‘SunSilk GanG of GirlS’: HinduStan unilever limited’S online Social networkinG
initiative*
Case
“‘Sunsilk Gang Of Girls’ is the first ever concept of its kind … This online world of Sunsilk is aimed at providing a retreat to them (young girls) wherein they can connect over shared pas-sions. Meticulous research and strenuous effort have gone into creating a website that should both fascinate and benefit young girls across India and even beyond. We’re thrilled to launch this community as we see it as Sunsilk’s defining interface for its consumers.”1
—Vipul Chawla, Category Head—Hair Care, Hindustan Unilever Ltd.2 (HUL), in June 2006
“Community-building as opposed to plain info about brands is catching on. A lot of brand sites blatantly push their products even in a designated ‘fun zone’ or space on the web, which puts off the youth of today. Community-building attempts to reach out to this audience by appealing to what they like most and entwining it with their brand communication.”3
—Chaya Brian Carvalho, CEO and MD, BC Webwise, in July 2006
“Apart from fuelling an increase in sales growth and market share, it enhanced the imagery of the brand transforming it into a modern female youth (18+) brand. The internet is cost effective as opposed to traditional media and we are willing to put serious money behind it as it is the fastest growing area that we are willing to play in.”4
—Rahul Welde, General Manager–Media Services, HUL, in March 2007
1“Sunsilk Launches ‘Gang of Girls’—the World’s first all-girl Online Community,” www.ndtvprofit.com, June 16, 2006.2HUL is the Indian arm of the global CPG major Unilever. Unilever’s turnover for the year 2007 was €40.19 billion, with an operating profit of €5.25 billion and an operating margin of 13.1%. Before 2007, HUL was known as Hindustan Lever Ltd.3Renelle Snelleksz, “access Only!! Sunsilk Gang of Girls,” www.us.indiantelevision.com, July 26, 2006.4“Iamai Readies India for ‘The Digital Era’,” www.indiantelevision.com, March 17, 2007.
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2 Marketing Management
Welcome To The SunSilk GanG!
In March 2007, BC Webwise5 won the Gold in the 40th annual abby awards6 in the interactive digi-tal marketing category for the Sunsilk Gang of Girls (GoG) website (Sunsilkgangofgirls.com).7 This social networking site has been built around the leading beauty shampoo brand—Sunsilk—a product of India’s largest consumer packaged goods (CPG) company Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (HUL). GoG was launched on July 17, 2006. It was developed by HUL in partnership with advertising agency JWT and BC Webwise. The branded space, meant exclusively for girls, had various features which included blogs, advice on hair care and fashion from experts, a job site, etc. Members could form their own gangs and engage in a number of group activities. all the tools and activities in the site were designed to give the target group opportunities to have fun, and provide a sense of emotional bonding that young girls would love. HUL claimed that GoG was the first initiative of its kind. In addition to brand building, HUL ex-pected this initiative to help in gaining key consumer insights to connect better with its target group (TG). Vipul Chawla (Chawla), Category Head – Hair Care, HUL, said, “This initiative comes from an effort by Sunsilk to develop a greater understanding and connect between the consumer and the brand by building another interface with them. The brand stands for togetherness, fun and expertise, and that’s what the site seeks to propagate.”8
The GoG initiative generated immense interest among the media, analysts, and of course, the TG. By March 2007, the number of registered members had crossed the half million mark, with about 30,000 gangs. In November 2006, Economic Times9 reported that the site had generated 200 million hits and got on an average 12–13 million page views per month.10, 11 HUL said that the initiative had resulted in increase in sales and market share. However, it made it clear that it was not viewing GoG as short-term initiative and expected it to earn rich dividends for HUL in the future. analysts felt that the risk taken by HUL with GoG, i.e., making a huge investment in an emerging medium (the Internet), had paid off. The rise of the Internet and a shift in the youth’s media consumption behavior has provided marketers with a challenge as well as an opportunity. as more and more young people were beginning to shun traditional media in favor of online and digital media, marketers have had to change their media spends and take to these new media. Moreover, online media have provided marketers with the opportunity to provide a space where the target group could become a community. However, some critics felt that the figures pertaining to hits and page views were inflated. They said that the GoG bubble had burst after the initial interest, and now HUL was trying to salvage whatever it could through PR hype.
5BC Webwise, based in Mumbai, India, is a leading Internet advertising agency in India.6The annual abby awards is a coveted award for advertising excellence in India given away every year by ad Club Bombay.7“O&M Makes a Clean Sweep at the abbies,” www.indiantelevision.com, March 5, 2007.8Renelle Snelleksz, “access Only!! Sunsilk Gang of Girls,” www.us.indiantelevision.com, July 26, 2006.9Economic Times is the daily business newspaper of the Times Group, one of the largest media services conglomerates in India.10a page view (or page impression) is a request to load a single page of an Internet site. It is a result of a web surfer clicking on a link on another HTML page pointing to the page in question. This should be contrasted with a hit, which refers to a request for a file from a web server. There may therefore be many hits per page view.11ashley Coutinho, “Sunsilk’s Gang of Girls Goes Global,” www.economictimes.indiatimes.com, November 17, 2006.
