Introduction

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India's largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods
Company with a heritage of over 75 years in India and touches the lives of two out of three
Indians. HUL works to create a better future every day and helps people feel good, look
good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for
others.
With over 35 brands spanning 20 distinct categories such as soaps, detergents,
shampoos, skin care, toothpastes, deodorants, cosmetics, tea, coffee, packaged foods, ice
cream, and water purifiers, the Company is a part of the everyday life of millions of
consumers across India. Its portfolio includes leading household brands such as Lux,
Lifebuoy, Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel, Fair & Lovely, Pond‟s, Vaseline, Lakmé, Dove, Clinic
Plus, Sun silk, Pepsodent, Closeup, Axe, Brooke Bond, Bru, Knorr, Kissan, Kwality
Wall‟s and Pureit.
The Company has over 16,000 employees and has an annual turnover of around Rs.19,
401 crores (financial year 2010 - 2011). HUL is a subsidiary of Unilever, one of the world‟s
leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods with strong local roots in more than 100
countries across the globe with annual sales of about €44 billion in 2011. Unilever has
about 52% shareholding in HUL.
Brands
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. Sixteen of HUL’s brands featured in the
ACNielsen Brand Equity list of 100 Most Trusted Brands Annual Survey (2008).
According to Brand Equity, HUL has the largest number of brands in the Most Trusted
Brands List. It has consistently had the largest number of brands in the Top 50, and in the
Top 10 (with 4 brands). The company has a distribution channel of 6.3 million outlets and
owns 35 major Indian brands.[4] Its brands include Kwality Wall's ice cream,Knorr soups
& meal makers, Lifebuoy, Lux, Pears, Breeze, Liril, Rexona, Hamam and Moti soaps,
Pureit water purifier, Lipton tea, Brooke Bond (Roses, Taj Mahal, Taaza, Red Label) tea,
Bru coffee, Pepsodent and Close Up toothpaste and brushes, and Surf, Rin and
Wheellaundry detergents, Kissan squashes and jams, Annapurna salt and atta, Pond's talcs
and creams, Vaseline lotions, Fair and Lovely creams,Lakmé beauty products, Clear,
Clinic Plus, Clinic All Clear, Sunsilk and Dove shampoos, Vim dishwash, Ala bleach,
Domex disinfectant,Modern Bread, Axe deosprays and Comfort fabric softeners.
VIM
Created in 1885, the Vim brand is still innovating and using the magic of natural
ingredients to create unbeatable results over a hundred years later. A remarkable history
William Hesketh Lever was determined to revolutionise Victorian England's standards of
cleanliness and hygiene: so he created Vim Soap.
 His revolutionary product was the first one ever created by the company that is now
Unilever, and today's hand dishwashing products build on this illustrious heritage.
The power of nature Whereas other products are only just beginning to realise the
importance and power of natural ingredients, Vim's use of the power of lemons to provide
its unbeatable degreasing power is well-established. We also use other natural products,
such as lime, vinegar and green tea to maximise the results, and minimise the number of
chemicals in our products and in the environment.
Key Facts
Vim was the original hand dishwashing brand: so we invented the whole category!
Vim is sold in four continents, is the leading hand dishwashing brand in twenty
countries, and is available to more than 2 billion people around the world.
Vim began life as a soap (both in England, and in Thailand, where King Rama V asked
Unilever to supply his household with soap), but is now available as a complete range of
hand dishwashing – including bars, powders and liquids.
From Our Range
1. Vim Plastic Coated Bar
2. Vim Anti-Bactria Bar with Plastic Coat
3. Vim Ultra Powder
4. Vim Popular
5. Vim Drop Active Gel Lemon
6. Vim Drop Active Gel Lime
7. Vim Drop Active Gel Orange
8. Vim Drop Active Gel Pouch
About vim
In 1993 Vim Bar was launched. This product had several advantages as well
as higher clean, simple handling and simple storage. Vim Bar was re-launched in 1997
with Associate in Nursing improved formulation and new communication that tackled
economy and performance. abundant appreciated by the mass market, it resulted in
conversions not simply from powder users, however conjointly from proxy users UN
agency failed to upgrade to powders however most popular to use Vim Bar instead. Vim
Dish wash Bar is that the market leader with sixty per cent share within the Rs four
hundred large integer completed dish wash market The brand
has big considerably registering sturdy double-digit growths in each volume and
price terms. Vim Bar was re-launched a second time in 2002, with a singular “Stain
Cutter” formulation that removes the toughest stains like burnt milk and drawn
butter stains. This new formulation evolved through analysis and is currently setting
benchmarks in powerful stain removal. New Vim offers the patron a superior
performance at a good price. . New Vim with its up to date packaging illustrates
dynamism and swift stain cutting powers. HLL is targeted on analysis and development
for consistent delivery of superior merchandise. Thus, New Vim has been developed
with a singular stain-cutter formulation that removes the toughest stains like burnt milk
and drawn butter stains. New Vim offers the patron a superior performance at a
good value”. The new Vim features a altogether new combine, right from the packaging
to the formulation of the merchandise. New Vim with improved formulation that solves
the housewife’s nonetheless unsolved downside of powerful stain removal of burnt
milk/ghee stain.
Vim is that the market leader within the dish wash class. these days Vim is obtainable in
powder, bar and liquid type. Vim unceasingly strives to initiate its merchandise to
reinforce the lives of its shoppers. Whether or not or not it's through its new 'Stain Cutter'
formula in its Vim Bar or it is the stain busters in its powders, Vim stands for the
simplest quality in dish wash merchandise.
Vim as a Brand
Vim, among Hindustan Lever's 30 power brands, is looking at scouring the competition
further. Though the brand — led by the flagship Vim bar — remains the market leader in
the overall Rs 1,000-crore dishwashing market, HLL `complete kitchen cleaner'
Vim (utensil cleaner), which is ranked the fourth most preferred brand in urban market,
doesn’t find a place in the top ten in the rural market On brand equity ranking. Though it
was a market leader Vim Dishwash Bar is the market leader with 60 per cent share in the
Rs 400 crore branded dishwash market The brand has grown significantly registering
strong double-digit growths in both volume and value terms

