Presented By: Vaidehi Vaishnav &

Raj Dhameliya

Santoor Case study

Introduction to the brand Santoor

Santoor Manufactured by WIPRO

Wipro Ltd. is today among the top business conglomerates in the world.

With a $ 5 Billion turnover, it has diverse interests ranging from Information Technology to Infrastructure Engineering and Consumer Care.

Wipro has a presence across 50 countries and employee strength of over 94000 employees worldwide from over 50 nationalities.

Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting is today among the top 10 FMCG companies and amongst the Fastest Growing FMCG companies in India.

It has a presence in over 40 countries with over 6500 employees worldwide.

Wipro has 8 production plants in India and 5 overseas. Wipro has also gained from new launches Wipro Safe wash, Santoor hand wash, Santoor Face wash, Wipro Sanjeevini honey, Wipro Sweet N Healthy.

Growth in Santoor

SANTOOR- THE SECRET OF YOUNGER  LOOKING SKIN IN INDIA.

Sandal and Turmeric have been an essential part of the Indian woman’s skin care regimen for centuries. The tradition of Haldi uptans was an integral part of the bride’s wedding preparation- to make her skin look fairer and younger. Chandan was used to enhance a woman’s skin- making it smoother and more beautiful.  But these traditional beauty treatments were too long and time-consuming for the busy Indian women to follow on a daily basis. With the passage of time these uptans became rituals reserved only for special occasions. So there was an opportunity to combine these traditional beauty treatments into one convenient form ..............and Wipro did just that.

Here is a link for original Santoor Soap.

It shows how positioning and targeting of old Santoor was different from the newer one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO5QMjss1GA

In 1986, Wipro brought these two traditional ingredients together ........and Santoor was born. Santoor gave the Indian woman, nature’s traditional goodness at a popular price. Targeted at the middle class housewife, Santoor combined the natural goodness of two ingredients that she had grown up with - now for the first time in a convenient soap. Santoor became the third largest selling popular soap in India. During this time Santoor steadily became synonymous with younger looking skin.

Santoor became the third largest selling popular soap in India. During this time Santoor steadily became synonymous with younger looking skin.

The times changed so did the Indian woman. She was no more the simple housewife who stayed at home and looked after the kids. As the years went by she became more outgoing and career oriented.  To keep up with these changing times, Santoor White was launched. Santoor White combined the goodness of two premium ingredients sandal and milk of almonds, thus opening up a whole new market. Santoor now reached out to a whole new urban woman- a woman who excelled in her career as much as she excelled as a mother. It was an image that would now personify every Santoor woman.

Through the years, as the brand grew, so did the imagery. The Santoor woman now rubbed shoulders with celebrities Saif Ali Khan and Madhavan in the ads. She had a glamorous career- where she was not only appreciated for her beauty but was acknowledged for her achievements, both in her career as well as a mother. It was an image that not only made Santoor extremely popular in its core market of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra it became aspirational for women in newer markets in the north and east of India. As the popularity grew so did its market share. Santoor was now the largest soap in South India. It was also in the three most popular soaps in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Santoor is now exported to 11 countries.

Links of all Santoor Ads which is now targeting not only to housewife but also to working class women.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMjK0eFHf_8

(Madhvan)https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=UtmIlEhTnmw(Saif)

Today Santoor is more than just the regular orange soap.  It now has a number of exciting new variants- Santoor White, Santoor Glycerin and more recently Santoor Honey and Apricot. Santoor has grown from a traditional south Indian soap to a modern beauty soap that has carried the secret of younger looking skin to more and more women across the country. Santoor is the secret of younger looking skin of a wide range of women of different ages and income groups all across the country.

There are certain ad links of Santoor Glycerin and Santoor

White soap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOGD0HteiJ0

(Santoor white)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwSf6Ya7s4w

(Glycerin soap)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBL45e0EqiQ

(Santoor Anthem)

Q-1 In this highly competitive market is it viable to look beyond functional benefit of the product?