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‘Sunsilk Gang of Girls’: Hindustan Unilever Limited’s Online Social Networking Initiative 3
BackGround noTe
Unilever, an anglo-Dutch company, was formed in 1930 by the merger between British soapmaker Lever Brothers and Dutch margarine producer Margarine Union. By the start of the new millennium, Unilever had become a leading manufacturer and marketer of CPG brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents, and personal care products. The first Indian subsidiary of Unilever, the Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Company (HVMC), was formed in 1931. But Unilever products were available in India even before this. Its laundry soap ‘Sunlight’ reached the Indian shores as early as 1888. Other Unilever brands such as ‘Lifebuoy’, ‘Pears’, ‘Lux’, ‘Vim’, and ‘Dalda’ were also available. In 1933, Lever Brothers India Ltd. was set up and this was followed by the establishment of another subsidiary, United Traders Ltd., in 1935. In 1956, these three subsidiaries merged to form Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL). Subsequently, HLL launched a number of brands in India including Sunsilk in 1964. Right from its early years in India, HLL placed a lot of importance on marketing. It was one of the largest ad spenders in the traditional media such as print and radio. Its media strategy was predomi-nantly TV-led since TV entered Indian homes, and it was also the largest advertiser on radio in India.12 HLL was also one of the largest spenders on non-conventional media in India. The rural marketing initiatives that it started in the early 1980s were highly appreciated and included the use of wall paint-ings, colorful flyers, entertaining jingles, traveling cinema vans, and promotions at village fairs in rural India. To cut through the growing advertising clutter and to leverage on the changing media con-sumption behavior of Net-savvy consumers, HLL began to experiment with new ad formats and the emerging media (Internet and digital media). With regard to its online initiatives, HLL received a major boost from branded spaces like axeland for its body deodorant brand axe, and the Clinic all Clear site for its anti-dandruff shampoo. an online viral ad for Clinic all Clear (Makeyourmoves.com) in 2006 generated a lot of page hits. Subsequently, its branded space for Sunsilk (Sunsilkgangofgirls.com) was also considered a huge success. Rather than limiting itself to any one media channel, HLL focused on 360-degree communication and integrated campaigns for all major brands. In 2007, the company renamed itself ‘Hindustan Unilever Limited’ to provide the optimum balance between maintaining the heritage of the company and the future benefits and synergies of global align-ment with the parent firm. as of 2008, HUL, in which Unilever held a 51% stake, was the largest CPG company in India with a number of brands in its portfolio. for the year ended December 2007, HUL had an income of `13 143.67 billion and a net profit of `19.15 billion.14
SunSilk—‘The hair experT’
Sunsilk was a leading brand of Unilever marketed in more than 50 countries in asia, Latin america, the Middle East and North africa. It was launched in India in 1964. In the initial years in India, Sunsilk was a cosmetic beauty shampoo. In the subsequent years Sunsilk grew with the growth in the shampoo market in India and launched a number of product variants (Refer to Exhibit I for a brief note on the shampoo market in India).
12“Dialogue: Rahul Welde, GM Media Services, Hindustan Lever,” www.exchange4media.com/e4m/interview/dia-logue_detail.asp?id=290.13as of June 2008, Re 1 was approximately equal to US$ 0.023 and € 0.015.14Hindustan Unilever Ltd., “Report & accounts,” www.hul.co.in, 2008.
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4 Marketing Management
In 1987, Sunsilk became the first shampoo brand to launch a two-in-one shampoo, i.e., shampoo with conditioner. another popular brand of Sunsilk in the 1980s was Sunsilk Black shine shampoo for long hair. In the 1990s, popular variants like Sunsilk Purple with ceramides for damaged hair and Sun-silk Salon treatment for expert hair care. Subsequently a number of variants—Sunsilk Black Shampoo (with melanin from plant extracts), Sunsilk Pink Shampoo (with essential oils from flower extracts) and Sunsilk fruitamins (with vitamins from fruit extracts)—were launched. The new products, names and marketing communication were designed to change the popular misconception among Indian women that frequent use of shampoos might damage their hair. Sunsilk was also the first to launch shampoos by hair types and continuously introduced new variants to keep the brand relevant to the TG.15 for instance, it had products for damaged hair, curly hair, wavy hair, oily hair, etc. In doing so, HUL positioned Sunsilk as the ‘hair expert’.16 This positioning was reinforced through endorsement of eminent hair experts such as Naina Balsaver in the 1980s, Coleen Khan in the 1990s, and Samantha Kochhar and Jawed Habib (Habib) in the 2000s.17 These experts went beyond just endorsing the brand by interacting with consumers and providing solutions to hair problems through mail. Since the mid-1990s, Sunsilk had been conducting interactive Hair Wash and Salon contact programs in India in an effort to provide a one-to-one brand experience to consumers. In late 2003, the Sunsilk brand was re-launched as Sunsilk Naturals. This was supported by extensive R&D and launch of new variants. Subsequently variants like Curl Control shampoo, Sunsilk anti-Dandruff Shampoo, fresh and Cool shampoo, etc., made their way to the market. Local ingredients such as amla (gooseberry), henna, lemon, curd, etc. were used to reinforce the “natural” aspect. as of 2007, Sunsilk was the leading beauty shampoo brand in India.18 The beauty aspect was also been reinforced through celebrity endorsements and the packaging of the Sunsilk range was enhanced to give the brand a premium look. Though the media strategy of Sunsilk was predominantly TV-led, HUL had also used non-traditional media. It used fM radios and sponsored events such as the ‘femina Miss India’ and ‘India fashion Week’. In 2003, HUL launched online initiatives for Sunsilk. for instance, there was the ‘Just for You Zone’ with hair expert Habib and model Mehar Bhasin, the ‘Cool Zone’ to promote the Sunsilk fresh and Cool variant, and a site for the Sunsilk Naturals range (Sunsilknaturals.com). Sunsilknaturals.com had message boards where members could post their messages. It had 100,000 registered members.19 Chaya Brian Carvalho (Carvalho), CEO and MD of BC Webwise, said, “We established that the Sunsilk site could not only deliver the short term brand objective, but engage the visitor online to in-teract further with the brand, the category, related topics and participate with the brand online. Sunsilk online was a hit right from the beginning and every year we have only enhanced the offering over the last three years.”20
15“Sunsilk Launches ‘Gang of Girls’—the World’s first all-girl Online Community,” www.ndtvprofit.com, June 16, 2006.16www.hll.com.17“Sunsilk - Superbrand 2003–2005,” www.superbrandsindia.com/superbrands2003/sunsilk/index.htm.18www.hll.com.19“Sunsilk Gang of Girls Plans to Go Global,” www.watblog.com, November 17, 2006.20Tarana Khan, “Visibly Virtual: Leasing Online Brand Space,” www.newmedia.agencyfaqs.com, 2006.
