Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited faced challenges with their Rin detergent, as a significant portion of consumers used it for dishwashing instead of its intended laundry purpose. Despite initial disappointing sales, a successful re-launch positioned Rin as a superior fabric washing product, but management decided to eventually discontinue it in Pakistan due to brand image concerns. The company then introduced Vim as a dishwashing bar and re-launched Rin strictly as a fabric washing product.

1. RIN DETERGENT
TO POSITION OR RE-POSITION

2. COMPANY
 Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited (Levers), a subsidiary of Lever Brothers
International
 Produced and marketed consumer products in Pakistan
 Product line consisted of shampoos, creams, edible oils, margarine, laundry
detergents in powder and solid bars, etc
 In 1988, Levers had PBT of Rs 277 million on sales of Rs 3.65 billion

3. MARKET
 Total fabric wash sales of 263,050 tonnes
 247,000 tonnes of laundry soap
 14,500 tonnes of NSD powder
 1550 tonnes of NSD bar
 Lever had no entry in laundry soap segment; two Lever NSD brands had 50% of
NSD powder market
 Total dishwash sales of 60,000 tonnes; 88% hard soaps and 12% bars
 No product of Lever in dish washing market

4. RIN
 Solid blue NSD bar introduced in 1984
 Priced at Rs 2.95 per pack size of 130 grams
 Rs 5.7 million spent on introductory advertising and promotion
 “A little amount of RIN washes a large lot of clothes” was the key phrase in the
commercial
 Disappointing sales in first three years
 None of the consumer promotion schemes were successful
 Several price-off campaigns were launched in 1984 and 1985
 The results were still very much below the expected level

5. RE-LAUNCH
 125 grams and 250 grams package size was introduced
 Production efficiencies reduced variable cost of RIN by Rs 1/kg
 Promotional efforts concentrated on advertising and sales discounts
 A new media campaign was launched with a well known movie star; RIN endorsed
as superior fabric washing product than laundry soaps
 Re-launch was successful, sales > 1000 tonnes in 1987
 Prices were raised in April 1987, and again in August 1988

6. COMPANY’S DILEMMA
 There was a suspicion in management that RIN is being used as a dish washer
 Survey was conducted in 12 cities; to know consumer perception and usage of RIN
 65% people were using RIN for dish washing; 75%-80% sales of RIN was for dish
washing purpose
 Blue color of soap bars resulted in confusion, as all the dish washing bars introduced in
Pakistan were blue in color; also retailers shelved RIN separate rather than in laundry
soap section
 PBT IN 1988 was Rs 2.5 million
 Management thinking of actions to take regarding marketing plan for RIN

7. POSITIONING & RE-POSITIONING
 Positioning is a marketing concept relating to a process of creating an image of the
product in the minds of the consumer or in other words create a niche market for itself
 Repositioning is changing the position of the product in the market/consumer’s mind

8. MARKETING ALTERNATIVES

9. ACTUAL DECISION BY UNILEVER (PAK)
 Since RIN worldwide was used as a fabric washer, usage of RIN as dish washer was affecting
the brand image
 Lever decided to abandon the sale and production of RIN in Pakistan
 VIM, a dishwashing bar, was launched which was blue in color
 After VIM’s success, Lever re-launched RIN in Pakistan as a fabric washing product

10. THANK YOU !!!