Answer to question -1

After looking the case facts, any body would like to say,

Yes!!!!!!!Definitely , it is necessary to look beyond the

functional area of the benefit of the product … Yes, THERE IS A COMPULSION to focus on functional benefits. As per Rosser Reeves’ unique selling

proposition that brought us “melts in your mouth, not in your hand.”But……2bc..

A functional bene t is appealing. Even in the high tech or B-to-B sectors, is that customers are rational and will be swayed by functional benefits.

Further, when asked why customers buy this brand or avoid that one, customers give functional reasons because they can and

because anything else would not reflect well on them and their decision making.

In most contexts, customers lack the motivation, time , information or competence to make decisions to maximize performance outcomes and will project functional benefits from other brand associations.

Even worse, strategies based on functional benefits are often strategically ineffective or limiting.(reasons are as follows.)

(1) customers may not believe that a brand has a functional advantage because of the conflicting claims of competitors and puffery, or may not

believe the benefit represents a compelling reason to buy the brand.

(2) If the functional represents a point of differentiation,

competitors may quickly copy it. (3) The benefit may not represent a basis of a strong, long-term relationship because there is no emotional attachment.

(3) The benefit may not represent a basis of a strong, long-term relationship because there is no emotional attachment.

(4) Finally, a strong functional association confines the brand, especially when it comes to responding to changing markets or exploring brand extensions.

Thus, it makes sense to move beyond functional benefits and consider emotional, self-expressive and social benefits as a basis for the value proposition.

Emotional Benefits An emotional benefit relates to the ability of the brand to

make the buyer or user of a brand feel something during the purchase process or user experience. “When I buy or use this brand, I feel ___.”

Emotional benefits add richness and depth to the brand and the experience of owning and using the brand.

Self-expressive Benefits Brands and products, as symbols of a person’s self-concept, can provide a selfexpressive bene t by providing a vehicle by which a person can express him- or herself. “When I buy or use this brand, I am___.” A brand does not have to be Harley to deliver self-expressive benefits.

A person can be cool by buying clothes at Zara, successful by driving a Lexus, creative by using Apple, a nurturing mother by preparing Quaker Oats hot cereal, frugal and unpretentious by shopping at Kmart or adventurous and active by owning REI camping equipment.

When a brand provides a self-expressive benefit, the connection between the brand and the customer is likely to be heightened.

For example, consider the difference between

using Olay, which has been shown to heighten

one’s self-concept of being gentle, sophisticated,

mature, exotic, mysterious and down-to earth,

and Jergens or Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion, neither of which provides a comparable self-expression benefit but similar functional benefits.

Social Benefits e drive to have friends, colleagues, familyand groups with common interests is intenseand can generate immediate and long termrewards. People are not only fulfilledby social relationships, they are influencedas well. Many brands have the capability ofparticipating or even driving social benefits.“When I buy or use this brand, the type ofpeople I relate to are ____.”

There are several types of social benefits. Some can be stimulated by the brand, such as the Betty Crocker Mixer Web site that allows members to talk to experts and

connect with others. Bikers can post picturesof their last ride on the Harley Web site.

How to avoid functional benefit trap?

Most brands with personalities

do deliver beyond their functional

benefits. Second, aspire to deliver multiple

benefits. We know that providing

both functional and emotional benefits is

more effective than just one of the two.

The ‘ageless skin’ campaigns and innovative marketing strategies have helped Santoor grow faster than the industry and gaining share over the years.

One of the reasons for success it is also necessary to have the consistency in communicating core proposition of the product.

In this case, they kept the message younger looking skin consist along with focusing on providing the right value to the customer who has contributed significantly to the brand’s success. The growth was also achieved on the because of distribution network and communication in rural areas.”

The strength of Santoor has been its promise which is consistent, powerful and eternally relevant to consumers. For over 25 years, the brand has delivered on the promise of ‘younger looking skin’ through superior product offerings which have used deep acting and trusted natural ingredients.