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‘Sunsilk Gang of Girls’: Hindustan Unilever Limited’s Online Social Networking Initiative 5
FoSTerinG an online communiTy oF GirlS
On June 17, 2006, HUL launched Sunsilkgangofgirls.com which it claimed was India’s first “online all-girl community”.21 The site was a branded space promoting Sunsilk while at the same time providing a social networking space for girls. Social networking sites had become very popular with young adults. Social networking sites such as Orkut, hi5, facebook, and MySpace were all dominated by this age group. The site was built on the concept of “girl bonding”—a desire among girls to belong and share. The content in the site was developed so that it would be perceived as exciting among the target group (TG). HUL said that the high involvement of the members of Sunsilknaturals.com prompted it to take the online initiative to another level with GoG. The visitor to the website was greeted by animated characters of chirpy girls and bright colors. a visi-tor who wanted to become a member had to just register at GoG for free and start utilizing the various tools and participate in contests, etc. The site was only open to girls. However, males could register at the site and by default would be part of the gang termed as the ‘Desperate Guys’. The girl who joined GoG had to be a part of a gang. They could not be members of more than one gang and could not change their gang. Each gang could have up to 50 members. The site claimed to have content filters and other security features. Personal information, such as e-mail IDs, phone number, and foul language, could be blocked. HUL identified key topics that were of interest to the TG, such as fashion, job hunting, having fun, emotional bonding, gossip, etc. all these were offered through various features like gang games, blogs, a message board, a parade ground, a newsletter and advice on hair care, relationship and astrology. The content was not limited to hair care and styling information but encompassed many facets of life. In the Gang Blogs, the members could express themselves, share pictures and provide advice. In Gang Wars, gangs could engage in catfights of wit.22 In Parade Ground, the girls could showcase their talents. Other registered members could vote for the most talented entries and the winners could get cool prizes such as iPod Shuffles. Visitors could go job hunting at the job site called Career Track formed in partnership with Monster.com.23, 24 The tie-up allowed the members to upload their resume online. There were also partnerships with magazines such as ELLE, Cosmopolitan and New Woman for fashion related content. N Rajaram (Rajaram), GM and Category Head, Hair Care, HUL, said, “The idea was to offer girls in India a platform to share, to learn and to have fun interactions with each other. all of this on a medium and language they are very comfortable with. The user was the starting point.”25
However, the centerpiece of GoG was the Makeover Machine. Members could upload their pho-tographs to the makeover machine and try out various hairstyles, hair colors, eye-shades, make-up, lip colors, accessories, etc. This allowed the members to experiment with different styles and designs virtually, without spending money or taking the risk of looking bad. Hence this became very popular among the TG.
21Sahad PV, “HLL Getting aggressive Online with Sunsilk Website,” www.contentsutra.com, June 19, 2006.22“Sunsilk Launches ‘Gang of Girls’—the World’s first all-girl Online Community,” www.ndtvprofit.com, June 16, 2006.23Monster.com is a leading employment website. It was created in 1999 by the merger of two of the first and most popular career websites on the Internet—The Monster Board and Online Career Center.24“Sunsilk ‘Gang of Girls’ Site,” www.domain-b.com, June 22, 2006.25Pallavi Jha, “When agony aunt Goes Online,” www.financialexpress.com, March 18, 2007.
