product life cycle and market strategy of surf excel,bajaj automobiles and chandrika soap

1. Product life cycle and
Market Strategy
Febin Samuel Eapen
Mar Athanasios College for Adavnced Studies Tiruvalla(MACFAST)
Kerala,India
www.macfast.org

2. Product Life Cycle
 The life cycle of a product is associated with marketing and
management decisions within businesses, and all products go through
four primary stages::introduction, growth, maturity, decline.

3. Surf excel

4. Surf excel
 Surf Excel is the first detergent powder of India
 It was launched as a replacement of bar soap, indiscriminately used by
housewives
 It was known as Surf and later in 1996 its name was changed to Surf Excel.

5. Launching history & product lifecycle
 Starting its journey in India in 1959, Surf remained the first detergent in
the sub-continent.
 This product from Unilever and later called Hindustan Unilever showed
their urge to replace the bar soaps.
 It is mostly used by the households and families in the Indian Sub-
continent.
 Surf not only created history in India from the angle of first detergent
powder but also remained the first detergent brand to come on the TV
screen.

6. Product life cycle
 Introduction stage
 1959:: HUL launched surf
 it created a new history in the Indian market
 Growth stage
 As the detergent market started growing in India many of the competitors came into picture
with better prices.
 Surf Excel introduced variety of products and changed its campaign
 In 1990, to get an edge over its uprising competitors, Surf launched its first sub-product and
named it Surf Ultra.
 The product became very much handy for the householders of India because people already
used the word Surf to denote detergent powder.

7.  Surf Excel totally led the monopoly stage until the 1990s
 In 2002, Surf Excel launched Matic detergent powder.
 In 2004, Surf Excel extended their product line with Quickwash,this gave another edge to
their brand name.
 The latest innovation from the company was in the form of bar soap with Rin being a
competitor. It was merged with Surf Excel and came to be known as Surf Excel Bar from
2007.
 In the later years, Surf Excel developed Easywash. They also launched the liquid version
of all Matic named Quickwash. It helped them to remain a pioneer in the detergent
market of the sub-continent.

8.  Maturity stage
 Sales peak during this stage.
 Since a long time Surf Excel has stayed in the maturity stage as it has the highest
market share.
 Many competitors introduce their products.
 The company modified and upgraded their products to stay at the peak.
 Decline Stage
 Sales drop down at this stage.
 Profit was lowest in this period.
 The company changed its focus and concentrates on loyal customers or changed the
target group to comparatively lower income groups so as to maintain sales.

9. Market strategy
Market strategy that helped the brand surf excel to stay for
such a long time in the Indian Market
 One of the key reasons for Surf to capture the Indian market successfully is
its appropriation of Niche.
 it targeted the middle-income group and the householders.
 in terms of promotion, Surf Excel made some miracle in the Indian market.
 The sensation had such a root that, the entire name of detergent powder
has been replaced by Surf.
 on later phase the concentrated on the lower income groups so as to
maintain sales.

10. Bajaj
Automobiles

11. Bajaj Automobiles
 Bajaj auto limited company is the biggest two wheeler manufacturing
company in India.
 Bajaj Company was established by jamnalal Bajaj in 1926.
 Rajiv Bajaj is an Indian businessman, and the managing director of Bajaj
Auto since 2005

12. Launching history & product lifecycle
 Jamnalal Bajaj was established Bajaj Auto Company in -1926.
 This Bajaj auto company got a license from the GOI in -1956
 This company had been to public and joined with piaggio in -1960
 Manufacturing scooters -1961
 Manufacturing three wheelers-1962
 Introducing to the market under the Bajaj brand in-1971
 Bajaj auto limited company selling Bajaj chetak scooters -1972
 Bajaj auto limited had been to joint ventures sector with Maharashtra
development corporation -1975
 Bajaj auto limited joined in technical partnership with Kawasaki -1986

13.  Bajaj was launched famous ladies bike” sunny”-1990
 Bajaj auto limited company introduced to the market a new bike Bajaj boxer-1997
 Bajaj auto limited company introduced to the market producing Bajaj caliber in -1998
 Introduced saffire(gear less scooter for ladies)in -2000
 Pulsar was introduced in -2001
 Bajaj auto limited company selected a new logo for their latest innovation in-2004
 Again saffire was reintroduced in the market as a name of wave in-2005
 Platina enter in to the two wheeler market in-2006
 In a same year this company has achieved second place in world two wheeler market

14. Product Life Cycle
 Introduction
 The word Bajaj ruled the roads of India for more than 25 years.
 The brand which was launched in 1972 ruled the middle class life with a
status of two wheelers.
 The brand thrived during this period with virtually no competition or
could be said monopoly.
 Growth
 Bajaj chetak has huge brand equity.
 With a reasonable price affordable by the Indian middle class families.
 The low maintenance of the product made this product a big hit in the
auto mobile industry.
 With the slogan of ‘hamara bajaj’ it has gone in to millions of families
as a family vehicle.

