The Dettol Row: From Bathroom Wrangles to Kitchen Squabbles

The Dettol Row: From Bathroom Wrangles to Kitchen Squabbles

Walking down the aisles of a department store, the mother-daughter duo reached out to products as per their meticulously prepared shopping list. Mamta¹ was visiting her daughter, Shikha² to help her settle down at her new home in Mumbai. Shikha was a 23-year- old bright youngster 2 months into her first job at a multi-national company. Being her first ever stay away from home, Mamta was particularly concerned about Shikha’s awareness of household requirements; she took upon herself to recommend suitable products for the new household.

Among rows of items listed in the shopping list, Dettol antiseptic liquid was one of the must-haves, for it was a brand Mamta trusted innately. Shikha also picked up Dettol liquid hand wash and Dettol soaps; the latter formed an intrinsic part of her skincare regime since early childhood. Shikha and Mamta were now near the shelves that stocked kitchen cleaners. Mamta was looking out for her time-tested brand of kitchen-cleaning agent to recommend to her daughter. She was taken aback to see the new entrant on the shelf – Dettol Kitchen Gel! To Mamta, kitchen cleaner meant an efficient cleaning agent that took grime and grease off utensils and the kitchen  surfaces. Mamta belonged to the generation that had upgraded from powder-based, cake-based to liquid and gel-based kitchen cleaners. Rising awareness on hygiene and products with superior benefits were now the order of the day in urban India.³ Her preferred brand of kitchen cleaner had natural ingredients such as lemon and antibacterial properties of neem⁴. “Who would want the kitchen to smell like a hospital and utensils to get an antiseptic like-feel?” remarked Mamta. She tried to reason, Dettol products had always been placed in the washroom bracket be it antiseptic, hand wash or soap...........

Dettol – The Brand Lineage

Dettol, the flagship brand of Reckitt Benckiser (RB) has been a household name in India since its launch in the year 1933. RB has been one of world’s leading manufacturers and marketers of branded products in health, hygiene and home, selling a comprehensive range through over 60 operating companies into nearly 200 countries. RB’s vision is a world where people are healthier and live better. A key pillar of RB’s strategy was to deliver growth ahead of the rate prevailing in markets through an increased focus on power brands in the health, hygiene and home categories............

Dettol – The Brand Wagon

Dettol is an iconic brand that has stood for “trusted protection” in India for over 80 years. In the 1980s thousands of doctors and hospitals recommended the use of Dettol and 11.4 million bottles of Dettol were sold. Furthermore, estimates reveal that 10 million householders in India kept Dettol in their medicine chests and 65 million people were known users of the product................

Dettol’s Bathroom Bickers

The Indian soap industry includes – bar soap, liquid shower gels and liquid hand wash and is pegged at ₹10,000 crore with an 8%–10% growth per annum. Of this, the Indian bar soap market alone accounts for majority of soap consumption and is valued approximately at ₹6,500 crore. Soap bars are marketed using a variety of appeals to the target market. In this context, based on the appeal the soap market can be classified as follows – Baby soaps, Beauty soaps.............

Competition

In the sub-category of health and hygiene soaps, Dettol soap faces competition predominantly from brands such as Hindustan Unilever’s (HUL) Lifebuoy, Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) Savlon. Other significant players offering a stiff competition to Dettol soap include Cinthol from Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL), India’s second-largest soap maker, HUL’s Lux and Wipro Consumer Care’s Santoor. Of these, Lifebuoy has emerged the strongest competitor for Dettol soap.................

Promotion Focus

Dettol Original soap was launched on the lines of “Give your family the loving care of Dettol Soap”. The product had low acceptance since consumers perceived an antiseptic soap to be too harsh for their skin when used on a daily basis. The mid-1980s saw Dettol soap repositioned as the soap for specific occasions especially when a clean germicidal bath was necessary.............