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6 Marketing Management
Subsequently, HUL added more features like gang scopes that provided horoscope readings (in collaboration with astrolife26) and introduced new hair styles to the Makeover Machine and content updates. The Rhythm Lounge section featured a jukebox with songs from popular female singers such as Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Lily allen. It also contained a video section. a game called Crack the Code was also being planned. There were provisions for changing the content and activities based on members’ feedback. In March 2007, HUL launched GoG TV where members could upload their videos on the site and share them with the other members. The videos could be uploaded in various categories including ‘my stuff’, news, comedy, etc. Rajaram said, “The GOG TV is a sole idea for the Sunsilk Gang of Girls web-site as it elaborates on the concept of making friends and sharing your thoughts and opinions. Sunsilk Gang of Girls always keeps its members in high spirits with its ever constant valuable changes.”27
HUL said that GoG was intended to attract young girls in the age group of 17–22 years.28 The com-pany said that considerable research had been done to make the site relevant to the TG. BC Webwise first tested the concept and conducted further research on a test site with the existing members of Sun-silknaturals.com. further consumer research was conducted in multiple locations of India. Carvalho explained, “We have tried and tested tools that work online, and are constantly researching consumer behaviour online, trends that are catching up, popularity of various offerings, etc. Backed by these learnings, we also conducted focus group research amongst the target group to find out what would get them all kicked up. Every idea that has been expressed online (Gang Wars, Makeover machine, etc.) are based on what we felt would work, and the feedback we got from our research.”29
a media BliTz To launch GoG
HUL promoted GoG through a media blitz on broadcast, print, online and outdoor media. GoG targeted young adult females through these ads (Refer to Table 1 for the copy of a print ad promoting GoG). The ads appealed to the TG’s desire for emotional bonding over issues of common interest to them and invited them to join GoG. The TV and print ads were handled by JWT.
Table 1 Copy of a Print Ad Promoting Sunsilk GoG
“It’s a gang of short black skirts.
It’s a gang of way too many shoes.
It’s a gang of how sweets and so cutes.
It’s a gang of over-used weighing scales.
It’s a gang of fat-free, sugar-free, calorie-free desserts.
It’s a gang of hearts beating for Bon Jovi.
26astrolife is a site dedicated to astrology, horoscopes, tarot reading, etc. 27“Sunsilk Gang of Girls launches GoG TV,” www.indiainfoline.com, March 21, 2007.28“Different Platforms,” www.iamai.in, february 21, 2007.29Renelle Snelleksz, “access Only!! Sunsilk Gang of Girls,” www.us.indiantelevision.com, July 26, 2006.
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‘Sunsilk Gang of Girls’: Hindustan Unilever Limited’s Online Social Networking Initiative 7
Like most of HUL’s other major campaigns GoG too adopted a 360-degree approach that involved the use of different media channels, PR and community outreach programs. The website was also pro-moted online on MSN, Rediff and Yahoo!. HUL made extensive use of PR. It got GoG profiled on CN-BC’s Ad of the Day, NDTV 24x7’s Your Day Today, NDTV Profit’s All About Ads and CNBC awaazs Storyboard—with interviews of Chawla. In Radio Mirchi’s30 program Khubsurat, singer Mehnaz promoted GoG and the concept of social networking. Even after the successful launch, HUL regularly advertised the site in the various media channels whenever a new feature was added to the GoG site. for instance, when GoG TV was launched, it was supported by a media blitz. In early 2007, HUL associated itself with the Oscar award winning film, DreamGirls, which explored the issue of bonding between women. Paramount Pictures Corp.31 released the film in India in association with GoG. The GoG site provided information on the film and also an-nounced a ‘Sunsilk Gang of Girls Dreamgirls’ contest.32
In addition to this, HUL undertook various outreach initiatives to spread awareness of GoG among young girls. It increased its presence in college festivals and in multiplexes, and conducted mall activa-tion programs across the country.33 Though it expected such outreach initiatives to continue, in March 2007, HUL said that it did not need to advertise the site anymore as it expected the success of the site to build on itself. The efforts to take the GoG website to the ground began in late 2006 when HUL conducted a Sunsilk Hair Bars (SHB) event in Delhi. SHBs were like a live version of the GoG website. Here girls could spend their weekend getting advice on hair care, trying out new Sunsilk variants, etc. In December 2006, HUL conducted an event in Mumbai that strove to break certain stereotypes about girls. Women are often unfairly perceived as bad drivers, and may also be stereotyped as gos-sipmongers, over-emotional, and suffering from low self-esteem regarding their body and how they
It’s a gang of sniffles in the middle of Casablanca.
It’s a gang of long phone calls and longer phone bills.
It’s a gang of nervous breakdowns over chipped fingernails.
It’s a gang of busy trial rooms.
It’s a gang of sighs outside a diamond store.
It’s a gang of purple face packs answering the door.
It’s a gang of giggles, whispers, squeals, sobs, shrieks and stubborn silences.
It’s a gang of girls. Now also online.”
The ad also listed down the services offered on the site, viz., ‘Gang blog’, ‘Hair care’, ‘Hot jobs’ and ‘Makeover machine’, and invited the TG to ‘Log on to www.sunsilkgangofgirls.com.’
30Radio Mirchi is a network of private fM radio stations in India, by the Entertainment Network India Ltd, a subsidiary of The Times Group.31Paramount Pictures Corp., based in Hollywood, California, USa, is a motion picture production and distribution company.32“Sunsilk Gang of Girls Launches GoG TV,” www.indiainfoline.com, March 21, 2007.33“Sunsilk’s Gang of Girls Goes Global,” www.domain-b.com, November 16, 2006.