15.  Maturity
 By the mid 80’s Bajaj has been a family vehicle a need to every family in daily needs.
 A personal vehicle with affordable price and low maintenance gave it a huge boost.
 For 40 yrs the model and design was the same but the sale or the demand was never
down.
 This proves the monopoly business it has done in India.
 No matter what the design and model is the brand name Bajaj dominated the design
and model.
 Even the customer had no objections about the model or the design as the brand
name earned a lot of durable trust in customers its strong body.

16.  Decline
 The initial reason is that the Brand neglected the customers, another case of
Marketing Myopia.
 Rather than looking at the customers, the company focused on influencing
Government to block the opening up of economy.
 Bajaj did nothing with the product, for 40 years Chetak had the same look, same
quality and style.
 During the mid nineties the company realised lately that the segment has shifted to
motorcycles.
 Scooters were no longer the option,so the company faced a decline in the market
 But later they came with new innovations that conquered the market again

17. Market strategy
Market strategy that helped the brand Bajaj Automobiles to
stay for such a long time in the Indian Market
 In the late 1980s, the Chetak captured most of the scooter market.
 It set its root in the market of mobility and established Bajaj as a brand.
 It got imbibed in the people’s mind as a sign of trust as it offered value
and reliability.
 The main focus of company is to sell bikes to young middle class people in
the age group of 18-30 yrs,as they are looking for a performance bike in
reasonable cost.
 Bajaj promoted its bike as the no.1 performance bike of India and hence
the target was of segment looking for sporting bike with a high speed.

18.  Bajaj Campaigns::
 one of the most iconic ones ‘Hamara Bajaj’ from the 1980s strikes our mind. It became
part of all Indian households as it encapsulated what Bajaj meant to people.
 The campaign, ‘Buland Bharat ki Buland Tasveer’ also appealed people with its
courageous call.
 It has been specially developed for Bajaj V which is infused with INS Vikrant, metal hero
of the war
 Another campaign can be seen in which Rajiv Bajaj articulates the position of Bajaj
Invincible by associating it with the Heroic Symbol of the Nation.
 Many more campaigns were led by Bajaj as their marketing strategy.

19. Chandrika Soap

20. Chandrika soap
 "In 1940 Sri Kesavan Vaidyar, an ayurvedic physician, started
manufacturing an ayurvedic soap called "Chandrika", in a small town called
Irinjalakuda in Kerala well before Ayurveda became a global phenomenon.
 From a humble beginning, the brand has come a long way withstanding
the test of time. Its a brand that has survived all these years without
changing any of the marketing mixes. Now after 6 decades, Chandrika is
changing .

21. Launching history & product lifecycle
 Chandrika is a 28 crore brand and has a loyal customer base in the
southern states like Kerala and Tamilnadu.
 The brand was manufactured and marketed by SV Group till 2004.
 In 2004, Wipro acquired the marketing rights of this brand after a
protracted battle with other suitors like Marico.
 Chandrika all through these years has been positioned as a traditional
ayurvedic soap gifted by nature.
 The brand faces competition from the likes of Medimix and Jeeva together
with host of natural soaps and its variants.

22. Product life cycle
 Introduction
 Initially they were able to penetrate to the market since it was introduced as an
ayurvedic product
 It created a new dimension in the customers mind
 Maturity
 Was stable in the market
 Faced very low competition during the initial stages
 Growth
 In 2000 saw a rejuvenation in the ayurvedic soap market.
 There was a sudden interest from consumers towards green products. Now the
ayurvedic soap market is estimated to be Rs 227 crore.

23.  Decline
 The owners of Chandrika chose to sell out this brand than to fight the competition.
 The sale of Chandrika was a messy affair with legal battle between Marico and
Wipro.
 At the end the war, Chandrika was acquired by Wipro.
 The one factor that made Chandrika attractive to suitors was its quality product
properties.
 Wipro felt that Chandrika had qualities which are scalable to a national market.

24. Market strategy
Market strategy that helped the brand Chandrika to stay for such a long
time in the Indian Market
 They claimed the product as an handmade soap which is 100 % vegetarian.
 The brand has been promoted reasonably well through various media in South India, but
the campaigns were ordinary .
 Chandrika all through these years has been positioned as a traditional ayurvedic soap gifted
by nature.
 On later phase Wipro took over the marketing
 Wipro was careful not to tamper the product attributes, the brand changed the shape and
packaging.

25.  Original Chandrika was in the cake form ( rectangular) while the market was moving
towards the oval soap form .
 Chandrika changed to oval form and the packaging was made more contemporary.
 The oval shape helps the soap to dry quicker thereby lasts longer.
 These moves were of important significance because most of the time traditional brands
fail because it does not change with times.
 Hence the first task of Wipro was to make the brand contemporary.
 Along with the cosmetic changes , the brand was relaunched with a new positioning.
 Within a few years, Wipro was able to rejuvenate this brand and made it more
contemporary.