Apart from core functional benefit, it is also necessary to focus on

Distribution channelCommunication strategyProper message Proper correction of the message

Core message of ‘natural ingredients for a young looking skin that will get you accolades’ has not changed over the time. But the Santoor woman has evolved from being a pretty woman at a wedding to a confident woman who is doing aerobics, to a woman who plays cricket with her daughter, to a dress designer, to a TV anchor to a choreographer to a photographer. In a sense, the brand has reflected the aspirations of the new Indian woman,”

consistency in communication that adds a new layer with every new piece.

In fact, as Santoor completes its 25 years, it has come out with a new campaign that is the Santoor anthem, giving it a contemporary look and feel yet telling the same story about a mother and daughter. The new advertising campaign features two ads – an anthem film that celebrates the achievement and pride of millions of Santoor women and a new theme film with new brand ambassadors – Saif Ali Khan and Mahesh Babu.

Over the past few years, Santoor has grown from a single soap brand to talcs, deodorants, soap variants, liquid soap, facewash and so on. Mr Chugh said: “We will continue with our quest to keep the brand relevant and contemporary even in the future.

constantly looking at consumer needs and expanding/enhancing the brand to meet such needs. The brand has grown ahead of the competition in its core states and is now trying to break out of its traditional stronghold and make quick gains in other markets.”

 

Earlier it was positioned as a brand consisting of the age-old benefits of sandal and turmeric. The campaign projected a very traditional picture of the Indian women draped in a saree. The positioning was basically “ingredient based”. It resulted in increase in sales but the figures reached stagnation in a time of one year.

It is a the fact that there was really nothing innovative or even different about the positioning and the accompanying tag line. A study of the competition reveals that the competitors in this segment (soap consisting of natural ingredients like sandalwood) adopted more or less a similar message.

Some tag lines in use were as follows:Margo - Natural skin care 

Chandrika – the real secret of natural beauty and an age-old remedy 

Hamam - natural goodness 

Mysore sandal – made of natural sandal 

Breeze – a natural glow

The basic underlying issue in this competitive world is to retain the existing users and attracting new users in a stagnating market.

For santoor a promotional strategy was decided to make the campaign “benefit based”. Santoor in 1989 moved from an ingredients-based positioning in which it faced competition from bigger brands like Hamam, to a benefits-based positioning.

This can be attributed to two reasons – the sales was going down and after the first phase of advertising, with no new users being enticed, and secondly, it was probably wrong to assume that the customers would know the benefits of the ingredients.

But the Creative execution of the message is also necessary.

The advertisement uses a case of ‘mistaken identity’ to drive home the claim that the soap could make a person look younger. The ad shows a young mother in an aerobics class who is mistaken for a college student.

It then moves on to describe the ingredients and the corresponding benefits. The ad struck the required balance between benefits and ingredients to entice new customers while not alienating existing users. The campaign rated highly on reach (both urban and rural), frequency and impact. The focus was on repeats of the ads and not on a star-ambassador to carry the brand.

Also, this is a unique example in which the entire brand building exercise was without a sales force, any technological innovations and mega media budgets.

So it is important to talk beyond functional benefit . As Overall, brand awareness grew because of the promotional campaign and the brand itself is identified with this creative brief.

the Santoor campaign chooses to address two specific target groups . Rural and urban India.

The “Mistaken Identity” campaign has targeted the young-to-middle-aged housewife segment by proposing a means, which could help in prolonging their youthful beauty.

At the same time the campaign has successfully emphasized its enriching ingredients by promoting the goodness of sandal and turmeric thereby retaining the existing users too and focusing on a second group as well; the customers who are conscious about “natural ingredients”.

Moreover, in promoting Santoor, the company took a conscious state-oriented strategy. The ingredients, sandal and turmeric have been found to be more popular in the South than in the North. Hence, the campaign was pursued more rigorously in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. Consequently, the soap went on to achieve a 13 per cent share in AP while its overall market share was only 3 percent.

Q-2Targeting strategy of Santoor towards woman is correct?

Yes , it is correct strategy. As the product and the core message itself is for woman..

But they can target family and infants or baby through different product ingredient with the same brand name.

They can target family with glycerin soap with the newer message.