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8 Marketing Management
look. The event was particularly designed to test the driving and navigational skills of girls and break the stereotype that they can’t read maps or drive. HUL also hoped to make its SHBs a regular feature in different cities. In March 2007, it held a SHB in Bangalore. The teams who participated in the event got to try out the Sunsilk Damage Repair System, get a hair makeover from Habib, dance in a disco ambience with a live DJ, etc.
impreSSive FiGureS
Within 36 days of its launch, GoG had 100,000 registered members.34 Though the ‘Desperate Guys’ section was intended to restrict the entry of males, within one month of its launch the membership in this section was up to 4,000. By November 2006, GoG had 250,000 registrations and 25,000 gangs.35 The site had registered almost 200 million hits and got on an average 12-13 million page views per month. By January 2007, the registration base reached 350,000, with 26,000 registered gangs.36 according to Rahul Welde (Welde), General Manager - Media Services, HUL, the average time spent on the site by the members was 11 to 14 minutes. as of March 2007, the number of registered users touched 540,000 and 30,000 gangs.37 Rajaram said, “The convergence of the brand objectives and the user interests was the driving factor of the success of this portal. all the features were designed keeping the user in mind. The key in all such initiatives is always the content. The blog is the most popular section in this portal and reflective of the strength of user-driven content.”38
HUL had reached its TG in popular youth hangouts such as college festivals, malls and multiplexes across India.39 Chawla said that HUL was looking for more places where it could interact with its TG so that it could keep the Sunsilk brand relevant to the TG. HUL also said that it was considering taking the GoG initiative global. Carvalho said that, in addition to consumer data and feedback, GoG had set “global benchmarks for online marketing.”40 She felt that the engagement of the consumers would lead to increase in sales of Sunsilk. However, Chawla clarified that the company’s vision with GoG was long term and it wasn’t looking for any short-term gains. Welde too echoed this view. He said that the GoG was a brand building initia-tive through an alternative way of communication. He said, “The Gang of Girls gave us better results than what we expected both from the returns and consumer engagement we got. The sheer numbers were amazing … It went beyond just talking about hair to discussing everyday issues among friends, to have an extended conversation with the consumer. So both thematically and in terms of engagement it played out very well.”41 He felt that many of Sunsilk’s gains from this initiative were still under the surface and would be visible in the coming years.
34Renelle Snelleksz, “access Only!! Sunsilk Gang of Girls,” www.us.indiantelevision.com, July 26, 2006.35“Sunsilk Gang of Girls Plans to Go Global,” www.watblog.com, November 17, 2006.36“Sunsilk India ‘Co-creates’ with Gang of Girls,” www.thebigswitch.wordpress.com, January 8, 2007.37Pallavi Jha, “When agony aunt Goes Online,” www.financialexpress.com, March 18, 2007.38Pallavi Jha, “When agony aunt Goes Online,” www.financialexpress.com, March 18, 2007.39as of November 2006, HLL had interacted with its TG at 60 such hangouts. 40Renelle Snelleksz, “access Only!! Sunsilk Gang of Girls,” www.us.indiantelevision.com, July 26, 2006.41“Indiantelevision.com Interview with HLL GM- Media Services Rahul Welde,” www.indiantelevision.com, March 5, 2007.
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‘Sunsilk Gang of Girls’: Hindustan Unilever Limited’s Online Social Networking Initiative 9
In March 2007, BC Webwise won the Gold in the coveted annual abby awards in the interactive digital marketing category for the GoG site. With the success of GoG, rival Procter and Gamble42 (P&G) also debuted its branded portal for girls in India, ‘Being Girl’ (Beinggirl.in), which promoted Whisper, its hygiene brand for women. Femina too had an online forum for women and a blog for women (feminabeleiveblogs.com).
GoG—in Sync WiTh The chanGinG conSumer Behaviour
analysts feel that marketers are adopting new media channels due to changes in media consumption behavior of the TG. With the growth in the number of entertainment options, a large portion of the youth had moved away from traditional channels and hence marketers had to woo them in new ways. The increase in disposable income among the Indian youth was also a key consideration. factors such as the rise in double income families and the boom in the BPO sector had contributed to this increase. Even as marketers strove to project a youthful image to the brand and ‘catch them young’, this group was getting increasingly inaccessible through the traditional media. The media consumption of the Indian youth has undergone changes similar to their peers in the US.43 Youth are now spending lesser time with traditional media like TV and newspapers, and more time on the Internet, mobile phone or hanging out at a mall (Refer to Exhibit II for Indian youth’s media consumption behavior). Youth make up two-thirds of the 37-odd million surfers in India.44
Youth were also increasingly skeptical about advertising, marketing gimmicks, etc., and relied more on the views shared among their network of friends with whom they kept in touch online. Reportedly, 2.5 million out of 30 million members of Orkut were from India (as of November 2006).45 Communi-cation in such media was perceived as more trustworthy than traditional advertising. In the Business-World-Hansa Youth Survey46 in 2006, 53.25 percent of the youth (54.51 percent of the males and 51.64 percent of the females) agreed that they prefer buying products recommended by their friends.47
Women were also making their presence felt on the Internet. according to Internet and Mobile as-sociation of India48 (IaMaI) report, more than 12 million women in India logged on to the Internet in 2006.49 In addition to e-mail and chatting, they also went to the Internet for searching, shopping and blogging. In late 2006, a survey ‘Blogging India: a Windows Live Report’ (1,423 respondents in India), revealed that women made up around 25 percent of the bloggers in India. The changing scenario had provided marketers with the opportunity to join in the conversation, and start two-way communication with the consumers. Companies were beginning to try out new media so as to foster interactive communication and connect with the TG on a personal level. This had spawned
42Procter & Gamble Co. is a leading manufacturer and marketer of a wide range of consumer goods.43Nikhil Pahwa, “What the Youth Wants: Trends in Media Consumption,” www.contentsutra.com, November 6, 2006.44Namitha Jagadeesh and Janhavi abhyankar, “finding My Space,” Businessworld (Special Issue), November 6, 2006.45Namitha Jagadeesh and Janhavi abhyankar, “finding My Space,” Businessworld (Special Issue), November 6, 2006.46Businessworld-Hansa Youth Survey is a survey conducted by weekly Indian business magazine, Businessworld, and marketing research firm Hansa Research.47Businessworld (Special Issue), November 6, 2006.48The Internet and Mobile association of India (IaMaI) is the trade association representing the online content and advertising, e-commerce and mobile content and advertising industry.49“Different Platforms,” www.iamai.in, february 21, 2007.
