CASE STUDY ON HINDUSTAN LEVER LIMITED(HLL)

INTRODUCTION:
y Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) is India s largest fast moving consumer goods company, with leadership in home and personal care products, foods and beverages and specially chemicals. HLL has 40 factories across India. The vision that inspires HLL s 36,000 employees including 1300 managers is to meet everyday needs of people everywhere- to anticipate the aspirations of our consumers and customers and to respond creatively and competitively with branded products and services which raise the equity of life .

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PRODUCTS:
y The company having 110 brands having different products, few are1. Home and Personal Care: a) Skin care: Fair & Lovely. Ponds. b) Oral care: Pepsodent. Close-up. c) Hair care: Sunsilk. Clinic. d) Deodrants: Axe.
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2. Soaps & Detergents: a) Fabric wash: Surf. Rin. Wheel. 3. Foods & Beverages: a) Ice creams: Kwality Walls Cornetto.

4. Popular Foods: a) Annapurna.

HISTORY OF HLL and JOURNEY SO FAR:

y In 1888, William Hesketh Lever s company, Lever Brothers, launched Sunlight Soap in England and also started exporting the revolutionary laundry soap to India. In 1918, the hydrogenated edible oil called Vanaspati launched through imports. In 1930, Unilever created through the merger of Lever Brothers, UK and Margarine Unie, the Netherlands. In 1933, Lever Brother s India Limited (LBIL) incorporated in India, to market personal soap. The three subsidiaries, HVM, LBIL, and UTL merge to form Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) in 1958. HLL s largest competitor, Tata Oil Mills Company (TOMCO), merges with the company in 1993. In 1996, HLL and associates company, Brooke Bond Lipton India Limited, India s biggest firm in food and beverages, merge. Pond s India Limited merges with HLL in 1998. HLL acquires Modern Foods, the first public sector company to be divested by the Government of India in 2000.

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SWOT ANALYSIS:
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Strength:
1. Hindustan Lever Research Centre has greatly contributed in HLL s success. 2. The focus on research gives HLL an edge over competitors by coming up with innovative products and process. 3. HLL has always stressed on constant technology up gradation. 4. The company has always focused on acquiring knowledge-based software. 5. Massive and efficient distribution system.

6. HLL has a strong brand equity, which provides it a good market share. 7. It has made a positive motivational climate, which encourages the
employees to associate with it.

Weaknesses:
1. Higher price of some product of HLL comparing to same product of other company, though the rate of raw materials are same. 2. Supply procedure is much complex.

y Opportunities:
1. Taking e-initiatives to target the consumers who are from the semiurban areas. 2. Television is now one of the cheapest sources of entertainment. Cable TV as a mass medium has already become popular. So, advertisement in Cable channels makes the attention on the products to the customers of urban areas. 3. Rural Consumers insist buying brand rather than the products. So, this is easy for them to get the consumers from rural areas. 4. HLL is one of the best companies in India exporting FMGC products.

y Threats:
1. Price rate of some national and multi-national companies is lower than HLL. 2. Some competitors give new attractive offers for the consumers. 3. Companies like Godrej, Nirma, and Tata Tea etc. are gaining market share at HLL s expenses in their respective product categories. 4. Dabur had given competition through its herbal positioning.

MARKETING STRATEGIES:
1. New Business Opportunities:   HLL is exploring new growth areas where it can venture. It is currently experimenting in five on them. These are confectionary, consumer health care, water, direct consumer distribution, and rural marketing. HLL plans to expand the product mix at its exclusive Kwality Walls ice-cream parlours by including confectionary and other offering.

2. Brand Portfolio Restructuring:

 HLL, though tightlipped about its power brands game plan, has
started to announce its brands, which are both small and unprofitable are to be discontinued or sold off. The company plans to phase out the other mass market brand jai soap, which is now getting lesser and lesser support. To migrate the consumers of the phased-out brands to existing brands, HLL through intelligent communication and use of pack graphics. HLL has designed the power brand portfolio in such a way that it has a presence in all categories and key consumer segments. HLL is cutting down the cost of some of its products, because of the competitive market.The market price of some HLL products was higher than the same products from other companies.So,the customer were choosing the products of other company for their daily use.So, HLL cutted down their price for came back in market.

 

3. Price: 

4. Promote:  It recently introduced popular foods like wheat flour and edible salt under the Kissan Annapurna brand name to change the consumers habits by making them give more preference to processed, hygienic, healthy products. HLL has launched Savlon and Liril Rainfresh, which enable HLL to further consolidate its position in the concentrates segment.

5. Products:  Re-launched Surf-Excel with a new and improved formulation, which also enable HLL to further consolidate its position in the concentrates segment. The merger of HLL and Pond s results in increased revenues for HLL.

6. Place:  Keeping pace with the times and the changing market scenario, HLL is now taking to e-commerce in a big way to get the market share of semi-urban areas. Taking the help of Television advertisement to get the attention of the consumer from urban areas. In the area of business connectivity, HLL plans to create an extranet linking to link suppliers, factories, and purchasers. HLL is already working in the area of consumer connectivity through the Pond s website, Hello Hindustan Mera hindustan initiatives in the detergent, and event like Close Up Antakshari on the Net, which enable the consumer to try out various beauty products on screen, before buying.

  

CONCLUSION:
y HLL always took up innovative marketing strategies, new products and promotion, and updated its technologies, cut down the price of some of its products to sustain in the market. With its aggressive marketing strategies HLL continued to be India s most admired company in the FMCG sector. Works in a very organized way with a great supply chain configuration. Captured the rural market well and concentrated on it as the rural market pays it more.

HLL has worked of a social cause and acted as a socially responsible organization. It has created 36000 jobs in the country whose one of the major problem is unemployment.

RECOMMEENDATION:
y The company should take up new techniques to lower the price of its products so that it can compete with its competitors who have relatively low price but maintains the same quality as that of HLL. Concentrate on value for money for the customers. Should reconstruct the product portfolio to counter the impending slowdown. Should discard the and come up with various products in the herbal platform as health conscious consumers today is trying to give up chemicals and embrace herbal products.

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