Margo dishes out a new avatar  ( January '11,2001, HBL)

Margo was what the local beautician recommended when you complained of skin problems. A dense, dark green cake with a funny smell and unpretentious packing, it convinced users it would do them good, and the fact that it was shorn of glamour and glitz only served to reinforce the notion that it was somehow more Indian than others, and a homegrown soap that would work its medicine well. However, as A. Satishkumar, Managing Director of Henkel SPIC India Ltd, points out, Margo was never positioned as a medicinal soap though its usage of neem gave consumers that impression.

Launched in 1920, until the '80s, it was plainly called a neem bath soap. Until 1993, when Calchemico, then a Shaw Wallace & Co subsidiary (Henkel SPIC acquired SWC's stake in 1999 and is now the holding company), relaunched it with better packaging and styling. It later went through another relaunch in 1998. At that time, an SWC official had said, ``Trial rates had declined, there were no new customers. Even traditional customer loyalty was suspect and our loyal user base was being eroded.'' There was lack of sustained communication with customers and increased promotion and advertising by Hindustan Lever Ltd and Nirma had also affected it, going by what SWC officials had to say then.

Even a consumer promotion in 1996 by SWC did not help the brand. ``The look, feel and pungent odour put off the younger generation,'' says Satishkumar. It was averaging sales of about 3,000-4,000 tonnes a year but when it was first relaunched in 1993, there was substantial improvement. However, since then, it had languished at around 5,000 tonnes. Henkel SPIC is set to change all that. Already, with some right doses of marketing and product inputs, the soap is selling around 6,000 tonnes. To draw youth, a variant, Margo Natural Moisturiser, was launched around two months ago, apart from Margo, which is now called Margo Original Neem. The variant is a pale green, translucent soap retaining the neem, but with glycerine and the scent of lime.

Research had revealed that Margo tended to dry skin in the winter and the variant sought to redress this complaint as well. The Henkel SPIC team has been working on this aspect for the past year. Incidentally, the packaging of the original Margo was changed slightly to reflect its heritage as `original neem' in April-May this year. It is not a well-known fact that Margo is the third largest premium soap brand in the country after Liril and Dettol. Selling at Rs 10 for a 75 gm bar and Rs 13 for a 100 gm bar, its volume-value growth rate has been 20 per cent. It has a seven per cent market share in the Rs 1,000-crore premium soaps segment and a 1.7 per cent market share in the Rs 4,500-crore soap market. ``It is close to becoming a Rs 100-crore brand,'' says Satishkumar, adding that it is now around Rs 80 crore in sales. Henkel SPIC is eyeing a sales volume of 10,000 tonnes, and to do this, it has to expand the consumer base for the brand.

This is why attracting the young assumes importance. Satishkumar expects sales of 7,000 tonnes in 2001. For the company, there was no question of doing away with the original version of Margo because it has hard-core loyalists, especially in the traditional markets, and a set of consumers who believe it is very effective in summer. Converting these summer users into year-round faithfuls is one aim of the publicity campaign Henkel SPIC has launched.

The target is not only to expand consumer base but to concentrate on traditional markets as well. In 1999, Henkel started spending substantially on the brand, after it took over, says Satishkumar. The ad strategy for this ``do good'' soap comprises TV commercials (TVCs) in the four southern languages, Hindi and Bengali across various TV channels, front page advertisements in leading dailies, hoardings and POS publicity. The ad spend on above-the-line activities is Rs 9 crore, a figure that will be hiked to Rs 12 crore in 2001. The TVC shows how good Margo Natural Moisturiser can be for a work-ravaged photojournalist on an assignment in Rajasthan. Henkel plans to leverage the equity of Margo in columns on skin care in various publications.

Minitha Saxena, Branch Manager (Chennai), Interface Communications, the advertising agency which handles the campaign for Margo, said the challenge lay in modernising the soap and yet not going away from its essence, neem. The focus is not on the additions which comprise the variant. ``The physical and emotional imagery had to undergo a change, yet the consumers who use Margo already had to be retained.'' Therefore, the tactic had to be such that any extra element could only serve to enhance the benefits of neem. There is no focus on the glycerine or the fragrance which the original Margo does not have, she says. While the TVC for the Margo Original Neem shows model Aditi Govitrikar as herself and talking about the benefits of a neem and water regimen that has been passed on through generations, the commercial for the Margo Natural Moisturiser depicts the discovery of a new soap.

``Whatever is done for Margo, it is neem that is put in the limelight, the extra aspects are only benefits such as moisturising and fragrance, they are not glycerine and lime per se,'' asserts Saxena. ``Margo has immediate associations with neem and that can never be allowed to be diminished,'' she adds. Initial reports reveal that the acceptance for the new variant, priced at Rs 12 for 75 gm, is high in non-traditional markets such as Punjab, Haryana and Kerala. Traditionally, the eastern parts of the country, West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar, and Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the South, have been strong markets for Margo as well as certain pockets in the North and the West. ``But we are weak in terms of distribution in the North and West,'' says Satishkumar. Henkel is looking at breakthroughs in non-traditional markets with the translucent Margo and has made some headway there. According to him, the sell-out from retail outlets has been good.

Even primary and secondary research is showing that this two-month old variant is doing well. Both versions are being sold in one million outlets. Direct distribution accounts for 3.5 lakh outlets which stock Margo while the new version has been taken to two lakh outlets. Brand extensions have been planned for Margo. Talcum powder, shaving items, shampoo and moisturiser, all with neem oil as the key ingredient form part of this plan. Satishkumar says, ``As the mother brand with the goodness of neem, and its focus on skin care properties, there is potential to extend Margo's core strength.'' This project is still on the drawing board and tests are going on. The company might come out with two extensions some time next year. The Margo soap opera continues…