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10 Marketing Management
a flourishing online advertising business in India. as of february 2007, the online advertising industry was estimated to be worth more than `3 billion per annum.50 analysts felt that HUL with its GoG had taken a big lead over other brands with respect to building an online community in India. They said that the interactivity offered by digital media like the Internet provided a plethora of opportunities to marketers. The Internet allowed groups of people to commune and talk about a common interest. Some felt that GoG was a big draw for the 14–19 year age group.51 as the young adult group dominated the various social networking sites, GoG had become a site that this particular group could call their own. analysts said that GoG had shown that an online community with a blogging feature was a very good way of attracting women online. Experts said that GoG not only aided in brand recall, it also created brand loyalty through repeated use. They said that members of a particular community tended not to go to any other community. It gave HUL the chance to have one-to-one communication with the consumer, build a relationship, and understand consumer behavior. for instance, the Makeover Machine could double up as a smart research tool for HUL as it would give the company vital clues about what the consumers did not like about their appearance and wanted to change. This could help HUL a lot as it had a number of personal care products. Communities generated more interest than other ad campaigns as they could entertain and engage the audience. a community is not intrusive and the audience can control the experience. It could provide a positive experience as the consumers were there by choice and could seek information on products of their interest. according to Carvalho, consumers who visit online communities are of three types: voyeurs, involved, and exhibitionists (Refer to Table 2 for the three types of consumers in online com-munities).
Table 2 Three Types of Consumers in Online Communities
The Voyeurs: People who log on to your site only to see what the buzz is about. They enjoy reading private messages in conversation threads but will not participate. They will also not visit a section if it requires them to register.
The Involved: They are completely clued in, they are usually the most frequent and active participants on your brand community.
The Exhibitionists: They love to show off and how better than in front of such a large community! They will post controversial stuff to attract attention and will participate only to boost their egos.
Source: Chaya Brian Carvalho, “Guest Article: The Power of the Human Touch–But on the Internet?” www.agencyfaqs.com, February 13, 2007.
Carvalho said that a thorough knowledge of the TG is a must to build online communities. Patience and persistence is the key. Carvalho said, “With marketing activities targeted at such focused groups that comprise incumbent and prospective customers, there is tremendous scope of eventually setting up communities of brand loyalists. … It could take anywhere from six months to a year for you to get the hang of your customer. and once you have it, you can constantly track and measure what can keep the relationship going.”52 Experts also noted that trying to hijack the community by giving the brand
50Tarana Khan, “Online advertising Gets Some Teeth,” www.newsmedia.agencyfaqs.com.51Nikhil Pahwa, “P&G Launches Branded Space–BeingGirl.co.in,” www.contentsutra.com, November 19, 2006.52Chaya Brian Carvalho,”a One Night Stand,” www.thinkingaloud.in, february 7, 2007.
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‘Sunsilk Gang of Girls’: Hindustan Unilever Limited’s Online Social Networking Initiative 11
too much prominence would prove counterproductive. Over time these companies could develop an evangelical consumer base, which would generate word-of-mouth (WOM) advocacy for the brand—online as well as offline. Such online initiatives also call for a different approach to the measurement of return on investment (ROI). Carvalho said, “The intangible nature of people’s conversations, which occur both online and offline, is precisely what makes them so powerful, and also what necessitates a different measurement of ROI. So, community networks will be measured by the pass-along rate or “ripples.” Impressions versus ripples? The choice for the savvy and ROI-focused brand manager will be easy. It is not about how many rocks you throw in the pond, but how many ripples you create, how many people you in-volve, how much of human interaction there is.”53
The oTher vieW
Though most experts have been positive in their reactions to GoG, some said that Sunsilk did not quite have the cult appeal of other popular brands, like Harley Davidson54 which had communities around them. Some analysts felt that HUL was talking about taking the site global as it was unable to sustain the interest of the TG in India. after the initial surge in web traffic, the interest had tapered off.55 User-generated content in a commercial website was also seen as a problem. They felt that the people who could express themselves well in the blogs and generate interest were few and far between at GoG.56 Going by alexa Internet, Inc.57 (alexa) figures, some felt that people were attracted to the site due to the offline promotions and once the novelty wore off, fewer people visited the site. Some even pointed out that HUL had not mentioned what the impact of the initiative on the sales of Sunsilk had been, in quantitative terms. Some were skeptical about the web traffic figures of GoG that were mentioned by HUL and widely reported in the media. They felt that the 12–13 million page view figure quoted by HUL and the media was highly unlikely. according to alexa, at the time when these reports were circulating, MingleBox was leading the other Indian social networking sites.58 Critics felt that if the alexa figures were true, HUL’s claim could be totally over the board. Some said that it was all PR hype. But again others noted that alexa figures were not reliable benchmark of traffic outside the US as it depended on the alexa toolbar downloaded by users. Some others said that in its bid to forge better relationships with the girls, Sunsilk might be alienating male users of the shampoo.