HUL planned for brand extension

Another brand extension was planned is that of an `applicator', to be priced at parity with
nylon scrubbers. Currently, Scotchbrite is the only branded applicator in the market, priced
at a premium.
HLL has projected a Rs 260-crore turnover for Vim this year, which translates to a 21
per cent growth over the previous year.
Vim bar, which accounts for over three-fourths of the Vim brand's sales, is expected to
be the key driver of growth. "Of the projected Rs 260 crore, we expect Vim bar to be a Rs
240-crore brand by the year-end, with Vim detergent powder and Vim liquid accounting
for the remaining Rs 20 crore," the official sa Vim liquid, meanwhile, would continue to
be a slowburn brand.
Vim also planned to extend the brand by introducing Detergent liquids . detergent
liquids is a small, though emerging market and has a limited presence of brands such as
Vim, Teepol and Pril. The market is estimated at 600 tonnes, or roughly Rs 200 crore. Vim
liquid was rolled out recently in cities and towns with 10-lakh-plus population.
 Target consumer for “vim” were
1. Households wives
2. Restaurants
3. Shops and hotel that offer cooked food products
Advertisement:
HLL to advertise the vim used both medium of communicating that formal as well as
informal.
Formal advertising was done through:
1) Newspapers and magazines
2) Television
3) Radio
4) Cinema
5) Outdoor advertisement through:
 Signboards
 Wall painting
 Local bus boards
 Product display boards between villages
6) Point of purchase used were
a) Streamers
b) Tinplates
c) Hangings
Promotion strategy
This strategy was used at village to village basis
 Use of audio- video vans
 Door to door marketing
 Retail contact
 Central location
In the process of promoting “vim” in rural areas. Keeping into mind The dynamics of
rural consumer and distribution infrastructure, the marketer had adopted a different
promotion strategy to promote the vim in rural areas.
 The formal media used to communicate the product was T.V, radio cinema ,print
proportionately depending upon their reach and their influence on rural masses.

The informal promotion strategy was formulated. The steps involved to promote the
product in rural areas.

The first step was the usage of audio- visual publicity vans. This publicity vans were
covered by beautiful banners, this banners were embossed with the product photos, the
base or tagline of the product and colorful picture that can attract the rural consumer. The
audible material used were a tunes of current filmy songs, which were composed with new
lyrics, this lyrics gave the special features about the vim. This step was used as an
introduction of the product vim in rural markets.

The second step in the promotion strategy was to do Door-to-door marketing. This step
was very well designed. To do Door- to- door marketing the marketer employed the young
local youths who can communicate with rural people in the local language. This youth
carried along with them flip charts as a substitute medium to T.V.

This flipchart contained a story. The story used in the flip chart was about two female
named “ Kamala” and “bimla”. Explaining that kamala used vim and bimla used other
proxy product. Kamala showed bimla the benefit of using vim in compare to other proxy
product and explaining the features of the product. The Door-to-door marketing step was
complementary to other step that involved the participation of the rural housewives, which
contained games. This games were strategically designed so as to position the product and
the price of the product in the minds of consumer.

The other promotion strategy to promote the product

Roadshows comprising attractively designed floats will traverse the length and breadth
of the country during the time span of the offer.
The carnival, which will cover hundreds of small towns and villages apart from the
metros and is part of a massive rural promo initiative that HLL plans to unleash.
The company even had to promoted the product in Haats & Melas of different villages.

To promote the vim HLL planned to distribute gold as prize

IN a bid to promote vim one of its leading dishwash soap, Vim Gold Bar, HLL had
launched a below-the-line advertisement.
This medium proposes to bring Vim to the rural households via direct interaction
between customer and producer.
This promotional blitzkrieg across the country includes giving away gold worth Rs 5
crore.
The offer gives; customers stand a chance to win gold in different denominations by just
scratching a card received on every purchase of a Vim bar.
 Each scratch card carries an 8-digit number. Every Sunday, one such number will be
announced on Sony Entertainment TV between 8-9 p.m. and this number will be valid for
the entire period of the offer.
If the number on the scratch card of the consumer matches with the number announced
on TV, they would be eligible for a 400 gm gold bar - the weight of the Vim bar in gold.
In case of fewer digits matching, the consumer stands to win 100 gm, 10 gm, or 1 gm of
gold or Rs 100 off on purchase of HLL products from the retailer.

Communication
Vim Bar has always created an impact in the market with its pathbreaking
communication. The communication has been designed to powerfully communicate the
tough stain removal properties of the Vim Bar. HLL created a new consumer lingo for the
tough stain problem with the campaign baseline of Vim being the “Khar Khar ka moh tod
jawab”. HUL had to completely change its communication when it entered into rural it had
to completely changed its communication from the previous one that was that after
cleaning the vessel with bar you can see your fac(apka chehra
Bhi dekha ga saf) to (khar khar ka moh tod jawab) just because the rural consumers used
aluminum vessels to cook their food. It wont create sense to appeal them to buy that product
that did not suit their living.