Advanced professional practices

A brand analysis by Uttara Garg

Product selected Surf excel- Surf Excel, launched in 1959, is one of the oldest detergent powders in India. The tag line for surf excel is- Daag achhe hai. Which translates to English as dirt is good. The company under which surf excel lies is Hindustan Unilever limited (HUL), under the brand name Surf.

Analysis of the Brand

Surf is the name of a brand of laundry detergent made by Hindustan Unilever and sold in the India. About Hindustan Unilever Limited Hindustan Unilever Limited is India's largest consumer goods company based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Its products include foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products.

Hindustan Unilever's distribution covers over 2 million retail outlets across India directly and its products are available in over 6.4 million outlets in the country. As per Nielsen market research data, two out of three Indians use HUL products. In 2012, HUL was recognised as one of the world's most innovative companies by Forbes. With a ranking of number 6, it was the highest ranked FMCG Company.

Owner of the brand

The owner of the brand is Hindustan Unilever Limited.

Objectives

Surf stands by Unilevers Cleaner Planet Plan a campaign designed to reduce the impact of our laundry products on the environment. From saving water to reducing packaging, Surf works hard behind the scenes to ensure the products you buy are environmentally aware. Our concentrated Surf Small & Mighty bottle uses 40% less packaging than a standard bottle of washing liquid. It reduces more packaging waste and helps to load more bottles on to our delivery vehicles. The end result is fewer trucks on the road, saving more energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Our Surf experts have also ensured Surf to work well at even lower temperatures. Surf will provide a brilliant clean and leave your clothes fresh and full of fragrance when you turn your machine down to as low as 15C, helping you save on your energy bill and helping the planet become greener.

The Sustainable Living Plan has three major goals, which Unilever aims to achieve by 2020:

Help more than one billion people improve their health and well-being Halve the environmental impact of their products Source 100% of their agricultural raw materials sustainably

Purpose and principals Always working with integrity

Conducting our operations with integrity and with respect for the many people, organisations and environments our business touches has always been at the heart of our corporate responsibility.

Positive impact We aim to make a positive impact in many ways: through our brands, our commercial operations and relationships, through voluntary contributions, and through the various other ways in which we engage with society. Continuous commitment We're also committed to continuously improving the way we manage our environmental impacts and are working towards our longer-term goal of developing a sustainable business. Setting out our aspirations Our corporate purpose sets out our aspirations in running our business. It's underpinned by our code of business Principles which describes the operational standards that everyone at Unilever follows, wherever they are in the world. The code also supports our approach to governance and corporate responsibility. Working with others We want to work with suppliers who have values similar to our own and work to the same standards we do. Our Business partner code, aligned to our own Code of business principles, comprises ten principles covering business integrity and responsibilities relating to employees, consumers and the environment.

Unique selling point or USP

As surf is marketed and manufactured by Hindustan Unilever limited the USP of the brand is its supply chain management. Hindustan Unilever's distribution network is recognised as one of its key strengths. Its focus is not only to enable easy access to the brands, but also to touch consumers with a three-way convergence - of product availability, brand communication, and higher levels of brand experience. Hindustan Unilever, which once pioneered distribution in India, is today reinventing distribution - creating new channels, and redefining the way current channels are serviced. In the process it is converging product availability, with brand communication and brand experience

An IT-powered system has been implemented to supply stocks to redistribution stockists on a continuous replenishment basis. The objective is to catalyse HUL's growth by ensuring that the right product is available at the right place in right quantities, in the most cost-effective manner. For this, stockists have been connected with the company through an Internet-based network, called RSNet, for online interaction on orders, despatches, information sharing and monitoring. RS Net covers about 80% of the company's turnover. Today, the sales system gets to know every day what HUL stockists have sold to almost a million outlets across the country. RS Net is part of Project Leap, HUL's end-to-end supply chain, which also includes a back-end system connecting suppliers, all company sites and stretching right upto stockists. HUL's Supply chain management is one of the best in the world and it is quite difficult for any company to challenge it. In India if we see, we will find that LUX is available everywhere and it is through this SCM only that HUL is able to do that.

Marketing and manufacturing

Surf is manufactured by HUL across the country, are distributed through a network of about 7,000 redistribution stockists covering about one million retail outlets. The distribution network directly covers the entire urban population. The general trade comprises grocery stores, chemists, wholesale, kiosks and general stores. Hindustan Unilever services each with a tailor-made mix of services. The emphasis is equally on using stores for direct contact with consumers, as much as is possible through in-store facilitators.

At the supermarkets: Self-service stores and supermarkets are fast emerging in metros and large towns. To service modern retailing outlets in the metros, HUL has set up a full-scale sales organisation, exclusively for this channel. The business system delivers excellent customer service, while driving growth for the company and the store. At the same time, innovative marketing initiatives are taken to provide consumers with experience of our brands at the store itself, through product tests and in-store sampling.

In the villages: HUL has also revamped its sales organisation in the rural markets to fully meet the emerging needs and increased purchasing power of the rural population. The company has brought all markets with populations of below 50,000 under one rural sales organisation. The team comprises an exclusive sales force and exclusive redistribution stockists, under the charge of dedicated managers. The team focuses on building superior availability, while enabling brand building in the deepest interiors. HUL's distribution network in rural India already directly covers about 50,000 villages, reaching about 250 million consumers, through about 6000 sub-

stockists.

Visual speciality of the brand

Surf is a fast moving consumer good (FMCG), hence there is no speciality in the packaging of its products. Infact they work more on its aromas from the leading perfume house in the world to develop products with amazing fragrance using exciting ingredients such as essential oils and natural extracts to lift up your laundry and inspire your senses. Surf detergent offers brilliant clean and multi-sensorial satisfaction at affordable prices. The suds, the scent, the freshness, the colours and the cleaning all add up to provide a delightful laundry experience.