Unilever Unplugged Case Study PureIt

Why Water Purification?

1. A billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water - 80% belong to the D&E
countries
2. 80% of all diseases in D&E countries are waterborne
3. An estimated 2.5 billion cases of diarrhea occur among children under five years of age this
has remained stable over the past two decades.
4. Diarrhea remains the second leading cause of death among children under five globally.
Nearly, one in five child deaths about 1.5 million each year.
Today, the consumers are concerned but forced to make various compromises with known and
existing solutions.
1. Boiling: Widely prevalent habit of boiling water, but it is expensive, time consuming, poor
tasting & energy intensive.
2. Standalone filters: Do not deliver adequate germ kill (vis--vis viruses, bacteria, parasites).
3. Bottled Water is expensive; not really sustainable
4. Premium purifiers (ultraviolet, reverse osmosis technologies) - Dependent on electricity &
piped water; expensive
5. Water liquids/tablets: Cumbersome, often ineffective, poor taste
PureIt Mission:

A Break through Innovation:

Way back in 1998, PureIt started as a project in Port Sunlight with a clear brief of no electricity, no
running water, give World class Safety standards (USEPA - 643) under a cost of Rs 1 (30 ps per litre *
daily avg consumption of 2-3 Litre per day) for an adult everyday. The project moved to India in
2000 and was test marketed in Chennai in 2004. In 2005, it was extended to the Rest of TN followed
by AP & Karnataka in 2006. We went national in 2007 with our Classic 23 Litre device which was then
priced @ Rs. 1600.
Unilever Pureits product portfolio has been designed so as to provide safe water in all parts of the
world

1. Complete protection from all harmful germs viruses, bacteria and parasites [ As safe as
boiled water]
2. Meets the stringent germ kill criteria of the Environmental Protection Agency of the U.S.A
3. Key skus can be used in all urban and rural areas because they dont depend on electricity
and pressurised tap water
4. Assured / uncompromising safety for consumers because of Unambiguous end-of-life
indicator & auto-switch off system
5. 90% lower carbon footprint compared to consumer alternatives of boiling water, or using
bottled water
Business Model: Rapidly acquire consumers with purifier & secure ongoing revenue from each
consumer with periodic sale of consumable germ kill kits. As the consumer base expands, the germ
kill kit revenue stream builds up.
First line of Gravity Purifiers:

Communication Journey in India:

Market Context (2007-08)

Purifier penetration (All India (AI) Urban): < 2%

Current Methods: Do nothing (40%+) followed by Boiling, Simple Filtration & candle filters
made up 90% of AI Urban.
Competitive landscape: Low Heat
o -Aquaguard: Heritage brand since 1982

o
o

-Aquasure :Eureka Forbes recently launched NE (non electric) purifier to counter

Pureit
-Kent, Purocom, Whirlpool, Philips, Zero B: Other electric purifiers present in market
but with minimal media spends

In 2007, PureIts Marketing Task was to convince non-owners of purifiers to convert to Pureit
(Market Development) and communication Task was to Peg Pureit to the Gold standard of water
safety (As safe as Boiled water) while being superior on convenience and costs. We sold over 1 Mn
Purifiers in 2008 & category penetration went up to 5% & competitive heat began emerging.

2007: Boiler (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6K64imdtYs)

2008: Yellow Eyes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwkGg8Rqcqc)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXZlI2dyLOI)

&

Doctor

Market Context (2009-12)

Category heat increased & low priced SKUs powered category penetration. However Pureit ran the
risk of being viewed as One Amongst the Crowd. In these years, our marketing Task was to
convince consumers to prefer Pureit over other purifiers (Share Gain) & communication Task was to
convince intenders about Pureits superior safety delivery (1 crore challenge / 1 Crore viruses)

2009: Home Demo 1 Crore (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej2hn33uRtA &

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn5d9BW7JZQ)
2010 saw the launch of 1000 rupee purifier to preempt the threat of Tata Swach 1000 Rs
Purifier (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irXaMM0MKnk). In 2010 category penetration
went to 14% and Pureit had 60% share on non electric segment on Volume.
2011: We continued to build on the powerful and popular 1 Cr Challenge
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xZeXzlgiGo,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJkeleUSB8 & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfHECg4klJs). But as we were establishing
superiority, there also began a slow down on market growth in 2011.
2012: Paani Paani (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3_MCEvxadc). The slowdown
began accelerating significantly and the category penetration reached 1/5th of the country
households.

Since 2013, the core (non-electric) purifier market has been largely dormant:
Category penetration has been falling and Pureit being the market leader with over half of the
market had to revive this segment out of slowdown. This segment saw decline on volumes since the
consumers at the lower end of the price-tier were not finding the category relevant. This had 2
implications:

New consumers not purchasing or delating purchase of the device.

Existing consumers not buying the germ-kill kit for continuous device usage.

Reviving the growth in the core purifier market is at the heart of Pureit Brand and is also critical to
unlocking the future growth dynamics at the marketplace since this segment contributes over 60%
of market volume.
In 2013, since cost was seen as the biggest barrier for the Purchase (since there was a burden of
inflation on the consumers), Pureit decided to communicate the Value proposition of owning a
purifier. This was done through the popular 3 cylinder campaign [3 Cylinder Ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LZgpvljORA]

In 2014, the brand embarked on the journey to talk to consumers who are not just fence sitters
delaying the purchase, but to those consumers who did not appreciate the need for owning a water
purifier. This required serious education and behavior change to enable people to see beyond their
usual prejudices like a) my water is alright, been drinking it for ages and b) its too expensive to own
a water purifier and Its not worth it. The following relevance building communication was
developed
to
aid
market
development.
[New
Age
Contaminants
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9g4i2Y75wA].
In 2015, we have gone a step ahead and pushed the envelope more strongly amongst consumers
who are not adopting the category due to having an existing proxy of purification to fall back on boiling the water [Ad link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCkhMQNZWZQ]
What should you do?
Identify the consumer Insight on which this communication is built. Use the insight and the Ad to
develop an integrated marketing plan across the right and effective consumer touch points
(Activation, Radio, Consumer education, digital, etc ). Create innovative and creative ways to bring
to life Insight, message and benefit claimed in the TVC to your Target consumers.
What should you not do?
1. Avoid the pitfall of wanting to make another new Ad.
2. Please don't wear a consultants hat - No Strategy Slides with Jargons / Matrix / Framework /
Paradigm / Models.
3. Marketing is about doing things as much as planning them. Think like a brand manager and
put yourselves into the consumer shoes to create ideas which would not just make the
consumer notice you, but also get delighted with what you have to say.
4. Avoid spending time on what(s) (like radio / prime time / Digital / sponsoring) and spend
time on the how (what exactly would you do on Radio and how would you leverage the Ad
and its message when it travels to mediums like print / Digital / Sponsorship / Games /
Outdoors and Activations).
5. Max: 8 Slides 7 Mins to present 3 Mins to Question / Answer
6. Judging Criteria: a) True to the Brand b) Creativity c) Feasibility d) Clarity (in no specific
order).
7. This is a group presentation. Max 6 groups in the campus and Max 8 people per group.