53Chaya Brian Carvalho, “Guest article: The Power of the Human Touch – But on the Internet?” www.agencyfaqs.com, february 13, 2007.54Harley Davidson is a cult brand of motorcycle manufactured by the US-based, harley Davidson Motor Company.55“Sunsilk Gang of Girls Bubble Ready to Burst,” www.ijsid.wordpress.com, february 14, 2007.56Rashmi Bansal, “The Perils of User-generated Content,” www.youthcurry.blogspot.com, September 8, 2006.57alexa Internet, Inc., through its site alexa.com, provided information on the web traffic to other websites. It is a sub-sidiary of e-commerce company, amazon.com.58“Battle for Social Networks in India,” www.convergence.in, 2006.
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ouTlook
Experts said that HUL had been suitably rewarded for among the first Indian companies to take the risk of harnessing an online community to promote its brand. They felt that other marketers would also follow suit. It was reported that HUL had a number of activities lined up for the members of GoG. By taking GoG global, HUL wanted to create the world’s largest online community of girls. It was also trying to form a similar community for Sunsilk called Sunsilk Sahelian in rural areas. However it could not be ascertained whether this would be an online or offline initiative. The challenge before HUL was to sustain the initiative while keeping it relevant to the TG. Monitoring the content and interaction was another challenge. It was noted that even globally successful social networking sites such as MySpace, had had problems related to copyright issues, sexual predators, etc. Looking at trends in the US, there has been a clear shift in advertising spends toward newer media. In 2006, US$15 billion of ad spend was on these new media.59 Industry watchers contended this was happening in India too, with experiments in new media channels. The increase in number of ads and new media channels also posed some challenges for marketers. advertising clutter has resulted in marketers not getting the ROI on advertising as they did earlier. But there were opportunities for much better targeting. Welde said, “The multitude of media options is both a challenge and an opportunity. It gives us several more streams to connect with our consumers. That’s the opportunity view. Given the choices that consumers make, it calls for greater creativity—in ideas as well as execution. So, the old approach is surely not enough anymore. and that is the primary reason behind our focus on 360-degree communication. It is certainly more engaging and effective.”60 In this new scenario, the importance of TV was believed to have diminished. ad clutter on TV and the audience’s tendency to avoid ads had contributed to the decrease in marketers’ interest in this medium. Welde said that HUL’s non-TV spend was growing at a rate twice as fast as its spend on TV. Change in consumer behavior had forced marketers to explore new media channels. Since advertising budgets were limited, TV was losing out. But HUL still saw the importance of TV as a medium. “TV effective-ness is declining, but at the same time this whole debate on 30-second TVC dying is really exaggerated in the Indian context. TV is growing in India, but the reality is that the consumer is looking away from TV because of the options she has today. We haven’t reached the levels of the UK and the US, where TV is innovating quickly because of growing technologies. Technology in India is growing, but it is still on a very small base,”61 said Welde. according to Welde, the media industry in India would grow at 14-15 percent. Welde expected the resurgent radio and print media to grow in importance in the coming years while he expected the Internet to show “explosive” growth. HUL said that it was taking to the Internet aggressively. Welde said that HUL’s ad spend on the Internet was growing in multiples. However, he added that HUL was selective about the brands it promoted over the Internet. for instance, he said that high-end products that had a youth audience, such as axe, Sunsilk, Lux, Clinic all Clear, were well-suited for promotion
59Namitha Jagadeesh and Janhavi abhyankar, “finding My Space,” Businessworld (Special Issue), November 6, 2006.60“Dialogue: Rahul Welde, GM Media Services, Hindustan Lever,” www.exchange4media.com/e4m/interview/ dia-logue_detail.asp?id=290.61“Dialogue: Rahul Welde, GM Media Services, Hindustan Lever,” www.exchange4media.com/e4m/interview/ dia-logue_detail.asp?id=290.
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via Internet considering the behavior of the TG, but a product such as Wheel was a poor fit, at least in the near term. Welde said that in order to overcome the various challenges posed by changes in consumer behaviour and emergence of new media channels, companies had to be creative and take risks as HUL did with GoG.
