Nirma brands lather up good volumes  ( June '13,2001, FE)

The Rs 2,428-crore detergent major Nirma Ltd, which launched a cluster of three brands in May in the Rs 3,600-crore personal wash market—Nima Clean, Nima Bartan and Nima Sandal Soap—has taken an aggressive position in the market. While Nima Clean and Nima Bartan are dish wash products positioned as the soaps that lend the “ultimate sheen to the utensils”, Nima Sandal Soap is a bath soap and arrives with the positioning of “a scented refreshing bath”.

A 400 gm Nima Clean is available for Rs 10, Nima Bartan at Rs 12 and Nima Sandal Soap at Rs 10. The competitor to Nima Clean and Nima Bartan would be Hindustan Lever’s Vim, which is available at Rs 10 each. Nima Sandal competes with the likes of Santoor, Breeze and Mysore Sandal soap, all of which arrive at Rs 10 for 400 gm.

“The company would utilise a combination of direct marketing and event promotion to leverage its brand identity in the personal wash market segment,” informs a company insider.

Retailers across Mumbai have found Nima Clean and Nima Bartan to be moving at a speedier pace than expected. Some of the retailers outside the realms of Mumbai city, like Thane and Kalyan, even claim that Nima Bartan and Nima Clean are moving at a near equal pace in terms of volumes in comparison to the existing players in this segment.

“While around 150 packs of Nima Bartan and Nima clean could be sold out in a day’s time, the existing soaps including Vim traded similar volumes,” says a retailer from Kalyan. “This is a national launch in the retail outlets across the nation,” says the company spokesperson. However, no further details were made available from the company about any other strategies or promotional initiatives.

However, company insiders said that Nirma will utilise a novel direct marketing initiative, whereby it will “utilise coupons, freebies and mailers to network with the retailers to obtain a considerable display and visibility”. This is the first time that Nirma — otherwise an outdoor driven marketer — has undertaken such an initiative as a clutter bursting tool.

Market analysts believe that on-ground promotions and freebies can be a vital communication tool to accelerate the mobility of these brands. “With clutter in advertising space, these are the alternate and more certain ways of communicating the message strongly to the target profile,” says Mr Rajesh Joshi, an FMCG analyst from Runeel Shares and Securities Pvt Ltd.

Nirma is the detergent leader with a marketshare of 38 to 40 per cent while HLL is a leader in the soap category with a marketshare of 68 per cent. In the dishwash segment, HLL is the leader with a marketshare of 80 per cent.