGHTNESS 10 7.5 5
COLOUR PRESERVATION 9 8 4
EFFECT ON HANDS 9 7 3
FRAGRANCE 8 5 2

Now we have given a maximum of 10 to most successful and attractive segment and
minimum 1 for least and the result is that quality of washing powder, stain removing
abilities and brightness got maximum 10 points with upper class and so is with the middle
but lower class are of just price conscious because of low earnings. Now we look at how
these ratings will fit in the segment of Surf Excel.

REPOSITIONING OF SURF EXCEL

As now we are suggesting Surf Excel to increase fragrance alongside with all the features it
have so a new statement like:

“AB NAEEY KHUSHBO AUR

COLOUR GUARD KEY SAATH
SIRF SURF EXCEL HI AAP
KEY KAPROON KO DEY
PEHLEY SEY ZIADA KARRRI
SAFAI MAGAR PYYAR SEY.
SURF EXCEL HAI
NAAAAAAAAA”
In this new positioning statement first of all we are overcoming the previously raised
questions about colour guard and fragrance and surety of greater cleanliness. From this
statement we are addressing the customers that now you can fully rely on Surf Excel, as
it’s the best having all qualities of a good detergent. The one and only of its kind.

SUGGESTIONS
We would like to suggest that first of all going for the segments of Hospitals, Hotels and
Laundries devise for them Industrial bags of about 10/20 Kg and sell it to them with
economical prices in order to make them comfortable with the deal. Provide them
discounts to encourage repeat purchase.

As far as the fragrance is concerned its ratio could be increased without increasing the
price by big numbers, as it’s not very expensive for them to do. It gives very pleasant
feelings to the customer and also the danger of cannibalization is not there because of not
introducing a line extension.

As the Surf Excel 1 Kg pack is growing very faster approximately by 80% a year it’s
sales is increasing so no problem with this. But on the other hand the growth of 5 Gms and
30 Gms is just 35% a year. So now important is to persuade lower class people to buy this
Surf Excel.

We will also suggest that on regular basis the experts will do study of market within 3
months so as to discover any rapid change in demand or behavior of the consumer because
we have to get on with it as and when a change is required to be successful in the market.
Product tests must be conducted in order to realize what additional benefits could be given
with it if possible and in a cheaper way so as to no one will feel overburdened while buying
it.

So these are few suggestions which we made for Surf Excel.