In India, shampoos became a lifestyle product in ur-ban homes from the 1960s. Despite steady growth, the market penetration of shampoos remained abys-mally low. Factors such as misconceptions among Indians that shampoos have harsh chemicals which damage hair in the long run, and high excise duty in the earlier years, contributed to this. Aggressive marketing and decrease in excise duty (from 120 percent in 1993 to 16 percent in 2002) contributed to the rapid growth of the market.62 Between 1994 and 1998, the shampoo market expanded by two-and-a-half times. As of January 2001, the shampoo market in India was worth `85 million according to ORG-MARG63, 64 However, market penetration in urban and rural areas was just 36 percent and 12 percent respectively. HLL with value share of 68 percent dominated the market with brands like Sunsilk, Clinic Plus and Clinic All Clear. It was fol-lowed by P&G (with brands like Pantene and Head & Shoulders) and Cavin Care Ltd.65 (with brands like Chik and Nyle). The benefit platform in this market are beauty (Sunsilk), health (Clinic Plus, Pantene, etc.), anti- dandruff (Head & Shoulders, Clinic All Clear, etc.) and the herbal/natural shampoos (Ayur, Vatika, etc.). Herbal/natural shampoos emerged as a sig-nificant niche in the late 1990s with the success of Nyle and Dabur India Ltd.66’s (Dabur) Vatika. Cavin
Care with its brand Chik was a major price player in the shampoo market. It was also the first to come up with low consumption units of Chik in sachets which increased market penetration of shampoos. Later all the other companies followed suit. By 2004, the shampoo market in India had grown to `100 million.67 The sachets were the major driv-ers of growth and accounted for 70 percent of the market.68 In 2003 that shampoo market in India saw a price war between HLL and P&G. HLL offered a free bottle for every bottle of its Clinic Plus or Sun-silk, which was akin to a 50 percent discount. P&G retaliated by decreasing the price of Pantene by 16 percent.69 HLL went further and reduced the price of Clinic Plus by 23 percent. Both the companies said that the price cuts were to provide value to the consumers. P&G also introduced a brand Rejoice at a low price point and continued the price war by reducing the price of Rejoice further. With the two multinationals engaging in price war, the Indian companies like Cavin Care and Dabur were the big-gest losers.70 In 2005, HLL still was the leader with a value share of 52 percent in the `120 million shampoo market with P&G following with 22 percent.71 In 2006, the market grew further to `142.5 million as the consumption of shampoos increased in rural areas.72 (Refer to Figure for the market share of
Exhibit 1 A Brief Note on the Shampoo Market in India
62www.equitymaster.com/research-it/sector-info/consprds/consprds-products.html.63ORG-MaRG is a leading provider of marketing research information in India.64aarati Krishnan, “Shampoos: Putting Money Where the Lather is,” www.hinduonnet.com, January 21, 2001.65Cavin Care Ltd., is an Indian fMCG company.66Dabur India Ltd is a fMCG Company in India with interests in Health care, Personal care and food products.67Priya Sreenivas, “The Bitter War for Smoother and Silky Hair,” www.deccanherald.com, april 26, 2004.68“Sunsilk - Superbrand 2003 – 2005,” www.superbrandsindia.com/superbrands2003/sunsilk/index.htm.69Priya Sreenivas, “The Bitter War for Smoother and Silky Hair,” www.deccanherald.com, april 26, 2004.70Sindhu J Bhattacharya, “Price Cuts fail to Enthuse Shampoo Market,” www.thehindubusinessline.com, December 24, 2004.71Namrata Singh, “HLL on Hiking Trip: This Time, Shampoo,” www.indiatimes.com, May 29, 2005.72Vinay Kamath, “Rural Demand Spurs Shampoo Sales,” www.thehindubusinessline.com, January 9, 2006.
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14 Marketing Management
shampoo brands in India by value). As of March 2007, the market for shampoo in India was esti-mated to be `180 million.73 Market penetration was still considered to be low, providing the companies with major growth opportunities. In 2007, the market for shampoos in India not only witnessed continued growth, but also saw some major changes. For instance, while the market leader HUL launched its Dove range of Shampoos catering to upmarket consumers, it also launched
a `0.50 sachet of Sunsilk with an eye on improv-ing its penetration into the rural market.74 Analysts noted that the dynamics of the shampoo market had changed significantly and while the companies were targeting the BoP segment through single-use sachets, they were also focusing on differentiating their offerings to appeal to each individual in a fam-ily with different brands.75 The opportunity before these companies was that the penetration levels of shampoos in India was still just 38%.76
73Priyanka Sangani, “CavinCare Bets Big on Brand Indica,” www.business-standard.com, March 7, 2007.74Sagar Malvia, “HUL to Widen Haircare Portfolio, Strengthen Distribution Network,” www.livemint.com, february 26, 2007.75Ruchita Saxena, “New Launches Help HUL Gain Share in Shampoo Market,” www.business-standard.com, february 28, 2008.76Namrata Singh, “Shampoos Eat into Toilet Soaps’ Share,” www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, february 4, 2008.
Adapted from Vinay Kamath, “Rural Demand Spurs Shampoo Sales,” www.hindu-businessline.com, January 9, 2006.
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‘Sunsilk Gang of Girls’: Hindustan Unilever Limited’s Online Social Networking Initiative 15
Exhibit 2 Indian Youth: Media Consumption Behaviour
Adapted from The BusinessWorld-Hansa Youth Survey, BusinessWorld (Special Issue), November 6, 2006.
QueSTionS For diScuSSion
1. Critically analyse the Sunsilk Gang of Girls initiative. What do you think contributed to the success of the initiative? Discuss the challenges before HUL in sustaining this initiative. Do you agree with analysts that there will be more such initiatives by marketers in the future?
2. What are the reasons for marketers using online and other non-conventional media? Does this mean that the role of TV and other traditional media has diminished? Do you agree with HUL that certain brands are more suitable for promotion on the Internet than others?