Dettol’s Kitchen Squabbles

Indian dishwashing market is valued at ₹2,000 crore and includes dish wash bars, powders and liquids. Bar soaps dominate the Indian dishwashing cleaning market of which HUL’s Vim Dishwash Bar is the category leader with a 54% value share (2012)................

Assignment Questions

I. In a category like kitchen cleaner (CAGR 40%), was launching a Dettol Kitchen gel as a brand extension a good strategy? Elucidate.

II. What factors can help Dettol kitchen gel extend its reach and relevance? Substantiate your answers with relevant arguments.

III. ....................

Exhibits

Exhibit I: RB’s Product Portfolio in India

Exhibit II: Brand Resonance of Dettol

Exhibit III: Dettol’s Brand Wagon

Exhibit IV: Dettol vs Lifebuoy – The Turf War

Exhibit V: Head to Head product Attributes and Positioning Strategies – Dettol vs Lifebuoy Soaps

Exhibit VI: Advertisements of Dettol and Lifebuoy Positioned as the Family Soap

Exhibit VII: Innovations in Kitchen Hygiene Products

Exhibit VIII (A): Round 1: Dettol Healthy Kitchen Gel’s Launch Advertisement Directed against HUL’s Vim

Exhibit VIII (B): Round 2: HUL’s Vim Fights Back

Exhibit VIII (C): Round 3: Lifebuoy Extends the Fight and Takes it Back to the Bathroom Bracket

The Dettol Row: From Bathroom Wrangles to Kitchen Squabbles

Synopsis

Dettol, the flagship brand of Reckitt Benckiser (RB) has been a household name in India since its launch in the year 1933. Pitched on the distinctive attribute of germ-free protection, Dettol has attempted to leverage upon its brand strength by introducing a string of extensions ranging from personal care, personal hygiene, and household cleaners to medicated products categories. Most of these extensions attempting to bank on the core values of the parent brand directly targeted wellestablished brands in their respective categories, often heading for a brand war between them. However, most of the brand extensions of Dettol have received lukewarm responses from consumers at large owing to a variety of reasons.

The last three decades have seen Dettol extending its germ-free campaign from disinfectant to soap to liquid soap categories. Furthermore, Dettol has been vying hard to be the toilet soap of choice by harping on its germ-free bath benefit, thereby taking on Unilever’s Lifebuoy, leading to an overlapping brand promise. This ongoing brand war between Dettol and Lifebuoy has had many a consumer perceive Dettol to be a brand to be placed in the bathroom bracket. In its latest brand extension avatar, Dettol attempts to take on Vim Liquid, a well-established kitchen cleaner brand from the Unilever stable. Is this a desperate attempt by RB to engage in combat with Unilever that transcends traditionally established categories for Dettol? Will this fight for space from the bathroom basins to the kitchenette tops help increase consumer mind share for Dettol? Or will this move by RB lead to a reverse swing diluting the Dettol parent brand, with consumers not wanting the same brand to be part of their personal care portfolio as well as on their kitchen sinks?

This case study attempts to focus on the aspect of brand extensions and trigger insights on how brand extensions in seemingly unrelated categories can be positioned effectively.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• • Focus on the pros and cons of extending brands into unrelated categories, that requires the reader to engage in Analysis of the case context
• • Gather insights on how brand extensions can be positioned to remain relevant across generations of consumers and product categories
• • Recognize the concept of brand elasticity and evaluate how it needs be considered in brand architecture and related communication (Evaluation) and prompting students to build in tradeoffs in their approach prompting them to compile information (Synthesis)

Case Positioning and Setting

The case study has been developed keeping in mind students taking up a structured management program. Alternately, executives opting for programs in Brand Management and Integrated Marketing Communication may also find it useful.

Mandatory Reading

• • Kevin Lane Keller, et al., “Introducing and Naming New Products and Brand Extensions”, Strategic Brand Management, 3^rd Edition, Pearson, 2011

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